Packages galore!

Yesterday brought out some of the holiday spirit in me, after having received 4 packages during the course of the day. One thing I can never fathom is the complete inability of the mail services to keep a schedule. All 4 came from the UK, mailed between the 28th of February and the 10th of March, to arrive at my doorstep on the 17th. And they did not all come in with the same postie, no......1 was dropped off by TNT Parcel service, 2 were in the regular mail handed to security team where I work and the 4th was delivered by a courier. Yet they all had the same UK stamp on em. Go figure. I'm happy they made it though, sadly my Doms Decals order is still in limbo somewhere.

First package had the mother of all dents in it, a nice cube shaped box with 1 tip caved in like someone had hit it with a mallet. This contained 2nd hand resin vehicles so you can imagine what I felt while unpacking them. By some sheer stroke of luck that side of the package had been filled up with foam, so fortunately nothing was busted up and I ended up with 1 Saxon (looks like a RH Models one), 3 S&S BTR-80's, one with the remote cannon on top, a S&S SHilka, 2 BTR-60's and 3 UAZ jeeps, all from RH Models. I've been particularly keen to get the UAZ jeeps for my Iraqi's and Russians. I removed the cardboard bases from all and dunked them in bags filled with Muscle Ovencleaner. I've managed to remove most of the paint off them so they should be good to go soon.

Second package was a big bubble wrap package from S&S, containing 2 of the new Stalwarts, a pack of Afghan civillians, a M577, a Acco cab and American modern light truck whose name escapes me.That and the Acco cab are for the 2012 Africa Big Game, to be painted as civillians, the M577 will go to my Iranians, the Stalwarts to my motly collection of Brits that I will propably never game with (well, maybe some Twilight 2000 stuff) and the Afghan civillians are a what the heck purchase as I had then just finished the BRDM-2 rocket battery conversion. Which reminds me I need to get cracking on the 2nd conversion. All cleaned and washed, some built, the Stalwart is standing next to me and I'm wondering if I'm going to cover the back with a tarp or make a slot in base loaded with fuel, parts and what not. Propably the latter, more fun and more me :)

3rd package was from Maelstrom Games. I ordered here every month for the last 9 months, just to get the Wargames Illustrated and Vallejo paints. (You can't get that from them anymore so ordered up the same items from Wayland Games, who, 2 weeks on, still have my order as Waiting for Stock <sigh>) This time I used the discount coupn to get some more campaign books for CY6!, namely the Gualdacanal: Cactus Air Force and Breaking the Luftwaffe. Next time around I will propably pick up the Med and France campaign books. Won't be gaming that soon I'm afraid but good to read and get ideas and motivation from to finish more aircraft.

4th package was from Grubby Tanks. I keep being amazed how he manages to deliver so quickly while so many take such a long time. Not a big order though, a 57mm gun so I can convert my M3 75mm into a Russian one, a few FJ with a sneaky 5th Columnist Yank Paratrooper sneaked in, a Russian horse drawn cart, a 20mm flak gun and a M5 Stuart from Brtitannia as the item that I wanted wasn't available. I do hope Britannia will become available again but time will tell. The minor problem with the Yank para will be resolved in my nex order, Grubby has excellent customer service.

Everything has been checked and sorted now, so now I can go back to doing what I should be doing today; sorting kit and putting it up for sale.

(and not ordering this, and that and then some.....)

Panzerwerfer Battery - Building it - Part 1

The Panzerwerfer 42 is a vehicle that I remember more then anything from my childhood. When I was little I received a book in which was this picture and the vehicle has left an impression ever since.

I purchased one many, many years ago from Britannia and it left me unimpressed. So unimpressed that I boxed it up and forgot all about it. As far as I knew I had sold it off, so you can imagine my surprise finding it again. As my skills have improved with the years I had the feeling I could tackle it this time, so ordered 2 more.

This may sound odd to the average wargamer, why purchase 3 of the same vehicle? Well, I'm not your average wargamer, I'm more in it for the modelling, the gaming is a added bonus. Also, when I build artillery units I add a ammunition replenishment vehicle if applicable. Sure, the odd truck stacked with shells works fine most of the time, but the Germans were pretty adapt at making Munitionstrager variants of their regular vehicles. Maybe a bit too adapt. Anyway, this gives me a battery of 2 Panzerwerfer and 1 resupply vehicle.

Here is where I am at now:

I've added the following details:
- Magnetised the Werfers so I can remove them for transport and move them for added effect.
- Added a load of full tubes and 1 rocket on top of the resupply vehicle and covered it with a tarp. As paper becomes transparant after adding water and woodglue that isn't really visible.

