tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8431439349842949372024-02-20T14:01:50.496-08:00 My Imagination is in Ruins
Dedicated to 28mm Gaming, Buildings and Terrain.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-92166201672527057522014-07-22T11:25:00.000-07:002014-07-22T11:25:16.722-07:00In the Shadow of Shadow Mountain (A Glenpool Strike AAR)My son spent over two weeks in the hospital recently and missed quite a few good summer days. So take make up for it I let pick two things that he really wanted to do. The first thing he picked was an "army guy battle" at the "gamer' and so off we went. We played our usual campaign, and as usual he pummeled my forces. For this game I had actually managed to get enough forces painted (except for some bases) to play a game of Bolt Action.<br />
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The second thing he wanted to do was go see a submarine so we took a little road trip and did that the next day. Lots of good fun.<br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another skirmish in the Glenpool Strike campaign. This one pits the communists (Cherry Street Irregulars) and socialist Green Corn rebels against the Boston Avenue Believers, a few local police, National Guardsmen and MAC militia. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After recent skirmishes and communist victories around the Tulsa area Rev. A. Roberts decided to take matters into his own, and God's hands. He has co-opted several squads of the MAC (MacArthur Anti-Communist) militia, who are also parishioners of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. Convincing them that they need to do the will of a higher authority. He has conveniently inserted himself as their new leader and then added to their ranks more parishioners eager to do God's and his work.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not alone in his outrage over the continuing communist victories other churches on Boston Avenue organized armed squads intent on doing the same. Seeing that they were all in it for a common cause, all of the churches decided to join their forces together as a single organization, while maintaining their religious affiliations at the squad level. Each squad choose it's own leader then those squad leaders chose the overall commander. Given the size of Rev. Roberts flock he was easily elected commander. So came into being the Boston Avenue Believers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After acquiring what weapons they could, some rudimentary training, a Sunday picnic and a sermon, the Reverend considered his forces ready. After all with the Lord on their side, training was really quite irrelevant.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At the aforementioned Sunday picnic the Rev. learned that the MAC militias had received a tip about a possible communist base of operations. This suspected base was the Hooverville located at the base of Shadow Mountain south of Tulsa along the Arkansas river. Incensed at learning the local MAC commander had no intention of acting on this information he formed up his followers, gave his best fire and brimstone sermon, and then led a procession of riled up parishioners to Shadow Mountain. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Several parishioners belonging to the MAC militias slipped away and to warn Chief Gunderson of what was going down. The Chief sent two officers and two members of the local National Guard to diffuse the situation and turn back the marchers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the communist side, they too were tipped off about the march to the Shadow Mountain. They quickly evacuated as many people and supplies that they could. Their new brothers in arms, the Green Corn rebels* who had just arrived from farms in southern Oklahoma were spoiling for a fight and refused to leave. So comrade Little deployed his forces in support but kept several vehicles nearby to make a quick get away should things go south. In addition, he had another surprise up his sleeve.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The commander of the Communist forces setting up his troops. He also insisted on setting up quite a number of barrels as well.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The communists wait for the arrival on the Boston Avenue mob. On the left side of the board a sniper team has set up in the woods and are waiting the arrival of the rest of the parishioners to arrive. They didn't have to wait long as we can see the Boston Avenue women's Bible study group led by Brother Frank Stein marching straight up the road. Meanwhile the rest of the BAB squads have decided to attempt a somewhat less direct approach to the Hooverville. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Rev. Roberts climbs the fence and leads his flock into the den of the heathen forces. The attempt at stealth was for naught as the communists were laying in wait. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The first shot rings out and the Rev. Roberts is hit by a snipers bullet. Then the Green Corn rebels move up and start taking pot shots at the Methodist women's bible study group and they decide to take cover behind a shack, just in case. On the far right of the BAB line a squad tries to quickly maneuver around the communists and come at them from their flank.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The bible study group quickly runs into trouble as they are assaulted by a communist squad led by a battle-hardened feminist wielding a Thompson SMG. Thompson's blaze away on both sides, the communists sustain a few loses. But alas the entire BAB squad is now in the arms of the Lord, as are most of the Method church's favorite pot luck dinner recipes. A very sad day indeed for the Methodists. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Things do not go quite as planned on the other half of the battlefield as another BAB squad is killed in vicious hand to hand combat. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the left flank the police, two National Guardsmen supported by two MAC Lewis guns arrive by car and find they are to late to prevent armed conflict. They immediately come under fire from the Green Corn squad. They return fire with both Lewis guns and a BAR, sending the rebels scurrying for better cover. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The enemy commander surveys the battlefield planning his next move after the surprise arrival of law enforcement officials and military personnel. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not wishing to be captured by the law again comrade Little uses the ace up his sleeve. The P6E Hawk captured earlier in the week swoops out of the sky, machineguns blazing and takes out a MAC LMG team. Then drops a bomb on the police and soldiers killing three. Only Sgt. Hamburg survives through sheer luck. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pushing the attack commander Little orders the truck he is in forward and tries to provide supporting fire for the pinned down Green Corn squad and to get them back into the fight before they all flee for the hills. Unfortunately the plan doesn't work, he and his wife get a few bullet wounds for their troubles. The wheelman of the truck gets them out of harms way and back to safety. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The battle rages on with squads taking shots at one another but by this point most of them have hunkered down behind something to avoid getting shot. Unfortunately for the the BAB squads the P6E returns to break up the brief stalemate. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Comrade Little gives me an animated demonstration of just how his airplanes machinguns work as they chew up another of my squads. The machinegun sounds were a bit gratuitous, as there is no way that plane could have fired on the target that long. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Col.(retired) having lost the rest of squad, soldiers on alone. That is until he is spotted by a communist Lewis gun team. </span><br />
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps27ad17d7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps27ad17d7.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The communists route the last BAB squad from the battle. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Capt. Hamburg is abandoned by the drivers who brought him and his now deceased pals. With no options left he decides to go after the Green Corn squad. His desperate assault pays off and he sends the last of those hillbillies packing. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He then turns his attention to the Lewis gun team that just mowed down the good Col. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse292cae7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse292cae7.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just then the communist air support comes over the top of shack and into sight, it's guns trained on him. Sgt. Hamburg(er) meets his fate BAR blazing. Seven shots out of eight hit our poor would be hero. Who can win against dice rolling like that.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*The Green Corn Rebellion took place during WW1. It started as a protest against the draft by rural Oklahoma farmers who felt that they would have to serve in a war that they had no interest, or business fighting. So to avoid fighting in France they took up arms against their own government. Why travel all the way to France to fight when you can do it right here. Makes perfect sense to me. The plan was to march to Washington D.C. surviving on BBQ beef and Green Corn procured on the way. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reality didn't live up to the envisaged plan. A few miles into the march they were intercepted by a group of local townspeople and after a few shots the rebellion was broken up and it's members fled. Several hundred people were later rounded up and sent to prison for their participation in the march.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Corn_Rebellion]Green Corn Rebellion[/url]</span>Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-30865835718998852372014-04-17T18:20:00.000-07:002014-04-17T18:42:46.962-07:00Bolt Action: Squad Level Combat<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I like Bolt Action but I don't always want to play a big skirmish game. Sometimes I would rather play something smaller but just reducing the points in BA doesn't really work for me either. I got into WW2 skirmish gaming before I started playing BA. I was really interested in playing two different games in particular. The first game was Disposable Heroes and the second was Operation Squad. I have difficulty ordering things from online vendors, and so prefer to go through a local game store. So this is how I ended up with Bolt Action. That plus I went to the BA Game Day and had a great time and played an excellent 6000 point game. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">However, I tend to like games where each model is its own unit, squad level combat. So I have recently been throwing around some ideas of how to alter the rules to work at this smaller skirmish scale. I think I have made a few minor modifications that will make it work i hope. Of course there are probably things I have overlooked so if there is anything you see let me know. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I hope to be able to try them out this weekend and see how it goes. If I can get my SD card reader to work again I will do a quick AAR and post my thoughts on how it works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So after I wrote this I decided I wasn't really liking the single d6 roll for shooting, so I changed those too. I haven't included them here as I have tried to make this as close to the original BA rules as possible. Sometime in the next month or so I post up my own set of rules separately. Currently they are still a work in progress and I have been staring at way to many statistics on probabilities trying to make it work the way want. As a result I remember why I took symbolic logic as an advanced math course in college. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bolt Action: Squad Level Combat</span></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">These rules follow the standard Bolt Action rules except those below.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Each model is considered to be its own unit, except for <i>team weapons </i>or <i>squad</i><i> integral</i> weapons which always activate on the same order die.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Small Units</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since all models are treated as individual units, with the above exceptions. All units all infantry and infantry support units are treated as small units. When a team weapon is hit by <i>exceptional damage, </i>even if caused by sniper fire, only a single model is removed and the weapon can be re-crewed if a morale check is passed first. Optionally, these additional men may abandon the weapon (temporarily or permanently) in which case they are then treated as individual infantry men.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Squad Cohesion</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Normally squads are forced to maintain cohesion for ease of play and to keep a squad together. Under these rules a squad is in cohesion if a model is in within 6” of another model and it is in cohesion with (through other models) to the squads NCO. A model that has lost cohesion with the rest of the squad has a -1 morale penalty.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NCO’s</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">These men are the core of your squad, the driving force that gets things done. With them your squad maintains cohesion and discipline. Though, this may not always be the case, Sarge may send a few guys around the flank of the enemy or have them hang back to provide covering fire. While alive, the NCO provides a +1 moral bonus to all models that maintain cohesion with him and the rest of the squad. When an NCO dies all models in the squad lose a point of morale. Models already out of cohesion do not suffer an additional penalty. Regardless of whether the NCO is an inexperienced, with no combat experience or a grizzled veteran, the morale bonus they give to other troops is the same. The more experienced they become the harder they are to kill.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mixed Experience</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bolt Action doesn’t allow for members of the same squad to vary in level of experience, but at this level it is okay as each member of the squad is considered its own unit. I would even encourage it. Imagine any war movie you have seen, the grizzled NCO, a couple of regular guys who have been around a while, and then the new guys. Of course, it’s your squad so build it to suit your tastes.