Camming Up

 

I noticed that two turrets for my Centurion tanks had misprinted stowage bins, which was a bit of a bother. And since Don printed them for me for free, it seemed rather churlish to complain. But I need all seven. 

So I'd have to fix them.

This was a conundrum since my scratch build or sculpting skills aren't that good.

But I could make a bodge that was close enough, if I then hid it under camouflage netting.

Thanks to a helpful article in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy #129 I had a solution for to how to make the camo nets.

Missing stowage bins. I'm starting to fill holes with gap filler putty.

New stowage bins sculpted out of Green Stuff and purple plasticene hardened with superglue. Ironically, I think the practice bins I'd done the night before with plasticene were better than the Green Stuff or the purple ones shown.

Squares of cheese cloth soaked in watered down glue and stuck on. Had some extra, so camo net added to the tank used as reference and on the engine deck.

This was a definite "Gah! What have I done!?" moment. Followed by "Relax. Breathe. Trust the process."

Once I spray painted the models, the cam netting was surprisingly hard. There weren't any issues with the glue letting go during painting.

After painting. Black undercoat, khaki drab, and then NATO Green highlights.

Wrapping the barrels was a bit of a bother. Might have overdone it?

Discovered a gap in the front of a hull too, so netting there as well. 

But I can now identify command vehicles, instead of my usual "HQ is the one with the commander in the hatch."

Painting on Mantovian trucks and Tartarian T54s and BTRs is on going.

Infantry for both sides should be arriving soon.

Quar Road Trip!

The boxes were rattling in excitement. 

"Road trip! Road trip!" small, piping voices squeaked.

"Yes, yes. Alright. Calm down." I said gently to the rhyflers bouncing up and down in their storage boxes with excitement. "I'm taking you to Rico's for his summer games day."

They all stared at me. "Who's Rico, Boss?"

"Our host for the day. He, and everyone else, are very excited about meeting you."

Long snouts hung bashfully as they shuffled in their boots. "Us? Really?"

"Yes, you. Really. Everyone's been following you on my blog."

Master Yawdryl Vaark stepped forward, puffing thoughtfully on his pipe. "Well tha's a' well an' good, Sir. But" and he jabbed the stem of his pipe at me, and I suddenly felt like a 2Lt again. "What rules will we be engagin' under?" Trust a Senior NCO to get to the heart of the matter.

"Xenos Rampant." The tractor crew looked a bit dejected. "No no, it'll be fine. I've made new profiles for everyone and modified the vehicle profiles to make each tractor a little bit different, and unique,  and hopefully more Quartastic." Tiny faces looked at me hopefully. 

"And you'll be having a big fight over your new Objective Markers. Everyone's going to be on the table! "

"Yaaaayyyy!" The Basement o'Gaming echoed with tiny cheers. I heard beer glasses clink and one of the Milwers was directing a couple of the younger rhyflers to tap a new keg.

So, with a trunk full of Quar and terrain, and Big Pat, Big Dave, and Wierdy-Beardy crammed into my car, we set off on the 2 hour trip.

I set up some entrenched positions, blasted buildings to give cover and block sight lines, belts of barbed wire, and areas of shell holes to give the rhyflers lots of cover.

Pasha Dan, Carson, and Big Dave all played and are quite conversant with Xenos Rampant, which helped immensely with the Game Mastering. Brian usually plays more "serious" games, but he got into the spirit and directed his rhyflers and weapons teams with the skill of a light infantry Senior NCO. Wierdy-Beardy was having trouble following things as usual. But the others helped him along.

Pasha Dan (end of table) explains something to Wierdy-Beardy

I'm trying to explain something

Everyone ponders deployments. Royalists on the left, Crusaders on the right.

L-R: Carson, Wierdy-Beardy, Pasha Dan (who kit bashed the big Iron Keep), Big Dave, and Brian.

I'm pointing at something important for Brian. It's a joke between Barnaby (who took this picture) and I

Crusaders advancing

Royalist deployment before a general advance

Heavy Tractor Wedge supporting the advance

Royalists get into the trench

Brian lines his trench

"I say Binky! What a view."
"Shouldn't we be taking command of something?"

Anti-Tractor Torpedo team hunting for elusive Royalist tractors.

Crusader Kite attracts a bunch of fire

Lord Strythcyna's Cadiers ride to their doom

Brian advances to sweep his flank

The Crusaders won on both flanks giving them control of 5 out of 6 Objective Markers.

I did not, in fact, remember to bring the new Ryhflers Rampant profile sheets that I had spent two evenings working on and printed out. Instead I left them by the printer with my copy of the rules. 

"Right where they're supposed to be," said Brian. A veteran GM of many years.

Meanwhile, Keith was putting on a very pretty game of Blücher, set in 1814.

Barnaby pointing at something important. Joe looks thoughtful.

So, dice were rolled, friends were seen, fun was had.

And I think I like better how I'm portraying the Quar with Xenos Rampant. 

Objectives achieved. 

Objective Markers with LASERS!

So I purchased the last metal accessory packs from Zombiesmith mainly because I wanted separate weapons and extra packs etc to make Jump of Points for Quar of Command or Objective Markers for other rules, like Xenos Rampant.

Who knows? Maybe I'll play This Quar's War someday. The card activation seems cool.

Anyway, I dug out some mdf disks from the Russian church dome that I replaced. I taped over the slits and holes and then started arranging things in a suitable pile like some hurried Rhyflers had been tasked to unload a truck in a hurry and were told to "just pile it over there!"

The POL barrels are desiccant cylinders from pill bottles. The big crates are wooden craft cubes. After both were glued down I covered them in tarps made from squares of tissue or shop rag soaked in glue. I also scavenged some 20mm ammo boxes from my box of stowage. Then it was a matter of arranging weapons and packs. I didn't get any metal Bogens or Ryshis, so I had to carefully trim hands from plastic weapons. You'll notice one Bogen is part covered by a tarpaulin to hide the hand on the stock.

Everything was sprayed brown and then given a fast paint job, mostly with various shades of green.

In the meantime, I had bought some laser plants at 25% off and these arrived. So after flocking the bases I tucked some of these around the crates and barrels.

Everything is automatically cooler with lasers.

Some of the laser plants only have two stalks and leaves, so these look good tucked into a corner or under a tarp like they've had things dumped on them.

The laser plants are printed on a thin plastic sheet and come flat, so you have to carefully pop them out, and then curl them, and fold the stalks up so they are standing up like a natural plant.

I made two distinctly Coftyran pieces with Harlechs, and a Cryfen LMG, and a Doru SMG.

And two distinctly Crusader pieces with Ryshis and Bogens. 

And then two neutral pieces without any national identifier.