A day well spent

On friday, after Kim left for therapy, I did the usual fridayroutine of going to the market, and on the way back swing by the 2nd hand stores. They had a few interesting things but nothing that felt really useful so I came back hoem early for a change. I did some more sorting and labelling in the room, and then decided to go up in the attic. To make a headstart.

Yikes! I could not remember it being this crowded, with a huge pile of crap in the middle and no room to maneuvre. Well, working counter clockwise coming into the room, I just started opening all the boxes and stacking them on my end of the attic. Repeat ad nauseum.

After a solid 2 hours and some proper weightlifting I managed to put almost everything on one side, clear the centre and the back end too, so I can get the cabinet up there on monday I guess. While clearing, I managed to find tons of stuff I didn't even remember I had, plus tons of stuff that can go really. I was also surprised to find I actually have a lot of painted stuff. I was very productive once :)

In the end, it now looks like this:

 Centre cleared, on the right there are boxes 3 rows deep and behind that is a lot of loose stuff.

In the back end there is space for the next cabinet (granted, you would not say it now, but those boxes there are easily moved out of the way when it comes up next week)

Christ, so much shite.

I did everything way too rushed, so my knee said "Fuck it" and it's still reminding me of it. Also, I had forgotten about my dust allergy and when I came down to wash my hands the water actually got black, and the same when I blew my nose. Haven''t stopped blowing it since, so I have really overexterted myself. But hey, I got the hard part done! The rest of the week is cramming as much kits in that cabinet as possible so I can see what I have, and get sorting on the crates, sorting it into Wargames Stuff and Other, which will make the final culling a bit easier. Technically, I have 4 weeks to get more stuff sold. Why this is important I'll explain a bit further down.

I also managed to find all my Battlegroup books! Well, can't find the bleeding mini rulebook but that is bound to turn up eventually. Cleared the cabinet on my right properly, removed more junk and made a nice shelf for the books plus some of my reference books for my neck of the woods during WW2.

Basking in the low afternoon sun - I must find a proper place for those CD's or just turn them into MP3's and sell em. Bit of a waste of space on top, I'd like to add another Moppe on top (another one?! Yes, I confess, I'm a Moppe hoarder. But they are so bloody useful!) Anybody want to buy Spank the Monkey? Fun game, all cards sleeved and as new, in a Crystal Case. Kim doesn't like the game, it's too violent, like Robo Rally. Sadly :(

But I bless her too :) When I mentioned yesterday that I miss my times in Ireland and painting with deadlines, she said that that time will come again. We just need to ride this out, find proper jobs so we can actually start saving money again and when the girls are a bit bigger ther's nothing wrong with Daddy going to Ireland for a long weekend. Till then, why not just paint so that when that time comes, you can just pick stuff off the shelf and not be stressed out by deadlines? I propably don't mention it enough but I love this woman more then anyone before her. :)

I've already made my mind up about painting. In my head it's been either option A: Build a infantry core and work from there, option B: Build a 500 point army and work from there or C: Build for a scenario.

Tbh, I'll be pretty much painting for King and Country cause whatever local interest there is in WW2, those people all play Bolt Action in 28mm cause that is what you can buy in the shop (FOW 15mm has gone extinct here) and I would have to be pretty convincing to get them to try 20mm and actually make an effort to get stuff. Yeah, ain't gonna happen. Also, I'm not forcing Modhail into this. Once, he painted up some very nice 20mm Afrika Korps but that interest died a long time ago. And he has plenty of other issues atm so no.

Leaves me with A,B and C. Well actually, it doesn't. If I choose C, A is already included 9 out of 10 times. It's a small step from completed scenario forces to B. And yes, that involves painting for both sides, but Modhail has already mentioned that while he is not interested in painting them, he is in playing with them.

So, what scenario? After helping Piers out on his previous scenario's for the WSS magazine (mostly fact checking, help with streetnames and Google Maps and stuff, he has kindly given me 2 more complete dscenario's for the next WSS (the November 2016 issue I think)

I've taken the first scenario as my lead for what I have to do in the coming months.

Hunting in pairs - Geel, September 10th 1944

It's not a very big scenario, the BR are low and it's a simple table with some roads, crossroads, a couple of houses and woodlines, but there is one difference; it is a night game. I'll leave the details for the scenario in the magazine, but it looks to be very interesting. No table size is mentioned so I'll have to ask Piers about that (I'm guessing a 4x4 though?)