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Building a Squad</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since this game is on a smaller scale, force selection is slightly different than normal. First, you need to decide what type of squad you are going to run; US Rangers, Volksgrenadiers, SAS, Paratroopers, Pioneers etc. Your squad then follows the basic set up for that type of squad. Your core force is as usual, an NCO + four men. These men are Inexperienced, Regulars, or Veterans as usual. Any additional men can be added to the squad and they may be chosen at any experience level. Though in order to maintain your squads stated level, there must always at least one more man at the regular experience level for that squad, than the rest of the squad who are not at that experience level.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Force Selection</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For a typical squad on squad game the number of points is 100. For a game with a reinforced squad the point total should include another 70 points that go toward buying <i>only </i>support units, additional squad members or squad upgrades. The original 100 points should be allocated first before purchasing support units, and if not used for that purpose may not be spent on support options. Support options can include any type of infantry support, light artillery, or transports. With only 70 points your options are limited somewhat, and hopefully not overpowering in anyway.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Special Rules</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Normally purchasing a special rule is an option applied to all members of the squad. Using these rules, it is again, on a per model basis. So every member of the unit may have that special rule, none, or any number between.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To add a bit of fun and variety the following additional rules may be purchased or deducted from the squads point cost, but at double the normal rate if the squad would not normally be allowed this special rule.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Tough Fighter:</b> +4 points per man</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Fanatics:</b> +4 points per man</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Green:</b> +1 points (Inexperienced only)</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Shirker: -</b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">4</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> points per man</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>AT Tank Grenades:</b> +2 points per man</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Weapons Ranges</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All weapons ranges are doubled, but anything beyond the normal range incurs an additional -1 penalty to hit. Ideally terrain should limit ranges more than anything else.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">HE Damage</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">HE shells explode in a radius equal to their HE rating. So a HE d2 gets a chance to hit everything within a 2” radius around the point of impact. A d3, a 3” radius and a d6 will have a 6” radius. Anything larger than this is unlikely to ever see play but would be 12” (2d6) and 18” (3d6) respectively.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Indirect Fire Deviation</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Because it might matter, a miss with indirect fire will deviate in a random direction (roll your order dice and move target in the up direction of the showing order die, or however you like). The distance of deviation is based on the minimum range for indirect fire. 12” = d6”, 18” = d6+3”, 24” = d6+6” (though ranges are double for this as well). The greater the range the greater the chance of deviation, at least that’s the working assumption.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Vehicles Damage</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Normally vehicles hit by small arms fire are destroyed. When playing at this level, larger vehicles will be rare if not totally non-existent. So in order to add a little detail use the Damage Results for Armored Targets table and apply them to the soft skinned vehicles.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Units Aboard Transports</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Models on a transport that is destroyed receive the usual d6 hits per squad, but these hits are distributed between the available models starting with 1 hit per model, then starting over if necessary.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">National Rules</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The American lose their free Air Strike.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The British lose their free Artillery Observer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Soviets do not get a free squad.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Germans lose nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All other national rules remain in effect as normal.</span></div>
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Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-81239603195780496012014-04-02T19:55:00.001-07:002014-04-02T19:55:44.200-07:00Rock Outcroppings <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I decided that if I am going to play a Greek Andartes army then I could probably use some rocky terrain. I haven't made any rocky terrain in a good number of years and thought I would give it a try again using rigid foam insulation. I know a lot of people use tree bark to make rocks, but I don't like the look of it all that much. Thus the reason I tried the foam insulation. I don't think it turned out to bad. I tried to vary the size quite a bit and so the outcroppings vary in size from slightly larger than man sized up to around 12 inches or more.</div>
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Rock%20Outcroppings/rockoutcrops03_zps7beeeb5f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Rock%20Outcroppings/rockoutcrops03_zps7beeeb5f.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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The center piece is made from a single slab of foam and is supposed to be two rock outcroppings with a small saddle between them. </div>
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This is actually one of my favorites, though I think that it could use a little rock debris on the ledges to break up the straight lines, and perhaps a little work on the overhanging bits in the first picture.</div>
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Again, another one with multiple rocks outcropping. </div>
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The two smaller rocks.</div>
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The biggest one of the bunch with a few boulders laying on top of the large exposed rock shelf. Below are a few overview shots of all of the pieces together. A pretty good spread across the table though I would like to do a few more to get a really rock strewn table. </div>
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I just bought the Citadel gaming mat as well. I scored it at a local hobby store that doesn't specialize in miniatures, and so I found it on the clearance shelf for half price. A pretty good deal at $15.00 considering these things are out of production now. Though, I am now kinda partial to my $8.00 green blanket from Target.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-75674620816394582852014-03-31T19:01:00.000-07:002014-03-31T19:01:20.731-07:00Mediterranean BarnWell, it's been one of those months. I worked on quite a bit of stuff done and actually got some of it done. Though it never seems like I dig myself out from under the pile of projects in the works. That's probably because I keep starting things, and never finishing them. So this post is dedicated to a project that I was totally excited about, jumped into without any planing and managed to get everything done, except flocking the base in a couple of days. Then I promptly set it on the shelf where it has sat since that day in early November. There were a few more things I had originally planned, like adding a broken down wagon to the dung pile behind the barn, paint the pigs a little better, but things can always be done later if I get in the mood. Right now, I am going to pronounce this done, even if it kinda isn't really...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fritz takes a peak around the corner spotting the Greek Andartes who are guarding the tsipuro still.</td></tr>
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-91112031172976072402014-02-24T18:59:00.000-08:002014-02-24T18:59:25.753-08:00Foam TankSo this weekend I got a little tired of painting and decided to take a break and do something else. I have a lot figures for my VACW campaign but I don't have anything armor wise. So I thought, I would see if I could slap something together using some foam. I didn't have any expectation that anything would come of it, but it turned out not to bad. My only concern is that the thing doesn't look very 1930ish in design and might be a bit to advanced looking to be honest. <br />
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I just started cutting out pieces until I had a basic shape blocked out then though I would add some pins to make it looked like riveted construction. I don't much care for the pins, they don't look the part very well. I think they are too large and flat and so I will pull them out before I go any farther and cover those areas with card stock like I have done with other areas. So if anyone knows of something good to use as rivets I would love to know. <br />
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The front hatch is just another piece of card with two bits of wire added above to act as hinges. Not sure what else if anything I should add to the front. Also I have now idea how to do the tracks and road wheels yet, will have to think about it for a while. Was thinking to have them mostly covered to make it easier.<br />
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I built two inter-changeable turrets for the beast. The first one is reminiscent of a Soviet T-26, but not an exact copy. The lower one reminds more of a Early WWII German turret a little bit.<br />
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So there you go. My first attempt at building a vehicle. My second is underway as I found the perfect bits for it this weekend while I was out at the <a href="http://www.sciplus.com/" target="_blank">American Science Surplus</a> store. This place is awesome by the way, I used to shop this store online before we moved up here. Yes! this store is nearby, and I go every chance I get, just to much cool stuff to check out. Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-29545587648028603072014-02-19T19:16:00.001-08:002014-02-19T19:16:32.630-08:00Bar Mills Tarp-Covered Cargo A while back I discovered that I now live only a few miles from a large model railroad distributor and that they have walk in service. Well, I had to check it out. I spent a few days looking through the <a href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Scenery&subc=SCNCDETL" target="_blank">Walthers Model Railroading</a> online catalog and decided to pick up a few O (1/48) scale scenic detail items. One of the better purchases was some crates and tarp covered cargo from Bar Mills Scale Model Works.<br />
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Last week I decided to finally paint these up, but had to use brush on primer given the weather (ridiculously cold for the last 3 months) and the fact that I have no where to use my spray primer anymore, as I now have a neighbor downstairs who complains when I spray paint in the shared basement. So I tried to prime the crates but found that I couldn't get into some of the spaces between the crates so they will have to wait until it warms up and I can spray paint out in the garage.<br />
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I was able to prime and paint the the the tarp-covered cargo, and they turned out really well and were quite easy to paint. The detail on the tarps is pretty amazing to be honest.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of my commandos taking cover behind some crates of HE shells?</td></tr>
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These things are perfect objective markers, and as general scenery for any war game. I highly recommend these for anyone looking for some cheap ($8.00 for all three) and easy to paint objective markers. <br />
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In case you were wondering, the size of the pieces are roughly 30mm square for the two smaller pieces and the longer one is 48mm long. So they would all fit on a 60mm base and the two smaller ones could be based on 40mm bases individually. <br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-86698775528372008922014-02-17T16:44:00.001-08:002014-02-17T16:52:26.657-08:00British Commandos, The Twins, and Other MadnessFirst, lets start with the Other Madness.<br />
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Earlier this week I received two packages in the mail. The first was from my FLGS back home. It contained a few packs from Musketeer Miniatures VBCW line. Originally I had wanted to order some of the 1920's IRA figures as I thought they would be more versatile for use with VBCW and my own VACW game. Sadly, only the VBCW figures could be ordered from Gripping Beast for some reason, and so I went ahead and ordered those. After ordering, I moved about half way across the country and in all the chaos and disorder, it kind of slipped my mind for a while (a couple of weeks). Then when I did remember, I figured I would wait until this temporary move was over, but after a while... it became apparent that the temporary move was going to be a little longer than anticipated. So I had them mail me these along with the Conquest Miniatures, Woodland Indian War party. I figure if I am going to get into the French and Indian War I would start with my own ancestors.<br />
