Building Sandbags with Air Dry Modeling Clay

28mm miniatures for scale comparison:

Time lapse:

Now just to wait for our all to dry...

More than just a magazine - C3i Nr 27

Finally opened the latest C3i (Nr 27)... I continue to be amazed at the content of this publication. In general, it's very good. But when you own games of the added content, it's like opening the shrink wrap all over again. In C3i Nr 27, I think this is the most content I've been able to add to my collection. Counters, errata and clarifications (much needed for Rebel Raiders), new scenarios, and even some terrain (coastline,  island and sandbar grids for Iron & Oak). Also includes a new (for me) solitaire game (Soviet Dawn). And Designer's Notes and Player's Notes articles for Rebel Raiders... Hey, it is a magazine after all ;)

For more information and ordering you're own copy, check out GMT's C3i site

Intro to Chain of Command

I started messing around Chain of Command the other night after being told about it by a fellow gamer. We had discussed it over the course of a few days and some things really jumped out as being appealing. Leaders in this game play a huge part. The "lists" are meant to be historical based on doctrine of the time. LMGs/MMGs have a much higher ROF than in Bolt Action. (There will likely be comparisons, but these are really apples and oranges for what their intent is - at least IMO). Another BA deviation, and one for the better IMO is the absence of heavy guns, mortars, etc. 45mm, 5cm, and 60mm mortars will be seen on board, but an 81mm mortar (medium mortar in BA terms) will be called in by a Forward Observer. To me, this is a much better representation of what should and shouldn't be on board in a skirmish level game of this scale. 

This is Scenario 5. An attacker/defender scenario where the attacker is moving from the left and rear as seen below. The defender started in the quadrant to the upper right. 

The Patrol phase didn't gain much ground for either side on the small board (4'x4' as opposed to recommended 4'x6'). The black and brown BA dice represent Drop Off Points (DOP). These all say Rally as a reminder. All German DOPs had to be moved back to the edge. The Polish DOPs are behind cover of the ruins and wall.

There's a blue BA dice out there on the German Senior Leader that says Down. I'm using this to represent that he moved Tactically. If needed, I'll likely use an Ambush order die for Overwatch. 

There are also markers available - free to print from TooFatLardies (TFL)

The bluish-gray dice with copper pips are the Command Dice. The Command Dice are a cornerstone of this game system. 

For my intro game, I have down sized the Polish Platoon to one section (same as described in 1939 list) - Jr Leader, BAR with 3 crew, and 14 riflemen. This is all one section - no separate teams. 

I also included their two Sr Leaders and ATR team. I do not have the light mortar at this time.

For the German list, I included their 1 Sr Leader and 1 of their 3 Sections comprised of their Jr Leader, an LMG team (LMG, 3 crew, 1 rifle) and an 8 man Rifle team. 

Normally, the Force Morale of these two would be +5 for the Poles and +1 for the Germans. But since I had broken up the platoon structure, I wasn't quite sure how this would be affected. I went ahead and gave the Germans a medic (List 1) and a flamethrower team (List 3). That still came out to a +4 difference. Hopefully it's not too skewed.

The photo above had just seen the German Sr Leader send the Jr Leader and his attachment of riflemen to the left on the Double (3d6" -yes, the maximum distance for movement is randomized by die rolls), moved himself closer to then remove their Shock from the Double Time (need to make sure that was legal use of Command Initiatives), and then ordered the LMG team to move into a firing position where they opened fire with half effect (all missed). 

The play is dynamic. How long will the Turn last? Which side will have the next phase? Who will be able to activate in the current phase? All of this is a focal point of the Command Dice. And it instills a bit of randomness or chaos. War as they say, is chaos. If I were to draw similarities to board games, Chain of Command has the feel of GMT's Combat Commander series or Lock N Load's Band of Heroes series (both favorites of mine) which is why I think I will enjoy this set of rules for 28mm WWII skirmishes. But what about Bolt Action? As I said before, there will be obvious comparisons, but I feel these are comparing apples and oranges. Overall there is a place for both of them. For some, the relative ease of entry into Bolt Action and lack of excessive chrome will appeal to many. For others, the more historical centric lists and tactical gameplay with a focus on leaders will be a bigger draw. While others will split their time depending on their mood or game partner.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to picking up where I left off last night before having to pick up my Poles for tomorrow's Bolt Action Escalation League game. Stay tuned for more Chain of Command... That's an order!

It's been One Week...

It's been a productive week after getting the air brush. Monday and Tuesday were a struggle - even to the point of nearly throwing in the towel - but Thursday and Friday were very productive. It's like it suddenly just "clicked". I've gotten a lot better with mixing and flow control.

