A new life and... Commission painting service?

July has seen the initial implementation of a new government contract, that governs remuneration in my industry sector. It has been met with great uncertainty and apprehension by industry contractors, in part because the government still doesn't know the full implications of what they propose, and yet we are forced to sign this contract to get any money at all, at this stage...

The result, is that my boss is quite uncertain how things are going to go for us and quite candidly stated this today. The possible implications being that he, and I, could be out of a job... perhaps Nostradamus was right after all, about 2012!

Of course I could seek employment with another business within the industry, or consider switching countries (again!), but it made me ponder, is it time to simply get out and do something else.

I had always wondered if my 'hobby' could sustain me?

So, I thought about offering a commission painting service.

Obviously you can see the standard of my work by looking through this blog.

At this point I don't know what my charges would be, but would guess there would be a range of costs depending on what level of painting standard was required, and what figure scale is involved.

A flat base colour would be cheaper, than a more expensive shade and highlight.

Basing would be another factor.

Obviously there will be shipping cost implications; the commissioner, would have to pay to ship the figures to me and cover costs for their safe return.

The other factor would be what turn around time I can realistically achieve. At the present I paint in my spare time for my pleasure. How much I could get done on a full time basis, who knows...?

At the moment, I am still in full time employment, and this is likely (I hope) to be the case for the next 6 months or so, thanks to 'interim payments from government' until they figure out whats going to happen... and we get to grips with the true implications of this new contract.  

This is all very much up in the air at the moment, and perhaps I am just rambling...

... or there again, this could be the way forward...

...at this point I am unsure...

...but... if you have experience of other painting services, and can give me idea of likely charges, and perhaps, more importantly, are interested in offering me a commission, please get in touch and we can chat through the proposal. No promises yet though!

Oh, I'm in New Zealand, if you didn't already know, so that could impact on shipping costs...

Beauties and the 'Beast'... oh, and the Wehrmacht!

A bit of a varied and eclectic mix of subject material in today's post! First up...

Reaper Strumpet and Madam

I have had this Reaper Strumpet and Madam, undercoated on the workbench, for many months now, and just hadn't got round to painting them, I guess as I haven't played Legends of the High Seas for a while. I tend to paint what I am actively playing at the time.

But with the VSF Prussians project kicking off, I decided to clear the workbench of its distracting backlog.

It also made a welcome change to painting 15mm WWII stuff.

This strumpet had a bit of a saga attached to it... I bought the figure set off an ebay trader, but when the pack arrived this figure was snapped off at the ankles. It was in a sealed blister pack, and the ebay trader suggested I contact Reaper as their customer service is good.
A little while later, the replacement pack arrived... with the same model snapped in the same place!
I couldn't believe it.
I got back on to Reaper who apologized and sent out another pack. Apparently it had been a faulty batch...
When the good figure finally arrived, by then I had gone off LotHS gaming and was doing other stuff... so they sat unpainted for a while.

As part of the Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge, I painted up a dark skinned beauty from the Indian subcontinent. And as I already had a blonde (that got me into to trouble with SWMBO!), I decided to continue the 'international' feel of my strumpets, and this last figure I felt perhaps had a little of the orient about her, so I painted her with black hair and pale skin.

 So here she is, provocatively raising her dress, for a flash of underwear! Bound to catch a sailors eye!

Strumpet

The last figure of the set is the Madam, of the establishment, looking after her charges and ensuring plenty of work comes their way. She holds out a large tome, I am not sure whether this is a list of clientele, or services on offer! I leave that to your imagination.

Madam

So now I just have to make a suitable establishment for them to occupy. Here they all stand together touting for business...

Strumpets and Madam out for business beside the Chandler, its not just the ships that need servicing after all!

Business is never far away in a busy port...

Clientele arrive on scene no doubt attracted by the bright colours and posturing. Party on!

Next up today... the 'Beast'... Golfimbul

The appearance of this blog has always had a strong 'Lord of the Rings' theme, and I enjoyed playing this game for sometime, until I grew somewhat disillusioned with the way GW were handling the game and hobby.

I went whole heartedly into their new game War of the Ring, only to become increasingly frustrated with it... It now appears this game is being dropped, recent chat with a friend at my FLGS says the item (War of the Ring), and its supplement (Battlehosts)... are no longer on their order system...

GW re-released the army lists for the Skirmish Game, but I never got round to investing in them... and haven't played the game for well over a year, possibly two, now...

And yet I still have a fondness for Middle-Earth and the works of Tolkien, and still check out the LOTR hobby blogs out there...

