Ogre Camoflage WIP

 

First colour laid down, in this case purple for all, which is mostly by happen-chance, because I didn't knowingly set out to have a colour in common to all the forces.

The pink Ogre is being done in a scheme base on the Swedish splinter pattern as applied to the Saab Viggen.

Both the green and yellow schemes are differential dazzle schemes, where the placement of colour is driven by the desire to have the lower parts of the Ogre in lighter tones.

Of course the pink scheme will appear similar, because the pink is very bright, but the design is largely driven from copying the Swedish pattern. A subtle difference that pleases me, and I imagine most other will not notice, or care much about.

On looking at the above picture I think I will add some more purple to the Mark 1 Ogre, which I think needs to be darker on top.

Green, Pink & Yellow Ogres

 

Title says it all.  Sorry not to say more, but not in the right frame of mind at this moment (death in the family).

NB: Better colour corrected picture added.

The Pan Euro GEV added for those who asked about the size of the old Ral Partha Mark 4.  I had a problem with the green too, because the paint had dried up and I had to use a lot of thinners to get it useable.  Hence the change in tone between the Ogres and the GEV.

Ogre Force Primed

Today, I spent all of the morning, and a fair chunk of the afternoon watching my partner shooting in their first archery club competition. I caught the sun a bit, as the sun was shining for a change.

My intention to sit and read was lost in watching the spectacle of people shooting arrows, and the satisfying thunk sound when the arrow hits the target.

It was a bit like watching a re-enactment of Agincourt, without the unpleasantness of seeing the horses being shot. I might go along and have a go, and see if I enjoy firing arrows at butts.

Yesterday, I spent some time cleaning up my Combine infantry. Then I primed them, my Ogres and all the vehicles I showed here over the last month, too.  The first step toward having them painted for Blast-Tastic in October.

Miniature Wargames Issue 373

I got my issue of Miniature Wargames with my Ogre article in it at the weekend.  What can I say that doesn't sound like self-promotion?  Its got my Ogre article in it, enough said OK?  Above is an alternative picture that didn't make the cut.

For any SJG people reading this, especially Brian, a copy is winging its way across to you now via airmail.

PS: Ogre fans go and buy a copy of Miniature Wargames #373 now.
   

Ogre Chop Shop Finale

Here are all the cybertanks models I've posted this month showing the relative size of the models. Click on links to be taken to the page with larger pictures.

Fom front to back, left to right: the Mark 2 and behind it the Mark 3, next is the  Doppelsoldner. In front is my Mark 2S, and behind the ultra rare Mark 4 that was never released. Final two models are the Mark 1, and the Ninja.

The Mark 2 & 3 and the Doppelsoldner will be painted in my green differential dazzle scheme I've used on my conventional Pan European forces: 7th Demi Brigade Légion Etrangère, which can seen here. 

The unique Mark 4 will be painted in a new splinter scheme with Pink as its base colour.

My custom Mark 2S, Ninja, and Mark will be painted in my Combine yellow differential ambush camo scheme, which can be seen here.

These are the Combine infantry with the bases having had Milliput added. Next up I will finish cleaning up the castings, and then I will apply basetex texture paint to add some texture to the bases.

The above is a close up of what represents a Company of infantry under Ogre Miniature rules, where each figure equals six men. What they looked like before can be seen here.

Finally, a surprise bonus picture of my Combine armour that I have been working on.

Doing these meant I didn't get around to assembling the armour for my new Nihon force, which I presented earlier in the month. All the turrets on the tanks are magnetized too.

So, the next step is to prime this lot up, and then start putting down the base colours.

I've been thinking about the game a lot while assembling this force, and listening to Meeples & Miniatures, and the thought occurred to me that in the bigger scheme of all things wargaming that Ogre games are really not that large.

By that I mean if you play the largest scenario, Body Blow, one is only required to field 150 armour units and 75 infantry for the Pan Europeans, with six Mark 3s, two Mark 5s, 40 armour and 50 infantry for the two player game.

The three player game, with two people commanding the Pan Europeans ups them to 160 armour and 80 infantry, and that is that.

By the standards of large miniature wargames this is small beer, and I can't help but think that if Ogre Miniatures sales were limited by the small amount needed to be able to play the largest scenario.

OTOH I may have a rather skewed perspective here, and in all honesty I am not a large game player, much preferring smaller actions, rather than trying to re-fight Kursk in one-to-one scale as my friends once did.

Ogres in the Chop Shop: Combine Mark 2S Custom WIP

To give you some idea of the size of my scratch build here it is next to the official Ninja on the left, and next to my Pan European Mark 3 with the tower cut down the on the right.

As you can see my Mark 2S is shorter than the Mark 3, and shorter and dumpier than the Ninja. When I checked it's wider than the Ninja, and narrower than the Mark 3.

