Big games!

As a fan of terrain (it's as important as playing the game!) it means that I am also a big fan of BIG games! When I say "big games", I'm talking about large gaming tables; my preferred WWII rule set is Iron Cross, which lends itself well to lots of movement and manoeuvring, so the larger the table, the better the gaming experience.

Here are a handful of photos of some big games that I have participated in over the years. The first set of images is from a demonstration table/game that I helped to build and run at Salute a couple of years ago. The table was 30 feet long by 6 feet wide and was an "imagining" of what the terrain somewhere in Holland might look like. We had some Dutch visitors to the table who were a little perplexed by our setting, but I thought that the table looked cool regardless. Not to pick a fight with them, but the table was created using some reference photos on the outskirts of Neunen, just outside Eindhoven. This was the town that was featured in one of the episodes of Band of Brothers. I can't find any of the photos that we used, but using Google Maps shows some terrain that is close enough.

These first three photos show the tables as they were being constructed. We created 5 "boxes", which were 6 feet wide by 4 feet long and 6 inches deep; we created "boxes", so that we could sink some areas of the gaming surface below the normal level. The buildings were supplied by 4Ground. The individual tables were built in a modular fashion so that they could be placed in a number of different configurations to create different layouts.

The next five photos show the board in a more advanced state of construction where a lot of attention was paid to the vegetation.

The next four photos show the finished board as it was displayed at Salute 2015. The Germans deployed at the church end of the table and the British deployed in the woods at the opposite end.

Another really big gaming table that we created, and played over several days, during a Christmas holiday a few years ago (2014, I think). One of the driving factors behind creating Iron Cross was the desire to create a ruleset that could be scaled up to incorporate loads of units e.g. a couple of companies per side on the table, so that we could get out all of our toys, so we took it to the extreme with this mahoosive table.

From memory, and using the photos for reference, this table was probably 30-36 feet long and between 4 and 6 feet wide at various points. The final battleground was based on another table that had been created for Salute 2016, this time in collaboration with the guys from 4Ground, which is why there are so many of their buildings on the final set of tables. The table that we took to Salute, using all the 4Ground buildings, was based on a scenario set in Villers-Bocage and that table alone was 18 feet long by 5 feet wide. Bigger tables definitely lend themselves to bigger battles and therefore more fun! ;-)

The photos below shows the Villers-Bocage layout, which was the ultimate destination for the attacking Brits. From memory, I think that the scenario we played was a German fighting retreat with some ambushes thrown in for good measure. The length of the table made the terrain a bit of a mish-mash of whatever we could scrounge up to fill such a large amount of space.

Progress on the T34 platoon

I posted yesterday about the Russian platoon that I have started working on as opposition for my Panzer III platoon, so here are a few updates.

These T34/76s are kits from Rubicon and are really simple to put together with only a handful of parts in comparison to the Panzer IIIs, which have probably double the number of parts to assemble.

Here is the assembled T34 based in white (lockdown means I have run out of dark basing paint).

I then used my airbrush to spray on Vallejo Model Air Cam Dark Green 71.019 as the base coat.

Next, I applied a lighter coat of Russian Green 71.017, but it was so light that it was hardly detectable, so I went lighter again with Medium Olive 71.092, intending this to be the highlight colour. The olive green was still too light, so I mixed Medium Olive with Yellow Ochre 71.033 in a 50:50 ratio, which achieved the level of highlighting that I wanted.

Once that had dried, I used a small piece of sponge dipped in the Cam Dark Green and dabbed onto a piece of kitchen paper to remove the excess, then used this to "chip" all over the tank. I also used Model Color USA Olive Drab 70.889 on the bit of sponge to apply a slightly darker chipping effect. Finally, I used a fine detail brush and dabbed a few larger "chips" of the dark green and olive drab. I played around a bit with the lighting when taking these next few photos...it is actually the same model.

The next step, once this coat has properly dried, will be to give the whole vehicle a coat of matt varnish to protect it, but also get it ready for applying oil paints and washes. I will then apply the decals and some dark colours (oils and washes) into all the recesses to pick out the detail a bit more.

Update - the next day

I have now sprayed the matt varnish coat onto the models to protect the acrylic paint, so that I can apply the decals, a dark wash in all the joints and recesses to emphasise the shadows, and some light weathering effects. This is what two of the tanks now look like. Almost finished!

Panzers, trucks, some T34s and musings on airbrushing

I've taken a short break from my Crete project to work on some Rubicon kits that I bought. My regular gaming partner, Stu from Great Escape Games, and I were discussing early war recently (not least because of the expanding range of miniatures that GEG are producing for that period). So, on the basis that I have very little willpower and was unable to stop myself from buying some of the new Panzer III kits from Rubicon, I committed to creating a platoon of Panzer IIIs.

Panzer III Platoon

I have previously posted up some reviews of the Rubicon kits (command tank and regular PIII), but have now got to the point where I have just about finished a platoon of five tanks, plus a regimental command tank. The only thing left to do is apply some mud to the tracks and then get them onto the battlefield.

