Team Yankee/Red Dawn - New NATO Forces book - quick thoughts!

...is that an update or are you just happy to see me?!?! Cause HOT DAMN! I'm pretty happy to see you!

Thats right folks! If you're living under a rock like me, you may have just seen that Battlefront are set to release their next Team Yankee/Red Dawn book that updates troops & kit available to NATO and Free forces for the pseudo-WW3.

Team Yankee - NATO Forces

There have been a few videos so far, I really like the review from Fog of War, as well there is a great blog post from Big Lee over at Breakthrough Assault:

YouTube - Fog of War - NATO Forces Review

Breakthrough Assault - NATO Forces Overview

Now, I remember watching the videos and post with much anticipation almost a year ago when Red Dawn was being announced and we were getting snippets to mull over. Seeing the invasion map and route through the Prairies as well as the map symbol with Canadian Mech Troops in Grizzly/Cougar was really cool to see. Having reread the posts and videos that I have seen so far, I'm even more pumped...now, I'm not going to say that I can see into the future, or have influenced Battlefront in their design...but I like to think that maybe someone has heard me or even read a few words that I've dumped into the internets.

However, I did post that one of my pet-peeves was that Battlefront went with the short barrel 1970s M109 for the RCHA even though we were sporting the longs in the 80's... 1 RCHA battery for 4 CMBG

And, I may have said that with the push Red's push into the Prairies and axis of advance going past Edmonton and into Calgary...along with the new Airborne Assault rules...that maybe this would be a good time for the Canadian Airborne Regiment to make an appearance... Red Dawn North

So yeah, a lot to be pumped about...in Edmonton you had the Airborne jump school, 435 Squadron and their Tactical Airlift School, 1 Brigade Headquarters in Calgary, and a bunch of various Militia regiments along with the Regular force regiments that can make for some Force Mobile Command goodness.

I'm looking forward to the Cougars and Grizzlies, but gotta admit I'm really excited for the Iltis jeeps and TOW carriers...maybe odd, but I may have cheered when I saw them, lol.

We'll see what comes downline, the pre-order timing looks to be 21 October and there are a few pre-order deals offered for Direct Order from Battlefront. I just jumped on the book, cards, and objective deal which nets you an objective (and maybe 10 figs) for free...the deal is $35USD and the book and cards separately are $25 and $10 respectively...so...

There is also a Canadian Mech Infantry deal that comes with upgrades for 3xM113 to the new TUA carrier. All in all, its 2 x infantry platoons (with Carl G or Eryx), 2 x M113 transport boxes (for 10 x M113's), and 2 x M113 frames (for 2)...all coming in around $160 USD. If you do the math, I think you'll end up saving about $10-15 vice buying everything separately. Not an insane amount of savings for buying a 'starter' collection, but that gives you either a pizza or a few beers while you put all the models together.

Anywho, looking forward to the breadcrumbs being thrown out over the next few weeks to see what is what. All in all, pretty happy to see what comes...hopefully the Canucks can get their own partisan/militia types as well (Cobras/Badgers/Bisons/Bears ?!?), there were definitely motivated folk who would've been happy to shoot at a Red or two.

Take care folks.

Yup, Afropia is still alive!!

Hey folks,

Just thought I’d drop a quick post…it’s been a pretty distracting and busy past month or so. While I’ve been able to keep getting some painting done, I just haven’t been able to get any posts in. In between those two, I’ve continued to put thought on how my Imagi-nation will shape up. I have a few ideas on back story, mostly focusing on Petoriastan, but am working out how I can randomize the evolutions of the country.

One of the key things I’ve had on my to-do list was a usable map…I do have a regional map of the countries, but would really like to break each nation down to the national level and give some representation to countryscape. 

At least Petoriastan has a flag. Long live...

Take care…

Painting Update - Random 15’s - Some Battlefront WW2 & Cold War

Howdy folk,

Todays post is all about painting up some figures with the idea of trying a few things out, making it so they fit in a few different game settings, and just working towards some small projects that I have stewing in the brainpan. On top of that, I found another find and got some discount Flames of War, so yeah…getting a variety of troops and settings off the work bench.

