Battlegroup Overlord Game preparations

                                                Normandy Rue with houses / shops

                                                         Chapel or small Church

                                                          Normandy Farmhouse

                                              German Forward HQ in Panther A tank

                                                            Panther G platoon

                                         Sdkfz 251/1 transports for Panzer Grenadiers

                                                       Opel Blitz supply truck

                                     German Artillery Observers with Kubelwagen

                                   US Artillery Observers in Jeep & GMC supply truck

                                  Sherman M4A1 platoon (1x 76mm, 2x 75mm gun)

                                         M10 Wolverine tank destroyer platoon

                             US Infantry Division infantry & German Panzer Grenadiers

                                         More US and German infantry troops

                                         German Panther G platoon commander

Russian Armour Army Spray

Last Saturday was a good day for using my newly acquired Plastic Soldier Company's Russian Armour Army Spray. The spraycan contained enough paint for base coating no less then 31 tanks (1:72nd / 20mm scale); 17 T34/76's, 3 T70's, 2 SU122's, 2 SU152's, 6 KVI's and 1 KV2.

All AFV's are made of plastic. Each tank was coated four times with a thin layer of spraypaint on every side. I must say that I am very satisfied with the result. The PSC Army Spray is highly recommended by my part. 

Koerskaja Bitva in 20mm

Last Crisis I bought a lot of paint and sprays. This motivated me to start painting again. I started by painting two Rifle platoons for Battlegroup Kursk. The infantrymen are a combination of figures from several plastic soldier producers like the Plastic Soldier Company and some are old (hard plastic) ESCI ones.

I have two more Russian infantry platoons ready for painting but first I will attend to some Soviet tanks.

Battlegroup Explained

Today I visited the Iron Fist Publishing site again. What I found there was a only recently placed video of an interview with Warwick Kinrade. As mentioned in my previous article, mister Kinrade is the writer of the Battlegroup World War Two miniature wargames rules. He explains the specific game mechanics and what it is that makes this Battlegroup system stand out as a World War Two set of rules. The video is made by Model Dads Blog.


The day Mr Warwick Kinrade came round for tea…

 

What's Up Doc

Since the announcement and publishing of the Battlegroup Kursk rule book, I've been busy gathering forces in 1/72 (20mm and 1/76) scale for creating a Russian army as well as a German army. My German army is going to consist of a Leibstandarte part and a Wehrmacht part. I have also been collecting terrain and scenery items. For that I found a lot of inspiration in the rule book as in the many articles on the internet. You can also follow the Blogs from rule book writer Warwick Kinrade and co-writer/modeller Piers von Brandt.

There is a lot of support for the Battlegroup Kursk rule system as for advise regarding available figures and models too. I frequently visit the Guild Forum, the Plastic Soldier Company and the Iron Fist Publishing site with additional and supporting comments and downloads.

 
Most of my figures and vehicles are plastics but in order to complete the opposing miniature armies I also bought some metal and resin items. The pictures show only part of both Russian and German troops, that is the parts I have almost completed building.

 

Many of my infantry figures are placed on 20mm washers. It is my intention to complete building up my forces first and I am quite far by now. When this is done I will start the painting (including weathering & pimping) plus basing job. I must confess that it has been a while since I have painted vehicles, making it quite an exiting challenge!

 

I will keep you informed about the progress from time to time. For now I'm going straight back to the hobby and working table to have another look at some additional stuff that I bought at Crisis (120mm mortars + crew, Late War Russian decals, explosion markers plus one Vallejo Russian vehicle paint set) for my Battlegroup Kursk project.  
  

Additional Crisis

Today, the day after Crisis Convention day, I read many great blog articles of fellow Dutch and other miniature wargamers (see below). They all inspired me to do an extra picture report article to let you have a further idea of how fantastic Crisis 2013 was and hopefully to grasp that feeling of fun and joy I had that day.

 

Some other blogs with articles and pictures of Crisis 2013:  
Rear Guard Action
Paint-In
Pijlie's Wargames Blog
Modus Reg Magni Momenti
dhcwargamersblog
Peter's Cave
Monty's Caravan
And a message board with some photo's:
Gungnirs Stuff