Germans - BR 20

FHQ – Jagdpanther of Leutnant Gerhard Kossack (Senior Officer, Regular)

Jagdpanther (Regular)

German Infantry Platoon (Regular);

                Platoon HQ – Five Men

                3 x Rifle Teams – Five men and Panzerfaust

                3 x LMG Teams – Three men and MG42

British - BR 29

FHQ - Brigadier Gordon and two staff in jeep (Senior Officer, Artillery Spotter, Regular)

Infantry Section (Regular - Close Protection for Brigadier) – 8 men with Bren in truck

Sherman Tank Squadron, Sherwood Rangers (Regular) – 3 x Sherman (1 x Officer), 1 x Firefly

Two Carrier Sections (Regular);

                1 x Carrier with three men and Bren

                1 x Carrier with three men and 2” Mortar

                1 x Carrier with three men and PIAT

Pretty compact, isn't it?

For the Germans, I have painted almost all the infantry, but I was missing a 3rd MG team - my recent Grubby order sorted that out. I have no Jagdpanthers though. That is now one of my planned Crisis purchases. And some additional bits fro it from EWM as the S-Models Jagdpanthers have bare sides.

For the British, I have nothing painted. I have enough infantry, but no truck. I hear Airfix do a nice set with the QLD in it, so I will keep my eye open for it. I have plastic jeeps from Academy, but no British crew. I have a couple of boxes of PSC British M4A4 and Firefely so that is sorted. As far as I know I only have 1 box of Carriers but again, no crews. And I need 6 of them. And I'm assuming dismounts too. Most of these can be covered by Britannia carrier crews and seperate infantry. I'll need to find a source for seperate Piats, Brens and 2 inch mortar ammo to properly model them, but I think Sgts Mess has that covered (I might even have them already). EWM and SandS both supply extra tat for British shermans so I will google that as well.

After the weekend I will do a final check and sort out the wish list for this force. At times like these it's pretty handy all of my stash is labelled and I can quickly sort through the boxes.

Since I've dropped a few things off my Crisis pre order list, and I'm rather really happy with my newly purchased roads, I've been browsing the web for cheap boxes of more road addons, to be precise railtrack and cobblestones. Getting them right from the UK is not an option. Even with the low value of the Pound, the weight adds up and only one UK shop sells all 4 of the different boxes that I want. And that's Wayland Games. And I'm never ever going to buy stuff from them as they just take your money, don't communicate and God knows when your stuff turns up, if at all. Frontline Games from Germany is attending Crisis and has all of the 4 needed boxes in their sales list (and quite a few more). They also have a nice 20% off offer for Crisis so I'm giving them a go. I've ordered another box of crossroads, a box of railway track, a box of railway track bends and Y junctions, and a box of cobblestone roads. Shy over 100 euros, no shipping costs, and I can pay at the show so I have a couple of more weeks to collect the funds - which is the reason I mentioned before. I've decided not to buy the rivers but make my own, as for the Netherlands small and wider canals are what is needed, not neccesarely big rivers (maybe later). I already picked up several sheets of hardboard from the waste wood bins to cut into 30cm strips and then work into canals, but that too is a project for next year.

The Defensiekanaal isn't terribly wide, and I can easily make 30cm wide sections with typical Dutch bridges, either simple concrete ones or the ones that actually open. But that's a project all on its own.

Closing shot of the day is the pic I found off a MG nest from the Westwall which is nothing more then some dirt and a steel plate.

If I leave the area behind the plate open I can just put up a 3 man MG team there, behind cover, for a simple and fluffy MG nest. Should be a nice in between job someday :)

Change of heart

The GW mat and Battlefront Roads arrived yesterday.

I could not get the GW mat to lie straight on the table, no matter how much I pulled on any side. And then I found out it's A. Shorter then the full lenght of the table and B. Cut by someone like me as it's not even straight either, one end is noticable wider then the other. Final nail in the coffin is that it is very, very green......pooltable green. So, I'll box it up again and put it back for sale this week.

 I grabbed some boxes of scenery to see if I could tone it down a bit. Well, if I cover everything with fields etc, sure, but then why bother with a mat in the first place?

