Sunday, December 13, 2015

Terror of the Night

Hey again,

today I´m finally back with some photos after neglecting the blog for quite a while. Though I did get stuff done, I somehow didn´t felt like taking photos, retouching the photos and putting them up here, somehow didn´t seem worth the hassle for a few Soviets and single 20mm figures.

For sculpting, the same holds true, after finishing the masters I usually pack them up safely, so I´d have to unpack them all to take some photos and repack them again, so I skipped this step with the last few minis.

However, during the last week I experimented with some 28mm large creatures again that have been sitting on my workbench for quite a while now. Funny enough that the figure I started last got finished first.

So here we are now, with the first Terror of the Night (GW Vampir Counts Vargheist) finished:



Having a full pack of three available and no intention to use them for gaming that would require a uniform color scheme, I chose to experiment with different themes.
This one is my "pale skin" version. Originally intended to be almost albino white and with a red-orange fiery hair, I decided to go with a very cold, stoney-look along the way after the skin turned out a bit too rock-grey.


With a more gargoyle-like appearance, I didn´t think red would fit quite so well and decided to give the Vargheist a bluish mane, adding to the cold and dead appearance. 



On the base, I decided to put in some rubble to underline the gargoyle-theme, dead, shattered ground with very dark colors, probably a destroyed cathedral, monastery or somesuch?

Anyway, that guy was very fun to paint and I´m currently working on the other two, who will be quite different in appearance as I am testing some dark skin tones...


Cheers
Robert

Sunday, November 22, 2015

More Modern British Armed Forces

Hey folks,

just a single pic today to show what I´m working on at the moment:  More British Infantry.
While the photo is not ideal, it should give you a basic idea what you can expect in the second set of these guys.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Special Forces

Hey folks,

it´s been silent for a long time, I know. Now that I´m working full-time there´s a lot of stuff going on and even if I feel like painting and actually finish something I am rarely in the mood to take pictures and post it up.  Same goes for sculpting,

However, having a sunday with not much else to do enabled me not only to finish some models but take some pics of the results.

So here they are:  Some Elhiem Australian SAS painted up in a deserty-fantasy-camouflage posing as generic SpecOps in Light gear for my collection.


These guys were actually quite hard to paint because I went for a monochromatic scheme with a sandy base color all over the figures. Only the weapons and shadows would provide some contrast here. For this reason, I had to revert to a trick and create contrast by giving the bases a darker color and adding some subtle colorations (which you probably can´t pick up with the naked eye on these pics, but they do their job) to make the figures pop.



It actually worked out better than expected, for some time I was worried that I might have ruined these figures, but the result is satisfactory.

I also funneled some of my newly earned money into another order at Elhiem to continue the buildup for my Cold War Soviet force. 

And I dispatched a shipment of new masters to my caster, hoping to release some new figures just in time for christmas. Fingers crossed and no promises, he is very busy at the moment.



Sunday, October 4, 2015

Spezialkräfte

Hey folks,

time to present some more results. I still got to take some good pictures of the finalised diorama, but with the horrible lighting situation in Mainz I decided it was not worth taking the pics there. Instead, I´ll stage proper photo at home at some point.

First off, though, I´ll present you one of my recent commissions: German Special Forces.
It´s high time I did an update for my KSK set, and a contact from one of the forums I frequent asked if modern German Special Forces with the latest helmets were available somewhere.
Being pretty sure that no one has such a set for sale, I offered him a deal and we agreed on producing a test figure to decide on how to continue with this little project

And here it is:



I´ve also been rather busy painting some more fantasy stuff and 20mm Samurai for Andy at Hagen Miniatures using the new Valljo Game Air colors (highly recommended, more on that later!).

Also, new figures are being prepared, a lot of which have not been presented yet: SADF squad is finished, some Cold War Germans are in the making, more Insurgents are halfway through and I´m still planning to finalise the Modern French set.

To sum it up: I´m silently working on a lot of new stuff as well as doing some commissions, so don´t worry about my lack of updates :)


Thursday, September 17, 2015

Diorama Time - Part 2

Halfway through, one evening left to do the finishing touches, but making significant progress.

All figures are painted and based, the terrain has received all major details and has been painted with the first two base colors.

