Impressions of 'Operation Squad': Last days of the Reich

As mentioned in an earlier post this weekend saw a game of 'Operation Squad' at Axebreakers and as an exception I managed to take some photos.

It's May the 6th in the year of the lord 1945. The Führer 'Adolf Hitler' in an act of cowardice has killed himself, Berlin lays in ruins and the Wehrmacht is in full retreat on all fronts. To save huge remnants of the german armies on the eastern front from russian captivity desperate rearguard actions are fought by brave men facing almost certain death. 

In these desperate hours a small battlegroup is caught in a small pocket near Prague. To not let the secret codebooks fall into the Bolsheviks hands the soldiers take up their arms on last time.
The russians in a rush to get their hands on some of the last secrets of the Reich unleash the brutal might of the soviet sledgehammer.

Rush for Berlin 15: Sd.Kfz 234/2 'Puma'

If I did everything right at the time you read this I'm hopefully already tossing some dice in a desperate attempt to stop the red tide... or maybe the allied advance into the Reich.

As I mentioned in the last post today will see another game of 'Operation Squad' at Axebreakers mansion.
With this in mind I decided to get some more support for my Luftwaffenfelddivision done.
I virtually painted till the last minute and the moment I'm writing this I know Franz and Mike are only minutes away to pick me up.

Unfortunately I ran out of Pigment fixer and so I didn't apply to much pigments only using White Spirit to stick the pigments to the model. Once the already ordered fixer arrives here I'll go back to improve the weathering. I hope you like it anyway:

Rush for Berlin 14: New transports for the Felddivision commandeered

As the coming weekend will see another game of "Operation Squad" at Axebreakers I painted another 'Sd.Kfz. 251/1D' and an 'Opel Blitz' transport. Both models are from Warlord Games.

The Sd.Kfz unfortunately isn't one of the shiny new plastic ones I already painted earlier this year but one of those ugly old resin chunks. The rear MG was lost a while back. To be honest I don't really like the kit. Maybe I'll replace it at some later date with a plastic one and use this one as terrain marker.

Senatus Populusque Romanus 1: Velites pro Impetus

Over the last weeks I've painted some figures here and there but didn't manage to get anything finished to a standard I'd show here.

But these Republican Roman 'Velites' by Aventine Miniatures were standing on my desk for some weeks now waiting patiently for basing. So I sat down after work and gave these fellows their 'terra firma'. As I don't like basing that much and wanted to cut some corners I decided to use the Model Scene 'Grass mats with calc stones'. I still have to figure out how to use them best.

This time I used a knive to cut the mat where I wanted to place the miniatures. Then I glued the mat to the 12x6cm Impetus base using PVA. Afterwards I attached the miniatures to the already cut out positions.
Unfortunately at first the figures looked like sunken knee-deep into the ground. That's because there's some kind of felt beneath the foliage. The problem was solved by pressing the mat hard to the base till the glue was rather dry. Next time I'll glue the mat to the base first I think and then attach the figures on top the mat.

Ok now on to the pics:

Improving the gaming experience 1: New Terrain

The last view days were all about making some terrain for my gaming mat. I don't really like making terrain as I don't like modeling in general. I'm more painter than anything else. Even basing I only do as a necessary evil.
But as I'm going to host a game of "Bolt Action" from Warlord Games on Friday down at the club I urgently needed some nice stuff to put on the table.

Therefore I finally painted the "Ruined Hamlet" Set from Warlord Games I had flying around for some months now. Building the set proofed to be a real pain in the ass as most parts were bent and the parts didn't go together well.

Rush for Berlin 13: Further reinforcements arrived

Ok, it's been quite silent round here for longer than I had anticipated.
I was renovating my hobby room and this proofed more of a challenge than I had expected. Especially as missus Moiterei had the brilliant idea to do the sleeping room as well when we're at work already.
But I'm proud to announce this task is done and I'm up for many new and old projects.

First of Chris from Bunker Hill Blog asked me if I had some cattle for our next games of Dux Britanniarum.
As he's always putting that much effort in preparing the table for our games I was happy to answer the call and paint up some cattle from the 1:48 Farm animals set by Pegasus Hobbies.

Fall of the western Empire 15: Flavius Pulcher & Turpiculus Ater

After Chris and I still are continuing our "Dux Britanniarum" Campaign we had another game last week.
(Pics will follow shortly...I hope^^)
To anticipate some events a bit, during the battle I lost my two nobles and the champion. The champion was in fact killed during the pre-game phase as Christophers champion 'Wolfhead' challenged 'Gildas' and as a result of a fierce fight he killed him... well, 'Gildas' didn't even deal a scratch to 'Wolfhead' but he was courageous till the end.

During the following battle my first noble 'Eckfrith ap Ynys' called the Bastard and his compagnion 'Eliffer' also known as 'Dungbreath' were killed also. This left my leader facing the saxon onslaught on his own and so he decided to leave the field of dishonour to fight amother day.

This result left me with a tough decision. Wether to play on with my 'killed' nobles or follow the spirit of a campaign and recruit (read paint) new ones.
As I grew somewhat acusomized to 'Dungbreath' I decided to let him life. I think he pretended beeing killed during some hand to hand combat and crushed down between the actually killed. Later the night he shambled into the british camp telling a crude story of a severe blow to the head (a minor scratch was visible at his forehead) and how he escaped the looting saxons. So he was promoted to first noble.

Now what happened to the 'Gildas' the champion and 'Eliffer' you may ask? Well, I'm pretty sure Christophers champion 'Wolfhead' knows his job so 'Gildas' remnants were gathered after the battle and burned to enable his soul to join his ancestors. Despite nothing of 'Eliffer' was ever found he is to be believed beeing killed just as he saved 'Theodosius's' (My Leader) life. It's perfectly possible that the saxons, despite beeing a bunch of dirty dogs, acknowledged his bravery and (after having stripped his corpse from everything valuable) burried him.

So I urgently needed a new champion and a new second noble. And here they are!

May I introduce to you Flavius Pulcher (Second Noble) and Turpiculus Ater (Champion):

Flavius Pulcher (left) & Turpiculus Ater (right)

Rush for Berlin 12: Heavy machine gun, Forward Observer & Footsloggers

This week I've been quite productive, finishing almost 2 miniatures a day. I'm still working on my Late War German Luftwaffenfelddivision but the end is within reach. After having finished this batch there are just 8 figures still to do.
 At least when I stick to Bolt Action, as after having bought the "Chain of Command" by TooFatLardies this week, I realised there are too many automatic weapons in my Platoon. So if I want to expand to CoC I'll have to paint up another batch of 12 Riflemen... though these are things I give a thought sometime in the future.

Ok... and there's still a Puma, an Opel Blitz, a SdKfz. 251and a Kübelwagen to do.

First again the whole bunch I finished:

Rush for Berlin 11: Assault rifles & Panzerfäuste

This week I'm a bit proud on myself as I finally managed to get my ass back on the painting table.
As a result I got some new men for my Bolt Action late war Germans ready for battle.

Rush for Berlin 10: New riflemen & a bit of conversion

I'm not painting that much at the moment but I'm not totally lazy. I spent the last view days converting some of the German Infantry by Artizan Designs. As I don't really like the tiny weapons they have modeled on, I had to replace them, using the new metal StG44's and spare weapons from the german plastic weapon sprues by Warlord Games.