ACT GT Fashion On The Field

At the ACT GT this year I took some snaps of the armies on display. There were as usual a high level of painting on display with some players presenting very nicely turned out forces.

I have had these pictures for a while and have been slack in getting them up on the blog! Still, here they are in all their glory.

If you are interested in the event itself, you can find my report here.

DAK and Italian Tanks

Crusaders and Grants.

British Motor Rifles and Crusaders

Crusader Company ready for battle.

US post battle

Ken's DAK with Display Board

Robert's Brits

Yank Tank.

Every Armoured Car and a Tiger

All the Crusaders

Germans

US on display

Stephen's US forces.

Tournament Report - Cancon 2018 - FOW

Cancon is hands down the largest Wargaming event on the Aussie Calendar. This year was the 40th Cancon and like those before it was not to be missed. Cancon, being a national event is the one weekend that draws players from all over Australia and occasionally overseas. Aside from the numerous competitions and campaigns, there are lots of participation games, a large board game area, traders, a 2nd hand stall, roleplay games and even Cosplayers. Something for everyone.

This year there were no less than 6 different FOW and TY events. In the past few years I had played during the day and night flames but this year I setting on Mid War v4. The total list of events were:

Mid War V4
Early War Campaign
Team Yankee
Team Yankee Campaign mm)
Night Flames Arab Israeli
Night Flames Late War`

I suspect the total FOW and TY numbers were down slightly on past years . We had a very healthy 22 players for MW. Given the newness of the rules and the fact that there are only 3 books out, I think this is pretty good.

Caunter Corner

Players could select 80 points of troops with up to 10 points of cards. Only the 80 points of troops counted towards reserve calculation.

I ran my newly painted Crusader company with some 17/25 pounders, Carriers, Infantry, Bofors and Hurricanes. Over the 8 games I played a variety of different forces - German Tanks,  German Infantry, German Armoured Cars, British Crusaders, British Grants and a US Tank force. The top four players were running British Crusaders, German Armoured Cars, German Infantry and British Grants. Every British army I saw seemed to have Scout Tank and this is still a problem. I think that is a pretty good spread and highlights that MW V4 is otherwise largely balanced.

Interestingly, I played against 2 different German lists with Tigers. Even at these low points, they can be a threat. I don't think they can work with DAK tanks but certainly can with infantry or mechanised Companies.

The MW tournament was well run in the capable hands of Trick and Ben. I didn't see any major issues or heated arguments. The hottest anyone got was the warm pavilion where the air conditioning struggled with 30 plus degree temperatures and too many sweaty gamers.

Darren's Bunkerflak

EW Eastern Front Campaign table

I didn't have a lot of time to look at the other FOW and TY events but I had time to snap a few pics. These events also seemed well attended and the players having a good time.

Nappy game on Monday

Trick doing TO stuff

Some of the lovely desert terrain.

Ben not doing TO stuff

It was this long...

Bolt Action: Team America

I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. is down! I repeat, we have no I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.!

After painting up 2 batches of infantry and a Bazooka team, (which you can see here and here), I was looking for a change of pace

And so, I'm ronery
A rittle ronery
Poor rittle me
There's nobody I can rerate to
Feewr rike a bird in a cage
It's kinda sirry
But, not rearry
Because, it's fiwring my body with rage.

I pulled out the metal 50 cal and 60mm mortar teams. These two teams are the only metal figures in the US Infantry starter box. They are a pleasant change from frame after frame of plastic, multi-part infantry.

The teams are pretty simply setup and unlike the multi-part plastic figures, there isn’t a lot of assembly required.

60mm Mortar:

First up the Mortar. The pack comes with 3 crew and the mortar in 2 parts. There is also a large round base. I decided that I wanted to individually base the mortar and the crew so I could easily remove casualties. I used a single standard Warlord round plastic base for the mortar itself and glued the crew to washers. The washers are marginally smaller than 1 inch/2.5cm in diameter. I cannot imagine this would have much effect on the game. I added some filler to the bases before painting.

The models are a big step up from the plastics. For one they have clearly been sculpted with a final pose in mind so they are each in a specific pose rather than the very vanilla pose that the plastics end up as. There is a man radioing whilst crouching over a round. The 2^nd guy is covering his ears and turning slightly and the final man is covering an ear and surveying the environment. 

Progress Shot

In addition to having specific poses, the models are way more detailed. The creases and crevices are deeper and the detail that is present is more lifelike. These will be much easier to paint and will look better on the table.

Hans, Hans, Hans! We've been frew this a dozen times. I don't have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?

50cal Machine Gun.

Like the Mortar, the 50 cal is metal, comes with a round base but has 4 crew. The gun itself is made up of 2 parts and is very easy to assemble. There is a simple locating hole and matching nub to fit the 2 pieces together. One of the crew is firing the weapon and just needs to be lined up on the base.

Like the mortar, I based up the rest of the crew on individual washers.  I based up the HMG on the supplied round base with leaves the MG barrel sticking out past the base. I am not sure this is a good idea as it might get damaged in normal use. I also added some filler on the bases for the crew and HMG.

Progress Shot

Unlike the mortar, the crew have lost their heads! There is a separate row of heads that can be attached. I had trouble with attaching the head to the guy with binoculars but after some maneuvering and trimming, I got it to fit.

OK, Hans. I'll show you. Stand to your reft

A rittle more.

Good.

Painting:

Finally the fun stuff!

I really enjoyed painting up these guys. Yes, they are another batch of figures in the same uniform but these models really reward effort. The depth of detail is such that washes have more effect as there are more pronounced raised points, especially in the uniform than the plastic models.

Whilst I don’t pretend to be any good at blended highlights, these were easier to work on as there is more area and depth to add layers of colour.

In terms of paint, I followed the same process and colours as detailed on my earlier bolt action US articles.

Overall, I am pretty happy with these guys and I think they look pretty good. I cannot wait to get them on the table.

Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles.