Back to the junkyard.

Finally, another addition to the junkyard. During my last stay in Ireland I got some miscatst from Brian at the Hobbyden, and this is from that lot. If you like the model, it is a 20mm Mercedes, code HD16 and reatails for 6.50 euro. Makes for a great Middle-eastern taxi cab or a bit of scenery for your Cold War games in Germany. Or in my case, as a hunk of junk.

Anyone recognise the stickers on the windshield? :)

Machine Gun Pillbox

Finished one of Carlos MG Bunkers, tried bare metal with this one, the other one will be camouflaged I think. The periscopes are my own addition, as is a piece of brass for the barrel. Tufts by Mininatur and Woodland Scenics.

Will do nicely for a Machine Gun Pillbox for Fall of the Reich (even if the real one only has room for 2 men)

German AT Rifle Team

As painted for my Barbarossa till Kursk army for Battlegroup (in which case 2 figs are the team and the third is an extra)

Britannia Miniatures, my favourite no matter what. Colourcoded to match my army.

 

Future plans

Right, best laid plans and all that.

I've enjoyed a burst of painting the last few months, got quite a few bits done in a scale I would never have dreamed of using, painted more then I had held possiblewith the twins, and I am generally chuffed with the way things are going.

But the end of the year is coming, so it is time again to clean up my table, box up everything 15mm for now and keep prepping for my next big project.

I have to say, planning a project wasn't what I had planned, but I've been out of a job since June and as such, are left with time to think in between feeds. I've got a decent smallish German army that I want to add a few things to, but not now. I've got mates who actually want to try out 20mm wargaming but don't want to build an army. So, why not paint the opposition? It can't be harder then my German army, less or no camouflage, tanks are a uniform colour, choice of 2 Allies (I'm looking purely at Overlord atm). And with a stunning deadline, namely D-Day 2014.

But what to choose? Yanks or Brits?

Well, I had the choice taken for me mid october when Daryl over at the Guild offered up 90 Britannia ETO Brits for a bargain price. At Crisis I picked up PSC Halftracks, Stuarts and M4A4/Firely's as a payment for services rendered. I've added Churchills from PSC's Black Friday Sale. ANd just the other day I arranged for 70 more cecond hand Brits to wing my way.

I'll be painting 11th Armoured and what goes with that, focussing on the infantry for starters. I want to paint 2 Motorised infantry platoons for Battlegroup, giving me a sizeable force vs my Germans of which I have just 1 platoon but will be doing mostly defensive stuff anyway.

I'm currently busy cleaning the figs, 95% was unpainted, and trimming down the tabs a bit and basing and adding sand to them. Printed off a roster as well so I can just put them on my table and I can see straight away what I need to paint and when.

I will be doing the odd German thing in between, I have 3 steel machine gun bunkers to finish for instance, and some armour for the Ersatz Panzer list.

But untill then it will be Britannia all the way.

Oh, and as a hommage to the troops that liberated my hometown of Deurne, I've been looking at the units that were involved in it. Expect a few of them to pop up, like the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, some of whose troops died there.

And now, lets clean the damned table, put the paints back in line and get the tools ready for yet another chapter of factory line painting.

The Scene HAD001 Heavy Infantry Robots

The first of my combat robots from The Scene, these are 2 packs of  HAD001 Heavy Infantry Bots that I'll be using as bad guys (think Terminators, even though they look like the ABC Warrior from Judge Dredd) untill I get the smaller version that looks more like the endoskeletons, and as good guys for my 15mm Gone with the Blastwave themed army (hence the white and red markings), so this time it is 5 each, Good and Bad  ;) 3.85 Pounds per pack of 5, these arrived here well casted with minimal mould lines. They make a variant with enegry weapons as well. And I'm waiting for the CC versions)

Baddies 16, Goodies 19, Scenery 6

(At a later date I'll propably paint one up as the Dredd version, but I'm waiting for The Scene to release the ones with close combat weapons first)

Trailer (trash)

Added a trailer to the set. A bit bigger then the ones you see in Fallout but trailer wise it is slim pickings. I picked this up from TMP but can't remember from whom. Missing the chimey and plastic flamingo, one fell off and the other one didn't really fit for what I have planned. 15mm Khurasan Mantis bug for scale, based on a 1 eurocent.

