Didn’t really get much done today, or more accurately didn’t get much finished today. I worked on the Deadzone terrain, moving it along a little further.
From just put together
To undercoated black and the first colour on
To black washed.
There is still all the fiddly bit to paint and then the highlighting so will take a a lot more work to have finished.
I did however finish my first lot of Deadzone figures
These are Level 3A Ghouls (the number I think is the level of infection). From left to right these include a Level 3A General, a level 3A Ghoul with Flamer, a level 3A Ghoul with Grenade Launcher, a level 3A Ghoul with Heavy Machine Gun, and a level 3A Ghoul Squad Commander.
Level 3A General
Level 3A Ghoul with Flamer
Level 3A Ghoul with Grenade Launcher
Level 3A Ghoul with Heavy Machine Gun
Level 3A Ghoul Squad Commander.
I have also glued together another 5 basic 3A Ghouls and their loyal puppy dog woofer!
This post started as something else but then just morphed into a slight retrospective ………. only slight mind you!!
Growing up in the sixties I first became interested in Pop music in 1966 with the Eastbeats “Come and See Her” , “Friday on my Mind”, “Wedding Ring”, “She’s so fine” (recorded live on Bandstand), and “Sorry” – all of which made the Top 40 for 1966. Other than ” da beats” and “Normie Rowe”, the only Australians to make the Top 40 were the Bee Gees and Johnny Young (yuk!). The rest were really dominated by English Pop groups , the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Herman’s Hermits and single artists like Crispian St. Peters.
Crispian St. Peters (born Robin Peter Smith, 5 April 1939 – 8 June 2010) was an English pop singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the 1960s, particularly hit songs including “The Pied Piper,” and “You Were on My Mind“.
… Hey, com on babe Follow me, I’m the Pied Piper Follow me, I’m the Pied Piper And I’ll show you where it’s at
Well enough of that!!
I have become a bit of a Pied Piper myself. My son put me on to a 3D printing company in Melbourne called Miniporium. I bought a few things just to try out, but really wanted some rat swarms for a number of games systems and Dan Satija had these:
I purchased a variety of 28mm figures including zombie dogs and various Post-apocalyptic survivors and was very pleased with the quality, delivery times (they are produced on order only), and after sales service. They have over 100 webpages of “stuff” for sale. I can thoroughly recommend Dan and the crew at Miniporium.
I intend to use the Rat Swarms in a variety of games including Zona Alpha, Last Days, and Silver Bullet.
I didn’t realise that more than one base came with the swarm and ended up with more than I needed. Mwahahahaha today the drains tomorrow………………………
Which rat is Elvis and is that Michael Myers? Shown for size comparison only (honest).
Or more correctly the end of my Batman figures. Today I finally found the time to finish off my batman collection. All that was left was to remove some Heroclix figures from their bases and re-base them on “normal” wargaming bases.
Bruce Wayne answering the Bat-phone.
An elderly Bruce Wayne (I know how he feels!)
Alfred.
King Tut on his throne.
King Tut was a villain and enemy of Batman created specifically for the Batman 1960s TV Series. He was portrayed by Victor Buono.
ing Tut is in fact William Omaha McElroy, a highly regarded professor of Egyptology at Yale University. One day he was at work when a student protest turned vicious, and rocks were thrown. One such rock hit McElroy, knocking him out. When he regained consciousness, he believed that he was the reincarnation of King Tutankhamun and that Gotham is the ancient city of Thebes. His ultimate goal is to claim Gotham—that is, Thebes—as his own. His antipathy towards Batman and Robin is based on the concept that they have tried to stop him, and as such are regarded as rebels against his throne.
Batman Fandom
El Gaucho
Once an Argentinian secret agent working for Spyral, Don Santiago retired to his millionaire lifestyle but quickly became bored and depressed by a life without adventure. However upon hearing about Batman’s activities in Gotham, Santiago was inspired to become the hero of Argentina and took up the title of El Gaucho. He has since became a good friend and ally of Batman, though their shared history with one Kathy Kane (Bat Woman) has caused tension between the two heroes. Little is known of the Gaucho’s activities.
Gotham City Motorcycles
Coffee and donuts for Bullock and Gordon(showing size of motor bikes)
The Bad Samaritan
The Bad Samaritan is a Checkmate Spy. Checkmate is a government spy agency but there is little information in the Batman Codex about them or indeed BAD Samaritan.
Harvey Dent
Harvey Dent was Gotham City’s amiable and courteous district attorney and one of Batman’s strongest allies (until Sal “Boss” Maroni threw acid in his face, hideously scarring him). It also fractured his mental state, causing him to become Two-Face, a criminal mastermind obsessed with duality and the number two and is one of Batman’s greatest enemies. His former good luck charm, a “two-headed” silver dollar with one side defaced, has been seen as a reflection of Dent’s half-scarred visage. He flips it to decide the fates of his victims. Despite Batman’s efforts to reform his former ally, Dent is consumed by his fixation on chance. His crimes are designed to prove his diametric philosophy.
I feel as if I have wasted the last two days hobby time just putting together the Deadzone terrain that came with the game, plus some I had picked up at the “Little Wars” bring and buy stand a few years ago, intending to use it for Necromunda.
As normal it just stayed there waiting for its time to come!
Once I worked out that the best way to put it together things went more smoothly, but initially I found it a pain.
It was difficult to get the joiners in solidly enough to hold things together.
I decided to glue each piece as I put it together and with pressing the joiners in place with pointy nosed pliers it went together quite well.
The Deadzone mat is 560mm X 560mm.