Here are some shots of a couple of the individual vehicles.

Lessons from using an airbrush

I have always painted vehicles using brushes, so this was my first endeavour in using an airbrush, so what did I learn? Picking up an airbrush for the first time is a bit daunting, but after working on these 6 tanks, I have an increased level of confidence and realise that it is not too difficult to achieve pretty good results. I have some way to go to be as accomplished as some of the model diorama builders out there, but I think my first attempt was pretty good, especially because the models are only ever going to see the gaming table.

A debate that I have been having in my head over the last couple of months is "is it worth the effort trying to create a really good paint job for miniatures that will only ever be used for gaming?" (This one-man debate is perhaps a consequence of being locked down at home for far too long!). I started gaming as a kid, then found other past-times at about the age of 18, so was away from the hobby for a couple of decades. Returning as an adult, I have probably been painting and gaming for about the last 10 years and think that I have developed to an acceptable "table top standard"; I know that I am never going to win any awards, but I'm happy with what I can turn out.

The debate is around whether it is worth the effort. I paint on base colours, tidy up any big mistakes, then use a wash to create some shadow, then apply highlights. I blogged about my painting method back in May. However, once they are on the gaming table, as long as they are the right colour e.g. Feldgrau for my Germans in Normandy, then does it matter if they have had their eyes painted, whether I have the correct number of pea-dots on the SS camouflage etc?  My 48 year old eyes struggle to see the detail when I am painting them (using a magnifying glass now!), so when they are a couple of feet away on the table, can anyone tell how good the highlights are?

Anyway, back to the lessons learned from airbrushing. There are tons of instructional videos on Youtube, so I spent a fair amount of time procrastinating by watching videos and not picking up the airbrush. I found one chap (Panzermeister36) who has a really simple-to-copy style, he spends plenty of time explaining how he achieves his results, but what is best about his videos is that the end results look great. I am more inclined to spend the extra effort making vehicles look good, as opposed to continuing with painting endless highlights on infantry figures, because the vehicles do stand out more on the tabletop. 

Another subject I have agonised over for several weeks was the colour to paint my Panzer III platoon. There are only really two options: it was either dunkelgrau or dunkelgelb (with camouflage markings). I decided that because Stuart and I were going to have a tank-heavy game of Iron Cross set on the Eastern Front, then I would go with the grey, plus I had never tried that paint scheme before, so thought it would be worth the challenge.

Panzermeister36's video on how to paint dunkelgrau is well worth a watch...this is what I have tried to emulate for my platoon. A few lessons I learnt when using the airbrush:

1. Don't waste time trying to mix paints yourself, buy pre-mixed airbrush paint. After several frustrating attempts at getting the mix right (too thin, then too thick, then the wrong colour!), I purchased some bottles of Vallejo Model Air. 
2. Get the pressure of the compressor right; about 18 psi worked for me.
3. Clean your airbrush regularly. I have found that I spend more time cleaning the airbrush than I use it for painting. Am I doing something wrong? I now keep a container of clean water next to me, so that when I have finished a colour I run a good amount of clean water through the brush, which helps but still doesn't do away with the need to strip the airbrush down and clean it inside.
4. Spray light coats rather than trying to cover the model on the first go. It helps that I have been painting several vehicles at once, so that once I get round to finishing the last one, the first model is ready to have another coat of paint sprayed on. A thick coat takes ages to dry and starts to pool if you over-do it, which spoils the look.
5. Depending on how you intend to weather the surface of the tank, don't waste any time on colour modulation; either that, or make the colour contrast much greater than I did.
6. If you are spraying Vallejo varnish through the airbrush, thin it with some water first. My first varnishing attempt badly clogged the inside of the brush, but at least I learnt how to dismantle, clean and reassemble my airbrush!

49 Shades of Grey

One of the things that I experimented with quite a bit was the best colour to recreate a battlefield-worn version of panzer grey. Panzermeister36's panzer grey colour looked pretty cool, but I didn't have the Tamiya paints that he used and I also didn't fancy having to mix my own colours particularly when I would be painting 6 vehicles at different times.

After much experimentation, using every variation of grey from the Model Air range, I settled on Dark Blue Grey (71.054) for the base coat, then got a bit fancy and did a little bit of colour modulation using Medium Gunship Grey (71.097) to pick out some of the higher surfaces. Unfortunately, my superb airbrushing skills were covered up by the weathering effects using oil paints. Next time, I think that I will make the colour differences less subtle, so that they remain visible through the weathering effects.

I purchased some cheap oil paints (£5 from Amazon) to apply the subtle weathering effects; the technique is pretty easy to learn and apply and the results look OK (for a first attempt). To weather the panzer grey, I used the Burnt Umber, Sienna Brown, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise and White. Again, I recommend following Panzermeister36's tutorial on Youtube to learn this technique.

