20mm WW2 - US M3A1 halftracks

Well, these took me a while to finish. They were 90% done in Januari and I've been staring at them on my workbench since. Until last month... I finally had the courage to paint the stowage and do some final weathering so I could clear them from my desk. 

These will be useful as support options for CoC  but I particularly look forward using them in a Bartlegroup Overlord game. We use this rules for our platoon+ multi-player games and we have been struggling with the infantry to keep up with the armour. Probably our mistake as we are learning the game but at least I now have more options deploying the infantry.

Just a few more US vehicles to post, in the meantime I just started work on the Germans...Cammo :)

1/72 Halftracks are from The Plastic Soldier Company. Extra stowage from Black Dog and the figures are AB. 

20mm WW2 - M20, M10 and M8

There we go again. I had a long break from painting but a trip to Salute and a vist to Normandy in May did the trick this time. I've sort of finished the Americans (well, when do you stop) for now and
will get the halftracks and other stuff up here as well together with some reports of games we played recently. Next Saturday I look forward to het the Naps out again...
These are all MMS models and the building are from bbwargames. Ah that should be another post, I've built and bought lots of buildings and other scenery from bbwargames, najewitz and others that deserve to be shared.

20mm WW2 - Shermans from PSC

Continuing with some more 20mm models to reinforce the new infantry platoon. For the first game we played in December we cheated and ordered some pre-painted tanks from Grubby. But hey, nothing beats playing with your own painted minis so let's see if I can get a decent amount of armour done. These are the first with many more to come over the next few weeks.

(air)brush?

I''ve always admired the work of people who know how to use an airbrush and regularly I'm staring at beautifully pieces thinking one day I need to give it a try. But I don't even own an airbrush and I lack the skills and time to master it. So I ordered some enamel washes and pigments, grabbed a few brushes to see if I could get a decent enough result. It was great fun trying out all sorts of different techniques.

Results are good enough for me, think I wait with the airbrush learning curve for when I decide to do some German cammo schemes...

Models are 1/72 from Plastic Soldier Company with the tank commander from Sgt Mess I think.

20mm WW2 US Infantry platoon

You might have seen those in The Analogue Hobbies painting challenge a few weeks back but I'm currently working on a US WW2 force in 20mm scale. First up most of the infantry soon to be followed by support, halftracks, armour and some terrain and other bits and pieces.
While I've done WW2 armies in 15 en 28mm scale this 20mm scale got me excited again to do some WW2 stuff. It seems to have the best of both worlds. They have great detail and paint up nicely, don't take ages and there is a lot available in this scale in terms of figures, vehicles and terrain. They also look perfect to me on the size of boards we are gaming.
Except for some of the command figures, flamethrower, medic and one mortar team these are all AB figures.

Catching up with pictures of WW2 games..In three scales?

Five months? Ouch, I didn't realise it was that long since I posted anything here.
Well, apart from the first year this blog has never been been updated very regularly and I decided to just continue and to resurrect it once in a while . So I will just continue to throw something up the blog whenever I feel like it :)

First for the Dutch readers a quick word on Poldercon next Sunday in Utrecht. I'm sure you are all aware of this new event but in case you somehow managed to miss all the announcements here is the info from www.poldercon.nl. Not sure if it's sold out or not by now. I will be attending so might see you there.

PolderCon is the newest wargaming event in the Netherlands, that does everything a bit differently from the rest. At PolderCon, you can play in participation games, make new friends, meet up with old ones, learn to play new games, get better at playing games you already know, participate in workshops, game, shoot the breeze over your hobby, game... and had we already mentioned chatting with your friends? And yes, gaming of course.

So today a couple of pictures of games from the past months. We had quite a few games but taking pictures is another thing. I often forgot to bring the camera or the lighting was that poor you could not shoot proper pictures.
But anyway, we tried the campaign system from TFL and did a series of 28mm Desert games. Huge succes, while we only used the simple ladder system to start with it certainly added something to the games. You have to think just a bit harder on your tactics as this will have an impact on the next game and you calculate your risk in a broader perspective. No more 'all in' charges because we are running out of time but quick withdraws losing ground to save men. Simple example maybe but it played different, more realistic if you will. Another nice side effect was people start to think different on their support options and after each game I noticed them ordering and painting new stuff hoping that would save their next day...Not a chance BTW, British had four or five straight wins in a row.

Another fight lost for Feldwebel Von Vugt. Now Pay attention at the workshop next Sunday Marc!

Next up a game of Battlegroup Overlord. In our search for a company level ruleset (15mm and 20mm) for multiple players to use we have tried two games of BGO now. For us the most important feature this game needs is that it has to be relatively simple and fast playing. With six easily distracted gamers chatting over the next painting project we don't want to overcomplicate things. So far, BGO seems to meet our requirement while still offering good variety and concepts for a WW2 game.

Finally a 20mm game set in Normandy as well. We recently rediscovered the 20mm scale for WW2 after we started and never finished it fifteen years ago. So what do you do? You just go for it and realise you are painting the same period in yet another scale.