LPL7- Round 7. Re-Run.

Round 7 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 6 round entry, "Red Devils".  Which is my very first painted Bolt Action figures. The rest of my 1000 point BA army is based, primed, basecoated and ready to go..but no additional paint on these guys is happening until I finish my tight schedule for the LPL.

This week due to again time crisis/holiday weekend plans, I ended up re running my round 1 entry
my recently painted Rohirim who lost in Round 1 against one the current fellows at the top of the Leaderboard. This week they got matched up against another great painter with a great entry, but I am glad to say they are winning so far, but please go ahead and check them out and go vote if you are participating in this!


Having to paint 5 figures (and photograph them in a good scene) week to week is a tough, tough challenge especially if you've got way too much going to begin with, the thing to do is really have everything done when the thing begins ,except rounds 5 and 10 (the big bonus rounds) and spend your time working on those.  Right now I have a month to paint 3 more entries...and 10 is the big one.
pretty sure I have it covered but its going to be tight...hindsight is all well and good but let what I get done this week!

LPL 7- Round 6 -Getting back on track.

Round 6 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 5 round entry, "Warwick_WotR.  Which was supposed to be "Warwick", a.k.a "The Kingmaker" or Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick staring down both York and Lancastrian troops in a scene from Englands War of the Roses. If you remember anything about the man, he switches sides about half way through the war. So I had planned about 7-10 troops on each side starring each other down with him in the middle, it being not obvious to which side. This was also the big bonus point round. In the comedy of errors that went on that week, not only was I totally slammed for time, only completing a small portion of the planned entry, but my regular camera broke, I had to rush the photos with my unfamiliar back up camera I hadn't touched in years, then I go a typo the guys name as "Warrick" instead of "Warwick", and don't notice all week, then to further the comedy of the whole episode, I win by a 3 to 1 margin, with what was to me, my worst entry of the contest. all the way from my paint to photograph.

Sucking up this embarrassment, I had just come off a great time learning, playing and building my British Airborne "Red Devils" for Warlords Games Bolt Action game. I was jacked up to paint these guys and had a week to paint 5 models which was doable, with some crisis management on my real life work project well in hand, I got my entry submitted no problem on friday morning with a re-submit later in the day when my wife pointed out that while she really liked the photo and minatures there was big ol' screwdriver on the table in the background that I didnt ever notice..(Ooofff)

Anyway I am happy with the way these guys came out and am really digging painting some WW2 in 28mm, I am going to bang out the whole army this summer which is only about 40 models with 3 vehicles and some heavy weapons.  So check out my Red Devils this week and go vote, I am holding a comfortable lead as I type this so I am hoping I can still salvage this thing with strong entries the next four rounds.

Next week, back to some generic fantasy stuff...should be fun to paint!

LPL 7- Round 5, I barely make it!

Round 5 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 4 round entry, "Red Devils 15mm"  Which again, lost. I briefly talked about 15mm having a tough time in this thing in my last LPL post, and a combo of that and I guess the photo not being good enough did it in. .

This round was a disaster for me..first of all my good camera broke (older Canon G9, apparently suffers for an internal short circuit) No idea when I'll get that fixed but pictures with my back up are definitely tougher to do. Then this project I am working on for work spiraled out of control
and I went from planning 15 figure for the Historical Civil War bonus round, to 10, to 7
finally settling on one team of 5, and they're pretty mediocre to boot, I just didn't have the time to do them justice and then had to rush photos to meet the deadline I couldn't get the right lighting with my old camera.

The kicker is, so I hastily enter my mediocre entry and I am kicking myself how this just isnt my year for this thing and then I go to vote and see I am winning by over 100 votes?? my biggest margin yet! Sometimes I can't figure out peoples tastes in this thing, for instance my Red Devils above should have been a way tighter margin in  round 4, than margin I currently have in round 5, your guess is as good as mine.

I still managed to get half the bonus points..I am going to really need to knock it out the last 5 rounds if I want to even stand a chance and beating my score last year.  So check out my Historical Entry
Warwick_WotR  and check out this weeks entries some really cool stuff in there.

Next up Bolt Action , Red Devils 28mm WIP, and Painted for round 6...

