Combine & Pan Euro Laser Towers

A little over two years after Don Hawthorne kindly sent me these, I've finished assembling them, slapped on some paint, and I've now managed to take some pictures as proof of completion.

It's super nice to now have laser towers for both the North American Combine and Pan European Federation.

I still have a number of Ogre miniatures that need painting, but I've managed to acquire a Vulcan Ogre, which is missing some parts, for my Ogre/GEV collection/ plan of world domination to come to fruition.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

OMWB: Laser Towers for Ogre/GEV

I received the Combine laser tower set as a gift, and like lots of projects, it has taken me more time getting around to them than I would've liked. I ran out of spoons, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I decided to base them, and I took the opportunity to base my two original Pan Euro ones at the same time.

I also magnetize the new towers allowing the turrets to swivel, but skipped doing the same to the old models, because I didn't want to damage the paint and touch up any damage.

Far too much faff.

The Combine towers are primed so now all I have to do is figure out how to apply the colour scheme I use to these buildings.

North American Combine Laser Towers

Don Hawthorne very kindly sent me this. I'm overjoyed to acquire these, which brings me one step closer to completing my Ogre/GEV collection.*

One of my favourite wargames ever.

I shall get these painted as soon as I can clear my workbench of the current models I'm working on. I only now need to find an Vulcan cybertank to complete my Combine force.

*And with it total world domination.... muwhahahaha!

Plastic Ogre Miniatures Success

  

As the KickStarter page says, "1,529 backers pledged $124,628 to help bring this project to life."

 

Well done.

 

As you can see from the picture you get a shed ton of miniatures, and can also buy them with the colours reversed: blue Ogres and red vehicles or green Ogres and vehicles.  I imagine for the majority of players they will be happy to use them as is and won't end up painting them.

 

Now the question is when will Steve Jackson Games bring out an edition of Ogre with miniatures inside the box?

 

You may not agree with me when I say that the future of the game lies in broadening its appeal with plastic miniatures, but my guess is that the cardboard version appeals to old grognards for nostalgia reasons: it's like the original game, but larger so that I can read the writing on the counters now that I'm old and can't read the original chits even with my glasses on.

 

As marketing strategies go that one is time limited.  The future lies in attracting new players to the game, but I could be wrong.  Only time will tell.

 

Still, very excited to see the return of Ogre miniatures.

  

Steve Jackson Plastic Ogre Miniatures

I'm not in the position to run with this, but I'm sure some of you who read my blog might be interested in these.  KickStarter link.

  

North American Combine Infantry WIP

I took some shots of my Combine infantry that I need to finish.  The above image used my E-M5MkII focus bracketing feature, which meant the camera took 25 pictures starting at the front and moving back adjusting the focus point.  Clever huh?

A close up of my work in progress, which made me want to finish them off.  So guess what I've been doing?

Extreme close-up of the three man squad: 8mm tall don't forget.

Likewise the two man squad.

And lastly the single figure representing a six man squad in the game.  These pictures are all full size crops from original image: as in no zooming in; the picture I took was really that big.
   

Nihon Mark 4 Ogre WIP

I need to finish this off but here's a work in progress shot.  This is another 16 megapixel focus stack shot, which gets everything into focus and shows up every bit of dirt and defect of the work in progress.

One problem of not keeping on top of projects is that paints dry out, and in this case the blue I was using had.  I tried getting a matching colour from Vallejo in their dropper bottles but it's not quite right.  So there will have to be an order made over the internet as my local shop no longer stocks the full range of the Miniature Paints brand.

Also, since I was given those lovely sets with more Ogre/GEV miniatures I thought a Mark 3 in the same colours to match my Mark 4 would be good. Proving once gain, that tendency of wargamers to paint more armies.  Perhaps we should start Wargamers Anonymous: I am an toy soldier addict and it's been three weeks since I started a new army etc.
  

Pan European Federation: 7e Brigade Blindée (BB 7)

  
I'm renaming my French Pan European Federation 7th Demi Brigade Légion Etrangère to 7e Brigade Blindée, "Force et Audace" (in English 7th Armoured Division motto Strength & Daring), because a Legion force is primarily infantry that are deployed to former French colonies, and I want to field an armoured formation.  So I've based my organization on the current 7e Brigade Blindée strength, but I added a squadron of Hussars to the command, which means the brigade will be made up from the following regiments:

1er Régiment de Chasseurs (1er RCh)

Doppelsoldner and Fencer from the 1st Battalion.  One more Fencer to be assembled and painted.

A Mark 3 from the 2nd Battalion.  The rest of battalion has yet to be assembled and painted.

The cybertanks will be organized into two Battalions of three Ogres, with each Ogre counting as a Squadron.  The 1st Battalion will have one Doppelsoldner two Fencers, and the latter can be fielded as either the A or B model.  The 2nd Battalion will have one Huscarl Mark 5 variant and two Mark 3s.

4e Régiment de Dragons (4e RD)

Four Squadrons of three Troops: Two squadrons of 12 x Heavy tanks, one squadron of 12 x Light tanks, and one squadron of 6 x Super heavy tanks (one troop from each squadron shown, I have a number of models waiting to be painted).

4e Groupe d'escadrons de hussards (4e GEH)

Four Squadrons of three Troops each consisting of: 12 x GEVs, 3 x GEV-PCs and 3 x infantry platoons (this is one of two squadrons I have painted, with two more waiting to be painted in due course).

35e Régiment d'Infanterie (35e RI)

Four Companies each consisting of: three infantry platoons, two GEV trucks and four LGEVs.

152e Régiment d'Infanterie (152e RI)

Four Companies each consisting of: three infantry platoons, two trucks and three Light tanks.

8e Régiment d'Artillerie (8e RA)

Two Batteries of five Mobile howitzers (the other battery still waiting  to be painted).

 1er Régiment d'Artillerie (1er RA)

Four Batteries of five Missile tanks (only two batteries shown as rest need painting).

54e Régiment d'Artillerie (54e RA)

One Battery of five Howitzers and one Battery of five Cruise Missiles.

Apart from the nominal inclusion of a command post support formations are not needed for most Ogre/GEV scenarios, but I have models to represent logistics support (trucks) and air defense assets (laser turret/towers) that the Ogre/GEV rule set supports for the following formations:

19e Régiment du Génie (19e RG) (engineers and recovery vehicles).
7e Compagnie de Commandement et de Transmissions (7e CCT) (signals).
Batterie de renseignement de brigade (BRB 7) (intelligence).

 Finally, I will put my spare Ogre into a recon regiment.

Escadron d'éclairage et d'investigation de la 7e Brigade blindée (EEI 7) "The eyes of the general"

One Mark 2 Ogre for light recon work.

Notes.
Nomenclature: Troops = Platoon, Squadrons = Companies
   

Shadow of the Ogre

Little Big Ogre.

I snapped this shot while trying out my new camera and while the picture has many flaws I was struck by the shadows that mimic the Ogre artwork by Steve Jackson Games, though theirs is a Mark 5 casting a shadow.
   

North American Combine 2nd Heavy Armour Brigade Combat Team

In the process of answering my friend Clive's question of why I brought so many miniatures to Blast-Tastic, the answer here, inspired me to finally got me working on naming my North American Combine force.  I finally decided that they will be called the 2nd Heavy Armour Brigade Combat Team.  In my mind they will be from the 7th Army's, 3rd Division.

Got have a name for ones armies, it makes them feel more connected to history.  The heavy description appended is made up to to account for the presence of Ogres.  The 2nd HABCT will consist of the following elements:
  
  
10th Battalion, 77th Ogre Brigade "The Red Eyes"

4 x Mark 1 Ogres (I still have to get around to painting the other three Mark 1s that I have).

3rd Battalion, 35th Armour Regiment "Conquerors"

2 x Company's each consisting of 4 x Light tanks, 8 x Heavy tanks, and 2 x Super Heavy tanks.

3rd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard"

4 x Company's each consisting of 4 x GEV-PCs, 4 infantry platoons & 3 x Light GEVs.


1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment "Fighting Sixth"

3 x Troops each consisting of 8 x GEVs and 4 x Light GEVs.


2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment "Proud Americans"

4 x Battery's with 4 x Missile tanks in each (showing three of the four batteries I have painted).

In the US Army each brigade also has a small support formation, but as in most games of Ogre/GEV these will only need to be represented for specific scenarios.

Though I won't be fielding models of all the HQ elements,  I do have four models, one for each of the non-Ogre Battalions.  I will also have some models to represent logistics support and air defense assets in the form of hover trucks and laser turret/towers that the Ogre/GEV rule set supports.  In addition I plan to make some recovery vehicles, also  if I ever get a model of a Vulcan Ogre it will be assigned here.  So nominally attached to the 2nd HABCT will be the following:

555th Engineer Brigade

74th Brigade Support Battalion

In addition, I will have models to represent the 3rd Division's artillery brigade, usually abbreviated as DvArty.  As an aside the troops on the ground often refer to DVArty as DimArty, which is no doubt coloured by their experience of calling in artillery support:
   
  
C Battery, 1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment "Tiger Brigade"

1 x Battery of 4 x Mobile Howitzers.


