I picked up this resin water tower ages ago for my 20mm stuff. I tried to do something with it a few years backj, made a fence for it at some moment, but that got nowhere. Now I need one for 15mm, so with some scrap MDF to remodel a new door and a new base....
Now to let the lot dry, sand the edges and coat everything with Mr Surfacer and get on with it.
Picked up a joblot of tufts last week and in it was a big bag of H0 scale pine trees. Use it or lose it, so started basing them up this weekend.
Will work fine as young ones for STALKER and regular pines for 15-20mm. And yes, my dinnertable is a right mess atm.
While cleaning out my storage I found my old Pripyat sign that I made out of plastic card back in early 2013. As those photos died in the Photobucketlypse I thought I'd reshoot them. Still a nice piece, made when I had no physical health issues. Ah, to be young and stupid again.
This Mercedes Benz van was picked up at the Goodwill a while back, based and had some small tank road wheels added for burned rims. Then sat gathering dust. as I could not make my mind up if it firt 15mm better or 20mm.
The Mercedes Benz L 406 D T2 (Alt) is a chonky van.
Well, works for both I guess, is what I thought this afternoon....so a bit of sponging and washing later....Done!
Evenings worth of painting on a old, dare I say ancient, bit of plastic. Bought it for 2,50 euros built, stripped it, cleaned it, rebuild it (as good as 64+ year old plastic let's that happen, the damn thing is at retirement age!) and done. Faller B-143 Transformer Tower, in case you want one.
H0 scale, so works for 15mm as well as 20mm. Went for the "It's older but it checks out" with no defining region stuff, so goes anywhere, any period. Symbol is something I just Googled for with Power Company and looked good. Some spring tufts et voila.
No, not like a Necromancer
Facebook reminded me I got back from Ireland 10 years ago and I think it is time I bring the German army back to life. I made it for Normandy, but there is no reason why it can't work for Russia 44 onwards, so...
Grabbed some old bits and ran it through primer.
I made these aeons ago from Britannia figures for foxholes (in Battlegroup moving out of them removes them) and I like the visual aspect of proper things on the table. I can't remember if I made more, but these are a nice start. I still have my old notebook so I know what paints to use, always handy.
Also picked up some boxes of PSC 20mm GAZ trucks (been promising myself those sinced April 2021) and will copy this prime bit of Beute AA. The keying on the bed to the frame could be better (well, there is basically none) but otherwise I'm not having any real issues and I like it. As soon as my new greenstuff arrives (I'm out) I'll rebuild the tarp as in the photograph. I need to find my AA mounted DHsK that is in my stash ....somewhere. The open part of the bed isn't correct, but this looks better visually as the inside has no detail. I'll grab my scribing tool and do the next ones proper, easily done when when on the sprue. Now, not so much, but hey, challenges!
Also, nothing is stopping me from making a German and a Russian gunner of course on a drop in base. Well, maybe.
Ran into a topic with Technicals, as one does (Well, I do) and I spotted a Ukrainian UAZ-452 with a turret with a M-60 on it. And I like oddballs, so....
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Cute, innit?
A quick stroll over Thingyverse netted me a UAZ-452, addons for it like lights etc, and I nicked the turret from a BA-64, downloaded Meshmixer and..... did a lot of swearing. But 2 hours later I have this:
Not perfect, but looks the part. Passing it on to Modhail for cleanup and getting the bugs out, and print 2 for 20mm TW:2K for raiders or militia, and a few in 15mm perhaps for funsies?
Letting go is very hard for me, selling stuff feels like killing dreams and ideas....and I don't like that. But keeping everything is impossible, I have enough for 4 lifetimes and atm I'm not even sure I can complete 1 lifetime, and this takes up a lot of space, so might as well.
It will cost me an entire afternoon to sort the lot, check all the boxes, compare prices, and put up for grabs, but so be it.
And don't worry, I have crates and more crates full of the stuff.
So....let's say bye bye and focus what I;'m working on.
