31 Aug 24 - Hobby Stuff (the Lead Mountain edition)

It has been a little while since I have done a hobby update, so this covers a longer period than normal. Plus I think I have missed some stuff out, but here goes...

I did some WW2 stuff...

A German armoured panzer grenadier company's worth of Baccus Hanomag variants...(these are all fully painted now, can't find a shot)

Some more motorbikes and light vehicles for the Germans (more Baccus)

Panzer IVFs from 2D6 Wargaming

A couple of long-barrelled PzIIIs. Can't remember where I got these from, or who the manufacturer was. I prefer the 'dark' Panzer Grey to the 'grey-blue' Panzer Grey...

In addition to the TYW miniatures' battles I have been playing recently, I have also been playing more of the TYW:Europe in Agony boardgame...

 

A box of Warlord's Roman Veterans...these have been painted now (these were for one of my sons)

this angle gives a better idea of the poses, but the shadow really obscures the detail here, sorry

A couple of battalions of French Napoleonic Grenadiers (more Baccus)

Those Roman Veterans during the painting process

A load of WSS Horse and Dragoons from Baccus

 

Which got turned into these - a mixture of French (okay, about half-French, half-Irish) and Dutch (okay, entirely Scottish, Walloon and German) Foot and Horse

But note there was still plenty in the WiP stage (left and top)

which got turned into these more WSS French (okay, Irish) Horse, and more Spanish (okay, Irish and Italian) Dragoons

The Lead Mountain

As something a little different, I thought I would show the entirety of the lead (and plastic, and wood) mountain. I thought it would be useful for me to see at a glance what I have in front of me to prepare and paint. I spread it all out on a 6'x4' table...

Boxes, buildings, bags galore...

The '28mm model' section

First up, the repair pile: a wide mix of stuff, but quite a few GW bits and pieces here, also some Perry stuff - mainly things from my son's collection (Zulus and Zulu War British seem to have had particularly rough handling!!)

Some Warlord Praetorians, these are for my son.

First painting box - lots of 40K things in here, quite a few modern female zombie survivors too, some fantasy bits'n'pieces

Second painting tray - some Brit WW2 Paras (basically done), some French artillery crew, some Border Reivers, some more fantasy, some VC from TAG, a couple of odd conversions, and a huge troll/ogre/daemon/somesuch from the new wave of Heroquest sets

Box three - more Heroquest things from the new wave box sets

Fourth and last - some WW2 from Hour of Glory, plenty of Frostgrave barbarians

Some 28mm mdf buildings, cottages and stables and so on, plus a Roman Villa to build for my son

15mm modern stuff (mainly East German, some terrorists/militia), plus a couple of WW2 items (e.g. additional AT riflemen, and a really odd 3D printed Somua variant)

6mm wooden ACW from Commission Figurines, plus some Baccus Pony Wars' scouts to the right there

Box 5 of the 28mm stuff - French Napoleonic Dragoons

3 unmade boxes (Beastmen, Peasants, Napoleonic British Light Dragoons) plus a couple of sprues from magazines I haven't made up yet: a couple of 28mm modern SF guys I think, and some 1/300 torpedo boats.

These boxes are all largely done, but maybe have a couple of figures or a sprue I kept back for conversions.

More boxed sets, but these ones are for my son: 28mm Gallic Warriors, Spartans and (more) Roman Legionaries

Hmm, not sure, should go back and check...maybe 2D6 Wargaming Rhodesian and ZANU-PF fighters?

Lots of WW2 bits and pieces - some US Paratroopers and some Volksturm are in there, lots of really random other stuff

More WW2 stuff (plus some WSS stuff mixed in - will come back to that) - mainly Baccus to the left with lots of German tanks and artillery, some Soviet T34s, some Fireflys, 25pdrs and 6pdrs with tow vehicles, with some H&R Russian stuff at the top (mainly early war tanks) which are nearly finished, and some H&R or Scotia aircraft to the bottom-right: the Polish stuff is PZL-11s and Karas IIRC and is nearly finished, the British Hurricanes, Typhoons and Battles aren't.

