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Saturday 9 December 2023

Printing and all That

So apart from everything else, anyone who has looked at this blog will know I do a bit of 3d printing, and this year has been no exception. So just a selection of some of the things I have printed. 

I have a few companies I find produce really good quality STL files - Arvernes (through Wargaming3d), Fylde Armouries (Richard Humble on Wargaming3d), Night Sky Miniatures (Wargaming3d), Piano Wargames, and RKX Miniatures. I'm sure those aren't the only ones, I have some from 3dBreed, Kyourensko and others, but these are my go to vendors. 

In my experience, you (generally) get what you pay for, sure there are plenty of free files out there, and for example the 1/100 and 1/200 armoured vehicles by M Bergman on Thingiverse are excellent, but for 28mm stuff they need additional detail. So it's usually worth paying the relatively small costs for a good STL. Particularly for vehicles you need multiples of, the cost is really low, so Shermans, T34s etc...   

Panzer III - STL by Night Sky Miniatures

Interwar 'Turtle' Armoured Car - STL by Jimbo

WW1 German Armour - STL from a Kickstarter

Luchs - STL by Arvernes?

Challenger by Richard Humble, M16 my mix up.

M4A3E8 - STL by Arvernes

Tiger & Kubel by Arvernes, PzIIIN and Sdkfz251 by Night Sky

Halftracks by Night Sky, Grille is a mashup of Thingiverse & Pz38t

AEC Armoured Car - STL by Arvernes

Infantry 'plug' using 3d Breed? STL modified by me

T34 & Tankriders - T34 by Night Sky, Riders by 3d Breed?

'Buffalo' passengers - STL by RKX Miniatures

Sikh Infantry compared to a Perry - STL by Kyourensko

1/300 small naval vessels, I think mainly Thingiverse

Sample Sikh - by Kyourensko, painted in 2 minutes using Contrast paints

Sample 40mm Rifleman compared to Perry 40mm - STL by NapoleonicSTLFiles

Experiments in 40mm scaled up Piano Miniatures French and NapoleonicSTLFiles

Ships for Undaunted Battle of Britain - my mashup from Thingiverse

Adding Zimmerit to an Arvernes Tiger Hull

Various

Bavarian Officer - STL by Piano Miniatures

Bavarian Infantry - STL by Piano Miniatures

Austrian & Bavarian Artillery - STL by Piano Miniatures

Bavarian Infantry - STL by Piano Miniatures

Comparison - Rubicon kit and STL by Arvernes


Saturday 25 November 2023

2023 - Playing and all that

Still catching up, in retrospect, I have played a lot less this year than I wanted to, and a lot less than I could have. It's felt like a bit of a limbo experience. 

I basically went into hermit mode in 2020, and played online. I quite enjoyed meeting players from all over and playing games I wanted to play, rather than compromising and playing what the locals were prepared to play. But then everyone decided Covid was over, face to face play resumed, online play fell off, and I was left unsure of whether to go back into smaller halls and take the risk. 

It was also apparent that there were plenty of folk around who were completely cavalier about Covid and would happily tell you they had had it four times, and were certainly not social distancing or being careful not to infect others, showing up at events and shows, or inviting folk around to play even when they were infected. 

Given I'm in a vulnerable category, I'm not keen to expose myself to those risks. So I have 'popped in' to the club, 'popped in' to shows, but haven't wanted to sit down for hours over a table in a crowded environment. So this year, it's mainly been my mate 'popping' round for a game at my place.

This Years Games...

Chain of Command - 28mm set in Normandy

Sharp Practice II - 28mm American War of Independence

Undaunted Stalingrad, we played through the whole campaign

Without a doubt, the best Boardgame I have played 

Chain of Command - Far East

Very simple terrain for the Vinegar Hill campaign

Iron Cross - 10mm Middle East 

Undaunted Battle of Britain

Couldn't help myself, 3d printed aircraft for Undaunted

Chain of Command - More Normandy action

In addition to these, I played some Black Powder with Martin, not my favourite set of rules, but it does keep things cracking along to a rapid conclusion. We also played 7 Days to the River Rhine in 10mm which I quite liked. 


Friday 24 November 2023

It's been a while

It's been nearly a year since I last posted... Where has the time gone? 

It's been hectic. Major family strife. Both the Boss and I made redundant in the same month. Major home renovations, new job, broken bones, travel - etc..  ok, excuses over. I have been printing and buying and painting... 

Trying to cover a whole year in one post is just insane, so I will try to break this up a bit. 

1745 and War of Austrian Succession

The Flags of War Charity Hessian

Flags of War Garde Francaise - bought these at Targe in mid November.

Good enough for Government Work

Lovely Ratnik Civilians

American War of Independence

Perries Join the Ranks

Warbases?

French Deployment Point

Another French Deployment Point

Books

I seem to have bought a ton of books this year, some second hand, others... this is only a fraction of what I bought, but I now have to stick to the Kindle as I think it would strain things if I brought another book into the house...









  
I think that's quite enough for one update....  back with more soon. Stay safe, get some games in.


Saturday 3 December 2022

Mea Culpa - Lots!

I recently had reason to do a search on this blog for some of the earliest content, and realised I had been blogging for quite a while. Not as early as some of my first wargames websites, back when blog wasn't even a word. In 1999..  http://dbm.freehosting.net/cancon2000.htm  (back in the day when we had 79 players at Cancon  - and I famously rolled my first dice in a 6 round tournament with a 1,1,1,1.)

But I have been sadly remiss updating this blog for some time. Since August! Mea Culpa. I plead, tiredness, work, life, Mastodon, watching Twitter become 'TrainWreck' (tm) and just general slackness. 

It hasn't meant I haven't been doing wargames stuff, sadly, few games, but lots of reading, purchasing, printing and even some painting.

So first of all, success stories - finished two platoons plus core supports for Chain of Command - 

British Airborne - 28mm
A mix of Offensive, Artizan, Warlord, 1st Corps, and even Renegade (PIAT teams). 




BEF - mainly 1st Corps with 3d printed AT support. I also made progress with their armour supports, here they are with silly putty masking for the camouflage. All 3d prints. The Vickers VIb are particularly nice, from Arvernes on Wargaming 3d.


Then there was the Panzer IV kickstarter (including a Panther add-on), from Night Sky also on wargaming3d. To which I have added some Lee and Stuarts from Thingiverse.



It included some rather nice tank crew...  these will see a  lot of use I think. The heads are separate.

Then there are the ongoing items of terrain. The rather nice Warbases Russian Chapel... 


Some cows..  Warlord games, loads of filling - annoying, but I can't find decent 3d print files for dead cows, or horses, or pigs even.


The 10/12mm stuff hasn't been neglected either.. some Farms/BUA for 'O Group' or 'Iron Cross'. 



Burned Out


And then there has come the insanity..   first of all, this in my FLGS caught my eye... 


Which of course, led to this...



And this...


Oops...  and then there was this..   Alex at @StormOfSteelwargaming is to blame..  WW1.


This eclectic workbench... 


What on earth was I thinking? Maybe prepping for 'What a Cowboy'... 



And then there were these.. 


Why do I do it to myself..  there's a bunch of Perry figures to do XIV Army in Burma. Thus explaining the Lee and Stuart tanks.


Altogether now,  dum dum dum, dum de dah, dum de dah...