Reaper Bones: Big, Mean, and Green

A few weeks ago I celebrated the arrival of my Reaper Bones models. I wanted to dive right in and decided that beginning with the Orcs from the Orcapocalypse box would be the way to go. These guys are big and need 40mm bases to fit them.  There's a perfect level of detail on them too, neither too little nor too much. I figured painting them would not take too long. I didn't want to bog down in a big project, seeing how I'm in the middle of working on my 15mm WW2 Pacific forces.

Here they are. Twenty-six Orcs, five of each type and one leader. They make the perfect sized warband. I like how these models turned out.

I'll give some details of each troop type below. Working with these models was a breeze. The weapons on many of them were bent, especially the spears. I just dipped them in hot water, then cooled them in ice water, and they reset. Quite easy to fix. I primed them black, just because of the colors I wanted to use. Bones don't need primer. Orcish color schemes are easy, nothing too bright and make them look dirty. 

Reaper models are some of the best out there. My only complaint is they don't make too many "troop" type of models. They all tend to be heroes or individual models. Their Warlord line sort of addresses this, but the troops are usually just three model poses. In the case of my Orcs, there are five different types, but all of the same pose.  I guess I can't complain, since all you see here was just $10!

Here are the different troop types, starting with the leader.

He did not come as part of "Orcapocalypse" but as part of the regular Vampire level box. He was a natural for a leader model. Below are his troops: soldiers, spearmen, berserkers, bowmen, and great weapons.

Once Reaper puts these up for sale I'll probably buy a few more of each type so I can add variety to the force. What I really should've done was add another box of 25 during the Kickstarter!

The Bones I have remaining will give this group all sorts of cool allies, from ogres and trolls, to gnolls and bugbears and other monsters. Now these guys need some Dwarfs or Elves to beat on!

WW2 in 15mm: Japanese Rifle Platoon

These guys took longer than I expected to complete, but they're done now. I've polished off a full rifle platoon for the Japanese, including a large HQ selection and some supporting units.

Here's everything I've got painted so far.

You'll have to click on the picture to see the detail.  All told I've got  3 x 13 man rifle squads, each with a leader and LMG. I've got 3 x 2 man LMG teams, 2 x 3 man MMG teams, five SMG models, a radio / FO team, and a bunch of leader models.

I just need to add in supporting units and I'm done. My scenario book calls for several tanks and a few different IG / AT guns, along with a few other specialized units. The bulk, however, is complete.

Here's a look at the MG teams.

I'm using the same LMG models with a third crewman to represent MMGs. I have only found LMG and HMG models for Japanese in 15mm, and on the table it makes no difference to me what the models actually are for these units. Some of the LMG models are stacked either in sandbags or rocks, I couldn't tell. I chose to paint them as rocks.

The SMG models, shown in the left of this picture, suck. The guns are so short that they don't look like anything. The models are poorly cast, and flash and shit ruin them completely. Since my scenario book calls for these Type 100 SMG guns, I painted them.  Ugh.  The radio team next to them is part of the Leader pack for the Old Glory Command Decision line.

My favorite pack of all the Old Glory Japanese models was the leader pack. It's filled with a lot of characterful models and good options. It's probably the best of their leader packs that I've seen.  Below is a shot of the leader models I painted for the HQ. Historically platoon HQs were of variable size, but generally just two men. The scenario book calls for larger HQ teams, so I added more models.

The flag bearer only comes with a pole. You have to make your own flag. I used a thin sheet of aluminum I got from Dick Blick. I have this on-hand exactly for the purpose of making flags. The sheets are small and thin enough to cut with scissors. I rolled it around the pole, primed it, then drew my circle on it. After painting the flag, I folded it into a billowing pattern and the aluminum held nicely. It looks more like a flag than if I did something made from paper.

Amazingly, that's not white paint on the flag either. I used a very creamy yellow paint, but next to the models it looks quite white. Overall, I liked the way it came out.

So now I've got packs of US Marines waiting to get painted  so they can kill these guys. I'm tired of military models again, so I'll be jumping into my Reaper Bones collection. I already painted one tonight, and it looks pretty good.  I'm excited to get working on them, but I'll return to the Marines soon.