Anyone that has been reading the posts for the past year or so may remember my imagi-nation, the region of Afropia. While I have not gamed anything for that yet, I have continued to run a lot of mechanics and variables for those little countries in my head, all the while keeping mindful of the force structure and framework that would be applicable. The recent militia pack released by Battlefront as part of Red Dawn was an excellent source for insurgenty type figures that had a different setting or theme. Admittedly thanks to the GWOT and recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a lot of insurgent figures are themed around Middle East themes…thankfully with the militia pack, I can add some variety to my little angry forces. As such, I base a half dozen or so for Force on Force (because thanks to CanGames, I’m really itching to FoF again) and go from there. So you will see these figs have red and/or yellow markings on them to highlight that they are either support or leaders…or in the case of Pswayze, both.

On top of that, my force structure for Petoriastan includes a large amount of WW2 era vehicles, so I was able to do up a box of M7 Priests that will work for any Canadian WW2 force that I want to field, as well as a post-WW2 Petoriastan artillery unit. So, win-win.

Finally, I had bought a Soviet T-34 tank many years back to go with a WW2 Soviet force that I had in mind, so not only will that work for my Afropia setting (as either part of Alarus or Oponwana) as well as formation commander for a Soviet T34 Battalion. So again, win-win.

I hope you enjoy the pics and will see you soon.

Insurgents for FoF or Danger Close ruleset…maybe even Spectre Operations…Pswayze rocking the leadership and the RPD…

WW2 and post M7 Priests…a few minor mods on the stowage that they’re sporting. Saw quite a few reference photos that showed the wooden planks in the front of the vehicle holding various kit in line.

The trusty ole T34, star of Soviet Russia and post WW2 puppets…

Painted 

15mm            93, +20

28mm+          39

Bought         131, +10 (the priests)

Progress      +1

Marvel Crisis Protocol - Ghost Rider!!

Hey folks,

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. My posting-fu hasn't been up to the challenge as of late but here we are trying to get some momentum back. I have had the Ghost Rider on the workbench for quite some time...I really liked the pose, all the fire, and just the dynamics of the model. Admittedly I was a little more than intimidated with trying to meet expectations that I had built-up in my head, but also to do justice to the model...not to mention, the chain is such a finicky fragile element of the whole model.

Anywho, I can happily say that I finished it...and I'm really happy with the outcome!! A chunk of the credit has to go to Sorastro and his excellent videos. I may not have followed his process through and through, but it was handy to have it as a reference that I could go back to throughout the paint work.

The fire elements are a huge part of this model, you literally can't look at a single part of the model without seeing fire...except maybe the chain, and then its a great object source lighting component. So yeah, the fire was definitely a challenge and I really wanted to boost those to really make them popout at you when you first see the model; really I wanted them to be the focal point. If you follow Sorastro's video, I stayed pretty close to his technique and then went further with the boost using Vallejo's Ice Yellow and Off-White.

This also pushed the boundaries of my comfort with OSL and how it would reflect over all surfaces, not to mention the subtle differences between the darkness of the bike frame and the black shades of the Rider's leathers. Again, all in all, I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

The only issue that popped up for me was when I glued the back tire to the base. I had ensured that the two surfaces did not have paint on them so the bond could be solid, but I ended up having a chemical reaction that cause crystals when the paint spread out (I obviously used too much) along the sides of the tire. Luckily I was able to prime the crystals and paint them up as fiery bits, so that's why you'll see a lot of fire element on the base itself. It gave me good reason to push the fire elements ever further on the tires, showing the fire wrap around the tires and spill over to the ground.

A good save I think, lol. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Painted 

15mm            73

28mm+          39, +1

Bought         121

Progress      -9

Painting Update - Terrain

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side of the dice. I thought that I would share a quick post with you to show off some quick terrain items that I completed way back a month or two...maybe even three. Nothing much too special with the pieces, I painted up some crates for pretty much any genre or setting. These were pretty simple, just some primer, white highlight (or skip to white prime), contrast paints, and then paint in the slats. I bought the 'boxes' from the Dollar Store or Dollorama...can't remember which, but a few bucks get you about 20 of these little darlings.

These 3 pieces are courtesy of my buddy Duncan, his wonderful resin printer, and some STLs that he downloaded...it think they're from Modiphius...anywho, I went with some classic retro colour on the appliances as you can see if you have ever played Fallout 4. The tool box just screamed, "any other colour than red"...which isn't easy, cause all I can seem to remember is every metal toolbox being red.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the quick shots. Have a good one.

