Tactical Nuclear Penguin

At 32%, this awesomely named beer was the world's strongest when it was released but is now relegated to just third!

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin.php

Its been superceeded by the 41% ABV "Sink the Bismarck"

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article.php?id=251

And now the 43% Schorschbock

http://www.benz-weltweit.de/derbraeuvomberch/produkte_eng.html

But at going rates of around $100 per bottle, its not likely to cause a drink-driving problem!

Little Wars - Part II

Apart from the awesome game that was Jurassic Reich, played on the table above (detailed report to follow) and the obligatory sale people I was very happy to give my money too (thanks again for the goodies!) there as some great stuff at Little Wars. I didnt get pics of everything, but a few things really caught my eye. Here good mats of mine Pete and Ken learn how to play Command and Colours Ancients, demonstrated by Brian of Western Wargaming Club using 25mm Picts and Romans. There as also somenice Space Hulk action in the background, where Terminators of the Imperial Fist Chapter werehaving a hard time of it when I went past: I also spied Karsten running a Mammoth hunting game in 15mm using the fun TUSK rules (sorry about the dodgy pic, but there were hunters' hands going every where!): And then there was a fantastic looking 25mm VSF game set on Mars (more to follow on this later too); and yes there was plenty more I didnt get a chance to see in detail between the chats, socials, gaming, buying, beers and bratwursts! Thanks again to everyone who helped put on the show- I had a brilliant day out.

Little Wars and Jurassic Reich

Just home from a brilliant day out at Little Wars. Many thanks indeed to all the organisers for a fantastic day. The gaming highlight for me was playing Jurassic Reich along with Owen - many thanks to Alan and Greg for running a great game and the opportunity to play on simply inspirational terrain. Lots of pics to come once I've done my chores!

A trio of my Kriegclawtruppen charge Owen's hero bazooka team from the flank and take them down!

Also great to catch up with many old friends, including Nic and John from Eureka miniatures. http://jurassicreich.wordpress.com/

The other kind of modelling

Thanks Comrade James!

More reinforcements arrive!

After all, what good is a Mech-Grenadier force without any vehicles? hardly Mech eh?

From Warlord Games I got a few figs, but in particular two vehicles: a "Stummel" variant of the Sdkfz 250 with a 75mm gun And a Hetzer Assault gun (direct successor of the beloved StuG III): Time to fire up the airbrush!

German Vampire - Part 2

Side profiles - as requested by Owen

German Vampire

Finished this guy off today - toting both a SMG and a Mauser pistol, he is ready for some serious action!
Fig by Westwind (G-SOTR40).


























Next up on the workbench: two German snipers

Vampir IR sight - Part II

Found some 28mm figs euipped with this cool weapon!
They are Victory Force Miniatures' "Nachtjagers" line of figs:

http://www.victoryforce.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=VFM&Category_Code=newwar http://www.victoryforce.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=VFM&Category_Code=SS Hereis

Here is one painted up by the very talented Agis Neugebauer. If you havent seen his fantastic work, you got to have a look at his webpage! (image used with permission)
http://www.agisn.de/html/late_war_germans.html

Jäger Wulfpack

Joining my previous werewolf, Wolfgang, on the weird WW2 frontline are his new friends: Janus and Mondheulen:

And here is the whole Wulfpack together, ready to hunt:

Luftfaust -Part II

Found some great pics of the Luftfaust mini by "What the !" miniatures: http://tableterror.blogspot.com/2010/01/mude-krieger.html

Luftfaust

Another awesome (if somewhat impractical) 'secret weapon',but this time I've found a figure! Load with silver tipped rockets in a grund support role and mow those werewolf packs down :-)

Wikipedia: The Fliegerfaust (lit. “pilot fist” or “plane fist”), also known as the "Luftfaust" (lit. “air fist”), was an unguided German multi-barreled ground-to-air rocket launcher designed to destroy enemy ground attack planes and is credited as the first MANPAD (man-portable air-defense) system.

Designed by HASAG (Hugo Schneider AG) of Leipzig in 1944, the Luftfaust was produced in two different versions.

The first version, the Fliegerfaust A, had four 20 mm caliber barrels. These fired 20 mm projectiles weighting 90 g and containing 19 g of explosive, propelled by means of a small rocket.