Major to-dos are the detailwork on the bricks, rubble and the wall plaster to make them look remotely realistic. The ground requires some drybrushing and vegetation and I´ll have to define the shadows.


Should I have spare time left, l´ll dedicate it to adding more details into the pile of rubble at the front end of the diorama:



Sorry for the extreme lightning effects, these were quick shots taken without much consideration to special effects.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Diorama Time - Part 1

I´m a bit late to the show, but usually good at finishing things quickly when confronted with a tight schedule...  But I´m attending the model expo in Mainz next weekend and haven´t got the time or motivation to prepare anything yet.

In order to avoid showing up completely empty-handed, I´ve finally started building a mini-diorama that needs to be finished until the end of the week. By using a lot of figures that are already painted and setting it up as a modular display with rather simple terrain, I´m hoping to speed up the building process.

Nevertheless, being my first true diorama, it will probably break all rules and conventions. In order to get a good feel of the end result without running off into the wrong direction, I´ve assembled a very quick model of the final design.

The pillar on the right will be cut down about where the black line is painted in
Looks a bit imbalanced from this perspective with the wall effectively splitting the scene in half.. 



Might have to move the tank a little bit forward?

So... yeah... a crazy week of building lies ahead. I´ll keep you posted!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Concepts and Game Ideas

Hey folks,

as you probably know, I´m still busy designing my own set of modern warfare rules named Code Red, which means I´m constantly thinking about cool mechanics and features for the game. Of course, you cannot possibly implement all your cool ideas into a single game...
And worse, once you start thinking about cool game design ideas for one game, you inevitably discover that you´re in a state of mind that produces a constant stream of ideas for other themes and conflicts while you do other things like watching youtube videos, documentaries, reading battle reports, playing other games etc.

Some of these ideas are fleeting, some stick around and clog my mind, distracting me from the game I originally set out to design. So I´m using this blogpost to dump them, hopefully getting them out of my head and storing them up safely, possibly even encouraging other designers to pick them up if I don´t find the time to do so.

First, I´ve been thinking about new ways to design a fantasy skirmish game, one that does not just result in a big mashpit and ends with total carnage. My inspiration for a possible game concept came from a mix of computer games and trading card games - especially Magic The Gathering. I´ve never delved deep into this game, but the fact that you control "land" (i.e. sources of power) and "creatures" (i.e. units on the battlefield), playing a powerful avatar yourself lends itself ideally to a tabletop adaption if you ask me.
Combining the aspects of strategic deck building and positioning of your units on the tabletop is an approach I´ve yet to see in a tabltop game (granted, I haven´t seem or played all the options out there, but I´ve never even heard of one). The concept is explained quickly:
Your only starting unit is an avatar representing a sorcerer or warlock of sorts. The tabletop is not only scattered with terrain, but also places of power that are required to cast spells and summon creatures.
The gameplay would focus on capturing these key places of power to fuel the expansion of your force (or reducing/debuffing the opposing force) by playing cards from your hand with the ultimate goal being something entirely disconnected from this battle over ressource points (depending on the game scenario, anything from killing the opposing avatar to performing an important ritual or investigating another powerful place on the map).
This would result in something entirely different from most tabletop skirmished, where people set up their fixed forces, move them up and clash somewhere on the map. Not only does it add a great deal of uncertainty (what exactly is the opponent bringing to the table at which point?), it also enables players to counter enemy strategies if they have brought a well balanced force. Your opponent is fielding a very strong and expensive units? Well, just avoid him and capture the places of power he cannot control for the lack of other units. But beware, if you try this, you might well find out that your opponent has a spell that slows you down and enables that big damage dealer to catch up...
To keep the game interesting, all units and spells would have to be balanced carefully - my idea here is to use a rock-paper-scissors approach with opposing aspects, possibly oriented on the typical attributes of the four elements. Fire = units with high damage output; Air = fleeting, quick units that focus on maneuver;  Earth = resilient, tanky units  and Water = delaying, supporting and controlling units to channel and contain your enemies strength.  
Right now, it´s just a collection of ideas, but I think the concept has some potential and if I can figure out how to translate this into a good prototype... it might well be my next project after Code Red is done.

