M132 Zippos for Tour of Duty

Battlefront plastic. Very easy to build. Quick to paint. I couldn't decide which photos to use so I used all of them. The ones in focus that is. The weathering seems to have disappeared a little after the matt spray so I may just hit them again with some Khaki on the lower areas. I had a quick google of images of M113 ACAV etc in Vietnam and it looks like adding graffiti wasn't uncommon with American forces so I thought I would have a go. This helps serve a function in the game as well. With so many similar looking tracks planned for my force it will be a quick way to identify this unit but the different looking turret and flame squirter should do the trick. Decal application was interesting with 4 per side but you get a good bunch of options on the sheet in the box. I opted to cut the double digits into singles for this unit.

Cheers for now and thanks for looking.

Brendon (The Kiwi)

More building than painting

I actually enjoy building war gaming miniatures. Recently I have done a lot more building than actual painting. At the table I very rarely build then paint in the same sitting. It is usually one or the other. Sitting down to paint or sitting down to build. Anyway I don't have one thing that I am working on at the moment I have many. Lately I have been on a build binge.

I have a few units completed for my Kings of War Dwarf army but I have been slowly gluing together a Dwarf Berserker unit in a every now and then approach. The box set by Avatars of War is highly detailed and full of character. Character like the hand flipping the bird and beer mugs. It comes with a lot of cool bits for the unit standard. As you can see my standard is a lot more understated than what you could create with the bits. I kept some of those bits for Army Standard heroes. This keeps the unit as a better fit with my existing army. I have also used some parts from my Mantic Dwarfs on the banner so they tie together visually (Beer mug and Rune plates or whatever they are).  I have swapped some axe heads for mantic hammers as well.

Another project was making some plastic Cross Bow armed warriors for my Norman Saga force. I have a box of Conquest Norman Infantry and I recently acquired a box of Fire Forge plastic infantry. The Fire Forge set comes with a crossbow option (Conquest infantry has no crossbow option) so I did a bit of chopping to get some Conquest figures with crossbows but I also used some straight Fire Forge figures and gave them the crossbow option. They seem like a good fit and they even have two heads per sprue that have pointy Norman like helmets on. It's a little hard to see whats going on with them in this image but you get the idea. I have gotten so far as basing them and black under coat spray. Head swaps, arm swaps, experiments with poses and so on.

After getting super excited about 'Tour Of Duty' I ordered through my local games supply shop some MII3 plastic kitsets. Despite looking complex with so many parts on the sprues they are very easy to build. I would highly recommend when you build these to place the rear side on first as a part of the top piece overlaps the rear wall. I have to say as well that I found these to be incredibly well engineered. Snug fits everywhere. If you take the time and apply a little pressure when you glue the top piece on I will be surprised if you get any gaps anywhere. A sharp blade is required to slice off any connection areas as best you can. If this is not done it will affect the build. I am super impressed at the quality of this product. They build quick and I found them way less hassle than resin and metal tanks. Price is OK as well. 40 Australian dollars is what they sell for so 10 dollars each = great value. My only gripe is that I would have liked the box to have some figures in shooting poses to operate the side MGs. It comes with commanders and Mortar crew but no riders or MG figures. Not a biggie really. Below is 2 Zippos already with base colour on and 2 ACAV in progress.

Last nights efforts had me keen to put some new Gripping Beast Plastic Warriors together. Another recent acquisition but the source for an Anglo Saxon Levy unit for starters. The box does not come with a Bow option but it does have parts for slingers and that's good enough for me. Round bases are also another purchase as the box has square bases. Below are all the body types you get on each sprue. Five bodys but more heads. The slings come as a fist with the sling so chopping off hands with weapons from the available right arm options gets you an army with a sling. I will be able to get loads more figures from this box for many Saga options. They could make for good Warriors or Levy for many warbands such as javelin armed Pagan Rus Levy as they come with Shields and lots of spears/javelins and a few swords and axes. Unlike the Plastic Vikings/Saxons the left arm is part of the body and not another part to glue on. Makes them a little quicker to build as I am also unlikely to add extra bits like swords/knifes/pouch to the belts of these lower ranked individuals.

That's it for now. Looks like I will have a few painting projects in the near future.
Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Viet-Now!

'Tour of Duty', Battlefronts new Vietnam war book has been in my hands for the last few days and  I have been flicking back and forth like a mad man. I was excited when the first Battlefront Vietnam rules and lists appeared a few years back and I put it in my 'the seeds have been sown' file. Which as you know means that one day a new project will appear on a painting table.

A bloody good rule book

A few years back I came across a demo game in Brisbane run by Flashpoint. While not that enthused by the rules they were using I am very intrigued about the Flames of War rules with the Vietnam twist from Tour of Duty. The 2013 version sees ANZAC tanks and infantry options available and as you can imagine here in Darwin, Australia that alone has had gamers thinking about possibilities on the table top. You would think that with my blog alias as The Kiwi that I would be keen to play as Kiwis in Vietnam games. I am. But the thought of painting and basing lots of infantry is a mental battle at the moment. So maybe later.
Initially when the first lists came out I liked the idea of running a kind of tank force instead. It's not an aspect of warfare that I immediately associate with the Vietnam war. Patrols and infantry engagements, tunnel clearance, ambush and disappear guerrilla type warfare is possibly the first aspects that comes to mind (and the sound of thumping helicopters of course). So using lots of M113 ACAV light tracks from the Blackhorse Cavalry Regiment is what I have initially settled on. I like the look of the new M113 ACAV plastic kits as well (I just ordered 3 of them). The force can have Flame Tanks (I like Flame Tanks). The force can have Sheridan tanks. Infantry is also an option but not a compulsory option. How well will a force with no Infantry play on tables that are unlikely to be track friendly? Dense jungles, woods, wet rice paddies and so on. This will a big part of this wargamers tabletop adventure of discovery and I am looking forward to the challenge.
 

600 points....cool.

New projects are exciting.  New rules are interesting.
An aspect of Tour of Duty which will actually make it easier to get into playing actual games (without using proxies that is) is of course what I choose to put in a force. Reading the missions and special rules one in particular jumped out at me.
'Fire Support Base'.
_____ (insert artillery platoon here) must (may for some platoons) be held off table in missions that use the Fire Support Base special rule. 
Mortars, Howitzers and Self Propelled guns. So of the 8 missions in the book all 8 have that rule. So no need to paint and purchase those miniatures perhaps. Yaaaay!
That just sped up the completion time for my force. However two of the missions are Air Mobile force required so if you want to play those missions some Hueys and U.S. Infantry will be handy. The book also has the option to 'Viertnamise' FoW rulebook missions. Which could see artillery platoons on the table. Lots of possibilities.
The book really helps our gaming experience by adding 'what if' information. An example is the lack of Anti-tank rounds the Australian Centurions tanks had in Vietnam. Another aspect that I like is that smaller point limit games will be as equally tense, exciting and fun as the larger pointed games in my opinion. The What Would Patton Do blog have posted some after action reports that are well worth checking out.

Cheers for now from Brendon (The Kiwi)