633 - Drax's Painting Charts - Now Available in Print!

Hullo All,

Great news! I've had an article published in the latest edition of 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy' magazine! 

WSS 95 - I'm there, baby!

Long-term readers will be aware of the way in which I track the progress of my modelling and painting: the fabled Draxian Paint Chart [there's usually a link on the right sidebar], which uses simple colour-coding on a basic Excel spreadsheet.

It's a self-explanatory system, but rather pleasingly I've been able to share it with the wider wargaming world through my article - here's a link to the entirely excellent magazine [link here] ...and here are the rest of my painting charts, as they stand in March 2018:

My Main Guys!

Their Late-War Foes (and the key again)

The Early-War Germans (late-1940/Sealion theme)

My Rock Apes, for Italy/NW Europe

And of course, my (recently expanded) Desert Rats

...and in 15mm, the discovery of Battlegroup has led me to revisit and start to slightly expand my old Flames of War models - also 4KSLI:

It should be noted that I do also have a small15mm Bolt Action reinforced platoon, with the troops on separate (fivepence) bases, but they've not got their own chart yet.

Until next time, then...

- Chris

616 - Bolt Action 15mm Epic Tank War!

Hullo All,

I'll keep this one super-brief: a new club(!) and a fun tank-wars in 15mm scale with Germans squaring off against Russians and allied Brits - about 5500 points. Ish. 

We blagged rules adjustments for activating the tanks in squadrons which _mostly_ worked and just got stuck in for a bit of fun, changing all movement and weapon ranges from inches to centimetres*.

The 8'x6' table pre-deployment. Brits in foreground
with Russians to the left; Germans across the way.

The Germans form a gunline whilst the Allies (somehow
lacking both superior numbers and their traditional
arty bombardment) surge forward. And get slaughtered.
On the right flank, the Sherman/Firefly squadrons edge
around and through the wooded stream.

The Sherman Squadrons continue to edge forward, and
also help to support the T34s.

On the left flank, my Firefly edges up and starts to snipe
at the Puma Zug...

...and draws first blood!

Next, our flanking units arrive on the left...worryingly
followed by a Panther Zug. 

Things are getting very sticky for the Russians on the
right, but the Shermans are solid. Well, the Fireflies
at least!

A surprise victory on the right: the veteran Panthers are
absolutely useless. but the recce vehicles who snuck on
behind them somehow manage to grind them down with
pins and hits from three HMGs and a light AT gun!

And on the right, the Russians continue to get taken apart
whilst the Germans panic themselves about the two
Fireflies! One of them rolls only 1s; the other destroys the
last Hetzer and a bloomin' terrifying Ferdinand!

In the end, it was a draw on order dice killed, but the umpire awarded the [moral] victory to the Allies, mostly because they bravely took the fight to the baddies! The Germans were indecisive and (with their Panthers at least) unlucky, and it cost them dearly in this engagement.

We'd played something like seven turns, and at the end the Allies absolutely owned the left flank, but would have serious trouble shifting the StuGs and PzIVs on their right. Pretty much all of the Allies' work had been done by the three stalwart Fireflies and the surprisingly lucky outflanking light recce unit, but a shout-out ought also to go to the last German Puma, who fought very well indeed.

A very friendly club to have been invited to, and a thoroughly enjoyable game. It was silly at times, fast-paced eventually, and a joy to look upon. Hooray!

Merry Christmas,

- Chris.

*My maths isn't great, but as a proportionate scaling option, inches-cm didn't quite seem to work. There are 2.54cm in an inch, making it significantly less than half, whereas 15mm (1:100) is over half of 28mm (1:56). To this end, maybe it'd be better just to halve distances when playing in the smaller scale in future...Either way, it doesn't really matter too much!

412 "Achtung - Jabo!" - Hawker Typhoon for Flames of War

Hooray!
 