Mind you, assembly of everything pictured was done in advance. But still, 23 Polish, 24 French, and 32 British figures base coated; two ruined buildings and a corner wall section near complete; another ruined building almost there; and an M10 beginning to weather. Yeah, it's been a very productive week! This little experiment is starting to pay off tremendously!

Painting vehicles will definitely be an improvement. I had been using a spray can base coat and then just washing it with some ink and brushing on the Army Painter dip. I was happy with those, but this is going to take my vehicles to the next level - weathering, camo, etc. Even painting the tracks was a vast improvement over brushing them. 

I'm pretty much hooked at this point. I wanted to try a color scheme for some Rangers/Mediterranean GIs and thought this would be a good test to see how well I can airbrush in tight corners and to a finer level of detail (as opposed to the monochrome basecoats)

Not too shabby. 

As for the color scheme, I think it could work... I may try one monochrome in Field Drab and use the Khaki more for packs and gear with the occasional Khaki jacket (NCOs, weapon's crew, etc.).  That and maybe trying a slightly greener or darker khaki on top with the brighter khaki for packs and gear.

Adventures with an Airbrush

After this past Black Tree Design (BTD) 50% off sale, I'll have a lot of metal to paint up for various armies. Plus I've been doing a lot of terrain building and painting, so with an Amazon GC from Christmas in hand, I figured now would be as good a time as any to see if an airbrush was for me.

Since this was primarily an experiment, I wouldn't be getting anything too extravagant and would curb my expectations as well. 

I found this Master G22 starter kit for under $50. With that $25 GC, this would be a minimal investment to experiment with. 

I had primered the metal figures as usual with a matte black primer by Army Painter. Apologies for the lousy photo... black on black is tough to see otherwise.

These are the French and Polish by Warlord Games; the BTD figures haven't arrived yet. They both wore similar color uniforms so this should be a perfect example of any potential efficiency to be gained using the airbrush to base coat large lots of minis. 

I'll be using Vallejo's Green Brown for the base coat thinned with water. 

I had read the mix should have the consistency of milk, so I started with that in mind. I didn't know if we had any pantyhose  laying around, so I didn't strain the acrylic at all. This may have been a culprit of some of the issues to come, but I'll give it a try later to see if the results are any better. When I did get flow from the airbrush, it seemed very watery when it hit the metal figures. I tried adding some more paint and mixing, but this usually resulted in a no flow situation. So I would dump the paint mix into a cup and clean out the airbrush. I did this several times and as a result am getting much more proficient at disassembling and reassembling the airbrush - something I read to be one of the more time consuming and troubling parts of using an airbrush. Well, at least that's one obstacle overcome.

In the amount of time spent, I really would have expected to spray all of them, so there's still some things I need to figure out. Someone has suggested Tamiya's airbrush thinner and of course another recommendation for straining the paint mix through a pair of pantyhose.

If you have any other recommendations, please feel free to post below.

Here are some of the results - some taken midway through and a few others at the end when I called it a night.

Perry Miniatures Desert Rats

The British have arrived and are assembling to counter attack Rommel's Desert Afrika Korps. 

The value in this box is great - 38 plastic infantry with some support weapons available, including: 2" mortar(s), Boys anti-tank rifle(s), and Bren light machine guns. There is also a radio operator and officer. For even more customization, there are separate heads for SAS/LRDG troops: nine with Arab headdress and nine commando caps.

The detail on these hard plastic figures is excellent. As for the size, they are slightly smaller than a comparable Warlord Games Bolt Action miniature. The Warlord units have a slightly "heroic" build, whereas the Perry Miniatures are perhaps closer to scale when it comes to girth. 

As you may have noticed above, this LRDG soldier is mounted on a 25mm plastic base that you'd expect to find in a Bolt Action kit. These are not the bases that are included in this box set. The included plastic bases are also smaller. Since bases play a part in movement and range, I'd prefer that all my models be based on the same size bases when possible, so I purchased some extra Renedra 25mm bases to use with this kit. 

After assembling a few figures, my one complaint is with the manner in which the parts are fixed to the sprues. These lads won't be falling off - in fact, they'll have to be cut free and then filed down extensively to stand level. I suppose a minor quip, but one that will add some significant time to assembly.

I've also posted an unboxing video on YouTube which can be seen here: http://youtu.be/54uXoDu8Lz0

UPDATE (1/7/2014): It would appear that I never actually published this post back in August when I composed it. Since that time however, I ended up selling off the Perry Miniatures, along with the Armies of Great Britain book (which I later received new again as a Christmas present). I've replaced the Desert Rats with a platoon of Airborne and Commando models from Black Tree Design to be used as an SAS/Commando raiding platoon. The Perry Miniatures' figures were top notch; it's just that I've grown tired of assembling all things plastic. That Warlord Games Japanese Banzai Starter Box and Plastic Soldier Company Russians are still looming, but at least the Tommies are now all metal.

