Some 28mm Fishmen: Why? Blame the 'Coolness' Factor!

    28mm Fishmen from Miniature Building Authority that I painted up for...well, I'm not sure why!

I purchased these figures mainly on the "coolness" factor. Like with the Beldolor Studios fishmen I bought at Origins, I don't technically have a project that requires 28mm fishmen armed with melee weapons. Who knows? Perhaps they will appear in the storyline of my Tales of the Splintered Band. Maybe the fishmen have something to do with the Wildcat Legion becoming turncoats and helping the rats? I picked these six up from Miniature Building Authority at Siege of Augusta this past January. They are soft resin figures kind of along the lines of the ones Reaper Miniatures sells in most game stores (though less bendy).

    The Fishmen emerge from the sea, confident they are the Eldest -- the First Spawned of all beings

Like I do with most figs nowadays, I primed them with Liquitex white Gesso. I decided that since fish are all different colors, I would paint each differently. I briefly considered using color shift paints, but that would require me going and buying several more bottles of them! They seemed to have raised enough detail on the scaly flesh (not always the case with plastic or resin figs), so I decided to do a base coat and dry brush effect on these. Some of the color combinations worked better than others. I think I like the darker fishmen better than the lighter colored ones.

    The short stout wizard-looking fishmen were my favorites -- I love their expressions!

I bought two packs of three (same pack), so there are duplicates, of course. When I first opened them up, I liked the guys with the tridents best. Once I primed them, my favorite pose was the ones with the barbels or whiskers coming down from them. Now that I have painted them up, I think I like the stocky little "wizard-style" ones holding a staff. At first, they seemed a little boring. However, once painted up, they really came to life. I love the facial expression. More than a few times, I would pick one of them up and involuntarily say, "Hey Bub!" -- which is what the expression on their face seems to say to me. Their thick, well-defined fish lips have a dour expression.

    I painted mystic symbols onto the backs of the Fishmen wizards' robes...

As I mentioned, each figure got a base coat and lighter dry brush to hopefully highlight the detail of the scales on their flesh. The spines or fins were done in a contrasting color or tone. All of them are wearing clothes of some sort, so I tried to pick colors for those that would look good with their skin tone. I did the same with any equipment they were carrying. Each piece of equipment and the clothes also got a highlight. So, there were multiple steps for each figure that necessitated drying overnight before progressing. As such, it felt like they went fairly slow, but hey! They're done now.

    I liked how my Fishmen came out -- wasn't expecting a lot, but I think the color combos worked well

I gave each fishman solid black eyes and a little dot of white for reflected light in the upper part of the circle or oval. I also did a highlighting eyefold above and beneath the eye for some. Clear coating them was interesting. I had decided early on that I wanted the skin of the fishmen to be glossy. However, I didn't necessarily want all their equipment shiny, so I did both a matte coat and a gloss coat once I was done with the colors and lighter black wash. I'm still not certain I like them glossy. I have been such a solidly "matte finish" painter, ridiculing all miniatures that are painted with their candy coated shell, that it is hard for me to look at them and say, "Yeah, they look right!" Ha, ha!!

    Having accomplished their mysterious mission, the Fishmen return to the sea...

What's next on my painting desk? Well, I have the final three Vietnam buildings that I bought from MBA at Buckeye Game Fest almost finished. They're coming along well, enough so that I expect I will post about them before I leave next Wednesday for Historicon. After that, I may as well do the other five fishmen I have, next. For terrain, I have spray primed a bunch of Acheson Creations terrain that may get done in time to take to the Historicon flea market. They will have to move along quickly, though! I'm running out of time before I leave! Stay tuned, and we will see if they make it...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 144

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 43

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 112

Star Wars Mission 2: Firefight on the Flightline

    An imperial TIE fighter base deep in the Tatooine desert is the target of a surprise raid by the rebels

Deep in the desert of Tatooine, a TIE fighter base responsible for patrolling an area rife with Tusken raids, has received instructions to go upgrade its computer coding for its perimeter defenses. There was a possible security breach in Mos Eisley, and upgrading systems is recommended. When a squad of Bronze Legion mercenaries are flown in to augment the flight line's security, the base commander decides perhaps the instructions were more urgent than he realized. The technicians begin to work their way through the laborious re-coding process when alarm sounds. All perimeter security defense have been over-ridden and taken offline by a signal of unknown origin. The base commander orders the flight line on full alert!