Painted 

15mm            73

28mm+          38, +10

Bought         121

Progress      -10

Wolverines, Grizzlies, or Cobras, oh my! Northern...I mean, Red Dawn

Either way…we got some 1980’s homegrown kill a commie-for-mommy insurgent militia goodness coming our way..

And thanks to their MOVERINES comrades, they can punch it all out around the battlefield in pick-up style! The figures were pretty cool…you have the Red Dawn iconic crew of Swayze and the gang…and the rest of the platoon is filled out with appropriate looking militia-ites. The teams are armed with a mix of Soviet and US military small arms and whatever shotguns Elmer Fudd or farmers moms have in their closet…along with some M72 looking anti-tank rockets and of course an RPG or two…and a 60mm mortar.

As far as game play goes, I have no idea but I hope to find out in the near future…of course I’ll have to finish up some more troops for the game. Anywho, they were fun to paint up and since I’ve been talking about the whole northern aspect of Red Dawn, the basing is a little more in keeping with what there would have been on the Canadian prairies…

Swayze and the gang front and centre. Brad Savage and Doug Toby are to the left of Swayze, C Thomas, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey to the right, … 

I found a suitable figure to paint up as Powers Boothe’s character LCol. Tanner, eagle driver…

And in the theme of downed aircrew…I painted this fella up as a Captain in the Canadian Air Force, CC130 Hercules aircrew. The name tag on his right chest is shaped like a Herc silhouette, was the typical style for Herc crews.  

I painted up the “gold” and blue character with a cool looking high school jacket…

Some more views of the militia group…

Painted 

15mm            73, +26

28mm+          28

Bought         121

Progress      -20

Painting Update - Last batch of Empress Miniatures

Howdy folk,

For any of you who have been checking in regularly, you may recall that I had bought a few packs of figures from Empress Miniatures, going on almost 2 years ago now. Well, I have finally finished the last of that group of 20+ figures…and I gotta say, it feels good. 

The figures overall were a lot of un to paint up, I think I really pushed myself on the paint schemes…they were my first real crack at multi-cam, and I had never tried CADPAT at this scale. I also didn’t have a guide to go by, so I did my best to colour match…I just hope that I wrote it down somewhere, sigh. I did have a few challenges with the figures, and these were mostly at the assembly stage. I’ll chalk it up dodgy fingers and my classic glue them together strategy.

Oh, I noticed afterwards that I had made an error on assembly. The team leader comes with a tomahawk that looks like it is fitted to go on the back of his ruck…I missed this cause I was focused on the idea of having it hang off the hip for close access. 

Anywho, I have a few places where these figures will fit in nicely…so, looking forward to getting them on the table.

Cheer…enjoy the pics.

Because I have some future plans of a Zona Alfa campaign using a mix of figures from the collection including these fine gents, I purposely went with a mix of clothing and camo patterns. Not only are SOF troops renowned for wearing what’s comfy, but it also fits a progressive campaign narrative.

From left to right, the SAW gunner has plain tan pants with Mulit-Cam top, the kneeling grenadier and the team lead are both sporting Multi, and anti-tank missile troop is wearing multi pants and desert CADPAT top (ala Canadians in Afghanistan, and CSOR in Iraq)… 

I really like the poses of these 2 figs…so a little more focus on them.

Painted 

15mm            47

28mm+          28, +4

Bought         121

Progress      -46

Marvel CP - The Rhino!!

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well on your side. I was pretty pumped when I picked up the Rhino figure a few months back and was even more pumped when I saw Sorastro's take on him. At the end of the day, I ended up loosely following the guidance of Sorastro, but also kept to my own interpretation or at least colour scale. 

The figure has alot of great texturing already laid into it so a bunch of the work was just trying to make sure that whatever I did, did not take away from that level of detail. The face is super expressive and just a dynamic pose overall. I did include some additional debris, capturing some degree of motion as Sorastro might say, but not too much to get in the way as I sometimes overthing those little details.

My one con for the figure overall is some of the seam lines are challenging to smooth away or fill over without removing/obscuring the fabulous details. But the figure overall was a bunch of fun to paint up and only took me a couple of nights.

I hope you enjoy the pics.

Painted 

15mm            47

28mm+          24, +1

Bought         121, +1

Progress      -50