If anyone knows who made/makes these, let me know as I want a few more.

Baddies 11, Goodies 14, Scenery 6

Orange Hazmat team and friends

First up, a Khurasan Containment Team. I hope to have another team painted up before the deadline.

 Next, 4 characters. FLTR > 2 droids from the GZG Droid pack, a SAS commando with a different paintjob so he's more of a bandit from Stalker, made by MF Figures, and another Alien Scientist with Force Globe converted into a Stalker with a leather coat and a gasmask.

This means I now have: Baddies 11, Goodies 14, Scenery 5 and this fullfills the requirement for the Build. But as there is time I want to paint some more, so I will.

Who's your daddy?

My 2nd entry for the Guild Build themed Green. A 7 day speedbuild, started these guys on monday straight from the bag.

15mm Khurasan Mantoids with a 28mm Reaper ehm...something. I'd noticed the smaller ones looked like they would be a nymph stage for the bigger one so hey presto. Multiscale as usual, 15mm/20mm/28mm they'd do fine, 6mm if I wanted to get really nasty

Monument 3.0 finished!

Monument to Mother Russia

The tank is stuck on top with 2 magnets and can be swapped for a 20mm version, when I get one and paint one that is. Painted to resemble one of the many monuments that for some reason get the entire running gear done in gloss black and the rest of the tank lightly weathered.

More pics

 Tank is a plastic 15mm from the Plastic Soldier Company

Busy night

Just finished glueing 90 figures to 1 euro cents and basing 40 of them.

22 15mm Droids
12 20mm Volkssturm
9 15mm Bugs for the Green build over at the Guild (quick build, started today, 6 days to go)
And the rest are British 20mm from Britannia for ETO.


Time to get some sleep now.

Towers and Stalkers

My first 2 custom stalkers and 2 towers that could be trasnmitter towers or something.

2 towers from Auhagen, actually HO scale electricity pylons that come in parts, I only used the 2 bottom parts and the top part, the rest is for later. Not 100% happy with the quality of the plastic, but the quick paintjob came out ok. Works for 20/15mm, 6mm too if you are not too fussy. Tried out Vallejo Light Rust wash on these, and it came out ok.

My first 2 custom Stalkers.
The base figures are both from CP Models, Alien Scientists with Force Globes , both models had the gasmask head from their accesory packs added, the one on the right had a hood sculpted over it, the one on the left had the "Force Globe" (that looks a lot like a hand grenade) removed and painted like an open hand. I also added a AK-47 from MJ Figures to the back and sculpted a sling for him. Both are wearing long overcoats and chemical gloves and footwear in combination with the gasmask.

For my next models I might go a bit heavier on the highlighting, though it could also be my terrible pictures. I'm not having much luck getting good photos from my 15mm in my current set up, 3/4 is too vague to make anything out and the rest has to be processed in Photoshop to get some quality out of it.

Baddies 10, Goodies 4, Scenery 5

This weeks stuff

Didn't get a lot done this week.

Another wrecked robot from The Scene, 1 live one plus a droid from GZG.

With some luck I should be able to get a few Stalkers done next week.

Monument base finished

Finished the base on Monument 3.0

Simple concrete paintjob with some weathering and flocking. Size markers are a 15mm robot and a 20mm figure.

Now onwards with the 15mm T-34, and I'm still looking for a 20mm one, but I'm working on a shoestring budget here, so no hopes for it anytime soon.

