Inspired By

So if you haven;t had a look at some of the scratch built MDF buildings made by John Bond in Oz, you really need to go have a look, they are quite sumptuous.

So 'Inspired By' - I have started a small project. It needs some balsa to fix a few issues, and add cladding and frames, but it's a starting point. My target is to have it finished so I can put it on the table on Sunday at the club.

We shall see...

Day 1

Ok, it's a wonky start...

Day 2

Day 2 - cont...

Just spotted I need to fix the right hand railing..  ok.

Pretty much ready for paint

Added levers to interior

And I hit a snag.. my spray can of black primer ran out.. I can't replace it till tomorrow afternoon, so my scheduled is disrupted again.

Hideous till some drybrushing, more washes etc.

\awaiting final tidy up, brickwork paper applied to lower storey..

Soviet Jump-Off Points

Some Soviet Jump-Off points completed tonight:

Bare minimum - and basic paint..

A short while later...

Another angle. They'll do. Now back to the serious matter of finishing off the infantry platoon and supports. 

A Day's Work

Fairly productive day today. I finished off the Warbases Russian House, some Haystacks, also from Warbases, some entrenchments from Anyscale Models, and undercoated some jump-off points for my Russians. The jump off points are generic ones from Anyscale, with some added bits and pieces from the Warlord Russian sprue and green-stuff tarpaulins.

I really like the haystacks, nice moulds, all different, from Warbases, done very simply, just undercoated black, then drybrushed with housepaint sample pots, pistachio and magnolia, and once that was dry, a very light wash streaked upward from the base with Agrax Earthshade.

Is 20mm still sellable?

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and sell off all my 1/72 (20mm) WW2 stuff. There's a large number of built & painted vehicles and quite a few kits still in their boxes.

I'm really not sure what demand there is for this stuff, and I am not sure whether to try and sell it in bundles, or as individual kits, or even what to ask for it. But there are some very cool kits in here, I am sure someone must want them?

1970s British

WW2 British

WW2 German Part 1

WW2 German Part 2

Italians

1970s US & Russian

The bottom box is an SU85, a T26 and a PzII

Skelp 2019

And another Skelp is over. It's a very nice wee show, and there are a lot of the 'faces' in wargaming circles in Scotand who make the effort to get to Forfar in October. Beautiful day in Forfar, with the run up from Dundee in glorious sunshine.

This year there were a wheen players up on stage with Magic the Gathering. From what I saw, they were so immersed in their own games, the rest of the hall could have been a wheatfield for all the interest it had. But well done to Highlander Games for organising it.

The Bring & Buy seemed a bit anemic unless you wanted 15mm unpainted ancients, although I did manage to direct Steve to some bargain supports for his US forces in 28mm. One bloke had decided to dispose of his 28mm Warlord Plastics other than his Germans and Russians, so there were some good bargains. Sadly for me, pretty much all stuff I already had.

The tables were a very mixed bunch..

A good selection

 The Wild West table for the Kirriemuir club got players of all ages, sizes and shapes.

'SPIT' (Stupid Projects in Twenty Eight Mill)

Arnhem? in 54mm? all buildings etc scratchbuilt, and also Dr Chris Brown there playing..   had a good chat with him. Interesting chap, and if anyone is going to put on an Arnhem game...

Battle of the Nile

Lovely mat for this one, though the waves may be slightly out of scale with these guys below..

1/3000?

 Very effective -

Battle of Hopton

Didn't get a note of who these guys were, but a very nice looking game with excellent figures, and I like the backdrop.

Galleys!

I offered to make drum noises to make the rowers go faster. When I looked round later they had some lovely markers for fire weapons. Simple, but very effective.

Moonbase Sturm Acht (or something) 

Nazis? On the Moon? Ok, not a new concept, but this was very nicely done with some great models, and a fun attitude. I think this was Gothenburg Gamers.

Mine!

Morat

A well deserved winner from Dave Imrie et al. The Scottish sunshine made photography tricky, but this was a beautifully realised table, using Lion Rampant, Burgundian vs Swiss, all figures by the Perrys.

Pebble Island

Another fun game - sneak on to the airstrip and blow up the planes. It seemed to be a popular game throughout the day, Falkirk gamers perhaps?

Banzai!

