Villiers-le-Sec at NBHW

I played the Villiers-le-Sec scenario from the Normandy Battle Games book at NBHW last night. First venture out for my old Wehrmacht Infanty Regiment as I've mainly played with my Panzer Lehr thus far.

Good even contest which could've gone either way:

https://www.facebook.com/New-Buckenham-Historical-Wargamers-302874659765417/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1342995955753277

Rapid Ruin Normandy Buildings

Last year my lovely kids got me three Valiant 'Rapid Ruin' houses, which I've finally got round to painting.

I followed Colin Rumford's guide on TMP http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=375772 but substituting some colours for similar ones I had. The main colour of Vallejo Iraqui Sand is the same.

Some close ups of the individual buildings, with a shot of each in 'ruin' mode too.

The first I've painted as a simple townhouse, designed to be on the corner of a junction, with a little direction side on its wall.

The second is a slightly better kept townhouse:

The third is built as a cafe, with built in garage. I was quite pleased with the paint job on the garage door!

The signs were downloads from the Rapid Fire! website. I will eventually make a proper base for each, but I need some different buildings - perhaps a church - as they still look quite similar. I like the idea of the cut down ones in Colin's post, but know I wouldn't do that as well as him - perhaps a scratchbuilt one instead?

Waffen SS Company

Another project I am starting this year is attempting to put on a game for the battle of Rostov in 1942. Not the most well known of battles, it was in reality quite one sided as the Russians chose to retreat rather than stand. However, it does have some interesting potential for a game. It saw the SS Wiking division attack alongside the Slovak Fast division while on the Russian side the NKVD caused some havoc and put up a stiff resistance in the town.

I already have the tanks for SS Wiking in the summer of 1942, so now wanted to put together Kampfgruppe Dieckman which was the force put together by Wiking to attack Rostov. The infantry was the 1st battalion of the SS 'Germania' regiment, along with a company of engineers and artillery support.

I have used the Valiant 'Classic German infantry' box as I had it and, frankly, wanted an excuse to use it! I love Valiants, really nice models.

I've also had my first go at changing heads on some of the models - a pin vice from my ship models meant I could do this now; and using Nigel Higgens (from NBHW) blog, 'view from the duck pond' on which he posted a really good video tutorial on how to do it.

Overall pretty pleased, shame no smocks for the SS, but hey, it was the height of summer!