Last model of 2021 - Mordheim water pump

 The very hard to find 1/35 scale Italeri water pump makes a great piece for Frostgrave or Mordheim. Guess for which game this one is? :P

Spare teeth

Sometimes less is more. I had a bunch of slanted Dragons Teeth from Italeri spare, so some simple 10cm bases, a bit of sand and done, no need for tufts etc. 6mm SciFi game anti mech barrier, 15mm scifi roadblock, 20mm Gaslands barrier, 28mm parking barriers. Anything goes really., and covers all of my interests

Who's on guard? Part 1

I could have sworn I had picked up 4 boxes of these, but after opening all 4 boxes one was missing the tower, and 1 contained parts from another set. <sigh>

Base, tower and roof are seperate atm for ease of painting.  I'll build 2 more bases like this for the other 2 so I can build them straight away when they arrive. Also sort out 4 magnetised searchlight mounts / LMG mounts, and discuss with myself if it is smart to add sandbags on top of the roofs.

Siegfried Line, double the pleasure

Managed to make a deal for another 5 boxes of Defences afterv selling off some of my old painted work.....was it worth it? I think so.

Currently I have 90 inches of double tooth line, 6 45 degree corners and 4 90 degree corners. Last to make is 2 gates, 2 destroyed sections and 2 bulldozed sections (though I might skip the last 2). I might have a deal with someone for a load of scrap and that includes a bag of these defences, so I might be able to get it up to 120 inches in total. We'll see.

What's this then? A Trumpeter StuG IIIC top half mounted on a PSC StuG III body as I want a C Lang for my 1945 Germans. It has taken a lot of eyeballing but surprisingly little mod work to get it to fit (for the most part). The front section does have some isses, but nothing a fw lengths of track and sand bags won't be able to fix of this old banger. Other details need to be filled/fixed, but I'm in no rush with her.

Progress on the Siegfried line

Did not feel like doing more fences tonight, so grabbed my Italeri Dragons Teeth, did a few visual checks to see what worked best for me, and started cutting bases and putting them on. With my steel rules I made sure they (mostly) aligned as good as I could get them, and just tipped the corners with Tamiya extra thin cement, which is a God send for this kind of work due to the capillary action.....you don't have to toutch anything and kick it out of alignment.

4 boxes of Italeri defences have now given me 40 inches of Dragon's Teeth (3x 10 inch and 2x 5 inch) and a couple of small tooth corners. I will try and save up for another 4 boxes, so I can add 2 extra 10 inchers, 4 extra 5 inchers and cast up a few of the big tooth to make corner pieces out of that as well. Then a 5 inch destroyed section, a 5 inch bulldozed section, 2 types of 5 inch gates and 2 endcaps that are 2.5 inches and that should be enough for almost 100 inches of Dragon's Tooth. And after, or during, we will start work on the foam AT ditches to replace my, still unbuilt, EWM one which is new in the bag and can be sold.

I just need to cut a few more 45 degree pieces and maybe even 2 90 degree pieces, and put the lot back in the drawer as I have no idea when I will have the money to buy more boxes of defences. If ever tbh.

Partisan Progress and darnit, I've been banned from another shop

Well, no more Britannia for me it seems. I've been kindly asked to take my business elsewhere as Andy was saddend that he cannot give me miniatures with the standard that I'm looking for. He is disheartend by my dissappointment.

Ehm, ok. So I'm informing him of the high miscast rate that he keeps sending out in every single order since last year, with pictures and ideas about the causes (worn moulds, mould slippage, defective vents), not asking for refunds (the very badly cast Panzerjagers were a exception to that norm, and cost me way more money and time in shipping them back as I was ever refunded, but I don't even mind that) and just kept orddering again and again when I had the need for certain figures.

Well, no more it seems. I think this is a shitty way to treat a repeat customer.

