(Wargaming) life is about making choices

It's been a busy week sofar. Monday I had my exam for Windows Office; Advanced that I passed with a 9.2/10, and I'm now looking over the next course and how this is planned. It's 8 lessons, cut in half by a 6 week summer holiday, so it would be 14 weeks till my planned exam, over 3 months! After chatting with the teacher we agreed to plan a exam on the last day before the summer holiday and see how it goes. As the course is about sales, adevertising and customer service, in which I have 10+ years of experience and a diploma from 2004, it means I will be spending quite a bit of time in the local library to study for the next 3 weeks to get it all into my system. So fingers crossed. The course after that is another 6 weeks, and I also have to pass my blind typing exam, but in theory, if all goes well, I could (in theory) finish my course 2 months ahead of schedule, so I can start the German Language course sooner as planned. Though tbh I still have not decided which one, the starter or the advanced course. I can read German, I can understand most German (be it on tv or live), my spoken German is way better then the average Dutch, but my writing skills are a bit lacking. In the meanwhile, I got a Spanish language DVD to play with once a week, just for funsies.

Right, back to the hobby.

2x M4A3 105mm guntanks for my future Iranians.....back to the past for me, if anyone remembers the ones I painted back in 2009, which got sold off when I sold my Iraqi army?

They are almost finished, just adding lifting rings to both of them in the right places and when the time comes to paint them, behead someone for the commander and maybe drop a few empty 105 shellcasings on the rear deck.

Did squat diddly building wise today. pent a good 30 minutes in the attic (always a smart move on a hot day, lifting heavy items in already sauna like environment and grabbed almost every single kit I have no need for in the near future.

That is another 50+ kist of stuff that is either the wrong scale, I have more then a few off already or are modern(ish) day fighter jets because if there will ever be a Battlegroup Modern(ish) the only likely aircraft you will see over a active battlefield are fighter bombers. A pure air to air fighter like a Tomcat or a Russian Stealth Jet is a bit pointless for the era (though I'm keeping 2 of those stealthjets to be built as wheels down versions for Black Ops games). Combine this with about 50+ resin kits, a couple of bags of metal miniatures and some painted stuff (yes, painted stuff) I have the rest of the week to bag and tag everything in one large list so it can go online in the weekend on the various groups and forums. Kim is really happy with my efforts of building as much as possible of what I want to keep and selling off what do not intend to use any time soon.

Plenty to do for the coming days. Including repairing my WIP Kursk Windmill as a knocked the fella down from a plank and one of the sails came flying off. Nothing a pin can't fix, and more motivation to get him done so he can join his brother.

30 day kit challenge! With a bit of a review too!

Took a day off to get over the stress of my Bussiness Math and (English) Language exam on tuesday (which I passed with an 8.25/10) and that started digging into my cabinets to go over my endless suplly of metal and resin kits. Well, not endless, but there is a lot. Some of it was bought when I just started out in the hobby, as well as much newer stuff.

Anyway, I've got a large box of resins and metals set aside, together with some painted stuff, that can be sold in the near future to fund future (and past) purchases.

Yes, past purchases.....

Last week, I actually bought some stuff again for a combined value of 150 euros (which I really should not be spending!)

• A once used 6x4 Quarantine Zone mousepad gaming mat from GameMat.EU. Seller agreed to 50 including shipping for a 70 euro excl shipping mat new in the shop. I have been looking for a nice Necromunda suitable one so I didn't want to pass this one up. A bit of long term planning as I don't really have much suitable scenery yet, but that can be remidied in time.

 

• A fellow gamer buddy of mine (one that actually is a teacher like me but still works as one) put up a lot of Americans and Afghans up for sale last week. I managed to talk him down to 100 euros for the lot, and as you can see from the photo's, they are more then worth it as the paintjobs are very, very good indeed. Beter then mine even, dare I say it. 56 figs painted to this level for this price is a steal, and I will cherish these. Yes, they are on 2 cents bases but that is not the end of the world, I'm the odd one out for using 1 cent bases anyway.