The second idea that has been floating in my mind throughout the last week is a mechanic idea, one that could be used for a lot of games. Here, I´m not quite sure if some games haven´t already implemented an idea along this line, but I still want to encourage the concept.
Did it ever occur to you that retreat in a game is rarely a serious option for a player? If faced with a bad outcome of a fight, players usually keep their units around, hoping to inflict maximum damage or delay the enemy as long as possible OR their units are forced into retreat.
The basic idea behind the mechanic I´ve been thinking about is to make retreat a viable choice. Problem is: Tabletop Wargames are usually over at some point and unless you´re playing a campaign, there is little incentive to retreat and preserve your units.
My idea to remedy this problem is to introduce a mechanic that actually reduces damage as you retreat your units, giving you an incentive to fall back long before your unit breaks because the rules forced that result upon them. Implemented properly, this would facilitate more maneuver and conscious commitment of units, leading to a more fluid games are objectives are taken not only by annihilating units, but also by forcing the opponent to fall back in order to preserve his fighting strength by trading ground for casualties. Maybe not so much a skirmish mechanic, but suitable for bigger, grand-tactical games.

The last concept is even more abstract and builds on my experience with Naval Wargames. All naval games I´ve heard of put the individual warships into the focus of the game, which usually ends up with a detailed damage simulation of individual ship stats, rolls to hit for each gun and subsequent target effects. This is fine for smaller skirmish games, but becomes very tedious in larger games - and as Dreadnaughts and the grand navies of WW1 have been my favourite Naval period so far, I frequently run into trouble with engagements that are either small and very nice but lack the grandeur of WW1 naval warfare  - or running into walls with the game systems as they require so much management and bookkeeping, even if they achieve to reduce the die rolling to a playable amount.
So, I´m proposing a game that focuses on the grand fleet actions, with ship formations as your basic unit of combat resolution rather than focusing on the single ships and clogging my table with detailed sheets for each of my hundred units. In my vision, such a game should convey the same feeling as reading a wikipedia entry on the battle itself, focussing on maneuvers of squadrons, on the overall damage state of your ships and critical events worth reporting in a history book. To do this, I don´t care if my cruiser has 346 out of 398 hit points and his two secondary turrets on the left are disabled. If I cannot display all the data I require to play the game on 1-2 sheets of paper, I´m either playing the wrong game or with too many ships.
I must admit though that I did not do much research, there might be a game out there that does just what I´m asking for -  if anybody knows such a system, please leave a comment with directions where to find it :)


 Now, with all these ideas written down here, I hope I can focus on designing good mechanics for generating interesting scenarios in Code Red...


 



Saturday, September 12, 2015

Guerillas - Heavy Weapons

As promised, more Insurgents for Eastern Europe (or Northern Hemisphere in general) will make it into the arsenal soon. In addition to the basic riflemen I´ve been designing a first set of support weapons for the rebel faction. 


With these guys completed, I´m completing the Soviet Support Weapon set with an RPK (finally found a suitable pose) and adding the last figures to the SADF squad.

Seeya soon!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Cold War Figures

After some work restyling the website, I´ve finally come back to sculpting some more figures - so it´s about time for another preview session.

As you know, I´ve painted some Cold War Soviets a few weeks ago, and I´m still missing good support weapons. To supplement my collection I sculpted some of these and will add them as a support weapon pack to my Webshop, in case someone else is interested in picking them up.

The set will bring 2 Grenadiers and 2 RPG-Gunners. Maybe I´ll add an RPK-gunner here as well, if I can come up with a good pose - everything I tried so far looked ugly.


I´m also thinking about preparing some opponents for the Soviets, but it hasn´t moved much beyond the first concept figure:




Of course, I´m not entirely stuck in the Cold War Section but also preparing a new SADF squad, a new set of Eastern European Insurgent Support Weapons, Modern French troopers, another set of British and much more in the planning stage... 

Unfortunately my finals have thrown my usual release schedule into disarray, so you probably won´t see any releases for September until I have caught up with producing new masters.


