Summer Time Table Project

Last year I made a Frostgrave board during the summer to keep me thinking about staying cool.  This summer I'm going desert to remind me it's hot outside!

Stashed away in different corners of my basement I have terrain to play in jungles, in a city, in a the mountains and I even have terrain to play in the interior of a building.  I have begun to feel like my boards have become a little stale for Infinity, so I wanted to mix it up with something that looks very different than the terrain I currently own.  After a lot of online searches I settled on the "New Bourak" line by Plastcraft games.  I had seen a few pictures of what a decked out table would look like, and I really liked it!

I used the following photo to help me figure out what pieces I would need to recreate this table and to price out the costs.  Once that was done it was up to my credit card to do the rest.

A week later all the pieces I would need arrived in the mail.  I was excited, but receiving so many pieces was also a bit overwhelming.  I decided that during Maddy's nap time I would try and put together one building section together per day.  This made the process much more manageable!

After one week I have the following assembled.  I tried to set it up similar to my inspiration from above so you an see how it is shaping up.

I have one more box of walls to complete which should enclose the compound.  I made sure to leave everything unattached as I wouldn't want to play on the same table again and again.  But for photo purposes I'll try and leave the buildings in the same spot!

The box buildings that flank the compound were really easy to assemble.  Especially after I had to curve the plastic pieces in certain areas in order to assemble the Bourak buildings.  That was certainly time consuming.

Lastly, I have a size shot with a Govad waiting to be painted.  I believe he is 3rd in the que to see some love.

Next week there will be less hobby action as I am going with the family to DC.  Still I should be able to finish assembling the rest of the buildings!

Late War Grenadiers

Slowly getting my way through the late war plastic German set from Warlord.  The models look great although it takes a bit more time to paint since they aren't all in gray.

I do love a good panzerfaust  Just wait right here until that Sherman gets a little closer!

The camo pattern feels a bit flat to me, but it is just dark brown and green splotches.  So I guess it works!

I still need to figure out a good recipe for their skin tone.  It still looks too yellow to my eyes.  I'll have to purchase a few different colors and experiment in the future.

I like this picture here.  The squad looks like they are all gearing up for an assault or to repeal an attack.

Katyusha

Last update for a bit.  I can get a lot of hobby time in when I'm on vacation!  I finished up the Soviet Katyusha.

This model took a lot of cleaning to remove flashing and mold lines.  Especially on the resin rungs the rockets are fired from.  That felt like I would never finish scraping.

 I got a bit sick of sticking my WWII models in the woods, so maybe a bombed out village would be a nice setting for this scene?  I can see this guy hiding here from enemy planes.

 I like the face on this Soviet.  I applied a red wash on his nose and it came out looking pretty nice.  I feel like I am getting a bit better with the skin tones now.  It only took me about 20 years...

Zombies Batch 8

Almost done!  I only have 8 more zombies and one more survivor to go!

 I don't have many close ups as I have really given up on the quality of paint job with these guys.  They'll just blend into the background anyway!

I am happy with the Abomination model and I think he will look fairly decent when he comes  out onto the board.  I like the little touches like the ipod on his belt and the camera around his neck like a tourist who was in the wrong pace at the wrong time.

I don't know when I'll have the motivation to tackle the last batch, but I'm shocked I've made it this far.

Tiger

I have been looking forward to painting this beast.  Ever since I saw the movie Saving Private Ryan such a long time ago I have the image of one America soldier yelling at the top of his lungs, "Tiger tank!" engraved in my head.  Now I want to watch that movie again...

The tank is very massive compared to the earlier German vehicles that I have assembled which I'm sure will have a nice intimidating presence on the field of battle.

Bolt Action version 2 will be coming out in the fall and I hope it will become more usable as we typically play with about 100 points.  But even if it never sees our tabletop battleground it was fun to paint and add to my collection.

I figure a few late war German soldiers would help to show the size of the vehicle and give the pictures a bit of life!

Zis 3

 Finished up my ZiS 3 tank for my Soviets.   I like the way is came out and it gives me some nice needed anti-tank and anti-infantry support.

 It has been awhile since I posted as I am working on a secret army project for Infinity.  But since I know most of the guys I play Infinity don't frequent this blog, I am safe from them knowing that!

 I kind of like this black and white picture.  It works out well too because the guys behind the gun were a bit blurry.

Lastly, I tried a few washing techniques to pick up some red cheeks on the loader and a 5 O'Clock shadow with the man with  the crates.  I think I am getting better with it.  Hopefully I'll have a Tiger and a Katyusha up soon as well.

Ghulam

I finally picked up the Gulam swc box set.  It had been out for about a year, but I didn't pick it up right away as I already had a hacker and an HMG so I never saw it as something that I needed in my force to fill any gaps.  I figured that it may be nice to have a missile launcher in my group as the only one I have are heavy rocket launchers.  Some explosive damage from a distance couldn't hurt right?

