Finnished! Our Umpteenth German(s) Added To The Club Pile

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, WW2

First the sad news, although old. Two years ago one of our members quit the historical wargames hobby. Quitting is hard. It’s harder than quittting smoking. But he did!

He’s now a member of Infinitics Anonymous – he quit Bolt Action, but he moved to the Dutch clan of Infinity players. We wished him luck. Friendly guy. Bolt Action was just not his game. Infinity is a very smart designed miniatures game, btw. A classic. Addictive.

Now the good news. When he left, he donated his 14 unpainted leftover Finnish WW2 figures to our club. Finland and the USSR were at war in 1939, and the Finnish troops fought in German uniforms against the Russians (Democratic Finland never was a formal ally in the Nazi pact, but the Finns were supported by the Germans). Until 1944, when they changed sides.

So the Finnish miniatures are ‘Germans in light grey uniforms, longcoats and white winter parkas’. These 14 metal miniatures hid themselves in my painting room. No urgency. We have a German club army already, painted 3 years ago.

But now the even better news – I rediscovered these lost figures this weekend and finally, finally, finally gave them a quick –  German – paint job. Not a true bleak grey/ white ‘Finnish’ uniform because a 14-figure Finnish battlegroup is too small as independent unit on the table. Nobody will notice. Ready!

I painted them carelessly, hastily, as fast as possible and covered all mistakes with quickshade Army Painter dip. Umpteenth German. Game models, not museum miniatures. I fully admit: they’re neither the most detailed nor the best painted miniatures that I ever – finnished – forgive me the bad pun.

At least the Nazi Schweinhunde have extra cannon fodder. Sturdy metal, some interesting poses, engineers, sharpshooter, good for the club pile.

I also found a lost US army mortar team that I will add to the club reserves.

I. Will. Beat. That. Lead. Mountain!

No Dice Rolling? Let’s Paint!

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, Horse & Musket

I hope everybody enjoys the sunny weather this week. We Amsterdam6shooters hope to reopen soon, but as you may have noticed, our requests to our government to proclaim ‘wargame clubs’ an ‘essential service’ have not been honoured. Yet. We don’t surrender.

In the meantime, just to show you we’re alive and kicking and share fun, keeping digital distance, a link to two blogs.

The Amsterdam Battle Brothers (Dino Kho’s 40K tournament organization) published a ‘TableTop Journal‘, dedicated to 40K. Incredible painting examples. A few pics, from Amsterdam gamers.

Painted by Marten Scherpenzeel
Painted by Stelios Marinakis
and Jonathan Coughlan, who wrongfully claims he can’t compete with Marten or Stelios.

I will ask Dean to share his knowledge about making ‘online magazine publishing’, so that we can make a true A6S clubzine, some day. His magazine looks good.

Beyond 40K I painted 1,8K. I slowpainted a showcase model, ‘Napoleon à Fontainebleau’. In March 1814, 207 years ago, he lost Paris. He went to his Fontainebleau palace and abdicated in April (probably thinking ‘I’ll be back’ as he did in 1815, when he found his Waterloo). I finally had time to paint this 90mm (!) miniature. Tutorial here.

Send us your pictures or post your current project in our Facebook forum. In the meantime, have fun and live life to the fullest! A true Emperor (Grimdark or Napoleonic) never abdicates, but drinks champagne!

Hey 40K-ers, This Is Dropzone!

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, Fantasy & SF

Challenge from your war correspondent. Are you ready to rumble?

Many 40K club members know me as that bald man who is always busy with his 6mm Napoleonics, too small to see for the human eye.

In fact I’m not. Yes, I admit, 6mm is a great wonderful scale and Napoleon the greatest person ever alive, even bigger than Johan Cruijff, Jesus Christ or myself – but I do have larger scales (28mm Renaissance, for example, and WW2 that I donated to the club for the common good) and I do play other eras (fantasy Conan and Frostgrave, post apoc Zombicide).

I missed the 40K-boat in the nineties, when I quit wargaming and switched to roleplay and computer wargaming. And chasing women and jobs. I alwas was in-between jobs and had a girl, or vice versa.

But that doesn’t mean that I dislike SF or hate Warhammer. I just don’t have sweet teenage memories about Space Marines or an old T’Au army that yearns to be tabled. I have teenage memories about Airfix Hussars, and a box with 1/72 Tiger and Sherman tanks somewhere.

SF wargaming is beautiful, the 40K tables that I see during club days are impressive. A couple of years ago I added SF to my wish list and I bought 10mm Dropzone miniatures, that were low on my painting priority list. I had to finish my mountains of 6mm Prussians first, you see!

