It's the Five-O!

So I've had this rhino half painted sitting around for a while and having seen a VERY stupid army list on the internet this week, I thought I should finish it as a trasnport for my Arbites Exaction squad. 

Painting this much black wasn't exactly a hardship - I've done it a lot over the years. :) There's one last job, which is to cut the join in the top door through the transfer which I thought I'd do after it was stuck on since the gap in the top doors of a rhino isn't square. Hopefully it'll work. I've also got an STL floating around to replace the kit storm bolter with a sweet remote-control-looking storm bolter and hunter-killer mount so at some stage I'll get that printed and swap out that turret. 

Next Time

Waffentrager and hopefully the first stage of my random project...  

My Generation Was Killed - Part 12 - One Bullet Away…

 

‘Sup Killers..? Well, I did it, I actually painted something…! I can see you are all so proud of me…!

Had a lot going on this week, a lot of things came together. As you can see from the headline pic, I managed to acquire a copy of LT Nate Fick’s autobiography, ‘One Bullet Away’. Picked this up and it was delivered yesterday along with a copy of ‘War on Saddam’ from the same supplier. A bargain at just over $35 the pair postage. More on these later… 😉

But first up, MODELS! So I finished off the HQ element for the list, a pretty easy two Hummer section.

Obviously in the real world, this is just A Hummer, so for game purposes, I added a truck. Unlike most other vehicles in the show, LT Fick’s is still in its European MERDC camo, about as suited to the desert as the DPM on my Landrover…He did manage however to get hold of a tan ‘Wendy House’, so at least some of his vehicle is desert-ish coloured…!

Had a lot of fun with this one as I decided to make the Wendy House removable so that you can see the inside. This one was made from one of the ‘scrap’ 3D ones and looks pretty good, well to me at least! 🤩

These look a lot better ‘at scale’ (!) but I don’t mind the EXTREME close ups! 😬 

So next up is the other HQ truck, I used another 3D tuck for this one, adding the usual wading kit, exhaust and some stowage. This one gets a .50 cal, and the Fick-Mobile also has one ‘in-game’.

Just had to knock up two bases for these and I was DONE! Bases made as previously taught, noting the HUMRAT packets added for that extra bit of colour 😉

Right, well that’s the modelling aspect for this week done and dusted, and you’re welcome ☺️ 

So, these books… I haven’t read them yet, have in fact barely flipped though the pics. I know Fick’s book is going to be an inspirational read, no doubt about it. Nate Fick wasn’t ‘just’ a USMC PL COMD, he was so muh more, and I am looking forward to getting to know him a bit better. It was published in 2005, a mere 24 months after his experiences with Bravo PL.

The other book is from the Daily Telegraph, a UK paper and is undated, I’d assess its from around the same period of 05-07 or so. This one is a bit more personal for me. I have only flicked through it once, and it has already brought me to tears. I am crying as I write this, right now.

So, I am sure these books will be both informative and cathartic for me.

As an example, I will showcase two pics, one from each book that kind of bring things back for me, and not necessarily in a good way.

This pic is from Fick’s book and show the Iceman attending to a wounded Iraqi girl, caught in the drama. The caption reads, “…Aiding civilians, though often at odds with our assigned mission, became crucial to the platoon’s psychological health.” Yeah, I get that 100% 🙏

This one is from War on Saddam and show again, US and this time British pers attending to the human collateral damage that occurs in all wars. This was the page that made me immediately put this book down. That picture of the Iraqi child on the bed, who has been burned in a coalition airstrike on Baghdad, took me right back…

We had pushed out of Umm Qasar and forward into Basra, and had stopped for some kind of reason at a RAP, Regimental Aid Post in some part of the AO. I only remember two things about that stop: 

1) I managed to catch a sleep in the back of an empty Landrover Ambulance. I remember it because inside the Ambulance were two pillows, each with the ‘Crows Foot’ marking in ink and dated 1944… Yup, you read that right, I was getting my head down in an ambulance in a war zone in 2003, on a pillow made for WWII… I  obviously ‘borrowed’ one of the pillows… 😉 But I lost it somewhere between there and coming home, so unfortunately can’t show it to you…

2) I saw a sight I’ll never forget. An Iraqi girl had come out of one of the medical tents, probably an operating theatre of some kind. I will never forget her small stature, pink and white dress, long black hair, and the fact that she had both of her forearms missing. 

