Kazan People's Wire Spool Factory and Agricultural Collective 3rd Infantry.

Greetings, Komerades and allies of the October Revolution! This post is to give a brief overview of the heroes making up the bulwark of the Kazan People's Wire Spool Factory and Agricultural Collective 3rd Infantry and their fight against the fascist invaders and their lapdog puppets in this Great Patriotic War on the 28mm front stretching from the Baltic to Caspian. (I have to confess, I had this song going through my head when I started painting these guys.)

The figures are all from Warlord Games and the KV-1 and the Ilyushin II Sturmovik are from Tamiya.

Sincerely though, all in all, I had a lot of fun painting these guys. At times, I found the assembly of the figures a bit fiddly, and I am really not a big fan of the prone shooting pose for regular grunt troops, I would buy another box in a heartbeat to make some of the other units listed in the Armies of the Soviet Union book for Bolt Action. The detail in some of the faces was amazing as with some of the weapons. If I had any complaints about the sculpts, it would be that some of the strapping seems to get lost escpecially in the quilted winter uniforms. Then again, it could be my eyes' fault.

On to the 'Khaki Horde'! 

Here is the Air Observer and the Sturmovik. The Air Observer was a 'Free Mystery Gift' from Warlord when I purchased the book deal last October...during the Revolution. I added a little map and some binoculars to give it a wee bit more character. The plane is a Tamiya 1/72 scale model I bought in their store in Nihonbashi. I'm not a huge fan of model airplanes due to multiple modeling atrocities from when I was a kid. That said, I soldiered through and I think it came out OK. I decided to give it every bombe that came in the box just to make it look more menacing. The base is a section of wooden dowel, a jar lid, a plastic rod and some paper clips.

This is my armored support and the armor hunters. The KV-1 is a 1/48th scale model from Tamiya. Originally, I wanted a T 34, however, supposedly, Tamiya doesn't make them anymore according to the chappy working at their store. I had to choose between this or the Super Heavy IS-2. I thought a Super Heavy would be too cheesy in smaller games, so I went with the diet 'Heavy' version instead. The engine panel pops off so when the tank is destroyed during the game a burning hulk of the People's Metal can be simulated.

The three units are the Anti-Tank units I have at the moment. Two units tote captured Panzerfausts while the third, and arguably least effective unit carries the PTRS 41. 

Here is the sniper team and the command group. The sniper team is my favorite of the small teams in the army. I just like the way they turned out. The command group is the Lieutenant and two attendants. It gives him a bit more fire power and the chance to take some casualties if need be.

Here are the tank busters. They are armed with Anti-Tank grenades, molotov cocktails and a LMG to hose down any invader tank crews who think that can make a break for cover after their coffin on wheels has been dispatched.

I put together two 11 man infantry squads. I tried to keep the squads within reason and only went with 3 SMGs and 1 LMG per squad. I'm picturing 1943 as the time frame for this army, so I didn't want to go overboard with 9 SMGs and 3 LMGs as I thought it would be excessive.

There is just over 1000 points in this army as I didn't go for the 'FREE' inexperienced squad with only rifles. If I do pick up another box of infantry, I'll most likely assemble them. I have a few more things that I have ordered to fill in the holes. I'm currently waiting for a Medium Mortar and the Anti -Tank Dog Bomb units from Warlord. That way, I can melt the two Panzerfaust Anti -Tank teams into the other units.

In the meantime, I'm working on my axis force. These are the first 5 German Heer infantry I've painted. I'm going to paint them up as SS Walloonie, as it was the book Campaign in Russia by Leon Degrelle that somehow was the catalyst for me getting back into Second World War miniature gaming. Vive le Rex! 　(笑)

Some stuff from the shelf

Here are a few of the models I've done that never made it on to the web, whether my old painting blog or my old MySpace or Facebook. Although I haven't been getting in as much painting and modeling in as I'd like, I always managed to squeeze in a model or two a year.

Gundam Zaku II 1/144 scale Bandai

I painted this model about 10,000 years ago or so. It sat on the shelf of my office while I thought about how to do the base for it. I had seen a few Gundam Plastic Model competitions here and there over the years and when I first returned to Japan a few years ago, I thought that the Gundam modeling community would be the way to go. And I thought I was introverted! If only these guys' parents had basements! Not knowing anything about Gundam, or the fans, I was quick to learn that Gundam appreciation is a solitary affair.

The models by Bandai are great. 9.9 thumbs up on assembly and posing. The building this guy is hiding behind is a railway building and the base itself a picture frame from Daiso. I made the sign from some old photos on my PC and the statue is a 15mm Essex American Civil War cavalry officer. I tried a lot of new weathering techniques and I think they turned out well. The eye I totally replaced with a bit I found at Daiso (when the 100 yen shop is your best hobby resource, you got to do what you got to do...) I magnetized the model to the base. It seems to impress colleagues and other nerds that see it. I quite like it, but I'm not a 'Gundam' guy. I prefer Western Sci-Fi over the Eastern fare.

