Some of my haul from Ground Zero Games year end special.

As everyone can attest, GZG gives outstanding service and with the end of the year special it is a great value too.  I am sure he works like a dog when the special runs.  I got the package in about five days from when he stated that it was being shipped and I live in the USA.

The first miniature is the  MRAP-C light armored patrol vehicle.  One has to have something to haul ones troops about.  It is of metal construction and I used ten parts, I did not use the large brush guard that was included.  I primed with Vallejo white primer and the overall paint is Iraqi Sand by Vallejo.  The windows, and lamps were painted with silver.  I let that dry and I used Blue, Red and Yellow clear paint by Vallejo.  I coated the miniature with a coat of gloss lacquer, I think I was using Rustoleum.  I use the brand that is on sale when I walk into the store.  I then put a black was of Future floor wax and DiDi's Magic  Ink.  I left them quite dirty from the wash.  I wanted them to look grimy from hard use.  I then put a coat of Testers Matte Spray.

The other vehicle was from the free grab bag that was sent to me with the year end sale.  It is unreleased MRAP "Shorty".  I painted it the same way as the previous miniature. The first photo shows the size of this miniature comparative to a Vallejo bottle.

The last photo shows the comparative size between the two miniatures.

A word of warning, there is a lot of filing to be done on these miniatures to make them fit together.  There is a lot of gaps in the miniatures too.  I used quite a bit of filler to hide the gaps and seams.  It took a bit of work, but it is worth it.  These miniatures are great and I know in the future, I will be awaiting the postman knowing that more of these great miniatures will be in the post.

Thank You for reading.

Mike

Collectors Battlefield Wargame System: A Short Review

I want to apologize for the long hiatus in publishing anything on this blog.  My Mother was gravely ill and is doing better.  My father-in-law is in the last stages of a terminal illness and I have had some health issues, which have been resolved for the time being. Now onto the main event.

 We play tested this new rule set on Saturday.  Our group consisted of

from left to right, Gene, Ted and Jim.

And me, Jim felt the photo needed a little tilt, not sure if I agree.

Jim is going to run a scenario at Advance The Colors using a new rule set.  The rule set is

I presume that a lot of you have seen their ads in Wargame Illustrated.  They also feature prepainted figures and vehicles in 28mm.  I cannot comment on their vehicles or vehicles, because we have plenty of miniatures.

We played a skirmish game of Americans verses Germans.  We had rifle squads, sub-machine squad BAR team and two LMG teams.  We also had a Sherman and a Stug.  We were playing in order to determine the game mechanics, nothing very fancy. 

I am not to go turn by turn.  It was a meeting engagement and the objective was to hold the majority of the houses on the crossroads.  Two of the houses were stone and gave heavy cover.  The other two were wood and gave light cover.

Some photos of the table.

The Americans(Jim and Myself) and ze Germans(Ted and Gene) advanced towards the crossroads  Each unit gets an action, move, fire, stabilize wounded are among some of the actions.   There are warriors/leaders that can help a unit take two actions.  Again I am not going to go turn by turn , but there were casualties on each side.  Combat resolution uses six sided dice.  Each rifleman gets 1 D6, a supported LMG receives 6 D6 and the defender gets a saving throw with appropriate bonuses for cover.  Then if the rounds actually hit, the attacker rolls to determine if it is a kill or a wound.  

 


 We really enjoyed playing this game.  We liked how the rules dealt with wounded members of a team.  A wounded member will slow you down a lot and if two members on a team get wounded, not good.  In a lot of rules there are moral checks, but  those rule do not take into account the wounded.  Wounded in this game cannot take offensive fire, but can defend in a close assault. 

The downside to this Collector's Battlefield Wargaming rule set is the editing.  The rule set can be very vague and there are a lot of typos.

We will be playing this more and if you are attending Advance the Colors miniature convention, you can have a chance to play it.

One last thing, I always include some new project that Ted is working on.  He is a machine when it comes to painting.

Thank you for reading.

Mike