Trucks

Now that I am in the swing of things with the airbrush, I have gone back to the three Opel Blitz trucks I started a few weeks ago and have done some more work on them. I used the airbrush and some masking tape to "modulate" some of the dunkelgelb base coat to create a forced shadow effect. After that I used the airbrush to apply some stripes of green and brown for the camouflage. 

I started work on these trucks prior to buying the Panzer IIIs, so had already painted the dunkelgelb base coat (Vallejo Model Color Middlestone 70.882) and painted the inside of the driver's cab and the two figures. I wish that I had waited to start painting because I think they would look cool in the dark grey too, but I have enough to paint without starting over. Using a camouflage effect will suffice for Operation Barbarossa anyway, but will also mean that I can use these trucks across the whole European theatre.

I have also sprayed a (thinned) coat of matt varnish onto the three trucks, so the next job will be to start using the oil paint weathering technique, which will have the effect of making them look battlefield ready and will also darken the dunkelgelb down a bit and blend the camouflage stripes with the base coat.

T34/76s

Because I have really been enjoying building the Rubicon kits, and getting into the airbrushing, I offered to build Stuart's Russian tank platoon. He has so far decided to field six T34s with the 76mm main gun.

When I started putting together this older kit from Rubicon, the level of detail between this and the new Panzer III kits is really noticeable. I think it probably took me about 4 hours to assemble the first Panzer III, partly because there are so many variants available from one kit, but also because the number of parts was much greater in the newer kit than the older. Another reason is perhaps the fact that the T34 is a more straightforward vehicle. 

The comparison between kits is perhaps also a very good observation about the differences in the state of manufacturing in Germany and Russia. The Russians apparently churned out ~84,000 T34s during the war with not a huge emphasis on quality: "quantity has a quality all of its own"! In comparison, the output from the German factories was far lower (~90,000 of all vehicle types during the war), but the complexity of the manufacturing process ensured that it took longer to produce each tank. Maybe this is what Rubicon were aiming for when producing their kits? They clearly wanted the modeller to think about the lessons to be learned from the differing industrial production rates of the various nations. I might purchase a Sherman and a Cromwell to test out this theory. ;-)

Here is one of the T34s assembled and base-coated using Halfords white car primer. A lesson learnt from the assembly and painting of several kits is that it is better to leave the tracks off and then attach them later in the painting process. I don't know about you, but I find it incredibly difficult to get spray paint into all the nooks of the tracks when they are assembled: this is waaaay easier when they are separate pieces.

Following some experimentation with colours, I settled on Vallejo Model Air Cam Dark Green 71.019 for the base coat, which was sprayed on. The tracks are brush painted with a thin mix of German Cam Black Brown 70.822 and German Grey 70.995.

I am planning on using Russian Green 71.017 and Medium Olive 71.092 for the highlight colours. I wanted quite a dark green for the base coat, so that the lighter colours "pop" and create more depth prior to the weathering effects being applied.

I'll post up progress on the T34s over the next week or two.

Edit: first progress shots are here.

Building a Rubicon Panzer III H (SdKfz 141)

I thought I would share a couple more notes about the troop of Rubicon Panzer IIIs that I am currently assembling for an early war armoured force to use in games of Iron Cross..

I assembled the command tank (Befehlswagen) using the Rubicon SdKfz 266 kit last week, based on the Ausf. H variant.  I've now put together a couple of the regular PIII kits (the SdKfz 141), following the Ausf H pattern. However, there are two variants of the H within the 141 kit, which caught me out! 

Variant #1 is the early H and variant #2 is the later version, which is the same version of the Ausf H as the Befehlswagen, so if you are creating a troop using both kits (SdKfz 141 and SdKfz 266), then use variant #2 from the SdKfz 141 kit so that it matches with the Befehlswagen kit.

As far as I call tell, there are only four differences (other than the obvious differences between the command tank and regular tank) between the two variants of the H:

1. the foremost track return roller is slightly further back on the early H;
2. the drive sprockets are different; and
3. the rear deck engine hatches are flatter on the early H;
4. the turret hatch on the later H has a small port, rather than a flat hatch.

The photo below illustrates the difference between the early and late H variants. The Befehlswagen (266) is on the left (late H) and the early H variant of the regular 141 is on the right.

When they are painted up and on the gaming table, it is not the sort of detail that I think that anyone would notice, but for the purists out there, there is a difference! I'm going to use the later H variant on the subsequent SdKfz 141s that I build and will paint the early H (above) with a bit more weathering and damage, so that I can flesh out its back story as having been the lone survivor from previous battles. ;-)

It's amazing what you can accomplish on a very wet weekend. I have also put together, and painted the undercoat and base coat onto, three Rubicon Opel Blitz trucks (SdKfz 305). After assembling the first panzer, I found that it was easier to not fully assemble the kit before painting, so I part assembled the trucks and then painted them in sections. Once I find my compressor, I'll start the next layer of paint, then stick the cab onto the chassis, then glue on the wheels just prior to applying the final weathering effects.