5 Men At Kursk, Board and Armies for the 3rd Battle for Kharkov

A whole project completed! Well. It is complete. Buuut I have plans for improving and expanding on it as is always the way.

So I have been a bit quiet on the blog for a while but I have been busy. My 28mm projects took a bit of a break as I got bitten by the bug to finish my 10mm second world war skirmish project.

The are all based for 1:1 skirmish (except in cases where it was impractical to base a weapon team seperately) and the board is a densely terrained 2x2" and I am using them with Nordic Weasel's 5 Men at Kursk rules which focus on very low level squad tactics. Ususally one squad and maybe a couple of support elements. My intention is to model the house to house fighting that occured on the edges of Kharkov during the 3rd Battle for Kharkov in 1943. One of the things I would like to add in the future is buildings that will allow me to represent the sort of buit up terrain in Kharkov proper. I have pushed some minis around and rolled some dice and I have found it a very easy ruleset to get to grips with. Hopefully I can get another live human opponent soon and I can have a go at writing up a Battle Report on here in the future. I'm hoping to have the rules down and a scenario sorted so that, all being well, I may run it as a participation game at next year's G3 game show. Before getting into the pictures a short note on accuracy: I tried to be accurate but where accuracy would have greatly slowed or stalled the project I did my best to carry on and not worry about it. As such the buildings aren't quite 'right', and there are no doubt errors in uniform depiction. I am happy that everything is 'close enough' though, especially for the chaos of the Eastern Front.

First up here are the armies:

First the Soviets. Now tanks are not massively central in 5MaK but tanks you know? So I have rather more tanks than will see use in one battle. I also found the tanks a good stepping stone down to 10mm for getting my eye in on how to paint at that scale. The two T34-85's where the first that I painted. It was very educational, this was both my first time painting at this scale and my first time having a go at white wash camoflage. I wanted to have quite a stylised look to the whole project with the light/dark contrast emphasised. These first two tanks lack the level of contrast I wanted as I struggled to get a base green that was dark enough to achieve a satisfying contrast with the white wash paint and that wasn't too dark to compromise the scale effect. I am still happy with them but the T34-75 on the left is far closer to my intention. the infantry was tricky but very fun to paint. I leant heavily on washes to catch small details that my hand was not steady enough to get. I went for a solid base of rifleman and a decent selection of squad support attachments to allow me to change the OOB up a bit. I actually already have two field guns ready to paint that I lacked when {I started painting the Soviets so at some point those will be added in.

The Germans. This was my first time painting panzer grey and it was a little bit of a challenge to prevent the tanks from looking too 'flat'. I found that modulating between grey and brown filters gave them a more solid and lifelike look to my eye. The tank commanders for the panzer III and IV certainly helped too. I had to sculpt a rather rudimentary representation of winter overalls with some plastic putty onto them, though I am rather happy with the way they look. When it comes to uniforms I decided to go for a little bit of a mix, resulting in potentially questionable accuracy but I think the look is good. At any rate all the pictures I studied showed quite a wide variety of old and new kit and of troops with a mix of snow white and more temperate coloured gear, though there did seem to be a slight propensity to late issue field grey reversible uniforms. I was glad to find few enough examples of camoflage patterns that I felt no need to try to represent them in 10mm. Again I have far more tanks than I will field in one game of 5MaK but I wanted to paint them and so I did! Also again I went for a solid base of rifles and a selection of support, this time with a field gun.

Now the board! I saw enough examples of open gabled roofs in pictures to feel ok about using these sorts of houses on the Eastern Front, though it seems that tiled roofs were very rare and metal, slatted roofing was the norm where thatch wasn't. Again I think these look ok but the roofs will probably be swapped out for metal looking ones in the future. I wanted the board to move from rubbled buildings to shelled but intact buildings to largley untouched to give some transitional, dynamic, visual interest as well as a variety of terrains to fight over despite the small area being fought over. To achieve this I set about my mdf buildints with a pair of old side cutters and a notched up scalpel blade.

I wanted modularity and so I made everything scatter terrain to be placed on a bare board that I sprayed grey/black, washed white, and then lightly sprayed again with a chocolate brown. the roads are simply plastic card (as is the basing for the buildings and scatter) with black mud texture paint sraped over the top. I may revisit the roads with some wet effects and puddles to give it a closer look to the slushy roads seen in pictures. The roads were metalled rather than packed dirt, it is just that the weather and heavy foot and vehicle traffic and rendered them a muddy, slushy morass, with the flat even road surface made visible beneath by passng vehicles. I simply cut a piece of packing plastic into a comb arrangement and used that to scrape the texture paint in the direction I wished the tracks to appear. Oh the telegraph poles are based on pennies rather than plastic card.