And in case you are wondering whats in the background, it is a excellent Blog by Sgt Scream >> http://smallscaleoperations.blogspot.de/ one that I thoroughly enjoy as he does all kind of moderns and sci-fi stuff. Go check it out!

Video games are good for inspiration

Video games are good for inspiration, even though I hardly play them anymore. The Fallout series is a big inspiration for me, so todays lot is mostly from that game.

Protecterons! Actually, robots from The Scene bearing a stunning likeness. I modifed one with a cowboy hat so he can be Primm Slim. Also did 2 dead ones cause you need stuff to loot.

3 of them I painted up in the Nuka Cola factory scheme

And lastly one of a batch of models I recently purchased from CP Models, actually a Alien Minion in Boiler Suit, but these came with tentacle faced heads so I purchased seperate gasmask heads from them as well and headswapped it. Easy cause they come with seperate heads to begin with. This model is just a test to see how to paint 15mm and what to do or not to do. Will propably join the zombies portion of my paint session by the time I'm done with the lot. You can never have enough zombies, right?

Not another monument....continued

Some progress

15mm PSC T-34 on top, magnetbased. Started weathering on the numbers, painting concrete should be next. Paintjob on the T-34 should be simple green with black tires and tracks. Also, it seems I was mistaken about having a spare T-34 in 20mm scale so I'll need to order one from Will at a later date, unless anyone has a PSC T-34 spare that they are not using and are willing to sell?

Ready for Crisis

Well, oficially ready for Crisis now.

-packed enough food and water for the whole PSC team.
-printed a list with all of my pre orders that I need to pick up.
-packed goods for 2 mates that want to pick up stuff from me at Crisis

..and will bring a happy face and enough enthousiasm to last me day.


Cu at the PSC stand!

Not another monument...

Yup, another one.

No prizes for guessing what goes on top :)

Changed the base a bit as I didn't want to have to fill this one with roof lead to prevent it from tipping over (actually, my roll of roofing lead is running low and a new one costs 25 euros which I don't have to spare as Crisis is coming up this weekend, so call me cheap). But a bigger base also means a larger LOS breaker :)

I glued in a magnet in the inside, cause this one is going to be another dual version. I'll be picking up a 15mm and a 20mm T-34 from PSC this weekend, tart em up monumentally, and a magnet on their underside and the magnetic pull should keep it in place.

After this, I need to make a hammer and sickle type monument that is scaleless, and 3 of them should be enough to turn any old city I make into a Soviet one. Easy peasy me thinks.

Monument 2.0, a WIP

Since I'm scaling down my Stalker game to 15mm I have a few scenic objects in my collection that are too large. Since there will be a few weeks before all of my deliveries are in, I ordered a 1/100 aircraft kit from Hong Kong that managed to get here in 3 days time (free postage) and this will be getting the same treatment as the 1/72 MiG-21 that I made earlier.

Since the base was made in such a way that the aircraft is removable for transport, I just need to build another aircraft with a rod inside it, which I have just done.

Now I just need to let everything dry before I can paint the whole plane metallic and get started on weathering it. And that should not take a whole lot of time.

At Crisis I will pick up a PSC 15mm T-34 sprue so I can build another monument, and after that I just need to make something special for Pripyat in 15mm, and then it is on to the models and buildings.

Signs

20 scratch built warning signs for radioactivity. 15mm/20mm scale (though should work fine as 28mm as well), made with a paper punch and thin plastic card for the correct size, a piece of brass wire and Renadra 20mm bases. Decals are from the OOP set Hasslefree did years back and I never found a replacement for them so I'm now officially out, sadly. If anyone knows a source for these, let me know, ok!! Flocked with a ton of Mininatur tufts.

I want to use them to cordon off non accesible or otherwise heavily radiated areas like forests, junk yards and buildings. Of course, the first time that I will use them I will propably find out I don't have enough <sigh> They took forever, 4 weeks of using spare time in between feeds when I wasn't too tired to do them.

In the background is my Pripyat sign, still proud of how I managed to capture the real thing in a model.

I'm still looking or yet another good monument to copy, or I might copy something typical of Pripyat, who knows.

Battlegroup Dispatches Issue 1 released!

Finally!

 Battlegroup Dispatches Issue 1 has been released!

http://ironfistpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ATT_1380660299696_Dispatches-1.pdf

Content:

Battlegroup Partisan

Partisan Army List

New Vehicle Data

Gebirgsjäger Army List

Painting British Infantry Uniforms for the ETO, 1944-45

Kampfgruppe Phillips, Normandy scenario

Hell in the Bocage, Normandy scenario

Pimp My Panzer – StuG III stowage box

‘On to the Dneipr’ new Battlegroup Kursk vehicle data

A bit for every rulesset released sofar plus a full armylist if you want to game Yugoslavia
in 1943! I'm liking that list a lot cause I like ambushing convoys like no other, which makes 
you set up a game with a very limited figure count and rulesrestrictions and can be played
in an hour or so as a precursor to a normal wargame. The paintingguide makes painting 
British Infantry easy-peasy....just add effort and job is godun. The 2 Normandy scenarios 
are a nice addition and something to try out for me when my 6mm armies are further
along the line, or my daughters have grown up, whichever comes first :D Pimp my Panzer
is something that I hope will be a frequent addition in the dispatches....tips and tricks like 
that are always handy to know. On to the Dneipr adds vehicle data for mostly post Kursk 
vehicles, but lets you include a T-70 company for Kursk as well. Imagine 10 of the little 
ones buzzing towards you....attack of the gnats!

On the whole, a nice read, plenty of food for thought and the eyes, and well reccomend. Issue 2, whenever that will be released, is already highly anticipated!


In case further downloads for Battlegroup interest you, go here: ironfistpublishing.com

7th place and a windy review

First off, thx for the warm welcome back guys, I really appreciate it and the wife loved the attention you have for the kids. They are still quite the handfull (and will be for some time to come) but we are managing, and tonight the wife told me to get some hobbytime, so I dutifully did just that.

The red and white cell tower from the last post managed to bag 7th place on the Guild, earning me a shiney ribbon for participating  plus I was the randomly selected number (7) that could grab something from the prizepot the Guild have, with kits, books etc.  I chose a PSC Stug III sprue (one can never have enough Stug's) so I have another to experiment on with adding concrete to it.

I did notice the prizepot is now a bit empty so I've gathered up some kits that are surplus and I will be mailing them to Daryl over at the Guild, to be used as prizes for the next builds.

Anyway, what did I do with my hobbytime today? I was actually planning to write a few job applications but I'm better off doing that kind of stuff during the day, so I grabbed the first bag from the stash behind me, which turned out to be a set of 5 vertical windmills from Angel Brracks.

I received these about a month ago, I had to wait a bit for them as my order exhausted his stock and then some. But arrive they did in double time and they are quite nice I tell you.

Meant for 6mm, they are sizeable windmills that fit in with present to future sf. As I won't be getting into 6mm SF for quite a while yet (maybe 2015, who knows) I picked up these for 15mm/20mm. I want them to represent the ones you would have in the back of the garden or at a farm as auxilliary power units, or on top of a building for green energy.

I just realised that I built all of mine with the opening on the blade on the lower half, not the upper half, but that don't matter, they look good either way.

Time spent cleaning them up was minimal, the central column takes some time due to the mould lines, which are quite thin, but I didn't spend more then 15 minutes sanding all 5. The blades were all sanded in a fraction of that time, and glued into place with gel superglue. I then based the lot on 40mm round bases and sandflocked them. I intend to paint them all offwhite or ivory with a red light on top, and keep the flocking on the base to a minimum as to increase the crossbreeding potential.

6mm fig on the left, 15mm fig on the right.




Angel Barracks has these in the Scenery section at a cost of 3 Pounds per turbine, which is quite acceptable seeing how much metal goes into casting one.

