When's an M5 half track not an M5?

When you realise you've bought a box of M3 half tracks, complete with US crew for your Brit force. D'oh!

You'd think the American infantry would be a big give away!

Having also received my copy of Battle Group Overlord (BGO) I've been busy beavering away on list building and shopping lists too. No doubt my US half tracks will see use in a future build for BGO at some point in time.

2 and 1/2 infantry sections.

I also received a box of Plastic Soldier Company late war Brit infantry. First impressions are they are better sculpts than my battlefront metal infantry (they have better scaled feet, hands and heads) and I'll be interested to see how they compare with the Peter Pig and Skytrex stuff I have in a box.

On the painting desk.

On the desk I have the battlefront Desert Rats in Normandy infantry. I'm going for a layer painting approach but they have very fine creases in the clothing so I'm having to be creative in my application of paint to the folds. Going for about 5 layers on the uniform, inspired muchly by this site: Modelbrush ww2 Brit painting guide

So, I need to buy some half tracks, anyone got a few going cheap?

Homes under the hammer

So in keeping with my new target of "get things finished" I decided to ease myself back into the hobby groove by finishing off some 4Ground terrain.

I started with the houses, that only really needed to have chimneys, window sills and ledges glued on. I managed to lose a sprue of windowsills :(

First row of houses, ready for 15mm tenants...

I also built the village church, straight from the box after a wee glass of wine, no mess ups!

Ready for Sunday mass.

On the cards next; some fences /walls/grave stones to flock. I've also sorted out the start of a Battle Group Overlord British Armoured Motor Infantry Platoon, I just need to finish 2 more sections, their M5 half tracks and the various pltn support (mortar, HMG, anti-tank). I think I've got a few Churchills kicking around too...

Battlefront 7th Armoured Div Normandy infantry (no helmets).

Now, where the hell are my paint brushes????

It's a little dusty in here!

Well, a year no post.

I'm not dead. Just burned out from the hobby and took a break. No song, no dance, so I'm back in the proverbial saddle.

How is this tiny corner of the WWW going forward? Well, late last year (Septemberish) I bought a shiny new road bike. And it cost a fair bit. Fast forward to now and I'm going to have to reign in my budget by approx 100%.

Shiny!

This means painting what I've got. And trying to be happy with it. An unusual step for me. Actually finishing stuff?!?

A return to the massive 15mm ww2 pile still in a box, along with all the terrain, also in boxes

On the painting table:

15mm Brit 7th Armoured Div infantry

So back to 15mm it would seem, though still using the Battlegroup rule set to go hand in hand with all the terrain I've accumulated.

New Years resolutions;

1. Hobby more. A little bit everyday, be it painting, modelling or blogging.

2. Drink less. Simple really, don't drink as much so often. It'll save me money too!

3. Exercise more, especially since we have another one of these;

The new one is on the right, it's a "he" too.

To being back in the saddle once more!

A distracting dilemma.

Today you find me with a familiar dilemma faced by many a wargamer.  As you will know I currently have a large amount of 15mm Flames of War gear to paint up, and I've a load of 28mm Bolt Action minis steadily getting love from a paintbrush.

My dilemma is this:

Ordered sometime after Christmas and only recently dispatched and arrived. I've always had a soft spot for the Eastern front, mainly as it seems to be somewhat forgotten by the gaming community in the UK (well maybe just the battle of Stalingrad is a popular choice for re-enactment). This was the battle that turned the war in the East, and I've been more interested in masses of tanks and field guns over sweeping the streets of a ruined city. All boys love tanks and guns. Those who say they don't are fibbing to themselves!

First impressions are good:

Big, heavy book with lots of interesting pictures and broken down into logical chapters.

Nice layout, plenty of eye candy and content to match the weight/price tag.

Order of battle for both the Germans and Soviets present, there is also a historical break down of who fought where and when during the battle, which is great for beginners interested in keeping some historical accuracy while building their forces.

Some cheeky advertising near the rear of the book - if it's good enough for the market leaders in the miniature wargame world (I'm looking at GW and Battlefront here) then I suppose it's acceptable here too...

