Soviets Victorious!

The West Tokyo Wargamers had another great game of BKC last Sunday, and certainly winning one helps to keep up the motivation to churn out more Russians!

We really are getting to grips with the rules, and a lot of things which seemed to be odd are beginning to make sense as we get experience with the rules (as we thought would be the case!).  In particular the suppression rules seem to be making much more sense.

Last game saw the closest we had seen to an infantry-vs-infantry combat, but the time it took to slog across the table meant that the game pretty well came to an end before close combat could commence.  

Next time we will start from further on the table, and/or have the armour come in later.  That, and start buying trucks and halftracks! another option would be to increase movement and firing ranges, maybe by 1.5 those specified in the rules.

We also decided that we need more terrain- a lot more!  Between us, that is going to be the big push for this month on the modelling front.

On to another topic, and when I started basing my 20mm figures on the FoW bases, I textured the bases using Tamiya acrylic putty.  For reasons I mentioned in my last post, this wasn't really satisfactory.  

But I've found that simply covering the stand with PVA and dipping it into a box of budgie sand is indeed the best way to go.  When it dries, it sets rock-hard and I can paint and drybrush it the same way I did when using putty.  And it blends in just about perfectly with the other stands I have painted as you can see here.

The machine gunners dragging their Maxim gun forward have had the base textured using sand, and I've now painted it to match the others such as the AT rifle stand on the left.  This was the last one I did using putty.

The 120mm mortar in the back, along with a prone MMG and flamethrower stand will be the next to get the treatment. 

I don't go for a lot of foliage on my WW2 stands.  I want a colour palette that matches the minis.  I find that simple is more effective, and as the army grows it really gives it a unique- and unified- look.

April Output...

...was not that great, as it is the busiest month of the year for me. 

While I was able to work on some Napoleonics at the beginning of the month, report writing and preparing for a presentation ate up both time and mental focus.

Still, there is a BKC game today, and Daniel and I will be fielding our Soviets against a Japanese-German unholy alliance!

I did manage to get a Soviet MMG team together, and have made progress on the artillery battery.  The 76.2mm guns are almost completely painted save the tires- you can see one of them here.  I also finished one crew member.  My first plastic minis since my Airfix days; years and years and years ago!  It took some getting used to the different "feel" of the brush on the figure, but it painted up extremely well and I am very pleased with it.

The MMG team (from Fantassin-now Warmodelling- plus one by FAA) has been based, but not yet painted.  I used to apply Tamiya putty to the base and texture it with a toothpick, but it was laborious, messy, and the fumes ate up by already all-too-quickly diminishing number of brain cells, so I needed to find an alternative.  

Once the sand has dried out thoroughly, I'll paint it the same colour as my other bases and see how it turns out.