Highly reccomended for the 6-20mm table that has a SF feel to it. I hope to have mine painted up fast enough as I have a lot more stuff I want to get reviewed and painted up :)

Red and White. No Blue.

Miss me?

I, or more importantly the wife was a bit busy with delivering our babies while I was offline, and I am now the proud father of Nikki and Emma, born prematurely but quite the little fighters. Almost 2 months old now, words like cute and aaargh are used on a regular basis while in their company. I can change a diaper blindfolded now, being guided by smell alone. Bit like Daredevil, yet less heroic and without the red bodysuit. Here's a pic of them just a few hours old.

They are out of the hospital and doing fine. We've settled into the clean-feed-sleep routine andtrying to do the same for ourselves.

I struggle to find time to paint and model though, spending what little time I have online on the forums, reading. It took me all of the spare time I had for 2 weeks to cobble together this, and sorry for the bad quality pic but you get the idea. It is for another Guild Build, this time with the theme Red.

See? Red. And White.
Made for 15mm and 20mm games in mind, it is a generic tower that most of you propably have seen before. A scenic piece for on the table or a objective during a game, anything goes.

Service will be sporadic, while I've been offline I did buy the Ronin rulesset (well written, looking forward to getting some games in with Modhail) and I've been adding to my Hotz mats collection, of which I will write more at a later date.

Hope to be back soon!

The Blogpost with many names

Well, it could have been any of these.

-The Japanese firemans lookout
-Scratchbuilding is fun (and cheap!)
-Oh no, not another diversion
-20mm and then some allright

But the name doesn't really matter. The story does. A mate of mine loves Samurai. In the past few years I bought some, only to give them away again simply because I could not commit to 28mm but fully knowing I'd miss out on a great gaming buddy. Recently he had a bit of a rough time and at his birthday I gave him a limited edition Samurai with son (Lone Wolf and Cub) from Black Cat to cheer him up a bit. A few days after that I was browsing the Lead Adventure Forum (as I do daily) and ran into the topic about Ronin, a soon to be released samurai skirmish game from Osprey. I devoured the topic, so went to surf the net for more info. Not too much scenery to be had, but from the looks of it most is not too hard to scratchbuild either, plenty of modelchoices, some even do civillians, my 20mm forrest and fields would be useful for this as well.

Hmm, lightbulb moment. Lets ask Modhail if he knows the system? As he didn't, I'd thought it be smart not to press the matter too much (But look at the rules, so cheap! <ahem>) but let him read up first. But what to do to make him think about it some more? Well, and me, as I have not painted a single 28mm figure in years. Can I still do it?

Pro's
-Skirmish games are low on troops so the initial cost would be low
-I can use some of my 20mm scenery with these
-Samurai have always been one of my interests
-Finally a game I can play with Modhail

Con's
-Not another period!
-Not another scale!
-28mm scenery is big. Where can I store it?
-Money? (2 babies due in a few weeks)

So, to test the water I ordered 2 packs of civillians from Perry which should be here before the month is over and I looked at scenery that I could start to scratchbuild. Enter the "The Japanese firemans lookout". I copied a topic that I read on the LAF as it was just a few poles with stairs on one end and I managed to do quite nicely sofar:

A few kebab skewers for the poles, I then cut the stairs using The Chopper all to the exact length (a tool every scratchbuilder should have) and glued them down with woodglue. I used a few 30mm wide bases in between the skewers to make sure they stayed straight. I made the platform out of one of the bases and made the bell from a 1/48 bomb from my sparesbox. The base is a 60mm round base topped with a sheet of roofing lead topped with a 40mm round base. All of my bases come from Fenris Games Ebay store. I like them cause they are ply. I know I can get MDF bases cheaper but those tend to make my fingers tingle and these days I take signs from my body seriously so those are out.

