German LMG Team

LMG 46 gunner and No 2 with Gewehr 45 autorifle.

German Fireteam

The start of my Mech-Grenadier force! A 4 man fireteam equipped with body armour and MP48 Assault Rifles

German Colour Test

Did some work on my Mech Grenadiers over the weekend- finally got a few figs done! Here is the final versions of the Summer and Autumn cam schemes. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out.

EDIT - I also found this rather useful How To at Warlord Games:
http://www.warlordgames.com/30352/painting-waffen-ss-plane-tree-camouflage/ 

US paratrooper Zombies

Lets face it, most WWW2 Zombies are Germans, but its not a strict monopoly. As Owen told me, those Rooskies have plenty of dead-uns ready for reanimation and undead human wave attacks would be right up their alley!

At his page, Mike has come up with another take on the topic - para-zombies! No more complaining about drop injuries either!

http://miniaturewars.com/weird-war-2/more-us-zombies.html

Lest We Forget

FoW 1944 German Army

No not mine (unfortunately), by my e-friend Luis.
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=18183

Just need a few zombie hordes in my opinion...!

Wheat beer bottled

Brewed as a mid stength, this looks great and I couldnt help sample a little right out of the fermenter - maybe aging it a few days will improve it even more!

And don't forget:

You were warned...

No Fear of the Future

Gretel von X

Fans of the wargaming podcast 'This Week in Wargaming' would be aware of Ken's recent competition to give away some Gretel von x figures from the Incursion range. Having missed out fair and square, I was rather pleasantly surprised today - I was listening to the latst episode, AT-10 - appropriately while base coating SoTR figs in the Man Cave actually - when I heard at the end that Ken had found another fig and has awarded it to me in recognition of the following composition I made for the comp:

Ode to Gretel

Fine blonde locks and eyes of blue,

a Wagnerian beauty, you know its true.

My dear Gretel, you look so sweet,

I count the days until we meet!

Upon my desk top you will be

and painting projects oversee.

Keeping my models all in line,

enraptured by your features fine.

So treat me with your winning smile,

I promise to make it worth your while.

About you all my friends will rave-

Germanic mistress of my Man Cave!

So my Weird War forces grow and my Germanic horde has a new Command figure...
Many thanks indeed Ken! All I can say is..."Dude!"

The dead rise in Stalingrad!

A Weird WW2 game using NUTS - looks Fun! http://sbminisguy.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/nuts-hell-on-earth-the-dead-rise-in-stalingrad/ I bet the Rooskies wish there wasnt as many dead fascists about to rise from the grave!

German Jäger Werewolf 'Wolfgang'

Did this guy over the weekend- my first WWW2 fig and in fact (to my shame) the first fig painted to completion in the new Man Cave.

Fig by Westwind which was a very criply cast with no flash and only a slight mold line. Lovely detail which lent itself well to drybrushing and washing, and I'm very happy with the result overall.

Recipe:
mid/dark grey spray undercoated and basecoated
3 successively lighter grey drybrushes
pants - olive green
detail on lips and claws
gyphone sepia washon body, devln mud wash on pants
highlights
made up my own blood effects mixing red ink and a bit of badab black wash- wanted some colour but not over the top gory

then I did the basing - should have done this first but I wanted to get into the painting.

So overall a great model which looks good, but I just read the rules and found out that there are three to a unit...Doh!

Weird Wars arrive!

Yep, done it again. Bought more stuff in yet another genre. I held out for at least two months this time so perhaps that is a small sign of improvement? Nah, SHMBO doesn't think so either!

So a box of WW2 weirdness arrives yesterday from Maelstrom Games: loving those guys and their free worldwide shipping!

First up: Incursion! by Grindhouse Games. Think Space Hulk but instead of Terminator marines, they are WW2 US Grunts in exoarmour, instead of stealers its Zombie Germans, and instead of a Space Hulk its situated in the tunnels beneath Gibraltar. Who couldn't love that?

http://www.incursiongame.com/

Ken at TWIW did a great review in a recent episode (AT-9), which I highly recommend. He clearly explains the difference bewteen Incursion and Space Hulk too.
http://thisweekinwargaming.com/2010/03/10/episode-at-9-march-9-2010/

So, intrigued about the background for this game, I ended up buying the rulebook for the tabletop minis version; Secrets of the Third Reich (SOTR). But the Doomsday expansion was also released recently, so for just a few pounds more...


Then I started to have a look through the SOTR forums and the very nice figs that Westwind do to support the game. I just love the German armoured Mech grenadiers so had to have a squad of those guys.


