Animal feed

Another competition over at the Guild, this time themed to "30x30mm base, square or round" which tends to attract a lot of variation, even for a 2 week speed build.

I´ve been looking for a way to change my 1/300 rural farm houses from WW2 to a Modern setting without defining a model to a certain period. Something I can combine with my love for making little add-on pieces.

So what do you see around every modern farm that has livestock? Indeed, silos.

Entirely scratchbuilt from brass wire, plastic tubing and a standard 30x30mm base, I present you,

"Animal feed"

And proof that it is on a 30x30mm base:

6mm testers

Gods, it has been ages since I last painted 6mm, so decided to do some testers to see if I can still perform :) Also a test to see if the basing style and tab fit me.

First up, my all time favorite, the Flammpanzer III. Decals by I-94 and Doms Decals, insert shows true size at 30-40 cm's distance. 40x20mm base

Second, cause I like remotely operated vehicles, the Goliath (I'm not sure if it is actually in the rules but for me it was too much fun to do one anyway till I get my hands on some Borgwards). 20x20mm base. Again, insert shows true size.





Painting is going rather quick right now, for German yellow I use Vallejo Middlestone over a grey basecoat, then paint the tracks and exhaust Vallejo Flat brown and rubber Vallejo German Grey. Then wash with Vallejo Dark Grey. Let dry, then paint again with basecoat and highlight with 50-50 Middlestone and Dark Sand. Gloss varnish, let dry overnight, add decals, let dry, coat with gloss varnish again. Paint base with any dark brown, drybrush with any light sandcolour, trim the edges in black. Add nametag, glue down with woodglue with a tin coat over it. Let dry, then matte varnish everything. Then do the flocking and tufting nd what not. Lasly, add antenna from brush and glue down (but I'm now doing this step while painting the basecoat to disguise the whole somewhat.

As soon as I start doing trucks I will experiment a bit with different greens to see which one works best for me, and then use that on my armour.

So, what do you think?

My Leven order; a small review

...came in today, and I'd like to share my experience.

On April the 18th I made an order for the following:

1x CHU02 - Russian Village Church a 1.50

1x CHU04 - Church with spire a 2.00

1x GEN08 - 60's style Garage with Petrol Pump a 1.50

1x IND12 - Eastfield Mill a 2.50

1x IND21 - Shoe Factory a 3.00

1x FAR01 - Farmhouse a 1.50

1x FAR03 - Granary Store a 1.50

1x FAR09 - Tractor Sheds a 1.50

2x HUT01 - Stone 'Oast' Kiln Hut a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT02 - Ukrainian Hovel a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT03 - Russian Isba a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT04 - Ukrainian Timber Hut a 1.00 = 2.00

1x HUT09 - Russian Timber House a 1.50

..for a total cost of 24.50 UK Pounds

On the early evening of the same day I got a confirmation for Leven telling me that they had received my order and they would contact me soon for the invoice.

Just half a day later, on friday the 19th I got another email thanking me for my order plus a Paypal invoice, which I paid at once.

The next day, saturday the 20th, I received my shipping notice

The following models arrived this morning (thursday the 25th), taking 5 days to get from the UK to Holland (very fast, but we can only thank the mail system for that :) )

They are all of the standard of Leven I'm used to, well cast, hardly any bubbles, the ones that I saw should be very easy to remove, the only minor quibble is that church nr4 is missing its spire, but that should be easy to rectify in a next order. I've notified Mick of this, he will propably contact me later tonight or tomorrow on this. Anyone can make a mistake, so no real harm done here. All the models were individually wrapped in bubble wrap, with extra foam pellets in the box for added protection.

They are cast in a tough light cream resin, with a light chemical smell that should dissapate in the coming days. I just leave them on the terrace in the sun for a few days to air out, then take them back in so I can give them a good wash to clean off any residue.

For a total cost of 29.45 UK Pounds I'm now the proud owner of 10 Russian style houses I intend to use for Kursk, and the rest for generic European locations.

I'm a happy customer and I'd thought I'd tell you other microarmour fans. He is releasing new stuff pretty often as well, so thats another reason to keep coming back. I'm hoping he will do one or more Continental type water towers or Russian/European windmills as well. I'll mention this in my next email to him.

PS If you are wondering why the center house is on an incline, it is because the porch fairing is taped to the underside and I was too lazy to remove it :)

Edit: Mick just contacted me, spire is in the mail first thing tomorrow morning. Now thats good customer service. Reccomended!

First basecoat for BGO

Basecoated the lot in grey.

That way the next colour I put on will en up lighter. I would have used white for a even lighter first coat but all I had in stock was grey, so grey it was.

Some models have minor modifications.

For instance, I've given the StuH a thicker, shorter barrel. Maybe a bit too thick, but at least it is instantly recognisable as a StuH now :) (That or a certain Epic 40K tank <sigh>)







I've also noticed some minor warping on my bases, so I'll propably varnish the underside to straighten them out again, or be at peace with it, as the warp is barely noticable.


Also got some feedback from Heroics and Ross, my Opel Blitz with hardtop body were very misaligned, they noticed it too in some of their casts so I'll have to add a note to my next order for replacements. Very quick respons for otherwise very nice models, no real flash and some minor mouldlines, some easier to remove then others, but that is the nature of these tiny models.

And I just received my Leven order of miniature houses, but I'll adress those in a new post.

BGO in 6mm - The beginning

And so it begins!

Finally, my first small bag of models arrived from Heroics and Ross so I spent a little bit of time this weekend basing most of it.

 Atm it is a mix of BGK and BGO, most will get dual use anyway. With the cost of 6mm, it is not a big issue but it stretches the money a bit.

To help out my opponent I've added a Sherman to my order that has now been suitable altered (and I hope to enter in the 30mm build if I can manage in time). In case you are wondering why the 222's base is different from the rest, it is because from the old days in BKC I made the recce bases arrow shaped for instant recognition. I just applied it to BGO and BGK as well, making them easier for me to pick ut.

Some of the models have been altered, added or replaced barrels with brass wire where needed, and I need to buy me a new wallpaper brush to strip it for antennae.

I know the open area left for a paper tab won't be to anyones taste, but I'll add a coloured marker to the rear base rim as well to denote the various types available in BGO/BGK (With their own Waffenfarbe, as in FW HQ (Yellow)- Inf (White) - Tanks (Pink) - Artillery (Red) - Recce (none, shape)- Engineer (Black)- Logistics (Blue) . And this time, the rest of the rim will be black as I feel this works better with 6mm.

Microarmour trees - quick and easy

You like?

I'll propably do a tutorial on them later on. They are really easy to make. Tell me what you like or don't like about them.