- Loaded up the werfers with rockets, all 10 tubes on nr 1, 5 tubes on number 2. I used SHQ nebelwerferrockets for this, trimmed down and inserted into the drilled out werfer.

-Added the metal step and the jerrycanholder on both sides of the vehicle, using just brass wire and superglue.

A few things left to do before I can prime it.
- Add removable aerials
- Add view slits to the werfer base
- Minor cleanup, fill a few remaining holes, nothing major.
- Add the MG-34's on top

Stay tuned.

Planned game - 14th May 2011 - The Road to Vilnius

Booked a flight,  found a place to stay, still painting my army.

But as not enough people are able to make it Piers and I and anyone else from the GMG willing to jump in are looking to do a piece of Operation Bagration. Should be fun too.

My army has not changed, I'm still slavering away at copying the Rapid Fire 1944 Russian Breakthrough Tank Brigade. I'm nearing completion on most of the trucks and the Su-76's. I'm waiting for tuned brass barrels for my T-34/85's (all 13 of em) and I think I have everything on hand that I need. All of the tanks have been built, they just need detailing with handrails, some stowage and barrels. 4 of the tanks will get tank riders stuck to them permanently. While I have made drop in sections for trucks before I just can't figure out a sturdy and wargamersfriendly way to represent them on a tank other then having them fixed to the tank. This does mean I will have to build 4 additional tanks. In addition to the 4 wreck markers.

I never do things the easy way.

A fresh start

I tried blogging once before, while working on my Bunker project. Nice as it was (and still is) it just could not keep my attention and slowly died. It's now sitting in a box, unwanted, unloved, about to be transferred to Mohail who will undoubtedly put it to good use.

So....why try again? Well, a while back I decided that enough was enough. When your house starts to resemble a plastic model shop, like mine, you have to wonder when you are going to find the time to build it all. Sure, maybe I will win the lottery someday and not have to work one more day of my life (scary thought) then having a large stash could be useful. But losing a full room due to the amount of kits, boxes, bit boxes, old projects, magazines and then wondering how much money is actually in there..... <shudder>
Things that are not meant to be looked at using words like reason and need.

But I did it anyway. Tossed out 1/3rd of it, set aside 1/3rd that I feel has value for fellow gamers so can be sold and 1/3rd of it I want to keep. Having said that, it turns out I have 8 big boxes stuffed to the gills with plastic kits, so Í'm going to be drastic and cut that in half as well.

What will be leaving me?
- Silent Death - all the books ever published plus about 8 kilos of space ships of every type, plus big set of Star Wars fighters for this game (those have now been sold).
- Battletech - a ton of books, about 200 blisters and around 150 mechs and vehicles.
- All of my FoW (already sold).
- All of my 15mm Sci-Fi (already sold).
- All of my 28mm stuff, from Back of Beyond to WW2 to Sci-Fi.
- All of my GW stuff, from Fantasy to 40K to Epic to BFG.
- All of my 1/300 (or 6mm) stuff, WW2 and Moderns, land and aircraft. I have about 35 kilos of the stuff, and sofar sold about 9 kilos of it.
- Various RPG books like Robotech, Alternity, Stardrive and any other game I have that has not been played with for the last 3 years.
...and a ton of other stuff I need to sort out, bag and tag and put for sale online.

What am I going to keep then?
- 20mm. I can honestly say I can't live without it, I enjoy working with it more then any other part of my hobby. Sure, I hardly game with it, but for me, building is most of the fun anyway.
- 1/600 (or 3mm) air warfare. Love it. Selling off all of the land equipment and what I have from Oddzial. Lovely as they are, they are made from a very hard alloy and I like to convert a lot. Those 2 don't mix.
- 1/3000 ships. I have 15 kilo's of the stuff on hand and quite a few bits of kit painted. Scratchbuilding these is fun as well.

So don't worry, I won't die soon cause I've run out of stuff to paint.

Ok, I hear you say, you are selling a lot of stuff. What is holding me back from collecting it all over again?
Good question. I'd love to say I will hold fast to one project at a time, won't surf shops and Ebay to find new kit and bargains and try to not get swept in with the current fad, whatever that might be.

Uh...no, that won't work. I'm human. We all love getting new stuff. But what I can do is curb what I want by wondering if it is something I need. Since I've dropped quite a few scales I can happily bypass items that are offered for them. It should not be too hard, but knowing me, it will.

So what will I be focussing on in the near future? (Warning: Famous Last Words!)
20mm mostly, WW2 (1944-1945 Russians and 1944-1945 Germans) and Modern (2000+ Russians and Contractors for the 2012 Big Game. Propably a few 1/600 aircraft in between.

Will I keep that up? Maybe. I'm guessing I will, if I'm just able to focus and plan. We'll see.