Until then!
Robert

And don´t forget to check out the website with it´s new design :) 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Red Army

As I didn´t feel much inspired by painting more Taliban, SpecOps or anything else I had in my list, I scoured through my tin mountain to find a set of figures I felt like painting. On this occasion, I found a group of Soviet Cold War Motor Rifles that I traded for some surplus Taliban a while ago - and I started painting.

The big pro of these Cold War Soviets is that you don´t need to care about camouflage patterns or minute deailwork on the uniforms - all you need is a single tone, which makes them ideally suited for a more mass-production style painting.
Thanks to my airbrush the basecoating and rough highlighting of the uniform was quickly finished, which left me with just the guns, boots faces, helmets and webbings to paint by hand - after that, all was highlighted and oil washed (never did that before for 20mm minis, but it worked out alright and even considering the extra layer of varnish it really isn´t that much more work if you consider that you don´t have to re-apply your basecoat as usual)

The result looks like this, not much different from the usual product, but it felt much faster than the other minis I painted in smaller batches lately.


Which of course means I now need more Soviets, as these models are very cool. So I´ll go for a mix of the newish Elhiem Soviet Rifleman and producing my own Support Weapons, as I´m not quite satisfied with the older RPG- & LMG sets matt has available - something about them doesn´t tick my box and it would still leave me short of the requiered amount of UGL-grenadiers.

Work has already commenced and two RPGs are already finished... just taken no photos yet.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Code Red: Vietnam Playtest

In preparation for our monthly gaming day yesterday, I offered to prepare a small Code Red scenario for a skirmish set in the jungles of vietnam - and so I did, experimenting with a few aspects of scenario design that have been itching and will need to be tackled sooner or later.

So, I chose to build an imbalanced scenario, the kind of real world engagements you rarely see on the tabletop, where everything is nice and balanced.

A lightly armed, scouting US force gathering intel along the frontline was about to get hit by a full-blown assault of an armored spearhead...

Fortunately for the Americans, though not very beneficial for playtesting the game, the US Force had the sensible objective to fall back in good order, while the Vietnamese needed to push through all the way to the other side of the battlefield.

The game began with solid Command & Control for the Americans, who managed to keep the initiative throughout the entire game. Setting up along the outskirts of the village, they went into defensive positions and started to withdraw their troops, providing vital covering fire, but avoiding firefights they were sure to lose.

The Vietnamese set up their tanks dispersed evenly along the battlefield but due to their failure in utilizing the shock and surprise of their attack, they had two out of three tanks sitting in the back for the first few turns of the game. All in all, the Vietnamese commanders failed miserably to coordinate their forces.

A few minor firefights broke out on the left flank of the Americans, suppressing a lone Sniper and pinning an M60-MG Team in one of the huts.


The US infantry squad on the left zeroed in on the T55 with their M72 LAW, managed to hit, but failed to penetrate the front armor of the tank. Unimpressed, the tank returned fire and hit home with his 100mm cannon, causing chaos and upheavel among the Squad - but fortunately, no casualties.

The Squad then kept their heads down, hoping to escape another confrontation with the T55s main cannon with the help of their conceilment, calling in a Huey Heavy Hog to deal with a small group of Vietnamese Infantry in the field. Calling in the Airstrike didn´t prove as easy as imagined though as the pilot again and again failed to identify the target area.

On the left flank, a second M60 Team opened fire from a swampy ravine, trying to hit another group of infantry. Suppressing them, it didn´t took long for them to feel the Vietnamese revenge as another 100mm round struck home, killing the gunner and forcing the loader into retreat, where he was cut down while falling back.
 


Trying desperately to leave no man  behind, the US commanders dispatched their medic to make his way into the ravine to pick up the wounded man after the M60 fell silent.
Due to good conceilment, he got there in time, found the casualty and started dragging him out... as a T55 rolled up along hit right side.
Staring with shock as the turret turned towards him, the Medic put all his strength into a final rush into the undergrowth, breaking the line of sight to the tank. Some machine gun fire cut through the leaves behind him, but he had reached safety.


The guns finally went silent as the last US units fell back from the huts and disappeared into the rice fields and jungle undergrowth, falling back to the next line of defense with better AT assets at their disposal.

They had done their job for today, jumping across razors edge with merely a single KIA and one seriously wounded casualty.