The Hunters - The hunter becomes the hunted (Type IXA, Part 3)

I hadn't planned on reporting again so soon, but after moving into the next British Isle Patrol Box, I rolled snake-eyes - a Capital Ship!



Capital Ships are always under escort, but first we must roll to see which one. A '7' is rolled - the 31,100t BB Barham! Sink her and a Knight's Cross will be awarded upon return.

Unfortunately, we have to approach her during the day and there is no re-roll attempt on a Capital Ship. Either take it or leave it. Our Kmdt. Lehmann feeling confident after his early success, dives and floods all four torpedo tubes.

"FIRE!!!"

And then this... a terrible stretch of die rolls:

* G7a Steam Torpedo, G7a Steam Torpedo, G7a Steam Torpedo, G7a Steam Torpedo moves Target 1 -> Target 1 *
*** 2d6 = [6] [5]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [2] [4]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [4] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [4] [4]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 1d6 = [1] *** <Michael Collarin>
*** 1d6 = [2] *** <Michael Collarin>

The first line of the Vassal log shows the four torpedoes being assigned a target. The next four lines are the To Hit rolls - two hits (needing '7's or less when firing G7a steam torpedoes submerged at medium range). The next two lines are the dud check rolls for the two hits... both duds! No damage inflicted on the battleship.

And then the hunter became the hunted!

A brief aside - knowing I would be playing The Hunters soon, I wanted to watch a U-boat movie. I browsed Netflix and the only worthwhile option was The Hunt for Red October. A movie I enjoy, no doubt, but it was not what I was looking for. I wanted something WWII related. Really, anything WWII related... U-571, anything! But no such luck. I looked through another XBox app, Crackle, but no joy there either. I then tried Amazon Prime movies. And bam! Das Boot. Oh, Das Boot. A proper movie to set the mood! I tell you about this, not only because it's a great submarine movie, but if you recall the depth charge scenes, you will understand the seemingly relentless pounding you will take once the escorts have honed in on you. If you don't recall or haven't seen it or just want to recapture that feeling - watch this (same as below). It's a trailer, but it actually does a better job portraying that feeling than any of the clips I could find on YouTube.

 

The following is the Vassal log, starting with the escort detection rolls:

*** 2d6 = [6] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [4] [4]*** <Michael Collarin>
* Incoming Hits moves offboard -> 2 Hits on U-Boat *
*** 2d6 = [3] [2]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [5] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 1d6 = [6] *** <Michael Collarin>
* Flooding moves Fooding -> Fooding *
* Hull Damage moves Hull Damage -> Hull Damage *
*** 2d6 = [6] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [1] [4]*** <Michael Collarin>
* Incoming Hits moves 2 Hits on U-Boat -> 1 Hit on U-Boat *
*** 2d6 = [2] [6]*** <Michael Collarin>
*  Damage created in Deck Gun and Flak
* Hull Damage moves Hull Damage -> Hull Damage *
*** 2d6 = [1] [5]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [6] [2]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [2] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>
* Incoming Hits moves 1 Hit on U-Boat -> offboard *
* Hull Damage moves Hull Damage -> Hull Damage *
*** 2d6 = [1] [4]*** <Michael Collarin>
*** 2d6 = [2] [1]*** <Michael Collarin>

The initial detection lead to two hits - one Minor Damage (no effect) and the other caused Flooding... followed by a die roll of '6' causing additional flooding.

The Hull Damage in the log was me attempting to Exceed Test Depth. This evasive maneuver causes one hull damage and requires a 2d6 die roll. However, since this was my first hull damage inflicted and it's impossible to roll a '1' on 2d6, I continued with the detection phase. A '7'. Normally, that would avoid detection (8 or less), however, there are several modifiers in play here - +1 for Capital Ship, +1 for being Previously Detected, and +1 for firing G7a Steam Torpedoes during the Day. Exceeding Test Depth provides a -1 modifier. The '7' becomes a '9' and we are detected once again.

One new hit is inflicted - the 3.7cm Flak is damaged. Hardly of any consequence at this stage. We're just hoping to evade the pigs on the surface.

We take another hull damage by Exceeding Test Depth, but this time roll to check as well now have a possible '2'. Nothing more serious due to the depth, but we are detected a third time! But with a roll of '3' and no modifiers on the hit table, the depth charges are ineffective.

We must evade soon as each time we Exceed Test Depth we take an additional hull damage and increase our chances of catastrophe. The roll of '5' causes no problems for the depth and the finally a '3'! We evade!

Unfortunately, since we did not damage the Capital Ship, we are unable to follow her and we can attempt to lick our wounds - rolling to see whether we can repair some of the damages or if they will be inoperable for the remainder of the patrol.