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The second order, that came the same day was from Black Tree Designs. I went ahead and ordered some stuff during their 1/2 off holiday sale, after just looking for the last three years. Total I ordered some 96 miniatures from BTD and two vehicles, so now I really have my work cut out for me. My order consisted of 48 partisans, the Soviet character set (which will be my partisan mortar crew), a couple of German motorcycles, and 40 Boers. The Boers are going to get converted into a militant farm faction for my VACW game. Oh yes, and a four pack of British Commandos. The plan for the commandos is to use each as an NCO for a partisan squad. So that they will be easily identifiable as such is the massive rabble they will be leading. Eventually I will pick up a British radio team as well. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See, utter madness!</td></tr>
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I went ahead a based a few figures the first day using what bases I had. Ten total, out of those ten I managed to get six of them painted on Saturday.<br />
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So looking at these pictures again I realize that I need to go back and paint the spaces between the open stock of the Sten gun to match the uniform. Seems I have forgotten to do this. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I even painted eyes and 12 o'clock shadows, and I almost never do that.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We always go commando!"</td></tr>
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Well there you go, not to bad for an afternoons worth of work. So far I am pretty pleased overall with the BTD miniatures. The commandos and the twins had lots of details and didn't look at all out of proportion as I had been told previously. A few of the miniatures a bit strange looking, very big in the shoulder etc, but overall I am very happy with my purchase and wouldn't hesitate to order from them again (well except for that I don't need anything else to paint right now). Out of the 96 miniatures in my order, only one was a miscast. One partisan was missing a hand and Molotov cocktail, but that can be easily replaced. <br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-4287191196565011102014-02-12T20:00:00.005-08:002014-02-12T20:00:55.313-08:00Hooverville Shack Tutorial: A Quick and Dirty Guide to Shabby Chic. Well somebody asked, so here you go. A step by step guide to building shacks.<br />
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Here we have the humble beginnings of a shack. Two pieces of 2"x4"x6" cardboard, and pretty flimsy cardboard at that. You can also use a small box or foam board of the appropriate size. I am going to use cheap card board for this shack because I am not going to make the interior accessible. If you are wanting to go that route I think I would use something sturdier like the foam board.<br />
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So then you tape the two pieces together to make your rectangle. Then I hit the inside corners with some hot glue to help it keep its shape and make it a little sturdier.<br />
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Then I hot glue it to the base, which is a piece of hardboard or fiberboard. After that I like to run the hot glue gun across the base of the outside to help keep it in place.<br />
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Again, this inside will not be accessible so I just hot glue the roof in place. The roof is another piece of cardboard that is slightly larger than the shack. Now the easy part is over, and we will get to work making it look like this thing is made out of wood planks and whatnot.<br />
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So here is a shot of the main building material, which is just card stock paper that I ran through my shredder. My shredder will also handle thicker material like the thinner card from some cereal boxes and other packaging. The shredder makes this part easy, but cutting it by hand wont add too much time, but a bit anyway. If you do have a shredder that cut paper into 1/4 inch thickness, another tip is to mark your paper in 2 inch increments (or whatever length you need) this way after you run it through the printer everything is already marked. <br />
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After cutting your paper start gluing it to the sides of the building. Be sure to leave some small cracks between the boards. Every once in a while you might try cutting a piece in half to make the board look like two joined pieces.<br />
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Next I wanted to show a construction technique that involves overlapping boards. The cracks of the first planks are covered with smaller strips to seal the cracks in the building. I just did two on this side so that when I do the backside it will give the latter the illusion of being constructed using the same method.<br />
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Here is the back side of the building and as you can see, I didn't glue the first set of planks on. Instead I just glued the small strips on the entire back of the shack and it makes it look like the side, but in better shape. I just use the ribs of the cardboard as a guide since they are spaced at 1/4" also. <br />
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All finished up with the back side, and the second side of the building. I have also glued a couple of strips of paper up on the sides of the roof piece to cover up the corrugated cardboard that was showing. I have also started gluing a few strips of paper on the roof that will be exposed planks on the roof.<br />
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Just a much better shot of the roof planks, and the cross piece that once held the tar paper in place. The side planks on the roof are a bit big as you can see. I was waiting for the glue to dry and when it finally dried, I then simply shaved off the excess with a box knife.<br />
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Then I added another bit to the roof. This piece is going to be tar paper. It was the paper from a piece of foam board paper that was in my scrap box. I picked at the edges a bit to give it that torn look, and then scraped off any remaining foam and glued it rough side up.<br />
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After the tar paper I put some strips on top to represent the boards holding it down. Then I drilled a hole in the roof and used a bit of plastic sprue to make the stove pipe. You can use anything round for this, bamboo skewer cut to size, juice straw etc. I glued it in place along with a piece of single sided cardboard. The rest of the roof I covered the best I could with bits of SSC.<br />
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Next I tackled the front of the building. First I started with the door and window frames and then the bits to finish them off. Again, these are just strips of paper glued into rectangle shapes. The right window is covered up with some SSC, as if the windows had been knocked out or shattered at some point. The left window I left intact. After this I finished it off by putting in the strips that will be the smaller boards covering up the cracks in the planks.<br />
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I finished the piece of by adding an outhouse and then using a pen to scribble some wood grain on the planks. It's a bit hard to make out in this picture, but I just used a black pen and drew lines up and down any parts that are going to be painted as wood. <br />
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At this point I think I have approximately an hour and a half (at the most) into the piece. Tomorrow I will flock the base and seal that, then paint it brown. After that, maybe this weekend I will paint it. I'll do a part 2 in case anyone is interested in seeing it through to completion.<br />
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Later.<br />
<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-83960502400865149222014-02-10T22:04:00.001-08:002014-02-11T08:10:00.454-08:00My Depression Era Hooverville <br />
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What exactly is a Hooverville? They were shanty towns constructed in the 1930's after the stock market crash in 1929. They popped up all over the country as people lost their jobs and a steady income. These new shanty towns soon came to be named after President Hoover, who refused to use the Federal govt. or create govt. ran programs to help those in need or to stimulate the economy, believing that eventually the market and economy would fix itself.<br />
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville4_zps03cff4a7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville4_zps03cff4a7.jpg" height="252" width="320" /></a><br />
Many people lost everything due to the stock market crash, the house, the car, all of their money. Eventually many of them ended up cobbling together "housing" from what scraps they could manage to nail together. Many lived in tents, or under tarps really. Some Hooverville inhabitants didn't even bother to build shacks, but simply burrowed into the sides of hills and<br />
lived in small burrows. As time went on these houses became a little more elaborate. Some people, especially masons managed to build some rather nice brick houses instead of the usual wood framed shacks that were rather ubiquitous. Most of these shacks were built using very simple techniques using milled lumber, plywood, tar paper and occasionally corrugated tin. Hooverville's varied in size, like the one on the right which is pretty small compared to the one above, which was located in Seattle and quite extensive. Whatever the size, these shanty towns shared many features. There was no trash service so trash and junk ended up just being dumped wherever, and after a while many started to look a like junkyards or the city dump. No running water, open latrines, and no utilities obviously. Some had hand dug wells, but given the poor sanitation this water wasn't really fit to drink. In fact there were many disease outbreaks, typhoid, yphus etc, that hadn't seen large outbreaks in the US for a while. The Hooverville in Oklahoma City was a great exception to the poor sanitation general rule. After a couple of outbreaks, the city installed clean drinking water and bathroom facilities. Then turned around a few months later and had them removed, based on the theory that providing such amenities would encourage more people to live in the Hooverville and keep those who currently lived there from looking for work.<br />
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Most of these shacks were <a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville2_zps32f06f17.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville2_zps32f06f17.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a>reported to only have outside walls, and if the inhabitants were lucky they might have been able to acquire some tar paper to keep the roof from leaking and the wind from blowing in through the cracks between the boards. As you can see in the picture on the left, most seemed to at least have a potbelly stove to provide warmth and a means to cook. Still, people died from exposure, starvation and I am sure from despair. <br />
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville3_zps0cbd9dcc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/Hooverville3_zps0cbd9dcc.jpg" height="261" width="320" /></a>For any game taking place in the US during the 1930's a Hooverville is a must have. So toward this end I started working on a project to build my own. Originally I wanted to do at least a dozen shacks, but I lost steam after the seventh building and just decided to throw in some tents and junk piles to fill things in a bit. First I spent a week or so staring at these pictures and trying to figure out some basic building styles and materials. Then I went to town, and started putting some buildings together. I wanted to try out some different building techniques, that I hoped would be a little faster than some of the other buildings I have done in the past. I settled on using mainly cardboard. I made a simple rectangular shape, then put in a slightly slanted roof in most cases. To try and capture the variability I built a few that used the wall boards as slats and a few to look like clapboard construction. This was done by using 1/4 inch strips of paper and gluing the vertical or horizontally and the construction method dictated. Then I ended up covering a few random areas with card stock, that I later painted black, for tar paper. On a few the vertical boards were covered with another set of boards covering the cracks. The roofs are the same way for the most part. Boards, covered with tar paper, corrugated tin and in one case wood shingles. <br />
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On the outside there are brick piles, broken bricks (shattered bed heaters), and ash dumping piles scattered around randomly outside the shacks. <br />
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Shack number one has partial but rather rusty tin roof. One small window provides light, but who really needs extra windows when the cracks between the boards provides plenty of light. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville03_zpsffb6965b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville03_zpsffb6965b.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 2</td></tr>
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House number two is one the fancier shacks, verging on almost being a house. This is because I intend to use it as a railroad building as well. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville02_zps892e81a1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville02_zps892e81a1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 2</td></tr>
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It has a crude stone foundation, a porch, glass windows and a tin roofs. I really want to find a 1/48 scale rocking chair for the porch. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville01_zpsb4d0cc12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville01_zpsb4d0cc12.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 2</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville17_zpsaefcf565.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville17_zpsaefcf565.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 3</td></tr>
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House number three has quite a bit of corrugated tin, covering mostly the roof but also some of the back.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville16_zps4bdadb1d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville16_zps4bdadb1d.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 3</td></tr>
