New Entrant into the 6mm Market - 2D6 Wargaming

I was fascinated to see a new manufacturer enter the 6mm world. Or more precisely 1/285th scale. 2D6 Wargaming has released the first models in its WW2 range and very promising they looked too. I placed a small order for 3 Panther D's and 2 Jagdpanthers. They arrived this morning:

These really are superb sculpts with crisp well-defined detail. My models required almost no prep. They are certainly comparable to GHQ in quality and I am guessing will be the same size (I have no GHQ Panthers to make a direct comparison).

They are priced at £1.10 each, almost half the cost of GHQ in the UK with the additional benefit of being sold singly. 

Having made the decision to confine my new WW2 purchases to H&R in 1/300, this now presents a problem. I will acquire a Panther from H&R when I place my next order to compare the two. Lining them up against my PzIV's they appear, unsurpringly, larger than H&R but I am hoping there will not be too much difference. I have mixed GHQ AFV's with mostly H&R trucks in my Western Desert collection without any problems. 

Hopefully this will be the start of a growing successful range from 2D6 and cannot recommend them highly enough. They can be found here https://www.2d6wargaming.com/. I have also added a link to the right in my blog.

On the Workbench: 2mm French Light Infantry Brigade

Among the terrain and 6mm WW2 another Brigade base has been completed in 2mm Napoleonic. This is a light infantry base representing a 3,500 strong brigade:

Rather than repeatedly posting bases of 2mm as they are completed, I will now await until the French force is ready for action before updating the blog. It can be a little repetitive!

Other news from the workbench: I now have a number of German AFV's and vehicles painted awaiting varnishing as soon as my decal order has arrived. I had been in two minds as to whether decals should be added given the small scale. However, upon seeing some excellent examples on the internet, I have decided to take the plunge. Providing not too time consuming and the desired appearance is achieved, I may continue with this process.

The final building bases have been completed for Grissburg. They will be matt varnished tomorrow morning following which I will begin preparing the table.

On the Workbench: A late update

The real world severely intruded on my wargaming activities over the past 10 days which had not been planned! Over the last couple of days I have continued where I left off on the painting table. I also provisionally laid out the town/city of Grissburg to ascertain if I needed additional buildings or other terrain. Fortunately all was present and correct on the building front but more bases for said buildings were needed. 

So on to the present state of my workbench:

From left to right: 6mm WW2 vehicles & artillery crew; 2mm French Napoleonic Brigade base; a number of building bases for Grissburg; more river lengths 'upgraded'.

Most of the WW2 stuff is destined for my campaign battle, the landing on Rhodes. Some however, will feature in late war NW Europe. 

The bases have yet to be drybrushed and finished off with foliage etc. They are different colours for different purposes. e.g. industrial buildings base, stone bases, a central city square and bases for individual houses.

The river sections have been repainted and 'water' effect poured on (Woodland Scenics 'Water'). Trees have been attached leaving just foliage to be added.

Grissburg is tantalisingly close with just 3 or 4 more industrial bases to be completed. I had planned on giving Blitzkrieg Commander IV a try out but the events of the past week lead to its postponement. Therefore it looks like Grissburg will be next up on the tabletop. With 4,000 - 5,000 figures on the table it will satisfy my large battle itch for a while.

On the Workbench: 2mm Portuguese in French Service

A combination of family matters and ebay sales having taken over my wargames room has, disappointingly, prevented me from playing any games over recent days. I am hoping to get my final WW2 'Battle of the Camps' game onto the table soon using the new Blitzkrieg Commander IV rules.

I have though managed to maintain a reasonable tempo on the painting table. Two bridges have been completed for 'Grissburg' and another battalion of Africa Korps has joined the orders of battle. The only job left for Grissburg is to lay out the city and determine how many terrain bases I need to complete for my buildings. 

On the 2mm front a Portuguese Brigade in French service has been completed -

This represents a small brigade of 2,000. I had trouble finding relevant flags for these units and although I could have used those for the Peninsular War, I decided to merely use French flags for now.

Well it had to happen sooner or later! On many occasions I have been about to dip my brush into a mug of tea or coffee rather than my jar of water only to pull back at the last moment. Today I failed! I gave my tea a good stir while looking at my figures and it was only when my brush had a thoroughly good 'clean' that I realised what I had done. No harm was done to the brush but acrylic paint does not enhance the taste of tea! 

On the Workbench: 6mm Napoleonic Redoubts

I thought I would give a quick run through on how I completed the redoubts supplied by Total Battle Miniatures. To recap these are the medium, large and extra large redoubts. A small redoubt is also available which I did not purchase on this occasion. 

I completed the medium redoubt using it as a test for the larger versions. 

The large redoubt comes in 3 sections and the extra large redoubt in 5. Having washed and cleaned up the models I cut out bases from hardboard (not needed for the medium redoubt).

Top is the extra large redoubt with 2 large redoubts and the medium redoubt at the bottom. I surformed the base edges and glued the redoubts using PVA glue. The 6mm batteries give some indication of the size of these models.

Once dry I applied filler to the joins including to the bases blending in with the models.

Continued -

On the Workbench: 2mm Austrian Army completed

The artillery component of the 2mm Austrian force completes the army required for my forthcoming test game. Work will now start on completing the French.

6 batteries of Austrian Artillery

2 Divisions of infantry with 3 batteries of Corps artillery.

2 Divisional commanders on the wings with the Corps commander in the centre.

On the Workbench: 6mm Africa Korps

My first 6mm Africa Korps unit has been completed. It is a Rapid Fire style battalion organisation although still short of its transport and support AT gun. This will form part of the defence of Rhodes in my WW2 campaign:

The battalion consists of an HQ company (1 base), 2 MG sections, an 81mm Mortar section and 3 rifle companies each of 3 bases. There is also a Forward Artillery Observer's base. Additionally I have completed an Italian 65/17 infantry gun base.

The Africa Korps have been painted as follows (Vallejo):

Green jackets, trousers & field cap - 924 Russian Uniform. Highlighted with a mix of 924 and white.

Faded tropical uniform jackets and trousers - 983 flat earth and highlighted with 983 mixed white

Tropical uniform jackets, trousers & field cap - 819 Iraqi Sand, Agrax Earthshade wash, highlighted 819.

Figures are the excellent new Heroics & Ros based on artist card. 20mm x 15mm for Rifle platoons, 15mm x 15mm for support sections and 20mm x 20mm HQ base. 

Although the figures are excellent, I was surprised to find no figures in helmets, they are all in field caps. It is not a big issue in this scale but would have been nice to be able to mix in a few for variation. 

These will be used with Blitzkrieg Commander IV rules.