KGN get on the bus & Empire of the Dead

So after last months poor show of painting I wanted to get my flow back on with various bits and bobs, so I managed to get the bike & sidecars as well as the trucks that I picked up at salute done,

But before I show picks of the transports, I also picked up these movement trays for my 20mm Germans at salute from a company called war bases, website nice and cheap simple but useful idea, hats off to Coops & Nick for steering me towards these as they pick up some from a trade show earlier in the year.

So a bit of work and they'll match my both my Germans and modern Russians,

So the 4 pegasus trucks that I picked up as I'm currently working my way through a second grenadier platoon I need some more of these so I can have the option of mounting all my guys, but I can't find any for love or money! 

Really simple to paint, I decided to go down the early war grey route for something different, I might stick a German cross or two on them but not too sure at that moment.

And onto the bikes and side cars, again went for the early war colour and I'm quite happy how they'd turned out, its just a shame that there's no option for blokes on bikes, but you could use then as a motorised recce team, I'm sure I'll find a way to include them! 

 

I also managed to get my second game of Empire of the Dead in, this time it was a 4 way face off, with myself and Coops introducing Lee & Nick to the system, and I was quite surprised how much I'd remembered from the first game, there was only a couple of points that came up, but one of those has been sorted out from a FAQ on the westwind forum,

So the table set up, each of us grabbed a corner and decided to go for it, 

So the view from my corner, I had Coops and the Frenchies to my right,

 And Lee and the crazy werewolves to my left, 

the game was a bit of a gun-fest again with three gentleman clubs being on the table and poor old Lee was getting shot to shit from all sorts of angles, mainly from my gatling gun totting secertery! he was laying some punishing fire down on the tree hugging K9's racking up an impressive 3 kills on his jack jones!

mean while in camp Coops I had a member beating the bejesus outta coops models, being outnumbered for most of the time in combat he was the man with a mighty 2 kills from combat,

but then Lee managed to get to my gun line and took down 2 of my models and with another being dropped by Coops with shooting it was Bravado test time, and two chaps decided that they'd had enough and fancied a swift brandy at the club so left leaving me with on chap kicking about and the victory condition was that once you've a gang below 25% you lose and its game over!

So I went from one model away from winning to losing! but I walked away with only a chest injury on one of my guys and spent a fortune on advancement/skill rolls for my entire gang!

Lee's not overly impressed with the system due to the amount of casualties he took from shooting but we'll see what happens next time!

So the Pledge, and the reason that I'm doing it early as I'm of to sunny Orlando on Monday so no painting for me until next month now, but I'm gonna see if I can find a gaming shop whilst I'm over there to see some cool stuff.

Bought - 1

Painted - 22

Difference +21

I was trying to have a "dry" month with not buying anything but that went out the window with an order that finally turned up from maelstrom about 3 months later!

Review 1/72 Zvezda Tiger tank

I've decided to down the dark path with my KGN Germans and picked up a tiger, I was torn between a resin cast model and a "normal" kit and decided to gamble on a kit...

So I grabbed a Zvezda Tiger, now I was interested to see how good this would be as the stuff I've picked up from them previously hasn't been too bad and with the "snap fit" claim lets see how this bad boy goes together!

so the instructions for the kit well laid out and quite easy to follow and half English & Russian so educational at the same time!

pic's of the sprues, 

interesting to note that most of the road wheels are in one piece

the lower hull and rubber type tracks, 

so after a bit of clipping, removing some mold lines and gluing I had one tiger, took about 90ish minutes so not a overly complicated kit but the amount of stuff you stick on the top of the hull is quite alot!

next to a armourfast stug & plastic soldier company panzer 

Different view

On its own next to hanz the grenadier

rear detail

other side.. 

and the front

So actual thoughts on the kit...

Pro: Its pretty good for the price and the detail is nice as well, with plenty of extra bits that you can plonk on it, no idea what some of the bits are though but it looks cool, The snap together type construction makes it really easy to throw together.

Con: Its an early tiger production kit it would be better for the eastern front rather than the Normandy theatre due to the lack of the anti-mine paste but if that doesn't bother you then its worth picking up. The track units are a bit of a pain in the arse, I managed to get one of the sides spot on the other I didn't so doesn't look "perfect" but at gaming table distance you wouldn't notice anyway!

Overall I'm happy with the kit and value for money its not bad, and even though its a model kit it feels "gamer" proof!

So does anyone have any other model kits that they would recommend?

First Look: Empire of the Dead

So I picked up Empire of the Dead at Salute last month and myself and Coop's finally got round to playing a game and these are the initial impressions,

Gameplay:

If you've played Secrets of the Third Reich then this system will be no stranger to you, If not well, you activate your models on an individual basis, bit like warmachine and then you move onto the next the only difference is combat, once you charge in you are locked there until the combat phase, so if your sneaky you can down a model then charge it with another ;)

Models:

Westwind do faction type boxes for the main 4, but there is nothing stopping you from using any 1800's steam punk type models, In fact I'm on the hunt for a steam powered exo skeleton armed with a man portable gatling cannon! Coops for example has got his "gang" from artizan miniatures as they look like French forgiean legion.