They had been blown off as she picked up a scatterable cluster munition. 

I just stared at her and wondered what life our ‘liberation’ of Iraq had now given her. I often wonder if she is still alive, and if so, what she may be doing now. 

So yeah, these are the things my mind sees when I look at things like this. And it might not be a picture of an Iraqi child that sets me to thinking, I can look at my own mokopuna and think on the same lines.

Thank The Lord that I have such a supportive whanau and group of friends to get me through those dark times.

Until next time, Stay Frosty…🫡

Stompy robots are stompy

I took my House Cadmus Imperial Knights out for a couple of practice games at the club against Blogger McBeth's Thousand Suns: 

in which his magic and infinity rerolls plinked a Cerastus Castigator for 27 wounds pretty much with nothing but bolt guns and Lethal Hits in a single round of shooting despite me passing an improbably number of 4++ saves. He took most of my Armigers and dinged up the Errant pretty badly (with more Lethal Hits) but the Lancer impaled Magnus with a degree of good luck to effectively close out the game. It was a learning exercise for both of us - picking up rules we'd missed and understanding how to deploy some of our kit to best effect. 

Then I took on clubmate Ryan's Eldar and ho boy. Like, I knew Fire Dragons were vicious but wow. They did some spectacular punishment (with their infinity rerolls) and Grandad Eldrad making me pay 2 CP for Rotate Ion Shields to try and save my Castigator. Ouch. 

The whole game pivoted on the explosion of my Castigator  in the end - it plinked some wounds off the Errant and the Lancer and did some serious damage to my Moirax but it also blasted all of Ryan's Howling Banshees, Fuegan's second life and the last of the Storm Guardians that were protecting the Seer Council and other than some Warpspiders in my back field ripping my Sisters to bits, his offensive basically stopped dead with that carnage.  

I learned a few things about Titanic as a rule which gives me a bit more confidence on doing secondaries with my big knights and also dealing with stuff in buildings as well as some of the shenanigans that can be committed by the ever-cheaty Eldar. Knights are a good army and they're pretty forgiving for an inexperienced player. I'm looking forward to getting my Guard out sometime in future for funsies. 

Painting? 

I decided I should paint something just to keep the pile moving so I did some JU87 Stukas for Victory at Sea: 

Just something quick and dirty to keep my hand in. I haven't been in much of a mood of late and there's a pile of half done projects on my painting desk that just need doing so I decided I'd start on one of the easy ones. 

Next Time

Workbench. I've pulled a little present I got myself many moons ago out of the box and will start work getting it together. What I'll do with it when it's done, no idea. That's a future me problem and future me has plenty of those.  
 

My Generation was Killed - Part 11 - It’s Been a Long Time…

 

‘Sup Killers..? Well, its been a while… I have come to realise, finally some may say…, that I can tend to get distracted somewhat…

For the last few weeks, my distraction has been this:

A 2004, BMW R1150RT. One owner from new, and its got a full service history. It’s also only covered about 2000kms per year… Picker her up from the OG owner from Auckland and rode her back to Hanana no worries.

So yeah, been concentrating on the Beemer over these last few weeks, modelling and blogging haven’t got a look in…!

SO, modelling updates are this week, exactly ZERO…!

But I was doing some more garage clearing the other day and came across some more stuff from my first trip to Iraq in 03, and as that is entirely relevant to this post, I thought I’d share them with you.

Remember the Humanitarian Daily Ration I mentioned a while back, you know the yellow MRE type jobs that I’d made in replica to put on the bases of my Hummers?

