Gunbird invades Peleliu - Bookkeeping finished

 After using my free time to crunch some numbers, I think i have it all noted down.

Japanese Scenario 1: 

• Infantry - more than enough, plenty of spares from the Army Box alone. The LMG's will come from Peter Pig (in stock) but I am lacking 2 so added a pack to my order.
  
• AT-Guns - enough in the box for the scenario, loader teams will come from Peter Pig (in stock)
• HMG - same
• Sniper and Spotter - Peter Pig (in stock)
• Off table 81mm - I can pre order this blister that has 4 teams of 81mm and a Observer team (always useful in Battlegroup). available from July 5th so I will wait.
• Grenade L. battery - Enough in the Army Box and I have spares from Peter Pig

Japanese Scenario 2:

•  Infantry - still enough left overs in the Army box, and a few from Peter Pig so ok
•  Rifle and Mortar spider holes - enough spares to cut a few apart, no worries
• Snipers - more in the Peter Pig pack
•  Timed Mortar Barrage - use the models as counters
• HMG - sorted
• Type 90 75mm gun - 2 of these in the Army box so sorted. 

 So besides chasing down a blister of 81mm mortars I'm ok for the Japanese.

USMC Scenario 1:

• BAR - I have 9, I need 18. Noted this for a order with Peter Pig
• Infantry -  I need about 60, there are 25 normal joes in the army box, the rest is NCO etc. I need to go over my Peter Pig USMC stash again for this, but I am coming up short.
•  Forward HQ - sorted
•  60mm mortar teams - I need 3, I have 2. So added to the order for Peter Pig
•  30.cal teams - 2 in the box, just what I need and i have spares from Peter Pig
•  LVT-2 - will be 3D printed
• Bazookas - Box has 2, I need 6 - Added to Peter Pig order 
• Demo man - just sculpt the charge bags on the models. 

USMC Scenario 2:

• If I have painted all the infantry for Scenario 1, I just need to add 3 BAR's and 9 more men, so added those to the PP order
• Forward HQ - sorted
• 30.cal teams - sorted
• Captured Type 92 - already working on it
• 2 Corpsmen - I'll use spare loaders suitably painted.
• Captured Pillbox - I'll reuse 2 from the previous scenario and modify another to be more American
• Barbed wire - I'll knock those out in an hour, easily sorted
• LVT-2 - I'll use the one from the previous scenario 

 

Now....let's get it on :)

Marine Woodpecker WIP

 No, not some weird mythical creature. Would be fun though :)

No, for the 2nd Scenario in Battlegroup Pacific the USMC get's a Captured Type 92 HMG with 3 man crew. Right...no one makes that. But I can :)

I picked up a pack of USMC 30 cal teams and a pack of Japanese HMG's. That gives me 1 spare team each for later, or to rebuild into loader teams. Who knows.

I removed the Type 92 from the gunner but kept his hands and feet (sounding like a slasher movie now) on the gun. The hands cause they will need to connect to the USMC gunner cause those have to go, as he he has his hands on top and behind the gun on the paddles instead of the lower grip.

Yes, I know it's a 15mm model, but hey, it's what I like. And I only ever will need 1 team.

I removed the hands and gun from the USMC gunner, saving the gun for later. Sanded down his base a lot cause there is a difference in size between the 2 models.

That brings me to the Type 92. The model is very compressed compared to the original, so I took off the the rather short barrel and replaced it with a longer bit of paperclip after some very dodgy drilling. Sadly I can't fix the back end. Well, I could, but then I might as well build a full new gun

Gunbird invades Peleliu - The planning fase

 Right - O.

PostNL just dropped off the Battlefronts USMC and Japanese starter armies, I checked those and put them aside with the rest of the 15mm Pacific collection.

Unlike the Stalker project, I need this to be much more organised to prevent burn out, so....check list. 

Check what I have and mark that off.  

Build what I have and mark that off.

Paint what I have and mark that off.

A bit schoolish, but it works if I want to get a project done.

I'll be using Battlegroup Pacific and playing the following scenario's:

• Scenario 1 - Getting "The Point" - Peleliu, 15th April 1944
• Scenario 2 - Holding "The Point" - Peleliu, 15th-16th April 1944

 That means build forces, build scenery, prep table, game. I'm giving myself 12 months cause I habitually keep doing stuff in between :)

I made checklists for all.