Roads are frigging perfect though :) 3 boxes suffices for a 6x4 table, no problem. When Kim asked me if I was happy now, I told her yes, but there was much work to do. I need to double or triple my fences (what you see there is 2 metres of fence), I have more then enough fields, I need to rebase my trees and repair many of the old railway ones that have completely fallen apart flock wise, and I told her I would like to look at Crisis to buy another box of crossroads and a box of cobblestone roads.

Which made her really, really mad.

She told me in no uncertain terms that I was spending too much money on the hobby, that every room in the house was being invaded by the stuff, and that in this rate the attic would never be cleared of stuff. This was countered by me, as the money I've spent recently comes purely from selling unwanted wargamesstuff, that in the past 3 months I have removed all my wargames stuff (including books etc) and consolidated it in the hobby room and attic. And that I need a clean hobbyroom before I can get sorting here, box by box.

Of course, I have this nasty trait I learned from my dad. In an argument, I raise my voice. As soon as it reaches the yelling-stage, Kim just walks away. Thx dad.

After an hour or so (actually, Kim just told me it was a mere 10 minutes!), she came back and we had a proper discussion. Today, we had our councellor over, we discussed it as mature adults, and came to conlusion we needed a goal for the attic. Not the "we'll change it to a master bedroom when the kids want their own rooms in the future" cause that is way too long term, but a short term one. So we chose to clear the attic as much as possible to give Kim a place to put up her easle and start painting again as that is good therapy too. She was all smiles when we planned that I'll be spending a couple of afternoons getting everything neatly stacked, prep the cupboard n the back and stack all my unmade kits there. Easy to see what I have, easy to see what I don't need and can be sold.

Then it's time for the semi monthly "Am I doing the right thing here?" worries. With 20mm claiming back it's (rightful) place in the limelight, I also realise I can't do everything I'd like to do, as properly as I want to do it. As I said to Modhail tonight, it's a bit pointless to paint stuff that might get on the table maybe once a year, while you'd be better off focussing on stuff that could get on the table every week or so. I'm also sick and tired of changing my bloody mind ever so often, and continually falling for the "Ooh! Shiney!" curse. One example of that being 3mm, though I don't mean the aircraft, but the land component. I've sofar bought 25 packs of tanks and assorted vehicles, made casts of loads and painted wrecks (cause I simply can't stop painting wrecks) and then everything stops. Created the 3mm Stalingrad, and thats now on hold again after spending favours and money, and it's not likely to go anywhere soon.

Atm I have:
1/3000 WW2 and Cold War ships- but mostly merchants - couple of kilos unpainted stuff
1/600 WW2 and Cold War aircraft - quite a lot painted actually - but also a couple of kilos of unpainted stuff
1/600 WW2 and Cold War vehicles - hardly anything painted, just a couple of wrecks, and a few 100 grams of unpainted lead. Also not too much scenery.
1/300 Odds and bits - needs sorting and must be sold off
15mm sci-fi - couple of packs of troops, some vehicles, assorted scenery, nothing much.
20mm WW2 and Moderns - loads and loads of stuff. Loads of painted stuff too. Tons of scenery. My one true love in wargaming tbh.
28mm.... Frostgrave, TNT, Mordheim, Necromunda, Inquisitor, Pulp Alley. I have collected a couple of kilos of lead and resin for this in the last year, as well as some scatter scenery and other tit bits.

How likely am I to enjoy painting, build forces and game with them? Not a whole lot for most of them tbh.

Shitty focus, no other local players for most of what I do, having plenty other of stuff to worry about before I'm actually able to enjoy painting or even converting. So, what to do?

Well, in the past I've been pretty well occupied with painting for meetings in Ireland. Paint X amount of stuff in Y amount of time. As you don't have that here, I have to think about why I paint. Well, for funsies mostly, I love one offs, wrecks etc. But how  little bit more focus? Well, if I could just find the bleeding Battlegroup books I've stashed somewhere I could make 500 points lists for Early, Mid and Late and get those done. The repeat for Soviets for the entire war and Brits for Overlord. It should not be as difficult (or expensive) as it sounds as certain (infantry) units can be recycled from period to period and I'm primarily want to focus on 500 points lists for now. Another potential way to focus is just to go after the scenario's in the books and build the forces for that. Or, even easier and more basic, is to just pump out infantry units with full support choices

Mind you, I'm only talking about 20mm here.

