A Daytrip to the TSA's Bring and Buy 5th of December 2025

 After weighing in if I should or not, I decided to take the trip anyway. Even if I would find nothing of my liking I could fill up my jerrycans with petrol (it's 40 cente per litre cheaper in Belgium, so yeah....).

Weather was pretty miserable, roads are still very Belgian (if you know, you know) and the trip uneventful.

It was a bit busy, as always, but not completely overcrowded. 

My most important purchase that had just been put out when I was about to leave (bloody typical) is a complete army for for AK-47. After a bit of back and forth I got it for a bargain. Army had been painted but never used in game (where have we heard that before...). I need to go over a few things and maybe get some magnet sheething for them and put them into their own RUB. I have the extra rules for this army so that is perfect :)

I paid about the same as it would cost me to order this, with shipping and the hit I would get from Customs, so.....happy. 

A addition to my rulesset collection to cross off my by now ancient Wanted list. According to Piers I have a mega bargain, and these sell for a whole lot more online. Well, into my cabinet it goes. (also I love it when sellers mark their stuff with a label and price, especially with my eyes!)

Lots of spares. 3 for 15 and the other box for 10.  I have gifted myself Baron's War and some boxes for it for Christmas, so these will go into my stash for later. 

Just for research purposes....not starting that period.


  

I picked up a blister in which recognised some Ghar, so for 4 euros I decided to take a risk. I ended up with 4 drones, a Distortion (?) cannon and 1 crew, and some Rebels, all outcasts. They should make a nice warband for a SciFi game I reckon. Nest to keep them in a bag to spend a hour cleaning them all up, assembling them and priming them white as pale skin seems to suit them. 

A really old Warlord Carden Loyd Carrier. I thought it was a MG carrier, but it seems to be just the normal unarmed tractor version. maybe it is destined to become a light gun or mortar tow for my VBCW BUF (something I have had in my mind for maybe 20 years now....) so maybe just make the occasional item to scratch that itch would be smart as I doubt I will ever make a full force for it. Something I, if I'm honest, should do more often instead of overinvesting? Also, why on earth does Warlord charge you 24 euros for a new one? These things are smaller than a matchbox!

After some Googling I found out this is a Cannone da 75/27 modello 11 with a 4 man crew. I pitched the idea to make scenery for The Last War, but maybe this too can make it into the VBCW box. Who knows. 3 euros was again a bargain. 

 

I saw these fences and thought they would work fine for Stalker etc. Just remove some of the flock here and there and add some of my own plants. Add some weathering but otherwise fine. You can never have enough fencing. 20 euros for the box. 
 
Then some books that my group had an interest in that I won't bother you with. Rogue Trader stuff :)

All in all a nice day out, but man I'm not very healthy. Took me a few hours to recover after arriving back home and tbh I'm still so damn tired. Did some glueing of MDF parts and a wash over the big gun I'm working on but that was it. Maybe I can get more done tomorrow. Well, something anyway. 

Goodbye 2021

 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.

1948 is back on the menu boys!

 With a little motivation from Jack and a bit of cash sent to my favorite lasercutter this project is back on track. 

 

 

(though the 40mm bases are for Vietnam.....no other way to fit a B-52)

 

There could be the slight issue in the future when I start running out of certain aircraft and Brexit increasing shipping costs and time by a factor of 25%. Same for decals, but at least a US supplies has stepped up in the void left by Dom's Decals going....somewhere?

Anyhoo, bases need to be produced. And then the Netherlands went in lockdown. Again. Jay.

Last of the many ( I hope)

I visited a local fellow kitbuilder (aka hoarder) who is liquidating his 1/72 collection and I brought him some of my surplus 1/35 stuff. In the end, I can say we were both pretty happy with our trade..

I picked up the following:

 Partially started Skyhawk, with upgradeparts for the extended exhaust for the Israeli's. Goes into the 1982 Israel pile.

 Toss up between a Iraqi or a Argentinian bird, purely planned for display purposes.

 Decals for the Gazelle helo, so I'm now sorted for the Syrian, Iraqi and Yugoslav ones.

