Maximillian 1934 (3)

I've been away working in Krakow this week, but despite the bloody awful jet-lag when I got back I managed to finish off this pair today.

First a Eureka Miniatures 'Flyer'  I've done this one off of a base-coat of Royal Blue, highlighting up with a little Pastel Blue. The trim, wheels, hubs and spokes is done in Gold-Brown highlighted with Flat Yellow. Like the Roadster I did last time, a small cardboard windscreen was added.

This beast is armed with a single fixed Lewis gun and a pair of swivel mounted Lewis guns operated by the guy in the back.

The vehicle has been somewhat pimped with components from the accessories pack, including a new snout and running boards.

At Historicon I also purchased one of the Eureka Miniatures motorcycles. This is currently withdrawn from the website, I understand so that it can have a cast-on base. I used a lot of mitre-bond to get mine to 'stay'

I armed mine with a single fixed Lewis gun and limited the 'pimping' to adding a lot of chrome.

First foray into Maximillian 1934

Everybody rounds marker #2 with Flamberry in the rear

Thursday evening saw the Madison Tea and Crumpets wargames club convene at Drew's for our first game of Maximillian 1934.

I've had two good painting sessions so far here and here so had four cars ready for the game, Drew also had his own Eureka Roadster ready so there was plenty to go around.

Rouge Three

I took 'Flamberry' a Jalopy with twin fixed MGs, extra armour (1pt each F&R), armoured engine and robust steering. I upgraded the driver to be both driving and gunnery '3'.

Drew used 'Red Bess' another Jalopy with a pintle MG, extra armour (1pt each F&R, L&R) and armoured engine, he also upgraded the driver to be both driving and gunnery '3'.

Bruce chose 'Rouge Three' a Bugy with twin fixed MGs and an armoured engine, his driver was upgraded to be driving '4' and gunnery '3'.

Red Bess and Flamberry both try to go around the same marker in opposite directions, a fortuitous skid meant we avoided a collision

We decided on the Death Race scenario and placed the four markers in order anti-clockwise around the table, we could have mixed them up a bit, but wanted to keep it simple for our first game.

Setting up the start and finish line we were soon pedal to the metal and off, everybody using different tactics, myself, I chose a different driving line to Drew and Bruce. Bruces main tactic seemed to be flooring it to speed three or four and then flukeing the turning tests until one memorable corner saw him rolling through a full 360 degrees!

I got a lucky shot on Drew's driver which saw his skills reduces to 1 each, the consequence of which saw him leave the arena twice.

Taking advantage of the chaos I rounded the last marker and dashed for the finish line.

Both Drew and Bruce 'Fanged It' in pursuit and were closing in on me fast, guns 'a blazing'. Bruces Vickers ripped through my rear armour, thankfully missing the driver and caused four hits on my engine, bugger immobilised!

Reading the rules you lose one point speed per turn if this happens, as I had started at speed 3 Flamberry coasted over the line for a victory.

Eat my dirt losers!!!!!!!

Flamberry about to cross the finish line

Rouge Three and Red Bess try to cut Flamberry down

In a cloud of steam and engine oil, Flamberry coasts over the line

To The Strongest at Danecon

A couple of weeks ago I attended the local DaneCon convention organised by fellow Madison Tea and Crumpets member Seth and his family.

I was only able to make the Sunday evening due to other commitments, but, after having to drop out last year promised Seth that I would run an El Cid game using To The Strongest.

With the multi-based figures it's really easy to set the games up, probably taking longer to get the ammo counters and victory medals sorted out than to actually get the figures out.

Myself and Drew would play the Almohavids while John and Paul would play the Spanish, both sides had a smattering of Andalusian allies. Another Paul asked if he could play, I did not really have space, but he got a contingent of Berber horse on our left flank.

The game progressed well, but having not played for a couple of years I was a bit more rusty on the rules than I should have been, but we were soon into the thick of things and the game started to flow.

