Getting Ready for Operation Spring Awakening

Rather embarrassingly, this post was started at the end of February! My excuse was that I was focused on the Painting Challenge, and neglected to do any updates. So a slew of things are coming, including a big post with all of my remaining entries. But first comes this post on getting ready for Battlegroup Spring Awakening.

I am a big fan of the Battlegroup rules; they are quite quick to pick up, reward balanced armies and realistic tactics. The Orders and Battle Rating system limit 'God-like' command and control and mean you have to make decisions between what you want to do and what you need to do, introducing friction into the game. The game can be played at a variety of levels from platoon up to battalion, although I think it really works well with 2-3 platoons a side with some supports. So I was pretty excited to get the latest supplement - Operation Spring Awakening.

Operation Spring Awakening follows the usual format of a historical overview of the fighting in Hungary in 1945 (pretty handy as this is an unfamiliar aspect of WW2 to me), some special rules to recreate the feel of the fighting, a new Army list for the Germans and a campaign of 6 scenarios recreating the operations of 1st SS Panzer Division along the Sarvitz Canal.

One of the nice features is that the campaign scenarios are mostly set at platoon level and I have quite a few of the units already in 15mm; of course, I would have to buy a few new toys to be able to play all of the scenarios but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make! Luckily, PSC have just had a Valentine's Day sale, which allowed  me to pick up a box of Zis 3 guns, 3 Zvezda SU76s and 2 Zvezda SU100s at a reduced price.

Whilst waiting for these to arrive, I dug out my 15mm Russian forces and decided that they were in need of a facelift. My painting has come on a bit since I first bought these and so I have set about upgrading the tanks and finishing off a platoon of infantry.

First up I did a platoon of T34s. Originally, these were done in a dark green with a basic lighter green drybrush - quick and simple but not very interesting to look at. I was inspired by the pictures of Russian tanks over at The Tactical Painter, so set out to see what I could with mine.

First off, I re-painted each tank with VJ Yellow Green and then gave it a wash with AK Interactive Wash for NATO tanks. This brought out the detail and also made the tank look suitably grubby - most appropriate for the fighting in Hungary, where conditions alternated between snow, rain and quagmire mud. With the AK wash it really needs vigorous and regular shaking whilst using it.

Then I used AK Interactive Dark Earth pigments to weather the running gear and lower hull of the tank. I found the best effect on the hull was achieved by lightly brushing the pigments to create a light 'film' of dust; heavier deposits were used on the running gear. The pigments were then fixed with liberal use of AK Pigment Fixer and left to dry over night. Finally, a protective coat of matt varnish was sprayed on.

The great thing about the PSC T34 kit is that you get two tanks for the price of one, as both 76mm and 85mm turrets are included. So here are they are as T34/76.

I was much happier with the look of the tanks now, so am working through the rest of the collection.

AHPC IX Bonus Theme - Mercenary: The Dark Marshall

Second update today is the entry for the Mercenary Bonus Theme. To begin with I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for this Round. I knew I wanted the entry to be themed to The Lord of the Rings, but the backstory for my first thoughts - Easterlings & Haradrim - did not really fit the mercenary theme.

Rather bizarrely, everything fell into place when I started considering the definition of mercenary as an adjective, rather than a noun. Looked at this way, a mercenary character is venal - corrupt and susceptible to bribery. And who better fits this description than one of the Nine Mortal Men who Sauron bribed with rings of power, enslaving them and turning them into Nazgul, Ringwraiths, the most feared of his servants.

With the entry fixed, all I needed was a suitable figure and a quick rummage in the LoTR lead-pile turned up this old metal cast of The Dark Marshall. I am not a fan of all of the alternative 'character' sculpts for the Ringwraiths, but I do like the backstory of The Dark Marshall - even as a mortal he had a 'murderous reputation' and now his soldiers follow his orders as much out of fear as obedience. Suitably wicked!

