2 months till Kursk!

Better get cracking!

First up is a demolition Borgward to take care of the Russian minefields.
The base is a Britannia Wanze with the driver and panzerschrecks removed to get a clean Type C Borgward. Sadly this is the wrong type for Kursk, I need a A or B for that. Technically I can't use this one as it is a bit longer then the A or B but frankly I don't care  :grin:
Engine bay sanded down, sides and rear cut, new exhaust made (which varies in location on all of my pics so I went for the middle ground), stick with a ball on it (what does it do, does it make it easier to see or what?) cover for the driver who won't be present and a new cover for the old drivers seat (The A and B had the driver on the right).

Then we add something to get the Russians from their trenches, the Kebab Machine.....ok, its a Flammpanzer III. Pretty far along with this one, time for weathering and detailing.

And completing todays post, 3 Panzer IV's from PSC, with some minor upgrades. I was just working on adding the brass barrels.

And that's it for today.

Weyland Yutani on a reactor dome

Weyland Yutani has to have the nicest logo for any sci-fi company and it is damned easy to paint as well cause I keep painting it everywhere. This is the reactor dome from the Heljan set, coupled with a door from The Scene (  Doo1 ) which I realise now I have used upside down but this works just as well :) My standard concrete, with a tad more blue in that usual, and a nicely weathered green door. But not soo weathered to get all rusty this time. 15mm hovercar for reference, though the mat it is on should give you another clue of its size (1cm squares).

Did some more extensive leeching this time, and the shape means it is a interesting object to look at.

Game uses? Just scenery. Could be a objective, but since I stayed away from any radioactive or warning labels this could be a futuristic shed as well. Anything goes.

Battlegroup Kursk up for pre release

My next game is Kursk on the 18th of August and will be with these new rules, with the author and the publisher fighting in the same battle (on opposite sides though!). They will be released in September and for the first 500 pre orders you will get a free PSC 1/72 Stug sprue.

I've just preordered.

JNA M36 WIP finished

Right, slight deviation from my regular plans, a little sidestep to Yugoslavia. I've found a few locals who have plans to game Yugoslavia in 20mm and me, having a small collection of stuff collected for this period, has decided to hop in.

Received a box of Armourfast M36 in the mail last week as I wanted them as Yugoslavian M36's. Decided to make the following changes to make it passable as a JNA one and also a more detailed one.
-lamp brackets (ended up oversized but very recognisable)
-lifting hooks
-gun sight opening
-armoured roof
-step hold on the front of the tank hunter
-a strip of paper to it look like the tank without the muzzlebrake, which was common

What I decided not to do:
-change the engine decking and the rear vent (JNA ones were converted to T-55 engines)
-add track detail
-add the slopes to the top armour
-create a new muzzlebrake

Just need to mount the .50 on each and she is ready for Russian Green basecoat.

Coming from JNA stocks, most have seem to be used by the Croats, though the Serb (militias) used a few as well. Since my primary focus is on the Serbs,. both will be in weathered JNA green with just a number.

Though one of them is likely to receive a look like this:

I'm assuming here this one is Serb as I think I see their sign on the lower hull, and the vehicle it is passing is carrying the Eagle. Just have to enhance the picture a bit to get the writing right.

Russian decoy guns for Kursk, Part 3

Shields up!

Gunshields are made with wooden swizzle sticks, paper and superglue. The real thing was stakes in the ground with branches woven in between, but this was a bit easier and quicker to realize. I did it with the first decoy gun and the wood weathers nicely.

I made the gunshields so they fit the gun as good as possible, then glued them down with wood glue and some sand. Paper and superglue holds the different planks together.

Drying as I am typing this, they will be ready for a dust off and green basecoat in the morning. I'll only flock my own, the ones I'm giving away will be unflocked so they fit in better with their new masters.

Btw, here is the original picture I'm working off:

Russian decoy guns for Kursk, Part 2

All of the decoys are now based and have wheels. I sacrificed a Pegasus fast build armoured car for the wheels plus some horse carriage ones from a Sgts Mess rubble pack.

6 guns got real wheels, 4 got wagon wheels, and one of those I wrecked cause it will look good in pictures :)

Next up: gunshields.

Neat and tidy

The one plus thing about my current unemployment is that I have the time get the little things done for which you never had the time. Having finished the chores around the house it was time to get cracking on my collection in storage.

Yes, I'm a bit of a Ikea fan. And very much into black and white (the purple wall is my gf's idea, not mine). Drawers for the painted stuff and WIP's, cabinets for the boxes and scenery. Everything boxed by producer or in the case of tools, by type. I just wish the smaller flat boxes had not been discontinued as they are perfect for the hobby. I keep looking around for second hand ones, in any colour, cause they are that good :)

The cabinet beside it has all of my paints in wooden display trays, I rarely take the trays out anymore, I just take the numbers I need to paint with and put em back afterwards. The 3 cabinets beside those need a good sorting as well, I really need more boxes but can't afford them right now so I'll have to come up with something in-between.

Why yes, I have a bit of OCD ;)

Hotz Mats 15mm fields and 6mm weathered roads

One of my last big purchases was one set of weathered 6mm roads and 2 sets of 15mm fields. Ever since being gifted a 25mm set of roads (that I use for 20mm and propably will with 15mm as well) and purchasing a large European Fields mat with hexes from Hotz Mats I've been a great fan as it gives you quality stuff that doesn't weigh a ton, stores easily and looks very good on the table.

