Panzerwerfer 42 Sd Kfz 4/1

I have just added some extra firepower for my Dust Axis force, a pre-painted Panzerwerfer 42 Sd Kfz 4/1. If I ever get a German Bolt Action force sorted out then this will slot in there as well.

Luckily, those nice people at Dust HQ have created an official profile card so I don’t have to worry about trying to make up my own profile. Although it would have been interesting to see if whatever I came up with was anywhere close to the official card. I would have based the main weapon on a single Lothar Nebelwerfer 42, so only having a single splash rather than a double splash. Interestingly, this Panzerwerfer version does not have a minimum range for the Nebelwerfer. Adding a machine gun is easy enough using the same MG 44 profile. I think I would have made it a type 4 vehicle rather than a type 3 as it certainly looks well armoured and pretty well enclosed.  A damage value of 4 seems about right. I guess my only trouble would have been coming up with a points value, I not sure if I would have ended up at 8 points or been higher or lower, but it would definitely been lower than the 13 points for a Lothar.

I’m not sure if I will keep the pre-painted scheme, it is a bit stripey and will not really fit in with the rest of the grey in the army.

Dust Axis Started

Finally got started with the Dust Axis. I thought I would start with something easy and have slapped some paint on nine Gorillas so far.

Painting black is always a challenge as it can end up looking very flat.
I will be trying to highlight the fur, especially on the back and legs to try for the silverback look. Obviously won’t be using silver (!) but will try with a couple of light greys.
The weapons on the Blutkreuz Pioneer Squad “Sturmaffe” will be the usual Iron Grey, Gun Metal and Silver.

The fists on the Blutkreuz Korps Kampfaffen will probably be done in silver and brass to contrast with the black fur.

Carrier Below Decks

I made some more progress with the steampunk carrier project. It may look a bit messy, but I do sort of have a plan, which is a plan to make it up as I go along.

I have the four gun emplacements in position and enough foamboard surrounding most of the platforms to support the deck. All of the emplacements are different shapes and I will have to work out what else is going into the larger areas.

I still have to finish the supporting sides on the two emplacements below then I can get started on actually fixing the foamboard into position.

The side loading bay was an alternative idea to having a lift in the deck and will prove a better solution especially when the ship is docked.

I still have to work out how the deck will be fitted to the hull, especially as I think it will need to be removable.

Boo The Cat

Boo the cat is not a particularly good helper when it comes to painting figures, the fur gets everywhere and she generally just likes walking on the table when there are models all over the place. But she is good at avoiding them somehow.

When she gets behind the computers and all the wires, she is good at cleaning up the cobwebs.

6mm Mechs

I do like my old Battletech Mechs.

The Madcat…

…and Daishi are great designs.

I have the old Battletech card game from 1996 (Holy Zarquon’s Singing Fish, that is twenty years ago) somewhere in Loft Full Of Lead and I really should dig it out and re-read the rules.

Of course that would no doubt lead to wanting to buy more suitably scaled Mechs for use in Horizon Wars…or maybe even Mr Steinbergs own Tiny Wars (coming soon).

Tanks

One of my intentions is to reduce the number of new games I buy into. But I must say I have failed this week with the purchase of Tanks by Gale Force Nine.
Can’t really complain as I bought it for a good price and I have loads of Flames Of War tanks that may now actually get used for something. I tried it out last week at the famous shed of Mr Steinberg and it is a nice game. Basically it is X-Wing for tanks. I used a platoon of Panzer IV’s and went up against firstly a squadron of Shermans and then a trio of heavy Russian tanks.

I like the game, it is quick, objective driven and you don’t need too much stuff. I’m not sure that some of the expensive commanders are worth the points but I maybe some more games will clear up why they cost so much.

Pile Of Treasure

It is what it is, a pile of treasure for Frostgrave.

Steampunk Damsel

Not very happy with the face on this one, especially when blown up here to several times its actual size.

Prussians vs US Navy

The Prussians and US Navy came to blows again recently following the latest update to the Steam Wars rules.

I got to use my new rubble games mat for this game, which is nice but very “busy”. I need to make some more terrain pieces to break it up a bit.

The US Navy skimmer is fine looking model and Mr Steinberg has it supported by some transparent tube so it can glide over low obstacles.

The large TT Combat warehouse is a good sized model but suffers from only having one doorway, I am going to have to add at least one more.

The two sides had plenty of buildings and cover to fight over. The recent rule changes have worked really well and I am reasonably confident in saying that the rules are finalised. There is still some work to do on points costs to balance things out, but it is nearly there.

The Ironclad Quad Walker is another of my favourite models in the US Navy force.

The revised rules for heavy infantry make them a bit easier to kill but that does not stop me from fielding my Rackham Jump Troopers.

The latest addition to the Scrunts and their first outing was a Ramshackle Vole Light Tank. I may have to add a machine gun to these models as just having a medium AP cannon leaves them vulnerable to infantry assault.

Battle Master Tower

After the undercoating problems with two of these plastic towers, I decided to slap some more paint on to see how they would turn out. The undercoat had grained up something horrible but I just carried on anyway and picked out random bricks to add some grey variation.

It will do, perhaps a thin ink wash to be be added later.