Impact 2017 - great times.....

Just got back from Impact 2017. The venue was well packed with a diverse selection of traders and display tables, and I might be wrong, but with 6 euros entry it was cheaper compared to last year? I could swear it was 7 euros then. (though a few traders or clubs will be in for a nasty surprise as I spotted a few cars beside the venue that had been ticketed for not paying for parking - 63,50 euros each. Ouch! ). This year, you got a few tickets with your entry fee that would be used for the raffle, and every hour they announced new numbers for a free item. Really nice toutch! Als the goodie bag was well stocked with little items. A few candybars, a free mini from Warmonger Miniatures, some fliers for shows and discounts, a Warlord 28mm US Marines sprue and a nice sheet of pre embossed styrodur. And a resin base as well, but I forgot who made that (I gave it to some friends from Tilburg who actually use those).

Beautiful weather too (which can be a good/bad thing for a show) and with Kim taking the car and the kids to my parents, I took the train to Eindhoven and walked to the convention centre (it would be daft to have gone by car anyway, a trainticket costs as much as 1 hour of parking in Eindhoven, with fuelcosts on top..... ).

Anyway, a well packed venue, with shops in the outer ring and games in the middle. There seemed to be a bit of everything, with most popular games well represented by the shops but with loads of other stuff as well. After picking up the things I had pre ordered first, I browsed the shops for a bit and after that, the smallish Bring & Buy, which turned out to be the place where I was to spend the most dosh. After that it was nothing but pure eyecandy, lots of effort being put in the games and tables.

I had a nice and long chat with Sander at the bar, who had his 6 year old son with him, with a fine discussion over a Belgian beer (and a iced tea for his son) and some swapping of purchases and freebies as some of our interest overlap. When he went to get some final bits I had a lengthy discussion with his son about how Sander paints and how he actually paints quicker then his father, though not always with the desired result. Brilliant, if I can half of that chat with my girls when they turn 6 I'd be happy as a clam. After that they left for a trip to Eindhoven and back home again.

I then had a long chat with Ferry and his son Maarten about Gaslands, games development, the hobby online and how expensive life is :D Maarten left after a bit to join the scrapheap challenge, and after a bit we both had another small tour of the show, discussed the game Tanks! as being a nice game for him and his son and then we parted ways. I feel I will have to organise a evening event in Tilburg in the near future just for Gaslands, as Ferry and a few others are very interested in it.

Since I really suck at remembering peoples names if I only see them a couple of times a year chats can be a bit akward, as i never forget a face so I know he or she, I just can't put a name to them. It's nice to hear people have no problem remembering me or my name, my Blog and my work, so I must be doing something right. People were quite impressed with the Japanese buildings, which was nice, so I need to get that tutorial up next week.

I cut it short at around 14:30 as I really need to study for tomorrows exam, hence I'm now blogging at the ungodly hour of 17:00 with a sandwich at my side.

Right, the haul. Again, I have foccused purely on what I want to use in the very near future, and some bits I can resell or swap/trade with others. In the end, after expenses, I spent just shy of 40 euros, and when I sell what I don't need right now that should balance out nice enough.

In no particular order I bagged (and my apolagies for the odd angles of some of the pictures, these are all taken with my phonecam and those pics and the Paint software seem to be at odds with each other. I can save a picture straight up and it will show on its side or inverted when I upload. When I correct it in paint and upload it again it sometimes works, sometimes does not. Quite annoying but I don't want to shit here all night editing, sorry! Also, some pics are fuzzy, thats 100% my fault :D ).

 <Freebie> Warlord US Marines sprue > Going straight in my TNT bits box for repurposing in conversions

<Freebie> As most of my friends do no scratch build, the free samples of Styrodur all ended up in my bag. I'll put them to good use, want to have a stab at finishing the Japanese shrine monday or tuesday and these are perfect for that.

Shitty pic, sorry about that. Hans bought some zombies off me and gave me this skinned teddybearfur as a freebie to try out. Enough here for a small house and then some left over bits for some experimenting. He did mention though he prefers to use cheap towels for this as they are easier to work with. We'll see how this works out....

Second hand purchase - 1 out of a lot of many partially assembled/disassembled Star Wars fighters - this one came closest to 1/72 for me so I bought it. Landing gear is ripped off so will need some TLC, new bits and a new PJ.

Damn you Paint program. Anyway, 2mm I beams to make Czech hedgehogs with. I've seen L and I beams used and I think the I beam is just a tad stronger in scale. Not sure how to bae them yet, in groups or seperate......

Second hand purchase - 2 Matchbox Panzer IIIL new in box. Will make excellent wrecks/parts donors.

Second hand purchase - Ehm, late WW1 truck-thingie? Will be built as is and used as scenic piece for Pulp games in 20mm.

Second hand purchase - 28mm Perry Japanese porters. Now all I need is a merchant to go with them and they will make a great objective.

I don't think this needs any explaining..... Miniature SM dungeon you say? Nope, for adding to the front of tanks of course.