One such blog; Dramatic Katastases by Panagiotis Batsos of Athens, Greece, recently featured a post on Golfimbul. I left a comment there concerning the availability of this figure, as its seems currently discontinued and thus unavailable. Panagiotis replied that they were still in the shops over there, and that he'd be happy to send me one over!

I was rather surprised by this kind offer, and very happy when the package duly arrived. Panagiotis wouldn't take any payment, saying that my blog had inspired him to launch his own blogging! What a kind comment!

So, as you can imagine, Golfimbul jumped to the front of the painting queue...

Here he is depicted as a large fat goblin upon a warg mount.

I painted him in my usual manner for Mordor forces; earthy colours for the clothing, dark metal for the armour and appropriate flesh tone, then all washed in Black Wash. Then the original base colours are worked up again, with the odd highlight here and there and a little facial detail of eyes and teeth added. Scenically based as desired.

I added a small piece of bark chip from the garden as a rock on the base.

Here's a little detail on Golfimbul, courtesy of wikipedia:

"Golfimbul was a chieftain of the Orcs of Mount Gram, who led his band in an invasion of the Shire. He was defeated at the Battle of Greenfields by a force led by Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took; the battle was only the first of two which were ever fought within the borders of the Shire (the second was the Battle of Bywater, the last battle of the War of the Ring, where his descendant Pippin fought). Bullroarer knocked off Golfimbul's head with a club and it soared into the air, finally falling into a rabbit hole. According to Hobbit folklore, this inspired the game of golf, which takes its name from the Orc. Golfimbul's name was probably specifically constructed for this pun; fimbul is Old Norse for "great".^[3]
The Orc incursion in the northern Shire occurred during the reign of Arassuil as Chieftain of the Dúnedain, and the Orcs led by Golfimbul were but the most western pack of Orcs which had left the Hithaeglir. The only reason Golfimbul could make it all the way to the Shire was that the Rangers at the time were fighting many battles with Orcs, preventing them from settling all of Eriador."

I look forward to the chance of fielding Golfimbul in a raid on the Shire. I just need to make a load of hobbit holes and paint up a pile of hobbits first - they're buried somewhere in the lead mountain... ;-)

A big thank you to Panagiotis, once again :-)

Last for today - German Infantry Gun platoon, Flames of War.

I recently felt compelled to get this 7.5cm leIG18 Infantry Gun completed for my Wehrmacht forces.

I have entered another mini FoW tournie; Bob Pearce's 2012 FRACAS in Shannon on 4th August; a 600 point small forces affair, themed for Early War.

I must admit Early War is not of great interest to me, it all seems to have been rather one sided in history, and doesn't greatly appeal. But a chance for more gaming practice for the later CTA tournament couldn't be ignored.

My Wehrmacht Grenadiers will do nicely for games set throughout the war, and to these I just needed to add a little extra kick to finish off my small infantry company. Some mortars will help with smoke and pinning, which I already had but I thought some infantry guns could give me a versatile little platoon to help my grenadiers; smoke, bombardment and direct fire which could even deter some of the thinly armoured tanks of the early war period.

Observer

I was a little unsure about my paint scheme though... I wanted them to match my existing forces and was a bit concerned they should be German field grey... but Bob was quite unconcerned at their colour, so long as the list was accurate and appropriate models were fielded.

7.5cm leIG18 infantry gun team

So we'll see how my day of small games will go. I haven't played such small games before, nor seen Early War forces in action so I am not too sure what to expect, though I suspect mostly infantry forces at this small game level... time will tell.

SMG platoon command team

I look forward to trying these out with my Lehr Panzergrenadiers too for Late War, as this gun was widely used throughout the war. And no doubt when I get round to Mid War it will be equally useful there.

Now, I MUST press on with those VSF Prussians!

Hit the Beach! - FoW Demo Game at Kapiti Wargames Club's 'Big Day Out'

Well the Day of Days finally arrived! After much preparation, I was in a position to put on a Flames of War demo game, using all the Normandy beach invasion material I have been working with over the last few months.

This demo game took place at the Kapiti Wargames Clubs - "Big day Out". It was a Sunday club game day, to help draw interest to the club, from the general public, and wargamers from the region in general. For the first time there were several 'historical' games on display, as well as the Warhammer and 40k games.

Paul and I had decided it would be a good chance to showcase the Normandy Beach stuff, and the scenario in play would be widely recognisable to the general public. The dilemma we had in planning, was the army lists to use and their size and composition.