And a Werewolf Commando? Who could resist?

http://secretsofthethirdreich.com/forums/index.php


Mea Culpa!

And if you thinking this sounds very much like the saga of me buying Space hulk last year (http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2009/10/with-strength-of-warm-mars-bar.html), you aren't the only one... On a brighter note though, I've started painting the werewolf so the new Man Cave is now fully commissioned!

Little Wars Melbourne

Melbourne's Annual Wargames Participation Event is coming up next month.
God (and families) willing, Owen and I shall be in attendance!

We have signed up for "Jurrassic Reich" in the AM:

By late 1944 German scientists have developed the technology to breed dinosaurs, and ‘Dino’ de Laurentis had been induced to begin filming a documentary on the new pride of the German Army “Krieg-X”

American War Correspondent Ginger Snaps has been kidnapped and coerced into appearing in the film to lend it credibility. A special command unit headed by Sergeant Stone has been tasked with rescuing Ginger and destroying Project Krieg X. Can you help? Your country needs you!

To be then followed by some VSF War of the worlds action in the PM (using the GASLIGHT rules).

Looking forward to it!

http://www.littlewars.net.au/

OzHistoryCon-last pics, part 2!

No not by the Man Cave's exclusive reporter, but there are more OzHistoryCon pics on the net:

By Mal Wright:
http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n217/gallopingjack/OZhistoryCon/
and Alan Harrison:
http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=yqM%2F%2BP8Z1V0r0bCaNUGzUw%3D%3D

OzHistoryCon-last pics

Last of my pics from OzHistoryCon, by request :) Roman siege, using the Warmaster Ancients ruleset by Warhammer Historical, which incidentally is the rules upon which Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander and Future War Commander (all SPecialist Military Publishing) are based

Another shot from the Vietnam game...

The Shanghai incident-view from downtown

And some little board/minis game about Zombies, what was its name again? Oh yes thats right, Incursion....

Holidays are for....

...introducing the kids to Halo 1 in co-op campaign and deathmatch modes! Where did the day go again?

And so another generation of Spartan fans is spawned!

Moon Nazis

Arguably on a par with zombie Germans are moon Nazis! These moontruppen and spaceships come from the film 'Iron Sky", a 'science fiction comedy' currently under construction. http://www.ironsky.net/site/

And the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEueJnsu80

Not convinced yet? Have a look at this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIeFyPy3Ks

Middle Eastern Terrain

Ulu asked me earlier for a post on the terrain in my Ambush Alley Game discussed previously. Although I didn't make it myself, (having asked for it to be made through an ebay seller who had made excellent 15mm WW2 ruins before) I offer the following pics and comments on the structure of the terrain pieces. The walls are polstyrene mounted on a hardwood base, and painted with polystyrene friendly paint. The removable rooves are all hardwood as well, with the walls having a slight lip to allow the roof to sit on the wall.

Only one piece had this outside staircase, the others have square access holes in the roof to indicate a staircase (although the actual staircase is abstracted)

The low wall pieces are metal bent to shape mounted on a hardwood base, and then painted and textured appropriately, with small pebbles added for effect.

There you go, the only other ting is the mosque shown in the earlier post and the building next to it are stackable, allowing a two storey building or mosque.

Oz History Con-More pics

Some more pics from OzHistoryCon..... Huge table, biggest game going, bit hazy on the rule set used, but Napoleonics

Wings of War, a favourite, and check out the cool terrain piece for the coast

Legends of the Old West

Vietnam, using 15mm figs to another unknown rule set (tables were set up but no one there to explain.....)

Oz HistoryCon

This Easter weekend saw the inaugural OzHistoryCon, held here in Adelaide. Over 2 days the focus was on historical games, primarily demos, and some traders as well. In its first year the Con was fairly small by other convention standards but was still a great opportunity to see historical games that tend to get lost in the world of mass sci fi and fantasy marketing. That said, there was a Zombie game featured by Grindhouse games called Incursion.... The SHanghai Incident, figues seemed based for Flames of War...

Incursion...Zombies in WW2 uniforms....one for you Z fans..;)

The game...

28mm WW2 using Rapid Fire rules

Not huge, but there were three more traders to the right out of shot. And yes, that is Nic from Eureka Miniatures on the far right :)

TWIW: Episode AT-10 released

Ken has just released the latest episode (AT-10) of his great "This Week in Wargaming" podcast Go grab it!http://thisweekinwargaming.com/