All in all, a fun game, although slighty one-sided due to the extremely good command rolls of the Americans. Hard to judge how different things might have went along if the Vietnamese dice had been better...

But, as always, I took some interesting notes that will be worked into the next version of the rules!


Friday, August 14, 2015

SADF Remake

About a year back I released the first set of South Africans with R1 Rifles, horrid sculpts by todays standards. In an attempt to refresh the existing old miniatures and bringing them up to my improved quality level (first done with the SAS sets) I decided it was time to purge this particular set from my shop by replacing them with a remake.

So, here are a few impressions on what the new SADF section with R1 rifles might look like:

Two almost finished figures:


Two early WIPs:



Together with these, I´ll either mold a few new Modern French or British troops to grow the Ranges for Modern Major powers. All of this is due for September (probably late September).

All the best,
Robert


Saturday, July 18, 2015

Juli Releases

After a stressful week I finally had some time to prepare the new batch of figures I received. Now that the photos are taken and the sets created in the online shop, the marketing drum has to be played

;)


The US Army range has received a few additions in the form of a specialist pack including two AT-gunners (AT4 +M72), a Marksman and a Leader:



I also added another fireteam to add some new poses - so you can swap out minis in the already existing US Infantry squad set to add some variety.


If you´re not interested in Americans - fine... I also got some commies cast: A variety of Chinese that had been waiting for production for quite some time. The configuration of the sets is not final, I´m planning to make a complete squad of 9 men available in the correct TOE - until then, they´re available as follows:


Four Chinese Riflemen with QBZ-95

And a support/command team including a leader and a PF-89 AT-gunner plus another rifleman


The figures are available at
www.enfilade-figures.com


Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Special Forces Painted

Painted some Special Forces & Afghan Suspects over the weekend to reduce the stash of unpainted and WIP figures.


Figures are Elhiem (3 leftmost) + Enfilade (right)


Sunday, June 28, 2015

Code Red - Dev Diary 13: Continuous Improvement Process

Alright, I haven´t updated this in quite a while, so it is high time to continue.



Going into playtesting means the development of major features is slowing down, so I didn´t have that many ground breaking design decisions to outline here. However, many small changes were made to fix the deficiencies we discovered during playtesting.


Saturday, June 20, 2015

Mixed Update

Quick weekend update, throwing in all the things I did in the last few days.

After receiving a new package from my caster including new weapons I required to continue my sculpting, I built two Americans for the next sets.Not entirely finished yet, but close.



On the painting front, I finalized the base on one of my Demon Horrors to get him off my workbench and out of my sight. Unfortunately I was/am not entirely happy with the outcome, the color modulation on the mini drove me nuts and ended in frustration as I could not get my Airbrush to paint the very fine lights I needed for this figure.
In the end, I realized that I´d require a detail airbrush at some point, painting very fine details with a 0.35 needle is quite hard. The idea stuck... you probably know these situations where you just can´t get this idea out of your head, no matter how hard you try? That was one of those...
After several days of wrestling with the thought, researching and choosing a suitable model I finally said to myself "Screw it, I´m doing it" and ordered a Badger Renegade Krome.


We´ll get back to that later. But first, the Swamp Horror...




Now, trying the new Badger Krome and playing around with some color combinations, I came up with this  (WIP obviously):


The light is not ideal, but the shadows are indeed painted that way. Looks better in real life though :(

And the purchase of my second airbrush? I haven´t looked back yet! The amount of control I got with the smaller needle and the different trigger mechanics is fabulous. I really like the feel of the brush, definitely a good choice so far and it´s very likely that it´s only going to become better with more practice.

Problem is... now I need even more colors and miniatures to practice proper painting ;D




Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Enfilade Figures: Anniversary Special

Hey guys,

Enfilade Figures is now one year old! It´s hard to believe, but time has passed fast...

A year ago, I started with less than 15 sets scattered across 5 ranges.
Since then, the range has grown considerably. As of today, I got 44 sets available (+290%) across 10 different ranges (+100%) - with many of the new sets being considerably bigger than the ones I started with and the June releases not factored into the calculation. At the same time, with experience and training, the quality of my miniatures and my speed on creating new masters has without doubt improved quite a bit.