B Battery, 3d Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment "United We Stand"

1 x Battery of 4 x Howitzers.

C Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment "Viking"

1 x Battery of 4 x Cruise Missiles).

When deployed on the offensive the brigade combat team will be allocated a Slice of the divisions support assets.  This will be more Ogres as follows:
   
  
1st Battalion, 77th Ogre Brigade "The Red Eyes"

1 x Mark 6, 1 x Mark 2S Ogres.

3rd Battalion, 77th Ogre Brigade "The Red Eyes"

1 x Mark 5, 1 x Mark 4 Ogres.

5th Battalion, 77th Ogre Brigade "The Red Eyes"

1 x Mark 3b, 2 x Mark 3 Ogres.

Finally, to round out my force, I will have one Ogre Ninja, which I'm going to assume is an asset attached to the 7th Army's, 3rd Division:


2nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 66th Military Intelligence Brigade "The Eyes of Intelligence"

1 x Ogre Ninja.

Many thanks to Owen for helping me understand modern US Army formations.
  

Pan Euro Huscarl WIP Update

I've been a bit distracted with other stuff over the last week.  First off I was spending time with my partner who was using up their annual leave allocation.  So we went shopping, ate out and hung out with each other, which has been very nice.  I also managed to sprain my wrist, which is still very painful, and it has also slowed me down a bit.

However, here is an update on the progress I've made in reshaping a standard Mark 5 Ogre into a Huscarl, with nods to the original Martian Metals sculpt.

So here are  pictures of the right and left side showing the changes made to the shape of the sloping armour, which you can compare to the original Martian Metals casting here.  I cut-off the anti-personnel mounts before doing the all this, and when I'm ready I will glue them back on in their new position.

And a shot from the rear that I think emphasizes the angles of the side-armour better than the shot from the front.  The next step is to work on the rear missile bins by making them into something approximating the half-round casings on the Martian Metals model.  Everything is still looking a bit rough at this point, but it will all come together as I refine the surface finish using fine grade files.

 

So still a lot of work to go, because while filing and carving the Milliput to shape takes time, getting the finish smooth and adding details takes even longer.
  

Pan Euro Huscarl Conversion WIP

Here can be seen a series of work-in-progress shots of my attempt to revamped a standard Mark 5 Ogre into a Pan European Huscarl variant, which just may just happen to look a bit like the old Martian Metals Mark 5.  For those of you who're reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about here's a shot of the original Martian Metal Mark 5 Ogre castings.

I grabbed the above shot from the eponymous Martian Metal Mark Vb site.  If you're any sort of Ogre/GEV fan this site is well worth saving in your bookmarks.  The only reason I no longer list it in my blog feed sidebar is down to the infrequent updates, which means it tends to drift out of sight.

Here's a shot of my WIP showing how the model looks with the cut outs on the running boards and bulked up nose and base part of the tower.

It won't ever be a perfect copy because as I discovered the proportions are slightly different, but it will be pretty close.  I've decided that the tower will be modelled in the lowered position, because canonically the Pan European Mark 5s were ultimately built without towers.  So this will be an early production copy where they've just fielded a back-engineered or refurbished Combine Mark 5.

The above shot is again another grab from the Martian Metal Mark Vb site showing a side view of a made up Martian Metals Ogre.  One of these came up for sale on eBay recently and went for rather more than I was willing to pay for, besides the Martian Metals model looks pretty ropey, hence my conversion.  The missiles on the rear of the above model are either sans casing or this casting was produced before Martian Metals added the armoured casings that can be seen in the first Martian Metals miniature photo, in the lower right of the picture.

I then added more Milliput to the front end, but there's still a way to go to change the profile of the front half of the model to more closely match the shape of the original miniature.  Here's a shot showing where I am as of today.  I've done some work on the right hand side of the model (the models left side), but the left still needs carving and filing.  I added this shot to show the process of sculpting, and how easy it is to add too much filler, thereby making more work for myself.  I was looking at my computer monitor from the other side of the room from where I was working and misjudged the shape I was trying to build up.

Once the Milliput had hardened I was able to sit in from of my computer screen and enlarge the jpegs and I could see my mistake and correct it.

My intention is to finish the front end and then modify the casings on the rear missiles next.  After that I may decide to add the side plates to the tread units, but haven't made my mind up about that yet (depends on how fed-up I get filling, carving and filing.  There's an awful lot of carving and filing to be done to finish this model, and I'm slow enough that I'm all to aware of how long it will take to do.