Well I found one…

I’d eaten some of it back in the day, but it’s mostly still there. Main difference between this and a ‘real’ MRE is the lack of the heating pack and no condiments or chocolates etc. I like the cardboard instructions on how to eat… Also the overuse of the Stars and Stripes just on case you forgot who was giving you the Freedom Food… Right after dropping the Freedom Rounds…

I also found a few other items…

Had a few of these. These were air dropped by the RAF in the British AO, and were to encourage the Iraqi Army to surrender. I never knew what these said until this week when I used Google translate to tell me. The front basically says get to the location on the other side and you’ll get food and water. The back as you can see is the map. I’d forgotten the names of these places.

Umm Qasr was a port of strategic significance and the first major place we stopped in. I remember getting there, conducting clearing patrols and then setting up in a warehouse. Once we were sure the perimeter was secure, I went for a wee nosy around. Ended up by some of those large, dock cranes that you see in pictures. You know the ones, like a hundred plus feet heigh with a giant jib and what not. 

Anyhoo, I thought to myself, “I bet the view would be awesome from up there”… So I slung my rifle and started to climb the ladder. And boy was it a TALL ladder…! I finally got to the top and entered the drivers cab. It was fairly large with a decent seat which I settled into and surveyed the view.

Next thing I knew, my head snapped back in that, ‘You were asleep and you shouldn’t have been and now you’ve woken up’ type effect…! Not sure how long I was asleep but I was clearly fatigued, and not just from the ladder climb…

I came back to reality and thought I had better climb back down, so I did. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred, which I was happy about…

I was tasked with setting up a respirator testing facility for new personnel coming into theatre, and I was issued this kit consisting of a tent and some chemicals which would allow me to conduct the tests.

I started to get pers arriving and the procedure was pretty simple. First I would physically inspect their respirator and ensure they had in-date seals. If they were out of date, I replaced them. Then I checked the basic fit on their face, and the state of their canister. If that was all OK, I proceeded to the next stage.

We would both enter the tent, which was fairly well sealed. We would then put our respirators on. I would then release a chemical vapour into the tent, and basically, if the test per felt OK, then that meant their kit fitted properly. If they started to get runny eyes etc, then it didn’t and I would take them out and test and adjust until we had things sorted.

I only had a few pers that needed major adjustments, including one bloke who for some reason had been issued the smallest sized S10, but he had a head like a planet…! Fortunately I had some spares and sorted him out…

The only major issue I had was with a Spec Officer, a Doctor, like a medical doctor. He was Army, but had a beard for religious reasons. I told him straight that the S10 would not seal with a full beard, and that he’d need to shave it as he was heading north to Basra, and we were at this time still concerned with a CBRN threat.

I was a mere SGT and he was a LT COL, so he proceeded to inform me that he didn’t need to wear a respirator and that he would be fine… Classic Spec Officer… I couldn’t be bothered arguing with him. I just thought “what’s one dead Spec Officer…?” I did however file a report, just to cover myself in case he found himself in the middle of a chemical attack, somehow survived and then tried to blame me for a poorly fitting respirator.

Obviously that never happened and I never saw or heard from him again…

You might have seen these before, the famous, or maybe infamous (!) ‘Most Wanted’ deck of cards. I THINK these were originally issued to US SOF teams as an easy way to ID high-profile POIs. I think I picked these up at a US base somewhere in country. Either way, they are a timely indicator of who was being looked for.

 I remember when ‘Chemical Ali’ was found, man he was a crack up! He reminded me of a Geobbles or Goering type character. He’d be on the news at the start of the invasion and ground war saying things like, “There are no US forces in Iraq”, “There are no bombs falling on Baghdad”, you know the thing… It was classic head in the sand stuff, and obviously no one in Iraq was buying it, especially not those where the bombs were falling…

This one is the inside page of my FMED 965 - Operational Medical Record Card, and it’s interesting for two reasons. The first one is it shows me the date I flew out of Iraq, 13 May 2003. Just over two months after Matty’s death. The second one is it states I had received a ‘Relocation Brief’ on that date.

This ‘Relocation Brief’ was Army-speak for a psychological debrief that I had received on that day, 13 May. I remember that event well, it went something like this: 

After over 6 months of being in theatre, having seen my mate killed, been bombed and shelled and witnessed things I can never forget, I, along with around two-dozen others, was sat in a tent, at the edge of a temporary runway, with a Herc with its engines running not 100 feet away.