    Recruited by the rebels, Sluggr of the Criminal Syndicate slips on board, but is immediately targeted

This was the setup for our second mission in our Star Wars skirmish campaign using Space Weirdos rules. In the first mission, the rebels successfully retrieved the stolen security plans from the droid in a chaotic battle in Mos Eisley. Now, the rebels are using this information to raid imperial bases after knocking their security systems offline. For extra muscle, they contract with Foxhurst's Criminal Syndicate, who surprisingly quickly agrees to join the raid. Do they have ulterior motives? And what about the squad of mercenaries from the Bronze Legion? Are they wholly on the imperial side? Each player was given their own particular victory conditions, which did not always neatly coincide with those of their allies!

    Stormtroopers, led by Darth Pylor at top center, begin blasting away at the attacking syndicate

Our regular six players were present -- host Mike W as the Rebel Alliance, Tom as the local Tatooine rebels, Allen as the Criminal Syndicate, Keith as the Mercenaries, Joel as Corporate Security, and Mike S taking on the role of the Empire. Each player had a chance to upgrade the stat of one of their four characters prior to the mission. This will simulate the fighters gaining experience. I've decided rather than keeping track of experience points, I would simply allow one upgrade between each session so that the sides remained relatively equal. I did tell them that players taken out of action during a mission and not revived by the end would have to roll for their recovery. I actually still need to work out how I am going to do that!

    Action slowly simmers around the board as players maneuver their characters from cover to cover

I allowed the defenders (Empire, Corporate Security, Mercenaries) to leave up to half their figures off-board at the start of the game, writing down which building they were located in. It would take one of the characters three actions to appear adjacent to the structure they wrote down. The attackers would start on the short edges with the goal of placing explosives in contact with the TIE fighters. It would take two actions to set the charges with the third action presumably being spent running for cover. Then BOOM -- the TIE fighter would be considered destroyed and anyone inside the 5" blast diameter also possibly taking damage. 

    Although hapless in the films, the Stormtroopers aggressively & successfully defended the flightline

The rebels first movement were very tentative. They came on board and crept only marginally closer, hiding behind the next terrain piece or building. I honestly feel they missed an opportunity, as do the Initiative rolls, they all moved first. Their first figure moving wouldn't have to worry about any defenders having opportunity fire set in place. After all players had moved one figure, they then moved a second figure in the same order. The stormtroopers and mercenaries immediately began placing figures in overwatch. As subsequent attackers moved, energy blasts lanced out and the attackers began to fall. The criminals, in particular, took it on the chin all game. At one point or another, three of the criminal figures were taken out of action. Their leader, Foxhurst, used the Force to heal them back up, but they were struggling to get near the high value cargo that they'd actually come to steal.

    Finally, Zimeon - leader of the local rebels - dashes forward boldly and blows up the first TIE fighter

Finally, the local rebel player (Tom) took a chance. His leader, Zimeon, dashed forward at the end of turn three, ducking under the wing of a TIE fighter. As defenders drew a bead on him, he used his Command Points to dodge closer to his objective. On Tom's first action of Turn Four, Zimeon planted the charges, set them, and ran for cover. Ka-boom!! The first TIE fighter exploded. The angry defenders blasted away at Zimeon, but Tom cleverly used his new turn's command points. The first one was used to dodge the first shot (back towards cover), and the second time he was targeted he used one to "Power Up" his Defense roll. Zimeon dove for safety behind terrain, unharmed.

    Outnumbered mercenaries waged a fierce firefight against both rebel factions at one end of the board

This seemed to energize the attackers. With much urging by Tom and the other players, Mike W's Rebel Alliance finally gathered their nerve. Rebel pilot Knox imitated Zimeon's tactics and successfully blew up a second TIE fighter. Time was against the raiders, though. The Corporate Security and Empire were slowly getting the perimeter defenses back online. This would allow them one extra attack (2d10 -- the games most powerful) at an enemy character with no range or cover modifier. 