Reaper Bones Have Arrived. Fire Up the Paint Brushes!

Last year I participated in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. I think their miniatures line is awesome, and this Kickstarter was a great way for me to boost my collection for the lowest cost. So I took the plunge, pledged for the "Vampire Level" and added on a bunch of extras. The actual cost of these figures is less than a dollar each!  Given they are every bit as good as the metal models, my only regret is not buying more options.

I've been watching the slow progress of my package traveling from Texas to my home, and I knew it was arriving today. As soon as I got it, I busted open the package like a kid on Christmas morning. Here's what I found inside.

You're looking at my addons, which were mostly large multiple part models, a box of 30 Orcs for the "Orcapocalypse" addon, and two boxes of new Reaper paints. Obviously, the Vampire package box is right there. Already, it looks like a lot to work on, but once I popped open the Vampire package, I was suitably impressed.

The box was stuffed with models. There were six large bags, each with individually wrapped models. So I dumped these out and sat stunned for a while. Then I started snipping the bags to get at the models inside.  Here's my progress after opening the first bag.

That's already a fair amount of stuff, and there were five more bags like this to work through. I was beginning to wonder what I got myself into with this! Will I ever paint all these? As I worked through the bags and looked over these models, I knew that sooner or later I'd paint them all. It may be 2020 before that happens, but I'll do it.

I kept snipping and it took me nearly 90 minutes to get through all of these. Of course, I was studying the models as I went. My cat supervised for quality control.

Once I had them out, I was wondering how I'd make sense of this mess. While the models had been grouped by theme into bags, they were still "free floating" in their own wrappers. So once you dumped them out of the bag, organization was gone. Still it was an awesome sight to see these models piled up.

Since I'll probably work on models as needed or as I feel like it, I wanted a way to store them and be able to retrieve them without sorting through everything I had. The Orcs were easiest; they stayed in their special box. The rest of the models I piled into groups like "Monsters", "Evil", "Good", etc. After that I put them in bags and labeled them. So now when I want to find a good guy to paint, I only have to look through the 30 or so models in the "good bag" rather than everything.

Here they are "bagged and tagged." Everything went back into the Vampire box without any trouble.

My overall impression is very good. The models have some mold lines around them, but these can be shaved back. I will have to straighten out a lot of the pieces. I've seen videos of people fixing that issue in seconds with hot water, so I'm not worried. Some models that I hadn't really been expecting much from surprised me at how good they look.  One or two were disappointing to see up close. The translucent models are strange. Some look awesome and others are undecipherable. I think they'll need some level of paint to bring them out. I'll wait for some one else to devise a solution and copy it!

I think the Orcs are on my priority list right now. I'll have thirty of them, plus a leader and some other "big monster" choices like ogres and ettins to reinforce them. I also got a bunch of goblins to boot. It will be nice to have non-GW orcs and goblins to use in games. Of course, with so much to chose from, I reserve the right to change my mind at a moment's notice.

WW2 in 15mm: Japanese

Despite the "blog silence" I've actually been quite busy painting miniatures. I've just been lazy about documenting what I've done. Realizing I'm not going back to document this stuff, I decided on this next round of the project that I will do better documenting progress.

This round encompasses the Pacific war. While I have a platoon of Japanese in 28mm already done, I don't have any US Marines or suitable terrain in that scale. Seeing how I was able to pump up both my US  & German troop choices and Northern European terrain for a reasonable cost in 15mm, I chose to leave the 28mm stuff behind. The 28mm Japanese can still work with Bolt Action, as long as I throw in a few guns and tanks to round out my choices. I just doubt they'll ever see the table.

OK, so here's the first squad of 15mm Japanese.

Totally there are 13 soldiers, including 1 squad leader and an LGM. These are Old Glory models, which look great and are very affordable. At 50 models to a pack, I have more Japanese than I'll ever need.

I've made some improvements to my color schemes from the 28mm versions I did. Mostly their webbing and legging colors are more "accurate" this time around. I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy as long as they look about right. After all, I'm probably the only one to ever see these models in action.  I'm lining up these forces for another campaign from Britton Publishers, Operation Stalemate II, which is 11 scenarios based on the 1st US Marine Division's assault on Peleliu.