And here's my model next to a SJG Mark 2 Ogre. The Mark 2 is a lovely little model in its own right, but I don't feel it has enough of what I would call the Combine look about it.

It looks to me to be something the Pan Europeans would do with the Mark 1 templates to produce their own Ogre variant, but I recognize that is just my opinion on this matter.

Finally, here's my model showing some work I've done on my long dormant custom Ogre project, which started off as a Ninja, but after the official one came out my model went on the back burner.

Now it will represent a Mark 2S, based on Henry Cobb's stats. I've cleaned up a couple of areas that needed to be tidied up, and I have added some panels to give the model some extra detail.

This is pretty much close to finished, though I've not represented the anti-personnel batteries.  I'm just not sure how to do them.

Ogres in the Chop Shop: Combine Mark 1

I now have three of these, with another on order from SJG. This is the first one I've made up, and the plan is to be able do the whole four Mark 1 Ogres attacking the command post variant scenario.

It's a bit tricky to magnetize the turret, because the casting is quite thin at the point where the magnet needs to go. As per my want I've filled in the underneath of the casting with Milliput. 

I know most people will never see this, but I will know, and to me that is what is important.

Ogres in the Chop Shop: Doppelsoldner WIP

The Doppelsoldner waiting for me to drill out the barrels of the secondary batteries. The Pan European designs are in someways more plausible designs for a large cybertank i.e: they have turrets.

However, they don't have that iconic look of the Mark 5.

I magnetized the turret too. The turret bustles hit the body fairing, so I had to gently file them, and cut into the fairing to allow the turret to rotate fully.

I didn't like the fact that the model is designed so as to join the two halves together with the bellows like projections. In my opinion, this puts a lot of stress on the casting, which will be prone to metal fatigue. 

So, I cut the projections down and put magnets in them.

 

I didn't go the whole fill the body cavity in with my Doppelsoldner, because look at the vast cavernous space I'd have to fill. So, I just built up lips to hide the lack of an underside.

Interestingly, the Fencer has a lip on the rear of the chassis and doesn't require this modification to hide the fact that the casting is hollow.

Salute 2014: The Bloggers

 

I went again this year, which considering how I felt at the end of last years show that I blogged about here, might come as a surprise, but as they say what a difference a year makes. Last year I was recovering from not having my contract renewed, and not realising how burnt out I was from my job, this year I was a totally chilled pussycat.

So, I arrived fashionably late at 11.45.  

No queues, no fuss, no muss. Straight through the door like some VIP. Started walking the show. 

Bumped into people, pretty much everyone I wanted to meet bar one; so a big hi to John Lambshead who I missed seeing. My plan was that we would meet en passant, we would bump into each other at the bloggers lunch time meet, or Plan B; I would have you called on the tannoy. Plan B failed, because it was broken, and so ends a sad tale.

Still I met up with Tamsin, who will definitely try and come around to my place this coming year, so we can break the "we only meet at shows" friendship thing we have going. She has her Salute Loot post up on her blog here.

Met up with Richard & Nick from TooFat Lardies, John & Mel from GZG. Talked to Henry about the upcoming seven page Ogre article that is going in the next issue of Miniature Wargames. Said hi to Dave at Caliver Books, the guys at Pendraken, got John Treadaway to sign my copy of the Crucible.
Then I hung with all the cool bloggers for my fifteen minutes of fame.

 

 I bought two things at the show, and I was given  one present. 

Thank you Graham, from GRAMODELS, who made me a periscope for me. Not painted as he wasn't sure what type of camo I wanted, woodland or urban.  Me I'm thinking fluorescent orange or pink, because I know the first thing that will happen when I lay it down on the table is that I won't be able to find it.

The show felt different this year, which might be down to the lack of the bring & buy stand, or any number of other reasons one might think of.  

Whatever, I don't know, but I did enjoy the show, which I think can be put down to prior planning prevents poor performance.  In this case taking the right glasses with me, wearing a small rucksack to distribute the weight, and wearing comfortable shoes.

So, goodbye Salute 2014, and hopefully I will see all my blogger friends again next year.

North American Combine Infantry WIP

 

To end week three of Ogre miniatures here are the 6mm Combine infantry figures I've based. I need to texture the bases next, and then I'll be another step closer to completing the miniatures to run the games of Ogre at Blast-Tastic! in October as announced here.

I guess that makes that official then. You heard it here first.

 

Each base of three figures counts as a platoon, and I have based some figures as one's and two's for casualty accounting. The above represents three Company's worth of men.

This is equivalent to a Battalion sized formation, and as I have the same number again this means I'm fielding what can be called a short infantry Regiment. 

I haven't a clue what to call my new Regiment, so any suggestions for a name will be considered.

Perhaps I need two names, one for each Battalion as the US Army names its infantry formations differently to British conventions. I shall have to go away and do some research.