Last Post of the Year - BANG!

Hey folks,

As the title says, we’re in the final push of the year and I wanted to get in a final post for 2024. To mark it with a Bang, there’s no one better that I could think of than the Big Bang Theory gang dressed up as the Justice League for Stewarts comic bookstore New Year’s Eve party.

These beauts are from Knight Models and if I’m not mistaken were part of a series of releases…for a game that I can’t think of, but would have been ‘legal’ and playable on the tabletop. For me, I bought them cause they made me laugh, and I thought they would be fun to paint up. Given the end of that episode, our fear[less/ful] gang were walking the mean streets of Pasadena, so I thought I’d base them up with a suitable grungy back alley setting.

So, in that vein…please enjoy and Happy New Years folks!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          16

15mm         214

28mm+       50, +6

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24 

Progress   +258

BRS - MiG Alley...and Beyond MiG Alley

Howdy folks,

I hope all is going well over the Christmas and holiday period for everyone. Continuing on with my latest distraction. Not only have I dipped my toe into the Korean War conflict with Warlord Games Blood Red Skies MiG Alley...I have also recently discovered Lead Pursuit Podcast who has license with Warlord to produce aircraft for said game. AND who also have license to produce aircraft for Blood Red Skies and Lead Pursuit's free expansion rules for beyond the 1950s. You can find them here, Lead Pursuit Podcast

I have 8 aircraft now, some A4's, a couple of F4's, and a couple of Mig 19's...these are 3d printed and are super super sharp looking aircraft. They are probably the cleanest 3d prints I've seen, and certainly some of the cleanest aircraft models I've seen. 

The models all came up very quickly, but I gotta say that right now my favourite are the MiG 19’s, they were the cleanest and took the paint really well. The detail and lining really came out well…I am somewhat disappointed with the F4 and A4’s, but they will definitely work for the tabletop.

Enjoy the pics. Take care.

Group shot of everyone…I painted up one of the MiG 15’s with a red nose after seeing a pic of the Soviet Air Forces paint scheme for their “advisors” flying with the North Koreans. I have one MiG 19 in plain gray paint scheme and the other with grey and green…both inspired by North Vietnam Air Force paint schemes. The pic includes aircraft from my previous post…the weather was above freezing today, so it was dullcote day.

The A4 tails were inspired by the paint scheme of the Skyhawk’s that were flying off the USS Independence circa 1965. I think I’ll keep them fairly clean, keep them rather generic for use with other Air Forces.

I am currently waiting for decals for the Phantoms, they will be getting the Sundowners tail…looks very cool and will really top of the F4’s.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          16, +12 (2 x Sabre’s, 3 x MiG 15, 2 x MiG 19, 1 x F4, 4 x A4)

15mm         214

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24 

Progress   +252

US Airborne Troops

Hello everyone,

Merry Christmas to one and all, happy New Year around the corner as well. I wanted to throw a quick post up of the last Battlefront US airborne troops that I've gotten painted up before the end of the year. While I am building my US Parachute Company for Flames of War, I also took one of the platoons and painted them up so I could use them in other rulesets...although, you can still use FoW based troops, they just need a little accounting work.

Anywho, I was thinking of doing some WW2 gaming using Force on Force so I ended up basing these guys accordingly. As well, it gave me the chance to try an alternate paint scheme, so I ended up trying to capture the D-Day and prior uniforms. I ended up with a platoon of about 30 troops and can easily swap in some of the HMG stands that I have already done.

For those inclined, here are the pics. I hope you enjoy!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4

15mm         214, +30 (US airborne)

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24 

Progress   +240

Geronimo!! More US Airborne for FoW

Howdy everyone,

I hope that the winter is treating everyone well, although with today’s weather, it is a lot less like winter and much more like spring. Anywho, I wanted to put up a quick post with my progress on my US airborne troops. I had previously finished the plastic platoon that came with the original Open Fire box, HERE.

This next platoon, and extras, come from the old US Parachute Company box that included 3 platoons worth of troops as well as company HQ stuff (i.e. snipers). 

There was definitely a difference between the plastic molds and the metal figures. The plastic ones look really good and have some pretty dynamic and expressive poses. While not as dynamic, the metal figs always feel good to paint. They’re also much easier to manage the detail with in terms of flashing and there area few spots where the plastic sculpts are chunky and lack that dimensional feel. I’m thinking mostly of the webbing and equipment like that where you are left with extra bulk where a space would normally be, and then you end up having to try to hide with the paintjob.

Regardless, it feels good to get some 15mm painting in and to finish up pieces that have been sitting around for far too long. Enjoy the pics.

Brand new platoon painted and good to go…2nd Platoon; standard platoon is 7 teams including 1 command team; 1 bazooka team, 1 mortar team; and 2 optional hmg teams and 1 optional extra bazooka team. For this platoon, I ended up using VJ Brown Umber on the edges for easier identification; as well, I ended up making tree stumps out of plastic offcuts to further identify the platoon as a unit.

Close up of a HMG team…

Close up of mortar team and command stand…

Some of the extras from the original box…snipers and pathfinder…and a couple of company command stands.

