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Sunday 26 July 2015

PSC The Great War - painting the rest of the box.

Rotten weather here today, so nothing else for it but to get on with the painting of the figures from the box.
I sprayed the sprues with primer yesterday in anticipation, and have blocked in all the base colours this morning. Used Vallejo acrylics as usual, watered down by 50% to facilitate speed painting with a bigger brush. Have also done the artillery pieces ready for assembly and finishing.

I'm planning to mount the guns and crews on 60 x 30mm mdf with a 5mm dice in a Minibits bracket to allow adjustment to show the reserve artillery strength.

Bases and dice brackets on order, so hopefully I'll have them for when the figures are finished.

Monday 13 July 2015

PSC the Great War

Just surfing on the interweb and came across this quote from The Great War's creator Will Townshend, PSC Games on February 17

The metal command figures set is an exclusive reward to Kickstarter backers. It comprises 8 x 15mm/ 1 100th scale general figures beautifully sculpted by a talented sculptor I know. There will be a British/ANZAC/Commonwealth, French, German, Russian, US, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Turkish General in the set. 

Apart from being a thing of beauty, the generals set gives the optional rule that if you field your nation's general for that scenario in your off board play area you can take 2 additional HQ tokens at the start of the game. 

They are in metal because doing them in plastic would be hugely expensive just for a Kickstarter exclusive ( it's still not cheap in metal!) and my talented sculptor only works in metal!

In addition I also noted from the Kickstarter site that the intention of the artillery models is to replace the  reserve artillery counters!

So I think I now have the answers to my earlier questions.

However, I'm now wondering how robust the figures will be when stored together in a box/pot with the game. I've seen plenty of people playing CandC Ancients and Naploeonics with wargame figures on multiple bases.

What about mounting them four to a base with a Minibits dice frame and six sided dice to record casualties? They'll be quicker to deploy and move, and a lot better protected when in storage. But will this limit future gaming?

Thoughts anyone?




Sunday 12 July 2015

PSC the Great War - Metal Command Figures

Here's a quick look at the kickstarter bonus command figures.
The sculpts look to be very good, let down by poor casting. The lines visible on the figures hats bear witness to the fact that all the moulds are misaligned. What a shame. I will have to see what they look like after a bit of filing.

I've now read through the rules once and I am still uncertain how to make use of these during a game, and for that matter, how to use the artillery pieces?

If anyone can help, let me know.

PSC 's the Great War - first Sprues finished

Final coat of bolt gun metal on the British bayonets and these little beauties are finished.
I think as time goes on these figures will be used a lot in conventional wargaming. They're well detailed and in useful poses. In addition you get a MG and Mortar with every sprue. No need to buy additional support units. All you'll need are a few command figures maybe?
I think the grass green base colour will work well with the green side of the playing board.
MG08 crew loaded up with ammunition
The grenadier figure is on a square base so stands out amongst his peers. A good feature.
The Minenwerfer crew supporting their comrades.
Similarly burdened British Vickers team. I particularly like the gunner himself.
The mortar team could easily be adapted to other mortar types by simply scratch building a new mortar tube and legs.
These figures are perfect for 1916-1918 scenarios.
I'd better get the rest done so I can try out the game. I'm afraid I'm a bit anal about using unpainted figures....it's a big NO NO.
 Not the best pictures but hopefully these will give an idea how well detailed they are.
Very pleased with these and I'm looking forwards to see what else PSC bring out......especially those tanks!

Saturday 11 July 2015

PSC's The Great War - Painting the figures almost complete

I've reached the point where all the figures have been removed from the sprue, and touched up, ready for varnish spray.
I managed to remove all the Brits without breaking a single bayonet. The secret is to cut this connection to the sprue FIRST. Use decent side cutters to do so and you remove the tension from the figure, so when you gut the other sprue connections the natural springiness won't break the bayonet.
The mg gunners were a little fiddly to assemble, but not show stoppers.
It's a shame that three British figures are connected to the sprue by their helmets. These are almost impossible to clean up well. You inevitably loose the domed finish of the Brodie helmet. I wish PSC could have done this to figures with hessian covers, as it wouldn't have been so critical.
Just at the last minute, while cleaning up with a very sharp knife, I slipped and took off a bayonet! Doh!
I'm off to spray these with army Painter Matt varnish now. To I think this will protect them enough from day to day handling, and storage together in a box with the game parts.




Monday 6 July 2015

PSC's The Great War - Painted Figures

The first batch are nearly ready now. Another hour's work saw them to this point.
Now the sepia wash has dried, the flesh areas were painted in and flesh washed once dry. Then the bases were painted in grass green. 
The Germans received a coat of sepia wash too. Perhaps not the obvious wash for field grey, but it gives them an authentic grubby look.
I decided that the figures looked a little darker than I'd like, so to lighten things up I gave all the figures a very light dry brush of Iraqui Sand.
I'm now going to let the figures dry for 24hrs before I cut them from the sprues. Then hopefully all they will need is a little touching up before I spray them with Matt varnish. The final job will be to pick out the bayonets ( if they survive!) with silver as my GW Silver paint reacts with Army Painter varnish.