As I complete more of these models, I'll document my progress.  The next two squads aren't going to look any different from the ones shown above. So I'll probably do an update once the three core squads of the platoon are done as well as the HQ squad and some of the supporting units.

It will take me a while to get everything ready for the new campaign. I have to do US Marines as well. So I don't expect to begin play until Sep/ Oct this year. It's just good to have a goal to be working towards and I don't mind the long wait.

Infinity: Riot Grrls

It has been a while since I've posted any models. In fact, I've painted a ton of 15mm WW2 stuff, but haven't got around to documenting it. Maybe I'll do that some other time.  In order to take a break from military camo colors, I dipped into my modest Infinity collection to paint some Riot Grrls for my Nomads.

I love the attitude of these models. I wanted them just because there's a model chucking the finger. I've never seen anything like it, though I'm sure there has got to be other stuff like it out there. Anyway, I painted them to match my Nomads color scheme.

They were certainly fun to paint, and I expect they'll be fun to play. I'm not really sure of their game function, to be honest. I think I'll end up with a lot of Infinity models just because I like their looks rather than their contribution to an army list.

I'll say these models were fiddly to assemble. Each of the girls with their visors down had four antennae to attach to their helmets. I did the right thing and filled those holes with putty. Fuck that shit. There's no reason for that torture. Additionally they have some butt armor that looked difficult to add to the model. Again... FTS... I puttied those holes as well. After that the models went together a lot easier.

All Infinity models are really delicate, at least the ones I have. The girl chucking the finger fell apart three times. The model joins are really well done, so re-gluing her was a breeze. I'll just have to use my telekinetic powers to mover her on the table. Otherwise, I think the air pressure of my approaching fingers will cause the model to fall apart if I try to physically move her.

So, more words than pictures this time. I'll get around to documenting my 15mm stuff, as there's lots of it.  Not sure what's up next, but I've got plenty of projects in the pipeline. I'll have to choose one and get going on it.

Solitary Soldiers Campaign Progress

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've been getting in some solo or co-op games following along with Britton Publishing's Solitaire Soldiers campaign book. There are ten missions, which I'm going through in order, which start from D-Day and follow a squad of 12 men through three months in 1944 with the 29th Infantry Division.

I've just completed the fifth scenario, this one solo (my son is my co-op partner, and he's in and out). I've been using Savage Worlds (Savage Showdown, actually) as the rules set. These rules are awesome for these kinds of scenario driven games. They have their downsides, but overall I think they fit the bill.  Showdown is incredibly deadly, and solo/co-op friendly.

Seeing how I'm halfway done, I thought I'd share a peek into the campaign diary I'm keeping. I take pictures during the game and jot down notes so I don't loose anything later on. When all 10 scenarios are done, I'll probably print the diary and bind it. I'll also link it up online, but doubt anyone but me would find it interesting.

So right after this, will be the excerpt from the diary. There are three parts to each entry. There's the set up that I copy right out of the book. Then there's a POV after action report I do as the player character. (The writing is pretty lame; I don't put much effort into it, since it's just for me really). Finally, I'll record casualties, victory outcomes, and any other notes. Right now, the diary is up to 23 pages, but that's with lots of pictures.

Be warned, there's lots of reading ahead! 

Mission Five: Self Propelled Gun

Something startles Kiefer from a deep sleep. He brushes the dirt from his face, closes his eyes and settles back into a rhythmic breathing pattern. Suddenly, more dirt falls on his cheek and he swats the air. This time he sits up, annoyed that his sleep has been interrupted. He holds his breath to listen for the source of his discontent. He hears the birds and a few insects, but nothing more. Then dirt from the top of his foxhole breaks off all around the perimeter, and he feels the ground begin to tremble. Then he hears the distinctive sound of clanking treads. The continued tremor from the massive weight of several armored fighting vehicles causes him to peer out of his cover.

Kiefer rises and whispers, “LT?” With no response, he says it louder, “Lieutenant, I hear enemy armor!” The men begin to scramble for their weapons and one soldier yells, “Tiger!” As the squad scans the road, a large self-propelled gun is observed following a half-track. Closer examination reveals a Sturmhaubitz 42. The half-track most likely contains a security element. They seem to be unaware of the squad’s presence and are moving to establish an artillery position that will enable the SP gun to fire on the Battalion CP.