As I will be downsizing a bit the 15mm field set and the 6mm road set came into view.

I'll start off with the 6mm road set, weathered. As you can see in the pics the white lines are faded, and darker bits have been airbrushed on, representing brake marks and new asphalt patches, to give the idea of a well used roadway. I requested a white line set, and the weathering cost me an additional 10$ on top of the 35$ for the 28 piece set. The set contains 10 long straight sections, 2 intersections, 2 short straight sections,  3 T sections (one of them is trimmed a little too short compared to the others), 1 straight section that is actually a intersection but missing 2 exits (don't know how else to say this, sorry!), 4 quarter turn circles and 6 1/8th turn circles. This should more then suffice the average micro armour table IMHO. Quality is excellent (bar the what I think is a miscut) and it looks like it should look when combined with micro armour. I base mine on 40x20mm bases and 1 of these fits nicely in a lane so the size is fine for me. Unbased micro armour should have no problem with this either. In the end, 45$ is a lot of money, but the ability to create good looking roads quickly and repeatedly has proven a bonus in 20mm games and will continue to do so in 6mm games, of that I am sure. You also have the benefit of not having to make your own, source the materials, find the time etc. I know that sounds all too logical but can be a big deal to some.

The 15mm field set. Compared to other Hotz Mats offerings these are very low cost. 1 set of these will set you back 16$ dollars with each set after that costing you 14$. Each Felt Field Set contains six individual fields in four sizes: two 4x4inches (10x10cm); two 7.5x6inches (19x15cm); one 11.75x6inches (30x15.5cm); and one 9.75x8inches (24.5x19cm). Total area coverage is 20x14 inches (50x35cm). I picked these up with the road set because they have a picture din their display using it with 6mm vehicles, and it fits very nicely. I've made fields for 6mm before, but these were always on plastic so took up quite a bit of space unless I made them small. So this is excellent, just pick it up and put it into a box, practically no weight to them, and the added benefit that they work with multiple scales. They are well sized for 6mm and will be nice crop patches for my 15mm and 20mm armies. The sets themselves are mixed colour wiseso each pack varies in its content, but the sizes remain the same. To be even better for larger scales these fields really need to be a bit larger, if they could double the size of some of these fields it would be grand. As it is, these won't stand out next to a Russian or French farmhouse. If you are ordering a mat and have some spare cash, I'd say add one of these packs, it won't let you down.

In conclusion I will bore you with some technical details. :)


I made the order on the 19th of May, received a quote for shipping of the lot on the 20th of May, paid for said lot on the 21st of May. On the 29th of May I received an email telling me the lot had been shipped to my location (The Netherlands) and the package arrived on the 5th of June. All in all I had a very fast turnaround.


Total cost was 35$ for the 6mm roadways plus 10$ for the weathering, plus 30$ for 2 sets of 15mm fields. Total postage for this lot was 12$. Total cost for the entire order was 87$ dollars, or 70 euros in todays exchange rate. Not something I can do every month, but for a planned purchase more then fair. It is the kind of thing to order as a group as well, cust down on the shipping costs and the group gets a or several nice mats in return.


I hope you found this informative, I've put this online to show what is available, how I feel about it and what the costs involved are.

Russian decoy guns for Kursk, Part 1

I'm having a small factory line here....producing decoy guns for the Russians players for the game in August, based off a original schematic. I'll be modifying it in places to make it more wargamers/builders friendly though. Doing this on a practically 0 euro budget as well.

They are not hard to build and add a little character. I'll leave it to the Russian players to use them or not. More progress and details soon.

Get out more.

Wargamers need to get out more. We all know what the average sterotypical wargamer looks like. Not the healthiest of men, is he now.

How to motivate them to get out more? Cause that way they can save money, mans best motivator since there ever was one.

Ok, what am I on about? Well, since i'm forced to downsize my focus has been on 6mm items, and as always scenery is high on my agenda. And because I'm overweight I run 2-3 times a week in the wooded area behind our house. One of the more common trees that grows there is the Alnus glutinosa aka Zwarte Els or Black or Common Alder in English. At the moment these are chock full of dried up female and male flowers, and fall to the ground underneath the trees.

Thx for the biology lesson you say, but what has this to do with wargaming?

Well, the female flower of the Alder makes for perfect micro armour trees.

One tree will shed tons of them so you can just bring a bag ans scoop up as many as you like (they served their biological function anyway so no harm, they are not edible or anything), just make sure you dry them properly. Make sure to bring the stems as well.

After basing I go over them with a 50/50 water and woodglue mix to make sure the wood gets soaked in it so they will last forever. For a basic tree, basecoat them in brown and drybrush them with greens. You could also flock it to create bushier trees. The stems make nice fallen trees, trees for swamps and if you want you can flock those as well creating even more trees.

When drybrushed in other colours they make lovely sci-fi trees for various scales.

So there you have it, not only do you have a reason to get out more, you can find basic trees by the hundreds for free. Whats not to like? :)

Ready for Figz 2012

All ready now, packed painted stuff and WIP's from various scales, some sheets and promomaterial for various fora, and enough little bits to keep me going.

Early rise for a sunday though :)