So, since I've buying my kits 2nd hand, it seems it is time again to buy my miniatures 2nd hand online again then, is it. I'll enlist some of my UK friends for that though, as most Ebay sales seem to have the Ebay Shipping program, which must be the biggest ripoff on their side of the continent....12 quid shipping for a few miniatures, just cause it saves you informing customs and insurance. For inter EU shipping, which isn't even a thing, you tossers.... anyway. I've asked Chris to bid in my name on a Taliban lot and I will keep my ee on Ebay for a bit to see if anything suitable pops up.

I've switched shops straight away and I will now give Lancer Miniatures a try. I've had some of his stuff on my checklist for a while now, and when SP over at the Guild informed me they have a guy with a homing/carrier pigeon the decision was quickly made to buy that and the things on my wanted list.

Homing/Carrier pigeon you say? Yes.....

REW to WW1:

Carrier pigeons were used to transport messages. Heck, many famous pigeons were used in WW2 were used as well, so my Partisan Radio Team is getting carrier pigeons, dammit. Considering the Germans were pretty good at finding radio signals, not too far fetched of an idea so I'm sticking to it.

I also ordered a sniper to convert for the Partisans, and an officer with a raised sword to convert to a bad ass Balkan Partisan offcier, cause, you know, sword! And some other things like small 25mm and 47mm AT guns for my 8th Army.

Also, after the buyer dragged his feet for almost a month, I finally got my payment for 10 old GW publications, and exchanged the exact amount for the cheaspest Italeri church I could find. Yes, this one:

It's for the Mediterranian and the Balkans are in that area, so a nice thing to put on the side of the table (or in the middle) and make houses around it.

Piers is highly motivated atm to get his anti partisan force done and I'm highly motivated tyo get my partisans painted, with the caveat that I work much slower, but most of the guys I have are primer ready so I might get some painting done next week, I hope. I'm still woefully short of troops and support staff to make at least a viable force. Oh, and we have to add rules for mines to the Partisans.

Anyway, here is an update on my MG08 team and my Messenger / Partisan Mounted Scout Leader.

 New head for the MG08, added a scarf and a beard to hide the join. Not too bad I say.

"Fat German on a horse" as he is called, converted with new hair, a moustache and a eye patch. need to clean up some mould lines, smooth the areas where I removed the canteens and stuff, and maybe add a Ppsh in his hand, I have some PSC ones spare, just change the round ammo box in a banana clip. Actually, he would make a brilliant leader too :) ... but I have other plans for that. Piers has some Britannia spare for me, including horses, that will come in handy for him as the rest of his unit.

Spending Easter in a proper fashion, sans eggs.

Right, after clearing a bit of the atic and a lot og my hobbyroom like a rabid ferret on Red Bull, I've got in my hobbyroom this monstrosity....

...and all of this needs to be sorted, bagged, tagged and put online for sale. Of course, that will happen after Easter, cause right now is family time. And after a day spent with Kim and the kids and a guest and delivering a killer cola marinated chicken I spent some time in the hobby room with todays arrivals. Cause yes, I have bought stuff. And all of the stuff that had arrived today is now cleaned, built and based.

I received some Viet Minh, to be used as low class VC. Just sanded the bases smooth and stuck them to 1 euro cents with the exception of the LMG, that I put on a miscut 2mm MDF base. When everything has dried I can get to work on the mould lines and find a solution for their heads as every single one of them, with one notable exception, comes with a straw hat. And the bareheaded guy has it on his back...... So I need to find somesuitable heads and use Oyumaru on those to get some proper heads, and I can remove the straw hats or slide them onto their backs, but booney hats would be nice too. I think I have some of those in my Liberation Models box. All Britannia figures these, rather nice, and they should look fine with some work.

The tents, firepits and well are from this set:

The set is from 2010 but easily found on Ebay, not so much in local stores. Not that I need more then 1 set now. Built in all in less then 30 minutes, then some cleaning after the glue had set, cut bases, added and and aned the tents sides smoorth. When ready it will go right in the 20mm Desert Village/City box, until needed. Really nice items, should set you back around 10 Pounds for a box.

