Deluxe Ogre & GEV

   

I've sold my Lumix DMC GF-1 to my friend Roger who then turned around and surprised me by giving me these two deluxe set of Ogre and GEV.  I was gob smacked as in bowled over by his present.  It was exciting to open up the boxes and check out the original circa 2000 castings of the super heavy tanks that have minor differences to the later production runs.  The infantry in both sets are very welcome too, because while one can still get then from Steve Jackson Games the prices are beyond my current means.  And of course I now have another Mark 3 Ogre and two more metal command posts, which I think are nicer than the later resin versions because the details are clearer.

So expect to see more Ogre/GEV miniature goodness soon.
  

Sylvia Anderson RIP

 

Sylvia Anderson has died.  Another one of my childhood icons, along with Gerry of course, who I mentioned when he passed here.  Sylvia voiced Dr. Venus in Fireball XL-5, Marina's telepathic voice in Stingray whose theme still triggers excitement in me, Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds, and Melody Angel in Captain Scarlet.

What can I say that hasn't been said by others.  Gone but not forgotten.  FAB.  Stingray theme, play it loud, and listen to the excitement.

 

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.
   

40 Megapixels Quick Test Shot

Picture taken with my E-M5 Mark II, Hi-Res mode 9216 x 6912, ARGB, with M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8. Auto WB, Auto exposure, ISO 1600, 1/5th of a second at F4.  RAW 100mb image processed using SilkyPix version 6.1.25.0. This is a 2939 x 3083 TIFF cropped down to make a 1050 x 1102 JPEG.

As you all may have read I have a new camera. If you haven't, and this news comes as a surprise, then click here.

I had been dipping in and out of Darrel Young & James Johnson's book Mastering the Olympus Olympus OMD E-M5 Mark II for a about a week after getting my new camera. The book isn't what you call light reading, but made myself I sit down and read it from cover-to-cover, though I will freely admit I skipped parts that were of little interest to me for example, film, art effects and scene's.

I placed a number of Post It tags and even labelled them for later quick access.

So, after a morning spent in bed reading, with both the book and my camera next to me at hand to run through the instructions, I set my camera with all my settings as MySet 1. After that I programmed the Mode dial so the Art setting now turns on the Hi-Res mode as MySet 2, which felt awesome. Needless to say by the time I had finished setting up all the menus the battery needed recharging.

Then I befuddled myself by changing my mind and turned off the Hi-res mode, and it's not exactly intuitive that you have to go back into the menu and turn it on again when it seems to show it is set to on, but is actually off. After a couple of days of anxiety fretting what I had done to my new camera, fears of having bricked the Hi-res mode, I re-read the manual and was able to switch the Hi-res mode back on.

Next I will be doing a shoot off to compare my E-M5 Mark II against my old DMC GF-1.

TL;DR:  The image was taken under a 60 watt bulb with the lens opened up and a really slow shutter speed. The big takeaway is the larger file size means a bigger image.

More Archery

 

Look at the concentration, but my elbow is only just high enough and fingers are not under my jaw line.  So much to have to remember.

Back here I first talked about starting archery.  Having now finished my beginners course, I have advanced to the intermediate course, which is far more informal but still involves my coach Sailesh coming around and making comments about my form: as in my posture as I pull and release the bow.

Still, I know I've improved because I this week I was able to consistently hit the target at 40 yards.

We've also signed up for the May second St.Georges day shoot, so I need to practice my form and work towards upping my poundage.  When I started in November I was pulling 14 pounds.  I went up to 16 just after Xmas and this week I was pulling 18 pounds.  All done by adjusting the limbs on my bow by a process called tillering.

NB: You can see one end of six arrows I shot here.
  

Camera Upgrade

My new Olympus OMD EM5 Mk2 Titanium.

After nearly five years of using my Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 I'm upgrading my camera system.  I got this as a present from my partner for my birthday, which is today, and is a significant double-digit number. I've been spoilt rotten and I love her for it.

The last time I talked about upgrading my camera system was here. This is a big deal, because photography is a thing for me, like breathing is a thing – can't live without it.

Anyway, my new micro four thirds camera normal resolution is 16 megapixels. Lots of reviews on the web. But, what attracted me to it was the fact that it can take 40 megapixel still life pictures through a clever multiple exposure trick that moves the sensor between shots.  

It's a good thing. Especially good if one wants to take high resolution pictures of small toy soldiers.

The difference between my new Olympus OMD and my old Panasonic Lumix is that the latter was a digital camera, while the former is a computer that takes pictures. Colour me over excited.  

Fortunately, I have an after market manual to help me learn all the functions, and I can't wait to take some pictures with it and post them here.

So far, I managed to set the time and date. As the saying goes, I may be some time.

Jovian Chronicles

 

Over on Fire Broadside! there's an interview with Robert Dubois from Dream Pod 9 about new their exo armor miniatures for the Jovian Chronicles game.  

Colour me excited, because Gundam space battle games are few and far between, and Jovian Chronicles is meant to be rather good. So I'm keeping an eye on the new releases and given that I now have a part time job I may be int he position to buy some in the future.

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.
  

Odds & Sods

Magnets strong enough to hold even the heaviest figure.

I've been painting, but I don't have a lot to show, as in progress is being made that probably can't be seen from one photograph.  In short, more colours on the models but I still have a way to go to finish them.

However, I did some necessary upgrading on the magnets that I use on my corks to hold said models.  I know it isn't much, but it was still work to get them done, driven by the fact that one of the heavier models fell off and got damaged.  That sucked.

I've also run up a chassis for my future M2184 HUHMMT truck, but stopped working on it for the time being, because I want to finish painting some mecha.  See, a circular process of not getting much done by not completing any one project in a timely manner.  Ha!