Whites, Reds, Pinks, and Blues - F'ing Air Cav

Howdy all,

While a busy month has kept me away from the computer, I have nonetheless continued to work through my WIP mountain of lead and resin.  Last month I posted an update and progress on my Air Cav Aerorifle hueys (here).

This post is to show the 99% complete on my Air Cav helos...these little beauties took me some time but in the end I really like how they turned out.  I've got a great variety of assets and firepower for my Air Cavalry Troop and when I paint enough boots on the ground I can turn this into a rifle company with some outstanding air support.

All that is left is to get some of the new plastic rotors and finish those up...otherwise, the helos are done.  I am in the process of painting up the blues and have finished 2 of 10 stands of infantry...

Enjoy the pics.  Take care.

Go CAV!!

The entire team...

White Scouts on the back left and right, Red Hogs between them, Cobra gunships for later war period and flying artillery support, the Blue Hueys front and centre, and a Command and Control helo OR Medevac if needed.

 

 

C & C bird or Medevac...my plan is to build some markers for the flight stand to designate either

 

 

The Aerorifle Blues...taking the fight to the enemy...you still need boots to hold ground. 

 

 Door gunner with Cav art on his helmet...first attempt at unit crests by hand...

The Red Aeroweapons or flying artillery...Cobra gunships to deal a high dose of pain to the badguys. 

Gatling gun Cobra

Rocketpod Cobra...'Next!'

 

 

 I've been stuck for how to store this crew...the cost of shipping a custom battlefoam try is at least twice the cost of the tray itself...so, for about $7 Cdn, I went to Michaels and bought a scrapbook container for $3 on sale...and some Gorilla glue and took a bunch of old BF foam as well as Miniatures in Comfort foam and built my own carrying 'tray'...a little caveman but it works. 

Battle Report - Fate of a Nation - final turn

Evening everyone,

It's taken me a few weeks but I finally have a post for the last turn of the club's Fate of a Nation tank ace campaign.  For those of you who haven't seen, here is Turn 1, here is Turn 2, and here are my buddy Mike and Duncan's perspective of the fight.

All in all I enjoyed the chance to game in the Middle East...the closing era of the Sherman and dawning of the Sh'ot for the IDF is interesting.  You've got some great skills but the equipment is transitioning and can be a challenge if fielding IShermans.  For the Arab nations, you have the end of the T34 and dawning of the horde of T-55...good armour, good gun...

For the final turn we decided to align our points with the new book...this affected the IDF the most as their expensive tanks became even more expensive...for the first game we gamed 900 points per player and for the second we had approx. 1000 per player.  IIRC it was a weather weekend and there's been a lot of cold and flu in the city so we only had 4 players, so we elected to do team battles. 

As well, for this round of the Tank Ace campaign the forces returned to their 'normal' Flames of War state, that is, not every team was an independent team...and none tank teams were allowed on the table (I didn't have to play hammer on this rule this time, lol).  As it turned out, Duncan and I both played IDF and brought the same force: 2 x Sh'ot and 4 x ISherman; game 2 would see us bring in air support and a AAA platoon subtracting 1 x ISherman.  Our opponents were Jordanian and Syrian armoured companies with many many T55s, some T34s, some M48s and a mech infantry platoon in M113s...oh yeah, they had some air support as well.

The dice Gods were not kind...Duncan and I had a tough time making our dice hit, Mike and John made some great armour saves and there were just so many of the buggers...the Syrian air force did a stellar job of beating up our force as well...

The second game was pretty much the same except the IAF was not effective and I think our die rolling became...worse!?!?!

Anyhow, all that's left is the crying and the pictures...In spite of the beating there was a lot of fun had in the game and would be happy to try it all again...except at a higher point level.

Cheers.

Game 1 overview from Arab side...John with T55s (left) and T34s (right)...Mike had his Jordanians taking second string heavy on the right...

Close up of the IDF side...Duncan on the right, me in the middle

Best shooting of the game...turn 1 and Duncan destroys the T34 company...

Various shooting downrange, kill one, bail some more...small manoeuvers into position...taking some hits from the T55s and the Syrian air support.  The IDF didn't get past mid table

Game 2 - IDF on the left, Arabs on the right

Looking at the T55s...a few of us, a bunch of them...

Moving forward to tackle the Jordanians.

Traffic jam of M48s...trying to unleash the IAF

Duncan moves up on upper left side...takes some hits from the T34s, tougher to kill this game, and the M48s...

IAF arrives, takes down an tank...M113s sprint for the main building...take some fire from my IShermans...destroy one APC, infantry dismount and take cover/

Duncan ended up taking a beating on this game...my Sh'ots held 'the line' on our right trying to snipe at the T55s, the T34s and the Jordanians brought some good firepower and numbers to bear and dominated the die rolling...very good game.

More Great War heavy metal...British Mark IV's...and weathering...

Evening folks,

For your viewing pleasure I have a couple of Battlefront Mark IV tanks from their new Great War line...you can get these on their own or they come along with the British army box.  Overall, the model went together really well...no issue with the sponsons, tracks, or the hulls.  There is some construction required with the top rails, but these went on fairly easy with minimal finger gluing...always a good sign.

As for the painting...I used the colour guide found on the Great War landing page on the Flames of War website.  The colours seemed a good match and I actually enjoyed painting these hulks up a lot.

I went a little further with the weathering than I did with my German tanks...with the standard green paintjob, the weathering was guaranteed to show much better on these ones.  I tried a couple of different techniques with subtle changes...the main layers stayed the same: Vallejo Flat Earth, Vallejo Beige Brown, and then Vallejo US Tan Earth.  The first time I went from darkest to lightest...the second go...which I think went better, I went from tan earth to flat earth.

I have plenty of pics to look at, so enjoy and see which worked best for yourselves.  I'm not sure which I liked the most...but the first technique forced me to weather higher up the sides than the second method...food for thought

Weathering steps:

Technique #2...tan earth first...tank on the left for comparison

Second layer, beige brown...applied closer to the bottom of the tank track, does not extend up the side as far as the tan earth layer...leave some tan earth to look at...

Third layer is the flat earth...the tank on the left I went a little higher up the side...it pops out much clearer, the tank on the right, I tried to stay near the track, leaving the tan earth, but also leaving the beige brown exposed.

I finished the weathering off with a Strong Tone wash applied to only the flat earth layer...and to random streaks along the hull side...some finished pics:

Final layer of strong tone wash to highlight the 'heavier' mud painted on with the flat earth...