One issue I foresee for running the game at a show is that my stylised approach was maybe too succesful in that the models and terrain create such a coherent aesthetic, and the models are so small! that they can get a bit lost. I may place small removable colour flashes on the bases to remedy this. something like a small tag I can just stick to the bottom of the base that will stick out a little.

And there it is! the whole thing! I am extremely pleased with how this has all come together. When I started I did not know how I would achieve everything I wanted. I had a rather strong impression of the kind of feeling and aesthetic I wanted to evoke and started experimenting my way along. I learned a lot during this project. Anyway I hope you have enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading!

Products used (I'll edit if I miss things):
Pendrakken miniatures
Vallejo, paints and textures, snow texture
Mig paint
Serious Play, various bits of scatter materials some tufts, snow, and the seafoam came from them too
Candy Art Studio, snow (I used a lot of different snows!)
The buildings came form an Ebay Shop named banksjohnedward.

Alternative Armies Contender GNATS Mech and Meerkat Spotter Suit

I jumped on the AA websites offer that the first 100 GNATS mechs sold would come with a free, also new Meerkat. I got mine very quickly in the ever useful little boxes 15mm companies all seem to send their minis in:

The Meerkat is a very nice little mech. It is built off of the Bearcat legs with a new torso with a big cockpit and some antenna/laser bits, a rotary cannon, and some stowage. The stowage is maybe the surprise star of the kit as its been cast to fit really nicely around the torso's contours:

 Very nice profle:

Here is the big'un. It has a decent amount of posability and even though the legs are moddeled in one piece in a standing pose there is enough movement in the sculpt to lend it some dynamism. It is also pleasingly large. It could probably just scrape being used as a 28mm model as is, and deffinitely pass muster if the cockpit windows were modded to look like an unmanned warbot or something.

 It even comes with very nicely detailed jetpacks. So that's nice!

 Nice profile again that also shows design elements that link it in with the Meerkat. It could also maybe fit two people in the cockpit as it looks quite spacious.

These are going to be a lot of fun to get together. I just need to decide which of my 15mm armies het them. Right now I'm thinking they may go to my Free Mars revolutionaries. But also potentially their enemies. I have a few projects to do before I start getting paint on these anyway so I have time to think.

Art Shop Loot

 The big art shop in town had a sale on for the start of the new uni term so I took advantage and grabbed a few things.

 Free loot! I got all this for free along with a cloth bag, so that is nice. It is mostly pencils and pens with limited modelling use but the paint, graphite stick, and water soluble pencils will probably see use.

Pile of spray paint for scenery

I really like these for weathering. They give good control and texture and I haven't discovered any issues with varnish or acryllics so far.

5 Klicks From the Zone. Character Generation.

Following on from my thematic introduction here is the actual crunch behind my initial setup for 5 Klicks:

So my initial set of character are intended to be people just emerging from their cloistered settlement after a little time has passed since the environment has become stable enough for them to safely leave Home. The delay in leaving is down to caution and preperation. As such I have decided to not roll for Background and select Isolated Enclave for all my initial characters. Though the fluff for that will be modified to remove the idea that they violently maintain their independence. My Home denizens are defensive and cautious (they will have fought tooth and nail against government and paramilitary forces before the Long Night in defence of their community) but extremey open to and keen to meet new societies and people. One of their biggest motivations is reestablishing contact with other survivors. Adittionaly I will tweak the fluff for other rolls to reflect the character's role in the settlement before they ventured out and also draw links between the characters. At the time of writing I only have 5 models painted up and intended to be characters so I will also be dropping three of the '0 event roll' recruits. I'll either add them in as I paint more or I'll just leave it up to the dice to see if I get more recuits along the way.

First off let's see what gear we have, I've decided to roll 4 times on the firearms and once on the low tech list as I'm only equipping 5 characters right now:

Scrap Rifle - Elenæ
SAW - Argat
SAW - Maslov
Shotgun - Artyom
Military Rifle - Marta
Cling - Fire Grenade - Artyom
(obtained from an event)

This has worked out weirdly close to what kit my painted models have so that is very nice!