    Spurred on by Zimeon's success, the Rebel Alliance uses their tactics to destroy another fighter

All three defender players fought back aggressively against the attackers. Mike S's stormtroopers almost completely shut down Allen's Criminal Syndicate. I was worried I had made victory conditions too easy. All he had to do was move adjacent to one of three designated high value pieces of cargo (only he knew which three they were), complete a "Use Item" (two actions), and thereafter it would hover and follow the criminal who planted, immediately matching their movement. When we called the game, Allen's leader was within 1 move of one of the pieces of cargo, but he never made it into contact with enemy and ended the game with 0 Victory Points.

SCENARIO 2 VICTORY POINTS

Keith's Bronze Legion mercenaries fought like lions to defend the flightline. For the most part, he disregarded the victory conditions I'd given him and fought hard to defend the spacecraft, like a loyal imperial soldier. Joel's Corporate Security also were all over the table, shooting at any attackers they saw. In the end, it wasn't lack of effort by the defenders that caused the empire's narrow loss. It was the fact that the rebel players weren't giving up, and were pushing the attack, so couldn't count as "repelled." Once again, Local Rebel player Tom was the victor, boosting the morale of the Tatooine rebels.

CAMPAIGN STANDINGS AFTER TWO TURNS  

 I'm really happy with how Space Weirdos rules are working out for our Star Wars skirmishes. We've made a couple tweaks, particularly on Overwatch for a six player game, but everyone seems to be happy with how things are progressing. I felt this game was a little slow to get going, but it could also be that some players had not played the rules in awhile. Mission 1, These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For, took place two months ago. I think I need to run the game more often than that to keep us up to speed. It's not like we don't play other rules systems, and it is easy to get them confused, as regular miniatures gamers know so well!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 138

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 43

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 112

Quick 'How To' for a Star Wars TIE Fighter Scenery Piece

    My scratch-built TIE fighter 'objective markers' for our 2nd skirmish in our Star Wars campaign

The second scenario in my Star Wars skirmish campaign using Space Weirdos rules will have the rebels attacking a TIE fighter base in the deserts of Tatooine. I was sure one of my friends would have some usable TIE fighter models. Color me surprised that neither Keith nor Wallace had any! I posted on the Lead Adventure Forum, looking for ideas for inexpensive roughly 28mm scale models I could use essentially as terrain in this game. Some good suggestions, but I didn't want to spend $30+ on a just few models. There HAD to be some way to make them, assemble them out of cardstock, or whatever!

    Somewhere in the Tatooine desert, a flight line and base for six imperial TIE fighters

I kept waiting for inspiration or an idea to hit me until it got to less than 2 weeks out from the game. No more time to dither, I had to make a decision! I chose to make my own. I found a good image online of the TIE fighter's hexagonal panel "wings." I would print these out at the local office supply store, using the same image for both inside and outside. I'd affix those with spray adhesive to a piece of thin styrene plastic (white glue just peeled off). Now, I would need to source the central ball-shaped pod and the connecting sprues. As I like to do in such scratch-building situations, I headed up to Hobby Lobby. And hit paydirt!

    The image I found online of a TIE fighter side panel and the styrene sheet I affixed them onto

First, I found perfect-sized, wooden spheres at clearance prices for the central sections. There were even holes drilled in either side so it could be a "bead," in essence. Then, I found a bag of cylindrical, wooden beads that looked to be a good size to connect to the panels. These were also at a good price! The last stop was at Office Max, where I got two silver Sharpies (one thick point, one thin). The plan would be to spray paint the ball and beads black, and draw panel lines in silver. Here's where I was relying on memory rather than double-checking images. I should have spray painted gray and used black Sharpies to do the darker portions. D'oh!

    Wooden beads from the local craft store made up the central section of the TIE fighters

The cylindrical beads fit well into the holes on the spherical beads. I had also bought a thin wooden dowel to string all three together so they'd be lined up straight, though. I pre-cut the dowel into the correct lengths, squirted white glue into each bead, and then strung them all together, twisting the cylindrical beads to get them firmly inserted into the holes in the balls.