Games Workshop Saruman

I'm not sure of the name of the set this figure came from, but it also came with a Gandalf the Grey sans hat and the Palinteer stand. Here I had to figure out how I was going to do three shades of white.  Most of the paints used were Americana that I had bought at Michael's in Canuckistan. This figure was a break from my Chaos army and was a breath of fresh air at the time. I entered him in a painting contest at the Calgary GT in 2007? 2008? and won a 'Warpstone', a handshake and a mention or two on a friend's blog.

Tamiya 1/35 M5 Stuart

This is the first 1/35 kit I had done since I was maybe 16. I didn't try to do anything special with it at all and built it straight out of the box. I copied the paint job from the box and may zero attempts to find reference. (I've been to the Tamiya Factory in Shizuoka and I reckon they did their due diligence). This model was more of an exercise to see where my skills were at the time. I assembled it one day and then painted it the next. The paint on the tank is mostly Tamiya, I think. With the figure, I used whichever paints suited me at the time.

Games Workshop Beastman Lord with two hand weapons

This figure was the figure that kicked off my re-birth into gaming. I bought this figure at Yellow Submarine in Shinjuku in 2005. I painted him over a week and had to do him in starts and stops. All the paint is GW. The paint job is alright, but I have done better. I had a lot of fun painting this guy watching Conan (Howard's) and LOTR on my PC. The first figure in my 10^N+1 point Chaos Army, I've never used him in a game. He has a storied and exalted place in the cabinet in the Fortress of Solid-dude.

Currently, I'm trying to finish off projects that I thought I never would get around. I'm working on about 4 or five units at once to finish off all the GW stuff I have laying around once and for all. (I looked at some of the prices online the other day and laughed and laughed and laughed. And you thought faberge eggs were expensive...). 

I've been re immersing myself in World War II in a run up to Bolt Action. Lamentably, the weather this weekend looks terrible. I'm going to have to wait to pick up the minis or just have a gamer melt down and just order them on the internet directly from Warlord.

I may have found a new crew of.....NERDS!!!!!

Well, after GW Chiba closed its doors way back when, I thought, 'well, that's it for gaming, buddy.' All my ex-opponents seemed to simultaneously get a hard-on, or stimulus evoked contraction, for card games, which, for the most part, are totally gay.

Years went by. I traveled to some far out places, drank my weight in beer 100 times over and smoked enough to decimate a small army whilst in Nepal. (the authorities will never catch up with Fredrick Flintstone,  I assure you) I thought my days of sitting around in a Star Wars T shirt talking about Star Trek TOS episodes  while fondling dice were over as most of my corporeal friends seemed to be more interested in surfing and spear fishing (and running away from the cops) than anything smacking of, let alone hinting at, nerdom. Then, one day I came across Bolt Action, a World War II (before television!!) skirmish game that gave me the biggest stimulus evoked contraction since my first trip to Thailand before I became a bodhisattva. (lol).

Being no slouch to modeling or gaming, I knew instantly that this was the game I had been waiting for since I was 16, all fat, spotted and angry. Finally, units of the Britischefreikorps could see battle under my command. I'm busy shaving dice as I write this! Will Hauptman von Durham lead his rag-tag deserters to glory in the birth of the 1000 year reich? Or will he lead them to their own doom in the defense of the Berlin zoo in April 1945? (Choose option 'B'...it's more correct.)

I found a club to replace the 'Ultimate Gamers' in my hometown in Canuckistan. It has been so long since I rocked the dice and waved a tape measure about like some sort of magic wand cursing my opponent and their juvenile, mal-interpretation of given rules. The years since I have been back in Japan have had a critical element absent from my incarnation; gaming. And as tongue-in-cheek as all of this is, I am sincerely stoked about gaming again. Nothing beats hanging out with gaming nerds. Gaming nerds are the best. Nerd 4 lyfe.

Watch this space for reports, articles and editorials that will never be read by anyone but their author....and perhaps his wife.

千葉で５００ポイントウオーハンマートーナメント

今日千葉ゲームスワークショップで５００ポイントウオーハンマートーナメントが予定あります。ポイントは少ないといってもいいです。前の参加したトーナメントはだいたい２０００ポイントだったから、５００ポイントリッストを作りにくいだよ。ウォリアー・オヴ・ケイオスのコーアはあまり安くないし、キャラクターも非常に高いので、どうやって 効果的なアーミーリッストを書くか？　書いてみてがんばりました。以下にご覧ください。

キャラクター
イグザルッテドーヒーロー　　　　１１５

• ハンドウエポン
• ケイオスアーマー
• シールド

コーア

ケイオスマローダー　I　　　　　　　６４

• ハンドウエポン
• ライトアーマー
• シールド
• ミュージシャン

ケイオスマローダー　II　　　　　６４

• ハンドウエポン
• ライトアーマー
• シールド
• ミュージシャン

ケイオスマローダーホースマン　　　８１

• ハンドウエポン
• スローイングアックス
• ミュージシャン

スペシャル

ケイオスチャリオット　　　　　１２０

レア

ケイオススポーン　　　　　　５５

会計　４９９

普通にマークオヴコーンをよく使うんだが、今日の厳しいリッミトのせいで血神が悲しくなります。