In an unprecedented two (that's right - just two!) painting sessions I'm delighted to note that I've finished up my (1:144 Revell) Hawker Typhoon for my 11AD Flames of War force! And I love Hawker aircraft...
 
Pics first, then bumf:

The Revell kit cost only £1.99 from my lovely local toyshop and was evidently designed for either very young children or people without thumbs. Or children without thumbs. Or maybe it was designed for goldfish. I don't really know, but what I DO know is that my low expectations for the low-budget price tag were decidedly met. To avoid my usual longwindedness, here's the breakdown:
 
Good points:

• Dirt cheap. In fact, I'm thinking of buying a Spitfire kit just for the decals...
• It has the right armament;
• It does at least look like a Tiffie;
• The decals are actually quite high quality, and
• I've recycled them now, but I seem to recall the instructions were passable.

Bad points:

• Rather thin plastic with loads of flash in that actually-quite-awkward-to-get-rid-of-very-well kind of a way: the prop blades in particular were terrible;
• The clear plastic (canopy and base) is quite cheaply engineered;
• It came with NO OPTION FOR A RAISED UNDERCARRIAGE, and the wheel covers were modelled in such a way that you couldn't even re-jig them. I ended up scrapping the undercarriage entirely and using Plasticine (I couldn't find my ancient green-stuff) to fill and re-sculpt the wheels as raised. A pity this, and rather an odd choice when you consider (a) the flight stand, (b) the simplicity of the build and the finished product otherwise and (c) the fact that invasion stripes are hard enough to paint without trying to make a thumb-less goldfish paint them separately onto the lowered wheel covers;
• Lots of the bits are pretty misaligned - even the wingtips are problematic;
• The moving prop was very poorly engineered, and
• The underslung RP racks were very fiddly.

Luckily, I'm not an inexperienced modeller, so I managed to bodge it together in the end. I'm pretty proud of the invasion stripes, to be honest, as well as the alacrity with which I finished it. I sat down last night to base-coat some of Zzzzzz's models (the gun and the centaur - more of which soon-ish) and just thought, 'actually, I feel like painting something fiddly but achievable tonight.' So I did.

Paints are all Citadel (although I base-coated the green camo (as seen in Post 411) with Vallejo Russian Uniform): Astronomican Grey for the canopy and belly, and the camouflage is Catachan Green with Codex Grey. For the first time in a loooooong time I even experimented with watering down my paints to help me paint the straight lines of the invasion stipes!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I ought to point out that I was one of those who built scores of WWII planes through my childhood (all 1:72; mostly Airfix) so it did bring back a wave of pleasant nostalgia, but I only ever painted one. Ever. Out of almost a hundred planes that I had painstakingly built, I only ever painted the Dambusters(Gibson's) Lancaster. This was mostly because I hated painting, but also because I hated Humbrol emulsion paints. Yuck. By the time I built that Lanc I had enough Citadel paints knocking around to make a go of it.

So there we go. Happy Drax!

See you soon,

- D.

408 - 15mm Bolt Action British 'Reinforced Platoon' Finished and Based

Well now.

A break in the weather meant I could varnish, which officially makes my 15mm British (early war) core platoon the fastest I've ever completed a project. Less than a month, start to finish!

Whew!
Back to 40k next, but just in case the Wonderful Dai is still wondering, yes - I have made some progress on my Matilda (bottom left):

It's further down the painting queue now though...

- Drax.

404 - Day 14/14 - Finished! ...But Why Do I Never Learn?

I made it!

Fourteen consecutive days of actively pursuing my hobbies (all three systems, as it happens!) and posting daily about them...despite lightning strikes, travel, babysitting duties and fear of discovery...thanks for following along with me.

As you've possibly already seen from the photos, tonight finds me - once again, sitting on the landing to get some hobbying done - in this case, getting some filler onto my (now full-strength, thanks to another ten penceworth of change) BEF platoon's bases.

Only this time it's my own landing.

My own sodding landing.