 Yeah, more goats. I haven't got a vlue where my painted goats are tbh, they are "somewhere" in the attic. They will turn up someday.

Civllians, lots and lot's of civillians, Great paintjobs, very colourful.

I'm not in need of US troops perse, but decided not to pass up on these as they will come in handy when I want to play with friends who don't have miniatures of their own. I like these Elhiems.

I can never pass up on contractors, especially well painted contractors/ "undercover" SF

Right, back to the 30 day challenge. It is currently the 20th day of the challenge (if my math is still correct) and I have added the following:

I got a free partially built and sprayed Airfix Spitfire Mk 1 with a kit lot a while back, so I took that from the box, removed the spinner, the prop and the canopy. I magnetised the nose and the prop, removed the blades, drilled a hole, inserted a flight plug, epoxied that plus 2 magnets into place, and replaced the canopy. Perfect for the BEF list. Which, if I had checked it earlier, would have told me that it wasn't in the list.....feg. Well, counts-as-Hurricane then it is!

SandS models French AHN truck - ordered when they were released, now finally built. Did notice mine are considerably less straight then the painted model on the shop listing, both my fueltanks are angled down at the front. One for Early War, the other for Late War. Currently10 Pounds eac . LINK

SandS models Toyota Hi Ace van - ordered when they were released, now finally built. One will be an Middle East ambulance, the other 2 generic civillian suitable for world wide usage. Currently 7,50 Pounds each. LINK

 Sgts Mess greenhouses and outhouses. I picked these up 2 years ago at Crisis I think, now finally cleaned them (not that there was any flash on the outside, these are superb castings!) and washed them with plenty of soap to get the release agent off. I've decided not to base these as to increase their usefulness on the table. The Greenhouse currently retails at 5.50 Pounds LINK and the Outhouse at 3.00 Pounds LINK and I can reccomend these highly. Superb castings for a very nice price.

Sgts Mess French WW1 Memorial. Completely different resin from the previous items,with a white metal figure, none the less a nice addition to any French town when built. I think I have some white metal wreaths in my bits box "somewhere" that would look nice, else I will use flower tufts to enhance this a bit. Currently retails for 4.50 Pounds. LINK Seeing that they do a British WW1 memorial as well, I will put one on the list for the next Crisis show to enhance a Britsh village for Sea Lion.

Sgts Mess Generic 1939 single decker bus of a typically British design. Superb casting, again, very few faults for a rather affordable vehicle. Will make a great troopcarrier for the BEF, Home Guard or even VBCW games. No idea what I will paint this one. Currently retails for 7.50 Pounds LINK

 Frontline Wargaming makes affordable vehicles, even if they take a bit of work to get up to specs due to the amount of resin bubbles and holes, and they can be a bit rough but once cleaned and painted they are very nice indeed. I can only give you the Frontline link LINK as the webpage does not have a direct link to the vehicle, and it is listed as C4 Dlivery Van at a cost of 4.20 Pounds. It must be severely overloaded though as it sits very low on the rear axle. Must be carrying explovives for the 5th Column or something.

I'm not quite sure who made this, I think Red Star? Long OOP, this is a M47 tank with questionale trackwork, and I drilled holes in the barrel to make it look like the real thing. It's going straight into my Yugoslavia box as I have seen some used by the Bosnians, but I will most likely make it as generic as possible. No idea what it cost, I know I picked this up years ago. Now finally built and based.

ICM Zil-157 with shelter. Half built and based, it had rested on top of a old resin kit that had partially melted and melted the plastic base of this truck as well. Rebased it and I am looking for spare parts  for it as it is a bit incomplete. Not sure if this will be green or sand, could go either way atm

Progress on the T-55 turret. It is magnetised and finished, I will fill the few holes when I need to paint this and all external fitting have been removed as this one is meant for a dug in or bunker mod. The wreck has been fitted with the T-54 turret, I just need to make a Oyumaru mould of the correct hatch and then I can start banging up the fenders etc.

