Wip Zombie Handgunners for Oldhammer

In building up for my Oldhammer game against Chuckaroobob I decided to field a unit of arquebus armed skeletons. After a bit of research I decided skeletons might not be the way to go. On the other hand some Zombie arquebus troops were just a bits box raid away.

After raiding the "Closet of Doom" I came up with ten prospective Zombie hand gunners.

This model came in a ebay lot, complete with broken handgun and foot. I cut the broken piece of foot off and glued it to a base. I drilled out the handgun so I can pin a barrel on later. Then I sculpted the foot.

From the same evil bay lot, these six didn't come with handguns, but I had a plan.

One thing I do have is a hand full of the mordheim blunderbuss bits. Trim off the arm and then pin it on, easy right?

The first head swap, the zombie hnadgunner template. I used a long pin and set the zombie beside a regular handgunner to get the height right. Then I cut the arm on a mordheim blunderbuss bit and went to glue it on and it didn't fit. The hand were too far apart. I knew I could carve off the back hand on the blunderbuss glue it on, then sculpt one back on, but I went back to the bit box instead.

The bounty of the bits box, an outrider repeating handgun. I picked up a box of bits at the last GameonGw Gamesday at Gaming Underground in High Point NC. It had a bunch of the plastic outrider bits that finally came in handy. I trimmed off the arm and it was almost a perfect fit. I pinned it on and just need to add a bit of green stuff to fill the gaps. I will play it as an arquebus but whats not to like about a Zombie with a Gatling gun.

How the conversion was supposed to go, head swap for a zombie head and pin on a blunderbuss after carving off the second hand. Just eight more to go.

ColKG

Oop Carrion Riders for Oldhammer

I finally managed to get the oop Carrion and riders out of the simple green and cleaned up.

I wanted to put them on the old style hexagonal flying bases but I didn't have enough so I used some brass rod and pinned them to 40mm bases. I pinned the heads to the torsos and ran a pin for the riders through the  top of the wings. Unless they take a drop from the table to the floor, they should stay together now. I still have to fill the gaps with greenstuff and add a few details.

The lot came with two riders with broken scythes. One of the scythe blades was included and I have pinned it back on and you cant really tell it was broken now. The second rider was missing the scythe blade so I needed to come up with a blade. I found one of the old style skeleton scythe bits that was missing its handle. I trimmed off the bladed and pinned it on. I trimmed it down a bit but once it is painted it will blend into the unit.

I have been working on the models for the 10k Undead army. I have a bunch of models assembled and ready to prime, I just need a a good weather day to get some priming done, then the painting will begin.

ColKG

GDW's "Citadel" The Battle of Dien Bien Phu

 Hi Kids,  So I know what you've been wondering....  "What are those hardcore gaming lads over in the next county up to lately?"  They've finished Marshal Enterprises' "Leipzig" and breezed through the Gamers'  "Ardenne," next up is GDW's "Citadel," Dien Bien Phu!  No doubt they are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Battle!  Or maybe they just got lucky with the timing....

 Here's the valley of Dien Bien Phu, looking north.  The Commie Viet Minh are the red counters (how appropriate) in the green areas of jungle hills, while the glorious French Union forces are in the center and south.  Naturally, any game with the French Foreign Legion is worth owning!  And playing if you get the chance!  This is the set-up.

A close up of the north chunk of the map, you can see Strongpoints Beatrice and Gabrielle, along with the airstrip and central base.  Turn one has just started with overcast skies here over the battlefield as well as over the Red River Delta.  Time for new dice!



DBP is an olde fav of mine, possibly due to the FFL connection.  All sorts of interesting stuff....
A fortress in the jungle, supplied only by air, CIA pilots, including the legendary "Earthquake McGoon," commies using American 105mm arty captured during the Korean War, including fresh ammo misdropped by the supply flights, entire units of Red Chinese manning anti-aircraft guns, human wave assaults, arty firing in self defense over open sights, huge tunneled mines just like in WW1, the "Paratroop Mafia," some units had so much surplus elan they actually went into combat singing!  Volunteers were still parachuting in the night before the fortress fell.  The night before Camerone Day one legion unit executed an assault just to capture some vinogel (wine concentrate) which had landed in no-mans-land.  Near the very end, when the Viet Minh were closing in, one Legionnaire came out of his bunker wearing his Kepi Blanc, saying, "I want them to know, they're facing the Legion." There was even a plan for the US Air Force to send in B-29's!  (Possibly with nukes!)
To learn more, here are a few books you could check out:
Martin Windrow "The Last Valley"
Jules Roy "The Battle of Dien Bien Phu"
Ted Morgan "Valley of Death"
Bernard Fall "Hell in a Very Small Place"
John Prados "Operation Vulture"
and just recently there's a new one out, JC Bourg "The Man Who Walked Out of Isabelle."
The 1992 movie "Dien Bien Phu" is definitely worth watching, its about as far from a Hollywood action/ war movie as you can get.  It was directed by a participant/witness of the battle,  Pierre Schoendoerffer.

