Getting Closer to Caen

[bigjackmac]

All,

Yes, I'm still alive.  Real life has been a real bastard, not much time for wargame-related stuff, but I am making progress.  Ever so slowly...   I've been re-doing infantry, arty, ATGs, buying and painting new stuff from Heroics and Ros to get into some brigade-level WWII action around Caen between Brits/Canadians/Poles and Germans.  Here's what things are looking like these days.


Everything I've got so far.  Allied vehicles on the right, Allied infantry on the bottom center, German vehicles on the left, German infantry at top center.  Everything is very simply block painted and given a wash, the infantry are based on pennies and flocked.


Some new additions for the Allies: trucks, Churchills, and Cromwells.


And some new additions for the Germans: Jagdpanthers and King Tigers.  To see a million more pics, please check the blog at:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2019/06/getting-closer-to-caen.html

Anyway, I've still got some unpainted (or primed) lead lying about as I continue to marshal my forces for some massive battles.  Still reading and doing scenario research, but I'm looking to fight from the afternoon of D-Day all the way through Falaise.  No matter how long it takes!

Predictably, I still have too many wargaming ideas kicking around in my pea brain.  In sort of order of precedence:

1.  Finish up my modern tiny aircraft (from Thomaston) so I can keep my Cuba Libre campaign moving along).
2.  Get some new troops to get my Sword of Gideon campaign moving again.
3.  Get back to my WWII tiny dogfighting so I can get my Marines in the Pacific campaign moving again.
4.  I've been reading and it's really given me a jonesing for a bunch of Vietnam: French vs Viet Minh, ARVN throughout the entire war, SOG and Hatchet Force ops into Laos and Cambodia, and Marines in Hue.
5.  I bought "Rebels and Patriots" and I'm really getting bit by American Civil War in particular, but finding myself looking at everything from FIW to AWI to War of 1812 to MAW to ACW...
6.  Oh, and Caen, of course

V/R,
Jack

[paulr]

Good to hear from you again, they're looking pretty good, for block painting 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good to see you back Jack 

[fsn]

Wotcha Jack.

Nice to see a track head back in the fold.

[Techno]

Very impressive, Jack !!

Welcome back !! 

Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

Wow, thanks for the warm reception guys, I truly appreciate it!

I'm happy to be back, hopefully I can stay being back   Got some more work done this weekend, hope to post it tonight.

V/R,
Jack

[Sunray]

Wow !  Neat paint job.  Great promo for H&R in true 1/300 - Andy K owes you a beer . 

[Steve J]

Those look great Jack and good to hear from you again .

[bigjackmac]

Sunray - Thanks, and since I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic to grab a beer, I'll have to ask if he'll pay in more 6mm toys!

Steve - Thanks a bunch, you guys make it feel like homecoming

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

Got some more 6mm WWII work done this weekend.  One of the advantages of leaving your vehicles unbased is that you can use those same vehicles for summer, winter, desert, mountains, urban, etc...  However, the same is not true of infantry (and how I do guns), so I needed some WWII infantry and guns specially done up for wintertime.  I had some GHQ Soviet 57mm ATGs lying around, and I picked up a few packs of GHQ WWII US Marines, and...


Voila!  I now have winter infantry and guns.  I really hope I'm not offending anyone's miniatures sensibilities, but I'm not bothered in the least by using WWII Marines as winter Allies, Soviets, and Germans.  In any case, here's what I've got: each side has six guns and 28 infantry stands, consisting of rifle teams, light MGs, and light mortars.  Technically, I still need some winter HQ elements and winter towed artillery, but I figure, in a pinch, I could use singleton tanks or trucks as HQ elements and only SP arty to play a game.

To see a bunch of closeups of this force, and some pics 6mm troops I finished this weekend for Caen, please check the blog at:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2019/06/6mm-winter-wwii-and-caen-update.html?m=1

So, getting some work done.  I played some skirmish games for Cuba Libre, kinda dinky though, so I'll probably combine them all into one batrep, working on getting it posted.

Oh, and once again I've identified that I have absolutely too much stuff, so I'm about to have a massive sale, lots stuff that's going cheap.  I'll ship anywhere, but that can get quite expensive for outside the Continental US.  I'll be posting here soon.

As always, thanks for looking, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

V/R,
Jack

[Sunray]

Hi Jack

I have opted to have my 10mm tanks and vehicles unbased.  It works at this scale.

In 1/300 it will work for a Churchill, but what about a Bren gun carrier?   

[bigjackmac]

Sunray,

Yeah, I'm with you on 10mm vehicles, but I think it works with 6mm, too.  Here's a pic (from the link) of some Bren carriers:


Not to bad, I think.  At least not yet, I'm only in my mid-40s!

V/R,
Jack

[fsn]

I base all my vehicles now.

Two reasons: Firstly it makes a more heterogeneous view when mixed with infantry, guns etc, and secondly, It protects them somewhat when in storage.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I work both ways - base for BKC or CWC, unbased for other sets.  Basing does prevent the car-park effect though.

IanS

[bigjackmac]

You gentlemen make great points about the benefits of basing vehicles. 

I'm trying to get away from it; previously I'd been using 3mm thick bases for everything as it only made sense to me that if I was going to base stuff I might as well use bases thick enough to pick the stand up by the base, rather than the mini, but in my own games I've become really turned off by the thick bases. 

Leaving vehicles unbased (and now putting infantry and guns on much thinner -.8mm- bases) looks better to me, and I like how my vehicles (at least) can be shared across temperate, desert, and snowy climes, so that all I have to do is supply differentiated infantry/gun bases.

I've never had an issue with storage damage, nor vehicle parking lots on the table (check here, for example: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,12734.0.html).

In any case, cheers, and thanks for the discussion!

V/R,
Jack