Scenario 1 - Japanese Forces

Scenario 2 - Japanese Forces

Scenario 1 - USMC

Scenario 2 - USMC

For both armies, the 2nd Scenario has plenty of duplicates, so I don't need to paint it all again (thank God!). Tomorrow I'll go over my stash and sort what I have for this, and see what I still need. As far as I can tell now I'm short a USMC 60mm Mortar team and 4 Bazooka teams

And that's it for today. Long day. Tired.

Edit - and tired I was, I accidentally tripled the amount of USMC I needed. Modifed 10/5/2025

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - Russian WIP part 4

 Not a whole lot, hands are not agreeing with me this week.

Used .5mm lead wire for the cable, cut the ends at a slant and looped then ends back so it resembles the loop at the end of the cable. Not perfect, but it's 15mm so nothing that will be terribly visible. Hung the other cable from the stowage box, glued the gas bottles in place and now looking for a crate. When it has all set I;ll do the milliput tarp and then it is ready for primer I guess?

I might do this to one or two more tanks, maybe a wreck.....but that is it.

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - Russian WIP part 3

 A little bit of progress, magnets finally arrived, as well as 2 sets of PT-34 mine rollers kindly donated to me (if that isn't motivational, I dunno what is) and I picked up a new bottle of Mr Surfacer 1000 for texturing the turrets, but I will do a test first to see if it even shows up. 

 

 

Magnets or new Russian superweapon?

 

 Changing the roadwheel was something I liked doing.....just not with a scalpelblade and my less than capable hands these days. So Dremel it is. I ran through the first one with ease, and then realised I should have removed the....thingy that keeps the wheel in place. Hub...knob...thing? The next 2 I removed beforehand and I grabbed the...thing from a PSC T-34 roadwheel). I wanted to convert a few with one or two Panther roadwheels.

And then I find out that A. The spare Pantherwheels you get with the BF (Jagd)Panther are a bit bigger than expected and B. I can't bend these tracks out of the way like I can with PSC ones.
Oh well, a small cut here, a small cut there, some paint and mud and Bob will be your creepy family member.

One is not like the others...

 

 

Progress, and a sharp scalpelblade which is a bit of a healthrisk with clumsyness....

The plan for this week is to finish all the trackwork (done), have all the magnets in place (I'm short 1 T-34/85 turret to build for the Beute) and get the 10 T-34/76, the T-34 ARV and the PT-43/76 completely built up, pinned and ready for primer.

This may be a bit optimistic as we are in the middle of a tropical heatwave (by Dutch strandards, we went from 18 C to 31 C which means I start my mornings in the gym as they have AC )

Ah well, best laid plans and all that.

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - the list of what I need to build - which is a lot, but not as much as I thought.

 Forces needed for this scenario:

And the battlefield I need to make:

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - Scenery WIP part 2

 Well, they are done. A few have glossy craters but I'll paint that over. When I will do waterlogged craters I'll use the same technique but a bit different. No rush, not doing this in a hurry again for a while. Just no fun, factorylining so many at once is just not for me. 

Ok, maybe I'll do another 10 of the bigger ones. SOmeday.

Primed another, bigger, transformer station for the project and looking at some other H0 stuff to see if it is suitable enough.

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - Russian WIP part 2

 Tonight all T-34 hulls got equipped with a block of the (not usable anywhere else because

partly hardened) greenstuff with 2 bolts in it so that the models have a little more weight and

glued all hulls. Rheumatism and kneading could just be a war crime.

 

Oil drum fixed, worst of the 2 running wheels glued flat and fixed, nicer of the 2 with the best

successful side placed at an angle and 1 axle of the German Truck set slightly shortened and made 

into a gas cylinder. (oil drum, lubricants, gas cylinder and the Russian habit of smoking 

wherever it is not allowed. I'm sure it will go well). Also a crate of the Accesopires set 

attached to the side of the hull as a toolbox. 

 

Now let's see what else can/must be put in the cargo box and then start working on covering the 

rear part with a tarp. Then pull cables from front to back and back to front and the rest of the 

detail work.

Forlorn Hope at Sachsendorf - Russian WIP part 1

 Progress made sofar, put in the build box what I have right now. Magnetised all the T-34 hulls, tomorrow all of the turrets, and got halfway with the T-34 ARV. (it's not in the list, but if I'm building so many T-34's....I might as well.)

For some reason, in the last used lot I bought there were a few PSC T-34 track sections (no T-34's in that lot). Cut one apart, made a line i9n a few wheels and used my Japanese saw to extend the gap. Looks good enough at a distance, added a oil drum from the PSC accessories sprue. The load bed is made from a spare PSC Blitz cargo bed. Back end I'll add a tarp to cover the not so nice cuts, otherwise pretty happy. Tomorrow detailing and putting on the cables.