The first losses were taken by the Berbers, but soon the first demoralised command was a large contingent of Christian knights whose heroic general got a little too heroic and cost them enough victory medals to be demoralised.

The battle ebbed and flowed, the Christian horse pressed in the centre, while their heavier foot on their left held against all odds, but the numbers were starting to tell and the hordes of Berber spear pushed on and on.

Eventually the game came to a knife edge, both sides had only two Victory medals left and the Christians lost one, but replied, slaying a Berber general causing their morale to collapse. A close run thing indeed.

There was a very good tabletop sale arranged where I managed to pick up a copy of WAB 1.5 and Fall of the West for $10.00. Two other games were played that night, a rather splendid looking Super Heroes game, most of the terrain is from the 'O' gauge model rail range stoked in a local DIY stor and looks jut the part.

There was also a big WWII microtank game being played, not sure of the rules they used in this one.

Maximillian 1934 (2)

This week there has been more 'vroom' on the Maximillian 1934 painting with two more cars added.

Firstly a First Corps three-wheeled Speedster that has been customised with a pair of twin-linked Vickers machine-guns and a Lewis gun, like the four-wheeler I painted last week, it's a beautiful model with bags of character.

The machine-guns and luggage rack are from the Eureka miniatures accessories pack.

The light brown is from a base-coat of Vallejo US Tan Earth highlighted up with Light Sand while the rusty exhaust is a mix of Gunmetal Grey and Saddle Brown, highlighted by adding some silver to the mix.

It does not show so well in the photo but the driver has a tweed cap, you do need to look really closely though.

The whole thing was finished using a Tamiya weathering kit.

Next a Eureka Miniatures Roadster that was done in a bit of a hurry to prepare for Thursdays game.

When I did the build on this one I wanted it to look rather fast, so the engine part from the Tribekka model was glued on front as a super-charger and huge twin exhausts were added, I think it certainly has the 'go faster' look.

The sole armament is a pair of twin linked Vickers fixed forward over the radiator. I also added a small cardboard windscreen.

As I wanted to get it ready quickly for our game on Thursday I started with a black base-coat that was highlighted in Black Grey, the interior was done with a cream leather using Iraqi Sand as a base and I decided that to tart her up it was going to need some flames from a mix of Flat Red, Signal Orange and Flat Yellow.

The wheels and exhausts were painted in Gunmetal Grey and chromed with Silver.

Overall I think I managed the 'go-faster' look on this one.

I'll be putting up a report of Thursdays game soon.

Maximillian 1934 (1)

While at the recent Historicon show I picked up a copy of Maximillian 1934 from the Eureka Miniatures stand along with a Tribekka and an motorcycle. I already had a couple of 1st Corps jazz-age cars that I had picked up in the UK last year.

Chum Martin had also sent me the WWI Pilot from the Partizan show in May, although I had this painted a few weeks ago he's not been on the blog yet and this seems an opportune post.

The first car I got done was the Eureka Miniatures Tribekka, I had also picked up an accessories pack so that I could customise more, so this one has a different grill and a luggage rack. The car is equipped with twin forward firing Vickers machine-guns.

As you can see I went with a burgundy and brass colour scheme that I think turned out quite snazzy. The basecoat for the red is Vallejo Black Red then highlighted up with successively lighter glazes, the model is finished using a Tamiya weathering kit.

If I did this one again, I'll put the front wheels further forward as it seems a little unstable as is. On the subsequently built Eureka cars I have added a small windscreen made of cardboard as I think that is lacking on this kit.

The second model painted is a 1st Corps four-wheel speedster I've armed the car with a pair of passenger operated twin linked Lewis guns on a pintle mount and an anti-tank rifle mounted over the bonnet. Both of these were from the accessories kit.

The main colour is Vallejo Reflective Green, I understand that British Racing Green has had many different shades, hopefully this one was used at some stage.

The 1st Corps cars really are a delight and I hope to pick up the rest if this project takes off.

Finally the WWI pilot that was the give-away at the last Partizan show to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the RA, a lovely figure that is a delight to paint.