Kampfgruppe Kursk

Here's a shot of my battle group so far. Had a bit of trepidation unpacking these, couldn't remember how well I had managed to paint these five years ago but the results are pretty good (some of the free hand leaves a bit to be desired will use transfers in future). Have some more stuff I need to base and paint up.

All figures are 10mm Pendraken

Here's the CO planning the operation

Infantry disembark from their half tracks,
I think they should really be less blue and more grey, but I hate hate painting grey  

Heavy Machine Gun stands

Pak 40

Wespe SPA

Panzer IV and Tiger

Recon

Sdkfz 222

Operation Citadel 1943: Draft Campaign Structure

Draft for the campaign mission structure. Each box is an engagement type from Blitzkrieg Commander.
As you can see if the Germans win they follow the blue arrows if the Russians win they follow the red arrows
Will try to base each engagement on historical data/map as far as possible.
Only going to come up with scenarios for the engagements that we need to play, which means writing 4 not 10.

Scenery for Kursk

Scenery Requirements List for Kursk

here's a list of scenery we will need for the project. Will be updating this post as bits get completed or we add more stuff.

Streams 
Balsa wood Sections made by Ed complete.

River 
Wider river sections required

Bridges
Ed has sourced some Girders so I can scratch build a bridge. Pic to the right for inspiration. In progress.









Roads/Tracks
Need to be flexible 

Hedges 
Ed's got plenty of strips of scourer cut up, need flock

Walls
This should be simple – lots of strips of balsa painted grey!

Fields 
Update, completed. Made from a Tesco's doormat 

Hills 
5 small hills made, next paint and flock

Trees 
50 N Guage trees bought, next glue to 2p bases, texture and paint.


Buildings 
We’ve got about 10 resin buildings (Timecast?) to do villages just fine. A few more industrial bits and bobs and some ruins should see us right

Swamps/Mud
IIRC the germans had quite a few problems getting bogged down in places.

Bunkers
Scratch build with card?

Trenches
Scratch build various lengths with one raised side 

Barbed Wire
Ed has some?? Some nice ones here

Markers 

Smoke 
to add to disabled tanks, wire wool will do the job here.
Mine Field
Blinds for hidden units
Suppression Markers

New year, new project and the winner is......Hitler!

So I asked our gaming group what project I should be concentrating on this year and the winner was Hitler!

 Well er not actually Hitler, I'm not going to make a 1:144 scale game of Hitler but WWII and the Eastern Front, Kursk to be exact.

.....what a dumbass.

Q: Why start a WWII project? 

A: as Ed pointed out it's already half finished! 

Cue wavy picture as we travel back about 5 years. 

Ed and I got into playing Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC) a rather nice straight forward system based on GWs Warmaster. We even managed  to both get formations finished using the rather nice and very cheap Pendraken 10mmm stuff and even played some games which I remember were rather fun. Then everyone went and had kids and the project got shelved and our minis have sat gathering dust since. 

So all we need is to make some terrain and off we go...of course like the terrible Charlie Chaplain impersonator above this time we want more!

So what's the wish list this time around?

A campaign and the fun stuff that will make the battles feel a little more ‘real’ and the outcome of each one important to the next game.
Large Operational map divided into 1' sections, so it can then be translated onto a table. Interesting objectives. Want things like bridges/roads and your flanks to matter
Realistic approaches to casualties causing ends to engagements etc.
Rules for target priority i.e. tanks shoot tanks, before infantry etc.
Battalion level (stand of infantry is a platoon?).
Option for team games, with high commander and subordinate commanders. 
Capture the cut and thrust of trying to penetrate enemy defence lines whilst securing your own flanks. 
High Command sets strategic objectives, allocates resources etc.
Local commanders on the ground doing the tactical planning and carrying out the attack. 
Written requests for reserves, fire support, new orders to/from high command/other boards. Limited deviation from orders allowed. Fog of War
'Historical' formations. Hidden movement/deployment at operational level and tactical level. Lines of supply. 
Moon on a stick.

Obviously some of this stuff is a bit beyond the range of BKC so there will be a bit of rules (re)writing but hey that's half the fun of wargaming right? 

We have already started allocating scenery tasks but first thing will be to get the rules out and have a game...more to come, exciting!

Look Sir...Zoids

Here's my latest edition for Papa Nurgles Boys. Model was bought already built with the nice standing up pose by Andy (Sons of War) and then I did a minor bit of green stuff, some fine sand super glued on for texture and drilled some holes before painting. Found some old water effect and did a puddle/barrel just to break up the big base a bit

Really happy with the results hardly used any washes at all cept on the flesh parts.

If I have time to come back to it I'd like to convert the lasher tendrils and use them as an ammo feed for the cannon.

Death Guard: Quick and Dirty

So with the new Chaos Dex out it's time to dust off the Death Guard (fluff wise you should probably dust of the Thousand Sons ;0).

Haven't painted any DG since before Jake was born. I can't remember the paint scheme (plus my skills have increased a bit) so time to find a new recipe.

Here's my first attempt...

Liberal coat of GW Skarsnik Green.

Dry-brush of GW Nurgling Green.

Vallejo Beige Red for the skin bits and Vallejo Oily Steel, GW Evil Sunz Scarlet

GW Agrax Earth Shade, then everything gets a highlight. Bit of Bestial Brown dry-brushing and then another Shade with Agrax.

One of the few metal minis I have left unpainted. Don't think this flamer model is available through GW atm, even in a fine cast version which is a pity.

He looks a bit minty but I'm pretty pleased with the end result so will probably use it again. I'm looking at the first squad of DG I painted and there's definitely room for improvement so maybe they will get stripped and repainted, talking of which...

I now have 7 old metal chaos war hounds that I shall be fielding as Spawn. Picked 5 up from Troll Trader and had 2 of my own. My 2 were painted OKish and the ones from TT slightly less well, so they are all having a nice bath in Detol and will get some love and attention. Might even be time to get the green stuff out again.

The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant being a messy collection of RPGs, Boardgames, Miniatures of all denominations, comics, reference books, tools, bitz etc, the room, the spare at the front of the house. No picture, I'm sure you can just look to that ever increasing collection lurking in your own house.

What to do..

Sell some stuff, cash is good and the elephant can take up some space in someone else's house..plenty to sell and the good thing is that this stuff does keep it's value on ebay. The big question here is do I sell my Imperial Guard, maybe just a part of it and repaint some of the infantry and do an airborne army?

Reorganize what I want to keep, the Chaos Codex is out this week that means getting the Death Guard back out. Nice when a codex comes around and you already have an army (including 30 zombies). Got some fixing of broken models to do and I think I'll be re-painting  at least one squad of plague marines.

Chuck some stuff out or give it away, junk collected for scenery I'm never going to use, WD's, stuff I don't want and can't sell.

Buy new stuff..thats obviously not going to help, but lets face it, it's going to happen might as well get it out the way now.