There are two 3X1 L-shaped cubes, two 2X2 L-shaped cubes, two 2X1 horizontal rectangular cubes, two 1X1 square cubes, and one 2X1 vertical cube. Giving me nine independent structures.
These can be joined by gantries and walkways if required.
The terrain is quite flexible and offers plenty of cover, but also key lines of sight to set up an ambush.
All-in-all it is quite flexible terrain and should paint up well with enough detail to look “cool”.
I intend to use it in a lot of the Post-Apocalyptic and Sci-Fi games like Deadzone, Firefight, Zona Alpha, Infinity, 5 Parsecs from Home, and Necromunda.
I also intend to use this with other terrain for Infinity games which has a 4X4 table size.
Here is the terrain on the Infinity Nomad terrain mat:
I don’t like the standard grey that most people paint the terrain and intend to use bright colours with the grungy dilapidated look that it should be.
I still have the scatter terrain and the barricades to put together before I start the painting.
Paul and Christine from Empress were very helpful with information on how to put the 88 deck gun and the 20mm flak gun together, referring me to their facebook page. They replied very quickly to emails and answered all my questions including what Type the U-boat was. The casting is excellent and I only had some very minor flashing on the conning tower to remove. The flags were a surprise that I was not expecting.
The 28mm U-boat is massive at 73cm and will make an excellent addition to my VBCW/Operation Sea-Lion scenarios as it secretly deploys Brandenburger troops or Abwehr military intelligence operatives (spies) on the English Coast!
The submarine is a Type VII B U-boat.
Class
VIIB
Displacement surfaced
753 tonnes
Displacement submerged
857 tonnes
Length overall
66.5m
Length pressure hull
48.8m (160 ft 1 in)
Beam overall
6.20 m (20 ft 4 in)
Beam pressure hull
4.70 m (15 ft 5 in)
Draft
4.74 m (15 ft 7 in)
Power surfaced
2,400 kW
Power submerged (Electric)
560 kW
Surface speed
17.9 knots (33.2 km/h; 20.6 mph)
Submerged speed
8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Surface range at 10 knots
8,700 nmi (16,100 km; 10,000 mi)
Submerged range at 4 knots
90 nmi (170 km; 100 mi)
Maximum operating depth
220 m (720 ft)
Crush depth
230–250 m (750–820 ft)
Complement
44–48
Deck gun
8.8 cm SK C35 naval gun, with 220 rounds
Anti-aircraft guns
2 cm FlaK 30
Bow tubes
4
Stern tubes
1
Torpedoes (maximum)
14
Mines
26 TMA mines
Number commissioned
24
Although small in number (only 24 of the 703 Type VII’s launched) the Type VIIBs included many of the most famous U-boats of World War II, including U-48 (the most successful), Günther Prien’s U-47, Otto Kretschmer’s U-99, and Joachim Schepke’s U-100.
U-48 was a member of two wolfpacks. Seven former members of the boat’s crew earned the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross during their military career: these were the commanders Herbert Schultze, Hans-Rudolf Rösing and Heinrich Bleichrodt, the first watch officer Reinhard Suhren, the second watch Otto Ites, the chief engineer Erich Zürn and the coxswain Horst Hofmann.
U-48 survived most of the war and was scuttled by her own crew on 3 May 1945 off Neustadt in order to keep the submarine out of the hands of the advancing allies.
German submarine U-99 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Germany’s Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 31 March 1939 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel as yard number 593. She was launched on 12 March 1940 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer and was assigned to the 7th U-boat Flotilla based in Kiel and later in St Nazaire.
U-99 was one of the most successful German U-boats in the war, sinking 38 ships for a total tonnage of 244,658 tons of Allied shipping in eight patrols. She damaged five more ships and took one vessel as a prize.
U 100
U-100 was the first U-boat to be discovered by radar during World War II; she was rammed and sunk by the Destroyer Vanoc while attempting to submerge. Six of the boat’s 53 crew members survived, spending the remainder of the war as POWs. The ships Captain Schepke was not one of them. During her 6 raids she sank a total of 30 merchant ships.
15 October 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak. The battleship Scharnhorst can be seen in the background.
During U-47’s career, she sank a total of 31 enemy vessels, including the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, and damaged nine more. U-47 ranks as one of the most successful German U-boats of World War II.
U-boat camouflage and painting varied throughout the war. For a detailed article see below.
The dock is 900mm or three feet which gives you an idea of the size. The tank is a 28mm British Challenger II which probably says more about its size than the U-boats. The 28mm camera man and the 28mm tug are also there for comparison.
The conning tower can be removed to show the U-boat partially submerged. The model also comes with a periscope just above the water and some crew which I will add later on.
I indicated in my May 5th post (Terrors from the Deep) that “I can see a game or three coming on! Maybe against a U-Boat? You never know!”
A great model and I cannot recommend Empress Miniatures highly enough as in addition to the U-boat I also have a large collection of their Modern British and some Afghan infantry and cavalry for the Third Afghan War.
Thanks to Wikipedia for a lot of the U-boat information.
The only surviving Type VII U-boat U995
At the end of the war on 8 May 1945 she was stricken at Trondheim, Norway. She was surrendered to the British and then transferred to Norwegian ownership in October 1948. In December 1952 U995 became the Norwegian submarine Kaura and in 1965 she was stricken from service by the Royal Norwegian Navy. She then was offered to the German government for the ceremonial price of one Deutsche Mark. The offer was turned down; but the Boat was saved by the German Navy League, DMB, where she became a museum ship at Laboe Naval Memorial in October 1971.