A Bridge too close

That was the moniker my pal Aaron put on our first game of Warlord Games "Bolt Action", last evening at our 80th Club meeting since we moved our semi monthly club night to my basement back in 2009.  While I have tons of miniatures my mother in fit of early senility sold all my old 70's Airfix plastic models I had that were my first miniatures. (although back them they were just my expensive "Army Men"). in a garage sale while I was away at college. Thankfully she never got around to selling my fantasy miniatures or I probably wouldn't be writing this.  Anyway I think I've seen the film "a Bridge to far" probably 25 times over the years..its my favorite WW2 film and why I started playing Flames of Wa,r I went with British Airborne and when I want to get some 28mm ones a few years ago, I went with Warlord's Red Devils box.

When I got my 28mm Red Devils there wasnt really a game to support them, there were some other WW2 skirmish games out there but I never got around to it. Now that WG has me hooked with their quality rules sets, and great lines of figures. The jump to BA was inevitable.

Aaron and I have recently accumulated our 1000 point armies, my British and his Panzer Grenadiers. so we were chomping at the bit to play. A bunch of other guys I know are into the game and we are trying to get some the other boys at club night to get on-board. We had great fun last night  and I'll leave you with Aarons write up on our forum about last nights game

"John's Paratroopers faced off against my Panzergrenadiers as I tried to wrestle an derelict but strategically important bridge away from the allies in our first Bolt Action game!

The objective of the game was a bridge in the very center of the table, nestled in the in the middle of a village. The Brit platoon's first squad had captured the bridge and was desperately waiting for the rest of the platoon to link up with them before the German armored infantry could launch their assault and force them off of the bridge.

We did a small game (550 points) to familiarize ourselves with BA's rules.

John's first squad held the bridge while a sniper team hung out in a small building nearby. His second squad, Vickers MMG team, some HQ support (Medic and Forward Artillery Observer), and his 1st Lt. were coming in to reinforce the pathfinder unit. A recon jeep also supported the British attack on the far right flank.

The Germans approached the bridge through the village, darting in and out of cover. The platoon's 2nd Lt lead 2 Panzergrenadier squads with LMG teams through the center of the village in an attempt to boot the small British unit off of the bridge!

The German plan ran into a major snag when a jumpy machine gunner mistook the Lieutenant and his escorts as an ambushing paratrooper unit! After seeing his NCOs cut down before him, the Lt. decided to flee the field to fight another day! If you have played Hail Caesar you are probably familiar with 'fumbled' orders. BA has a similar mechanic that can, rarely, result in friendly fire incidents. "Das ist nicht zer gut!"

British Paratrooper reinforcements began to show up in force, advancing through the village while the squad holding the bridge exchanged fire with one of the Panzergren squads across the river. Some light casualties were suffered by the limeys, but that didn't mar the Englanders fighting spirit! The sniper in the building was able to claim some kills against the Germans approaching the bridge as well.

Eventually all of the forces of the belligerent forces made their way to the battlefield. The Paratrooper recon jeep splashed across a shallow spot in the river and attacked the flank of the Germans positioned in the village with twin vickers MMGs! A SdKfz 251 Halftrack rumbled up the road while spitting fire at the Brits hiding in cover on the opposite side of the bridge. The 2nd platoon of Paras made their way around the opposite flank of the village attempting a pincer move with the Jeep, laying down suppressive fire all the way. The Germans deployed a Granatwerfer 42 heavy mortar which quickly eliminated the British squad holding the bridge!

The halftrack's attack on the bridge foundered initially while the flank attacks began to take their toll on the Germans hidden amongst the buildings south of the river. Panzergrens opposite of the British left flank stormed out of their cover to face the paras advancing up the bank of the river. The British Platoon leader valiantly rallied his nearby comrades, and assaulted the Halftrack which was forcing it's way across the bridge, only to be scattered by it's occupant's counter attack (we did this part wrong - John should have won the combat - "Oppzee Doopzee, Herr Humphrey. Mein bad!").

Assaults aimed at kicking the enemy off of the bridge by each force were running out of steam! Short range firefights began to whittle down each opposing platoon, and at the end of the game the bridge was not clearly controlled by either side. The game was a draw!