In comes this Captain, who tells us he’s a Field Psychologist and that this was our opportunity to discuss anything we had seen or done that we might think may affect us in the future. To a man, we all looked at each other with the same look in our eyes, ‘No one say anything, all we want to do is get on that Herc’. So, no one said nothing… After repeating the question and the longest, most uncomfortable silence ever, he said, “OK, cool, have a safe trip home”, and left.

THAT was the sum of my psychological debriefing. And yeah, it was 100% ineffective… I know things are different now, back then, that was as good as it got. And that was better than I had had in AFG 18 months previously where I didn’t even get that…

No wonder I am a bit squiffy… Better than I was tho, thanks to the support of my family and friends, and for that, I think The Lord.

Right, that’s all for this week. I will try and get some actual modelling done next week…! 

As always thanks for reading, and for your supportive comments, Stay Frosty 🥶 

Things that make you boom?

They're so stupid. Nearly 20 years ago, at the Tank Museum at Bovington I wanted to stick my head in the barrel of a Sturmtiger that they have there. It's that big that it'd fit my sizeable melon. But I've wanted these in a Flames army for ages so here we go: 

 

So first off, this is not the most fun kit in the world. I love the fact that the two hulls are unique with some little details like missing tools, open hatches and similar. I elected not to build the one reloading as that seemed more for a diorama than for tabletop use.  

This was also another random camo scheme - I've been finding that if I just google patterns, I find something I want to paint. As much as I've refused on some of my LW German armour, I am enjoying painting a few interesting camo schemes that'll drop in amongst an army that will mostly be dunkelgelb. I went pretty light on the foliage as it didn't make much sense on a beast like this! 

Early War Begins...

I can't imagine ever using these in Late War but if there's anything more iconic than the Stuka in Early War, I'm not sure what it is. So I bought and painted some! I spent a bunch of time finding an interesting camo and marking scheme which hasn't shown up super well in the photo because dark green base coat with a darker green geometric pattern doesn't... 

I've got a few more things on the plate and then the Panzer Is and Panzer IIs are coming out of the box to start on the mad effort that will be completely repainting my EW Germans. 

There are a few who might note the tail insignia are wrong and what should be on there is not what's on there. I reserve the right to not put that noise on anything, historical correctness be damned. There's no reason to put that into the world. So I've put some spare Balkenkreuz on the tailplane instead to keep a marking on the tail.  

Next Time

Practice games with my new Knights I suspect. I've got some part-finished Waffentrager on my desk but I haven't decided what kind of camo to do on them. The same ambush   

...and the decisions weren't the worst...

This blog starts just for one reader. Local gaming stalwart Kenny was giving out little 3D printed models at ValleyCon earlier this year and he handed me one and said he expected to see it on the blog. So here we have one very very cute Stone Troll who now lives in a small pot plant in my living room:  

 

 It was a lot of fun to paint. I have this model in 28mm and I enjoyed doing this one in whatever scale this is. 20mm maybe? Kenny did a stunning job on the print - the details are super crisp and clean. It was an easy paint. 

And the Lancer! 

It is done.  As are the new legs on the Castigator but photos of that anon. I've had a frustrating time with yellow as I have done every time I've painted models for this army but I'm well pleased with how it's all come out. I think I'd like to add some lightning bolts between the emitters on the shield to fill it out a bit more.  

 

 My favourite bit of the whole model is, weirdly, the pennant hanging off the lance. GW intended this model to be front on   with the lance pointing straight ahead. No, says I. I wanted this defensive, hoplite-style pose and that meant the penant wouldn't work. 

So I've been staring at that pennant for like three weeks and a couple of days ago, I had a brainwave and it's worked out really well. The fact that it's the same pennant as the one hanging down in the centre made me happy. 

Photos of the full force next club day when I have enough space and enough light. Late on a midwingter Sunday was optimistic because I gave the Errant a tidy as well while I was at it. 

Next Time

Back to the 15mm train. Got some Sturmtigers and Waffentrager screaming for paint. Maybe even the Stukas that are sitting here tormenting me....