If I can find a cheap box of these, I always snatch them up. With additional plastic bits they become lovely.

 For the burned Russian convoy.

 My favourite 222

 For my Overlord British

 Even though it has rubber tyres, I picked it up anyway. I'll either wreck it or trade it.

 Will this joing my future French of the German Polizei Units? Who knows....

 Straight onto the Israeli pile.

 Extra AAA for the Desert Brits or the BEF.

 Will be a civillian aircraft, I think.

 Another Russian wreck.

 For Iran-Iraq.

Other then some outstanding orders with the Hobby Den, Grubby Tanks and some second hand trades, I'm kind done with buying/swapping/trading (not selling though!). I'm going back to building stuff several nights a week to make a dent in the pile in the atic, as well as more scenery, courtesy of a new friend:

After getting interested in these a few years ago, but never having the money to buy one, I've been looking on and off for one for the past 2 years. 6 months ago Erik and decided to put a little more effort into it, and tonight I picked up this beauty at half retail. The receipt says it was bought last week, and the owner bought it to try it out, and felt he could find something better, so bought a 700 euro model with all the trims and fittings possible, and put this one up for sale. Jay me.

I will invest in some add ons for it, to make easy and consistent angular cuts and straight cuts with thicker foam. For now I will just play with it for a bit.

Taking stock

I've been spending quite a bit of time in the attic lately, clearing out boxes and sorting stuff into boxes labelled Sell, Store or Trash. Currently I have 10 boxes of stuff to sell, which will take me quite some time as photographing, tagging and putting it all online takes a shitload of time, so I just grab a few things each time I go up in the attic.

The boxes labelled Store (around 10 now) are the ones I focussed my attention on today, to see if I could sort some of them into project boxes. In this case, 1 project in particular due to the arrival of 2 Italeri Loaches from a trade, just for the minuguns that they have, so I can convert 1 AH-6 Night Fox into the twin minigun and rocket pod variant used by the guys supporting Delta in Mogadishu, and 2 others into troop carriers, with magnet swappable boards for versions with and without troops, and 3 of the (almost) correct versions of the Blackhawks (1 for a crashed model and 2 for dropping off troops. I actually have the correct model for the C&C bird as well but I've come to the conclusion adding that is a bit pointless due to the high altitude.

Going off this pic I actually have 1 AH-6 too many, but that will go into my 1982 Israel box as it comes with twin tow launchers, so nothing is wasted. With the 30 Delta's and the 40+ Ranger suitable figures I'm pretty much done for a raid. More suitable buildings are on the list, and when that is all done I'll get busy on the miltia and their assorted vehicles. It sure seems like a lot of work for a 3x3 table but hey, this has been stuck in my brain ever since I saw the movie and make some stuff for it :) Life's goals, bucket list, your call :)

I pitied the mailman this week, btw.

Yeah, that's a lot.

Zlin is a 2nd plane for the Cartel (for Black Ops games), Bf 109E-4 was a freebie, F4U-4 Corsair is for Burma, The 2 Heller kits are for Israel's earlier wars which aren't a high priority at all. More bombs because I like to load out with proper ordonance and the stuff that comes with kits can be iffy sometimes. My 4th Protze, that should suffice for a while. The Airfix Bedford double box, 1 is for a Late Desert 6 Pounder portee, the other as a transport for Overlord. 2 Cayuse just for the miniguns, and they can be made into civillian ones after that....would do very nice as a press chopper or a Cartel one as I will have rocket pods spare. Su-7 is planned for a Egyptian one vs Israel but also long term.

6, yes 6...., LKW 7t trucks. Let's just say I got a very good deal on these (even though I'm actualy actively looking for a 10t version to convert to a Iraqi mobile Roland). And last but not least, a E555......just for static display and a target for commando or resistance raids on secret German locations. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

I picked up some stuff at Overloon too but that's for a later Blogpost.

Meanwhile, I've added a new Japanese building to my lot, a rather large rice storage. It came out nice. Just needs rocks for the roof but I still haven't found the correct container.

I'll make stairs for it at a later date.

Fencing in some sand.

