Esci WW2 US Paratroopers

I got these figures years ago, and finally got around to painting my first batch. I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out; I added a little water to thin down the varnish shadow wash, and I think it helped.
The Esci advertising for this set is very self-contradictory: the box proclaims them to be 82nd Airborne "Screaming Eagles." Any WW2 buff will tell you, the 101st, NOT the 82nd, had the nickname "Screaming Eagles." They are also pictured with the 82nd division's 'All American' double A badge on the sleeve.
Anyway, I painted these guys with the 82nd's insignia, despite the fact that one pose features the mohawk haircut that was a trademark of the 101st. Whatever.
As to the set itself, the figures are superbly modeled and, despite the mixup on the box, historically accurate. They wear the 1943-style uniform which, ironically, was worn in 1944 during the D-Day landings and afterward. The details are great and the poses anatomically correct. A great set all round. 

A Small Wargame

A few days ago I whipped up some simple, fast-play modern skirmish rules. I adapted parts of Chain Reaction 3.1 and Fireteam Tactical Combat (which you can find at Freewwargamesrules Wiki) and blended them up with some ideas from my own imagination to create World War III: Armageddon. Ostensibly, these will be the working rules for my WWIII wargame, though they work just as well for WWII or other modern conflicts. The system is easy to learn and requires only 1D6 for all tests.
Here are some pics from the first test game. I used 16 of my WWIII Russians against 8 Modern British and 8 US WW2 Paratroopers, since I didn't have enough Brits painted up. The game was fun, but it definitely needs some revisions. Once I have a system of playable rules, I might put them up on this blog.
It started off badly for me, with my opponent wiping off my entire raw unit in the first turn and then bagging my elite officer in the second. I managed to strike back late and take out some of his bolt-action rifles on my right flank, but it was too little, too late. 

Airfix Messerschmitt Bf110 C-4/B, Eastern Front, 1941

I don't post a lot of aircraft models, partly because I do very few, and partly because I'm not very good at them. This is my most recent and best aircraft model. While it is no-where near the quality of some other aircraft-painting aficionados whose work looks real enough to be dropping bombs over Russia, it is what it is.

Some More Zulu Wars Brits

Haven't painted any of my ACTA Zulu Wars minis in a while, so I thought I'd change that.
I like this batch better than the last; it's always good to see clear marks of progress in your technique.
I really like these figures; crisp and clean details and lively poses. My one complaint, which I may have mentioned before, is the flash. I did my best to trim these figures before painting, but sometimes those annoying little bits of flash don't show up until the minis are painted.

And here's the lot of 'em

Next Batch of Modern British Infantry

I like the camo on these ones a little better than on the previous batch. I think it matches the early 2000s
pattern of DPM better.

These figures are a little disappointing to paint,  because their PLCE (Personal Load Carrying Equipment) webbing is made of the same camouflage material as the rest of the uniform, thus making it hard to distinguish. So, in effect, these figures end up looking a bit like camouflaged blobs.
Also, Caesar did a pretty poor job on the L85A2 rifles. If you ask me, these are some pretty boss

assault rifles, designed in the unusual bullpup layout, with the magazine and action behind the trigger group. This allows the rifle to be shorter without sacrificing accuracy.
However, Caesar turned this rifle into another indeterminate mass of gray plastic with almost no detailing. The SUSAT scope becomes a cylindrical blob, the barrel a pathetically droopy little pipe.

This pose is visually interesting, but is a lot less useful for wargaming purposes. Where did this guy find a wall to suddenly jump over? And the wall looks pretty narrow to me - I mean, couldn't he just walk around it? Sometimes tiny plastic men just aren't that bright.

I hope this officer is telling his soldier to stop screwing around on that wall and start doing something useful. 

The full infantry section (8 soldiers), made up of two four-man fire teams.

New Gallic DBA Elements

So, after endless pictures of the same old 3Wb Gallic elements featuring the same poses in endless repetition... here's something new.

On the left a 3wb element with a one-of-a-kind pose at the fore, and on the right the lone psiloi element called for in the army list

Here's what I've completed so far for my Gallic army:
7x3Wb
1x2Ps

Now I just need to finish up the last warband, the general element, and the two chariots.

Caesar Modern British Army

So I got these guys a while ago, and just got around to painting my first batch of them.
They are meant to be a part of my still-under-development WWIII wargame, and need to be dated no later than 2008. Thus, they are wearing the temperate DPM camo as opposed to the newer MTP camo which was phased in starting in 2010.
I still don't quite know which rules system to use for my WWIII wargame, but I'm thinking about using a modified and revised version of Chain Reaction by Two Hour Wargames.

Element of Gallic Conversions

So these are my first attempts at conversions. It was really easy, if a little time-consuming. All you gotta do is cut off one guy's hand and glue it on another guy's stump. The only hard part is holding the amputated appendage in place while the glue dries.

The guy on the left is newly equipped with a spear in place of a sword; the guy in the center swapped out his spear for a sword; and the guy on the right (my favorite) replaced his sword with a spear.

DBA Fantasy Army Lists

I've been trying to piece together some adequate army lists for some fantasy DBA armies for my wargame. As I have mentioned in different posts, the two best sites that I have found for fantasy DBA army lists are as follows:
Tolkein in DBA 2.0 by David Kuijt. This page contains 5 bad guy army lists and 6 good guy army lists, and:
DBM/DBA Middle-Earth Army Lists By Luke Ueda-Sarson. This page contains 18 total army lists.