In the past lockdown months however I found time to complete this project. Dropzone is a mix between 40K Epic and Necromunda (gangs fighting for objectives). I have 4 armies now and can stage quite large cityfights, with UCM (humanoid ‘Star Wars rebels’), Scourge (‘Dark Eldar’), PHR (Cyborg) and Shaltari (bugs, ‘Tyranid’). See pics below.

Post-lockdown I need opponents. I hope that SF-games like Epic-copy Dropzone, and Warmaster-inspired Future War Commander can bridge the gap between the casual non-tournament 40K-players and the casual non-40K-players who play everything except Games Workshops rules.

So I challenge my fellow club members, in particular my non-regular opponents who like 40K, to play a DropZone of FWC-wargame against me. Pictures, to make you horny: below.

Remember, btw, that I’d like to play an Adeptus Titanicus game or Kill Team. Don’t hesitate to counterchallenge me!

Bolt Action Arnhem Memorial Game

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, News, WW2

Our British friend Chris Brown yearly visits Holland to organize and umpire a Grand Table Bolt Action multiplayer game in the NH Rijn Hotel in Arnhem. We joined a game in 2016. About his annual game in 2021 he wrote us:

We are running another wargame event over the commemorative weekend at Arnhem – 17/18/19th September.  We have set up a Facebook page (link) where you can find more information and/or PM me if you have any questions.

These events are not like tournaments or conventions/shows. We prefer smaller, informal atmosphere so we limit the number of players to 50 at the very most.   Naturally the general theme is Operation Market Garden. The venue is the NH Rijn Hotel which incorporates the old Rhine Pavilion, which was a battle location in its own right in 1944; it is the Art Deco building you can just see behind the Stug, so it is right in the middle of a major axis of the battle. We can arrange rooms at the hotel at a very fair price — where else can you have your breakfast in a former battle site? The general idea is that we will have games in the evening so you can explore the battle areas by day, but if you want to spend the whole time playing that’s OK too – the gaming room will be available from about 1030 each day.
Naturally the theme is Operation Market Garden and there will be a lot of Bolt Action going on. Don’t worry if you do not have a suitable army; we will lend you one.  There will be tables for ‘standard-sized’ BA games, but also a number of large multi-player games too. We also hope to have some Rapid Fire and Battlegroup and also a demonstration of our own company-level fast-play game ‘Fire for Effect’.  The player fee is UKP 70.00, preferably by Paypal, but we can make other arrangements if necessary.  

More on his Facebook page. We heartily recommend this event!

Happy Birthday 6shooters!

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News

Seven years ago, on the first of March, 2014, our small club in big Amsterdam organized it’s first meeting in community center Pontania. Seven years later we’re still a club and still a community.

How ugly that a certain Roman warrior has spoiled our birthday party:

© Les Editions Albert René-BRUZZ | ‘Coronavirus’ is een personage in het Asterix-album ‘De race door de laars’ uit 2017

Anyway, however, nonetheless, nothwithstanding, after all and in spite of…

We’re SEVEN years old!

Before, Maarten & I had wargamed at a friend’s home in Dronten and at my home, but we missed a wargames club in Amsterdam, at biking distance. I hate to chase my wife & kids away because a group of grumpy old men wants to play with their toy soldiers 🙂 so I contacted Pontania. On February 15, 2014, after an introductory visit to the community center, we posted in the (now defunct) GWHobby forum:

I found a few pictures of our very first club meeting.

I recognize Simone, Rob and Mark, still club members, Maarten of course, a few occasional gamers (the smiling Polish girl never returned, sadly, I would have married her) and fellow wargamer Koen van den Eventuin from fellow club Hired Guns in Uden. Great guy, still! Even with the beard.

After the meeting we posted:

The GW shop gamers in the meantime organized themselves in the Amsterdam Battle Brothers club, but two years ago they merged with the Amsterdam6shooters. We have about 40 regular members now, and many occasional visitors, and excellent terrain.

When the club reopens (in April, hopefully), we will bring cake!

2021 will be better than 2020. This can’t last forever! Life seems less fun, without friends and family, beer in the sun, strolls in the park, hugs, good laughs, and, yes, a (war)game now and then. All work and no joy. I hope society will reopen in April (and never close again).

Personally, I paint a lot, instead of gaming – see the earlier Dropzone Commander report – and I play portable 2mm Napoleonic games against friends.

Eltjo and I also recently tried a 6mm Lasalle2 Napoleonic wargame. Lasalle 2 is the updated 2021 edition. Battle report below.

We hope to see you all soon in good health!