There was some interesting ebb and flow in this game, especially in terms of which side was able to gain the initiative over the other. In the end each side dug in and waited for reinforcements to arrive to renew their assault! We played about half of another game with the exact same forces, and scenario, only with the attacker/defender roles reversed. It was initially more bloody and we each seemed to lead our troops with a bit more direction. The only thing stopping us from finishing game #2 was the fact that cars were going to start to get towed at midnight! "



So there you go we are retooling for an actual 1000 point game next week, I really like the game flow, love the orders system and well as the individual mechanics...I felt the rule balance "just right" in the  not too light, not to heavy rules department (where HC can get a little overwhelming)

While I work on my Brits, think about some Germans to oppose them. I have soft spot of course for my own countries troops. In a bit of personal history, My mother's father, was CPL Lawrie Montgomery who served under Mark Clark in the US 5th Army in WW2 , He was in both the North African Campaigns and Operation Avalanche from Salerno to Rome, wounded by a landmine post Rome and that was the end of the war for him, but he lived until the ripe old age of 86 passing away in 1999. He was awarded a Silver Star, Two Bronze Stars and at the one Purple Heart that I know of, why or what for I don't know because he would never talk about the war much, saying things like "War is hell"," It's best forgotten" , Clearly we don't forget -for good reason Pop.

LPL 7- Round 4 is on!

Round 4 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 3 round entry, "Heroes of Helm's Deep"  Which scored me my first win by 50 votes, So if you voted for me thanks, and if you bothered to vote at all thanks again.  As it seems to be a  developing pattern my round 4 entry Red Devils 15mm is losing to some cultists flashing some skin, the exact same thing that happened last year with my 15mm Red Planet entry. 15mm is tough nut to crack with people for sure in the LPL .If you've painted 15mm before, you know how tough it is to paint cleanly for close up photographs in the scale.  Checking entries going back a few years across the board it seems if a tough scale to win with period, so in retrospect I should have went with my Saxons, although I didnt think they looked as good. Anway this one is lost cause at the current vote totals but if your so inclined please vote as you still get leaderboard points for the votes.
 
I am currently working on my round 5 entry which the theme round for Historical civil war..this prompted me to finally get painting on my Perry Brothers War of the Roses figures. I am doing a small diorama and already I took some WIP photos so I'll shoot for getting this entry its own "development" post for something different later on in the month after round 5 is complete. Unless something else comes up, until next Sunday!.

Foam Wars III !!!

I know, some of you are saying Holy Sh&t!!, Foam Wars III?? , I kid you not. Our favorite toy soldier man bag manufacturer is back at it again using the legal system like a horde of 5 year olds clubbing a pinata.

My traffic has been justifiably down since I dropped off the WFB bandwagon and the resulting gaming punditry a couple years ago. So I was a little surprised when I saw the big spike in traffic the other day in my blogger tools. Investigating this,  I was amused to say the least, that the current coverage by a well put together blog  had people in the comments and some other connected links using my original "Foam Wars" post from back in 2010 as background information on the subject.

Basically the current situation revolves around Battlefoam's owner accusing another blogger of libel, slander, defamation, etc of his character on his blog. The blog in question. Blood of Kittens  is one of those 40K blogs (and there are bunch of them) whose point seems to be excelling at the very things its accused of -so I dont see what the big deal is. Especially as Mr. Battlefoam seems to have numerous posts incriminating himself  (Dakka Dakka,) in the very behavior he's being accused of too.

While no one likes to or really deserves to be slandered unjustly on the internet. The kicker here is manner of Battlefoam's CEO legal response. As an armchair lawyer who rocked his LSAT but never took the next step, I have to say the Battlefoam lawyer was not really looking past the fact we were talking about bags to carry your toy soldiers in. Because the severity and hamfistedness of their legal response, allowed the writer of  Blood of Kittens, to seek out first class Pro Bono legal help from some nationally recognized 1st Amendment specialists. How this one is going to shake out I can't say but going thru life spending all your time suing people is no way to build a business eventually the rubber is going to hit the road as they say . I must say I feel for the Blood of Kittens guy because despite scoring free legal aid, it cant be any fun having to deal with this kind of nonsense.

 I've tried to keep it straight and to the facts in regards to Battlefoam and its antics, and this will be no different so I'll return the favor and redirect you over to the excellent analysis at Popehat.

Foam Wars will surely carry on, I'm afraid.