Aktionstationen!! (Action Stations!)

Last year, I was more prepared! I had already finished my army, had a partner for doubles on Thursday and knew Historicon in 2013 was going to be fun! This year it's a little different.

A'LARM!!!!

If you've never seen Das Boot, then you are missing out. It's all subtitles and it's a long movie, but worth watching for WW2 buffs. It also kind of sums up how things are going for me at the moment. Action stations indeed.....

Finishing Touches

The bottom line is that I am not playing in the doubles event on Thursday, no one in my group wanted to play 9 games of Flames of War in 3 days and thought checking out the rest of the 'con would be worthwhile. I think after some thought, I agree to a certain extent. I'd be more than happy to play in this event again this year, as Eric from I-95 does an excellent job and runs a top notch event. It will however give me time to heckle Chris, Vic, and some of the other new friends I made last year while gaming. I'm sure the favor will be returned once Nationals starts on Friday. Right.....so I got my HMGS membership, I'm going to try and attend at least one more event during the year, that's the plan so far....I did miss the pre-registration though. I've been busy with work and life in general getting some stuff done around here. Up to and including working on getting my Pzr IV H in World of Tanks. Also known as World of Not Painting.....so worth it though!

Supply Truck (Converted Sd. Kfz. 9 'FAMO')

Since when did all the paint on vehicles come out of the same can? I'm ready and able to get some of my new armor on the table, but because I have become a little better at painting, I have also been doing some modelling. Creating from scratch is a lot of fun, it just takes a little more time. In this case, I have models painted already that fit into my list I can't see repainting them simply to make my army look 'uniform'......I've become a better painter and can't help some of my older models looking a little worse for wear. You'll find I am a master at basing, dressing up and adding to my models, so you won't even notice. (I guess you know now.....)

Stage ONE-TWO-THREE

I wanted to create some barbed wire templates and worked hard doing research and using some of my own experience in setting up, crossing or avoiding such obstacles. From top to bottom, it's a rubber mat cut into 8"x2" strips, grass mat glued onto it and desert or brown flock placed on it during step two. Step three is a simple set of posts, low wire, high wire entanglements covered off by two strips of concertina wire. Anyone who over thinks barbed wire has never worked with the stuff. Unless you are a fortified company or a unit that is in a strict defensive roll, this stuff is setup quick and doesn't take much time to do with practice. I find the 'Defensive' missions in FoW are 'hasty' style defensive missions, where you have very little time to react and do your best to place these 'obstacles'. You know they are not going to stop someone outright, but will hopefully slow them down.

A few unfinished teams I used for scale

I feel better now....it's after midnight by the time this post goes live, but all in all there is a little more time and we're seven days away from something I look forward to every year, might even have a chance to share some laughs and some Captain Morgan with some friends I haven't seen since last year. On a side note, you need to head over to YouTube and check out the official trailer for 'Fury', it's a WW2 tank movie, it comes out in November and looks awesome. The production managed to borrow some of the finest tanks out there for the film to add to its authenticity......including a TIGER!

Protection from what?....Ze Germans!?