Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Ongoing saga

So I have a post on the modeling forum talking about some different ways to get the paras painted.  I am thinking about just substituting the Flat Brown for English Uniform.  This was the base can be the brown, then come over with the Green Ochre and Reflective Green.

I decided to wait on any real painting last night and focused on helmets and berets.  It is out of order, but I don't think it really matters all that much.

But that got me thinking about the math involved.  Even at 45 seconds a helment, I am looking at 1:45 to get all helmets and berets.  I am guessing if each guy took total paint time of 5 minutes, I would need to spend almost 11 hours of actual painting.  This would not include wait time, dry time, setup and cleaning time and I get to repeat for the Airlanding Company.

While I am still a proponent of batches, I think the time crunch will force me to just plow through the company.

I am not even going to start to think about basing!!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Way to go Mike!

Before I get to my painting update, a quick offer of congratulations to Mike Jacobs from our part of the world.  Mike qualified for Nats earlier this year.  He was focused on MW at Adepticon and as an after thought, figured he would head down to Austin for LW.

Good thing he did!

Mike finished with Best General - Germans for the tourney!!  I am sure it was due to all the games that Joe and I did with Mike.  Well, maybe not MY games with Mike.

Way to go!!

I guess it says a lot about the level of play in Madison, WI.  I-95, you got NOTHING on us!  Richmond?!?!  Nahh!!

BTW - That was sarcasm.  I-95 guys are great and the Richmond "network" is pretty good too.  I guess we need a cool name for our group.  Ideas??

Now for the update:

I was able to get some painting done on Sunday evening.  My 17pdr Airlanding Heavy Antitank Platoon is basically completed.  I do still need to base the guys and guns (the guns have been completed for months).  So I got the Denison smock finished, a wash, the details (webbing, guns, boots, etc.).  But I must admit I only painted half of the chin straps.  As I was painting I could not help but think that no one would pull out the microscope and check them out.  So half have straps and half do not.  I will seal tonight and move on to the next batch.  I will bring them to Wednesday night gaming and get some feedback from the experts, but I think they are pretty good.

I am preparing my Plan-B for the October tourney.  Plan-A is Brit Paras.  Plan-B is US Armor, but with Stewies.  I will need to get a few Stewies painted up, but that will not be a problem at all.  I will also throw in one platoon of Shermans to address the bigger tanks I might face.

I am a big fan of the Stewies.  For Americans, I really can't think of a better unit to address the Soviet Horde.  5 MG dice per tank against Conscripts Trained.  Yes, I need 10 hits to pin, but rolling 25 dice per platoon certainly helps address those odds.

I will test both lists fo rthe next few weeks.  I am not that well versed in playing infantry - especially paras.  But I want to expand my skills and try a different play style.  We will see!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Progress!

Nice progress tonight. My paras got faces, finished helmets,hands, webbing, highlights and another wash. Next step will be the camo on the Denison smock. I also made progress on the American crew for the Priests.

I am hoping to get them finished tomorrow night. I will not be able to work on them over the weekend, so the pressure is on.

Now the depressing part - if I finish 20 a week, it will take me about 8 weeks to get my company painted. Then I need to base! October 8th is the tourney, which is shorter than 8 weeks. This could get tricky. So I will have to increase the batch sizes to 40. Wow.

I will probably have to reduce the steps a bit too. I am thinking right now that one less wash is the way to go.

I choose to go with armor, I am not worried because I can churn out good looking tanks very quickly. So my list may be more about the stuff I can put on the table than about what would make a good list.

Oh $%#@!

Ok.  So Joe (Keamma) is going to be putting on a tourney at our FLGS.  I believe the date is in early October (October 8th).  Midwar - 1,500 points.  But being the great guy that he is, he is limiting it to the current books covering Midwar.  And, of course, I only own the old Afrika book.  Ooops.  So I have to grab a used copy of North Africa.  Fine.  Got it yesterday.  Wow.  Great book.

But that is not the reason for the post.

We just finished up a Latewar "fest" to help Mike get ready for Nats in Texas.  I am tired of LW.  Perfect - we can now focus on MW to get ready for October.

So I am looking through the book and loving the units.  I have fielded a MW US Armor Company twice in a tourney and was even able to eeke out a 3rd place in one.  So I am thinking I will just do the same thing again.

And then I went and looked at Brits.  Sidebar - seriously, the Brits are like HALF THE BOOK!!  Really?!?!  Anyway, I am looking at the Honey Stuarts.  I can use the models that I will be getting for EW in MW.  Sounds good.

And then I saw paras.  Fell in love right away.  I was up 'till midnight looking this over.  I am not saying I will go this route, but it does look really good.  Just like the Ferrari in Ferris Beuller.

Which means I have a $%#@ load of paras to get painted by October 8th!!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Confession

Ok.  I am using the blog as motivation to get my butt in gear.

When I decided to go into EW "whole hog", I realized I had to get moving on the painting front.  So if I update the blog with each incremental improvement on the painting front, I am tricking myself into feeling peer pressure to get it done.  So there will be "micro blog postings" that basically detail what was done.

I did make some progress last night.  I am really trying to keep the painting to about 60 minutes or less an evening.  The 19 paras is an almost perfect number to be able to make steady progress towards completion.  The problem last night was that I needed to apply a wash.  2 minutes later I was done.  I have to let the wash dry out, so no more painting.  But I did get about 8 or 9 helmets painted with their base coat.

But then I remembered I had 6 American crew for my last two Priests.  They had already been primed grey, so I got the pants and tunics painted with a base coat.  I actually did these before the helmets on the paras.

Total paint time: 19 minutes.