I've been at it in the attic and have now 10 moving boxes full of stuff ready to disposed of in the coming future (not on this Blog though, I use forums and FB groups for that). One of the nice side effects of digging into boxes that have not been open for years is finding stuff I made when I started (historical) wargaming, like a ton of painted figures and what not. One rather useful bit is this:

Made with the coarse sand I used 10 years ago, and dental plaster casts of a rock wall purchased on my very first Crisis shopw and painted to go with my DAK stuff, they are nicely tall walls in 20mm and chest high walls in 28mm. For something that is about 10 years old it has weathered remarkably well, with only very minor chipping. So, some dusting off, retipping some paint and varnish and she's ready to hit the table in a desert near you.

And in other news....I've been collecting some Israeli stuff.....uh oh......what's this then?

For you following my Blog my love for the Middle East and small scale conflicts with Technicals and militia is nothing new. Collecting stuff to make a 1982 Israeli force just flows naturally from that, so I picked up these at the second hand shop at the Overloon TWENOT show last weekend to go with my M163 and AH-6 TOW and other assorted Israeli stuff that I have. God knows where this will end up.

Star and Pyramid: 6 Day War: Operation Moked progress

Tonight, I've removed all of the old 1mm width magnets from the aircraft (with no magnet surviving the process and a gash in my thumb from a slipped knife <sigh>) and added 3mm width magnets to all of the aircraft and nails to the helicopters.

Sofar I have painted:

2 Mirage IIICJ with droptanks
1 Piper Cub
1 IL-14

And I'm still enjoying myself. Currently in either a primed or half painted and new magnets/nails installed state are:

2 Mirage IIICJ
4 Super Mystere
4 Ouragan
2 S-58 Helicopters
And oddly enough 2 Cobra Attack helicopters....I think these came from my Iranian batch and somehow got mixed up with this lot as they are not in the campaign lists (or I have misread that and I'm going blind....also an option!)

That bed of nails was the best thing I ever did for my 3mm aircraft....so much easier to store them all in a drawer this way, other then small bead boxes. If one aircraft is a big bigger you just slap a few extra magnets underneath and raise it a bit. Brilliant. Must make more.

Now, the opposition....

4 MiG-19
6 MiG-17
2 MiG-21 PFM and 4 MiG-21 F-13 - only 1 model is sold but I think I can make some small modifications
3 IL-28
4 Su-7b

....a bit of a problem. I know I ordered all of these back then,. and they are in the big box of aircraft. Problem is, I can't find the little fokkers (and you have seen the sheer amount of boxes in my attic) !

So, I have 2 options. Re order what I need and spend another 14 pounds on aircraft for the first part of the book. Or wait untill I find the several kilograms of aircraft in a box. I've chosen the sensible option......yes, I don't know when I will find them, but it saves money and I have plenty to keep me busy, as during my search I did find a box with part of my Vietnam stuff, a ton of WIP's and some assorted finished aircraft that may or may not need some retooling.

Since I have no opponent anyway that I have to play against (I will try play by email for this with some friends and see how that works) there is no rush, and all of the conversions that I need to finish will keep me occupied for a while anyway.

That will be all, stay tuned for more 3mm beauties soon :)

L5 Stinson Sentinel painted as Israeli Piper Super Cub

The "Head to Head"sceanrio calls for a Piper Super Cub. Nobody makes that, but the L-5 Sentinel does come close and with some additional painted windows (all the way underneath the wing) it looks quite ok. This is the last test, this time to see how I handled something really small, and I passed that too. Not too many left now on the block, and I want to get as many done as I can before Doms shipment comes in for the Falcon and the Duce scenarios.

2 Israeli Mirage IIIs in Six Day War scheme

Also in my scrapbox, as were 2 others, but they had the wrong magnets inserted....the ones I painted have 1x3mm round, the ones I did not paint have 3x1mm round bar, and they just keep falling off the flightstand whereas the 3mm round stick on like glue. I have a box of flat head nails that I will use for the smaller WW2 aircraft as a big 3mm magnet might be a bit much on those....I will experiment with that on a Israeli spotter plane next.