Really, it is 80% done. I just need to add a roof over the bell and then it is ready for paint. Cheap as chips too, it cost me 5 skewers, 3 bases, some roofing lead and part of a bomb plus some yarn from my gf's sewing supplies.

Of course, now that it is almost done I find ones that are a lot simpler, but since those can't hold a figure, this will do just fine.

Oh, and excuse Heinz the German standing in for a Japanese fellow. I don't own any models for this period yet!

Clear out

For the last 1-2 months I've been clearing out a lot of my collection (but sofar have failed to make a real dent) to save up on Paypal cash for when the babies come.

What has been sold sofar:
-Most of my 15mm sci-fi scenery
-1/2 of my 15mm sci-fi troop collection
-my 20mm Iraqi army
-some GW bits and pieces
-most of my 28mm miniatures
-almost all of my Early War Germans (mostly vehicles, and you will see them again, painted by a true master this time)

What has been bought with the money sofar:
-Future War Commander (second hand)
-4 Liberation Miniatures Saxons (second hand)
-a nice lot of Liberation Serbians (second hand, currently being stripped)
-Couple of boxes of new releases from PSC for my Germans and Russians
-Scenery from Daemonscape
-A watertower and MG bunkers from a very nice chap in Portugal
-Various GW hills (second hand)
-Some extra bits for my robots and monster collection (new and second hand)

And what has been traded
-Mostly microarmour
-Some robots
-3 painted T-34's and a Stug, all PSC
-Schwere Panzer Abteilung 654 book (which turns out to retail for 100 dollars and more)

I still have tons of stuff draped across various fora.

I bought and traded a lot less then what I have sold (which was the point) and I will be doing some reviews of the new goods that have or will arrive(d), so stay tuned.

(been so busy though I haven't painted for almost a month now)

Also I have a small request: I'm looking for a copy of AK-47, preferably first edition. Anyone?

Back to the BUF

In May 2011 I finished my first 2 models for the BUF, namely these:

(You are looking at Reginald Petersbury-Archer and his chauffeur Ainsley Welkes)

And then did nothing with them. But every year or so the fever returns and I want to build some more kit for it. Having recently aquired 20mm scale BUF decals (Thx Taylor!) I thought it was time to get the ride done, plus some escorts.

Prelimanary work sofar:
Propaganda car with scratchbuilt speakers (recycled Vickers Light tank cuppolas)

 And 2 escort Vickers Light tanks with twin MG's

 I'm thinking the main colour for these will be grey, but lighter then German grey. Must do a few tests before I decide. Maybe even a camo job.

BGK/BGO Markers

Decided I could not afford those lovely markers as seen on Ebay, so why not make them myself? I do have a laminator, so hey. 10 minutes in Excel and 15 minutes cutting them all apart.

I've got markers now for my 6mm/20mm forces (and no reason not to use these for 15mm as well):
-Moved
-Fired
-Pinned
-Ammo low
-Out of ammo
-Reserve move
-Ambush fire
-Abandoned
-Immobilised
-Spotted
-Low on fuel
-Out of fuel

The last 2 are my own creation as I have a feeling that for Fall of the Reich fuel might be a problem for the Germans. If not, they are fun for scenarios.

If you want a copy, let me know, it is a simple Excel file, 1 sheet, that I can email ya.

Spring cleaning

I've recently become unemployed again, so it seemed like a good time to overhaul the hobby room (again), put up a ton of stuff for sale to make sure my wargames purchases dont have to be put on hold for a well (they have been toned down a lot for the past 18 months though, nothing like in ye olde days)

So after a long week of sorting, taking pic and trying to get some painting done, the end result was this. Total chaos.

So a good cleaning was in order. Tadaa!

Also redid the storage cabinets (I was cleaning and sorting anyway)

Projects and spares in the left, paints and tools in the middle, bare metal and more tools on the right. Cupboards for running projects and painted stuff.

Nice and tidy. For now.  :ph34r:  Just need to raid Ikea for more boxes.