Also found a ladder that I had made back then when Mordheim was released. It was bases straight up ona  piece of 3mm plastic foamboard I've long since given to Modhail. Removed that base and made a new minimalistic one for Morheim. I also found some really thin wood that I will use in the same manner for fences etc as it is perfectly 20mm scaled.

One of my pick ups for today from the charity shops, besides 2 more bags of very thin lenghts of wood, are a bag of beads for 5 cents, a cookbook holder which is perfect for mty book collection and a large sheet of woven grassy fabrik, and the pattern will not look out of place on a building from a county in the Pacific. The beads make very fine for sale items at the various shops that I want to build.


That is all for now folks, might be back tomorrownight with more news! Enjoy your Easter!

Italeri 1/72 Carro Armato M13/40 - a review of the wargames- and standard kit models.

With the Early War in Afrika Battlegroup book imminent, I've been looking around for suitable kits to make wrecks from (as always), and eventually ended up with 2 boxes from Italeri of the Italian M13/40 tank (and a box of the wargames Semovente 75/18 M40-M41 but that played no part in the period the book is for so is set aside for later)

If you like anymore information of the vehicle, please look here > Wikipedia M13/40

The kits come in the standard Italeri box one can open from the sides. I'll start off with the regular kit first.

Italeri kit No 7036 is actually a rerelease from the old Esci kit, and as such, comes with rubber/vinyl tracks. Getting these in the local shop might be a problem as this was released in 2006 and as far as I know, is no longer in the Italeri catalogue so can't be backordered anymore. But you never know, there still may be some in your local shop. I know they can be found on Ebay, and some of my local shops still have them. They tend to charge 10-13 euros for this single kit, but I guess I lucked out because I picked up my copy for 5 euros on the 2nd hand market.

You get 2 sprues, a decalsheet, and a set of rubber/vinyl tracks. The decalsheet is worth it's weight in gold, because sofar it is the only set I have seen that has the Australian white kangaroo on it that they used for the captured versions. I have not been able to find aftermarket set for those sofar, so this is nice to have. Suspension comes in a lot of pieces (too many if you ask me) and the turret hatches can open. According to the Internet the tracks takes superglue with no problem and they are nicely detailed.

Italeri kit No 7517 is the wargamesversion, with 2 basic standard painted tanks on the cover. The very basic machinegun on the turret and the very basic trackwork stand out, but the rest of the tank is nicely detailed.

The single trackunits make building this kit very short work compared to the normal kit. No opening hathces on this turret though, but from the looks of it the top turret box is the same so could be swapped out with the wargames model. I've seen this box online for 10-12 Pounds UK (I've seen listings that noted they had 10+ in stock), but found none with the local retailers. I found this one on the second hand market for 5 euros.

If you want a tank in your Italian forces (or a captured one for the Germans or Asutralians), you can get the wargames version and have a nice deal with these, if you can find them. If you need quite a few more, you are best off looking for the ones sold by wargames companies like EWM who do a resin and metal one for 8.50 Pounds (and sell a command version too) or Frontline who do one for 7 Pounds but is of considerable lesser quality. There are some prebuilts on Ebay as well and they go from 5-15 Pounds. SHQ sells a all metal 1/76 one that goes for 10 pounds. Britannia does one that has open top hatches and sells for 6,50 Pounds, but their qaulity can be hit/miss.

It does pay to shop around. If you are like me and only play 350-500 pts games, you'll never need loads, but for bigger games you will need a few more.

Since picking these up for use as wrecks, I've decided to keep searching locally for a few more and set them aside for a small Italian/ German anti-partisan force. So they won't become wrecks yet :)

Keeping motivated

At the moment, I'm having a hard time staying motivated. This depression casuses me to not care about anything, sleep 12-14 hours a day and when I am up I just watch Youtube videos and read Blogs and Forums all day. Painting I have not done since tuesday. There is still no date set for therapy or any kind of treatment. I have been going to the gym to train my knee, but I end up even more tired and aching (which is a good thing, that means it is working).

