Mordheim – Luthor Wulfenbaum
Late last year, the Mordheim Facebook group surpassed the 10,000th member (and now has reached beyond 13k members) and for that occasion they planned something special.
"They" is a bit unspecific at that point, as Tuomas Pirinen, the author of the Mordheim rule set, took upon to coordinate this idea. And after a huge brainstorming, they decided to go with a special miniature, incl. rules and artwork.
With Artwork by John Wigley (who did part of the original Mordheim Artwork) and miniature design by Owen Matthew Aurelio, the project started, supported by Heresy Lab.
Bolt Action Centurion Mk III Heavy Tank
This is a review, that I was really looking for, as that tank is simply a must have for myself - the british Centurion tank! Warlord Games added the main battle tank to their range as part of the Korean supplement.
The Centurion was a successor of the cruiser tank line, with prominent ancestors like the Cromwell or Comet. These were proper tanks, but were no match to the heavy guns, the Germans could put into battle. So one of the requirements for a new, heavy cruiser tank, was that it had to withstand a hit from the feared 8,8 cm gun. They didn't solve that by giving it thicker armour, quite contrary, with 76mm the first prototypes of the Centurion Mk I had much thinner plates than a Churchill (101mm) or later Mk VII and VIII (152mm), but it was highly sloped, creating an effective thickness far above. Something the Russians brought into WW2 with the T-34 and was later picked up by others, like the German Panther tank.
Cruel Seas Kriegsmarine R-23 R-Boat
I've added the Fairmile D to my Royal Navy, so I needed a medium sized counter part for my Kriegsmarine. Something the R-Boat could take care of.
Similar how E-Boat was an allied term for Enemy Boats, R-Boat is a term for Räumboote (meaning minesweeper). These R-Boats were build already before the second world war, and saw service post-war for clearing naval mines.
Cruel Seas Royal Navy Fairmile D MTB 624
I had the Royal Navy flotilla from the starter set already increased with the Flower Class Corvette, but I was looking for a mid-sized ship, that could be used in smaller to medium battles and went for the Fairmile D MTB.
The Fairmile D Motor Torpedo Boat is a british MTB, that was built by Fairmile Marine. A Fairmile is bigger than the earlier MTB/MGB (Motor Gun Boats), for example the Vosper or PT Boat, but slower in speed. They were named Dog Boats, and were designed to combat the more advantaged E-boats by the German Kriegsmarine.
Cruel Seas M-Class Minesweeper
After the decision fell towards the Flower Class Corvette as the large ship of the Royal Navy fleet, I was looking for a fitting counterpart for the German Kriegsmarine. My choice went towards the German M-Class Minesweeper.
The Minesweeper was in competition with the Marinefährprahm (basically a landing ship) and the Vorpostenboot. The landing ship would be something to keep in mind, if I wanted to extend the Operation Sealion / Gigant towards Cruel Seas. The Vorpostenboot is an armed civil ship, similar to the armed trawler of the British and looked a bit to improvised to counter the proud British Corvette. So the decision was clear, it must be the Minesweeper, Minensuchboot M1940.
Cruel Seas British Flower Class Corvette
In extension to the fleets of the Strike Fast! Strike Hard! starter kit I chose a large vessel for both sides. For the British that was the British Flower Class Corvette.
Among the large British ships would have been a Landing Craft Gun or the armed trawler. The landing craft looked more like something for the pacific and the armed trawler was a bit too close to the merchant tanker, and this is a Corvette, a Corvette! So the choice was pretty clear.
Cruel Seas Merchant Tanker
The Merchant Tanker is one of the firsts vessels that were available for Cruel Seas and has a cardboard stand in included with the Strike Fast! Strike Hard! starter kit.
As a "neutral" ship that could be found in service of every nation this kit bears the potential to be part of most scenarios, either as a mission objective to defend / attack or for example to claim its cargo. Merchant tankers had the objective to ferry supplies such as food, fuel, steel, clothing or munitions and weaponry.
Jams, Titans and Vessels
Radaddel celebrate 25 years of tabletop in their store, and even added a delicious jam to your orders during the celebration. I know Matthias for more than 10 years now and that jam thing caught me, so I ordered two boxes of Adeptus Titanicus and got strawberry jam on top of it. Yay!
Why Reaver and Warhounds? Well, I had a blast reviewing both kits last december during the Titan themed week, the regular Reaver is a fine kit, but the "evil" one with Melta Cannon and Chainfist is really great. Originally I had planned on buying the battlegroup, but that one is currently not available through my resellers (I'm simply not paying retail on a box with that price tag), I went with the Warhounds that they had on sale with 25% during the celebration and added the Reaver to it.
Tanks for the Spanish Civil War
I am currently consolidating my projects, among them Bolt Action. The problem in that case aren't the vehicles, but the amount of miniatures you quickly end up with. Especially with the plastic kits (and then adding sprues from the sales), 30 something paratroopers, and 30 something grenadiers, and 30 something ... you get the picture.
For that reason I decided to go with Winter Germans for late war, Afrikakorps for mid / special theme and have the Spanish Civil War as a early war German list. The Spanish Civil War is often described as a prelude to World War 2. Communist fought against Nationalists, supported by larger powers like the Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Soviet Union, who were testing their gear for an (possible) upcoming greater war.
The russian armory supplied the republican faction with tanks, among them the T-26 in several variants. Rubicon offers the kit with 10 variants, for those built between 1931 until 1939. But why is that interesting for me, with my Nationalist forces? Equipment, vehicles and tanks were captured by both sides, and T-26s were not a rare sight within Nationalist armies. And I got a soft spot for captured vehicles.
Modern Combat Black Dog 1:48 Upgrades
From Czechia with ... some kind of love. To pimp the Tamiya Humvees that I bought last month, I got myself two boxes of Black Dog conversion kits. The Iraq War Accessoires Set (T48034) and IDF Uparmoured Humvee (T48058).
I visited the black dog page a couple of times in the past, as they have some very extensive conversions and upgrade kits for world war 2 vehicles in 1:35 and 1:48. And I like to take those as ideas or inspiration to upgrade my Bolt Action (28mm / 1:56) kits. And to be honest, that was the main reason, why I spend that much money on these kits. Kinda like paying for the inspiration, as the upgrade sets are rather boldly priced with 14,50 EUR and 27 EUR for the two kits and that's without shipping.