On the downside, I´m still dependend on external production facilities and working with very limited resources to expand my ranges. I´m in fact dependent on orders flowing in before any new sets can be produced. Having no inhouse production also means that I either need to keep stock levels low in order to have some free cash to pay for new sets or keep higher stocks and reduce new investments.
Right now, I´m going with option 1, so if you experience any issues with sets out of stock, please keep calm and carry on - my turnover is not sufficient to make buying my own machinery worthwile.

To celebrate this special occasion, I will have a very special giveaway to my supporters/customers:



Any customer who places an order within the next month (deadline July 17th, 24:00 EST) will take part in a lottery for a free custom made 20mm Modern Miniature sculpted according to the winners specification.


The conditions are:
-In order to be an eligible participant you have to have placed [u]and paid[/u] an order on Enfilade Figures via webshop or email within the specified timeframe (16.06.2015-17.07.2015)
-Multiple orders will only generate ONE lottery ticket
-Cancelling/Returning the full order will void your lottery ticket (returning parts of it won´t)
-The winner will be contacted via email
-The figure made has to be a 20mm Modern miniature (1945+) and will be made according to your specification/reference pics or description. I reserve the right to reject any proposal that I do not have a weapon-master for (making new weapons is a pain in the ass, sure won´t do it just for a single figure). I retain all rights on the miniature.
-The winning lottery ticket may only be redeemed as outlined above, no transformation into cash payments or any other compensation.
-The winner will receive a free cast of the figure, postage is on me but the package will not be tracked.


If your desired set is out of stock, you can always order via email, as long as you pay within the timeframe you´ll take part in the lottery, though your shipment will obviously be delayed until the product is back in stock.

Check out the webshop at:  www.enfilade-figures.com
or email me through  info[at]enfilade-figures.com

Friday, June 12, 2015

Terrors of the Night: Fiery Daemonette + Zombie

Took some time today to work on more dark things and came close to finishing another Daemonette.
This time, my intention was to go with a much brighter color scheme for a change, so I selected a red-brown combination as my basic color set with a much more natural skintone.

The picture is slightly too bright and the shadows thus too deep as I failed with my light settings and didn´t succeed in tuning it to the real brightness in my photo editing program, but it´s not too far off.
The smaller pic on the right should give you a good idea on how the obscured parts (claws and feet) look.



Then  switched to another model as I felt it was time to do something different before returning to more daemonettes in the future, so I picked a Zombie hoping to complete it in my remaining time with natural light on the balcony. It was bound to be a Speedy Paintjob.

Almost did it, some minor highlights missing on the backside an some cleanup on the legs that I did not finish in time. But the most important parts are done, belly and guts look good to me and will be the main eye catcher on the figure anyway. I didn´t use any dirty tricks like gloss varnish, it´s just plain painting.


I also received more Demons today, so my supply of new figures it secured to continue with this series!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Terrors of the Night: Corrupted Sorceress

Hello again!

As indicated before I´ve slipped into a fantasy mood and gone back to painting some more 28mm for a change. Main reason is that I need a break from my 20mm modern stuff and would like to try some new painting techniques - as well as improve my airbrush skills.
As this is much easier in 28mm, the scene is set.

Today I present you a Demonette painted to represent the corruption spreading through her body, causing the mutations you can see on the model. As written in the headline, it might be a former sorceress who dug too deep into the black arts and got corrupted and transformed by chaos, now a loyal servant to a new master...
To represent this I chose a black-blue color for the corruption flowing through her arteries towards the transformed body parts -  shining through a very pale greyish skin.


Overall, I´m pretty happy with the outcome for a first attempt - though it´s a little too bright overall for my taste - still thinking about a solution for this.  Probably need to work out the shades a little.
If you have any ideas feel free to share them!

The next one will probably be more fiery, red-brown with the claws looking more like insectoid armor. But first I need to work out the basing, got some cool idea here as well...

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Terrors of the Night: Wraith

Hi folks,

I´ve taken the liberty to do another diversion from my regular modern warfare stuff, doing some fantasy stuff again to train my airbrush skills and have some fun.