 <Freebie> A goblin coming out of a pot and a shield. I traded the shield away and I'll cut the goblin from the pot. The goblin will then be sent off and I will keep the pot.

Very fuzzy pic (sorry about that) of a Copplestone spy, and a Northstar Police Oficer and 3x the Yakuza muscle for Big Trouble in Little China Pulp. All 28mm.

A cowboy with a rifle and one with his hands up. Just....because? I want to see if I can paint a cowboy. Just for funsies.

I think these are 28mm Japanese Foundry Officers? Well, they will now become statues in Hong Kong, for Pulp reasons.

28mm Norhtstar and others Monks and a Samurai.

28mm Terracotta warriors. Either I'll use these for Hong Kong Pulp, or put them up for sale as they are OOP could help me with the finances. Not sure yet.

 28mm GW Praetorian casualties. Picked these up purely for resale tbh.

 28mm GW Tyrranid Red Terror. Beastie for Frostgrave, Sci-Fi and Pulp. Strip, build, paint.

Resin 28mm scatter scenery. A box of porto potties is actually 4 pcs but I traded 2 with Sander. 2 is enough for a table, or as he said it, you are not having a rock concert. I'm rally liking this TT Combat stuff. Well priced, excellent resin and well cast too. Barrels are from Baueda.

<Freebie> Anvil frag cannon.....also going straight into the TNt box for future conversions.

 And that was it. I saw plenty of other stuff, but it's a few more months till the next show and I want to try to get most painted before that (famous last words....). Well, at least the scenery anyway.

A day well spent, not too expensive, plenty of chats with friends and people I know or follow me on my Blog or Forums, also plenty of eye candy and ideas. Yes, a day well spent. Now, off to study.

"In the (Merchant) Navy" and some excessive brainstorming

This week I have been doing a lot of thinking (not neccesarely the smartest thing for me to do) about a few things, so I wanted to blow off some steam by making a Narco/Terrorist OH-6 with rocketpods. Oh boy, did that go wrong.....very thin plastic so it kept warping, very poor fit even after cleaning, and when I had drilled the hole for the flight base plug and surrounded that with Milliput to keep everything place the 2 halves refused to fit properly and the glue seemed to do nothing other then melt the plastic, but it just would not stick. Then I tried superglue and it only got worse. When I got in to my work space this morning I looked at it once and I could cry....the halves had come apart (again) and the top had set, but crooked.  Lot's of sanding and filler will be needed before this thing will ever become presentable. One of them days I guess.

Anyways, that is not what this post is about.

I follow quite a few blogs, some post frequently, others.....not so much.  Atm my focus is on games I can play with my existing collection and games I can play with a minimum amount of figures. In that vein, and because I rediscovered my 1/3000th fleet a while back, I've been looking at the Schnell Rules for Schnell Boote (thx to Jim ). The rules look simple enough, and when I last looked at Navwar they still sell quite a few torpedoboats that can be useful.

Wow, I sure did paint a lot of ships, didn't I?

Mostly post 80's tankers in this lot, a couple of conversions and some sunken/sinking ships. They are good to go as they are, other then that I will be removing the nametags by cutting them off and stcking a label on the underside. I've noticed I find nametags in that way too visible and when I use datacards with a picture of the ship on it, they are not neccesary.

A real mish-mash of cargo ships, military ships and various other items. Again, remove (or paint over) the tabs, relabel on the underside and they are good to go. I'll just need some more tugs, cutters, small merchants and barges before I can get to work on MTB's. Anyway, they have their own laballed drawer now so when I have time, I'll get on it.

Now, the excessive thinking part.

I'll be ignoring the 28mm elephant in the room and focussing purely on the 20mm one. I like scenery. I like making scenery. How can I make the most of the storage space that I have without making specific scenery for every single environment/war I'm interested in?

It's easier then you think. (Keep in mind that my perspective is a attractive table with little details that don't get in the way of the game but enhance it. It's the exact opposite of most Warmachine/40K tables, which are a affront to my eyes with a green pooltable cloth, a house, a mountain and some trees if you are lucky.). Ok, what do you see in almost every warzone since WW1? Wrecks, oil drums, barbed wire, roadblocks, debris, dead stuff, craters, and more recently, unfinished concrete buildings. Keep the basing to a minimum (like I always do) and generic colour wise and I should have no trouble fitting everything in.

So, after yesterdays failure, I decided to do something my Aspergers makes me perfect for......build the same damned thing over and over.

Crappy plastic ones from the Academy vehicles kit, topped with dirt for dirt filled oil drums. 4 crappy plastic ones from the Hasegawa Japanese truck but not as crappy as the other ones so they are ok. Both types ned to be sanded down for sprue lines. The yellow-ish oild drums top left are from 12 years ago when I got into this Historical hobby from a Ebay vendor (one of my first purchases) and they are actually knock offs (I had no idea back then) and a bit bubbly but they will work fine. The top right ones is a box of a dozen I got half off at a sale last year. I have loads more resin knock offs somewhere as well as a box of originals, and I'll use those when I will make battlefield specific markers, like ones with a roadsign for instance.