The Hit the Beach Mission, was originally staged in the V2 rules, from the D-Day supplement, and Das Book supplement. In this mission 1750 pts of attackers go up against 1000 pts of defenders, who then get a set amount of 'fortification points' to spend on fortifications - dependant upon board width being defended.

However, the recent switch to the V3 rules, and new lists for the beach defenders from Earth and Steel, has the fortifications pointed in as part of the main force. The Hit the Beach mission, no longer features in the list of missions in the V3 book, nor is it featured in either the Earth and Steel book or Turning Tide, which I found a little odd...

So after much discussion, it was agreed to allow the defender to also select a force of 1750 points, from which his fortifications must also be purchased as per Earth and Steel.

Having reached this decision, forces were chosen to theme: Sword Beach, so a Commando force facing a '2nd line' Grenadier force.

The defender must deploy half their troops on the board including all fortifications, which counted as one 'platoon choice', and the attackers force comes ashore in landing craft, in waves over the turns of the game.

Interesting points of the mission being:
Neither side will break from lost company morale. The games is played to a fixed number of turns (12), and then the winner determined. Destroyed allied platoons recycle back into the waves of reserves (excluding armoured platoons and warriors)

So here follows a pictorial battle report of the events of the game.

Initial deployment:
German defenders have a 88mm pillbox to the right, a 75mm pillbox to left and a defilade 5cm KwK nest centrally. These are backed up by 1 HMG pillbox, 3 HMG nests, 1 Tank turret, and 4 static StukaZuFuss launchers. 4 sections of trench lines and matching barbed wire defend the beach front held by one Grenadier Platoon and the CiC and 2iC.

Further back are the Czech Howitzers (proxied by leFh18's).

The beach is protected by a lengthy sea wall, meaning there is only one way off the beach for vehicles, and this is covered by a minefield...

The Allies are bobbing about in the 'Sea Zone', waiting to Hit the Beach!

Neither of us had played this mission before so it was going to be a learning curve... One thing I found straight away was my trench lines couldn't quite span the board. This wouldn't have been a problem, a central gap at the road was ineveitable, but... my "confident trained" Germans command range was 4" and I couldn't get this to 'work' spanning the trench gap with the road and central bunker. So I had to move it one way closer, meaning a gap developed at the end, nearest the 88mm Pillbox... Paul immediately saw a gap to exploit...

Please excuse the odd streaks through the board... I had to transport the main board to the venue in my trailer and it was raining, and despite plastic sheeting, some rain got through...

A view of the German trench line...

And the central minefield Paul's British engineers were going to have to clear...

The Allies get an Initial bombardment so all deployed teams take an attack roll, with a standard allowed save. This cost me one Howitzer, and 2 grenadier teams.

The first wave comes ashore, but Paul battles with delayed landing craft... only one arrives, plus the DD Shermans...

The HMG pillbox takes a lot of smoke fire as this is the only HMG in effective range of the beach...

My fortification deployment was not ideal, I had not come up with an amazing plan, I had been in such a rush getting all the stuff made in time and then went on vacation... so my prep work was a bit poor for the game play, some of my bunkers were not well placed to cover the beach but as it turned out did well covering the Hinterland where the objectives were placed...

More waves of troops arrive...

The typhoons roar in to destroy the Howitzers ( I only just got the typhoon finished before packing everything up to get to the game! This one is a gift to Paul, as he'd previously given me a Hurricane as part of the post V3 rules planes swap that occurred here between players...)

As it turned out whilst the typhoon hit the target,  my gun team saved but was pinned, then stayed that way for the next 4 turns as I rolled successive 1's to unpin... This then inadvertantly helped me as Paul used up his pool of air dice over the subsequent turns trying to get the guns, and as I hadn't unpinned them, and thus been unable to fire, they were getting infantry saves (3+) under the v3 rules, and not the normal (5+) gun save!

The commandos move to exploit the gap in the defences and the engineers move to see to the Minefield. However they suffer to HMG fire... The AVRE's also arrive... and the commando mortars...

The commandos get ready to assault the 88mm Pillbox...

They are thrown back by defensive fire in the first turn, but get in in the subsequent turn and blow it to bits! Up to this point the tanks haven't dared to venture away from the side of the beach, where it couldn't hit them!...

By turn six, I had got all my reserves on the table, despite needing 6's to bring them on and they rapidly starting 'At the Doubling' into the battle. The StuGs race up the road, but are still wary of the Typhoons, and park up next to some buildings...