Lastability:

Now this is where the system tends to make or break for most people, you get 150 shillings to build a "gang" which is about 6 models(ish) now for one off games I'd only play the odd game here or there but westwind has done a nice "necromunda/mordhiem/cutlass" campaign system and this is where it comes into its own! One thing that I do like about the advancement system is that you spend money to roll on either the advancement table or the skill table and each model can only do this once in the post game sequence, to stop you rolling loads if your flush with the cash!

So initial thoughts are yea its not a bad system, fairly well written and some of the "steampunk" stuff is quite funny, I'll play more but Gentlemens club against Gentlemans club is a gun-fest!

So stealing a load of the foamcard printed buildings from the club myself and Coops battled it out at the shop... 

this chap was the steam exo skeleton armed with a man portable gatling gun, and I threw caution to the wind as I rolled 5 dice at a time to lay down some real heavy fire across the court yard, it only jammed twice which wasnt too bad ;)

Coops discovering that you CAN pre-measure! I had a couple of pretty good turns where I don;t think I missed a single shot and Coops' gang paid the price with plenty of guys dropping! 

The big blue thing was my marker for my jam, and the chap next to him is armed with a hunting rifle, and he was on form, all Coops' could do was listen for the crack of his gun and the whistle of the round, at one point he was shooting guys at the other end of the table!

Victor, Edward & Thomas, forming the hunting party and flanking the Frenchies

In the end Coops decided to chip making me the winner huzzah! and the injury rolls were funny with leg injuries, and capturing two of his gang, but being the sporting gent that I am I let them go for two "favours" that I could call in at some point in the future!

So onto the Brooks Gentleman's Club
 

I managed (somehow) to get most of these done in one night and only the basing & inking was done today,

The man ape & special ed figure if you bought the book.

Some of the the fine gentlemen,

 and the last few,

As the gang was fairly easy to paint, and a change from the usual stuff I enjoyed doing them, to the point that I'm thinking of a second gang, but the holy order which follows the one "true" religion.

anyway thats my thoughts on the system, anyone else tried it yet?

Playing with pigments Anton style!

Alrighty then!!

I picked up some T-80's from S&S models for the 20mm Russians I did last month, and decided to give the pigments that I picked up ages ago a crack!

So the T-80's after being cleaned up, overall not bad models, and you get alot of resin for just over a tenner a pop.

So sprayed black and a base coat of knarlock green foundation. 

and after some Russian green various dry brushes and a watered down wash of the usual devlin mud

So its taking the tank from this..... 

 to this!

other side,

and with the turret on, 

so you've painted your tank as normal. now I've not gone mental on the detail around the track units just made sure that its' painted neat

Before I hit the pigments I did quite a bit of reading on how they work and what you do to make them "stick" now you can the fixer stuff from MIG but couldn't find any and didn't want to buy 6 pots via my trade supplier! So I ended up using vallejo matt varnish  watered down and put on the areas that would attract mud.

using a different brush I flicked the pigment on, by tapping the top of the brush and letting gravity do the work, 

then I tapped off the excess and a quick blow resulted in this.. 

I did one side of the tank at a time so that I could suss out how to get the best look, 

so I let the initial dark brown dry and put a little bit of light brown on, using the same technique as before, did some of the hull top and did a "dry" application on the turret to see how that'd come out, 

now at this point it does look pants, very patchy but I remember Coops telling me a while back that when you anti-shine it it has a positive effect, 

 and the flying motor pool!

so after the anti-shine, wheres all the pigment gone! 

and the close up, 

 bit further away,  the patchiness of the deck is gone and the ott of the dry application on the turret is also under control,

another angle, 

and the completed lot!

So what have I learnt about this pigment stuff....

Fortune favours the bold! in a nutshell no point pussy footing about with this stuff as the anti-shine makes it kinda disappear, the only bits that stuck about was when I mixed the pigment with the varnish and went of a sticky mud look, and the turret application the surface area pigment went, and only the corners around the hatches stayed.

the only tip I'd give is that the stuff goes bloody everywhere so have a piece of paper to catch the excess and don't sit there pondering with your hands on your face otherwise you'll look like a apache warrior dressed for war!

anyway, if any one has any other tips etc let us know,

So onto the "pledge"

last month was probley my most unproductive month for about 2 years! with a only the modern Russians getting done,

Bought - 56
Painted - 36

Difference -20

so I've gotta get me finger outta me ass and get me mojo back on! and as I'm off the the mighty US of A at the end of this month, I'd like to get the empire of the dead crew painted as well as the two pak40's that I picked up from grubby tanks and the bike and side cars that I reviewed ages ago!

so that all in "theory" ;)