There were a few things that brought a smile to my face though.

Modhail dropped in lastnight, not to game or paint, but just to chat and show off the Baleful Realmgates he painted for me (and I need to sort out some more models for him as a payment).

If you ever played the game Portal you should recognise the colors used :) I like the way he painted his rock, he mixes in green, I will try that for myself soon. Modhail also marvelled at the size of the 3mm aircraft and the possibility this gives fro Crimson Skies cause now his Zeppelin looks the size of a real Zeppelin, and converting 3mm stuff is rather easy. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.

Like I said before, I hardly ever buy anything, I much more prefer to trade/swap, though sometimes I see things the scratchbuilder in me just can't pass up.

On the Oude Dozen FB page (a trading group for unwanted kits) 1/72 isn't a popular scale, most if 1/48 and 1/35 and 1/24. But this week we had a new seller with loads of 1/72 vehicle kits. I picked this lot up for 5 euros per box. 2x M3A1, 1 for my British, 1 for my Russians, a 231 and a 232 for my Germans (undecided yet what period), and 3 Esci kits that are just perfect to turn into wrecks for WW2 and Afghanistan/general Middle East. At least thinking of wrecks gets my creativity flowing again.

I also went through my recent trades/purchases box and grabbed out these 3 statues, gave them a good rub down with alcohol, sanded the bases smooth and based them. The plan is to paint them stone like Modhail does, and jewel the eyes. 1 purple, 1 green and 1 red. I have absolutely no intention of doing anything Chutulu-ish but just like the statues, and they will look nice in Frostgrave too or any other High fantasy setting or even amongst the city ruins as eye catchers. Just need to finish the edges and get them basecoated.

Right, that is a crappy pic if I ever took one. Copplestones 15mm Old One idols

Speaking of baseoating, I recently managed to trade some Kolony87 miniatures, the Governess and the Ambassador. I snipped off the tabs, cleaned them up and based them, ready for basecoat.

I'm looking forward to painting some 28mm models again, it has been ages.

All this surfing and browsing does get me quite a few bits of inspiration, and I just made a collage of what ticked my brain in the past few days.

Going clockwise.....A converted Necron Doom Scythe into a Ork contraption....this has made me search out second hand  ones straight away as I 'd love to add this to my Ork posse. A Necron head as a gasmask conversion will do nicely for my Inquisitor party. Death guard because I've collected quite a few old RT Beakies now that I want to paint up in that scheme. I even bought the official Forgeworld decalsheet for it. Expensive but at A4 size well worth it. A servitor cause you can never have enough servitors. A Kroot, purely for the paintjob as n inspiration for my own Kroot, followed by a Cultist which makes me want to combine Frotsgrave sprues with 40K sprues. And finally a nice conversion of the heavy stubber/flamer cultist into a overly large chainsaw that fits anything from 40K to Post Apocalyptic times....

Closing up, I want to inform you all that the airbrush I bought....<cough> 18 months ago <cough>.... is now on my table. I need to clear that of everything, turn a cardboard box into a spraybooth and just start basecoating figures and stuff to get a feel for it. It is not doing me any good stored in my cabinets and I paid good money for it.

Plenty of things to spike my interest and keep me going, but I know very well my dark mood can take over any minute and waste a couple of days or even a week just like that.

The Guild D-Day Speedbuild: C-47 with a twist - primed and based!

In between rainshowers I managed to get the kit basecoated in the morning, masked in the afternoon and sprayed Olive Drab just before dinner. I will now focus my attention elsewhere as I want to let the paint have plenty of time to dry and harden.

Also: Masking is fun! Not that difficult, just pay an eye out for details and press firmly. So I will be doing that more often. Tomorrow do the white, do the basic weathering, and paint a few panels in different tones. Anything else is a bonus.

