VW Beetle Staff car

Staff car for my EW Germans (also for a spotter and for the Propaganda Kompanie).

Way too many coats of varnish (see previous post) on it so the detail is a bit washed out I'm afraid :(

Brittania Beetle, my favorite vehicle to paint. Converted it to resemble a customised VW Beetle I saw in Normandy last year:

Flight stands

Time flies by when you have varnish issues. For some reason, for the last 3 weeks my usual routine of a coat of gloss covered with a coat of matte didn't achieve the result I wanted, it either became very satin of stayed gloss. 4 different brands of matte varnish later I've decided to skip the gloss phase from now on and just put on 2 coats of matte. So in short, 3 weeks of frustration trying to find what was wrong and hardly any painting, plus about 20 figs that are so glossy that I'm not sure they can be saved. Humpf.

In the meantine, with the 2012 Afrika project looming closer, roughly 10 months to go, I received my flightstands from Armaments in Miniature.  http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/armamentsinminiature/aircraftinmotion/checkyour6flightstands.htm They arrived in double quick time from the USA to the Netherlands, 4 days including the weekend. This was a collective purchase with fellow local gamers and we picked the thinnest base but with the maneuver stand. Dave, the owner mentioned that this stand was a bit thicker and would not fit in the base, but with a bit of trimming it would not be a problem. Some sanding and hot water later and the stands slipped in like they were meant for it.

 (yes, it is a bit off to the right)

It comes with cast in holders for 3 dice, I sanded those down and put down 5 layers of roofing lead sheet, glued those in place and put a thin layer of Milliput over them for added strength. When it was all dry, I sanded down the sides where needed and coated it an a layer of sand. Standard brown topcoat with Dheneb stone drybrush, with plenty of flock and tufts later gets me this:

So now I have 5 flightbases suitable for Europe and various other warzones, and 5 should even be enough to game in Vietnam (provided I'm not the only one with flightstands). With these I can mount all of the helicopters planned for Zwartwater.

I know my bases aren't as thin as Rutgers, who used 3 layers of lead and with a much nicer slope, but I'm scared to death one of my Loaches comes crashing down. Each base weights in at around 350 grams deadweight so I should be ok.

Fenced in

This is my first set of barbed wire cow fences so typical of what I'm used to seeing around me (ok, more the 3 wire type but you get the idea).

These 30 stands (yes, there is one missing from the pic) are enough to cover a 3 metre long stretch of table as they are based on 10x2cm bases. Now that sounds like a lot but it isn't. Most fields have this wire on all sides so you could mark off a square field of a maximum of 75cm.....hence me realising this is set 1 and I need to double this set to make it more useful.

 When that is done I will cut 10 40mm squares into triangles to base those for square corners (gets me 20) and add another 10 sections of 10cm length converted into crushed sections of wire, batteries for electric fences, doors etc and then it should be done.

Now, with the right tools these are not hard to make, and I will make a how to later on when I start the 2nd batch, but I can tell you what parts I used. 10x2cm plastic bases off Ebay for the base, matches for the poles, wargames barbed wire that you can buy at various places but I picked up a 500 metre spool from a chap who does security checks on fire extinguishers for a case of beer and then some brass wire to pin the matchsticks into the base.

Now I said they are not hard to make, and they are not, they just take a lot of time due to repeating the same thing over and over and over....... so best done in batches at a time. I'll tell you more about that in the how-to.

Spinning, spinning...... (WIP Kursk Windmill)

Doesn't sound very sane does it?

After seeing Warwicks rendition of a Kursk Windmill (in case you haven't seen it >> http://warwickkinrade.blogspot.com/2011 ... piece.html) I spent a portion of last months gaming budget on 2 Dapol windmills.

Number 1 is now built and partially painted, but since I can't it quite the way I want it yet I'll share just the unpainted pics for now. When finished, I'll repeat the whole process minus the painting and ship that one to Piers.

As you can see mine is a bit different, with a smaller footprint, slightly taller and the sails come off for transport but I've made them in such a way it can spin. I'm such abig kid <grin>

Chen Lu, Red Team, Zwartwater

Finished the 2nd member of Red Team for the 2012 Africa Big Game, Chen Lu.

Chen Lu is a Chinese national recruited in the Zwartwater Special Forces some time ago. He prefers to use his late fathers AK with a full set of Norinco red phenolic mags (which will propably make collectors cry). His stay with Zwartwater is sanctioned by the Chinese Government, which is rather unusual.

Model is from Wartime Miniatures, Iraqi Police/Paramilitary. I need to get a few more of these for my fireteams as I don't want all of my contractors to look like Special Forces with gizmo's coming out their ears. The only change I made is tripleclipping his AK with a few bits of plasticcard and a strip of paper for the tape.

Now there are only 35 more to go for this unit :) (Flocking will come later when they are all done)

Scenery night

Felt like finishing up something I had on my tray for over 2 years now and made something extra to go with it. First is a old HO shed, nothing fancy:

To that we add a Hobbyden Mercedes:

Unwanted, unloved:

I hope to have a small scrapyard done before the year is over.