A big pile of PSC aircraft for the Battle of Britain - have started on some of them at least

US and VC for the Vietnam War from Irregular, British and Soviets for the Cold War from H&R

A jumble of additional 6mm Napoleonic stuff from Baccus - it looks a lot but there is only a pack of French infantry and some Grumbler miniatures dismounted French Dragoons which amount to much, most of the rest are packs of like 8 spare Austrian Landwehr, skirmishing.

a 6mm Byzantine Army from Baccus

Various SF stuff from GW Epic, Vanguard and Brigade. Most of this is actually painted, it just needs me to get round to deciding how to actually base (and by extension, play with) this stuff

Spares from 6mm Baccus ECW/TYW range. Mainly to be used for extra game markers, flagbearers and so on.

Spares from 6mm Baccus Ancients and Medieval things I think. A lot of it is painted, main thing which is unpainted and matters are some Cataphracts, which would be really handy

Try and ignore the WW2 stuff - the remainder is Baccus WSS stuff, mainly artillery, cuirassiers and hussars, plus a few dragoons and grenadiers.

I knew I would forget something! A bunch of Vikings.

Okay, so the lead mountain is much larger than I would like (or is historically usual for me), but a lot of that is down to me now effectively painting for two! I don't think there is much in there that I regret getting or would get rid of, so that is somewhat hopeful. OTOH, there is definitely a lot to do. 28mm plastics definitely trade money-for-time, in that it always takes a bit longer to prep them than you'd imagine. But I am looking forward to finishing much of this lot off, even my own very quick and simple paint jobs do bring figures to life, at least a little. It is also a salutary reminder that 28mm stuff really does take up a lot more space than 6mm. That is becoming increasingly important, as space round the house as my family goes gets a premium, although I know that too won't last forever and there will be an opportunity to store more and have more stuff out in years to come.

To be more self-critical, I do play many more 6mm games than 15mm or 28mm games - although I don't have a ton of 28mm stuff, perhaps I am somewhere between too much (many more figures than I get on the table regularly) and not enough (not really any armies to play more than a 50 vs 50 skirmish with), so perhaps I should think about rationalizing some of these collections somewhat.

Nuts! Patrol in Poland, 1939

I wasn't sure what I wanted to get on the table - and then would actually play - so I picked Nuts! 

 

This comes after two 'failed' games: another attempt at White Mountain, and then a WW2 company action.  So just to feel the excitement of the dice in the hand, and wanting something different than another One Hour Wargame scenario, I decided it was high time I got my 15mm WW2 Poles on the table.  I set up a 'patrol' scenario, with the Poles attempting to recce through some woods and hills and scattered farm buildings

For those, who know Nuts! Polish investment level in this sector was '2' and '4' for the Germans.  Since it has been a while since I played, I just used very generic ratings: the Polish were led by Sierzant Suszczyk (5) and consisted of him, an LMG gunner(4) and 7 riflemen(three (4), four (3).

n.b. I didn't take too many pictures here, it has been a while since I played Nuts! and I wanted to focus on recalling exactly how the rules worked.

The Polish squad stacks by an empty house.

A wider shot: the German PEFs (potential enemy forces) are on the far side of the hill, with one in the woods in the centre.

The Polish LMG team occupy the farmhouse, with a sentry left outside, while Sierzant Suszczyk leads the others into the woods (right); however, just as they have entered the wood, a German AFV (a StugIIIB) arrives in the rear of the Polish position...and proceeds to kill the sentry with machinegun fire, then demolish the house with the Polish LMG team inside it.

Meanwhile, a German MG34 team wanders into the sights of the Polish patrol...

And a particularly deadly volley of rifle fire kills two and incapacitates the other...

The patrol continues on, carrying out the rest of its mission

Avoiding the Stug, the Polish skirt back through the woods...

Well, despite the heavy Polish losses (4 killed and the squad machinegun lost!) the mission was in fact a success.  Very luckily, only one of the PEFs resolved into an actual contact with the Germans, and they walked straight into an ambush.  Obviously there was pretty much nothing the Polish could do about the StuG turning up...but that it is the beauty(?!?) of Nuts! you can be over-matched and a simple mission can get hairy very quickly.  The game actually worked fine, but I was a bit rusty with the 'flow' of the game, Nuts! goes a lot quicker if you intuitively understand which table you need to be looking at at any given moment.  It was generally fine, I really like Nuts! I have never been totally convinced by the wording of the In-Sight tests, but as long as I play it the way I like it, not much harm done...

I can't now remember who made the 15mm buildings. I think the Polish figures are Forged in Battle, the Germans were Battlefront.  The StuG...Zvezda, possibly?