Now to work on a more patriotic piece of scenery, Russian style :)

The Guild D-Day Speedbuild: C-47 with a twist - build part done!

Dead on my feet right now, but 99% of it is done with 1 day to spare. Only thing left to build so to speak is to soften the props in boiling water tomorrow to bend them all back. Landing lights I'll put in when everything is built and painted. I'm really happy how this turned out sofar, I hope my paintjob can do it justice.

That is a big piece of scenery.....

The Guild D-Day Speedbuild: C-47 with a twist - midway

Progress is slow. Antibiotics have left me drained and tired so I'm sleeping most of the day. Have today to get the build part finished, tonight to do the debris for the remaining wing parts after I give the engines a good smack down, so everything is dry thursday afternoon for the grey primer, taping it up, and then olive drab (or the English one to take the tone up) for the rest. Plenty of work.

Do remember this will be a wargames wreck so it won't be 100% accurate and I'm doing the best job possible given the deadline and what little time I have during the day. Having said that, I'm quite happy with the progress sofar and I'm looking forward to finishing the wings tonight.

The Guild D-Day Speedbuild: C-47 with a twist - startoff

On D-Day, I remarked that it would be great to have a speedbuild based on that. A couple of hours later, a speedbuild with the D-Day theme was announced!

The build is simple:

 Anything used or involved on the 6th June 1944.

If it was used in the defense, landed on the beach or dropped from the sky on the 6th of June then its good,
If it appeared or was used at a later date then it does not qualify.

No minimum requirements.

Then follows 3 days of going over ideas, sccratching them, making new ideas, etc, until I remembered just 2 hours ago I have a 1/72 C-47 that I traded recently. New in the box, very complete. I'm going to take "dropped from the sky"very literally. I've been wanting to make a wrecked Ju-52 for a while, why not combine that idea with making a start for Normandy for next year and making my first major wreck, but then with a allied aircraft that can pass for a Arnhem one as well? (yes, I know, markings and all, but at first glance it passes muster)

So, for inspiration I googled these:

Now, I cannot make them exactly like that. My Dremel and cutting tools are still *somewhere* up in the attic, so I just have some needle files, a few knives, a sidecutter and several sheets of sanding paper to get the job done. Secondly, the wreck will have to be in parts else I can't store it. Third, it is for a wargames table so it will have to be simplified a bit to prevent breakages. Fourth, this is a testpiece as well as a speedbuild. I have a rough idea how to create the texture and details that I want but I'm not 100% sure I can make it work.

So, out comes a 20 euro kit, brandnew, jay......

After a few rough cuts, snips and a bit of glue I have a wreck in 4 parts.

After examining the pictures of wrecks this is how far I'll be getting tonight. Tomorrow I will sand down all of the rough adges, I think I will cut off all of the windows as well and cut deeper into the cockpit, and find something to quickly and easily sand all of these rough edges into edges that resemble burnt aluminum. I'll also base up both wheels and the tailplane  as pieces sheared off during the crash so you can put them in the field behind it.

Stay tuned for more!

1/35 Italeri Village Fountain - it begins

Saw this model in a Mordheim Youtube battle report by Guerillia Miniature Games and recognised it straight away from the Italeri catalogues of my youth. 5 minute deal on a kit swapping FB page, 3 week wait (he had it in his stash....somewhere....then his wife was supposed to post it but she misplaced it....) and 10 minute build. Only replaced the water spout with a more durable brass tube one. Suitable for Frostgrave and Mordheim (and Warhammer, and Moderns, and WW2 etc...)

(1/35 Italeri Village Fountain....an ancient piece of plastic)

Trial runs of Frostgrave tomorrow, so I'll basecoat this one in the evening or maybe saturday, paint sundayevening or somewhere next week, then weathering. I hope to get her done really soon.

 

EDIT: Finally finished 6 years later!  Mordheim Water Pump