And for armour:

Scout Armour - Artyom
Field Armour - Marta

Now for characters. I'm going to work backwards from least to most event rolls:

Artyom: Init:3, Sp:5, Co:+1, To:3, Ne:2 Skill: -
Training: Militia service (has served with the Defence Teams that check Home's perimeter and protect engineers as they repair breaches. Served with Marta)
Background: Isolated Enclave

Marta Valentynivna Kutsenko: Init:6, Sp:6, Co:+1, To:2, Ne:1 Skill: -, Leader
Training: Military Service (was an experienced member of Home's Defence Teams)
Background: Isolated Enclave
Event: Zone Exposure (Mask breach suffered during a dangerous wildlife incursion but continued to stay onsite until the task was completed and Elenæ was safe, Marta has recurring nightmares of the incident)

Elenæ Kasaeva: Init:4, Sp:4, Co:0, To:3, Ne:1 Skill: Speech +1
Training: Ash Merchant (Elenæ, became adept at facilitating distribution and logistics and was often called on to arbitrate when importance and need was unclear between 2 or more options)
Background: Isolated Enclave
Event: Attacked by Animals (It was Marta that came to the aid of Elenæ, the two are very close. Elenæ feels responsible for Marta's exposure)

Argat: Init:3, Sp:4, Co:0, To:3, Ne:2 Skill: Survival +1, Leader.
Training: Reclaimer (Spent a great deal of time looking for ways to live with or alter the local environment to make it safer and more habitable)
Background: Isolated Enclave
Event: Rallied (in the aftermath of the attack that left Elenæ and Marta injured Argat developed a system of capturing, tracking, and studying the invasive animals. It is hoped they can one day be domesticated. This work made Argat a regular first port of call for advice on problems concerning the local ecology)

Maslov Nil Stanislavovich: Init:3, Sp:4, Co:0, To:5, Ne:2 Skill: Repair +1
Training: Scavenger (Maslov often worked to recycle and reclaim broken or lost pieces of technology and items of use. Though quite old Maslov has insisted on venturing into the outside. Maslov is well liked and regarded as kind and competent. The others will be very keen to protect Maslov)
Background: Isolated Enclave
Event 1: Accident (Old enough to remember the time before Long Night, Maslov has had a tough life and has almost died more than once)
Event 2: Lucky Find (Found Cling Fire grenades)
Event 3: Discovery (Assisted Argat in constructing the tech that Argat needed for their study)

A Thematic Introduction to my '5 Klicks From the Zone' Campaign

In the early days - yes, I am afraid that I am old enough to remember them - we thought the Zones would kill us. Maybe some would think me lucky to last long enough to become as infirm as I am, maybe I do too sometimes… Anyway, child that I was then, that prospect of struggling in a desperate future seemed an exciting one, something to wish for, even. I had a habit of waiting until my parents’ snores became loud enough to conceal the creak of hinge and floorboard. I would then creep to our television to fill my eyes with the apocalyptic vistas of Hollywood and other faraway filmlands that my parents kept stashed away, unaware that I knew of them and where to find them, along with romances I scorned in the way children do. This future seemed a playground to me. No rules, no parents, no police. 

This future did come - has come - though not quite for the reasons we thought. The Zones were a rumour first, then an open secret, then they were all but impossible to hide, no matter how those in charge tried. The heat, the light, the sparks in the air and the electric in our limbs meant secrets were impossible. Besides, we knew secrets, we lived them, we read them - sometimes we kept them. Ah, but I must get to the point I suppose. As much as this may be for myself, I should also consider any poor soul who reads this and expects to be entertained and informed. To you I say, bear with me! In time, these embellishments will move my narrative forward, like our wanderings will seek to bring hope to our Home. Some things I do not wish to repeat, and will not, but what I will tell you will be a truth.

We thought the Zones would kill us, but, of course, it was us. After all, what were the Zones other than a resource? And what else did the machinery of our civilization endeavour to do other than devour resources to feed the bloated rich at the expense of the land and people? The blame was put on the stalkers of course, but what were they compared to those with contracts? My parents were stalkers so you will forgive me for defending them. The coal was mined, the oil drilled, reactors burned, trees cleared, the Zones scoured. Gold cost lives, as did silver, crystal, and gems. The secrets of the Zones demanded a similar blood price. The people paid it out of necessity; the contractors in search of profit. The world began to burn, and the Zones began to grow

We ran from the fires. We ran from the creeping dangers of the Zones. Worst of all, we ran from the soldiers’ bullets. All those above us could do was tighten their fists, so we turned to one another. Some dug down, some built bulwarks up, all sought to weather the siege of desperate oligarchs and an angry planet that afflicted us. We knew we needed every bit of will and strength and ingenuity and kindness if we were to last. We tried to keep contact with one another, to continue to assist and encourage as much as we could, but, slowly, the lights went out and the night drew in. I won’t revisit that long night except to say that we were all, without a doubt, heroic. It was a quiet heroism, it was what we needed. But what went on then is done. Not all of us would wake to see the sunrise, but enough of us did. That alone is proof enough that we put our faith in the right things. 