I also based a metric shit ton of figures.

 Frostgrave Ice Gorrilla that when painted will work as a albino for the current rostgrave setting and the new one. Not sure if the base is too large though. The other large base is some kind of steroid mutant that I will put into my Big Trouble in Little China box. In the back are Copplestone Neo Soviets, a few will need helmets instead of fur hatsand will be painted up as Chinese remnants for Fallout/TNT games. The 20mm Police box is from Sgts Mess as well as the Cold Frame, both will make lovely add ons for a British table.

 I was gifted these African milita troops and based them asap. They will go into my Mogadishu box. All RH Models.

 Foundry (French) Partisans. Rather expensive for the amount of figures that you get, they are rather lovely, I would love some more of their MG teams to convert to other weapons like a Bren etc. LINK
9 Pounds for a pack of 10 figures. I might pick up another pack or 2 next Crisis and do head and weapon swaps with them.

A lot of Britannia MIniatures Taliban I bought off a friend. I know have plenty to a orther Alliance vs Taliban game. Also 2 Lancer figures, a fez weraing commander with a sowrd that will be my Partisan leader, and a WW1 British trooper with a pigeon that will be converted in a partisan for a Comms Team, he just needs a second person and I need a Oyumare cast of that pigeon to use as a base to make my own flying version to base up.

And that's it for now. Started a ton of things, but untill all the holes have been filled in the resin vehicles, they don't count for the challenge. So that is my job for tomorrow evening. Same goes for the figures, no spackle and no sand means they are not finished. So for now only the Spitfire counts!

I finally played another game btw, a solid game of Gaslands in the Memorial Zen Garden and Racetrack at Modhails place. Safe to say, I didn't make the finish line as Modhails mini gun ripped into my after I had spun out of control 3/4 along the track. I had the last laugh though as my rocket ammo ( I had not fired a single rocket) and my remaining molotovs detonated in a large fireball, destroying his car and burning off the remaining paintjob on Ozymandas his car (that I had put on fire twice before with molotovs). I really should have not given him a car with a HMG turret though, that is nasty.... Next game in a few weeks :)

30 day kit challenge! General status update

So, what's the current standing?

1.  22nd of May 2017 - 52-K 85mm AA gun - needs wheelhubs
2.  23rd of May 2017 - BMP-1 - needs hatch
3.  24th of May 2017 - 2x Polski Fiat - FINISHED x2
4.  25th of May 2017 - Salvaged truck - FINISHED
5.  26th of May 2017 - Dapol Water Tower - FINISHED
6.  27th of May 2017 - BISON - needs concrete and tarp
7.  28th of May 2017 - Salvaged ZIL-157 - FINISHED
8.  29th of May 2017 - T-55 wreck - plenty of work to do.....
9.  30th of May 2017 - nothing
10.  31st of May 2017 - Flak 88 #1 - plenty of work to do....
11.  1st of June 2017 - Flak 88 #2 - plenty of work to do....
12.  2nd of June 2017 - FT-17 (MG) - FINISHED
13.  3rd of June 2017 - Panhard 178 #1- FINISHED
14.  4th of June 2017 - Panhard 178 #2 - FINISHED
15.  5th of June 2017 - BTR-152 conversion - coming along nicely...

Day #13 and #14, I made the 2 RPM Panhard 178's. Both will be captured samples, both have been magnetised, 1 will be with the standard turret but also with a turretless option, the 2nd one a lote war one, right now as a turretless version until I can find another kit with a proper turret.

Pity the kit is shite though. Almost ACE like level of quality, bad fitting, illogical sprue build and even a armoured plate missing from the sprue and the manual (left rear door armoured louvre). Wheels look great though. 

I removed all of normal axles structure as it is shite and will break by just looking at it. So replaced with a thick bit of plasticcard and replaced the axle with offcuts of round sprue of the same kit.

I'm aiming for these vehicles:

Day #15 is a BTR-152 conversion into a SLA (South Lebanon Army) militia wrecker. This is also my entry for the Guild Build that is currently running. The main body is about done, next is detailing and the winch.