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Quite a few brick and ash piles outside. The outside edge is bare of ballast flocking as I had intended to flock them with grass but I thought it might now look a little odd, as all I have for a gaming mat is a brown blanket. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville15_zpsf46eefc5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville15_zpsf46eefc5.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 3</td></tr>
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The front door is haphazardly nailed together and the window were knocked out. It used to have windows, but apparently I forgot to glue them in place and they were just sitting there. So when I went to paint them I pushed them into the building, of which the interior in not accessible as they are rather small. Probably to small to put more than a few miniatures inside. I had intended to put a miniatures next to them for scale, but forgot to do that to. Forgetting, the theme of my life. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville05_zps1ea3dd36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville05_zps1ea3dd36.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 4</td></tr>
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House four is a really small shack with a single window in the back. The general construction method is clapboard, while the roof is some hot board on board (originally I typed broad on broad, but that is something else entirely), with the peak covered with some tin scraps. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville04_zps0cbfda26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville04_zps0cbfda26.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 4</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville11_zpsfd36005b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville11_zpsfd36005b.jpg" height="188" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 5</td></tr>
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House five has some more board on board action, with a wood shingle roof. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville12_zpscd1a30b1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville12_zpscd1a30b1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 5</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville10_zpsba8b14cb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville10_zpsba8b14cb.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House 6</td></tr>
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House six is clapboard with a few bits of tin holding the corners together. The roof is covered with tar paper and the occasional board to hold it down.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville06_zpsc76f431a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/1930%20Civil%20War/Hooverville/hooverville06_zpsc76f431a.jpg" height="258" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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House seven, tar paper roof with some tin around the stove pipe, a little tar paper covering the back walls.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Are you staring at my junk?</td></tr>
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Last, but not least, some junk piles, you gotta have some trash laying about. I also have some bits that I picked up from the local train store that sells O scale scenic elements, but more on them later.<br />
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Hopefully in the future I will get the bug and build at least a few more shacks and junk piles. For now though, these will work and can't wait to have a skirmish or two at the local Hooverville.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-13364721817602666372014-02-04T20:30:00.001-08:002014-02-04T20:31:46.650-08:00Sand Pebbles 28mm Naval Shore Patrol<br />
To add some forces to the White faction (Federal forces loyal to FDR) in my VACW game. I recently ordered some Sand Pebbles miniatures from <a href="http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/" target="_blank">Recreational Conflict</a>. If I'm not mistaken the miniatures are made by Tiger miniatures, a U.K. company. The Sand Pebble miniatures are US sailors from the 1920's and are based on the movie Sand Pebbles. I had planned to use them as a later addition to the campaign as second platoon to back up some US Marines. Now the Jar Heads are on hold, but I hope to have them soon, if not they may get worked in faster than excepted.<br />
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Fortunately for me I have a color picture of US interwar sailors from the book A World Aflame, to work off of when painting. Not to mention the 1966 movie on which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_%28film%29" target="_blank">the Sand Pebbles</a> miniatures are based. On the downside it is still cold as $h!t here and is about to start snowing again. So spray priming probably won't be on the agenda any time soon. <br />
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A few quick pics. I have them sorted into two sections and the command team. This is roughly how I will use them. Maybe dropping the third guy from the command section if playing Bolt Action to take advantage of the Small Unit rule. Each section has an NCO, the guy with the pistol and a BAR.<br />
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The miniatures are very well cast with little flash or mold lines. Size wise, they are a bit bulkier than my Wargames Factory miniatures but not any bigger than my Bolt Action plastic Americans. <br />
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Also just wanted to say that Recreational Conflict has some excellent miniatures, many that I haven't seen anywhere else. The <a href="http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/winterwar.html" target="_blank">American Siberian Expedition miniatures</a> I think are especially cool and I have my beady little eye on. They also have (last I looked) very cheap Lledo vehicles which scale pretty well with 28mm miniatures. Not to mention, excellent service!<br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-43662210639245028252014-02-03T20:14:00.000-08:002014-02-03T20:31:29.732-08:00Partisan Painting Party<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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So two Saturday's ago I was apparently in the mood to paint. All together I managed to paint 36 miniatures in a
single day, now THAT is amazing! Then on Tuesday I painted another dozen
miniatures, which put me at around 4 dozen in less than a week. My usual output is more like 3-4 a week. </div>
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Now these are my usual level of painting not speed painting.
Still, I won’t be winning any Major Awards (like the one below), but they won’t stand out like a
sore thumb among the usual rabble. </div>
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Here you go. The best that I can manage. Now if I could just learn how to take some decent photos, that would be something else amazing. Really, it took me multiple attempts to get decent photos over the course of the week. I painted mostly partisans, 29 total and then 7 Black Legion soldiers for my VACW game. I would like to use the partisans for both games, but it turns out that I wasn't really thinking about this when I put them together. So I ended up putting a lot of German and Soviet equipment in their hands, and quite a few of the weapons and equipment came out after 1938, or otherwise would not have been widely available. Still, I have more figs I can put together and will try and do some VACW American Legion members and some people for various factions, depending on what I have left. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yep, my partisan commander has a sword. Why not?</td></tr>
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So I know someone probably have something to say about the
colorful and character filled, if somewhat ahistorical hats. I just want to
say, I like them, and don’t care if my partisan’s look as if they raided the
Golf Pro shop. :P</div>
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Okay so I missed a couple of partisan guys so I put them in with the Black Legion goons. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 6.0pt;"></span>Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-57633006703061212232014-01-30T19:01:00.002-08:002014-01-30T19:01:22.251-08:001930's AirpowerAfter Christmas I ordered some air power for my VACW game. I had ordered four different planes but it turns out the Travel Air Mystery Ship was out of stock. So I ended up with three planes. <br />
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The first is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-6_Hawk" target="_blank">Curtiss P-6E Hawk</a>. This plane entered service with the United States Army Air Corps in 1929 and served until they wore out. The last one leaving service in 1942. <br />
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The second plane that I have put together is the Gee Bee R-1 race plane. There were only two R-1 planes built, along with two of the the earlier Y version and one Z version of the plane. Not to mention, that if I remember correctly, they all crashed, and did so well before 1937. However the airplane is so iconic that I just had to have one. Perhaps secretly rebuilt by Wiley Post before his death in 1935, then shoved to the back of the hanger and forgotten about. Works for me!<br />
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The last plane of the bunch is the Stearman PT-17. It is still in the box waiting for me to put it together. After the difficulty of putting the struts together on the P-6E, I am not really looking forward to doing it again so soon. Hopefully I will be able to get these painted up in the next week or so. I'm still not sure of how I am going to paint them up. I am thinking to paint the communist plane green, you know the green I mean, like all other communist planes and throw some red stars on it. Then I think, well heck maybe I should paint it bright red and use a green star to set it apart. As for the Black Legion plane I'm thinking of painting it black obviously, but what to put on it? Human skull decal? or maybe some sort of raven design if I could pull it off.<br />
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Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-20265735447207186162014-01-26T20:59:00.001-08:002014-01-30T14:14:10.642-08:00The Glenpool Strike: Hanger no. 1 (Game #3)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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This is a photo of hanger no. 1 at the Tulsa Municipal Airport sometime in the early to mid 1930's. The small building in the foreground is the Spartan School of Aeronautics owned and built by William Skelly. I had started working on the Spartan building but to many other things keep getting in the way, and it kept getting put aside. I probably could have finished it yesterday, but opted instead to work on my partisan army that I have been putting off for a long time now. It will get used, as the KVOO radio station building is very similar. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanger no. 1 in the early 1930's</td></tr>
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Back on topic, hanger no. 1 was the first hanger at the Tulsa airfield
that opened in 1928. The previous airport, located closer to town, was
part of the 1927 Ford reliability tour but was barely able to manage all
of the planes that took part in the tour that year. The town of Tulsa
was told that if they wanted the tour back again in 1928 that they
needed a larger airfield. So in 1928 William Skelly with the help of
other prominent business men bought the land and built the new airport.
It was then bought by the city of Tulsa in 1929. It was the busiest
airport in 1930, or so it was claimed. While it did handle more
passengers in February and April of that year than any other airport in
the world. Including, London, Paris and Berlin, the claim seems a bit
dubious. Most of this traffic having to do with the local oil field
business, but there were also many wealthy people in Tulsa at this time
and it seems that Tulsa was a happening place. After all, more
money was made on the Oklahoma oil boom than the California gold rush
and Colorado silver
rush combined. As a result, Tulsa was largely unaffected by the Great
Depression. While the rest of the state of Oklahoma lived in crushing
poverty that caused many farm laborers to migrate to California, the
people of Tulsa were living large. </div>
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On to the game.</div>
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After assaulting the south gate of the Tulsa Municipal
airport, the Cherry Street Irregulars (the local IWW chapter) pause momentarily
to regroup, redistribute ammunition, and to bring up reinforcements including
the Weinerwerfer. </div>
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Meanwhile, members of the first squad, Company M of the
Black Legion arrive at the hanger after hearing the sounds of gunfire at the
south gate. They bring with them a light howitzer, several volunteers and the
two members of the Tulsa police department who are at the airport at the behest
of the Mayor of Tulsa, to investigate the Black Legion presence. Upon arriving at
Hanger no.1 the police officers spot Walt Little* leading the communist
rabble. Having lost said felon on a previous occasion they are eager to
apprehend him and regain their lost rank. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* A wanted felon and the former owner of “A Little Used Book Store” on Cherry Street in downtown Tulsa Oklahoma. Mr. Little’s store was
found to have a copy of the communist manifesto for sale, a felony under Oklahoma state law. After his arrest an angry mob of pro-MacArthur supporters smashed
the stores windows, looted the cash register and coke machine, then set the store ablaze. After
spending three days in jail the prisoner was to be transferred to a state
correctional facility. Officers Buckner and Visage were escorting the felon to
the train station, where they were to be met by state police officers to
complete the transfer. On the way they made an unauthorized stop at a local speakeasy
just a block away from the police station. Their intention was to speak with
police Chief Gunderson as to whether the prisoner should be transferred as planned, or
shot for attempting to escape. Upon exiting the squad car they noticed a woman driving a car pull up and park in the space behind them, she then exited her vehicle and brandished a shotgun. After first attempting to
reason with the woman, later identified as Mrs. Little, they were fired at
several times, whereupon they ran into the speakeasy for cover. Mr. and Mrs.