    Close up of the panel lines drawn on with silver Sharpie onto the ship's central sections 

I spray painted these black (yeah, yeah, should have been gray!), then spent an hour or so after they had dried going over them with the silver Sharpies, creating panel lines. Honestly, I did a so-so job on this stage. These are definitely terrain items -- not beautiful models recreating a TIE fighter. Lump them in the "should be seen from six feet away category" and they look fine...ha, ha! In my game, the TIE fighters are basically just objectives that the rebel players are trying to blow up. They won't take to the air and I don't imagine I will use them for too many scenarios. They're fine for spending just a tad over $10 for everything.

    Side view with a look at the fancy furniture tacks that (along with Tacky glue) hold them together

I did forget to mention that I bought a box of fancy, silver Furniture Tacks at the local Menards to fasten the hexagonal panels to the wooden central section. I used a pin vice to create a hole in each of the hexagonal panels. Then I drilled out the inside of the cylindrical beads (essentially through the dowel). I squirted in white glue into either side, and then pressed the tack in firmly from the outside, attaching the panels and central section firmly together.

    Stormtroopers guard the flight line -- will they be able to hold off the rebel raid & protect the ships?

All in all, they look okay as scenery. So, if you have a need for a half a dozen parked TIE fighters that you can source for less than $20 total, maybe my post here will inspire you. If not, now you know what lengths I will go to in giving my games that little extra bit of eye candy...ha, ha! Oh, and despite all of what I just said, in my totals below, I am counting these TIE fighters in the "MINIATURES" category...! 

    Final look at my 'terrain pieces' -- TIE fighters built for $10+ so my players could blow them up!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 138

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 43

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 112

Miniature Building Authority Vietnamese Farm Buildings & Scatter

   A patrol stocks up in a VC-friendly hamlet including my 2 MBA Farmer's House & Barn buildings

Now that I am finished with the miniatures for my 28mm Vietnam project, it is time to slip into "terrain mode." First up in the buildings I will be readying for the tabletop are from Miniature Building Authority. I purchased these from Kirk at Buckeye Game Fest this past May. When I unpacked them, they looked oddly familiar. Turns out, these were originally created by Acheson Creations and now are stocked by MBA. They are ACH-TC85 Vietnamese Farmer's House and ACH-TC88 Vietnamese Farmer's Barn.

    Originally produced by Acheson Creations, these MBA buildings were easy to ready for the tabletop

Unfortunately, I didn't realize they were originally Acheson ones until after I spray primed them and added the 50/50 mixture of acrylic black paint and water. It was then that I noticed some of the paint pulling away from the more raised areas. Uh-oh. I hadn't done my usual first step with Acheson products and run them through the dishwasher to get rid of the residue from Acheson's mold release. Once I realized it, I had two choices: strip them and start over or pile on the paint and sealant heavy enough that the paint does not wear away. I chose the latter, as I had no idea how to strip the Krylon Fusion Matte primer off without marring the surface of the buildings. These are great buildings, but I highly recommend you do the dishwasher thing before painting them, as for all Acheson's excellent products.

    The rear of the two buildings -- all it takes to paint these is prime, wet brush, & dry brush...easy!

I decided to do the interiors first. I gave them a thick Leather Brown base coat. I let them dry overnight and then dry brushed the interiors khaki. I painted the window trim and door frames a darker brown, then similarly dry brushed them khaki. The exteriors were painted dark brown first. I let the buildings dry overnight again, then I followed up with my typical "wood pattern." I applied a Camo brown wet brush followed the next day by a Khaki dry brush. I really like the look of the aged wood it gives, but still retaining a brown tone rather than a (probably more realistic) gray. 

    The interiors of the two resin buildings with their mud walls and wooden floors

The floors were done like the outside walls, skipping the khaki dry brush. I wanted them to be darker, figuring the farmer's family regularly tracked in dirt into their home. In fact, I was surprised the home and barn were modeled with wood flooring. I wonder if dirt would be more accurate? Perhaps in some areas and not others? I can't claim to be an expert on farmer home construction during the Vietnam War! Finally, I did the thatch roofing. This began with Camo Brown, followed by a Dun Yellow wet brush, and finally a very light gray dry brush highlighting. Once dry, I gave the thatch a black vehicle wash. 