What I am aiming for:

And that is it for today (with a bit of a delay as Blogger refused to upload pictures lastnight)

Oh, and just for funsies.

30 day kit chalenge! Day #12; quick and dirty

Spending a full day with my kids alone, no wife, is something I enjoy a lot. I can just about keep up with them, though I wore them down a bit today (which is good as they need to burn through a ton of energy) and day ended with Nikki snoozing while leaning on me and Emma watching a cartoon (in a zombie like state) when Kim came home. FFW a few hours, the kids are in bed, I grab a kit and get to work. In this case the venerable HaT FT-17/MG, which isn't made up of too many parts, so a quick, trim, epoxying  the magnets in the hull and turret, glueing it all together, seeing it is skewed to one side and the top of the hull doesn't neatly close. Aw well, good enough for government work, it will be a grey German one anyway that can be fielded as a captured one with the partisans or just with the Germans. By a stroke of luck a friend has offered me a bag of Britannia Mountain troops, I just need to find some stuff in trade for it.

Magnetised turret so it can be used with foritications. Which made me think about the one I made earlier with the 38t turret. Hmm, better test that for a minute?

And of course, I have reversed the magnets....... <sigh>....so, ripped out the magnets from the base and turret, reglued them, now need to patch it all up again. While that was drying I cut loose most of the parts needed for the 2 88's, I need to remove the flap from the 88 gun shields and open it up, and find a suitable bit of wire for the FT-17 exhaust. We will see what we can do tomorrow.

And in other news, a fellow gamer is letting go of all of his Afghanistan miniatures, over 50 of them, US troops, contractors and civillians and goats, for a 125 euros. I've asked him if he wanted stuff for trade, but no, cash only this time, so bargained it down to 100 and the promise to get the money in 2 weeks or pass up on the deal. This means next week I need to put up a bag of Epic and BFG for sale to top up my Paypal again and pay up.

Bargain of the week (or month really) arrived as well, a set of Zimmeritt tools. 2 of them are too big for 20mm, but the other 3 work for it quite nicely. This means I can start updating a batch of Panzers for the cause, when I find the time to do so. Delivered to me, built and everything, including shipping, for less then 1/3rd of  the cost of a new set. Lovely.

30 day kit challenge! Day #11 already!?

Since coming back from Militracks, I spent most of the week after with my crutch and painkillers, then a day with 0 pain what so ever which was a bit odd (nice, but odd) and up to till today, a steady numb sensation with spikes in both knees, and spent most of the past few days asleep in my bed, taking the strain off them. Visited the doc today, apparently I'm doing everything right, no way am I in line for a prosthetic knee as I'm way to young, and here, try some newer, stronger painkillers, and if those don't work we will switch to opiates. Tbh, I don't call switching to stronger and stronger painkillers much of a solution, and the flyer she handed me was for sports related knee injuries "that will go away if you don't train (so hard) for 2-3 months" . Yeah..... Well, I am referred to the hospital to have X-rays taken of both knees (and not my hip.....my right side hurts like a sob but is fully functional she says). I'm not sure what good X-rays will do other then present me with another health bill I can't really afford and show us something we could not see on previous X-rays either, which is damage to cartilage....but whatever, if this is the step I need to make to be referred again to a Orthopedic surgeon, fine. Waste of time, money and resources if you ask me but I don't make the rules.

So, with most of my time spent in bed, the challenge has suffered a bit. What can you do, nothing.


Day #9: nothing
Day#10: I've started 2 Hasegawa 88's

Cut out the mounts, added plasticcard and magnets,  added magnets to the mounts and reglued them, and found my 2nd hand 88 was missing a leg...so replaced that with a bit of plasticcard. Not perfect, but it does not need to be, I can camouflage it later.

Day #11 - I grabbed the box from the attic I need for the Guild Build and that was it for today. The new painkillers do squat diddly so I can't keep my focus. Maybe it will be better tomorrow but as I have the girls to take care off all day, in this state, chances are the forecast is 100% wrecked with a slight downpour of agony. Ah well.

