Hi all. I've been interested in BKC for years but always spent my hobby money on other things. Last fall I got a 3D printer and tried printing a few tanks in 1/285 scale. They turned out ok but I was focused on other things and learning how to get better prints. About a month ago I found some British infantry on Thingiverse and tried printing them with my Creality-CR6 dialed in better. They actually printed although not always the best quality. Bang! Off to the races. Bought the rules and a bunch of the Micromark lists for Canadians (I'm from Canada) and germans in NWE and nearly every spare minute since has revolved around BKCIV.
I've made up lists for all the Canadian forces in NWE in the style of Micromark's BKC lists based off his earlier Canadian lists without the stats and BKCC43 3rd Canadian Assault Division list. I've spent a lot of time searching up (and modifying if necessary) free stls of all the equipment for the Canadians and 12th SS. The 12th SS might not have been the best choice for a starter army to play against but they had lots of variety for equipment. I've been churning out cheap and fast terrain from foam and paper and keeping the printer running on minis and a few terrain pieces. I've even managed to finish painting a large part of the Canadians and some of the Germans. On top of that we've had nasty -30 degree weather so the kids weren't in school the last week so we've been playing a game every day or two. Starting to think we've got the basics down and every game is getting larger and with more rules added in.
We've worked our way up to playing with roughly a battalion of infantry per side with support and are now using the campaign chart and scenarios from the rules. We play using the points but pick our units from the lists we have. So I've been using the South Saskatchewan Regiment (most of the locals served in it) along with a chunk of the Brigade and Division units, a company of tanks from the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade and some 5.5" guns from 2nd Canadian Corps. And losing every battle due to very tough opponents, tactical errors, rule's errors and terrible dice rolling for artillery and air support.
At the moment the only thing we've changed from the official rules (other than unintended mistakes) is we're using half sized templates for offboard artillery and air support. My minis are on 25mm x 20mm bases for the most part and the templates seemed ginormous. Later on read the optional rules for artillery templates so was satisfied with our choice. Because I can print out everything I want or need came up with a basing system to help us recognise things easier. Plain infantry are 4-5 men on the 25x20mm with the long edge forward. Mortars and mgs have the same bases. Tanks, vehicles and all manners of guns are on the the same sized bases except with the short edge forward other than a few things that needed bigger bases. Recce, FAC, FAO and snipers are 2-3 men or a vehicle on a 20mm round base. Company HQs are 4 men or a vehicle on 25mm round bases, Battalion HQs some officer types and vehicles on 30mm round bases and the CO a tank or vehicles with officer types on a 35mm round. If anybody is interested in wat I'm doing there's a thread with a lot of photos on TMP under the 3d Printing and 6mm WW2 sections.
Enough typing for now. I'll be back with questions sometime soon I'm sure.
Welcome to the forum, Zinkala.
I will issue my usual warning to newcomers :)
The forum is home to people who are warm, welcoming, well read, well informed and well intentioned but frequently well weird and wacky! :D
Expect requests for pictures. Most here are grateful for the inspiration and very supportive of efforts whether they are reminiscent of the efforts of Michaelangelo or Mickey Mouse!
Sounds like you are getting on well with the rules but there are plenty here to help out with any queries.
Cheers!
Quote from: Ithoriel on 13 February 2021, 04:56:41 PM
The forum is home to people who are warm, welcoming, well read, well informed and well intentioned but frequently well weird and wacky! :D
Hello.
I will add my usual "photos please".
Big fan of NWE. Canadians vs 12th SS is a classic of the campaign. I went for Guards Armoured vs Pz Lehr.
For NW Europe of course Mickey Mouse may be be quite appropriate!
Quote from: Ithoriel on 13 February 2021, 04:56:41 PM
Welcome to the forum, Zinkala.
I will issue my usual warning to newcomers :)
The forum is home to people who are warm, welcoming, well read, well informed and well intentioned but frequently well weird and wacky! :D
Expect requests for pictures. Most here are grateful for the inspiration and very supportive of efforts whether they are reminiscent of the efforts of Michaelangelo or Mickey Mouse!
Sounds like you are getting on well with the rules but there are plenty here to help out with any queries.
Cheers!
I've never had a problem with wierd or wacky but can't stand impolite so I think we'll make out ok. I consider myself a decent painter although I'm much closer to Mickey Mouse than Michelangelo. For these guys I'm going high speed low detail all the way. Mostly trying to make things recognizable on the table not fancy. Playing a game today against an armoured panzer grenadier battalion and going a little nuts trying to figure out which Sdkfz is which. They're mostly just primed grey right now. Finished paint jobs helped a lot with what I already did so hopefully will with these too.
fsn, Here's a link to all the photos I've taken so far. http://www.mediafire.com/folder/44q5cot7t0bmd/WW2_microarmour I haven't tried posting any to this forum yet but will when I figure out how. I've got a lot more done and partially done than what's in there. With the kids being home it's been a scramble to get the basics to play with and not much time to finish painting or take pics. I had almost zero usable terrain at this scale either but gaining quickly there too.
Zinkala, I've taken the liberty of posting one of your images.
If you click Quote (top right of this post) you'll see the tags that you need to insert an image.
Easiest way is to go to the image.
Copy the url of the image itself, not a link to the image.
Create a post or reply here (or come back to one created previously) and click on icon 3 in row two above (oddly enough it looks like a picture!) to create the tags.
Put the cursor between the tags and insert.
To change the size of the image edit the first tag to be img width=XXX with the X's replaced by the number required. 600 - 800 is usually around right.
Preview is your friend at this point though.
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a231/o6eflq8v0tk7su9zg.jpg)
Images less than 128kb can be added using the additional options button to the left and below the post.
Welcome on board 8).
Thank you Ithorial.
A pink Tiger .. that sounds so close to being right.
Interesting stuff.
fsn is this more to your taste?
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/dfbc/xcxtz73jpb1xkiezg.jpg)
When I printed the Tiger I said to myself, "Wait a minute this isn't right. It's gotta be a Panther." Was printing a bunch of Barbie doll sized things for the wife and daughter when I started going hard core on the minis so lots were pink. Lately they've been bright green and soon they'll be yellow or dark blue. Thanks Ithoriel, looks like I can do pics now.
Most of the vehicles are from M Bergman on Thingiverse. He's got an amazing number of stls in 1/100 and 1/200 scale. The 1/200 files scale down and print with no problems. The 1/100 sclae files from him and others need some work. I only figured out a few days ago how to quickly bulk them up in Blender and get respectable prints. Tiger Ace is a good source for 1/100 stls that M Bergman doesn't have. The British/Canadian infantry and crews were originally by SmallArmies on Thingiverse but I did a bunch of modifications to make them fit every type needed. German infantry and crew started as esyzman's files. I took the parts I liked, shrunk and fattened them and added a few details of my own. I designed the loyd carrier entirely by myself.
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/fa4c/w63fvc29pnyhcgvzg.jpg)
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2757/wuiutyqhy4wi599zg.jpg)
Getting very close to having all the options for the Canadians and 12th SS so have been focusing a bit more on terrain. I'll get some new pics soon. Once I finish these I think I'll start on late war soviets because I already have opponents for them. Eventually want germans and soviets of all eras and others if I don't burn out first. I'm a rancher/farmer so winter gives me time to play, summer not so much.
Welcome - have fun with us.