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.