The French are here.

Another quick post as the varnish has dried on my WW2 French platoon. The figures were a Christmas present from my long suffering wife, which I bought and she promptly stole and wrapped up back in October. 

They are Bolt Action figures and, despite the lack of variety in poses, I reckon they look ok now they are painted up.

The Chain of Command French platoon has three squads of twelve men, each with an LMG and a rifle grenade(VB) launcher. The platoon HQ has two senior leaders, one junior leader and another VB launcher. The differ from other units as the VB launchers can all be gathered into a team under the HQ junior leader, thus giving the platoon its own inherent indirect fire support.

The only support team I have so far is a Hotchkiss tripod MG, although some more assets may arrive soon.

A closer look at the infantry. Not going to win any awards but at least they are all done.

I also picked up a couple of tanks, just because I liked them. First up is a Blitzkrieg Models Renault R35, one of the most numerous tanks in the French forces. It's small. it's slow and it has a pretty feeble 37mm short barreled gun, but it does have a decent level of armour protection.

Finally for now is a Warlord Char B1 heavy tank. It's a big beast and will use up a lot of support points, but it's a pretty model.

So there you go, some opposition for my early war Germans finally. I am off now to annoy the grand children as my daughter and her family couldn't get home last night due to asshats crashing in the 1/2" of snow we had and blocking the roads. At least I can still make a cuppa.

It can't have been 6 months!

It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months since I posted here. I have been a bit down and struggled with being ill again, a continuous run of infections around my stoma have really knocked me and I have taken a while to get through it. Not everything has stopped, I have still played a few games and still painted a few bits, it's just been the social side of things that have taken a hit.

But just to upset you all I have returned. And by "you all" I mean the one person who reads this tripe.

Gaming has primarily been boardgames of several types. Zombicide, Blood Rage, Mythic Battles Pantheon etc. Wargames have mostly been Chain of Command, with the occasional foray into Congo and Death in the Dark Continent. 

As for painting, I did very little last year, but after having a break I have managed to get a bit of my mojo back. Not a vast amount but at least a bit of it has returned. So I have finally painted some 15mm Germans for Ian at the Exeter club, which inspired me to paint some German vehicles that have been sat in my plastic pile for too long.

Ian's German Infantry

Ian's infantry were a mixture of Battle Front and Peter Pig, 94 figures all told based for IABSM.

Early War Sdkfz 251s and Panzer 38ts

Next up are some early war German armour. Five Sdkfz 251 halftracks including a command 251/10 with it's mighty 3.7cm pak gun. These are supported by a trio of Panzer 38ts, ready for France or Russia. The half-tracks are Plastic Soldier Company while the Panzers are Zvezda models

Later war Sdkfz 250s 

Some more half-tracks were then stuck together and slapped with paint. A box of Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 250s were made up as a mixed recce force. A command 250/11 with it's 2.8cm Pzb leads a pair of 250/1 infantry carriers and a pair of 250/9 recce tracks with 2cm cannons. A decent mix of vehicles that can either add support for Chain of Command games or be recce elements for Battlegroup games.

Late war Panzer IIIs

A trio of Panzer IIIs wereadded to the line up, picked up at a bring and buy somewhere some time ago. Pre-made but unpainted, they will now be part of my late war German force. Who needs Panthers or Tigers? Also, see if you can spot the error in construction. I didn't notice until after I had painted them and don't know if it is worth fixing.

Late War Sdkfz 251s

Finally for today is some more 251's, Battlefront models this time. A quartet, painted up to mechanise my German infantry.

All told that's 20 vehicles, so it's been not too bad.

I have painted some other bits for WW2, but these will appear tomorrow hopefully as the varnish isn't dry yet. Later folks.