Little managed to escape before the other twelve Tulsa police officers stumbled
out of the door to arrest Mrs. Little. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My humble attempt at creating hanger no. 1</td></tr>
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The IWW forces lead the assault by firing the dreaded
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survives unscathed, the same cannot be said of a second squad nearby. </div>
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A stray rocket flies through the widow of the hanger and
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Though out of range, the Lewis gun lays down a barrage of
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The Black Legion forces respond with a Legion NCO
accompanied by two of Tulsa’s finest, and two local MAC volunteers moving
forward and firing at the oncoming communist forces. The first squad, quickly
recovering from the shock and awe of the mighty Wienerwerfer exit the hanger
and take cover behind a truck along with the spotter for the light howitzer.
The second squad moves further back into the hanger hoping to out flank the
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Two heroes of the communists uprising respond by gunning down the officers
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Shortly thereafter the shriek of rockets firing is heard
again, and the spotter for the howitzer crew, standing behind the truck in this
photo, is incinerated by a homemade HE rocket. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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Back on the other side of the Hanger, the second squad of
communist move out from their positions in the trees and enter the hanger
through the side door. They are met by fierce small arms fire as they and the
second squad of the Black Legion fascist oppressor monkeys battle in close combat and hand-to-hand. In
the end, no man (or oppressor monkey) lives to tell the tale. </div>
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Back at the other end of the hanger, the MAC militia decides
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Again, the shriek of rockets firing fills the air. Again,
for the third time today, the Weinerwerfer finds it’s mark and the rest of the
first squad of Black Legion soldiers is obliterated (mmmmm BBQ pork). Shortly after this, the
communist LMG team moves forward and guns down Commander Vogel. </div>
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Unable to inspire his comrades to assault the remaining MAC
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command group launches an assault and weathers the return fire without harm. The
two MAC volunteers are sent to meet their maker. </div>
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Having lost their spotter, the howitzer team is forced to
move their gun in order to fire at the communist forces. After the two MAC
volunteers are brutally cut down, the howitzer team fires at the IWW command team. Their shot goes long and an fuel storage tank behind the
command group goes up in flames in a huge explosion (oops!). </div>
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Whether through adrenaline soaked courage or primal
desperation, comrade commander Little, his wife, and his runner charge the
howitzer. No longer will the football players of the world mock the manhood of those who major in the Library Sciences! The men manning the howitzer manage to reload the howitzer before
commander Little and his team can reach them. [So at this point, all I need is
a two or higher to hit the command team. Anything but a one! Well you can see
the result in the picture. Of course it turns out that I forgot about the point blank bonus, it turned out the same at any rate.] The howitzer fires and the second oil tank
goes up in flames. </div>
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The assault doesn’t go so well for either side and after a
desperate fight, only Mr. Little and a Black Legion NCO remain up. Comrade Commander
Little shows the men manning the Lewis machinegun why he is the comrade commander.
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After tending to his wife’s wounds he quickly organizes the
remaining men and women of the Cherry Street Irregulars. Among the comrades is
a man who was working on his pilots license before the stock market crash in
1929. Though rusty, his skills are adequate enough to get one of the planes
parked in the hanger off the ground before the dirty rotten fascists can get more forces
to Hanger no. 1. Satisfied with the day’s gains comrade Little orders his
forces to take everything they can. The communist convoy back home includes two
new trucks, a pick-up truck and a police care. In addition they score hundreds
of gallons of fuel, a howitzer, small arms and ammunition. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The prize for the this particular game was first pick of the three airplanes that I bought, and am working on for this game. So we will see which plane the communist menace chooses. </span></div>
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-41118685493832496372013-12-26T13:50:00.000-08:002014-01-14T11:48:25.923-08:00Glenpool Strike: Airfield Assault<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Sunday we played out the second skirmish in the Glenpool Strike. In the last game I got my butt handed to me by my son, and the Black Legion lost an entire squad. Between games we followed the rules for force development from the Red Poppy / White Feather rules for the Cherry Street Irregulars. They managed to get a few improvements here and there, the most important being that a second leader has emerged, meaning that they can now activate as two groups instead of one group and / or individuals. I started with a squad of entirely inexperienced men and managed to roll as poorly as I do when we are playing, so I started with a leader and one model with an additional ability. </div>
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We then went ahead and rolled on the mission generator. I rolled a one, and so did my son, he however got to add a point to his total so he got a 2. This meant that he was the attacker and was doing a prepared attack. </div>
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It was decided that we would do a support weapon for each squad. I choose a MMG, but not having the model for one (it's on the way) we used a small artillery piece as a proxy. My son has been dying to have a Bazooka, his favorite weapon of all time, and why wouldn't it be. So he was a bit disappointment when I told him that it hadn't yet been invented in 1937. So we settled on something else that I had built a few months back. More on that in a minute. </div>
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Here are the Black Legion forces guarding the south entrance of the Tulsa Municipal Airport. The entrance has been sandbagged and a machine gun position has been set up to fire down the road. Around this the squad has set up their tents and a small fire pit for cooking. The squad has also been assigned a two local recruits, one of which the squads has nicknamed "cowboy". </div>
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Another shot of the Black Legion squad securing the southern entrance to the airfield. All is quite and has been all morning. The troops are just now rotating out of guard duty two at a time to sample some of cowboy's chilli for lunch. <br />
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The Cherry Street Irregulars, fresh off the adrenaline buzz of last nights victory have decided to push their luck and directly assault the airfield. Hoping to quickly destroy the fascist menace. They made a call to a local union held shop that escaped the anti-communist purge, and had a Rube Goldberg contraption ready for field testing, it was sent immediately to their location to aid in the attack. </div>
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What's this? Two trucks rapidly approach the checkpoint, just cresting a small rise. The Senior Sgt. gives the order to open fire with the MMG as these are clearly insane communists who have come to die at the hands of the dreaded Black Legion. </div>
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Wouldn't you know it. They are a half inch out of range. Damn the luck. The rounds hit the ground in front of the truck, kicking up dirt but otherwise having no effect. <br />
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An aerial shot of the mad rush towards the gate by the CSI.<br />
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A quick shot from the MMG position looking down the road. And what
pray-tell is that puff of smoke in the wheat field on the right.<br />
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Why, It...It's the "Wiener Werfer"! An old hotdog handcart turned into a mobile rocket platform.<br />
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Another gratuitous shot (or two) of the Wiener Werfer delivering red hots to the fascist pigs.<br />
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For the rockets we used the rules from "The World Aflame" and they worked well enough. My son picked the spot he wanted to aim at and then had to estimate the distance. He did surprisingly well, coming up about 5 or 6 inches shy of the target.<br />
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The first two shots land in the center of the Black Legion forces. Raining shrapnel down on our two diners, and the MMG crew. The two diners both go down but the MMG crew takes cover behind their sandbagged position and escape harm.<br />
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The cowboy momentarily rethinks his decision to join up with the Black Legion, but when he sees his award winning chili done wrong by those commies, he becomes a fanatic. "Those durned commies will pay"! he shouts, grabs his trusty shotgun and rushes to join the fray.<br />
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At this point we are between turns. We roll for initiative and I win, so I throw the Black Legion .30 cal on over-watch figuring that the commies will continue forward down the road and my boys will be able to get some good shots off and maybe knock out the lead truck. Since, there was no shooting, the initiative passed to the communist forces.<br />
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In a move that caught me by surprise, my son does not activate the truck but instead opts to fire the last two rockets from the "Weiner Werfer" and calls out the range again, with an extra five inches added. Which puts the rocket fire right on top of my MMG. However, he still have to roll for deviation which is a d12 so I'm still not worried, they could still land almost anywhere. Then he rolls a rolls a 1 and a 2. Well, the MMG team was nice while it lasted. LOL<br />
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The deadly accurate rocket fire from the dreaded communist Weiner Werfer blows the living daylights out of my machine gun nest, incinerating all those therein. <br />
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Now the lead communist truck continues it's mad dash for the front gate. It stops just short of the machine-gun nest and take heavy fire from the waiting fascists. Lots of shots are exchanged, a Molotov cocktail goes flying wildly as the thrower is shot and falls from the back of the truck. Another communist is shot as is a Black Legion trooper.<br />
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The Second Communist truck arrives with more soldiers. The cowboy takes a shot but misses by a mile.<br />
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The communist jump out of the second truck and fire at the Black Legion soldier with the hand grenade, and take him out. So ends the second turn of the game. We roll for initiative again and the communist win this turn. <br />
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They target the cowboy, taking careful aim...<br />
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...and punch a hole or two through his 10 gallon hat.<br />
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The other Cherry Street Irregulars open fire trying to kill the last remaining Black Legion soldier. Their luck has run out and they all miss.<br />
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He returns fire taking out the Thompson-wielding field hockey player, before being gunned down himself. <br />
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So ends the second skirmish in the Glenpool Strike campaign. The communist have won again, two consecutive victories over the fascist Black Legion. <br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-27334374911341441732013-12-14T20:31:00.000-08:002013-12-14T20:36:29.589-08:00The Glenpool Strike: A VACW Campaign<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Black Legion forces have been dispatched to Tulsa Oklahoma to secure the Glenpool Oil field. Which, up until a few years back was the single largest oil strike in the US. With the aid of a few local citizens sympathetic to their cause they were able to land at the Tulsa airport north of the city just after midnight. The first two planes held a total of 20 soldiers and their equipment. They were easily able to take over poorly guarded airfield and adjacent Spartan school of aeronautics. Reinforcements were scheduled to land every half hour but later planes hit severe weather and turned back. With only two squads available, the commander decided to hold the airfield with one squad, and then send the second ahead, in an airfield service truck. Their job, along with two local guides was to scout the planned route to the Glenpool oilfield, and if it looked as if the refinery was an easy target to go ahead and capture the facility, or wait for reinforcements, at Lt. Drysdale's discretion. <br />
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Unfortunately for the Black Legion forces, they failed to capture all of the people present at the airfield. One, a communist agent, was able to slip into a back office and make a phone call to his comrades, the Cherry Street Irregulars. This commie was caught and shot by the Black Legion guards. However, the damage had been done.<br />
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The Black Legion squad in the truck had already departed but because of the poor visibility (dark and rain) and muddy roads they were moving rather slowly. The Cherry Street Irregulars were able to get ahead of them and set up a an ambush. At the intersection of the country roads outside the city limits at Sheridan and what would be 31st street, if 31st street extended outside of town (rather, it is an unnamed county road). <br />
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Since we were doing a really small table, my folding table, which is around 3x3ft I decided that we would try out an old skirmish game called Red Poppy/White Feather that I found for free on the internet. It seemed like an interesting game for a squad based game, so we gave it a try. We used the Bolt Action dice to keep track of things, as the orders aren't really all that different.<br />