For the 28's I'm dying to play Frostgrave, but I'm sort of demanding of myself to get a band painted up first. For TNT, the scenery needs doing for Poldercon. Necromunda, Mordheim, Inquisitor? They can wait, I'm in no hurry to get that started. Pulp Alley.....I really can't find any takers here for it, lovely as the game is, so I'm not comitting to that.

So the plan for now is:
-clear the attic
-find the Battlegroup books, make the lists for 500 points OR paint for scenarios OR basic infantry cores for each army
-paint the TNT scenery in a quick but decent fashion
-paint a Frostgrave warband

And cut off the rest. Disband what I have in 3mm ground, but keep some as targets, SAM's and AAA. Sell the 15mm sci-fi stuff. Continue to clear out boxes, list stuff and fill up that Paypal for scenery or miniatures you can actually use for any of the projects that have a fighting chance.

Above all, stop wasting time behind the bloody PC. 10 more days till I'm 40, and Kim has been kind enough to buy the 1 present I want - a minitower with USB port and DAB+. I've already got tons of MP3's ready for it, and I will add as many gaming related podcasts as I can to the list. Then the PC can stay turned off, and I can just sit there not being distracted by the forums, youtube, pings, peeps and whatnots!

Well, it'a plan anyway.

Anyway, last thing for tonight, meet my new friend.

After clearing out the tobacco from the inside and a bloodsmear across the front it's now my new moveable airbrush cabinet. Compressor in the lower tray, airbrush, tools and what not in the top tray and all my air paints in the middle drawer. I've got the Warbases paint rack in there now but it is not a very good fit with wasted space in the back and side, Fortunately, I only own only 37 Vallejo AIr paints (but that is bound to increase in the future) and they fit in the rack, so no need to get a custom made one anytime soon. Since it has wheels I can just slide it underneath the painting table. Bargain price too, and local pick up.

Final word. I still have not put up the shelving. I told Kim today that I really want to, but I don't want to bother her too much or ask her to help me as she has plenty on her mind now. I'll put the shelnes on hold till I have finished the attic. Also, the wall behind me will only have 1 shelf going all across the wall , just above the door. That is enough space for 8 more Pappis boxes and by God, if that is not enough storage for the coming years then I don't know what else. The area on the back wall between the light switch and the Billy cabinets (with the door open) is space 100 cm's tall and 40 cm's wide.
What I would like is to enquire with a gentleman who lives in the next village who makes custom display cases for all sorts of models and toys, in every imaginable size, width and depth. See what the possibilities are, the costs etc.  To have a place to display 3mm aircraft, 20mm tanks and 28mm infantry. And to show offf for a bit. I've been hiding my stuff for years now, it's a bout time they get a big of stage time. But this special item is my goal for when the attic is done, I've found a new job, and the room is as good as it is going to get.

That's it, Yeah, I talk too much. I noticed that too :)

Frankenstein and a Crisis (of the good kind)

After yesterdays let down I decided to keep my head up and move on. I emailed Hasegawa for spare parts in case my seller turns out to be a dead beat (and then emailed team USA by accident, who now has directed me to our local importer....not sure what good that will do me), and then grabbed a spare PSC Panzer IV chassis to do some dryfitting.

99% perfect fit tbh. Technically it should not have 4 return rollers but 3, but the way the track is designed you can't just go cutting off bits. I'll leave that one for the purists to catch. I've plated up the underside of the casemate so you can't look through it sideways. I'll need to cut the front lower chin off the original kit and splice that to the front the PSC hull. Shave off the first 2 roadwheels and stick the metal ones to them. And plenty of the parts will go nicely on this kit. Guns like these scream out for a nice commander figure so I will go over my boxes and see who fits best.

Which brings me to Crisis. The failure to find the correct filter made me go over the list of retailers to see if anyone has them, and while I was at it, I thought why not look if anything else has my fancy too. So here's the shortlist (for now)

*Gringo 40's - He has a Saint-Chamond-Mondragon 75mm gun in his Mexican Revolution range for 5 Pounds that would be just the gun I need for my 28mm Anglican Church gun team. It's old enough at least! (some really interesting history in these guns >> Saint-Chamond-Mondragon ) I have no interest in making forces for VBCW btw. Just this gun team for funsies and to get rid of the itch. I can always sell it later. Scroll down for the gun

*PK-Pro has Mig Ammo 1506 Brown for Dark Green in stock so that is a must for me. 4 euros.

