build a wall between us

No, not the southern end of the USA. I’m thinking about the lovely Crowded House song that includes a line about building a wall. This week I completed one of those projects that has been in the cupboard for a long time. Which is odd, because assembling and painting these Rubicon walls was pretty quick once I started.

A brave member of the resistance moves between the two kits: city and industrial walls

Like most of Rubicon’s work they are lovely to build and look great. Perhaps a wee bit expensive to build a whole table, but I think they will do a cracking job to add some cover and line-of-sight blocking.

I don’t know about your town, but in Melbourne it is just about a law to paint ironwork green

Nearly all of my urban terrain was collected for a grim dark future. So I am (slowly) adding some buildings more suitable for a WW2 battle. These walls look central or western european to me, but bricks and ironwork are pretty universal, so think they will be fine.

I feel the green-brown wash captures that slightly moldy way concrete seems to go

I used the biggest brush I own and slapped a layer of some sort of GW camo-green on the top. I reckon they came up OK.

I can’t find my comrades because this wall is so high

These two kits both pre-date the pandemic, so they qualify for Ann’s Neglected But Not Forgotten challenge.

See you over a table sometime soon.

D.

Budapest Defense

Together at last. Basing done and ready to hit the table. A couple of months ago I started on a new project, a Budapest Pocket Defender list for Bolt Action. One of the nice things about this army is that I did not buy anything new for it. All of the models have come from the cupboard. It is an eclectic little group, with models from Black Tree Design, Artizan and Warlord Games, and contains both Hungarian and German units making for something that looks a little different on a WW2 table.

Pioneers (Black Tree Design) in their Hanomag (Warlord Games)

Grenadiers, mix of Black Tree Design and Artizan

Warlord Games MMG

Medium Mortar (Artizan)

The whole force is led by these German officers (Black Tree Design)

Hungarian sniper team made from Warlord plastic Germans

Hungarians with an anti-tank rifle; useful against soft-skins (Warlord Games)

Hungarians from Warlord Games

This force may grow yet, but with the addition of a tank, maybe a Wirblewind (painted but never really had a part in my mid-war Italian theatre themed army), I think we are good to go. And that is a nice feeling.

D.

Support Choices

Work on my Budapest Pocket Defenders continues. These support choices complete the initial models I intend for this Bolt Action list. My plan is to base them all at once in a vague effort to tie the otherwise disparate group together.

First is a medium mortar from Artizan.

I think the spotter is from Warlord Games. He tells me his name is Harry.

Medium machine guns have a mixed reputation in Bolt Action. I nearly always include one in a German list, it just seems right even if they can be a bit fragile in the game. (You can thank me later for not saying they’re hit and miss.) This one is by Warlord Games.

A sniper team, painted as Hungarians but made from Warlord Games plastic Germans. I don’t know why the spotter has a book.

I also painted a pair of forward observers from Warlord Games. I’m not sure if they will get much use, but at least they are not bare metal in a box, which is a win all of its own.

Not far off from a full family portrait. Yay! I’m pleased with how quickly this little project came together. And just in time as the opportunity for actual gaming returns. In a suitably social distanced way, of course.

Maybe I’ll see you over a battlefield sometime soon.

D.

Hungarians

A project with the working title, “I don’t remember buying these, I wonder if I have enough in the cupboard to make a wee army”. I’ll think of a snappier title later. Anyway, a random squad of Hungarians have moved to the painted pile (bases pending).

I haven’t done very detailed faces, but I’m quite happy with how this squad turned out.

The squad includes panzerfausts, so I’m guessing late war. A brief search found some Germans from Black Tree Design and some support weapons (more Warlord). There is a fun looking list in the Fortress Budapest book, a mixed Hungarian-German Budapest Pocket Defenders. I think I will be able to come close to creating a small army for this list. Maybe I will buy a tank to match, although I my Wirblewind will fit the theme nicely.

See you on the streets.

Get to the choppa

Another random project from the cupboard, a dwarf gyrocopter. After painting 15mm recently, even the dwarf in 28mm felt large and was a fun change.

I might go back and add some colour to the pilot’s shirt, but I’m happy with the machine

I think this is the last of my unpainted dwarfs. Who knows, it may even see a battlefield one day!

Time for a big stonk

Apparently a stonk is a thing, and the way to get one delivered is to get your supporting artillery regiment on the telephone or radio. Before Montgomery made artillery essential to his battle plans, the Royal Artillery Regiment were honing their craft as part of the Western Desert Force. This battery of 8 guns from a field regiment will support my desert campaign Australians.

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Field regiments were armed with 25 pounder guns, introduced early in the war and so successful they were used for many years after all around the world. I have included some some Italian guns. This is a nod to the bush artillery, a unit made up of support troops during the Tobruk siege in 1940-41 who used captured Italian guns. I suspect they provided more moral than actual support, given the highly technical game of arty, but it is a wonderful image and a terrific insight into the courage and tenacity of the garrison.

The RA regiments supporting the Australian divisions in North Africa were mostly British formations, pointing to the international nature of Western Desert Force (and later, the 8th Army). Australian artillery were mostly deployed for home defense and later in the Pacific.

It is a lot of models: 8 guns, with HQ, staff, FO and enough trucks and universal carriers to transport them all. This battery will make up a large part of any force they are included in, but they will also throw out a lot of firepower. Fun fact: the artillery were the largest component part of the British Army.

See you in the Bardia for lunch!

No! Smaller than that!

Looking for something else I found a squadron of Sherman tanks with a rattlecan base coat and nothing else. I can’t date them but I reckon they must be around 5 years old. Yep, well past due to get a little attention at the paint table.

They are 15mm from Plastic Soldier Company. My brother tells me they are early war because the hulls are rounded and not the riveted late war bodies. I thought the 1:72 one I completed recently was little. These are very cute. Here is one sitting next to a 1:56 version from Warlord Games.

The commander took about 45 seconds to paint, including shaking the paint pots.

I enjoyed painting these tanks. It seems some more 15mm may be in order and I happen to have a half finished British desert army. As you do.

Just drive the jeep, man

In what seems a long time ago, Warlord Games had a sale where I picked some additional Bolt Action Korea miniatures to expand my Chinese force. It still hasn’t reached the table, but that is a rather dull story that we are all familiar with at the moment. I’m close to finishing the next batch of infantry (I’m up to basing), but I finished a Gaz jeep.

Most likely it will be used as a tow for a light howitzer or anti-tank gun. I guess it could be a flamethrower or bazooka taxi, which is not historical but can be useful in game terms.

I’m also claiming it as part of paint the crap you already own hobby challenge, because it was started before 1 April.

Now, back to the painting table.

D.