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For the game we set visibility at 12", beyond this models could not be seen. That is with the exception of any unit within 3" of the sides or back of the truck, and 6" in front of the truck. The truck could also be spotted at any distance because of the head and tail lights. <br />
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Outside of the regular rules the only thing we added was the random event card between turns.<br />
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Since the Black Legion guys were getting ambushed they set up first and had to be within 16" of the table edge where they would have entered. Then we placed the barricade on the road and the the CSI guys set up in ambush. </div>
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Just another shot of the table from a different angle. Here you can see the farm house and the CSI van parked behind the shed.<br />
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As we see here the Black Legion come down the road to find the
intersection blocked by two dead cows. The local guides and several
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So now everything was set up and the game got under way. My opponent won the initiative and he decided to use his leader, the lad in the dashing prison striped pants to activate the crew at the rear of the truck. They opened fire but failed to hit any of my troops so the initiative passed to me. I used my officer in the back of the truck to activate the three guys in the back to fire back. They too, failed to hit a target. <br />
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He activated the man by the shed, who shot at my officer but missed. In return one of my locals moves over the fence and took a shot at him and he went down. Then my guys in front of the truck took a few shots but missed. So the initiative pass back to my opponent, and not being one to mince words, he pushed the attack, with his troops at the front of the truck opening fire. The first gal scored a hit on one of the guides with her Tommy gun, and so he kept initiative and his next commie threw a Molotov cocktail at the two remaining men in front of the truck doing some serious damage. After failing to activate his next model it was the end of the turn.<br />
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Not bad, lots of shooting but not much in way of hitting except the Molotov cocktail. So far, it wasn't looking very good for me and the Black Legion. We drew our random cards. My opponents was blank, but mine allowed my to place a LMG team on the table, as we apparently suspected some funny business ahead and dropped a few guys off to circle around just in case. Well it paid off. They set up in the window of the farm house and opened fire on my opponents commander.<br />
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Since I took down the enemy commander, if you can really call a small time thug a commander. I kept the initiative and decided to activate my commander and the troops at the rear of the truck. Figuring they would do better with some cover from the other two in the back my men jumped the fence and went on the offensive. Two of the communists went down before them. I tried to rally one of my troops who was down but failed. <br />
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The communists moved up and took some shots. The rifleman and Thompson wielding, ex-field hockey player downed my BAR gunner and my officer.<br />
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Then the guys in the back who had moved up, threw and hand grenade...and that was pretty much it for my offensive attack.<br />
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Meanwhile, the second communist that had been next to the shed during the start of the game went around through the front of the house to attack my LMG team, but he came up short and got taken out by the LMG team. At this point instead of fighting on, they captured comrade Roberts and made off into the night with their prisoner.<br />
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More shots of the carnage. I should also mention there is free BBQ and potluck at the People Collective HQ's tomorrow. <br />
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Another shot from down 31st street.<br />
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The Cherry Street Irregulars made off with a truck they captured from the Black Legion.<br />
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In addition to the one they brought, as my opponent insisted that he be allowed to have his vehicle on the table also. It was only fair after all.<br />
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So one of the things that I find interesting about the game, is that after the action is over you roll to see what happened to each model. Just because they went down, doesn't mean they were killed. Nor does being up at the end of the game mean that the model lives, they can die from wounds, despite their heroic effort.<br />
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So we rolled for the communists first since they won. They had one guy captured, the man with the red and white blanket and the comrade next to him was lightly wounded. All the other model were just down, and all of the remaining models were lightly wounded or perfectly fine. Not bad.<br />
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For the Black Legion, the rolling went less well. All told; they suffered five men killed in action, four men seriously wounded and unlikely to recover, including the squad leader, Lt. Drysdale. The last man was found alive and unwounded, but knocked out by the concussion from the grenade. The two man LMG team survived and slipped off into the night and reported back to the rest of the unit at the airfield.<br />
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The Cherry Street Irregulars clearly won this engagement. Here is a picture of the smug little snot gloating over his victory. :)<br />
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...and one picture taken after I asked him what he thought my odds were of winning the next game.<br />
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not good apparently!<br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-28487444846089976932013-12-14T17:31:00.001-08:002013-12-14T20:38:26.469-08:00A VACW: The Red, the White, the Black and the BlueI kicked off my 2nd American Civil war campaign today. The campaign is based around an alternate history timeline in which the United States descends into war after FDR proposes "court packing" legislation in the spring of 1937. Already unhappy about FDR's New Deal legislation, American businessmen revive a previously aborted plan to assassinate the president and replace him with "Cactus Jack", Jack Nance Garner the presidents Vice President, a vocal critic of FDR and his "leftist" policies. <br />
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One of the biggest backers of the plan is Henry Ford, who, driven by his extreme religious views has become convinced that FDR is a Communist agent. Since the aborted assassination plot in 1933 by Giuseppe Zangara, and the failed fiasco of the business plot, also in 1933. Ford has decided that the plan of assassinating FDR doesn't go far enough, he plans on replacing the entire government with a fascist
one. After the previously failed plots, Ford has established contacts with the National Socialist Party of Germany and their leader. Adolf being a huge fan of, and inspired by Ford and his philosophies, commands the German SS and Abwer to give him their full cooperation. As such, Henry Ford is able to acquire detailed plans for German small arms, heavy weapons and even tanks. All of which he secretly begins manufacturing and storing in warehouses across Michigan. Ford has also recruited the Black Legion, a group of American Fascists that have a large following in the Michigan, Ohio, Indiana region. Chosen members of this group are sent to Germany by Ford to train with the SS and become the Officer and NCO core of his new private army. <br />
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The proposed "court packing" legislation sets Ford in motion. His men first attempt an assassination on FDR, putting him into the hospital in serious condition. Jack Garner takes over the county and is broadcasting live about the attempted "communist plot" to kill FDR, when the White House is attacked and captured by communist forces. Jack Nance Garner is killed by gunfire during the middle of his national address. Numerous members of the Senate, House and Supreme Court are kidnapped by communists agents and murdered. The hero of the hour, General Douglas MacArthur, who just happens to be in town for a meeting with the VP, leads U.S. Army forces from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds to the White House and battles the communists for over four hours before the White House is burned to the ground.<br />
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MacArthur assumes command of the nation, imposing martial law and addressing the stunned nation in a somber radio broadcast, where he promises to purge the nation of communist and socialist elements in our once great country. Violent outbreaks erupt across the country against known and suspected, socialists and communists. Thousands are killed and many thousands more are on the run or hiding. Thousand of MAC (MacArthur Anit-Communist) militias form over the course of a few days as order is re-established.<br />
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Then...FDR recovers from his wounds. In his first fire-side chat since his recovery he assumes command of the nation once again, urges the peoples of America to stay calm, and dissolves the state of Martial Law imposed by MacArthur .<br />
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In Washington MacArthur and J. Edgar Hoover have an emergency meeting. In which Hoover reveals to MacArthur the FBI's ongoing investigation into voter fraud from the last election and FDR. The evidence Hoover presents at the meeting shows that the communist and socialist parties conspired to get FDR elected illegally. Whether FDR was a co-conspirator in the plot is not known, but it is assumed that he was a willing participant of the plot.<br />
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The next day at noon, MacArthur addresses the nation via radio once again. He lays out the evidence provided by Hoover (but does not name him as a source) and refuses to relinquish control of the nation, as FDR's election was a fraud. Again the nation erupt into violence, major riots rock almost every metropolitan area. This time, the MAC militias find themselves the targets of the violence. In many cities the American Legion turns out to suppress the rioters and join the MAC militias if they weren't already one and the same. The violence in Pittsburgh is especially brutal with tens of thousands killed. Mutinies, desertions and executions are common fair on military bases and ships across the nation as the military forces and personnel declare their personal allegiances for one cause (or man) or the other. After the smoke settles in pittsburgh, Gen. (retired) Smedley Butler leads a rag-tag force on a march towards the nations capital. In order to depose the fascist MacArthur.<br />
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At this point in the conflict J. Edgar Hoover has assumed <i>de facto</i> control of the plot. He is fully aware of all the players, their roles and is now MacArthur's puppet master, and Henry Ford has suffered a fatal heart attack after a visit by friendly local agents of the FBI. Hoover plays both sides, he remains a secret adviser to MacArthur and controls the MAC militias through his network of nation wide informers and spies. While at the same time he plays the loyal public servant to President Roosevelt.<br />
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Hoover dispatches the Black Legion forces across the nation to seize important targets. These include radio stations, factories, ports, airfield and petroleum production facilities. <br />
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General Butlers march on Washington turns into a bloody and brutal campaign that stretches out though the winter and does not end until MacArthur withdraws his forces from the capitol and retires to the south. He promises that "I shall return". <br />
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Across the rest of the nation, little is known about the disposition of U.S. military forces as most have not, or cannot respond to orders issued by both parties claiming to have command of U.S. military forces.<br />
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Foreign military intervention begins when the Hindenburg explosion is proven, by an FBI investigation to have been caused by sabotage by communist agents. Germany sends forces to bolster the MacArthur regime, while France sends the Foreign Legion who land in New Orleans to assist U.S. Marines loyal to FDR fight with Texian separatists on the border of Louisiana and Texas. Soviet advisers and equipment land in ports in the Pacific Northwest captured by American communists. numerous independent National Brigades begin forming and are sent to America to fight for one cause or the other. <br />
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The Red = Communists<br />
The White = Federal Forces<br />
The Black = Fascist Forces<br />
The Blue = Republic Forces<br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-64296474883774662772013-12-13T19:20:00.001-08:002013-12-13T19:20:48.771-08:00Year end building clearance. I haven't been doing much with the blogging as of late. I find that I spend as much time taking pictures and writing as I do working on my miniatures. Also throw in the fact that my son needs a liver transplant and in order to accomplish this we had to move a considerable distance. Well, I just haven't had much time or the inclination to do much of anything. Until lately that is, the last week or so has been a flurry of projects. We all seem to be settling in and I am coming out of my funk a bit. However I am going to start with some of my favorites from last year that I never got around to posting. <br />
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One of my favorites, to celebrate getting out of the crapper. The crapper. Made from pink foam and some flocking. Very easy to do really. The TP coming out the door is a nice touch if I say so myself.<br />
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My bombed out cafe below is one of my all time favorites. The versatility is useful. The only real drawback is that it is made out of cardboard. Then again, I didn't really have anything else to work with at the time. As I made this in the hospital room while my son was recovering from his kidney transplant. I have always thought it was one of my best building and I want to do at least one more. The plan was to redo it with better materials and do a tutorial, but things haven't really worked out that way.<br />