And that's it for today. I was supposed to turn in around 22:00 and it's now just shy of 02:00, so ....yeah....oops.

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.

Swerving wildy off topic! Panzerturm! What?

So, I sat down lastnight to work on the big Japanese house, did jack all for 30 minutes, then decided to go up in the attic to check my inventory and clean up a bit. It helps to check your stuff before a convention, lest you return home with the same stuff over and over (Like the fact that I have 13(!) FW-190 kits in stock.....really). I quickly filled a box with incomplete kits and stuff suitable for wrecks, and dunked a PSC 38(t) box on top, and made my way down again.

So, lots of stuff I can use for Afrika, and what do I do?

...I go and buil myself a Armoured Supplvehicle for Barbarossa. The army that I sold off to Piers for the book a couple of years ago.....for the love of God man :). Anyway, that was 10 minutes of work. And then I had spare turret. 38(t) turrets were used in Tunisia, Sicily, Italy etc, so why not make a fitting bunker?

Looks simple enough, if a tad tall on the table, but I have a plan for that.

Template for the bunker outline, and the metal mounting plate. The underside of the turret was clipped off, sanded smooth, and I sealed the hole with a thin sheet of plasticcard with a magnet epoxied on it (which now sits inside the turret).

First 2 layers, sand the corners (didn't work perfectly but good enough for government work).

4 layers of plasticcard, I've not sanded it all the way smooth, the layering helps with the poured concrete effect when painted. The bacl hole in the back is where the doorway would be....yes, the roof would be a bit thicker then that but this is a wargames model for the table for people who don't dig holes in foam to mount bunkers into.  Mount this on a base, add some space in the back, paint the illusion of stairs and presto.

The bunker sans turret. Underneath the mounting plate is a a hole into the first 2 layers of plasticcard and a magnet epoxied into it, and the mounting plate glued on top so it is not going anywhere. I can now use the same bunker for Normandy by mounting a FT-17 turret on it, for instance.

I'll make a MG and Mortar Tobruk in the same fashion and send both off to the Hobbyden for casting as Piers mentioned he would like a couple and Bryan likes them too.

Right, that is it for now, I'm slightly deceased after taking a trip to the TWENOT event at the Overloon museum today....a single crutch and 3 bags full of model kits don't really mix. I did not recognise the museum anymore, it's completely different from the one I went to as a child. Back then I felt all tanks looked big, but this time I came eye to eye with the restored Panther and it blew me away. I picked up my pre order, a few boxes from the 2nd hand stalls, and the paintset for Caunter. I was pretty beat after an hour or so, decided to leave, drove to the Supermarket for a simple lunch as the canteen was way to expensive for my wallet, and when I wanted to leave I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to pick up another pre order! Crap. So I went back, picked it up, and then found out there was a salesbooth hiding behind the Panther! I picked up a real gem there, but more about that later this week.....

Smell the fresh country air!

Well, maybe not....

Again, heavily leaning on what Jimbibbly makes, mine is  a tad wider but it works, a Japanese outhouse.I think I will make a another one, these take very little effort and can be found in the fields as well.

The big building is fighting me all the way atm (hence I put it aside and made an outhouse).

 Needs woodpanneling, maybe another window on the lower floor? Extra sanding on the roof to make the roof shape fit better. We'll get there.

Front is almost finished, but also needs a window on the top somewhere? Doordetails have to be done too.

And here be dragons! 50 cents for the pair, both (lightly) damaged, so I based them and they will do nicely for Frostgrave of dungeoneering or a cultist hideout. Just needs some sand and other base details.

And lastly, with my apolagies for the terrible picture, a small idol carved in some sort of stone (it didn't look like resin) after cleaning dirt off of it. Based it, will do nicely as a African/South American idol, covered with moss, plants and grasses. Should do fine for 20mm and 28mm alike, and great for Pulp.

I'm now downloading and editing posters and fliers suitable for Gaslands to put up on billboards that I will be massproducing soon.....eating up a lot of time but as always, the look supports the game.

I have just doubled the amount of peasants in my village!

From 1 to 2 :D This farmer can afford 2 rooms in his house..... I've noticed I'm copying heavily from Jimbibbly's work (well, the models he sells at Oshiro), so much so, that I have cancelled my order with Warlord for the house, rice stores (and oild drums). I feel that the 200 Pounds spent there is better sent to Oshiro for things like lanterns etc, and I'm perfectly capable of producing my own quality buildings for a lot less and to my personal taste and style.

I just realised I will also need to build a few outhouses....

Other then that, nothing new. I picked up a few more broken toy trucks, and salvaged the wheels and useful parts, and part of my Caliver order arrived today, a box of PSC A9 Cruisers and a box of 25 Pounders. Sadly, this meant 1 box is on backorder but that is for my late War English so no problem there. Also, I seem to have collected all the aircraft I need for the British and German in the Desert now but I will do a post on that at a later date. Right now I'm working on building number 3 and I already fucked up one wall so yeah.....(managed to fix it though).