As I already have 2 WW2 systems on the go I'm kinda torn with starting BGK in a new scale. I have terrain and loads of minis for 15mm, but it's mainly Normandy related stuff (bocage, European houses etc...) so I would still need to buy Russian buildings. The roads/woods/rivers I have for 15mm are in scale for 20mm (the scale I'm looking at for BGK) so any additional outlay would be happening for BGK anyway. I'm not too much of a fan of painting 15's at the moment either...

28mm is too big for this system given my limited space for storage and game playing.

So on to 20mm: it's cheap (Plastic Soldier Company/Armourfast etc), there's a whole world of choice for kits/diecast/resin models/metal minis/terrain and I'm not restricted to one or two manufacturers - more choice usually means better offers and deals/cheaper products.

Given my original dilemma and the fact I may well have drunkenly bought a load of 20mm metals from CP miniatures it looks like there is no dilemma at all really!

15mm for Company/Divisional level engagements using FoW initially and then possibly the Battle Group ruleset when Battle Group Overlord is released.  (FoW seems to be the WW2 tournament rules of of choice after all).

20mm for Platoon to Company level games using Battle Group Kursk.

28mm for Squad level games using Bolt Action.

Until next time...

For the Motherland! part 4

More work continues on the rather dusty T34:

I've varnished the beast which has reduced the level of dust somewhat; I might re dust it and then seal it with pigment fixer. Other than that all I need to do is finish off some details (light, bits and bobs) and tidy up the tank riders (some minor chips here and there) and I'm done.

I'll post pictures of my completed work later on. In the mean time I'm desperately trying to build the Warlord games multi part plastics but I'm finding they are sapping my mojo; I'd much rather play with metals, even if they are limited in pose-ability.

Until next time...

Random post for this week.

Today see's the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. A turning point in WW2 for sure, without which many in Europe could possibly be speaking German and eating wurst for every meal. Cheers Joe Stalin and friends.

This week has seen a limited amount of hobby activity in the house of Gonzo; mainly because work was busier than expected and also because my misses decided to adopt a new member into our family.

Lily, our wee French Bulldog mutt.

Lily likes lazy days in bed, eating chocolate spread while watching war movies.

Normal service will resume shortly. Until next time...

For the Motherland! part 3

Part three of "For the Motherland!" sees me deviate from my plan (as usual). Instead of sticking plastic Russians together I decided to wade into my T34/76 (1941 turret) by Warlordgames.

Painting in Progress pics:

 Basic block painted, I was going to airbrush but didn't have the time to setup and faff about. The slogan is bigger than i wanted but A) I can't paint fine details too well and B) I don't have a heap of stowage to add to this beast, the right flank looked a little bare. Given it's a small turreted 76 (not a big 85) I thought the slogan would look better on the side of the tank. It might not be historically accurate but erm it's mine and I like it this way?!?

According to Google Translate it "should" read "old beauty" but probably says something horrible about my mother/dog/wife/your sister etc... I went with "old beauty" as I will be using this in a 1944 list and thought the crew would have named their ride who has served them well in dozens of engagements with Mr Hun.

 I smashed out some chipping too, German Grey, Ivory and Gunmetal.

 More of the same.

 Scale shot so you get an idea of how compact this is compared to some other stuff, makes a change from 40K tanks!

The driver, Stan(islav). He's just needing a flesh wash to finish him off.

Something I thought I'd try out, video clips. I first saw this on MODEL DADS and was impressed by their video reviews of products. This is only MK1 video, I had to strip the audio as my camera seemed to have a shed load of hiss during playback. I need to work on a mechanism to rotate the turntable at a constant speed, now where did I put my lego technics?

Black and brown oils added, still slightly wet so the camera has picked up some patchiness, this will be sorted with a clean brush and white spirit later when it's dried a bit more.

Stan(islav) in all his 20 minute glory. I need to learn how to paint eyes.

So, T34 needs pigments then she is done. Working on nights these next few days will allow me to concentrate on building my plastics (honest) and also painting up my 4 Tankodesantniki (and Sapper SG43 gunner!).

Until next time...