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As you can tell from the picture, the top half comes off so you can put your miniatures in there. BUT WAIT! IF YOU ORDER NOW! ....sorry, could resist the infomercial parody.<br />
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The roof comes off as well. The second floor does as well and if you flip it over, it can be used as a different building. Then the roof can be put back on the main part of the building, or left off.<br />
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Well, I thought it was pretty cool.<br />
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Most of my buildings are for WW2 skirmish gaming, but the following I made for a Savage Worlds game that me and some friends were playing. Savage Worlds is fantastic BTW, and they have a skirmish version of the game as well.<br />
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My ancient temple that I built with four of the 50+ columns that I picked up from an estate sale in my neighborhood for $2.00. So why not build some temples. I have a bigger one, as this was only supposed to be the center, but I ran out of time and energy trying to build that giant thing. It is currently sitting in my garage collecting dust.<br />
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Finally we have this last weekends project.<br />
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My little place in France. Made out of the usual foam, cardboard and some card stock. This was by fare the easiest roof I have ever done. I would like to do a larger 3 story cafe that comes apart, and has the same type of roof. I found some laser cut windows that I am planning on using for that project if I ever get to it.<br />
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One of my dastardly SS figs for scale. I hope the bowing walls in the photo have something to with the camera angle or something.<br />
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Here is the back side. Of course I intend to set this baby up against other buildings so I didn't put any windows or anything on the back or sides.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-61100664356231615752013-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:002013-10-08T21:18:31.943-07:00The Red GangThese guys, and gal belong one of the factions for the new 1930's Civil War that I am starting. They are Warlord Games partisans but I will be using them as American Communists. I haven't decided yet if I want to do a Farmers Union or the Heywood Brigade of the IWW. Though I am leaning toward the latter given the treatment of IWW members locally in 1917. Tarring and feathering is not something likely to be forgotten or forgiven so easily. So the Chief of Police and the Sons of Liberty beware, some payback is coming. <br />
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I wanted to give each of these guys something to set them apart, and make the faction they belong to instantly recognizable. So I opted to give each of them a splash of red, hat bands, arm bands, and the striped blanket. On the middle guy I originally painted his pants all black. Then later I was looking through some pictures when I came across some of some inmates from the 30's wearing the classic black and white prison stripes. I figured it would be a nice addition and add some character, so I painted the white stripes on.<br />
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Cut out from the picture above due to being way out focus, are the two models on the right. The woman I painted in a red plaid skirt, with matching hunting cap. Just because you are fighting it does not mean that you have to clash. The fellow on the far right, is known as mister "fancy pants" because of his very stylish striped pants. I know, it's hard to make out, but they are very nice pants, just got them off of the corpse of a capitalist oppressor this morning. <br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-88112743930779581112013-09-15T21:42:00.001-07:002013-09-15T21:42:29.437-07:00Pin Markers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For the last year I have been using Red Cross markers as pin markers for my Bolt Action games. To be honest, one of the reasons I enjoy the game is the scenery, man do I love some good terrain and buildings. So it always seems to rub me the wrong way when we are playing a game and there are dice being used as pin marker, and even my own markers look out of place on an otherwise awesome table. I know, it's just one of those things that are a necessary evil to run games and keep track of things. The pin markers Warlord sells just don't look right to me. The rifle and helmet symbol is one used to mark graves and might make for a nice scenic element but they just look out of place in my opinion. The guys over at the WWPD forums have some good dial markers that looked interesting, but these were a bit beyond my ability.<br />
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Well I started thinking of what I could use that would be less visually intrusive. Eventually I came up with the idea of using something that looked like a bullet kicking some dirt up into the air. After all, I already had some smoke and explosion markers, so this should fit in well with what I already have. I also thought this would be really cool as it captures that old war movie / action vibe and would, if done right, look pretty sweet.<br />
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So I tried sculpting some. After all, how damn hard could it be? Well after half a dozen tries I gave up and started looking around the internet for something that matched my needs. After a few weeks of looking the only thing that I came up with was using some Armorcast cinematic effects muzzle flashes. I took these, turned them sideways and mounted them on 1/2" washer base with some green stuff. <br />
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After the green stuff hardened I painted and flocked them. I am hoping the flock will help them blend in with the game mat. The results were okay. I mean, I am not totally blown away by the look, but I think they will serve better than my old Red Cross markers or some dice.<br />
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Now if you work for Armorcast, or Warlord Games. I want...nay, I need! some really cool pin markers that look like dirt getting kicked up from some machinegun fire. So get to it!<br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-27619318270416789132013-09-15T10:27:00.001-07:002013-09-15T10:27:44.761-07:00.50 Cal JeepI finally got around to putting together my U.S. jeep by Warlord Games that I bought over a year ago. It was something that I just love the look of, but because my U.S. force languished while I worked on my Germans and Soviets, it just got put aside.When my 2 1/2 ton truck arrived after being on back order for six months I dug my jeep out again and put both of the vehicles together. Then I left both of them sitting on the shelf all summer unpainted.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Sir, Alpha Company reports that they have discovered an intact wine cellar at a Chateau just up the road" </td></tr>
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The assembly was very easy and took about 15 minutes. Which left me wondering why I hadn't gotten to doing this earlier. The kit comes with a driver and nothing else. So I looked around the internet trying to find some extra crew because it looked rather empty. I found some good vehicle figures at Old Glory Miniatures from Westwind's, Berlin or Bust line of figures. I was going to order these, but life was so hectic this summer I just never go around to it. So later in the summer, in an effort to get some stuff finished and put away I started chopping up some of my extra figs from my War Games Factory Americans. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Private, get to that wine cellar before those bastards drink all of the good stuff"</td></tr>
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I had to remove the legs with an exacto knife and reposition them so that I could get them into the jeep. Overall the figs were a good size match for the jeep and look pretty good. The gunner is loading the .50 cal in preparation to fire, while the commander is holding his binocs in one hand and pointing to something with the other.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"load that .50 cal soldier, I want anyone who touches the 1921 Conti before I arrive shot"</td></tr>
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The .50 cal is from Company B and was pretty easy to mount. The driver I
altered slightly by sawing off the top of his knit cap and sticking a
helmet over the top of it. This was it looks as if it is about to fall
off, or he has it sitting on top of his head as if so he can hear the
radio chatter over the walkie talkie better. I then also removed the
rifle from his right hand and added a walkie talkie using green stuff
and a little wire. As usual, the painting is mediocre and the photos
are atrocious. <br />
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Perhaps some day the U.S. decals that I ordered though my LGS and Warlord Games will come
in and I can pretty up some of my American Vehicles. However, I have
pretty much just given up hope that these will materialize before I drop
dead.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-61108127288734403412013-06-26T10:46:00.001-07:002013-06-26T10:46:34.206-07:00Shell Craters by PlastructA quick lunch time project for today. I bought these Plastruct plastic moon scape sheets a while back and primed them, but the paint I used turned out to be gloss, so they have been sitting around and collecting dust ever since because I keep forgetting to pick up some non-gloss primer for them. So last night I finally bought some flat brown primer and started working on these.<br />
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I plan on using them as shell craters and areas of rough terrain for my Bolt Action games. The sheets come two to a pack and cost around $10.00 - 12.00 and can be found at most any hobby store. If you shop at Hobby Lobby you can get them at 40% off. If not, it is still a good deal, and an easy project.<br />
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The priming took no time at all and after that was done I went to sleep. During my lunch, since I am at home today I decided to get this done.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still some shiny spots but I am hoping that further painting and a coat of matte finish will take care of that.</td></tr>
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The first thing I did was to dry brush a lighter brown area on the high points to give it some visual depth and relief. Overall it took less than five minutes. I threw in one of the DAK guys I am working on for scale.<br />
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After that dried I used a brush and some Modge Podge (PVA) glue and stippled the area around the craters with glue. Then I threw on some green flocking and shook off the excess, and viola, I am done. Nothing fancy, just some simple, serviceable shell craters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maybe I went a little heavy on the glue and flocking.</td></tr>
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Total time for this project was less than 20 minutes, and the total cost was approximately $10.00. So there is no reason not to have some of these for your table.<br />
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<br />Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-89544109020396282562013-06-20T12:45:00.000-07:002013-06-20T12:45:39.648-07:00Flakvierling 38 and Opel BlitzA short one for today. This are two models that I did a couple of months back for my German Army. They are still one of my favorite units as far as modelling and painting goes. Both turned out really nice and have gotten a fair bit of use. Occassionally the Blitz gets used for transporting my infantry, but it's main job is towing the Flak 38.<br />
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The Flak 38 is a Tamiya model that I got on sale for $10.00 and though it had a good number of pieces it really wasn't that difficult to put together. The Opel Blitz in from Warlord Games and was easy to assemble and paint and looks great. However the amount of time involved is a good 3-4 hours. Oddly enough the Opel Blitz hitch and the trailer for the Flak 38 actually hook together which is a nice bonus, even though the two models are different scales. Even though the two are different scales it is not that obvious. The trailer is slightly wider that the truck, which doesn't really bother me.<br />
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Also in the shot, between the Flak 38 and the Blitz is my German Observer. He was made out of a Wargames Factory body and extra arms, head and radio from the Tamiya kit. I particularly love the rolled up sleeves, and the hand painted rank actually turned out really well.<br />
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As far as the Bolt Action games rules go, the Flak 38 kind of gets the short end of the stick. Even though the gun shield is clearly visible on the model, there is no way in the rules to get a gun shield, and the gun shield rule for the Flak 38. So this unit is easier to kill than it should be. Also there seems to be some confusion in various forums as to how many shots this thing gets. Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-35039703836058715012013-06-15T14:49:00.001-07:002013-06-18T12:05:45.697-07:00M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage <br />
Okay, well you should know that I love quad mounted guns. Pure Awesome. So this thing mounts four .50 cal machinguns and can be used by my Americans or by my Soviet forces. These vehicles were designed as Anti-Aircraft vehicles, but were used in the ETO and PTO against ground forces. The model is from my recent order from Company B. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/M16%20Half-Track/m16no2_zps04ee00f3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" cya="true" height="480" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/M16%20Half-Track/m16no2_zps04ee00f3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry about the blurry picture.</td></tr>
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Overall the model was cast really well with only a few minor areas of flash, and nothing I had to fix. I was slightly daunted by the number of parts, but that's just because me and superglue don't play well together. Had it been a plastic kit with 10 times the number of parts it wouldn't had bothered me nearly as much. However, I was able to get the model together with only gluing my fingers together a couple of times.