So in addition to my normal stuff you´ll see a bit of fantasy here and there, just like last year.
Today, I´ll be starting with a Wraith. The figure is a Death Shroud by Reaper minis and a very nice model. See for yourself:


I was surprised how good it looks with some very easy techniques - basecoating the entire model in a green tone, airbrushing the flames in 3 shades of green after masking the skeletons, drybrushing the seletons white and the flames in a light mix of green + white. Oil wash for the skeletons and here we are.


Still need to style the base, not sure what I´ll do about that. Maybe try some swampy/marshy ground where unfortunate travellers found an untimely death and haunt the night?


Next up I have prepared another fantasy miniature, built out of the remains of an old GW Tomb King set, posing as a sorcerer. Stay tuned ;)




Sunday, May 31, 2015

Mountain Warfare: Final Touches

Before heading off to the convention, I finished the last few figures yesterday, just in time for the game. Back home after a nice day of presenting Code Red to a number of interested people, I´ve finally taken some photos and uploaded them:

The New Insurgent Leaders from my own range at Enfilade Figures have made an appearance on the battlefield:


...just like two of the new Foreign Fighters. Paired with an Elhiem RPG-gunner, you can see the size compatibility of the two ranges.


And, the first casualty of the day in our demo yesterday, the Ranger GPMG:


Unfortunately I didn´t take pics of the game itself, but next week there´s another opportunity...

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Black Hawk Down

Projekt Mountain War continues... as I don´t have much time left to prepare (tomorrow will be a busy day) I´m currently finishing the last bits.

The scenario I´m offering for playtesting is located at the mountain peaks (duh!) and revolves around a crashed helicopter. I chose an old, half-finished UH-60 kit that´s been waiting in my stash half-built for over a year and turned it into a crashed helo, something that I´ll be using a lot more than an intact chopper.



So this will be one of the key terrain pieces of the game, forming the starting position of the US Task force which will have to disperse and pick up a casualty that fell from the helo earlier.

All the while, there will be heavy fire from the Insurgents and maybe some bombs dropped by Air Support in Danger Close situations right on the heads of the US soldiers...

I think those who are familiar with Takur Ghar will recognize the similarities ;-)

I´m curious how the scenario will play out!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

British Armed Forces: Fireteam finished

During the breaks I took while painting the rest of the mountain warfare project, I also finished the last figure of my British Fireteam.

So here we are:

4 UK soldiers modelled after reference pics of current gear and plans for the Army 2020 layout of the section. As there´s still some vagueness, I put in the L86 as Marksman rifle. I know there´s the L129 being phased in as Urgent Operational Requirement and I´ll do a fifth figure which uses the L129.
As the future of L129 vs. L86 seems to be undecided yet, I´ll let you guys pick the right weapon. Not sure how I´ll configure the unit though - 5 man team or Fireteam + optional guy with the other weapon to swap in? Trouble is: which weapon goes into the main set, which will be the addition? :(

Anyway, currently it looks like this:


Pretty sure I´ll add a scope to the Minimi-Gunner before they go into casting.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Mountain Warfare: Deadline approaching

Next saturday I´ll be hosting my convention game in a regional convention near Frankfurt, Germany, with a second con following the week after in Speyer.

As I need to finish the Forces required for my little demo game of Code Red, I´ve picked up the brush this weekend and continued with the buildup. Still lagging behind a bit, especially with my key terrain piece and objective marker, but I´m confident I can finish it throughout the week.

But first, I needed to create the backbone of my Insurgent forces, which means more standard fighters with AKs. I also have to add at least one DShK HMG-Position, so I decided to paint up the kneeling chap, he should make a good ammo loader.



And the Task Force got some reinforcements, Paramedics, a Tactical Air Controller and Number 9 for the Ranger Squad. Need to paint the M240 and the Task Force should be ready to roll.



4 and 1/2 days to go, I need to speed up a bit..




Friday, May 22, 2015

New Enfilade Figures

Hey folks,

after some waiting time, new figures have arrived!

Special Forces in Light Gear

Insurgent Small Cell with AK

Taliban Foreign Fighters / Generic Islamists


Taliban Leaders


Sold out sets have been restocked, so everything should be available!

You can obtain them at:

www.enfilade-figures.com 

or  (short version)

www.enfilade.de