Scary stuff.....I have a plan. Not cunning enough to pin a tail too though.

 Right. I know I've made plans before and it has been an utter failure 99% of the time.

All the AK-47 stuff? Just winging it. But as atm 95% is scratchbuilt, the cost is low, I have no worries. Purely for fun and no reason not to do it.

15mm Vietnam? I'll just build what I need for Piers and Warwicks Vietnam game. When that is painted we will see where that rabbithole leads.

15mm WW2 though...


A heads up first, my painted WW2 20mm for Normandy is staying. Had a ton of fun painting those and don't want to get rid of them.The rest of it that isn't used is just wasted space.....so that will go.

15mm WW2....foremost my focus is on 1945. I'm starting with Germans and I'll be painting Russians as well. My mate will be doing Russians as well. Now, I'm the human equivalent of a squirrel/raven (in case you never noticed) and I've managed to gather up some lots of WW2 15mm stuff.

So, to curb that a bit......time to build stuff for a scenario, in this case Scenario 1 of the Fall of the Reich book, Forlorn Hope at Sachendorf.

 

And now I'm sitting here crossing off what I already have and noting what stuff I need to get (in the future).

Wish me luck :)

Bombing up

I really, really prefer 3mm aircraft for air gaming. Easy to mod, paint and finish. But for my 6mm Russian Army (still in a fetal state) I want matching airsupport, so I have some Heroics and Ross stuff. The quality....ehm....varies? But hey, have to work with it, so.....

Magnetised as always, and I used 1/300 WW2 air ordonance, modifed for the modern aircraft, pinned in place etc. A lot of work for someome with functioning hands, pure unadulturated fun for me. But hey, when I have an idea, you know what happens......

MiG-21 now has 4 FAB bombs
Su-25 has 2 droptanks on the inboard stations, and 2 rocketpods on each wing for now. Might make yet another rocket pod for both wings, or dual or quad bomb racks, or load up on something else. Depends what my hands can handle, really.

Not dead yet :)

Hi guys,

Hand is healing up nicely, stitches came out fine, most of the skin surrounding it has dried and fallen off (no, I'm not a lizard alien, thanks) and I'm slowly....and sometimes not so slowly, using the hand more and more. 1 thing I keep forgetting is that I should not, in any way, should shake hands with men with even a half decent firm grip. It is improving, slowly, but sofar I've let a few (very manly) tears after meeting new people for trades, cause it <bleeping> hurts.

The numbness is still there, but I guess a bit less. The non finger parts of my hand still feel like someone has stepped on it with a hefty boot, and the entire hand feels thick and unresponsive at times. This has not stopped my hobby time, just it is slow going.

I'll live. Been told it will take 6-12 months to completely heal up to 95% effectiveness. Pain wise I just keep using the max reccomended dosage as my doc ordered and that is that.

Right, the hobby.

The gaming table is gone. Thought about selling it, but for the type I might get 10 euros a pop max. So...recycled into a workbench in the shed, managed to find some 2nd hand kitchen counter feet from a excellent quality, and a used kitchen counter top that was spot on what I wanted.  30 Euros spent on used parts but a good investment I think, makes a nice workspace for the 6-8 months a year I can work there

WIth the space now empty I've been looking at a Ikea Norden foldable table, but after getting outbid a few times in the 80-100 range for that sort of table, I looked at other options as I just wanted to get this done. Well, the Ikea Nordenfeld is a fold up table you connect to the wall and is new 35. Sure, not as heavy duty with storage as the other one.....but I found a used one for 10 euros 10 clicks from here, so picked that up and mounted it at standing level (for people of my limited height). Installed extra sockets that have USB connectors so I can install USB lights for photography. Been using it for a few afternoons and it works great, just thinking about making a small rig to support my phone so I can make top down shots easier. But that is no priority atm.

My hobby progress has been focussed mostly on 2 models, my Ork Battle Kroozer, now a Battleship as I read the stats wrong, and my fist crewmember of the Salvagers.

I'm not a power player, nor will I ever be. So a (hot shot) Laspistol, a grenade, 2 flares and a bionic hand is added to Joe Average. Maybe enhanced scanners because of his head. Still a bit rough around the edges, needs clean up and small extras, but otherwise ready to be painted.

 

The Battleship is being built organically, it just grows a bit whenever I work on it. After doing the math on how expensive it is to get the bits I want, I've run her up to Battleship status. That and after spending a good 2 hours on a turreted bombardment cannon, I found out the Battle Kroozer uses a combined torpedo tube/ bombardment cannon (Ack! Ack! Ack!) 

