Partisan Maxim rework 99% ready

I picked up some Grubby Tanks MMG VC teams in a pre order at Crisis, only to realise they are firing antiquated Maxims <sigh>. But waste not, want not, so a quick filing, headswap and very little GS later we have this.....

Option 2 of the Partisan MG Team, the Maxim. Not sure if that is meant to be the wheeled shielded version, but being Partisans I'm assuming they are not very high up on the MG food chain, so this old banger should do them nicely. Tbh I'm not sure what gun it actually is supposed to be....the tripod is reversed (most likely to help casting), it had the flash hider of a Vickers but not the cover or other bits....so a bit of a mish mash of guns....I guess? Made a condensor can, added some lead wire for the tube. Need to file off the sight and replace it with some upright brass wire. Als do some trials with some thicker paper to make the fabric  ammo bands. His head is from the German crew of the Greek Caique pack, it comes with 3 useful generic figures, 2 with beards....which are perfect for my Partisans. The last gun I need to convert is the MG-34 and then all 3 options are available.

Getting sidetracked, as usual, I also picked up the Britannia Vietnam Firebase Command bunker. Then sawed and sanded off 1/3rd of the resin. As I really dislike lift oof roofs for most buildings, I sanded the sides of that as well and have now glued it down with expoxy to make sure it stays on, and will fix the seam  sandbag at a time. For a Britannia resin piece, the bubble holes aren't as bad as usual which was a pleasant surprise!

I've orderd 400 resin barrels for this project as to make the Firebase like I want it. The bunker will have a row of them surround it, as well as some plus sandbags in front of the door (that I also enlarged). I'm trying to find a iron lattice tower with the right dimensions to function as the antenna, but dumping 25 quid incl shipping for a single H0 is a bit rich, so I guess off to China I go?

I'm not going for the red dust allover you see in parts of Vietnam....when needs be, this one will have to double as a rebel bunker or whatever I feel like. Same for the defensive works. In the end I have a finite amount of room here.

Not much else to say.....tried a new sandy yello on the Grot tank and having a good long think about it. These wrists are not doing me any favours and even typing for more then a few minutes at a time turns my hands into claws. So I just sit here, do some sculpting, sort some stuff for sale.

Oh, Crisis was a blast, sale went reasonably ok, some stuff just did not shift while others that have been for sale for ages were snapped up quickly. But going to a show kills me. I have very little stamina left, everything hurts all the time, ad it was very hard to focus when I finally packed the lot back in the car and went for a stroll around the show to see what was there....which was a lot! I hope next year I will be able to visit it and enjoy it a bit more. Who knows. I might even be in less pain.

Does this make my bucket look big?

Took me a while to find the bag with bits. A long while. But finally....

Hail the Bucket!

Might even get it basecoated this week with the help of a new friend.

Scourge of the Partisans

As a friend of mine has a bag of Gebirgsjäger ready for me, why not add a small force to fight the Partisans, and allocate some top of the line equipment to them?

 

The S-Models Pz. Kpfw 35S739(f) is a really nice model. Main body is quick enough to build, then some fiffly plastic parts and finally some Photo etc, my first ever. If you take your time these bits aren't terribly hard to add. I used a toothpick, a drop  of superglue and my round punches to roll the photoetch with and it came out ok I guess. It should look nice in grey, and I need to practice that on something (not this model!).

As I am aiming for this:

 

...I might need to add a antenna pot for a German radio to the turret as well. Who knows. For now she is going in the ready for paint pile, and her unbuilt buddy back in the stash.

Goobye Photobucket.

After a week of downloading photographs, hounded by errors, automated "Are you a human" checks and really weird download times, I have just finished downloading the last of my folders and deleted my last account.

Photobucket

May 2006 - July 2017

If you had been worth the money I would have supported you. But now you died because of your own greed.

With my exams finished for now (Passed my last Sales exam with a 9/10) and the holiday started I can take some time in the evenings to sort out all of the folders and see if I need to upload it to the Blog or find the funds for a paid hosting site. We'll get to that eventually.

A shout out goes to the Yodel courier company. As in: "My God, you are bunch of c*nts". They stamped my express package to Piers 2 days after I sent it, and then it went missing and you can't complain about that untill a waiting period of almost 3 weeks. So I complained right away, and complained again on the 10th as I was told to.  This morning his wife found it when opening the door to walk the dog. Nobody knocked or rang the door. She didn't sign off on it (so they forged the signature). The box has a large tear in it so god knows what is broken or missing. FFS. I've looked at using courier companies but the quotes I get for a 1 kg package of the same size are ridiculous, as I get quotes ranging from 65 euros all the way up to 130 euros. I can fly myself and the package to his place for cheaper!

Right, back to business.

 Partisan 75mm mountain guns are built and based. Just need to drill out the barrels and add the hand spikes of these and the German guns and then they are ready for paint.

Also started work on another Blitz wreck and I'm trying something new.

Opening up the door is a lot of hard work but I will hope it will look the part.

 

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 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.

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.

It really helps to read an army list BEFORE you build stuff, you know?

So, in between my studies, I've managed to build and base 2 Russian 45mm M1937 AT guns for my Partisans, one on the move and 1 in position, after getting inspired.