Just to add insult to injury, I gave up drinking soda and any kind of fluids laced with sugar in it 2 days ago and I'm really cranky, but it is for the best I guess. I'm sleeping better already so that is a nice bonus. Kim has already given me the sunday afternoon off (she'll take the kids to her mum) so I can try and make up for lost time, either starting something new or finishing the bits that need work.

Take care and I'll be back soon.

30 day kit challenge! Day #8 was a fast one!

Day #8 (29th of May 2017) was a fast one.

• 2nd Polski Fiat is now finished.
• Bison is now based and ready for for concrete and final finishing.
• Salvaged a ZIL-157 from the bottom of the bits box. It had a built cab, but broken rear axles, no headlights,, broken load bed. All fixed now, with some salvaged Blitz headlights, glue and extra reinforcing plasticcard. Plus a base. Will be painted as a beat up civillian truck, either Russian markings on the rear or just plain.

•  Picked a new PST T-55 from the recent stash, looked at some pics of one with a gutted engine bay and went to work. Needs some clean up but basically done. Will be a (recently) gutted one for any area really, no roadwheels, just a few swing arms, no engine, turret is still there but it is basically dead and just weatherd scenery for a warzone or scrapyard.

 

Looks good enough for Government work. 

Done for today, already have some stuff lined up for tomorrow but that will be a short evening as I'm meeting up with a fellow builder for a small chat.

So, on day #8 I'm at 5 items finished, 4 WIP's. Going strong :)

30 day kit challenge! Day #6 - #7 progress

Day #6 I just removed a bunch of parts from the sprue for cleaning, then blogged, then tucked in early for a change. The kids were away for most of day #7, so I made some headway.. And as you can see from the kind of work I have to do, I'm not lowbaling myself through this challenge by doing just fastbuilds or salvage jobs either!

Basic stripped down chassis. everything underneath had added plasticcard to make it wargames proof.

After the basic cab was made, another layer of plasticcard was added with the correct holes (the insides will just be painted black) and the steel plate with a pattern I could actually punch out added to the radiator.

After doing a mock up in cardboard, I cut thye card, made the holes in each panel and built it, reinforcing all the joins from the inside and some cross bars.

And this is where I am now, the blue parts are blue foam which is very easy to sand which makes making shapes like these very easy to do, even if it takes a while for the Modge Podge to keep it stuck down on the scratched plasticcard.. Now it is time to apply the thinned filler for the concrete look and then do the tarp on top of the cab and base it.

In case you are wondering what on earth I'm building, I'm building a vehicle that is commonly known as a Bison. Basically a older heavy truck uparmoured with concrete. Yes, concrete. Have a look at the Wikipedia entry for more information. >> Bison

The model I'm making is a Type 2, used by the RAF and the Home Guard, and when I saw a picture of it I was struck by the resemblance the truck has to the one in the old 1/76 Matchbox kit of Monty's Caravan. I've been on the look out for that kit for some time now as I need it as a donor vehicle for the back end to put on the Lancia and use as a (captured) command vehicle for my 8th Army. I had planned to reuse the truck either as a wreck or as a converted commercial truck, but with this idea in my head I just could not let it go and bought the kit from a local shop for the sum of 9,50 euros (so nothing like the 12-15 Pounds plus shipping that I see online) and it arrived yesterday. This is also keeping in line with the mantra that what I get in the mail, it should be built asap and not linger in the attic in a box.

Anyway, a prime example of my Ooh, Shiney! ss I don't have Homeguard, BEF or Germans suitable for the period, but it is suitable as a commentators vehicle for Gaslands and a great way to flex my creative muscle, aka my brain. I'm not planning on building any more though! :D Well, maybe a Type 1....

Right, at the end of day #7 I have started on 7 items, of which 3 are now done. If I can keep this up for the remaining 3 weeks I am a very happy man indeed as 30 kits is almost an entire shelf.!