Besides that I might get distracted by other shiny toys.  Oh look there's a Heavy Gear Jaeger miniature.  Oops!
   

Pan European Élan

I've put names on all my Pan European Ogres as a homage to French Army practice.  This is a tease for future posts about my Pan European force, more to come, but I have to paint up stuff to take pictures first.
   

Pan Euro Fencer & Ogres Assembly

Well I've started work on assembling some Ogres to complete my Pan European force.  The Fencer is awaiting clean up and assembly and shows the extra two turrets I have so that I can play my Fencers as either As or Bs.  The Mark 3 has had its tower shortened to match its sister, and the Mark 5 has been modified.

I thought I'd show how I magnetized the Mark 5.  The Eagle eyed will have noticed something hinky going on with the nose of this model, and the cut-away running board.  More to come about what my intentions are in due course.  BTW this is a lead original Ral-Partha casting, which made cutting it easier.
 

Next Wave of Ogre Painting

  

Having finished the North American Combine models for Dragonmeet I need to think about starting work on the next wave.  I have three trays worth of miniatures that need assembling and painting.

The first tray is the next lot of Pan European Federation models.  I acquired an early lead Mark 5 Ogre and later pewter Mark 3 from eBay.  Both will be modified to distinguish them as Pan European variants.  The Mark 3 by shortening the tower, while the Mark 5 will have its secondary batteries replaced with Doppelsoldner castings that I bought as spares, back when you could.

I also bought three more Jagers and four light tanks to make up the numbers I need for my renamed French inspired armoured force – 7ème Brigade Blindée Force et Audace.  I still have a largish amount of Pan Euro miniatures, mostly GEVs, maturing in my shoebox while they wait to be assembled and then painted once I've finished the current tray.

  
The next tray is most of my remaining Combine Ogre miniatures with just a handful of extras sitting in the shoebox maturing.  The unidentified casting centre-rear is an old Stan Johanson vehicle that I'm repurposing as a Mobile GEV Command Post

Finally, I sorted out the models I want to paint up to go with my Mark 4 Ogre that will represent my Nihon force (I have no idea what I'm calling this force yet, but the title will probably have the words Self Defence Force in it somewhere).  These are largely old BattleTech miniatures from Ral-Partha with the mobile howitzers converted using turrets from other sources.  I had a bunch of the old Battledroid Pegasus GEVs that are lovely looking models that will be perfect with the Mark 4 raiding scenario.  One of my old Pegasus miniatures had been a victim of a conversion to a command variant and my intent is now to rebuild it as a GEV-MCP – mobile command post (it's the one front and centre in the picture above or not as I might change my mind).

Some of you may remember seeing a bunch of other Ral-Partha BattleTech miniatures I had painted up, but stripped the paint off of when I decided to use official miniatures for both the main protagonists for my Ogre games.  Well I'm thinking about putting all the wheeled vehicles and tanks together and use them for a Chinese force.  Also my two custom home-made Ogres will in due course be stripped and repainted as independent cybertanks.  So all very exciting.

This afternoon I may well be playing my first game of X-Wing.
  

Vis Lardica 2014 TFL Painting Challenge Entry

  

These are the core of my North American Combine conventional force the 2nd Heavy Armor Brigade Combat Team.

Here are a couple of pictures of all the Ogre/GEV miniatures I managed to paint this year, which I submitted to the Vis Lardica painting challenge.  No doubt by the time you check out the link Robert will have posted them up and scored them for me (he has, I got 354 points).

I've been working on the ORBAT of my North American Combine force, which will be based on the contemporary US Army Brigade Combat Team organization.  I plan to post a piece on this once I have the photos of all the units done.  This may take some time.  Still I can enter them in next years painting contest, which will be good.

Some extra howitzers, because what's not to like about howitzers really?

Previously seen on the blog the reinforcements for my French Pan European force.  I'm still left with a shed load of miniatures to paint to finish what I'm now calling the 7ème Brigade Blindée, which again is based on contemporary French Army practice.  I had a lot of fun researching both these and the American ORBAT's and I'm compiling the photos for a blog entry on these too.

Part of my 7ème Brigade Blindée force arrayed in all its glory.

In addition, all the work I've done will go into both an article for Miniature Wargames & Battlegames magazine as supporting material for my Escalation scenario with ideas to make a ladder campaign with force morale rules too.

Finally finished after years of neglect my Mark 2S Ogre, which I originally started sculpting because Steve Jackson Games didn't do a Ninja.

And a before I finished picture for comparison.