*Shellhole Scenics - 2x 4.7PaK on 36R chassis, good for Barbarossa and Overlord/Fall of the Reich and Holland/Belgium, 15 Pounds for the 2.

*Charlie Foxtrot Models - Just the swimming pool I need for TNT. 7.25 Pounds. >> Pool

*Adler - 2 or 3 packs of the new German Tank commanders for Afrika. Cause the Russian steppes got mighty dusty too. 8-12 Pounds

*Ainsty Castings - 9206 Full wheelie bin plus pile of rubbish. 4,50 Pounds. Wheelie bin

Roughly 40 euro worth of stuff for pre orders. I'm getting soft at my old age :D I've got my eye on some terrain but the compnaies discount program is a bit "vague" so I'm waiting for email confirmation before I commit to an order.

Where's the earthshattering kaboom?!

In short, I'm in a foul mood :D. For the past few days I'm having a lot of problems walking as my knee really, really hurts, I really should rest it more the coming week. I've noticed I've become easier to anger, and quicker to reply when I think something is not right.

This week, I had received my Britannia (Grubby Tanks) order and found all of the metal castings to be ok instead of one who had a mould shift right across his face.....but I will behead him and replace his head. The resin castings however......

Yes, I can spend time filling each and every single hole there is. I had high hopes that the bad casts from 4 years ago were a thing of the past but clearly they are not. The other Panzerjager was just as bad. I sent a email to Grubby explaining that I was not happy with the castings, slept a night over it, and then sent him another email that I would be returning the casts to him. I have not had a reply yet.

Yes, they are not expensive, but I've had plenty of casts from small to large businesses that are not expensive and bubble free. With a half decent vacuum chamber you can prevent 99% of the airbubbles, or so I'm told.

And today I took a trip to the Scale Model Convention - a weekend long event in Veldhoven and actually the first modelling event I have ever attended. I picked up 2 Panzerjager IV Lang and a SdKfz 140 kit I had traded for online, met up with our American expat Britt, spotted some familiar faces from Crisis that I could not put a name to, and had a nice walk around to find the Mig Ammo Filter for German Yellow and Dark Green. And no matter how well I looked, I could not find it! I only saw 3 stands carry Mig Ammo and none of them had Filters with them. So for trials I grabbed AK Interactive Nato Tanks and Light Filter for Wood to try them out, and I will be going over the Crisis listings this week to find traders who possibly could sell the Mig Ammo filters that I need.

Other then that the trading corner was a bit too much of the same thing? Couple of companies with tools, couple of companies with plints, couple of companies with paper stuff, couple of companies with tons of kits and paints..... I'm guessing I'm spoiled by Crisis and the great diversity that is on offer. Here....not so much. Hidden in the back I did find Mark from MBM, I grabbed a seat there for 15 minutes to rest my knee and talk to his gf about the selling season and Belgian things in general. I did buy a kit off him, Italeri T-34/76 m42 in the seal for only 5 euros. Will make a great wreck.

There were some offers kit kit sellers (most had 20% off) but I seem to have gotten used to the low prices of the trading sites as most seemed to be double or more of what I would pay on the groups. And there were massive price differences too, 1 chap was selling Modelcraft kits for 3,50-5 euros, and the stand across them had all the same boxes plastsred with 10 euro pricetags. It was a bit ridiculous at times.

2 traders or older kits had been placed opposite of each other but I seemed to find a lot of kits without a pricetag, or asking for more then I wanted to pay for them. All the way in the back, stuffed in a small discount box, I found a 1/144 Ju-88, B-25 and B-29 that I picked up for 10 euros total. When I turned around I was shocked to see a whole stack of 1/144 kist at the other seller, with the same B-29 having a 17,50 euro pricetag on it. Again, ridiculous.

In the end, not counting the pre-paid trade, I spent 15 euros on kits. The Ju-88 and the B-25 are for Battlegroup, and I have no clue what to do with the B-29. I guess I wasn't thinking when I bought that. 9 euros for 2 pots of filter, and my final purchase was a Mininatur box of Horse Tails for 4 euros (discounted from 15 euros) in a discount bin somewhere. Not many people had discount bins, and most in it wasn't even worth the prices they charged for it.