The company as it looks right now…2 combat platoons…I’ll have to paint up a couple of HMG teams and an extra bazooka team for the 1st Platoon…and then on to support platoons.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4

15mm         184, +50 (US airborne)

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24, +12 (beyond mig alley aircraft and another MiG Alley box) 

Progress   +210

Latest Distraction - Blood Red Skies MiG Alley

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your respective sides of the internets. So yeah, another squirrel moment…I’ve played a game or two of Blood Red kids with Mike and Duncanover the last year or so. Most recently we gave it another go to give Duncan some prep for a tournament that he had signed up for. Well, we got talking about the game and the modern spin with BRS MiG Alley and the expansion from Lead Pursuit Podcast, Beyond MiG Alley for Vietnam and 1960s/70s Cold War.

Anywho, long story short…I’m now getting into MiG Alley…sigh/lol. I recently picked up a box from Amazon and finished up the 4 aircraft that came with it, a couple of F86 Sabre’s and MiG-15’s. The box comes with the cards, models, and decals to complete the models, USAF for the Sabre’s and Soviet Air Forces or North Korean Air Force for the MiG’s.

Hope you enjoy the pics…it was a bit tricky getting the silver finish of the aircraft paintjob without just hitting them with silver…you know what I mean, an OCD sort of thing.

Enjoy.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4, +4

15mm         134

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        12, +4 (mig alley box) 

Progress   +172

Red Dawn Objective - Wonalds...ish

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well as we crest past a far too warm Halloween. This is just a quick post to showcase another completed element from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Air Assault Battalion Starter Set. This fabulous box came with a Red Dawn (1984) inspired unique objective taken from the movie stills showing a few commies posing it up for mommy in front of a distinctive/iconic fast food establishment.

Battlefront elected to go with 'alternate' branding inverting the yellow arches into a W...in my haste to unpack the box and look at the goodies and then ignore them for a random amount of time before hitting the work bench...I inadvertently lost the decals to declare my objective as Wonalds.

So, adapting and overcoming...I instead took inspiration from the fact that any given small town in the Canadian Prairies is home to its own Chinese food restaurant. This of course is due to the reality behind the internment of folks who were of Japanese or Asian descent and living on the western coast of North America during World War 2. This happened in the US and certainly in Canada and resulted in the aforementioned proliferation of small-town Chinese restaurants. Having lost all when they went into internment, these folks had to adapt and overcome (with much much more at stake than missing decals) and provide for their families.

With those folks in mind, and their contribution to their communities, I present you with appropriate signage for Won's Chinese Food emporium. Complete with BMD-1 at the curb, along with a couple of Ruskies and a sufficiently mid-winter grimy/dirty street to stand in.

Enjoy!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         134, +3

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +172

Painting Update - Sam Wilson, Captain America

Howdy folks,

I thought I’d do up a quick post just to give some proof of life that I have actually been painting something other than Flames of War, and that yes…Marvel Crisis Protocol is still alive and well on my side of the internets. Admittedly, this one had been sitting partially completed on the work table for much longer than he should have. I had originally started off on both War Machine and Cap, but I was not happy with how War Machine went together…I had some considerable assembly issues with parts not lining up and not seating into each other.

Which is what probably soured the Captain America figure…even though I had completed the base and the base coat…it nonetheless had to sit through some considerable uncertainty. I did not follow through with the War Machine figure as its dysfunction was painfully obvious and no amount of paint was going to save him. I do have to say, good customer service, I explained my issue with Atomic Mass Games and their Canadian supplier and while they could not supply me with a new War Machine, they did provide me with a box of my choice that was roughly the same cost…so I did appreciate their assist there.

Now onto Captain Sam Wilson America…great looking figure, very dynamic pose and the explosion on the base was a lot of fun to paint up. Once I got my head settled, he did not take that long to finish painting…I actually think he’s been done and in the display case for almost 4-6 months. I did refer back to Sorastro’s awesome guide for Captain Steve Rogers America to help keep me close in colour pallet.

Anywho, please enjoy the pics.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         131

28mm+       44, +1 (Cap)

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +169

Currahee - Flames of War US Airborne

Howdy folks,

Happy October and all that spooky stuff. Fresh off of my last post, and my fantastic ability to get distracted, I thought I would post a progress pic of my Flames of War US Parachute force. Inspired heavily by Band of Brothers and the anniversary of Market Garden (nope, I can’t explain why now), I have finished up my first platoon for the force.

As mentioned last post, this platoon comes from the initial plastic sculpts released by Battlefront inside of their Open Fire turned Hit The Beach starter box. I am currently working through a second platoon of metal figs from the first release of the US Parachute Company box and it has been interesting to see the difference in the sculpts, but also to see how far Battlefront’s plastic figures have come along.

The main con that I have is that the first kick at plastics have some pretty epic “flash” on the figures, particularly between the arms and torso. I call it flash only because I don’t know the plastic equivalent, regardless this plastic excess is really tough to deal with and in most cases (definitely in mine) I cannot bevel it out. The second con I have, and this is for the prone MG figures, they originally came in 2 different pieces for each pose and they went together poorly. From what I’ve seen of the latest release of the plastics, they have gone away from that initial method and gone to a solid singular molded piece. 

The main pro’s…dynamic poses with a great amount of detail on the faces…dynamic poses with arm and leg articulation…and they paint up so well.

Anywho, here are the pics…I decided to go with a post D-day/Market Garden uniform colour.

Take care.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         131, +31 (para platoon including 60mm mortar)

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +168