+1 Grave Guard. VC Border Patrol is 92% complete. That leaves me with four figures to complete! Well, in addition there’s a few ‘raised’ bases I’ve put together with headstones etc. Keen for another game but Griff is being slippery. Keeps muttering something about wanting to paint the Brettonians some more.

Picked up a Stuart ‘Honey’ tank and a blister of two Universal Carriers for FOW during the weekend. Assembled them both last night. Pieces fitted together reasonably well although some green stuff patching will be required. Also will try lifting some stowage details from the ‘Honey’ and apply it to the Universal Carriers via a press mold. Washed and primed the 6pdr Portee so it’s ready to paint. Based the painted two man Boyes team and now just have to figure out how to detail their base without getting paint etc. on the completed figures.

Also did a bit of triage work on the three Mordheim tiles I currently have in my garage. I need to pick up a tin of matt polyurethane varish to seal the tiles for play. I have half a 4ltr tin of polyurethane from the previous owner but of course it’s gloss.

+1 Grave Guard. VC Border Patrol is 89% complete. I forgot to mention that in past entries when I’ve been talking about Zombies I was actually painting Grave Guard. This was a little bit of subterfuge so that Griff didn’t know the exact make up of my VC force. Fortunately he wasn’t annoyed when I turned up with a unit of Grave Guard on the night! Got a second Grave Guard ready for highlighting coats. Hope to have him finished this evening. Considering doing a bit of customisation to the old 5th Edition Wight hero I picked up from TradeMe to make him a bit more menacing.

The Grave Guard musician is creeping towards completion. He just needs to be based and varnished. I seem to have really slowed down on painting these guys for some reason. Hope to have the Champion painted by this weekend as well. Then it’s the Standard Bearer and I’ll have a front rank!

After reading from various sources I’ve finally figured out a reasonable colour scheme for my FOW North African New Zealand Rifle Company. Khaki helmet and uniform, faded white webbing (apparently the NZers were ordered to regularly scrub their webbing to keep it clean), brown boots (meant to be polished black of course but in the desert boots were invariably dusty and scuffed). The only question left is socks as their uniform left a lot of sock exposed above the boot. Think I’ll just do a slightly greenish khaki for them. It’s a real bugger that all the archival photographs and black and white! In the desert NZers had access to Stuart ‘Honey’ light tanks (up to 15 of them at one point) as well as quite a few Universal Carriers so that fits in nicely. There’s also some photographic evidence they had Mk II Humber armored cars at one point so I’ll chuck in a few of them to bolster a Universal Carrier Recce unit I think. So my 1500pts FOW force will be

Infantry:

1 18th Battalion Company HQ (Company HQ) @ 40 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [40] Pts
1 1st Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts
1 2nd Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts
1 3rd Rifle Platoon (Rifle Platoon) @ 180 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [60] Pts
3 Rifle Squad @ [120] Pts

Recce:

1 Carrier Platoon @ 145 Pts
5 Recon Carrier @ [145] Pts
1 Armoured Car Platoon @ 70 Pts
2 Humber Mk I, II or III @ [70] Pts

Anti-Tank:

1 Anti-tank Platoon @ 150 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [30] Pts
1 Universal Carrier @ [10] Pts
3 6-pdr Portee @ [120] Pts
1 Towed Anti-tank Platoon @ 160 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [30] Pts
1 Universal Carrier @ [10] Pts
2 17/25-pdr @ [130] Pts
2 Quad Gun Tractor @ [10] Pts

Artillery Support:

1 4ht NZA 1st Battery (Towed Artillery Battery) @ 275 Pts
1 HQ Section @ [35] Pts
2 15cwt Truck @ [10] Pts
1 Observer Team @ [20] Pts
1 White Scout Car @ [10] Pts
4 25-pdr @ [220] Pts
4 Quad and Limber @ [20] Pts

Armored Support:

1 NZ Div Cav (Armoured Platoon) @ 120 Pts
3 Honey @ [120] Pts

It’s a pretty ‘light’ company but is fairly historically accurate and has a fairly good anti-tank component hopefully. There’s no real anti-aircraft nor air support but again that’s historically accurate. I’m really looking forward to busting out the green stuff and sculpting all kinds of stowage on those Universal Carriers as well. In terms of painting I’ve almost got a two man Boyes team (from a Rifle platoon) painted and ready to experiment with basing.

Played a couple of quick games of Border Patrol with Griff last night. The VC aren’t completely painted but they’re bloody close and looked pretty nice on the table imho. I won the first game by capitulation after scaring off the Knights and Griff won the second by annihilation after he killed the Necromancer in melee. Rules shennanigans weren’t too bad although I must remember that the Undead can’t March unless the General is nearby. The ‘Turn Summary Appendix’ at the back of the WHFB rule book references the appropriate page numbers in the main rules which makes it very easy to play from just the appendix. I wish the 40k rules did something similar.

Things I learned:

1) The Necromancer does NOT want to be attached to units. He’s much harder to catch on his own. Plus the Challenges system really disadvantages weak characters.

2) Remains in play spells are mutually exclusive from normal spells. An important point for Wizards!

3) Skeletons win by numerical superiority. Grave Guard win by being tough bastards although Knights are tougher! Skeletons were good against Knights, Grave Guard were good against everybody else.

4) Visibility is a big factor. Skirmishers and Flyers are good because of their 360 degree visibility.

This weekend I also picked up a copy of ‘Kiwi Armour No. 3. 2nd NZ Divisional Cavalry in the Mediterranean’ from Historic Games as they had some in store. Saves me from ordering it from the publisher. Started painting some of the HQ and Rifle company FOW bases. Bad! Must finish the Grave Guard first dammit! Also painted the entrance hallway with two coats of ceiling paint. Looks vastly better. Bit more patching and sanding to do and it’s onto the walls.

Spent a good part of last night lightly hand sanding the ceiling panels and final wall of the entrance to our house ready for painting. Hope to paint the ceiling and maybe a few walls this weekend. Also did some light assembly on the FOW 6pdr Portee. Wasn’t sure where the gun shield is placed so had to have a look at the site. It’s a very nicely detailed model considering the 15mm scale.

+2 Zombies. VC Border Patrol is 86% complete. Only SIX figures to go! I can probably get another two Zombies finished before Sunday night which will take me over 90%. Also wandered down to Historic Games last night (I love autumn weather for a good walk) and picked up British 8th Army HQ, 8th Army Rifle Platoon and 6pdr Portee blisters. Thinking of putting together a FOW force based on a NZ Rifle Company with some armored support from NZ Divisional Cavalry. The Battlefront 15mm figures are quite nicely detailed considering the scale. Some of the individual figures have a lot of flash but with careful filing back they should look good. Reading a bit of light NZ military history about Freyberg and 2NZEF in the Middle East at the moment. Very interesting stuff. I didn’t realise NZ troops were so highly regarded..both by their allies and their opponents.

Some very light progress on two Zombies. Actually spent most of this weekend doing painting of a different sort…preparing the entrance way of our house for a lick of paint and some new curtains. Then it’s onto the living room and master bed room as well. Looks like a lot of busy evenings in the next month or so…

Ack! Griff’s thrown down the gauntlet! Sounds like this Sunday is our first WHFB engagement. VC BP versus those pesky Brettonians. Neither of us will be 100% painted but I think he’s getting sick of waiting for a game!