The Black Witch: Part 1

In the latest installment of our Barbarossa campaign, the fighting continues over the tiny village of the Island Church.  However, the objective has changed entirely!

No longer interested in the town itself (it has since been bypassed by the Wehrmacht armored columns!), an elite force of German troops must try to capture a downed Soviet pilot.  She is part of the Black Witches squadron, and she is known to be in the area.

The Soviet forces are trying to rescue her before she is captured. This mission was deemed to be of such importance that a German officer and a recon unit of tanks was sent in to find her.  Those vehicles had been knocked out by growing Partisan activity, and he finds himself stranded in enemy territory!

It is anticipated that this mission will be very difficult, so the hardiest of Waffen SS units will be tasked with recovering the stranded officer and capturing the enemy pilot.  They are few in number, but it is thought that they could slip back into the town less noticeably than a larger force of regular army.

Some new reinforcements have arrived in the town, among them Siberian veterans.

The terrain was far less ideal for the German deployment, as they were now attacking from the opposite side of town.  Not long ago, this had been a Soviet deployment zone...

The wheeled vehicles would find it rough going, which meant that the deployment areas were even further restricted.

These Russian villages seem to be ideal for the defense, with each log cabin and shack presenting an excellent hiding place.

The Red Army already has the stranded German officer in their sights.  Obviously the T-34 which knocked out the lighter Panzers in the previous engagement is still hiding in its lair...

Somehow this small but determined group of German soliders must hold off these advancing hordes and rescue the surviving crews of the knocked out tanks!

As usual, the Soviets slog through the gullys and streams to hide from the Axis firepower.  One of the Black Witches is in view, attempting to paddle to safety in one of the discarded German rubber boats.

A Zis field gun has been brought in to cover the troops, and it claims a victim on its very first shot!  The Opel Blitz goes up in flames, and the Waffen SS passengers must bail out  to avoid burning to death themselves.

They attempt to take cover behind the tiny bridge house, but the deadly sniper Sletlana is waiting for them in the top floor of the lumber mill.

The flame and smoke unleashed by the Zis gun must have betrayed their position, making it easy for the mortar observer to direct a well placed shot into their midst.  Even with Great Patriotic War, what remained of the crew chose to flee the field.

With the threat of the direct howitzer shot now gone, and the potential for the mortar to deal with the machine gun teams in the nearby building, the veteran Heer unit surged towards the river, and the Black Witch pilot.

Perhaps this is why the shattered Zis crew chose to exit the stage... the rumbling of the Flammpanzer!!!

As we have seen all to often on the Ostfront, the hapless 'free' squad of raw recruits is directed toward the enemy as cannon fodder.  With the new Commissar Royanovich nearby, they had little choice but to move into the teeth of enemy fire.

This covered the advance of the regular units of the Red Army, but on the right flank, they chose to hold their ground and let their own superior firepower deal with the scattered Waffen units.

They were being whittled down by the sniper, who managed to take out both light machine guns.  This would mean a nearly free hand for the Russians to clam the wreck and the captured officer.

Seeing this threat, the Rad 8 chose to risk the hazard of the T-34 and fire its autocannon into the mass of Soviet troops hiding in the stream.  Apparently the water makes for some great cover, and the shots nearly always missed.

The Red Hordes close in on their primary objective... rescuing their heroic pilot.  Will they bring her back to the aerodrome for more heroics, or can the elite of the Wehrmacht manage to fend off an army twice their number?

They have a few surprises for their enemy, so we shall see what happens in episode two!  Stay tuned...

Also, if you want to see video battle reports, you can check out my France 1940 videos on my YouTube Channel.  I have 4 of them posted already!  Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LgWEoymVQw

Give that Dog a Bone!!

Here's another version of the Malifaux hell hounds.  Just as I did with the first hound, I made a series of glazes to establish the darks and shadows.  The fur texture on the figure was very fine, so I had to bring more of that out with actual brush strokes.

I worked mostly with the Reaper Liner paints, which are fantastic in that they can be thinned down to a great degree, and yet keep their color integrity.  They remain dark and heavily pigmented.  By adding a light, opaque color to them, I was able to create some nice mid tone fur colors as well.

I always enjoyed painting wolves in 2D, so I have fun whenever I get the chance to paint them in 3D! :-)  When I did the original set of Painting Pyramid instructional videos, painting fur certainly had to be part of it!!  

Here's a few scenes from that video:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/07/whos-afraid-of-big-bad-wolf.html

Paint Like a Champion! Army Painting Series 1 complete!

With Army Painting Series 2 about to be posted to the Patreon Page, it is time to check out some images of figures painted during the very first five episode unit painting guide.

It all began, as it should, with an episode on Basing Techniques and how to approach a unit.  I used the Dark Runes texture roller from Green Stuff World, and I went through the process of creating bases that would suit the "footprint" of the figures which would be painted.

All 5 of these episodes (about 11.5 hours of content!) are available on the Patreon page at the $15 level.  You can check that out here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The second episode is an in depth guide on how to paint one of the figures as a "color test" figure, and how to use that step to make decisions for the rest of your unit/army.  That is, how complex do you want the color scheme to be, and will it match your basing, etc.

From there, I demonstrate how to do my normal painting techniques such as Shaded Basecoat and Glazing... but in a format which I have never filmed before!  While I have a number of 'pictoral' step by step blog posts on unit painting, doing several figures at once live on camera was really interesting!