The second version, the Fliegerfaust B ("Luftfaust") increased the length of the barrels, and added another 5 barrels, for a total of 9 barrels. The weapon had a total length of 150 cm and weighed 6.5 kg. First 4 rounds from every second barrel were fired immediately and the remaining five 0.1 second later to avoid damaging the projectiles themselves by the rockets' exhaust fumes and from interfering with their courses.

The projectile was a standard 20mm high explosive/incendiary round attached to a steel tube containing a solid fuel propellant. Electrically ignited, the rocket motor vented through 4 angled ports in the base of the tube, giving the projectile spin for stability as well as forward thrust. The standard round achieved a velocity of 380 metres per second, spinning at 26,000 revolutions a minute, with an effective range of about 500 metres, and maximum range of about 2,000 metres.

The projector was a fairly simple device, consisting of nine light, metal tubes fitted in a circular array on a shoulder stock, with a pistol grip and a trigger incorporating a magneto firing generator, similar to a Panzerschreck. The rounds were provided in clips of nine, matching the barrel layout, and could be loaded as one.



The Fliegerfaust was not a successful weapon because of its small effective range caused by too large dispersion of projectiles and the designed range of 500 meters was never attained. Although large orders for the weapon were placed in 1945, and with 10,000 launchers and 4 million rockets ordered, only 80 of these weapons were ever used in combat trials, in this case by a unit based at Saarbrücken.

Reinforcements arrive!

for my German WWW2 force that is. Comprising of:
- 4 NCOs
- 8 Riflemen
- 2 man Sniper team
- 2 man Mechbush team (think BIG AT gun)
- 2 Werewolves
- 1 Vampire!

hoping to get into them this weekend.
Maybe the Werewolves first...

Vampir IR sight

This is pretty cool - now to find a figure for it! Background from various places around the www:

During the final months of World War 2, the German military came up with another ‘wonder weapon” in an attempt to change the tide of battle. This was the ZG 1229 Vampir infrared site for the STG 44 assault rifle. This thing was heavy, about 5 lbs. and was connected to a 30 lbs. battery support pack designed to be carried on the soldiers back.



The Vampir was not the first German Infrared System, but by the end of the war in 1945 it was the most compact and advanced system they had. The technology itself dates back to around the start of the war, when engineers developed the first infrared rangefinder for German light anti-tank artillery. This was improved and some heavier direct-fire artillery was equipped with it as well. By 1944 the Germans had developed a version flexible enough to be mounted on the Panther tank and by the last year of the war were ready to issue the man-portable Vampir system.

The Vampir system consisted of a "black" spot light, one component of its active infrared system, fixed atop the impressive StG-44 assault rifle. Below this infrared light was a range finder that could detect the light emitted by the IR lamp. Since this light was invisible to anyone not equipped with the system it gave a massive edge over relying on flashlights and flares for illumination. The system mounted on the gun was linked by insulated wire to a heavy battery pack and simple control box that the soldier wore in place of his normal gear. It could transform a normal soldier it one capable of fighting in complete darkness, be it a cave or a moonless night, without revealing his position.

There is dispute over whether or not the Vampir was actually issued to combat soldiers. Some reports claim it was given to special units of the Waffen-SS for testing, others claim it was issued to crews of the similarly equipped Panther tanks (although this seems unlikely due to the unit's bulk). My theory is that what few units were combat-ready were probably issued to the ultra-elite commandos of commanders like Otto Skorzeny and perhaps in the final defense of Berlin. Chances are we will never know the exact truth as no photographs exist of troops utilizing the weapons in the field, but the system was proven to work.

German Tiger Mech

Tiger mech, suitably embellished with extra goodies, by David's mate Dave Weedon. Heres the Westwind description:

Nothing is more terrifying than the latest mecha design of the German engineers of the Nibelungen Panzer factory. This is a machine powerful and fearsome enough to be the harbinger of doom for the allies as the Gotterdammerung rages on–a veritable chariot of the Gods. Every reverberating footstep sounds the death knell of its foes. The very appearance of one of these iron gods of death has been known to break the will of allied units.

It’s an awesome resin and white metal kit, reaching ten inches tall, complete with display base, full weapons load out to include 1x 88mm auto cannon, 1x heavy flamethrower, 2 rocket batteries, 1 MG42 machine gun pod and a commander’s MG42. All in all, the best Mech we have ever made.