Had to stop to go pick up my son from a movie.  He turns 16 in December.  Bad news - insurance.  Good news - he can drive himself.

Nothing will be done tonight as it is our regular Wedensday game at The Last Square!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Brit Paras

While I wait for my large EW order, I thought I would get going on some Brit paras that I picked up in Arnhem.  You see, I was thinking about how long ago it was that I was in the Netherlands and I nearly fell out of my chair.  Over 4 months have passed.  I should have been DONE with these things by now and they are basically base coated.  Geesh!

So I pulled the guys that came with the 17pdr air landing pack and started on those.  Due to the FSSF list I did in the winter, I realized it is easier to do full batches of 20 guys than paint 155 pants, then 155 tunics, etc.  So the 19 men are my first batch.

I also decided to deviate from the "official" guides and go off one I found on the forum.  It basically has you paint the denison smock green as a base.  Then you add on the light and dark brown color swatches.  We will see how this works out.  Right now, I have primed and base coated the guys with Brit Uniform.  I also painted the Reflective Green on the denison smock.  Up next is a wash, then more on the denison smock.  I am hoping to get the 19 guys done by this weekend.  If they look good, then I will start with the full company.  And when the company is done, I get the reward of having to do another one (Arnhem is one, Pegasus Bridge is the other).

Oh, plus a zillion EW Brit Armor models.  Wohoo!!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

I'm in!!

Well, I did it.  Placed the order with my FLGS (The Last Square) for a bunch of stuff:

15 Mk VI B Light Tanks
16 A10 Tanks
13 Honey Stuarts
2 US LW Stuart Platoon Boxes (10 tanks)
1 Cromwell Platoon Box (5 tanks)
2 8th Army Rifle Platoons

And now I need to learn how to paint the Caunter Camo scheme.  If anyone has a tutorial, pass it along.  I am planning on airbrusing the colors (light to dark) and also applying panel shading at each step (light blue, then lighter blue panel shading; repeat for darker tones).  I just need to get the shading similar across the different colors where the panels share two colors.  I saw a great tutorial on how to do it with a 2 color scheme camo pattern, so hopefully it will work here too.  But I won't get the order until next week and life is in the way right now of getting quality painting done.

Such is life.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Here we go!

It is time to make the official plunge into EW.  And the result will be to totally change my painting table order of business.  So I will either get a ton of stuff painted or I will become another one of "those guys" with a ton of unpainted lead.  I am not giving odds.

I am about to place an order for a bunch of EW British armor.  Can't help it.  But for some strange reason, I just can't make myself by the BAR box for Blitzkrieg.  It makes me feel a little "dirty" to even consider it.  For those of you who do not know, go check out the forum at FoW on anything related to BAR.

But I picked up Hellfire and Back yesterday and I am getting hooked.

So this is what I am thinking:

1) Field the BAR from HaB.  It is a little different, but the cool color scheme for the EW Brit Desert is very neat.  Not sure I can get it painted, but what the heck.

2) Field the Honey Stuart list.  Ok, I am a Stewie fan.  I mean how can you not be when they name a tank after the cartoon character!!  ;-)

3) Finish my LW Cromwell list.  I am liking the PDF of the 11th Armor from Market Garden.  In a pinch, I can just run the Croms from Hell's Highway.

4) Field the LW American Light Tank Company.  Stewies again!!

That will still leave me with needing to finish 2 full Brit Para / Airlanding companies, para arty, para recon jeeps, para AT guns, US ARP #2, 15 half tracks, urban bases (King & Kerr as well as BF plastic bases), Arnhem Bridge, Arnhem Brit HQ, 3 other buildings, dust clouds (HaB) plus one more Croc, 2 more Shermans, 2 more Stewies (in addition to the ones above), 2 more Croms and 3 Dingos.

Are you $%#@ me!!!!

I have decided that the quality of my paras and infantry will suffer, but the armor will still get the same treatment.  I just cannot get this list of stuff painted any time soon unless I come up with another way.  And I am not sending it out to do.  In reality, I do like painting.  So the infantry and guns will suffer a bit.

Wish me luck!!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Long overdue!

Almost a full month since my last post?!?!?!  WHHOOOAAATT???

So the weather has been warm, work needs to be done, kids need to be fed, dog needs some attention, blah, blah, blah.

I forget that painting is seriously curtailed in the summer.

What I have also been doing is dealing with this discussion called "the BAR."  Like many of you, I have grown to get a headache on the topic.  I believe there is something seriously wrong with the list.  And I am not about to get into an argument about the list.  As I have said on the forums, my belief does not require you to believe.

So, Joe and I have played several EW games.  I like the period, but winning 6-1 gets old - especially winning with the BAR.

I have gotten in a number of games, all with a wide range of results.  Last night was fun, in a "what are the odds" kind of way.  I played off the brand new official pdf listing for British 11th armor.  I brought Croms and Challengers.  Joe brought FT Fallschirmjager.  I didn't deploy as best as I could have and in the end it cost me.  But I was tactically sound (I think).  Anyway, let's just say the dice were not in my favor.  How so you ask?  Example 1: Range in (smoke) on concealed, trained infantry, with a re-roll of the first range in attempt.  4 dice total.  Just one needs to be above 4.  The odds of success are 94%.  No fours show up, target is not smoked (Pak40 guns) and the results were ugly.  Three turns later, same roll, and yes, same result.  Odds of both results happening?  0.39%  Yes, four times in a thousand.  And it really didn't stop there.  I just seemed to roll a lot of 1,2 and 3s.  12 dice at a 4 to hit?  1 hit.  That happened too.

Moral of the story?  I think the Battlefront dice are possessed.  Man, I need to get back to painting!!