I went to paint them up and I decided to touch up some of my older Ghulam.  I picked these up when I first got into Infinity and were some of the best models I had ever painted at the time.  I thought that I should touch them up to ensure some color coordination from the group.  After all, they do form the bulk of the majority of my soldiers.

A little bit closer picture... I imagine they are on the lookout for some Shavasti outside of the city.

Here are two models that I will be phasing out.  The first is my original hacker.  I still like him and think he could serve well as a Najarun engineer.  Since I don't have one and I don't care for the current model.  New position for him!

Lastly I am happy to replace the old HMG model.  I knew it was fairly ugly, but not until I took him out again that I realize that he was pretty hideous.  They did a good job of updating the HMG model.

Next stop will be testing out my trusty line troopers on the battlefield.

Bocage

After working on some canopy for some 6mm war gaming, I had the idea that I could transfer the concept of the canopy to making some hedges/bocage for WWII or jungle type games.  At the same time I finished up some support pieces for my Germans in the form of an MMG team, a medic and a comms team.  Convenient timing for pictures.

Essentially the base of the bocage is mdf board cut to 6" long and 1.25" wide.  I then cut a half inch strip of foam insulation the same length and only a half inch wide.  I figured the moss would bulk it out a bit.  I was right for once!  Then it was glued together and I painted the foam black and the MDF brown.  I may go back and paint it green, you can see it peaking out in some of the pictures.  Green may blend it in better.  Lastly I took a bunch of moss that I purchased from Michael's and used a glue gun to stick the moss in place.

The moss is high enough that it fully covers a standing warlord figure.  Great for Normandy scenarios.  In total I have about 5' 6" worth of hedges.  I had another 6" piece of MDF cut out but it went missing from the cutting stage to the gluing stage.  I'm blaming the sticky fingers of a certain two year old.

I am pretty happy on how it looks.  I think it will look great along side a road or some farm land.  I think I'll also need to make a bunch more too as you can quickly use up 5' of hedges in a hurry!

Zombies: Batch...I've lost count...

Slowly, slowly I am chipping away at the horde of zombies I have been given for Christmas.  I can definitely tell that my painting of the zombies has gotten a bit sloppier, but I am willing to overlook that right now as the detailing should get lost in the pack.

Here our trusty sheriff defends the bar from some patrons who are little more than rowdy.

This zombie better watch his step.

I can't wait to get a game in with a fully painted set.  I have 16 zombies to go, an abomination and one last survivor!  They will have to wait until I paint up my last outcast squad however...

Now you see me, now you REALLY see me

I recently got a third Hafza model for Infinity, but the big difference is this one carries a spitfire!  I like the fact that they are fairly inexpensive game wise and can hide in plain sight as practically any model in the army.  Plus one option can be a specialist too for objective grabbing.

Since I was painting the spitfire model to match the two originals I owned, I figure I would update the color scheme on my other two hafzas while I had the paints out.

Below was the original paint scheme I had for them.  I thought they were a little too colorful.  The green and the red was very bright and I felt it competed a lot with each other.  Plus it made the Hafzas look like they were suppose to be played at Christmas time.

I updated the above model with some color swaps essentially removing 95% of the red and he looks much better in my opinion.

The same thing can be said with his buddy crouching down.  A little red removal went a long way!

The group together ready to surprise their enemies.  Now I just have to get a game in with them.

Hitler Youth

When I picked up the Last Levy box, I did it because each model was just full of character.  I don't know how I feel about actually using models representing child soldiers yet, but the models themselves were fun to paint.

Here the youth come out of the cabin to defend the Fatherland.  Don't ask why there is snow on the roof of the building but nowhere else.  I don't have a non snowy cottage.  You can thank Frostgrave for that!

The party boss is a great model.  I don't know if I would use him as a Volkstrum squad leader or as a commander in some fall of Berlin games.  Either way he will find his way onto the tabletop!

These poor kids can't even look over the top of the fence yet.

Haven't played much Bolt Action in awhile.  Maybe in another month or two we will come back to it.  Either way, this completes my "last levy" box set and fills up the rest of my figure case with Germans.  I suppose that is a good problem to have.

 Now to put together that Tiger tank I got for Christmas.

Cobra Commander

Hassle free made a Cobra Commander model and when my friend said he was placing an order, I had to piggyback off of it and pick up the greatest bad guy commander of all time.  At least during my childhood that is!

I went with the pasty blue color of the television cartoon of the 80's which is what I loved as opposed to the dark blue he traditionally wears.

As you can tell, my free hand on that Cobra emblem needs improving, but it won't get any better than that for quite sometime.

He could make for a fun HVT for Infinity or even a commander for my Germans in Bolt Action.  Just once in awhile.  If I'm feeling silly.  Or had too much to drink...