Sunday 5 July 2015

PSC's The Great War - speed painting the figures

Next step with the figures has been to block in all the main colours.
Everything has been given a coat of paint except the flesh areas and the bases.
To do both sprues has taken collectively about 4 hours. Now the figures will receive a coat of slightly diluted Vallejo Sepia wash. When that is dry the flesh areas will be painted and washed and the bases too.

Let's hope I've got some time to spare tomorrow,

Peter Laing - 15mm Miniatures

I spoke previously of Peter's WW2 range. I promised I would put some pictures up for your interest. Well here they are.......enjoy!
German Infantry. To the rear of the group are some conversions, a Panzerschreck operator and a guy carrying two Panzerfausts.
Painted with Camouflage smocks and gloss varnished as was the way in the 1980's!
This small group represents one of each figure type from Peter's WW2 US range - painted as British Paras. The LMG  gunner has a BAR shoulder slung extreme left.
Here's a Timstanks original. A 15mm M5 Halftrack to go with the figures. The master was made from plastic card using a photocopy reduced plan from an old Airfix Guide to Military Modelling book. The front wheels are modified PL items. I still have the moulds!
This is the Antitank version mounting a PL French 75mm from his WW1 range. Next to it is my first venture, a jeep. I actually had these reviewed in both Miniature a Wargames and Military Modelling, but needless to say I didn't make my fortune. I think a New Zealand based company nicked my idea and the rest is history as they say....
Again the master was made from plasticard. The mould were all Alec Tiranti cold cure rubber. The wheels for this model came from PL's range and I cast them two to an axle already to fit. The driver is a modified PL item from the WW1 range.
Some items from the WW1 range modified for WW2 use. A general purpose wagon plus horses. A motorcycle dispatch rider and a German on a push bike (Belgian army originally I think). At the rear a stretcher bearer party with a medic.
The British range with a mixture of stenguns and rifles.
A company HQ group with a figure converted to a radio operator, the 2" mortar team and a pistol armed officer figure.
The group overall. I have in total about 100 WW2 figures still.
And yes, this is a genuine PL 6 pounder A/T gun. I have two, this one has a Peter Pig Para crew and is still in use.
He gave them to me as basic single piece castings with no wheels. I have used my jeep axle here, which was a perfect fit.

I hope these pictures bring back memories......









 


Saturday 4 July 2015

PSC's The Great War - Speed painting the figures

On opening my parcel from PSC I was very excited to see the amount of components with the game. I was slightly disappointed they hadn't lashed out on a bit of bubble wrap to protect the box top and extra scenario sheet from the artillery sprues - both are dented from being packed so tightly - but that's a minor point.

The printed card components are all really good quality as is the folding game board. This will make a good portable gaming surface for any wargames - green one side, brown the other.

The large number of 15mm figures all look lovely. I haven't tried to remove them from the sprues yet so I haven't had a chance to see if the British bayonets break as easily as they say that they do, on the web.

Looking at the sprues got me thinking that maybe the majority of painting could actually take place whilst the figures are still attached?

If this would work I think it would greatly speed things up and get them on the table ASAP. So I'm going to experiment with one of each sprue.
Firstly I primed them in white using GW Spray primer,  then using Vallejo Acrylic English Uniform and Field Grey slightly watered down and with a bigger than normal brush, I painted all the uniform areas taking about 5-6 minutes for both sprues. The detail on the figures is good and I had to dab the paint on around rifle slings and such like.

The way the figures are attached means that there will be either touching up of helmets, uniform or bayonets once they are cut off. Not too bad. The figure bases are attached to the sprue at the unseen underside so facilitate you painting the bases whilst on the sprue as well - a real bonus.

As they are primarily gaming pieces for this board game, I'm not going to texture the bases just paint them grass green. However they are really good figures and I suspect they will be forming the core of many a 15mm WW1 army over the coming months.

Much as I love the artillery bonus figures (£24 if I'd had to buy them) I can't quite see yet how you use them in the game? I've only skimmed through the rules once so may have missed something. If anyone can tell me please get in touch.

Finally I've just had a look at my bonus metal generals. All I can say is good sculpting.....poor casting. Half of the group suffer from the moulds having been out of alignment (one I thinking s so bad it's unread usable) the others have a fair bit of flash. Shame really, but again I'm not sure how you'd use them in the games anyway.

More to follow

Wednesday 1 July 2015

PSC's The Great War

Mmmmm..... Nice surprise when I get home from work!
Time to open up the box........
Oh and here are my kickstarter goodies.....British and German artillery (5guns each) eight metal Generals and a couple of extra scenarios. Not bad on first impressions.