Finished these 2, they came incomplete in a box of H0 scale seconds, I glued them to a Warhammer 40mm base and used some spare stuff to spruce them up a bit. They will work fine for almost anything, 15mm, 20mm, 28mm and fit all the timeframes I game in (well, build for anyway), even Stargrave!.
Miniatures painted:4
Tokens: 1 Scenery: 3 A few more days to go till the end of 2021, but for me it can't come soon enough. While it is nice to be painting again, the level of shit this year is getting to me. I've treated myself to a few things at the last minute. I've been dumping quite a few paints from my stash, I have waaaay to many and quite a few have gone off or solidified. Also want to go over all of my brushes to see what can be saved and what can be tossed. I still have a pack of unused sable ones that I'm saving for miniature painting (so not waste them on scenery). My old blue pot of water effects from ages ago had gone off so I picked up a new one, transparant this time, so I can mix it with the paint and skip a step. For now it is meant for my 3mm aircraft over water bases, maybe later when I pick up targets, I mean ships again I will use it for those. Picked up some Flanker Blue as this Russian Blue is great for weathering anything Soviet era stuff. Mecha Rust textture to see if it does anything extra compared to my Vallejo Rust Texture....I doubt it but who knows.
Some airbrushing stencils (or more likely stippling in my case). The Radiation ones are on the big side for 28mm, but the barrel marks are just fine and will save me a ton of time.
And more tufts, as you can never have enough of those. Some spring flowers, some large scale big leaf weed tufts that will come in handy for Vietnam, and some wintery grasses for expanding my Germans into the winter period.
Atm I'm waiting to receive 2 1/400 scale freighters to convert for Cruel Seas, I have a stash of ships for it that I want to paint up in 2022 even though the game isn't very good, but you can use other rulessets with it so.
I don't have many plans for 2022 tbh. Work my way to clear the room, make the gaming table clear again, sell off/trade/give away what I don't want/need, bin what is crap and paint what I want to keep. Basically what I am doing now, forcing myself to make some hard choices. I want to keep this? Sure, paint it. Too much effort? Sell it.
Gaming wise, the focus isn't changing much. Paint what is fun, painting so we can have a game is even better. Thx to Jacks motivational blog posts 3mm is back on the menu. Bases have been bought and are being made, a set of Jungle, Water, Desert and Winter are planned. My worry about the lack of decals has been negated by a new player in the USA. I do need new epoxy as mine has solidified again....that stuff only lasts a year or so after opening....to put the magnets on the planes. And I need to fix some magnets on older aircraft, the tiny ones don't work and 2 of the bigger ones have shattered. But besides that, I want to get back into air wargaming, and I'm starting with more stuff for Desert Spitfires 1948, as I have some stuff finished for it, and I refound some B-17's and 109's that will be prepped and finished for the Israeli's
20mm wise....my focus is all over the place so anything goes.Still looking at Middle East rebels and expanding my Germans. I hoped Stalingrad would have given me a boost but not (yet). I doe have quite a few Berlin buildings to get through.
28mm. Well, I'm pushing myself to paint faces again as those scare me immensely. Give me machines and wrecks every day of the week, but now that I have painted the 2 ghosts I feel less worried. And I should, as I have plenty to do for Stargrave, Mordheim, Rogue Trader, This is not a Test, Kill Team etc
BFG. Space ships. What is not to like.
My best step forward this year has been opening the WIP drawer, grabbing semi finished stuff and just getting it done, and this will continue for 2022 onwards. I should also take a step back from making scenery all the time and into finishing more models, but those 2 goals are not mutually exclusive.
And I might even get me a display case. Show off what I make instead of hiding it all in drawers. Purely for motivational reasons, of course.
And that is it. I wish you all the best of luck for 2022, stay safe and happy painting.
Just going through my WIP drawer, finishing what I find and making new kit in between. 2 more 20mm bunkers for the WW2/Vietnam collection.