Apolagies for the shitty quality pictures....still using just my phone....

 Gun on the move in to (or out of?) position. Most pics I've seen of it being manhandled is with 2 people at the front of the gun and 1 in the back steering it....I think? Put a muzzle cap on it to keep the dirt out plus 2 cases of shells. I have no gun crew yet so these are just stand ins. It's my (current) standard towing base (which is T shaped) with the back end held in place by a pin, to keep it level with whatever is towing or pulling it. I thought about adding lift handles on the legs, but stopped after adding doing the tow hooks on both guns. I just want to have these done so I can move on to the next lot.

I've added some extra reinforcement between the shield and the base of the gun as for some odd reason both guns had the mounting pin bent and split and even after bending it back and using glue, the gunshield sat at a tilted angle. Not anymore :)  The in situ gun is placed on my favourite Y shaped base. This way I can easily add and remove troops and keep them as close to the gun as possible.

So, all good then, innit?

Nope. I got inspired by seeing pics of the Partisan 37mm AT gun in action:

....and assumed that the 45mm one would be the upgrade for the Partisans. I assumed wrongly :(

The basic gun is the 37mm (for which I can use a captured PaK36 or 37mm M1930 - for wargaming purposes the same gun) and the upgrade is the 47mmL32

Technically speaking a licence built Böhler. Drat. I don't have those in my stash. No, ffs.......

Well, not to fear!

After comparing the stats of both guns, they have a identical HE and AP value, so there is no problem using them as is.

Crisis averted! Now get these suckers painted up asap.

PS: The guns are PSC 4 in a box Russian AT guns (45mm 1937, 45mm 1942 and the Infantry gun) and the spare barrels can be used for bunkers or other purposes. The Partisans are from the Kelly's Heroes range from Grubby Tanks.

I've got a job! Yeah, about that..... :(

Got a phonecall this morning from Iris, my job agency coach. She informed me she had received a vague email from the company that is going to hire me. Well, make that WAS going to hire me. Quoting economical circumstances, they have decided to put the job on hold for the time being.

Iris is more then a bit upset (as am I) as she has put a lot of effort into it, all the paperwork is done and was to be signed this week by the 3 of us. But no. Iris is also quite upset that all her communications have been with the company president and now all of a sudden a employee is emailing this without a real explanation.

So yeah.....shit.

<sigh> I took some painkillers for the knee, discussed this with Kim as I was visibly quite upset, took the afternoon off and just returned from my final First Aid training day (exams next week). I volunteerd to do a test exam (day could not get any worse, right?) I only managed to forget to remove the ring and watch of a 2nd degree burned hand and accidentally held a victims hand when he had just spilled lye over his arm and hand. But you don't flunk on that kind of stuff and I won't make those 2 mistakes next week. I really want to pass this exam, not just for my resume but for myself and Kim and the kids, if something ever happens.

Tomorrow, a new day, a fresh start, and we will carry on with the Quest for Work! TM


Anyway, we are here for the hobby stuff. Been burning through my stuff (not literally) on monday, managed to cut the amount of junk on the gaming table in half, removed half the junk from my first cabinet and sorted out what can be sold off (most) and what not (very little). So progress is being made. Also, I received some trade stuff and decided that in the future, starting now, anything I get that I want to use myself, gets cleaned, based and sanded asap. That way I'm not online hunting for new stuff and working with what I got.

So, in no particular order:

Did the Renedra Ramshackle Barn and American Farmhouse 1750-1900 I had in my stash for a while now, glued all the windows shut, fixed the roof and based them on 3 or 4mm MDF (took this picture) and just finished sanding the edges. General cleanup tomorrow. It's aimed at 28mm TNT, but will do for Cowboy games and ACW skirmish f I ever get that far.

I got these 2nd hand, I just stuck them to their bases and changed the cobblestone one on the left to the same sand one as the rest. Captives for 28mm TNT or any other game that needs prisoners/hostages/sacrifices.

I've bought a second hand lot of 20mm VC and NVA, just based and fillerd them, sanding tomorrow when everything has set hard and is trimmed on the sides. The lot came with the grey Liberation Models K63 APC on the right (missing its gun), I washed, cleaned and trimmed that to fit today. The yellow one is a Red Star one I just removed from the bag, cleaned, heated and bent back into shape, and is now ready for basing and a new gun. The 3 painted ones (including 1 command/medical version) are gifts from Chris. Also need to be cleaned, based and a ggun. They are for my (2nd) Iraqi army for Iran-Iraq and the Gulf War. The Liberation one is marginally bigger in size and has some different details, but nothing major and will make a nice platoon CO ride I guess.

The VC and NVA need sand and good cleaning of any mould lines, and I wanted to convert the NVA into VC by sanding down the sun hat until Piers reminded me that they woudl work perfectly a Main Force VC. So that saves me the work for that.

Also, I need to grab from my weapons bin, a MG-34, a PIAT and a MP40 for the VC as weapons.....some conversions are in order.

All of the Partisans I received have been based, fillered and sanded. Removing of mouldlines is up this week, and then see who needs a head swap, conversion, GS work etc. Also build 2 light AT guns for them (which will do double duty with my Russians).

So much to do, and suddenly a lot more time (jay..... :( ) so hey.