Spring Fever 2014 Convention AAR

Hi Kids, Last weekend was Spring Fever, the miniature wargames con in Raleigh.  I was only able to make it for one of the two days, but I did manage to take some snaps of the action.  This one was probably the last Spring Fever, the lads are trying to decide if they want to keep this con and the larger Raleigh con Southern Front going long term.  So why don't all you local-ish kids get a tank o' gas and head over to Raleigh to see what you're missing?  You might not get that many more opportunities.  The next Game Day is June 7th at Atomic Empires in Durham, and Southern Front is in November.  A great time will be had by all!

 Here we have the triumphant return of the World Famous Conrad, builder extrodinarre!  It's a 15mm game called "Get Off The Beach," using a huge amount of hand-built landing craft of assorted types.  They even brought their own barrage balloons!  All custom built terrain, too!

 The view from the other side.

 Heck, why not custom build some wreckage, too?

 Lord of The Rings, fighting the elephants of doom.

 Steampunk or the Wild West?  Let's be flexible!  You can always find a use for a rigid airship!

 The French and Indian War, probably somewhere up near the Great Lakes.

 The scene before the action starts.

 The partially constructed fort is in trouble in these two shots.

 Tron Lightcycles in the early game.  Eight players took to the grid; half fighting for the Users, half for the evil MCP.

 Things are getting a lot tighter later in the game.

Here we have the setup for a 54mm Ancient Greek game, skirmish level encounters.

 

And who'd of thought you could get divine intervention while defending your cattle?  Watch out, that guy looks pissed!

 Not to be outdone, one of the other factions manages to attract the attention of Ares himself!  Seek shelter!

 It wasn't all Historical, there was a 40K tournament going on also!  Here's a fistful of bad news, a Tyranid army made up of bad attitude!

 Funky terrain!

 The Chaos Wastes never looked so good!

 Stonehenge for the 40K set!

 Between games the Necrons land for some routine maintenance.

 Billy Bad-ass buzzes the bad guys!

 "Tween game breaks are over, time to get back into the rough and tumble!

 A better shot of the Necron Air Force!

 One of GW's Finest; the brand new Knight!

 Take cover men!

 Some other big beasties take on the Marines!

And that's about it for this con report!

Spanish-American War Bulgarians Tiger Minis

Hi kids,  Once again I have actually painted something!  WOW!  (Not that the paint jobs are wow-inspiring, but the fact that I'm painting might be.)  These Tiger Miniatures have been lurking in the Basement for a couple years, maybe 5 or so, and it just seemed like they were ripe enough to go ahead and get 'em combat ready.  Got a tub more of 'em still waiting.  Maybe someday....  Yes, the title of this post is a little misleading; as far as I know no Bulgarians were in the Spanish-American War.  Tiger makes both.  Painting makes strange bedfellows.

 The sealant is barely dry!  These 10 guys are Tiger Minis US Rough Riders from the Spanish-American War.  Its a project I've been haphazardly working on for awhile now.  I have enough to put on some games, but who knows when I'll get a chance to do so?

 A little farther out, so we can see the entire mob.  Tiger makes a Teddy Roosevelt fig, too!

Long time readers might remember the world famous East Transdniesterian* Border Police, my Pulp Imagi-nation unit from way on back.  I bought these Tiger Minis Balkan Wars figs cause they looked the part.  Now they have officially joined the ranks as gunners!  I think they were originally Bulgarians.  They come in groups of 5, but the others were posed to sit on arty pieces and I haven't decided if I want them permanently glued to guns or not yet.  After all, my guns have to serve many masters.  You never know what time period or part of the world you'll be playing!

 

*Yes this country really exists, sort of.  Part of Moldova went rogue, not sure if anybody bothered to recognize them or not.   I think they were printing their own money.  Maybe Putin has already taken them over.