I think that it might be the best way to show why I developed these approaches in the first place, since the still images really don't show the speed and simplification involved.

The last episode focuses on the unit champion, and some crucial decisions about the familiar (make it glowing, and if so should it also be green, etc.)

As I am painting, I try to emphasize the thought process as much as possible, since knowing 'why' is actually more important than knowing 'how'.  That is certainly how I felt all through my Art School days.

I will be posting the first episode of Series 2 later tonight, which will take you through a historical army, and using the Mig Ammo Oilbrushers.  To view the Army Painter series, the basic pledge is $15.  Should you want a "hard copy" high resolution version on a USB drive, I have that available for a $50 pledge.  For those who are interested in having one or more of the miniatures painted in the series, I do have a pledge level for that at the $100 level.

More images from Series one coming soon!!  Join the painting madness and step inside the workshop with me...

Big Wheels

This rather large and complex kit was a learning experience with the airbrush, especially when it came to messing around with the air pressure and masking!

The request was for very subtle colors and weathering on this, so I had to pull back on what I would normally do.

Other challenges involved moving parts, and even rubber tires!

I have a previous post that shows how I approached the painting:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/06/low-pressure-painting.html

I have one more post coming, and that will show what this looks like with some passengers around it.  It might also give a better sense of scale!  Stay tuned...

A New Breed of Soldier

Back to the future with these Scale 75 miniatures.  I am not sure if they still make this line or not, but they were interesting to work on!

A very specific set of colors and marking was requested, meant to match another group of figures from other manufacturers.

This is something that is very common when you do what I do!  You constantly have to adjust your process to meet the challenge of matching colors to disparate miniature lines... matching basing, insignia, and so on.

Ogres Painted with Oils!

The oil paints have proven to be incredibly useful for so many projects in the last few years... and not just painting vehicles.  I have used them on everything, including terrain!

I have discussed the reasons why I have been using them so much... mostly because they make mass-painting projects easier for me.  Since I am painting dozens, if not hundreds of figures all at once, it is very easy to line up enough figures that have a similar set of colors.

Using that extended drying time, I am able to work wet into wet simultaneously on all these figures, which also helps to keep those colors as close to matching as possible!

You can also be more adventurous in your color choices, as you can manipulate them on the surface of the figure itself more easily.  Here's one of several Facebook live sessions that I did:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211515280171740/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I will be posting several hours worth of oil painting tutorials to the Patreon Page as the month draws to a close.  There are a few different pledge levels for options, including the basic $5 pledge:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The Second Front

The deadly battle for the outskirts of Nouvion continues!  When we last saw the intrepid defenders, they were attempting to push forward into the German line of advance to blunt their progress.

Despite the presence of the Panzer 38T and the anti tank rifle, the Lorraine transport drove right into the teeth of enemy fire and dropped off the veteran squad into the nearest building, obviously at the direction of the officer nearby!

The German forces now saw the convoy of Laffly transports coming up behind the Lorraine, and the deadly machine gun mounts on each of them...

Each of the transports had to canter to the right in order to take cover behind the buildings and reposition to outflank the tank, Hanomag with its own passengers.  They could only go so far at this point, since the light howitzer had still not been dealt with!

You can see what was waiting for the French troops here.  Not only was there a squad in the half track, another one was waiting in the Opel Blitz.

The howitzer had moved a bit to get out of the line of sight of the heavy French artillery.  This also gave it an improved line of sight to the street, preventing an easy advance by the Laffly transports.

As the light began to fade in Nouvion, the French officer decided that he must gamble anyway, and drove the trucks into the street to pour fire into the waiting howitzer.  Even if it could not be destroyed, they could at least keep the crew cowering behind their gun shield!

The Germans saw their opportunity to counter strike, and attempted to blast the Laffly WTC15 from point blank range!  Apparently auto cannons are designed to be used at much longer ranges, because each shot flew past the very relieved crew of the anti tank truck...

The Panzer 38T and the Opel Blitz moved well into one of the neutral sectors to score victory points and to machine gun the exposed French veteran unit.  A few managed to survive this barrage of fire, however.

The Opel Blitz drove as fast as it could to get past this maelstrom.

PinaPalooza continued, with the French units getting hit multiple times.  However, they were now well ensconced in both the neutral sector and even the German deployment sector.  

The enemy would be forced to kill them outright to tip the balance...

Even the mortar observer joined the march forward!  He could not see past all the advancing French units, so he almost had to move past them.

It was a very unusual method of spotting, as he essentially pointed to the howitzer just yards away and said, "laisse tomber ici, les gars!".

That's "drop it right here, lads!" to you Anglophiles.

As darkness began to fall, deadly hand to hand combat ensued as the Wehrmacht forces attempted to drive the French back.

But there were simply too many targets to remove all at once!  As night fell, the action fell silent, and both sides slipped away to regroup and recover.  For now, Nouvion remains in French hands.  Will it remain so?

Perhaps as daylight returns, new reinforcements on both sides will be thrown into the battle!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are hoping to make more regular "paint and play" trips to Grognard Games.  We think it will be a mid week thing, where we arrive early to play a game and then paint afterwards.

Once we get that settled, we will announce that on Facebook, etc

First, we have to do Reapercon, which is very close!  We will have Fort Wappel up and running, with plenty of live demos and mayhem!!