The mortars also come on from reserve, ahead of the StuGs by one turn, and race to get into suitable firing position and range...

The Mortars are backed up by the 2nd Grenadier platoon...

The commandos now try digging in, in a position contesting the first (Allied placed) objective. Peter Young, can be seen identified by his plain brown base. Also by this point, the German grenadiers have been flushed from this end of the trench lines...

The M10's arrive...

The engineers have done their job, the minefield is gone and the AVRE's make a break inland, they are fairly impervious to the remaining bunkers...

Pushing further in, they destroy the HMG pillbox but miss the 5cm KwK nest...

The StuGs have taken up position adjacent the German placed objective, as the 2nd grenadiers rush to reinforce this position...

The StuGs are in position to fire on the approaching Allied armour...

Paul is struggling now to get his tanks to move off the beach, it's slow going and a bogging check is required to move across the sandy surface... but a Sherman and an M10 make it to the road...

At this point we called a brief loo break and I snapped a few pics of the other games in action:

A 40K game...

A 28mm SYW game using I believe Die Kriegskunst rules ( A "G-de-B" derivative). I spotted Reg Newell from the Hutt Club, in action here though didn't know the other fellows...

A 28mm New Zealand Wars Skirmish game, using I believe a derivative of Sharp Practice rules, put on by fellow Fusilier, Roly Hermans and assisted by Notorious Greg, and others?

A huge 40K Apocalypse game spanning two tables joined by two large bridges... I think someone mentioned there was 16000 points here...

There were other smaller  games running in the side room, in which may young son was having fun playing 40k with his club mates...

Back to the Normandy action...

My 75mm pillbox claims its first victim, an M10...

Just to show Paul's difficulty getting off the beach... 2 bogged Shermans in the soft sand...

More waves of commandos arrive...

Good tactical use of smoke by Paul to try and limit my StuGs effectiveness, forcing me to move to get any shots...

...but I get lucky and bag the bailed out AVRE in the flank...

The typhoons have given up tying to kill the guns and come roaring in to try and wreck the StuGs, but only managed to bail one...

The StuGs still sitting  pretty over looking the beach access... and have destroyed the last AVRE at close quarters...

After a ton of HMG , Mortar and Howitzer fire the commandos are dislodged from their hold on the frontal objective, and even Peter Young falls, as evidenced by his now empty foxhole...

Trying to pressure the 2nd objective, Paul gets a Sherman up to get a flank shot on the Stugs but fails to get a kill and is in turn taken out by a rear shot from the 5cm KwK...

At this point the game comes to an end at the end of turn 12, and the Germans have held on for a win having dislodged the commandos on the beach front objective and held on to the Hinterland objective...

The StuGs still intact and covering the beach access...

... 2nd Grenadiers and Mortars and Howitzers still  active...

Three tanks still on the beach, and more commandos trying to recapture the front objective, as play comes to an end...

We then had the typical post game discussion about how we thought things went.

Despite feeling under pressure initially, I would say my HMGs kept me in the game, and I got lucky getting all my reserves on by turn 6. It still felt like a rush to get them into position, but they did none the less and held on for the win. My Artillery was shocking to start with but oddly may have saved them, and I positioned my Static Rocket launchers far too far back (thinking they had longer range! Oops!)

Paul battled manfully, but was up against it, not so much from me but from the scenario, the mechanism of landing craft deployment and recycling on and off the beach, meant his forces arrived in dribs and drabs and there was never the "overwhelming force" in evidence. That and the difficulty of getting his tanks off the soft sand, just about made it a none starter for him, despite playing to 12 turns, he never really threatened the Hinterland objective, so would just about find it impossible to get a win.

We didn't have time to restart the scenario, so decided to play on to see what would happen, in case the Allies simply needed more time... but over the next extra couple of turns, the commandos continued to pressure the front objective, but HMG nests kept them at bay and the last three tanks were destroyed by the bunkers and StuGs, as they got off the beach... With no armour left for the Allies there was no real hope and Paul called it.

So what did we learn?

I think the forces were balanced but the landing craft deployment mechanism we feel needs tweaking...

However we do plan to have another go under the V2 version of the game and army list composition and see what difference that makes... I know I will get a lot less bunkers for one thing !

But the main aim of the game was to draw interest to the Flames of War game, and to the to Kapiti Wargaming Club, and I think we both admirably achieved that.

Thanks to the club for hosting and allowing us to demo the game , and to the wives and helpers to ran the lunch canteen.

Well the game drew a lot of onlooker interest both old and young, as expected, and that is what we really hoped for.