To try and avoid horse and rider merging into one, I tried to create variety with different shading and highlighting. The Dark Marshall's robes are highlighted with a blue-grey (GW 'The Fang') and then washed with GW 'Drakenhof Nightshade'. I might have been better off using a lighter colour, as the wash has really muted the highlights - I can give that a go on one of the other eight Nazgul I suppose!

Meanwhile the cloth covering the horse was highlighted in a lighter blue grey (GW 'Russ Grey '), but instead of using a wash I used GW 'Gulliman Blue ' glaze to tone down the highlights slightly but still leave them distinct from the Marshall's cloak. Finally, bits of the horse itself like the tail were highlighted in a light grey (VJ 'Deep Sea Grey')

Last of all, as a nod to his past as a King of Men, The Dark Marshal wears a golden crown for a bit of contrast (and a break from highlighting all that bloody black!)

In the end, I am very pleased with how he looks; just got to do the foot version now!

6th Painting Challenge Entry - Kill Team Terrain

Output has been severely limited over the last couple of weeks due to (i) the start of the Six Nations Rugby Championship and attendant Guinness-fest and (ii) a nasty bout of flu/chest infection, with so much coughing that I struggled to sleep, never mind paint anything. Hopefully things are getting back to normal now, and I will be able to get a bit more done. However, it has also meant that I have not updated the blog with my most recent entries.

On the opening weekend of the Six Nations, I did not have much time for painting, so cracked out the big brushes and tester paint pots to do some Kill Team terrain. Although there is loads of detail on the pieces, I have gone for heavy drybrusing to bring out the relief - quick and simple!

I did the ruins that came with the Kill Team boxed set and then some pipe work that came in the Sector Mechanicus expansion. The Sixth Legion Huscarl is for scale!

So, a simple entry but it keeps the point tally ticking over towards my 1000 point target and actually I am quite pleased with the look of the terrain. 

5th Painting Challenge Entry Part 2 - Norwegian Leopard and Modern Brits

My second entry was a return to my Conflict in Norway project. I completed a second British Infantry section and a 3-man HQ element.

First Fire Team

Second Fire Team

HQ

Group shot

These are all Liberation Miniatures, from their 1990s British Range. These figures are the BACR figures - SA80, LSW and RTO codes. I will be adding GPMGs, Carl Gustav MAWs and a light mortar, as well as the final section for a platoon of infantry that can also double as Royal Marines.

Next up is a Revell 1/72 Leopard 1A5. At the time I have in mind for Conflict in Norway (late 80s/early 90s), the Norwegians were running the 1A3 version of the Leopard, but this was nearly 50% off in Wonderland models, so 1A5 it is! (EDIT - new info on Cold War Hot Hot Hot now states that the Norwegians actually had their own version of the 1A5, so happy days, this isn't wrong after all!) I see this as a tank from the Norwegian Brigade North, operating in deep snow, so I skipped the use of pigments and just modelled snow on the tracks and around the hull. The angular camo was inspired by these pics:

The camo took a while to do, but I am pleased with how it has come out.

 

As well as finishing off the British platoon, I have another Challenger and Leopard to do, and I want to do a small Norwegian Home Guard unit. Apparently the Norwegians stockpiled huge amounts of older weapons, to be accessed by the Home Guard in the event of war, so this unit is going to be made up of figures from several different Liberation Miniatures ranges and armed with an eclectic mix of weapons. I am looking forward to it!

5th Painting Challenge Entry Part 1 - More Bolsheviks

I manged two entries for the Painting Challenge this week. First up was a second unit of Bolshevik Infantry, this time with a LMG as well.

I also did a command element of Officer, Commissar and Standard Bearer for the unit. I particularly like the Commissar pose; he is obviously ready to fire a few 'encouraging' shots at his charges!

To round off this entry, I also did an Officer and Commissar for the first unit, shown below with the first Standard Bearer I did a couple of weeks ago.

These are all Copplestone Castings and I must say that I am really enjoying painting them. At first sight they might look a little plain, but actually they are full of character.