    My larger jungle scatter pieces I created, with a patrol of Viet Cong marching past

Since I was worried about the paint not adhering to the resin properly, I gave the buildings a brush on clear coat using Liquitex matte varnish instead of spray. To hold the flocking in place on the base, I used a coating of white glue and water. So far, I don't see any signs of paint scraping off, but I guess I will find out for sure once I start using them in game.

    I used circular wooden bases, palm trees, and a variety of plastic plants from the craft store for these

The other terrain I finished this week for Vietnam were larger jungle scatter bases. I picked up two packs of six 3" round wooden discs at Hobby Lobby to supplement the smaller ones I had done previously. In the center of each of the large bases, I epoxied in a plastic palm tree. I dry brushed the trunk khaki and then added a dark brown vehicle wash over it. The plain green plastic palm fronds were dry brushed here and there a light olive drab. Next, I painted the edges of the bases and flocked them with my usual method I used for miniatures. I let them flocking dry completely for a day before beginning the next step.

    A close up of one of the bases with a VC soldier - note the effect of the brown wash/varnish

I assembled my ziploc bags of various plastic plants that I'd picked up from the local craft store. I snipped off ends of various plants for vegetation to surround the palm tree. Once I felt I had enough (I didn't -- I went back and snipped more), I drilled holes into the base with a pin vice so I could insert the plastic stems. I dabbed each hole with two-part epoxy and forced the stems about a quarter of an inch through. I also added individual fallen leaves and fronds from the plastic plants to the ground. Once done with this stage, I set them atop some old dice I use so they were raised off the surface of my desk. I didn't want the stems being pushed one way or another and messing up the way I had the plants sticking up.

    Another look at one of the bases surrounded by others, with two VC stalking through the vegetation

The next morning, I turned the bases over and trimmed off the stems with a carpet knife. Finally, I added the tiny leaves that I've been adding to the base of my Vietnam figures. There was one more important step to go, though! As I mentioned in the post for the smaller jungle pieces, I think that plastic plants on their own have too shiny of a look. I mixed up a batch of Liquitex matte varnish with a few drops of brown paint. Then I painted it over all of the plants and also the fronds of the central palm tree. Not only did this dull down the sheen and make it look more natural, it also added a brownish look of dying vegetation. 

    I like the combination of palm trees with miscellaneous craft store plastic plants -- very "irregular"

I really like how these larger scatter pieces came out. I am planning on doing one more batch of the smaller ones and another of these larger ones before I'm done. When added to my fairly decent collection of palm trees, I feel they should give a nice jungle-like look. They are time consuming to build, with all the trimming of the plastic plants and drilling holes for the stems. However, they add variety to the tabletop. I'm really looking forward to what my Vietnam battle board will look like. The little vignettes I set up to photograph to display the miniatures or terrain I've painted look nice, I think. A whole table in that fashion should look great!

    A final look at my most recent additions to my Vietnam terrain -- will the VC take the chickens, too?

So, what's next on my painting desk? For miniatures, I've started a batch of 28mm resin Fishfolk that I also purchased from MBA. I wanted to practice on them before doing the more expensive Beldolor Studies ones I got at Origins. I've also primed three more buildings for the Vietnam project. So, I guess I am keeping up with my strategy of juggling of a batch of miniatures with a batch of terrain at all times. So, look for these in future posts!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 132

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 43

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 112

28mm Vietnam Figures -- DONE! (for now...)

    The last of my 25 Viet Cong miniatures from the 'Black Sun' range all painted up

My 28mm Vietnam figures that I bought from Crucible Crush are done...all of them! I feel I finished them fairly quickly. The first test figures were done in late April, and the whole lot by the end of June. I purchased 35 U.S. figures and 25 Viet Cong from the Black Sun range, so 60 figures done in a little more than two months. I'll take that! Before I begin celebrating too much, though, I will have to purchase some more Viet Cong, as I mentioned in an earlier post. I need more light machine guns, for sure, and probably should buy a handful of civilians for scenarios, as well. Likely, I will pick those up at Historicon in less than a month.

    Last 10 U.S. infantry figures completed for my Vietnam project - the Big Red One ready for battle!

