Giving Black Ops a try
This is a brief battle report, that has been hiding in the draft section for more than two years, covering Black Ops.
The wargames series by Osprey covers small, compact rule sets. Usually around 12 GBP and 64 pages thick. Among them you'll find rule sets like the popular post-apocalyptic Gaslands or historical and fantasy systems like Lion / Dragon Rampant. But today we want to take a look into Black Ops. Between the holidays of 2018 and 2019, we used the spare time for a game of Black Ops. I've seen it at Crisis a few years back in 2015, was written by Guy Bowers. Not an unfamiliar name in wargaming, as he's working for Karwansaray Publishers on Wargaming Soldier & Strategy.
Oldhammer – The Hunt – 2021 status
While consolidating and taking stock, I made the decision that I wanted to keep the scope of my collection to the mid to late 90s Games Workshop miniatures. I narrowed it down to certain projects and evaluated, which to complete or sell off.
The original idea was to write about "the hunt" for Old- and Middlehammer, which I started in 2019 with a brief introduction on how to start your project and to scope it. The ongoing process of sourcing your stock / the needed miniatures was covered in two more articles, one rather generic with basic information and another focused on the Imperial Guard. From there I went on and covered the progress, introducing the individual units, with detailed information on design, alteration, prices and so on - for example with Chaos Space Marines. And all that went more or less well until early 2020.
It is not that I lost interest on continuing the series or stopped the projects. It is primarily due to the fact, that the circumstances have changed so much, that it is rather difficult to write about something, like price values or suggestion, that aren't reliable or useful at the moment up until the unforeseen future. And it is not a single incident, more a rather unlucky combination of multiple things, that lay heavy on our small niché hobby.
November 2021 review
Coverage this month was coined by mustering my British / Commonwealth troops for the North African campaign. I began with a bit of stock taking, to get a better view of what I had and what was missing, added the much needed transport and even covered one of my dearest topics, Beutefahrzeuge - in this case a 15 CWT with a 2cm Flak.
Twelve months, 20,- Euro Part 11
Holey kamoley, there has been a lot going on in November! First of all, I can announce that I managed to put the second studio of the Chaosbunker into action. I had to be content with a tiny corner before, but now I have a proper mancave at my disposal, where a few projects have already been started.
The Rohan settlement returns
Games Workshop just announced, that the Rohan terrain kits will return for christmas, with the huge bundle of the Rohan settlement itself.
The range was originally released at the end of 2019, covering the Rohan House and Rohan Watchtower & Palisade. The settlement was a bundle, covering six houses and two times the palisades for a price of 200 EUR (and was pretty much sold out right away).
Captured equipment for the desert
A long time ago, I stumbled upon this conversion of a Chevrolet 15 CWT on Panzerserra (on of my favourite model builders) and ever since I build the British 15 CWT, I was thinking about building it myself.
I was unsure if to go for a vehicle in Commonwealth service with a captured gun, or the other way around, with a captured vehicle in German service. After looking for an appropriate breda gun to use with the plastic vehicle. To match the remaining project, the Perry Miniatures Italian 20mm Breda was a good choice. Yet, I have build some of the weapon teams from the world war 2 range and after giving the breda a second look, I decided against it.
British North African Motorpool – Part II
I got my kits via a dutch onlinestore, Tabletopper.nl, and shipping was quick and easy. Shipping rates are reasonable, and I got some other items along with the bedford trucks as well, an Austin Tilly and some stowage.
The British had a variety of trucks and tows in service during the war and especially in North Africa. With the Bedford QLT and QLD kits available as plastic kits, I could take care of that addition to my forces, as most of the vehicles are regular combat vehicles, as you can see from the first article, with the exception of some lighter vehicles / armoured cars.
In Bolt Action these are 3 ton trucks with the capacity of 12 men, and you can go for a QLT upgrade to boost that up to 29. To be honest a bit of overkill, but I went with the kit more for the aspect of variety as for the actual opportunity to carry all of my men in a single vehicle.
Thunderhawks – Hooo!
Closing the gap on the area between Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis got a bit easier, with the recent release of Astartes Aircrafts. And among those aircrafts, is one of the most famous flyers the Space Marines have, the mighty Thunderhawk! (Imagine the Thundercats intro ... hooooo!)
I have to be honest, the Thunderhawk has a special meaning for me. Beginning with the first Thunderhawk, all metal kit, that was released in the late 90s and I even held that one on my first visit to Warhammer World in 1999. And that particular kit got much more attention this year, when Emil a.k.a. Squidmar got one of these Thunderhawk kits, painted it up and sold it for an impressive 25.600 GBP.
British North African Motorpool – Part I
Following on the late war Allied motorpool for the US Americans for the late autumn / winter of '44, are the British in North Africa, mid-war around 1942-43. With this set of miniatures, I want to be able to play the theatre selectors of the Desert Rats / 8th Army in 1942-43 and the Long Range Desert Group from 1940 to 1943.
The infantry is build upon the magnificient range by the Perrys, mostly plastic.
White Dwarf Trio – August til October 2021
Catching up with the last three issues of White Dwarf, #467 August, #468 September and #469 October 2021. I do have an subscription, but due to the move and some hickups with the post, I got replacements for 467 and 468 in form of the regular copies.
In the August issue, #467, the overall focus was heavy on the new edition of Age of Sigmar, covering Kruleboyz and updated Stormcasts. However, the issue has some interesting conversions, that I like to point out. First of all, this impressive combination of the Mega-Gargant and the Canis Rex Knight Preceptor. A very fitting use of the shield and helmet, to make a huge Bretonnian Knight.