These are both very good, well-researched and well thought out pages, but they are not 100% complete. They both only contain many army lists for a broad subject, such as Mordor or Isengard. As both of these armies consisted of dozens of subtypes, such a sweeping army list must necessarily contain only small amounts of a wide range of element types. I would prefer army lists that were more specific. For instance, David Kuijt's armies only contain two or three elements of warg riders, but warg riders were a separate army in their own right, such as the hunter orcs from the Hobbit movies that pursue Bilbo and the dwarves across Middle Earth. Warg riders are pretty cool, and it seems a shame to buy a whole box of them only to use a few figures.
So, to bridge this unfortunate gap in DBA fantasy army lists, I have decided to create my own army lists. Some of these army lists are based on the official historical army lists found in the DBA 2.2 rulebook, others come from my imagination.
Feel free to use these separate from or in addition to David Kuijt's and Luke Ueda-Sarson's helpful army lists, or make your own.
NOTE: if you intend to use these army lists for BBDBA, all orc armies are considered allies except Isengard and Mordor, which are enemies. If you are using these army lists for general fantasy gaming, not LotR in particular, they are all allies.

BAD GUY ARMY LISTS:
Warg-Orcs:

This army list encompasses all warg-riders as seen in the LotR or Hobbit movies and books, or for general fantasy. Examples include hunter orcs and the specialized warg riders in Saruman's army.
The following army list is taken from the III/44 Tribal Mongolians  of the DBA 2.2 rulebook. Both the cavalry and Light Horse elements consist of orcs mounted on wargs. Warg elements are treated the same as Light Horse, with the following exception taken from David Kuijt's page:
"Warg-mounted Orcs - wargs were large, fierce, intelligent and vicious wolves; they often served as mounts for goblins in addition to fighting for themselves. In DBA 2.0 Wargs are best represented as Light Horse, with one additional rule. In DBA 2.0 in the terrain section it says "Dunes and Oasis are bad going except to camels"; to reflect the special abilities of Wargs and Warg-mounted Orcs, use the additional terrain rule that:

Woods and Marsh are bad going except to Wargs

Warg rider cavalry are impetuous. Like Knights or Warband, they follow up one base depth after enemy that retreat, withdraw, or are destroyed. In the army lists below "2Wa" is the abbreviation for Wargs or Warg-riding orcs or goblins."
Note: for the terrain, enemies, allies, and aggression rating, you can use either the "Misty Mountain Goblins" army list on David Kuijt's page or the "Goblins" army list from Luke Ueda-Sarson's page.
Army list:
1x3Cv(Gen), 1x3Cv or 2Wa, 10x2Wa

Skirmish Orcs:
 These were the lightly-armed, smaller orcs depicted in Middle-Earth. Examples include Moria orcs and other Misty Mountain orcs, and the goblins of Goblintown.
The following army list is entirely a product of my own brain. I have chosen to make many of the elements axilia units because the following definition, from the DBA 2.2 rulebook, seems to fit skirmish orcs well:
"AUXILIA, representing foot able to fight hand-to-hand but emphasising agility and flexibility rather than coheision... These were used to chase off or support psiloi, to take or hold difficult terrain, as a link between heavier foot and mounted troops, occasionally as a mobile reserve, and often as the main troop type of mountain peoples."
I allowed a lot of choice of element types to represent the diversity of a marauding orc band.
Army List:
1x4Ax(Gen), 4x4Ax, 2x4Wb, 2x2Ps, 3x4Ax or 4Wb or 2Ps or 3Bw

Organized Orc Army:

This army list is intended for armies such as Isengard's non-Uruk-Hai battalions, Mordor, and Gundabad. They contain many different weapon types and there are a lot of choices to be made. The 2LH(Gen) element is intended to represent the orcish officers, mounted on wargs, that strode up and down before the ranks of their men... er, orcs... before battle. As the number of figures on a base has no effect on game play, feel free to put only one mounted officer on this general element.The Elephant element is meant as a troll element. Artillery should be a ballista, trebuchet, or catapult. You can use human heads as ammunition, if you want.
Army list:
1x4Bd or 2LH(Gen), 4x4Bd or 3/4Sp, 2x3/4Ax, 1x4Bd or 4Bw or 4Sp, 1xArt or El or 2LH

Pike Half-Orcs:

This army list represents the formations of heavily armored Uruk-Hair pikeman that assaulted Helm's Deep. Both Kuijt's page and Ueda-Sarson's page contain an Orthanc or Isengard army (the army of Saruman, mostly made up of Uruk-Hai) but neither of the army lists accurately represents the overwhelming formations of heavily armored pikemen.
The army list is ridiculously simple, but represents the Uruk-Hai army pretty well. After all, they were just a bunch of pikemen with their commander, Lurtz, standing above them with a sword. Thus, one blade element and 11 pike elements.
Army list:
1x3/4Bd(Gen), 11x4Pk

GOOD GUY ARMY LISTS:
The good guy army lists are better covered by the two pages mentioned; you have a lot of choices. However, if even these are not enough for you, look in the DBA 2.2 rulebook and use a historical army. After all, its fantasy. Who says Greek hoplites can't fight wargs, or that Braveheart-era Scots can't do battle with undead warriors?

Rangers:

I have only one army list for the good guys. While this may seem very disproportionate - after all, I made 4 orc armies - good guy armies are better covered by existing army lists. The only gap that I could see was for an Ithilien ranger type army - an army of elite scouts and skirmishers, armed mostly with bows and swords.
This is a pretty boss army, so I created an army list for it:
Army list:
1x4Bw or 3Bd(Gen), 3x3Bd, 8x4Bw