Bag The Hun

Hello All,

I picked up Bag The Hun just before Christmas , I have wanted a WW2 air combat game for a while but I had never found one that jumped up at me. Then I reed about the exploits of 68 Squadron over on the Scrivsland Blog, something about there campaign spoke to me and before I know it I have ordered over 50 1/600 scale Planes, bought the rulebook, the Fine Hour add on and a gaming matt with hexes to play on. But then Christmas come around, I was busy with work and Family and I completely forgot about it until I came across my undercoated Hurricanes on my painting desk.

So as I finished my weekly Hungarians early last week I thought I would have a crack at painting the Hurricanes. The first thing I noticed is painting 1/600 scale is very different from painting 28mm or even 15mm. I have never painted something so small and I tried a few painting techniques (Black Lining and the like) that just didn't work. So I went for a "keep it simple stupid" approach that seemed to work. I was happy with the results, but I will say the transfers added alot to the model even if they are a nightmare that this scale!

The first Squadron, 12 Hurricanes.

Having enjoyed the first squadron I have 12 Me. 109's up next so we can start playing some games and learn to play.

I found tacking the models down to paint the under side,
then stick them to the flying stands to finish them off
seems the best way to paint the planes at this scale.

After that I have 12 ME.110's, 9 He. 111's and 12 Ju 87's. I will be picking up a squadron of Spitfires and JU 88's at some point, but only after a few games.

As for the rules. I haven't played yet, but the rules seem really really good. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to play it with out the quick reference as there are allot of tables to use to work out firepower, manoeuvre and the like. Having said that the rest of the rules seem really nice and straight forward. I'm quite excited about this game and once me and of my friends have learnt the rules we'll start a Battle of Britain Campaign using the Finest Hour campaign add on.

Anyway thanks for reading Ben

Late War Hungarians - Part 6

Hello all.

I have finished 7 more Zrinyi II's done in the same way as the first 3 I did in part 2.

Pretty happy with the tanks. I painted all 7 in one go and I think they suffer a light because of this as I spent more time per tank on the first 3. But I don't think the standard is bad enough to worry about.

Here's a picture of the army so far, 3 Nebs off 1000pts.

Now these are down it's onto the Assault Pioneers. I will be doing a basing tutorial with them as I have been asked to do one from one of the users on the WWPD forum.

Until next time thanks for reading Ben

D-Day Campaign Weekend - Firestorm D-Day

Hello All,

I have always wanted to run a campaign weekend, I have taken part in a few and they are almost always my favourite memories I have about the hobby. So I have decided to have a go at running one! I was playing around with the idea of doing one based on Crete. Thinking it would be nice, small and a lesser used campaign, but when I spoke to my regular opponents and got a lukewarm response. So my next port of call would be D-Day. Almost everyone would have an army for it, it’s an icon battle and it wasn’t too hard to find material other players have done for a D-Day campaign to work from, my gaming group jumped on board so D-Day it was!

I'm have worked on converting the Battlefront Firestorm Rules Set with Firestrom D-Day rules from this forum and the Shifting Sands D-Day Campaign Weekend from the Battlefront Website, with my own twists. The idea being start on D-Day +1 (so the beachs are taken and now it's time to move inland) and go up to D-Day +11 (2 days per game turn).

I have found a good map from one of the above Sites , here is a link to a larger picture.

 The current plan is for this to be in the First Quarter 2013, I would like to run it sooner but I'm getting married in September and I don't want to do a bad job on either (and I don't think the future wife would be too happy with me if I was more focussed on something else other than the wedding!).

I have also written a draft rule set that can be downloaded here.

Well thats all for now, I'll keep you all updated as I start getting things together.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck!

Battlefield in a Box:- Italian Monastery Review

Hello all,

Today's I picked up the Battlefield in a Box:- Italian Monastery, so I thought I would do a quick review of it.

First off I'm surprised by the size of it, at 7" long and 5" wide it covers a fairly big area, also the tower is massive! 

It's all you would expect from the Battlefield in a Box range, it's tough, well detailed and a good price. It also can hold a good amount of bases, 4 medium bases will fit confidently at a push 6 or 7 could be placed in the main footprint.

sorry for the unpainted models.

Now a few negatives, firstly there were a very chips and places were the paint rubbed off. In the above picture you can probably see wear the paint come off the roof. Also on the exposed brick on the top of the walls is very under detailed compared to the rest of the model. (See the picture below)

But overal I think it's a great bit of kit, 9/10 nothing wrong with it a quick dry brush won't sort out.


Also picked up my 7 Zrínyi II with I'll start next week

But bigger than that I got the new 3rd edition softback book!

Man it's soooooooo much bigger than the old one!

Anyway I'm off to read my book so have a good night!

Ben

Late War Hungarians - Part 5

Hello All

Got my painting head on and started and finished my Nebs in 2 days (very good going for me!)

Need to pick up the other 3 at some point to finish the whole battery. I'm picking up the next 7 Zrínyi II tomorrow, and I hope to get them done by the end of next week.

Also for fun I have started messing around with some pictures of my Hungarians in Black and white, sort of "real" WW2 pictures if you will. Here's the first one

I'll have a go at distorting it tomorrow

Thanks for look Ben

Part 1 can be seen here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 4 here

Late War Hungarians - Part 4

Hello all

Been busy this week, but I have found time to paint up a Hungarian Stuka. The model had been sitting around for ages but I had never got around to painting it (it was for my Fins), but with the new air rules in version 3 I thought it was a good idea to get one painted and give it a go!

I based it on a picture I found on the internet of a model Stuka. I was going to paint it with 2 different greens but I found the stick tape ridded the paint off! (I was not happy!)

Overal I'm quite happy with it, next up some Hungarian Nebs.

Thanks for looking Ben

Part 1 can be seen here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here

Late War Hungarians - Part 3

Hello all

I have sent myself a painting challenge with my Late War Hungarians, I have a big muilti player FOW game planned for the 22nd April as part of my Birthday weekend. I have planned what to take with my follow Axis player and we will have 2.5k each. So I now going to try and paint the whole 2.5k before the 22nd April. I'm hoping this is an ambitious but plausible target.

My list is:-

Hungarian Assault Gun Company

HQ:- Zrinyi II's 75pts - Finished

Combat Platoons:- 

3 Zrinyi II's 225pts - Finished

3 Zrinyi II's 225pts - Finished

3 Zrinyi II's 225pts - Finished

Support Platoons:-  

Assault Pioneer Platoon with 3 Squads + Faust + Supply Truck 305pts - Finished

Motorised Artillery with 4 149mm 14/31M Howitzers 225pts

Rocket battery with 6 43M Rocket Launchers 150pts - Finished

Assault Anti-Tank Platoon with 3 Pak 40s 155pts

3 Tigers 585pts - WIP

Motorcycle Scouts with 3 squads + Faust 230pts

Sporadic Air Support JU87D Stuka - Finished

I have worked out if I do about a unit a week I should finish on time.

So wish me luck!

Thanks for reading Ben

Part 1 can be seen here and Part 2 here