But this was just 1 hall! The other hall had row after row after row of modellers showing off projects or working on them, and a area beside that for all the people competing for prizes. The latter was pretty crowded when I got there so I'll grab a few pictures off the net of the ones I liked :)

In no particular order....I just picked the ones that gave me ideas :)

With that, the show was over for me, just too much pain. I actually arrived home in a empty house, Kim and the kids had gone downtown for a walk and a drink. So I took a few minutes to go over the stuff I had picked up.

And then found out one of the Hasegawa Jagdpanzer IV Lang was already started and all of the steel roadwheels were missing!!! Fuck! No such thing was mentioned by the seller.

After a good 45 minutes on Messenger, telling him of the problem, telling him again what was missing for more then 8 times! (he kept repeating the question: "What is missing exactly?") Showed him pics and all. First he said it was a packing error by Hasegawa (You have got to be joking mate!) and then he admitted he had already started it. He has now promised me to send the 4 steel roadwheels from the Revell kit so we'll see what happens when those arrive. I need those wheels to adapt the PSC Panzer IV chassis.

And thus ends my weekend. Kids will be at my parents for most of the week, I'm expecting a call from either the UWV or Maatwerk with an update, but other then that not much is planned. If my knee can take it, it might be a good time to leave my room behind for a minute and get cracking with making space in the back end of the attic to put up my spare cabinet and use it for all of the spare kits I have. Atm, with so many packed up, I'm rather clueless to what I have in stock and what can or cannot be sold off. I need to sort that. Anything else I find that can be sold before Crisis is a bonus.

The Quest for Dirt (Roads), the finale.

Back in November 2014 I blogged about the need for dirt roads for my table. >> The Quest for Dirt (Roads). 2 years in, still no roads. I had drawn up a shortlist of stuff I need for my table a while back. Trees/woods, dirt roads, a river, swamps, fences. All of these I have kit for or know how to make already. Except dirt roads.

Well, screw it, I thought. I've got money in my Paypal, and buying scenery is a wise investment for me. So out comes the Google search, a quick peek at Ebay for prices and then the more difficult task of browsing for local shops.I'm still not enamoured by latex roads, depending where you go they can be a decent price, or really expensive. Not doing wood or cork. I basically asked myself, what would make more sense, spend a whole weekend or more (being a perfectionist sucks sometimes) building roads, so 8-10 hours of building and painting, or find something that I've seen in battle reports and I like the look of and is available. On Ebay, you can buy caulked, latex or resin roads. And there is actually not a whole lot of difference in cost? 15 Pounds per metre of road is about it. I calculated I will need roughly 4 metres in 30cm pieces to make a varied road on a 4x4 table. Some crossings would be nice too.

In the end I narrowed it down to the Battlefront Rural Road set (BB117) and Expansion kit (BB144). 2 boxes of the first and 1 box of the latter should suffice. Why this set? Well, Piers uses it and it looks really nice in his battlereports. It's prepainted, durable, and as it turned out, I can get it locally.

Going off Ebay UK Prices, 3 boxes of the stuff from 2 different suppliers (no seller sells both boxes) would have set me back 110-115 euros including shipping. Locally, I only found 2 (online)shops that sold both boxes, both with free shipping over 50 euros. One for 108, the other for 105 euros. I had never heard of the first shop but I knew the second. But that shop had burned me in the past with stuff in backorder for months on end, so a quick email was sent to ask if they had stock, and if not, how long would I have to wait? 5 minutes later I had my answer, 1 was in the stock, the others could be delivered in a week. Then a friend reminded me that he gave 10% discount to members of the Dutch FoW forum if they used the code he had listed there. And I actually have a, be it ancient, account there. Well, that was sorted then, order made, code entered and for 94,50 I'm the happy owner for enough roads for my table. It's quite a bit of money but I feel it's a solid investment.

With that out of the way, the next things to tackle are:

1. Forest - rebasing, this year if possible.
2. River and swamps - start collecting scrap hardboard for that, this and next year.
3. Fences and gardens - next year.

 ...and get some games in of course :)