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The bottom requries a bit of clean up, and has a fair number of air bubbles, but the rest of the resin model is bubble free.<br />
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I had to look around the internet to find some decent pictures of the vehicle to see how the turret went together, and which direction to put the treads on. Other than that the other bits were pretty straight forward. The front window guard, the radio deck behind the driver and the the fold down panels on the sides and the rear.<br />
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I learned my lesson with the Kubelwagen and left my crew unglued for the time being which is why the crossbar with the aiming sight for the gun is laying in the back of the truck right now. This way I can get him in and out of the turret until I get it all painted. <br />
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The model went together really easily and I really don't have any defects whatsoever to report. All together this model is pretty sweet and I highly recommend it. <br />
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Now I am thinking how am I going to get this thing painted up so that I can use it for both my Americans and my Soviets. I may have to paint them up as Americans and then overlook the fact when I use them for the Soviets. Though maybe I could find a Soviet driver and gunner that I could swap out, but that seems like a lot of work. What I really need to do is figure out a way to swap out vehicle air identification markings. This is of course assuming the Soviets bothered to put their Red Star markings on these things, which I assume they did. Anyway I will have to think about it for a while.<br />
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One thing that I really want to do, is cut up some lengths of copper wire to sprinkle around the truck bed as spent .50 cal shells. I think this will be a nice touch that will really bring the model to life.Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-791003207065313292013-06-14T08:52:00.000-07:002013-06-17T14:11:11.801-07:00Tower<br />
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This is a model that I had been planning on building for quite a while but kept putting off to do other projects. Finally, the weekend before last I had an entire Saturday to myself and so I decided to get started on this one. After about four or five hours I had most of the model mocked up and ready to go. The building is kind of vague, maybe it's an old monastery, church or just a clock tower.</div>
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The only things that remained after I took this picture, was to add in the rubble and paint the model. </div>
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I added the rubble on Sunday night. This was done by covering the area with glue and then sprinkling the area with clay kitty litter and a mix of small gravel (model train ballast). After that I let the whole thing sit and dry overnight. Then the next day I shook off everything that didn’t stick and then poured glue over the top of that and spread it around so that everything was covered. This helps keep everything attached and where it was supposed to be. While that was drying I cut out some single-sided cardboard and added pieces of roof tile to the rubble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that I let the whole thing dry overnight again. </div>
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Then finally on Wednesday I started painting. I did a couple of thin coats of color on everything. Painting the walls a light brown or linen color and then washing them with a dark brown / black mix. After that I highlighted the walls with the original color to make the high points stand out. The stonework I painted a light gray but I didn’t like all that much so I went over it with a light brown color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you can from the pictures, the light brown color didn’t cover up the gray so it is still quite visible. I painted the wood timbers and the floor a dark brown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rubble I painted the same color as the walls then washed several times with the brown / black wash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that I picked out a few bits and painted them to match the dressed stone and painted the busted tiles in the rubble. After that I painted the roofs. These I painted with an orange color then painted various areas of the tile light gray and dark gray. After this dried I repainted the whole roof again with a slightly watered down orange in order to tone down the gray colors.</div>
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This was where I finished on Wednesday night. I had planned to go over the building again and give everything at least another coat of paint and repaint the dressed stone which I didn’t like. On Thursday I threw this building in the car with the rest of my stuff and headed up to the Game store to play some Bolt Action. Well, the model never made it back home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended selling it to one of the owners of the FLGS, who really liked it, even though I told him that it wasn’t done. It turned out to be a small consolation prize for the fact that I let a guy who had never played before run my Soviet Army and he crushed me and my Germans under his boot heel. Well you know what they say, “if you can’t beat them, rock in the corner and cry”, or something along those lines.</div>
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So on Friday I realized that I hadn’t taken any pictures of the tower since I had started painting it Wednesday, so I took a few minutes out of my busy day and stopped off at my FLGS and take some pictures.</div>
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As you can see in the last picture the roof of the tower is removable so that you can put a sniper team or observer in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bottom floor is also big enough that I could fit my AT gun in the bottom floor or put a squad up on the second floor to shoot out the windows. </div>
Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-843143934984294937.post-76554803546574981162013-06-14T08:51:00.001-07:002013-06-14T08:51:29.637-07:00Soviet Specialist Teams<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I have been working on my WW2 Soviet forces for a while now.
They are in various states of…being. Few are done, but most of them are almost
done. Part of the problem lies with my personal taste. I finished all but 12
soldiers from the Plastic Soldier Company box. Then by the time I got around to
painting the last dozen soldiers I had lost my painting guide and the finished
soldiers were boxed up and buried amongst the debris of my work area. So I went
from memory and painted the dirty dozen I had left. After I finished I then dug
out the rest of their comrades. This was when I discovered that my memory was
faulty and I had mis-remembered the color that I had painted the uniforms. I
decided to just dry brush the last bunch to help them match, and maybe look as
though they were veterans with stained, discolored or otherwise dirty uniforms.
Long story short, the dirty dozen ended up looking way better than the original
guys and so I decided to repaint the 40 some others to match. However, I just
haven’t had the energy to get around to redoing so much work, and so while they
bulk of my infantry languishes on the shelf. I have working on some of the
special teams that I have acquired for my Soviet forces.</div>
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So with the imminent release of more Soviet troops, this time
from Wargames Factory, who’s other WW2, especially the Germans I really like, I
figured I should get things moving. I know that at this point I should probably
just skip the new Soviets box, but I know that I won’t. After all, the PSC
models are early war, and the Wargames Factory models are late war. So clearly,
I am going to NEED both sets if I am going to have enough options adequately
play the Soviets, because I am going to NEED an early war force and I will NEED
a late war force. Okay, now that I have rationalized that, let move on to what
I have done so far. </div>
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For me one of the most interesting teams fielded by the
Soviets would be the anti-tank dog teams. What’s not to love really? The
testing of man and dogs status as best friends by blowing the latter to smithereens;
the sheer audacity of any plan that involves strapping explosives to an animal
and having any, and I mean ANY expectation that things just might go as
planned; not to mention the whole thing makes the sphincters of animal lovers
the world over pucker right up. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/dogmine_zps993d432e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/dogmine_zps993d432e.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I have a better Idea, how about you go fetch the Tiger I you crazy...</td></tr>
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As far as the game mechanics for this unit in Bolt Action,
there is a good chance that you can unleash the dogs and nothing will happen.
There is also a chance that you might blow up one of your own tanks or
non-armored vehicles. Now this might bother some people, as some people just
can’t seem to handle anything that does not mesh with their “Master Plan”, but
it just makes me smile because I don’t have a master plan. So if I blow up my
own T-34 I am just going to laugh, then hope that my opponent FUBAR’s and blows
up his own Panther, or Puma.</div>
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My biggest complaint about the anti-tank teams pack that I
got from Warlord Games only comes with one bomb dog and two handlers, and the
unit in the Soviet Army book requires two dogs per team. So I am one dog short
of a full team. Sure, I could buy another pack, and then I would have four
handlers and two dogs. Though I suppose I could use the extra guys as grunts. However
my plan was to acquire some dog miniatures and then make some explosive packs
out of green stuff. This way I could have plenty of dogs, as well as some
variety in the dogs, as I think Warlord Games just makes the one dog. So after
some looking around I found some dogs at Sgt. Major Miniatures that I like,
well actually some<a href="http://www.sgmm.biz/WR6-4-Wolves_p_328.html" target="_blank"> wolves</a> but I think they would work well for this project. I
am thinking to paint them up to look like Siberian Huskies. I like the <a href="http://www.sgmm.biz/C2-6-Collared-Mastiffs_p_460.html" target="_blank">Mastiff’s</a>
as well, but I am not sure that I really want to use such a big dog for this
project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that you can take up to
three anti-tank teams for each selection in the Soviet book, I am thinking I
might get two packs, or try to find some more dog miniatures. Maybe somebody
makes a Dachshund that I could convert into a bomb dog, death by wiener dog.
Anyway, that’s the plan for building up my Anti-tank bomb dogs from this humble
beginning. </div>
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/sovietantitank03_zps45c771f7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/sovietantitank03_zps45c771f7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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These guys also came with the anti-tank team pack but they are not nearly as interesting as exploding dogs. Maybe more useful and dependable but certainly not as interesting. </div>
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The second group that I have finished are the Forward Observers. This pack contains three figures for use as spotters and observers or whatever you want to use them as. I really like the figure with the semaphore flags. The other two figures are also pretty nice. The one on the left is laying down and checking out his map before you calls in that artillery barrage. Knowing how I roll, it will probably result in the death of half of my forces. The figure on the right has a field phone and set of binoculars. The heads are inter-changeable, and can be used on any of the figures.</div>
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<a href="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/sovietFO03_zps1d24d1d9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae297/kirksmithicus/Bolt%20Action/Soviet%20Specialty%20Teams/sovietFO03_zps1d24d1d9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13254100278704803285noreply@blogger.com2