US army recon team + painting guide

Two recon soldiers, one with a M24 marksman rifle, both with body armor with groin protection.

I'm enjoying painting these troops more than I thought and will probably order more in the near future.
I also went back and fixed the fire team, the US flag is now facing west, camo stripes are not as dark and the tactical symbol is painted in earth colors.

The way I paint these guys is mainly by mixing various paints that I have in my collection. I'm sure you can buy proper colors to skip the mixing of paints completely, but here is how my painting guide looks like:

Undercoat models black, basecoat everything with Vallejo "Charred Brown".

Uniform
Citadel "Steel Legion Drab", followed by a wash of Warpaints "Quickshade Soft Tone ink"
Highlight the uniform with a 50-50 mix of Vallejo "Khaki" and "Dark Sand". Leave shading and such intact.
Camo pattern, Vallejo "Charred Brown", followed by a 50-50 mix of Citadel "Steel Legion Drab" and Vallejo "Bonewhite"

Combat vest/armo
Baecoat with Citadel "Calaban Green", follow up with a second layer of Vallejo "US Dark green"
Pattern is painted using Black, Vallejo "Charred Brown" and Citadel "Steel Legion Drab"

Boots
Citadel "Steel legion drab", wash with Warpaints "Quickshade Soft Tone ink"

Weapons, knee pads, elbow  pads, and everything else that is going to be black
Baecoat with Black, second layer of Citadel "Charadon Granite", wash 1-2 times with Warpaints "Quickshade Dark Tone ink"

US army modern warfare fire team

Picked up my 20mm Elhiem Figures US troops yesterday and prepped them for painting . I only bought 3 blisters, 12 minitures in total, mainly with "Brink of Battle" in mind - but I hope that the guys at the club will be up for pooling resources and give "The Battlefield" multiplayer mode a go, as I really want to try that.

All blisters are regular US army, I specifically avoided special forces. The stuff I bought was one blister with M4 rifles including a SAW, one blister of M16A2 rifles including one SAW, one blister of army reconnaissance (in some kind of 3/4 body armour). The last blister has a mix of weapons, among them a M14 designated marksman rifle.

I painted these guys to fit into the timeline of the invasion of Iraq, partially because I loved "Generation Kill", but I also have painted up Iraqi army regulars and Baath party VIP's. I also like the look of soldiers with a mix of woodland and desert camo uniform and equipment. The full woodland uniform is so damn ugly and the full desert uniform is extremely boring looking, but mixing them together makes for interesting painting and end result.

I already got a few pointers on details to improve/correct so I'll wait with the painting guide until my next post.

Brink of Battle "horror theme" demo game

Another (better organized) game trying out the new horror traits for Brink of Battle was played  this weekend down at the club. 400 points per side and one side playing an evil Cthulhu cult and the other side playing a militia of stand up members of the local community.

CULT OF CTHULHU : ELITE FORCE: 420pts    (1x commander, 3x Veteran, 2x Trooper)

“Commander”
CBT6  CMD6  CON6

Weapon:
Staff

Traits:
Abomination
Ancient Evil
Eldritch Horror
……………………………………
 “Veteran” FISHMEN
CBT5  CMD5  CON6
Weapon:
Unarmed

Traits:
Hardened
Burly
……………………………
“Trooper” Rifleman
CBT3  CMD3  CON4

Weapon:
Rifle


MILITIA :REGULAR FORCE: 426pts  Commander + 8 troopers

“Commander”:
CBT5  CMD6  CON4

Weapon:
Revolver 

Traits:
Belay order
Old Soldier
…………..
“Trooper” Magnum revolver & Sword:

CBT4  CMD5  CON4
Weapon:
Magnum Revolver 10/2/3
Sword
…………..
“Trooper” Magnum revolver
CBT4  CMD5  CON4
Weapon:
Magnum Revolver 
…………..
“Trooper” Sword:  
CBT4  CMD5  CON4
Weapon:
Sword
…………..
3x “Trooper” Revolver
CBT4  CMD5  CON4
Weapon:
Revolver 
…………..
2x “Trooper” Rifle
CBT4  CMD5  CON4
Weapon:
Rifle 

This time around the "good guys" survived the encounter and only lost a single guy. The revolver armed men were pretty much useless against the super tough Fishmen so it was up to the Magnum revolver and Rifle armed militiamen to handle the monsters.

On the other hand I put emphasis on "close combat/toughness" for the Cult this time around instead of having a lot of henchmen with ranged weapons. So the good guys blasted the two evil riflemen, and then proceeded to fire all guns at the incoming monsters. They even managed to evade the paralyzing effects of the enemy cult leader/abomination. The final result was 2 cultists dead, 1 fishmen dead and 1 cult leader dead for the bad guys, and 1 militiaman dead for the good guys.

I didn't play myself but was trying to teach the rules to one of my friends, while my other, Thomas, who was already familiar with the core game was learning how the new traits worked. Thomas was also of the opinion that Brink of Battle is perhaps better reserved for historical gameplay and that the new stuff does not feel as integrated and slows down the flow. I myself am not decided yet, though I think it is nice that Brink of Battle can be experimented with. The guys at my club are mostly using the rules for medieval and modern warfare (and post apocalypse)

I can agree  that a horror theme would require a lot more from the players themselves in terms of creating a better purpose than just fighting each other. You would almost have to craft some kind of Lovecraftian narration for each scenario so that it ends up being more about survival/mystery/adventure than pure combat.

Lunch, at the imo best buger joint in town.

Upon return to the club I took a few pictures of a Brink of Battle "Medieval" game that Fredrik was running as a way of introducing his friend to the rules. I don't have the details on list composition or points (but I think they played something like 350 points or lower). I know their battle ended with both warbands failing their morale and running home, the hand gunners were also the heroes of that battle being the ones to inflict casualties on the enemy lol.