Which is tiny: about 2'x4'6''.

"Why?" you may well wonder.

The reasons are many and varied but essentially involve me looking after the baby again but the baby monitor doesn't work and she needs darkness to sleep. Our cottage is pretty damned small (especially for my poor American wife whose Mid-West friends all have veritable palaces by comparison), and the 1840s stone construction renders it pretty damned soundproof vertically. I have to be within earshot of the baby (who's in our room) but the only other room on this floor is the small, damp, cold bathroom, which is a no-go for hobby, despite having the best lighting in the house.

So it's the landing again...

   
...What a predictably ignominious end!

Still, I've REALLY enjoyed the challenge as well as your comments and support and it's quite evidently been the most fecund period for my hobbying in a long, long time.

THANK YOU, EVERYONE!

There'll be a short hiatus now whilst I actually get some work done for a few days, but I'm hoping to think of some inventive way to celebrate my 400th post properly.

Stay tuned, and thanks again,

- Admiral Drax.

403 - Day 13/14 - Behold! The Makings of a BEF Rifle Platoon (Bolt Action)

Hullo, all.

The village shop was open again today, and although they didn't have any milk, they did at least manage to find me a quid's worth of shiny five pence pieces...so I've been able to base (almost all of) my BEF platoon! Yay! My ongoing thanks to The Inner Geek, by the way, for donating the minis...

At the moment I could use a couple more coins to give my Lieutenant his HQ section (never forgetting, of course, his batman!) but otherwise that's my platoon, ready for some new filler around the bases and then a lick of paint! Here they be:

I'm grateful for the very helpful notes here and here, and I've no doubt that this FoW diagram will soon come in useful too:

Today's modelling, by the way, is a prime example of what I was discussing yesterday: I knew I had a pocketful of coins and only 25 minutes of hobby time before our friend came round to watch 'Sherlock' on the iplayer, so this was the ideal task to set to. Now I'm typing this in the dark on babysitting duties, whilst we're finally trying to get No 2 Daughter to sleep through the night. Tonight Mrs. Drax gets a break.

One day more. Then I'll really need to get some work done!

Thanks for swinging by,

- D.

402 - Day 12/14 - More Progress Progresses

Hullo All, and Happy New Year (and yes, I appreciate it is in fact 2014 now: thanks for the pointers!)

I was a big brave boy yesterday. I was sorely tempted to do an extra post just to tip the balance to 56 posts in 2013 - one up on 2012 - but I didn't. I guess I quite liked the parity.

Today I decided to work on my Flames of War 11AD Rifle Company's 3rd Platoon - just two phases of production-line painting which really went uncharacteristically swiftly for me:

If you're wondering why I have so many things up in the air at the moment, it's mostly due to the fragmentary and ephemeral nature of my whole hobby experience: because I don't have anything permanently set up it's tricky for me to stick with something.

I also have a low engagement threshold when it comes to painting. If these things were left set out on my untouchable hobby desk from one day to the next it'd be different, but when I'm snatching 45 minutes here-and-there it really does need to grab my interest. Naturally these snatches of hobby time also preclude getting into anything which will take longer, like the painting of vehicles, which is why (despite being a tread-head at heart) I often leave vehicles ignored for months on end.

Luckily, I know that many of my faithful readers suffer similarly, so you know whereof I speak.

Being weak-willed, I'm not one for resolutions, and as for an end-of-year-wrap-up-cum-look-forward post, well, I kind of did that here (for 40K) and here (for FoW)...and the only change since is that I'm now dipping a toe into Bolt Action.

Hmmm...I may or may not have purchased the Bolt Action rulebook today on ebay. Likewise I may or may not have deliberately opted for the slower postage in the vain hope that it'll arrive AFTER I'm back at school, thereby leaving me free beforehand to work through the massive bloody stack of marking I have.

Because that's going to hppen, right?

Take care, All,

- Drax.