We need to keep that faith. Our home is failing and cannot last as a closed system. It was never closed, truth be told. The ghosts are evidence enough of that. We have taken our first steps out, into the wastes, into the Zones. We aim to find our lost kin. We aim to preserve life and environment. I will go with them. I’m old as I say but the years have chipped away at any cowardice. I have lived. So what if I am to die? So what if my death brings word of our kin, or food to make the children smile

Anyway, this is a world without rules, without parents, without police. I am - I must admit - excited.

---

Feral Reinforcements

Some Feral special weapons have been added to my small warband. A snniper, a flame thrower, a rocket/missile launcher, and a large calibre (barely) person-portable support weapon. I added a camflaged cloak to the sniper made out of tissue and watered down pva (thanks Art Attack) and a couple of shades of green pigment powder to try and give it a mossy ghillie suit sort of look. I think it worked out fairly well though there was a moment as I was making it I was sure I had really messed it up. Please excuse the rather hectic painting table. I've neatened it up since, honest.

Cannibal Sector 1 Scavs

I have stll to do the bases (a mix of Mini Arts Studio bases) but I am very happy with how these have come out.

Kolony Ferals

So here is my first batch of Kolony Ferals.

Models from Pig Iron Productions (I've been wanting a good excuse to ave a go at their stuff since it came out).

The bases are Gladius Game Arts 30mm 'Urban decay' Base inserts. I'm just using them on their own as bases and will temporarily slot them into 30mm lipped bases for games that might need or benefit from them.

Primed with vallejo white primer (by brush as a bit of an experiment, it worked fine really. They needed a cuple of coats and it needed managed so as not to pool too much but went on and covered ok. It is however not very durable at all). and then painted with mostly vallejo (game/air/mecha/model), a little Tamiya, Army Painter washes, and AK, Vallejo, and Mini Art pigments, and finally an earth brown oil crayon. they have been sealed with Vallejo gloss and matte varnish.

They have come out looking less dusty than intended, a problem with applying varnish I have not worked out a solution to yet, and I am not 100% happy with how I have painted the bases. I feel like they need something else. The actual Gladius Game Arts bases themselves are very nice though, with good details.

A Post Apocalyptic Swerve and Some Cannibal Sector 1

As I was enjoynig painting my Infinity Ariadna forces in an apocalyptic urban warfare style I had a craving to take on a new project (added it to the already huge list) and see what I can do with the theme. I started off painting my Cannibal Sector 1 Scavs reckoning they could happily crossover with other apocalyptic settings and then grabbed some Lead Adventure and Pig Iron Productions Kolony Ferals. The plan is to then knock together a table and start getting some games in of Nordic Weasel's in-beta rules '5 Klicks From the Zone' (and CS1).

NEW PROJECT!! Infinity Ariadna

Infinity is seeing a resurgence of interest at my local club so I'm jumping on that bandwagon. I got a PanO and Aleph starter years and yeears ago when Infinity was just into second edition but never found anyone to play with so I am very keen to get started. Also every new model Corvus Belli seem to be releasing right now is a hit, while the old lines had quite a few misses despite overall having a strong line up.

I picked up the 'OPERATION COLDFRONT' box and was lucky enough to find an old box with the pre-order exclusive Wardriver Hacker figure. I really like the Aleph look and really like the 'vedic' troops so I was very pleased to see that not only is there a vedic sectorial to go alongside the Homeric one but that this starter was all vedic. Similarly the Ariadnan Kazaks were also my favourite but lacked a sectorial for a while but again this box was all kazak and even had a nice chunky low tech TaG, Ratnik. I like to have one or two big show-off pieces in a low model count skirmish game and Ariadna's lack of them was something that kept me from them during my previous abortive attempt to get in the game but the Ratnik fixes that in great style. So this set was pretty perfect for me really. I was still in the mood for beat up and rugged after my Green Mars Rebellion vehicles so I started on the Ariadna Kazaks. I haven't started the Wardriver yet as I am still considering how to meld it into the rest of the forces look but still set it apart (its a mercenary as opposed to a Ariadna native).

I really like this model, although the massive hammer gave me brief pause. I went for an Urban look to do something different to the usual green Ariadna I see and because I have been painting a lot of green recently. I wanted them to look like they had been in the shit for a while so lots of caked on concrete dust, scratches and chipping wass in order.

I wanted the infantry to have lots of subtle chromatic shifts instead of contrasting and distinct colours. They might be a little dark right now though so I might go back to them for highlights or a touch of light concrete powder weathering pigment.

These are really nice and evocative models with great poses. The detail means they are really fun to paint and not at all a slog. My phone camera isn't the greatest but hopefuly these pictures give some sense of the look.

All together in a (slightly fisheyed and a bit dark) family photo.