The bad news is that the monsoon season started here in Columbus, OH, just as I was getting to these last three batches of figures. I got impatient waiting for a day that wasn't too humid to spray clear coat them. I sprayed on iffy days and I think two batches have a slight bit of fogging on them. Not so much as to make me repaint them or hurl them against the wall or anything. However, I think you will notice it in the photos. I may try to go back and salvage them with a brush on varnish, but we'll see. The final batch I gave up on spraying entirely. I used brush on matte varnish for the figure and watered down white glue to seal in the flocking material. It has been really ridiculous here, weather-wise, lately. I feel like Forrest Gump: "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months!" 

 

    I used more other colors on this final batch of Viet Cong -- mixing in more grays, greens, & khaki

For the Viet Cong, I mixed in more colors besides the standard black pajamas in this final group. I wanted them to look more like an irregular force, so I mixed in some faded olive drab, grays, and khakis. I really like how they turned out with the variety of colors in there. It's probably a good thing I did that, considering how my spray coat fogged them. If these had been all black like some of my other batches, the fogging would be more noticeable and maybe I would have hurled them against the wall. And by the way, I keep mentioning that because one of my friends did do that in frustration once...!

    I really like how these 'Black Sun' Viet Cong figures look -- lots of personality and individuality

Of my last two batches of U.S. troops, one was a standard infantry pack and the other was the support infantry. Interestingly, I started the project with the support weapons pack and ended with it, as well. That wasn't intentional, but it seems appropriate. With each new batch of Americans, I have been going back and looking at how I painted a particular pose before. If I painted it Caucasian the first time, I would typically paint the same pose black or Hispanic the second time around. I felt this would give my force just a little bit more variety in the cases where I bought two of the same pack. The Black Sun range is not huge, by any means. The games I intend to play will be small, though, with each player controlling a U.S. fire team or squad, at most. 

    Two figures from the last two batches of U.S infantry patrol through a ruined temple area

I'm sure looking at the figures you can tell which batch was "frosted" by the humidity. I wasn't careless. I was watching the humidity and didn't spray when it was above 60%, but it was also really hot, too. So, I obviously exceeded the weather settings, and paid the price for it. The good news, though, is now I can begin to do some play test games! Woo-hoo!! I am a little bit nervous that I will find that I vastly underestimated the number of VC that I'll need for my Americans to fight, though. I guess I'll be recycling the dead figures through pretty regularly! At least, I hope there will be enough casualties to recycle...if not, the Big Red One is in trouble!

    I like how the Black Sun range includes guys who have belts of M-60 ammo strapped to their packs

One of the things I like about the poses is that some have belts of M-60 ammunition strapped to their packs. In my reading of accounts of the Vietnam War, that seemed to be a fairly common occurrence. Even if you weren't the assistant gunner, they may load you up with extra machine gun ammo, knowing it would be needed. The guy on the left in the above picture has some of that ammo.

    Although you can't always see them under their helmets, I like how the eyes came out on these figs

With their helmets pulled down over their heads, you can't always see the eyes of these figures. However, I made the decision early on to paint them in. I know the debate rages whether you should (or need) to paint eyes on 28mm figures, but unless it is a figure wearing a medieval helmet with only eye slit openings, I tend to paint them. Something about this range of figures seemed to make it easier, too. It was a rare thing when I was unhappy with how a pose's eyes came out. I would like to think that I am becoming more skilled at painting them, but I also realize eyes are easier with some poses than others. There were a couple in this group of 60 miniatures that were more difficult, but most made it easier on me.

    The radio man was one of the first two poses I painted up, and it was one of the last as well!

So, what am I going to paint now that my Vietnam project is done, for the most part? For one, I will continue working on terrain for the project. I gave a sneak peak in the first photo of my next blog post, which will detail two resin Vietnamese farm buildings. I'm also finishing up six larger jungle scatter pieces, so I'll do a post on the two of them together. Yesterday, I primed another set of buildings for Vietnamese villages that I picked up from Miniature Building Authority. Looks like a lot of terrain in my future! I'm also working on some props for this coming Sunday's Star Wars skirmish using Space Weirdos. Obviously, those need to be done by Sunday!