As the Panzergrenadiers disembark and take up defensive positions, the StuH 42 comes to a stop just to the left of the half-track. The tank commander opens his hatch and stands up tall in the cupola with his binoculars. He scans the horizon and calls out coordinates to his gunner.

After Action Report (POV is PFC Dickie Summers)

The early morning sun was at our backs, and probably made it hard for the Germans to see us. They had cruised past, one Tiger and a halftrack.  Hollis told me later it was an infantry gun called a StuH. They all look the same to me.  We were on patrol in a hilly patch of land, following a road and scouting for Gerry, and he ended up driving right past us.

 Lt. Freeman (we still haven't taken to calling him Curly to his face) lined us up behind a hill and sent Jay Shannon up it to see what the Krauts were about. We call Jay "Shy Shannon" on account of his not saying much, but he had a lot to say after he had a look. The StuH had stopped on top of an outcrop and the halftrack was unloading a squad of Panzergrenadiers. 

Lt. Freeman broke us into a fire and maneuver team.  The maneuver team included me, Shy Shannon, Kiefer (with the rifle grenade), Cpl Becker, and Allen Owen. My job was to kill the tank commander and hopefully stop that tank from taking action. Keef and the others would lay down fire on the Panzergrenadiers and hopefully chase them off.  The LT and Sgt Markham would take the rest of the squad to a ruined farmhouse and create a firebase to cover us while we tried to flank the Germans. 

Sounded like a plan from boot camp. What could go wrong?

I got off my shot and the German TC slumped over in his cupola. The rest of the crew bailed out. Keef and the others didn't do as well. The Krauts were in a cluster by their halftrack, but Keef's rifle grenade went wide. They spotted us right away. To make it worse, we were on the hill with no cover.

Despite the fleeing StuH crew, the Panzergrenadiers went to work. They turned their halftrack around and used it for cover, while a team of them slipped into the hedgerows along the road to get a firing position on the hill.

 

With all the German MGs we were torn up pretty bad on that hill. We had to hit the dirt. Owen went down right away. He didn't even cry out, just collapsed like a sack of potatoes. Sgt Markham and the BAR weren't doing much to relieve pressure on us. Their position didn't give a good view of the Germans, though they managed to snipe a Kraut officer hiding behind the halftrack.

The hill was a goddamn nightmare.  The entire German squad had us pinned. Keef fired a few grenades, but both went wide. Too much lead whizzing overhead to line up a shot.  A bullet grazed my helmet and I went blank from fear. I actually thought I was dead. I'm sure it wasn't long, but in that time Corporal Becker was rolling on his back while Shy Shannon lay face down with blood pumping into the grass. Only Keef seemed to have it together. But that wasn't going to last. I started saying my prayers, hoping someone was listening to me.

 And He was. An M10 TD showed up. Sgt Markham had friends in the tank destroyer platoons, and I suppose somehow he managed to have one in the area. I don't ask too many questions about lucky breaks.  That it showed up when it did is a miracle.

The StuH crew, seeing how well the Panzergrenadiers were doing, decided to jump back into their tank. Our TD had a shot at its rear armor. That TD was flying ahead like it knew just where to go. I kept down, but raised my head enough to see the TD take a shot and miss.  The StuH started to lumber around to face its gun toward the farmhouse.

Doc Anderson had sprinted across the open field for us up on the hill. Looking back, his brave run probably saved his life. The Krauts were more aggressive now that their tank was back.  Corporal Becker raised his head to shout something to me.  I crawled back to hear him over the noise. My shoulder and left leg burned with fire, and I felt like Joe Lewis had used me for a punching bag.  Becker screamed and rolled down the hill.  Keef dragged me back down the slope, while Doc worked on the others. He was a true hero, standing out there while the Germans shot at him, working on the wounded like nothing more than mosquitoes were flying around him.

The StuH lined up a shot on the farmhouse and blew the top floor to pieces. Charlie Mayer and Hollis Woodard were up there. Charlie had the BAR and so drew the StuH fire. The halftrack crew used their MGs to keep up the pressure, and Sgt Markham got hit as well. I thought we were going to break off, but we held.