4th Painting Challenge Entry - Faramir, Captain of Gondor

This was supposed to be my entry for the second Bonus Theme in the Painting Challenge, but unfortunately real life conspired to prevent me completing him by the deadline, so he forms the only figure in my fourth entry for the Challenge.

The plan for the Bonus Themes is for every entry to be from the Lord of the Rings, and to be honest coming up for something to do with Sport was leaving me scratching my head. In the end, inspiration came from this quote from the third book, The Return of the King:

"[Gandalf] fell silent and sighed. 'Well, no need to brood on what tomorrow may bring. For one thing, tomorrow will be certain to bring worse than today, for many days to come. And there is nothing that I can do to help it. The board is set, and the pieces are moving. One piece that I greatly desire to find is Faramir, now the heir of Denethor. I do not think he is in the City; but I have no time to gather news. I must go, Pippin. I must go to this lords' council and learn what I can. But the enemy has the move, and he is about to open his full game. And pawns are likely to see as much of it as any, Peregrin son of Paladin, soldier of Gondor. Sharpen your blade!"

And so here is Faramir, Ranger and Captain of Gondor, and the piece Gandalf desires to find.

Although I am pretty pleased with how he turned out, the silver tree on his chest did my head in, as no matter how many times I tried, I just could not get it done to may satisfaction - the branches are just painted too thickly. I will have to console myself with fact that from 3' on the table it will be fine!

3rd Painting Challenge Entry: Reivers and a Bolshevik Banner

Now that work has resumed after the Christmas holiday, the time I have available for painting reduces quite dramatically. So this was quite a small entry - 5 Games Workshop Primaris Reivers and a Bolshevik banner bearer from Copplestone Castings.

First up are the Reivers. I got these as part of 'The Fangs of Ulfrich' box set for Kill Team, which included some terrain as well as five Reiver Marines. The box art has them done up as Space Wolves. Now, although I am a big fan of the Vlka Fenryka, I am not so keen on the powder blue 40K paint scheme, so I painted them in a sombre grey colour scheme. The armour is Vallejo Deep Sea Grey, washed with GW Nuln Oil. The shoulder pads were done in Vallejo Black Grey and the pouches were done in Vallejo Mahogany Brown, washed with GW Agraax Earthshade. For a bit of contrast, I did the right knee pad in red, the 'I' numeral marking them out as members of First Squad. Finally, the skull on the shoulder pad is inspired by the Punisher patch worn by some modern SOF soldiers, and this gave me the name for the Chapter - the Punishers Chapter.

The squad Sergeant was going to have a pistol, but whilst assembling these I watched Equalizer 2. There is a cool scene where Denzel Washington's character McCall takes out one of the bad guys with two knives and so this pose was born.

Two guys equipped with carbines - I really like the pistol fore-grip, so reminiscent of modern SOF. I also gave these guys reflex sights, suppressors and PEQ laser pointers. All of these were supplied by Anvil Industry and they are really nice, clean resin casts that are a perfect match scale-wise for the weapons.

Here you can see the reflex sight on top of the carbine and the laser pointer on the right side of the weapon.

A shot showing the suppressor

You will notice that this guy isn't wearing a helmet (clearly hard as nails!) and is missing his backpack. This is because he was attacked by the dog and so I had to replace his head - thankfully there are lots of alternative heads in the pack, but only 5 with full helmets. I will probably get a spare Primaris backpack off of Ebay at some point.

I love this pose! Pistol and big knife combo. This guy and the next only have suppressors and laser pointers added.

All of the Marines are based on GW Necromunda bases. I have never used moulded bases before, but I was looking for something that would fit the industrial aesthetic of the Kill Team terrain and boards and I must say that these look really good. They also were easy to paint, with a drybrush really bringing out the detail. 

Finally, we have a Bolshevik banner bearer to go with the Bolshevik infantry I did a couple of weeks ago. Like them, he is a Copplestone Castings figure and was very straightforward to paint. The banner comes from a site I found with flags for both Whites and Reds in the Russian Civil War - unfortunately it seems to have disappeared now. Apparently the text reads 'Freedom from White Oppression'.