 

 I keep tacking on stuff, and on occasion ripping it off again. As she is my first Ork Battleship, I've chose a supporting one one, so Gorbags Revenge, the big Ork Carrier it is. Mine will just have a different name....to be decided later. This is the work done on the Starboard Launch Bays

And work done on the Port Launch Bays. Just using bits I have on hand, and mixing and not really matching as hey, Orks :) Also added the bridge  and more turrets and shield generators.

Also started a bit of work on some light tanks....a M3 for my Russians, and a TKS rearmed with a MG-34 for my Volkssturm.

Right, hand needs rest. I'm knackered.

Panzerturm WIP

Panzer 4 tank as used in the defence of Berlin, dug in.

 The real deal

My version

Need to break some bricks, add more debris, detail the tank and then paint it. And I need to look up where I put the stats for it for Battlegroup. PSC kit I had left over after using the track, plus brass barrel, and Juweela bricks.

To Zim or not to Zim.

More progress on the Munitionspanzer for FotR.

More sandbags and added a crew.

First bits of Zim to dry and to be chipped later.

Need to buy new Milliput. This batch is past his shelflife.

Battle in Holland - My trip to Rotterdam and the NNG

 Yes, it is the Netherlands, I know.....

Visited the No Name Gamers in Rotterdam this sunday, and fought 2 300 pt battles with my Germans. One vs British Para's in a meeting engagement, and one defending the (Son) bridge against US Para's.

Jeez, para's are tough nuts to crack.

My list was a Grenadeer platoon with Panzerfausts, MG-42 and a static MG-42. A FHQ for additional BR and Officer (not that I ever lacked orders due to rolling high for them every single time), a inexperienced Panzer IV G, a SdKfz10 with 20mm (represented by my T-70 with mounted 20mm from my Kursk forces) and a roadblock (Stalled ambulance). 2 snipers as Recce and a timed Nebelstrike. Not much, I know, but with 2 nackered wrists I can't do a whole lot of painting.

Had a minor Loss vs Marcs para's as we fumbled through the rules (Marcs first time I think, and I have not gamed BG in 2 years or more, so....). But it was a friendly and fun game, as is always the case with BG.

My 20mm FlaK either never spotted or hit anything. My Panzer IV died to a rogue Typhoon having done nothing substantial. My 2 snipers provided stellar work harassing the paras. Even managed to hit a paratrooper...that saved. Tough nuts. Running across the field with my troops just attracted a lot of fire (as they should, prime targets) and pinned me down in the fields. It ended in a stalemate after his 6 Pounder holed my FlaK and Marc won on BR. 

Had a win against Rogiers US Airborne. I asked to defend the bridge without reading the scenario first. I had assumed to be able to set up just in front of the canal....not 3/4 across the board! Oops. Of course, the 10 foxholles were filled with my HMG, a sniper and a single unit, all concentrated in front of the house with the Ambulance set up as a roadbloack. The rest of my forces centered around the back house and the bridge...near the objectives. Of course all of my MG teams turned out to be reserves....so there went half my firepower. Rogier got a bit hamstrung by shitty reserve rolls, a Nebelwerfer strike destroyed the jeep that had capyured the final objective....and my Panzer IV rolled in and took it. We gamed on for a bit (plenty of time left) and I was getting hammered by US artillery. Me wasting my Ambushes by not using them did not help much either. 

It was great to be gaming again, even if it killed me. Driving for over an hour just to get there might not mean much to you in the USA, but it does here and in my current condition it is a nightmare. Driving to Crisis next month will be fun. Anyhow, a day well spent with fun games and fun players.

I'll leave you with this pic of my FHQ Beetle hiding behind a house. There should be more gaming next year :)

Siegfried Line, double the pleasure

Managed to make a deal for another 5 boxes of Defences afterv selling off some of my old painted work.....was it worth it? I think so.

Currently I have 90 inches of double tooth line, 6 45 degree corners and 4 90 degree corners. Last to make is 2 gates, 2 destroyed sections and 2 bulldozed sections (though I might skip the last 2). I might have a deal with someone for a load of scrap and that includes a bag of these defences, so I might be able to get it up to 120 inches in total. We'll see.

What's this then? A Trumpeter StuG IIIC top half mounted on a PSC StuG III body as I want a C Lang for my 1945 Germans. It has taken a lot of eyeballing but surprisingly little mod work to get it to fit (for the most part). The front section does have some isses, but nothing a fw lengths of track and sand bags won't be able to fix of this old banger. Other details need to be filled/fixed, but I'm in no rush with her.