    Another look at the final 10 'Black Sun' U.S. infantry for my Vietnam project

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 132 < -- I'm almost within 100 of pulling even...ha, ha!

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 41

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 106

Trying Out WW II Rules 'O Group'

    Well, we did it -- we played a battalion level WW II game using (gasp!) micro armor...!!

Prior to this one, there were precisely five World War II tagged posts on my blog. That's for more than a dozen years of documented gaming on Lead Legionaries. Among those five posts, all but one were either aerial or naval games. So, to say we don't really do a lot of WW II land battles in our Sunday evening game group is probably an understatement. To be clear, I don't document every single game we play. We have played What A Tanker (which I enjoy) a handful of times, for example. I just didn't take pictures or make a blog post for most of those games.

So, when Tom said he wanted to run a battalion level WW II game for us, we were intrigued. It would certainly be a change of pace. He wanted to use a set of rules I'd never heard of called, O Group: Wargames Rules for Battalion Size Actions in World War II.  They are written by David C.R. Brown and published by Reisswitz Press and Too Fat Lardies. Now, I've read about the Lardies' Chain of Command rules. They seem to be pretty popular. Those rules state they are at the Platoon Level, though. Tom was drawn to a set of rules that had us in command of bigger forces.

    Allen sends his tanks down the center of the board towards the Americans - what could go wrong?

When he explained the scale, I was a little bewildered. I wasn't aware Tom owned that large of a collection of WW II figures. I asked him what he'd be using, and he replied his micro armor miniatures. Now, my friend Jason knows that, at this point, I would usually run screaming in the other direction from a micro armor game. I flat out NEVER play in them at conventions. Why? It has been my experience that a good number of folks running micro armor at a convention want to throw every damned miniature they own on a tabletop. Never mind that there are no aircraft, so you don't need the anti-aircraft vehicles! They own them and want to sit back and proudly survey their entire collection on the table. Never mind that it will take so long to move all those dang miniatures that the game is going to be slower than slow! They own those figures and want to inflict them on their players. "And, they're in the TO&E...!"

Another reason I typically avoid micro armor (ha, ha...he said "typically" -- read that as I "typically" avoid swimming with Great White Sharks!), is that the rules sets used are often overly complex, focus on the bewildering and unending varieties of armored vehicles, angles of fire, armor thickness, which type of round you're firing...bleh! These games often ignore the infantry entirely because they looove their armored vehicles! Jason and I played in one game at Cold Wars decades ago which still may go down as the worst convention event I have ever signed up for. It was part of the battles the National Security Decision Making (NSDM) folks were fighting out, featuring China vs. Vietnam. Whoa...sounds interesting, right? Nope. Not a single stand of infantry in two of the biggest infantry-heavy armies in the world. We were all given so many vehicles to control (some irrelevant to the battle like those air defense vehicles), that it took forever to complete our turns. It was such a horrible experience that it was the moment I swore off micro armor. Never again. The shark has been jumped! Um, Tom...are you sure about this micro armor thing?

    Two of my three German infantry companies holding the ridge as the Americans advance on us

Anyway, Tom's game would feature lots of infantry. In fact, the TO&E (those words are like nails on the chalkboard for me) for the Germans and Americans meeting in North Africa would feature so much infantry he didn't have enough stands to represent them all. In O Group, each player takes on the role of a battalion commander. For example, I was given a German infantry battalion, with attached assets because...you know, TO&E! I had three companies of infantry. Each company should have included its company commander stand and three platoons of three stands of infantry each. In my case, two of my companies had an attached heavy machine gun instead of the third infantry platoon. Short on infantry stands, Tom telescoped this organization to each platoon being one stand. Things got a little confusing and required some modifying when it came time for shooting. Still, I liked the infantry focus.

Don't get me wrong. There were armored vehicles in this game. It was micro armor, after all! Allen commanded our center and his battalion was an armored one composed of all vehicles. On the other side, the Americans had lots of tank destroyers and other such vehicles. They would spend the game blowing up Allen's command, who took their tactical inspiration from the ditty, "Hey diddle diddle, up the middle...!" I don't think Allen actually had a plan and just intended to drive down the road going through the center of the board and shoot things. On the other hand, his more tactically cautious subordinates (myself and Mike W), chose to hold the difficult terrain on the flanks with our infantry and utilize cover and shoot the Americans as they advanced upon us (in my case, as they advanced across open ground towards me).