401 - Day 11/14 - A Double Session and Goodbye to 2012

>>>EDIT: I HAVE NOW BEEN INFORMED THAT I'M A YEAR OUT IN THIS POST. THANKS!<<<

Hullo All,

Time to say 'Cheerio' to 2012. Ho-hum. My 'New Years' are in September anyway...

On the plus side, I got in a double session today: including a mammoth two hours earlier on. This morning I was able to finish off building my Matilda, and this evening I not only finished off (less the basing - TBC) my first ten of Zzzzzz's minions (hooray! - by the way, Zzzzzz: d'you have those decals perchance?) but I also started re-basing my FoW minis for 15mm Bolt Action...

...you can see the Mitilda II bottom right and the first of the infantry are with her. Closest, as it happens, is the Boys Anti-Tank peashooter:

And a close-up of the Matilda:

Happy New Year, everyone - here's to a great 2013 in life, in family, in work and in hobby!

- Drax.

400 - Day 10/14 - FOUR-HUNDREDTH POST!

Wow  - 400 posts eh?!

And yet, I suspect it'll pass without much celebration because:

1. I'm in the middle of an ill-advised 14-post run;
2. I've been travelling all evening and only got home an hour ago - I therefore now have fewer than seven minutes to get my daily post in;
3. The content of today's post is really mundane;
4. The picture won't even have grabbed anyone's attention, and
5. It's New Year's Eve tomorrow: who's sitting at home reading blogs?!

Still, it feels kinds good. I'll celebrate properly when this forced fortnight is over.

Today's hobby time: assembling my Matilda!

Mrs. Drax stepped on it as she came in (I love that after 4 days away the accumulated parcels on our doorstep were utterly unstolen!) but the Matilda is fine and already being assembled: it's dry assembly too - no glue required! Go figure.

More pics tomorrow, as it was quite an effort to I had to fish the camera out of the car for this one I took 15 minutes ago...

Ta-ta for now,

- D.

395 - Day 5/14 - New Directions (for better or worse)

Merry Christmas!

Today's been somewhat disrupted. Wonderful yes, but disrupted.

At around midday a sudden lightning strike hit (we're talking simultaneous donner und blitzen here) and blew the village's power supply. The electricity was down only for about half a minute but the phone's been down since, and the internet (the rural, not-technically-broadband version of broadband) hs been ropey ever since.

This combined with insanely variable weather today (our 'White Christmas' was a half-inch layer of hail which lasted hours) to dissuade us from our traditional afternoon walk, and all our timings went for a Burton as a result. The long and the short of it is that I realised quite early that I'd struggle to get meaningful hobby time in today, so I made another Executive Decision:

I've bought myself a 1/100 Zvezda Matilda II.

Just one. This is the box art:

It cost me about three-and-a-half quid including P&P, and it's the first model I've bought in ages.

But it's not for Flames of War.

Oh no - I couldn't do much with a single tank after all (and the 8th Army are on hold until I've earned them with glacial commission work)...this is for a potential (and SMALL) Bolt Action force.

I can't help it. Ages ago, Brian over at the Inner Geek very kindly donated to me a small Early War FoW British boxed set and I've been wondering how best to use it: Bolt Action in 15mm (popular locally) is absolutely perfect!

I've been rather smitten by the BA rules, you see. I know they're flawed and a bit silly in places, but I just love the refreshing structure of it. 28mm scares me though. Not just painting the models but the scenery required too - and it's an expense I simply cannot meet. Whereas with the cheap addition of a Matilda II and Brian's infantry I've got the beginnings of a rather useful little BEF in France 1940 force.

Doomed to valiant filure just how I like it.

Plus I love the look of the Matilda II and it's so rare that I allow myself to treat me to nice things...

So there.

Hobby work done today - even if it's simply by virtue of purchasing a new toy and starting yet another frivolous new idea.

Enjoy the rest of the day,

- Drax.