The Leuchars club put on this rather nice game entitled 'The Last Samurai' - not sure of rules, but when I looked again, it seemed the atavistic sword-wielders had the upper hand!

Dead Man's Hand

Kirriemuir Wargames Club put on a fun participation game, grab the loot, don't get shot.. I think it needs more dust and tumbleweeds.

SWag

I was fortunate enough to have a winning raffle ticket that got me the paints on the left, otherwise Martin  and Co at Warbases seem to have done best - an old barn, a Russian house, and some haystacks. I picked up a couple of US engineers at the B&B, and otherwise a laser toy and some tufts.

All in all, a good day, so now it's Targe to look forward to . 

More tales about Buildings, Russians and Laptops

Sounding a bit like Talking Heads, but it's been an interesting week. Not only has work been 'challenging', but for a couple of weeks I have been struggling with a laptop that has had serious issues. Basically, it needed a 'keyboard-ectomy' and I was struggling with typing without certain letters. You try composing blogposts, (or anything!) without 'S', 'W',  'X', & '2'.

I've replaced keyboards in other laptops, but this is a HP 255 G4. Meaningless to most people, but it's an integrated keyboard, meaning you don't simply replace the keyboard, you have to dismantle the entire device from the underside to get to the keyboard so the whole innards have to be disassembled, motherboard, fan, heat sink, connectors, hard drive, etc..  just to replace the keyboard.

The HDD & DVD-ROM & DVD controller is off, still the fan, heat-sink, motherboard etc..  and see the expanse of grey metal revealed? Well; that plate is held on with literally dozens of little plastic welds, that need to be cut off, before you can even see the keyboard.

I can however reveal I am currently typing this on that very laptop pictured above. Mission accomplished, but what a mission! Very poor design. Nothing left over too, like spare screws, which is a good thing.

I also have been working on two TT Combat MDF buildings. I rather like these, they are very inexpensive, and since I always work up MDF buildings anyway, I don't need pre-painted or tons of surface detail. The roofs are from Warbases excellent tile-sheets. So far, I've surfaced and textured these, and done an initial paint-job, the roofs need paper flashing, one needs cap tiles, and both roofs need painting.

Actually finished..?  Well, earlier this year I misplaced a British 2" mortar team somewhere, so when I ordered replacements from 1st Corps, I went the whole hog and got two British teams, and for good measure, two German 50mm mortars as well. I decided while I had the field grey mix out; I should add in a couple of Warlord figures I had hanging around, a somewhat exaggerated officer and a medic. 

More work in progress, Kubel is done, so is the Char B1 Bis, the Pak 40 is just being started (why don't manufacturers make extra crew available?), a Resin Panzer IV I inherited and rebuilt ready for painting and weathering.  And then the Stuart is progressing slowly, there's a US jeep and two rather nice UK Airborne ones from 1st Corps.

Finally, the major project progressed a little with the reorganisation of what I had in the stash into a recognisable Soviet 1941 platoon plus supports. These have been sourced from Crusader, BTD, PSC and Warlord. I reckon they will be all pretty much compatible once the paint jobs are completed, and I already have a Warlord/Italeri T34 and KV to go with them.  I am also eyeing off the absolutely lovely Rubicon Models T26 and upcoming BA10 to add to the support options, and make a great opponent for my Early War Germans, that can easily do double duty for June - September 1941 and Barbarossa.

Finally, if you are anywhere in the vicinity on October 12th, the Angus Wargames Club are hosting Skelp in Forfar at the Reid Hall. It's a great wee show, and I hope to see you there. I will be with the Kirriemuir Club, helping put on our Wild West participation game, so come and say hello.

Another Platoon

While I have been quiet for a month or so, this doesn't mean I haven't been busy. In between exciting thing like dismantling my laptop to try and figure out why various keys have stopped working..  like w, x & s (Unsuccessfully, I have to copy and paste these letters from an old file.. )

A pleasant surprise a receiving a free copy of Armies & Legions & Hordes from Wargames Illustrated, a rather nice coffee table painting book. 

And I made a start on a new platoon for Chain of Command...  so far, cleaned up some Crusader, Black Tree and warlord soviets. They were first undercoated with my usual spray cheapo black primer, then airbrushed Tamiya khaki, a top light dusting of Tamiya buff and it gives them some depth, Tamiya dark green for helmets and I'm wondering what colour to hit them with next.