    The mess of foam hills represented a "badlands" where American & German infantry fought

Now, before anyone comments on things we did wrong, Tom did send an email this morning after the game, which began: "Lord! We did so many things wrong!" Haha! One of the things about O Group that I discovered in my blog reading and watching YouTube videos beforehand was that its heart is the command and control system. Battalion commanders (us) receive only a limited number of orders and we need to issue those to companies. So, we won't always be able to do everything we might want. I went in thinking the system sounded a tad "fiddly," but actually we picked up on it fairly quickly. The fiddly bit was the minutiae of any big WW II game with its overwhelming number of caliber of guns, mortars, artillery, etc. "Which line of that tiny chart goes for this scout car I have attached to my battalion?" And honestly, it is one of the reasons I don't usually enjoy WW II armored engagements. I don't really care about the various versions of Panzers and Shermans, and the last thing I want to do is argue about whether its an A or D version, which gun it was equipped with, or whatever. That part was pretty exhausting.

When I asked Tom partway through the game what his impressions were, he responded, "I think I should have read the rules more deeply beforehand." My friend Keith, who loves all that I hate about WW II, wasn't particularly impressed with the rules either. He and I seemed to pick up the mechanics the quickest, though, and we did our best to help out the others (and Tom). In the end, I told Tom the best thing to do to really test them out would be for he and Keith to get together some evening and do a one vs. one game, with each controlling a battalion. That's what the rules are intended for. We were already stretching them by triple sizing it and having three battalions each. After sleeping on it, Tom pronounced himself ready to give them another try, but trying to scale down the level of command each player represented. Some players might be company commanders instead. I'm still unconvinced of that, as then he is changing the core component of the rules -- the battalion level command. 

Keith (left) and Mike S ponder what doom they will unleash on Allen when he rounds the corner

His point that he doesn't have enough infantry to represent three battalions per side doesn't seem like the right reason to give it another go. I say get more and we'll try it then...ha, ha! And actually, I found my micro armor gaming experience less than satisfying. I simply cannot see those teeny tiny infantry and vehicles well enough to be able to tell what they are, in most cases. Many times during the game, I picked up one of my stands and said, "What is this stand again, Tom?" I honestly couldn't tell the heavy machine gunner laying down from my forward observer laying down. Part of the reason we do miniature gaming is for the spectacle -- the look of a miniature army on the tabletop. A micro armor army doesn't provide that satisfaction for me. I'm sure it does for others (Keith), but it is lacking for me. I think the spectacle would be fine if we were playing this game in 15mm, or maybe even 10mm. At one point in my gaming career, I was actually building 10mm WW II forces. I know...shocker!!

Anyway, we called the game after about three hours. My command on the right was still in great shape. We had chewed up Joel's U.S. command opposite us pretty good. On the left, Keith and Mike W were giving and receiving punishment about equally. In the center, Allen was a disaster. He lost the most stands by far of any German player. Of course, we figured out more than halfway through we were doing shooting vs. armored vehicles wrong, but I'm not sure that would have made as much difference. I would hazard a guess that the Americans had a slight edge when we called it quits.

    Keith moves his American battalion to attack Mike W on our left, while taking pot shots at Allen, too

What did I think of O Group? Well, the command and control was easier than I thought it would be. The shooting was very fiddly -- maybe part of the things Tom said that we did wrong. Shooting against infantry was very slow and attritional, taking multiple terms to get a company to a point where it had to withdraw. On the other hand, armored vehicles blew up like popcorn! So, that felt wrong. Finally, the scale. Micro armor. Sigh, I am simply not a fan. I feel it is a scale that deserves a "Thanos snap" (Marvel Comic Universe reference for the confused) and to be replaced by at least 10mm, if not 15mm. So, if anyone knows of where Tom can pick up three battalions each of Germans and Americans, please send a link to Tom...ha, ha!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 237
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 117 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 41

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 106