Our M10 angel came through for us. I could hear the TD commander shouting for his gunner to hurry up. The moment they lined up their shot, I heard a gigantic clang and the StuH went up in flames.

The Krauts decided they had enough with a fresh M10 and no anti-tank capabilities. They pulled out, firing as they went. Lt. Freeman wisely didn't pursue them. We didn't have the fire power to handle them, and so Gerry slipped away. 

Without that M10 to shift the tide, I don't think I could be giving you this report. As it is, I'm going to be laid up for a while as these wounds heal. I'll never know the name of the place where we fought, but I won't soon forget that hill and all the blood my buddies and I left on it that day.

 Casualty Report

KIA: Sgt Paul Markham, Pvt Allan Owen, PFC Charlie Mayer,  Pvt Jay Shannon

WIA:  Cpl Gene Becker

WIA (fit for duty): PFC Richard "Dickie" Summers, Pvt Hollis Woodard

Mission Outcome: Draw (2xp) StuH eliminated, 2 enemies killed

Notes: PFC Richard Summers awarded Purple Heart and promoted to Corporal.  Congratulations, soldier!

Now only three soldiers survive from the original D-Day squad.

Air Combat: Wings of Glory

I've always thought I'd enjoy Wings of Glory (formerly Wings of War) but never got around to trying out these rules. Recently a friend of mine agreed to get into the game if I would, and of course I was up for that.  There are rules for both WWI and WW2, and they are similar but different games. I decided on WW2, and picked up two of their game mats and four Japanese planes for the Pacific War. 

I've played a few games of the WW2 rules and really enjoyed them. I have yet to play scenarios or with the advanced rules for altitudes, but I'll probably be working those into future games. We played two-on-two dog fights, US versus Japan. The game mats really enhanced the experience, though the water color was a little too intense. Maybe that's how it looks from high altitudes.

The miniatures look great right out of the box. Each plane has its own maneuver deck that models how agile the plane is. You also get some cards for special moves.  There's a serious amount of counters involved with this game, but they are fortunately kept off the board on a special "dashboard." Your planes are not cluttered with markers and doo-dads while flying around.

So my Japanese planes were a bit more agile than the US planes. However, the US got lucky and shot down my Zero in one go. After that, they chased me around while I managed to pick away at the US planes as I zoomed around the board.

I actually managed to shoot down one of the American P-40E Warhawks and I had my Kawasaki Ki-61 in position behind the last plane. Unfortunately, I pulled an illegal move and therefore a took a damage token. Since I was at my last point of damage, my plane pulled apart under the stress and the Americans won.

The WW2 rules did a great job modeling the speed and the greater mobility of the planes of that era. We didn't use half of the special rules or the pilot "ace skills".  However, the Ki-61 pilot was injured early on in the fight and his flying abilities were impaired. So there was some "pilot presence" in the game. I look forward to adding pilot skills to future games.

After that, since my friend had invested in the WWI bi-planes we put those on the table. Like I said, it is a different game because the planes fly so differently. The basics are the same, though in this game you plan out three turns in advance all at once. In the WW2 version, you're adjusting all the time. Also there's not speed variability in this game either.

I played Germans, flying the famous Red Baron!  I was pretty excited about that and felt the Red Baron was going to clean up the table!  Across the board were the despised British, just waiting to be shot down.

It must have been early in the Red Baron's career.  He went down in a blaze of glory, his plane on fire, pretty much right from the start. His buddy didn't do much better. He was also set on fire and had his left rudder jammed. The fire had an interesting effect in that I could no longer fly in a straight line. I was too busy trying to put out the flames to do fancy flying.

He didn't last long either, and he spun to earth a few more turns after the Red Baron. At least it was a quick defeat.  I actually liked the WWI rules a little better than the WW2 rules, though that's really splitting hairs. Both are great games with enough similarity between them. You unfortunately do have to buy two different accessory and rules boxes for each game.

Right now I only have the mats and the four Japanese planes. I will definitely be buying more planes for both Pacific and other theaters, as well as forces for both Axis and Allies. At some point, I'll have to get the WWI stuff too.  If you are looking for an air combat game that's easy to get into, then I really suggest this game. It's simple to learn and not too expensive to get started.