10mm MoCB Figure painting - Citadel Contrast Paints

My 3d Printer developed a fault on Saturday 😞, and while I wait for a replacement part from the supplier I thought I'd better get on with something else.

Matt White Primed

I finished off my 10mm ACW horse holder bases which had been hovering on the bench for a few weeks and then rather than get into some more of the ACW figures, I thought I'd make a start on the figures for MoCB.

Flesh areas picked out with Guilliman Flesh

I bought these from Pendraken at Colours in 2019. I've bought sufficient figures for the "NVA" game;-

1. An Average US Marine/Infantry unit
2. Vietnamese Army unit 
3. Villagers/Peasants 

The forces for the Viet Cong version of the game differ significantly and I thought that if I get into MoCB sufficiently,  I might invest in these later on.

Weapons picked out with Black Templar & Snakebite Leather

To start off with I based the army figures, these were based on mdf, two figures per circular base. The bulk were on 20mm dia. bases, with the company/platoon commanders on 25mm dia. bases. I will do the civilian villagers later.

Uniform colours blocked in. NVA in Militarum Green and US in Creed Camo

To texture the bases I applied Vallejo White Pumice with a palette knife. Great basing material!

NVA webbing picked out in Snakebite Leather and US boots painted in Cygor Brown

After this had dried, the figures were all primed with Wilko's matt white primer before painting them with Contrast paints.

Base painted overall in Skeleton Horde

The pictures within the text will take you through the process. 

The only non Contrast paint I used was a touch of Vallejo Russian Uniform to highlight the US figure's webbing

I just painted one of each base to start off with to test the colours out. Now I know they look OK, I will use this technique to paint up the rest.

To finish these off I will varnish and then add some flock and grass tufts to the bases.

10mm MoCB Terrain Pieces - Villages

Due to 3D printing obsessively, I have neglected my Men of Company B terrain building!

Buildings for the villages were selected at random from those available to download on Thingiverse, as were the fences. These were rescaled to suit 10mm use in the slicing software before printing. They were then superglued onto scrap mdf appprox. 100x200mm

However, here's a quick update on progress so far.

THe base surface was then coated in diluted PVA before scattering with bird cage sand. When dry this was painted using cheap brown craft acrylic paint ("Plaid")

As I'm building both sides and all the terrain the game requires, there's quite a lot to do.

The building walls were painted using Army Painter mid-brown, the thatched rooves in Vallejo Midstone and the corrugated roofing in Vallejo Dark Grey.

Just a reminder, in 10mm you will need the following 100x200mm templates; -

• 6 x Village templates
• 1-3 x Paddy Fields
• 3-4 Jungle pieces
• 0-1 Rocky hill
• 1-3 Bamboo pieces
• A single road that will run the length of the table (1000mm long)

Once this was all dry, the buildings and fences were given a brown wash. Then when dry, the entire model was dry-brushed with a sand coloured test-pot paint

Thus far I have completed the village pieces, so there is still a long way to go.

Green flock was attached with diluted PVA to areas where I thought there would be less foot traffic

Vehicles can be tabled as part of the game, and are used in pairs. To provide for this I've printed pairs of M48A1's, M113 APCs and M113 ACAVs.

As a final touch, I added half a dozen or so dark green grass tufts. Here are the two ACAVs (Both Marco Bergman models 3D printed)

Getting there slowly but surely.....

And here are the M48A1's

It occured to me while reading the Peter Pig AK47 Republic rules that these would do just as well as African Villages. Maybe that could be another future project in 10mm?

10mm Update....ACW & MoCB

A quick update on recent activities.

My ACW 10mm project is ticking along nicely. I finished a unit of Rebel Infantry to use my last 25x25mm mdf bases and moved on to the artillery limbers & teams as these would use 25x50mm bases (of which I have loads).

On completing these my mdf order from Products for wargamers arrived! So I'm now good to go with the rest.

My first subjects will be the artillery pieces & crews together with the divisional & Corps commander bases. After this I can return to finishing my infantry and cavalry figures.

My first two village templates for 10mm MoCB are now finished and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. I've a new 3D printer arriving today so will use that very soon to print of some more buildings and fences to allow me to complete the other four.

The M113 APCs are also finished and look the part. I will add some more vehicles (and hopefully helicopters) to the game as time allows.

RFCM Men of Company B (MoCB) - in 10mm Part One

I'm starting to gain some momentum with my 10mm Vietnam project and thought I'd post an update.

This set of rules first came to my attention 10 years ago when I bought the original version (The old crappy photocopied and comb bound version,  on random coloured paper!).

The hardest thing I've always found with Peter Pig rules (RFCM) is to get beyond the presentation.....hopefully one day, someone will have the balls to tell them they need the services of a professional graphic designer!

Once you are over that, and start to read through you generally find a very innovative and workable set of rules.

Recently they've gone through a re-vamping exercise. Re-writing the rules and expanding them as well as printing them on glossy paper and using spiral binding!!

Many are all the better for it, some are not (i,e Regiment of Foote!) and there is a noticeable increased move towards grid based gaming. If you are OK with this, all well and good, if not you're doomed.

The original MoCB was a good game, the new version I've yet to try. However it has been expanded over the original to cover pilot rescue, fire-base attack and straight Red on Blue combat.

One of the requirements of the original search & destroy game is the "Cache Loop". This decides what you find following your searches and like many features of RFCM rules appears to be an excuse to have you buy yet more items from their range!! I guess it's a business model that worked well for GW so why reinvent the wheel?

Now as I'm going to be using 10mm figures I thought a scaled down version would be in order. I'd seen a rather nice mdf version of the Cache Loop both on the PP site and Warbases and I thought "how hard can this be?".

I bought myself 4 x Four Penny sabot bases from Products for Wargamers and glued them together. I then glued this assembly to a sheet of mdf left from another project and there you are.

The notes in the centre are double sided and laminated, so suit either the search and destroy or the White Star scenarios. All I need to do now is produce some little markers (ambush, arms caches etc.) on pennies to place in the sabot slots.

Meanwhile I've almost completed the first village templates (I need six in total) built on scrap mdf (that came with my son's baby's self-assembly furniture packaging - never waste anything eh?) using entirely 3D printed terrain pieces - huts and fences.

The base was then coated with bird cage sand on top of PVA and painted up with cheap craft paints.

Just some greenery to add - a bit of flock and some grass tufts I think - and they will be finished.

In total I will need 20 terrain templates (each 200x100mm approx.) for the game of which the 6 villages are just a part. Still a fair deal of work to do.....

10mm Projects - ACW & Vietnam

Onward and upwards.

As I couldn't make a decision which to concentrate on, and I suspected that I may be governed somewhat by stocks of material running low, I've made up my mind to go with both!

I've so far painted and based 11 units of Union Cavalry (mounted & dismounted) together with 10 units of infantry - these require varnishing and flock.

Also I've painted a further 10 units of Union Zouaves awaiting the bases being finished.

Next up will be 10 units of Rebel Infantry and then my stock of 25x25mm mdf bases run out.

I should be able to tick over painting and basing my artillery as they go on bigger bases and I'll have to hope I can find a supplier who is still manufacturing bases.

On the Vietnam front I'm still printing off buildings and fences for the 6 village terrain bases I need. I also printed off 3 M113 APCs ready for the game.

I've built two villages up to see what they look like, but have yet to paint them up.