March Musings

 

I focused on house renovations recently, as well as a general re-organization of various rooms of the house. Due to wallpaper removal, plastering, floor work and also a lot of materials being stored in the garage I've had to move some things around.

Part of this has been the struggle with a teenager who wants to use the only desk we have all the time, so a new painting desk was purchased. 

I have picked up some armies from Warlords Epic range, and my first attempt below. Still learning photography and also editing so they may look a bit too highlighted. 

 

And also, to get me eye on again for my 28mm Spanish, I practiced on some old Airfix British.

The remaining Spanish are ready, so now winter is approaching I should find more time to paint.

How many scales is too many ?

 One of my issues, is the collection of armies in multiple scales - a particular problem in Napoleonic, WW2 and the 18th Century. Or too big !

 

 

    Luckily, in ACW I have only two scales. I have a very small collection of 15mm, which will offloaded later this year, they are a hangover from the 15mm age that occurred locally in the late 90's

 

    The original 1/72 collection that started in 1992 perhaps, and has grown to a rather ridiculous size and the newer Epic 15mm side.  The 1/72 set, was from older games, 3 to a base and 24 figures to a Regiment played many times against the armies of Archduke Picolo. They are the second wargame army I ever had, so I keep them as I am quite fond of them. 

 

    Due to snapping up various bulk buys in the last 1- years, I also have enough to make the Fire and Fury army list for Day 1-2 of Gettysburg, which is a long term project of mine. I find 1/72 is incredibly easy to paint, and  also don't go the extra lengths 28mm figures are taken to. So when I set my mind to it great volumes are churned, such as Buford's Cavalry below (painted late 2024).

 

Very simple painting, simple flocking and away we go.

Epic Scale plastics took my fancy, so after picking up various second hand auctions the forces are slowly being put together. The first unit below. many mistakes reverting to a smaller scale and the strips, but easily adjusted.

Battle of Pleasant Hill, 1864

Some time ago, Archduke Piccolo and I decided to play a 1/72 ACW game, a great set of "old school" rules with lots of dice rolling and very bloody battles. It has been a while so I cannot recall the detail, but a fierce confederate attack was held by the union lines.

The figures are a mix of Airfix, Esci, Italeri, Revell and 20mm pewter.

 

A visit to Hearn's Hobbies in Melbourne

I was recent;y in Melbourne and managed to visit Hearn's Hobbies whom I knew had a good supply of HAT figures. I managed to pick up 

• Galic Command
• SYW Prussian Infantry and Command
• Napoleonic Dutch and Belgian infantry
• German Tank Riders 
• Luckily I found Italeri Arab Warriors (x2) and British Sepoy Infantry.

 In the post I also received:

• The Men Who Would Be Kings
• The Pikeman's Laments
• Civil War Cardboard Figures

Now I just need time!

Command Decision - North African Progress

Hi,

I have returned from the usual winter doldrums where no time and motivation are lacking.  In the last month or so I have achieved a fair amount, but did not record any progress on the camera.

There are 4 projects ongoing at the moment, all targetted as Command Decision WW2.

• North Africa - DAK
• North Africa Italian
• North Africa 8th Army
• Normandy British.

The Italians are 99% complete and ready to roll onto the Archduke Piccolo's table. Afterwards, I decided to complete one of the Panzer Grenadier\Schutzen Regiments as I had all my desert pains handy.

First I needed to make up for some missing vehicles and lucky the local swap meet solved some of those requirements.

 But another area I was lacking was trucks (I had 2). So I have discovered a source of Opel Blitz trucks from China, not for the detail-oriented mind you but they look pretty good and suit my needs.

 A few other trucks picked up from  Mr Shields has met my quota as now I have 20 trucks

Over the next week, I shall load some more progress on the DAK, as well as get the Italians ready for a parade.

Hexblitz Italian North Africa

A short post.

After a very long hiatus, Archduke Piccolo has tempted me to get back into the "game". He cunningly lured me into several games of Memoir 44 only to then present me with Hexblitz.  Some time ago I also managed to snapup a copy of Megablitz.

So after a long time, the production line kicked into action last night !

Desert War Progress

Full steam ahead on the Desert War Italian and British Armour. All that is required now is to paint the bases and flock them in a desert style mix of sand and light colours.

Stuarts,A-tanks and Portee are Frontline War gaming 20mm, Matilda is matchbox I recall(20 years old at least), Crusaders are Airfix or matchbox (20 years at least), Valentines are PSC and CV33's are S-Model.

 Below all the axis infantry is on the paint tray ready for basing. (While I did not need D.A.K I did them anyway (3 Battalions Worth)). The stands in green are my original Esci figures from 1994 😁.

 

 The Blackshirt stands for some of the better quality Italian units. (Caesar figures of which I have another box to complete)

 The Italeri Italian 120mm Howitzer, this thing is massive.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start basing them and get them done and then move onto finishing the DAK and British.

Solo WW2 Campaigns

While I am extremely busy in life and work, I have at least tried to do some "wargaming" tasks per night. The above WW2 drive also had me thinking about other ideas and scenarios I wish to pursue.

But first some pictures ....German Paras (Italeri, Revell and Orion) and Infantry (Airfix and some Esci) and British Infantry (Esci) in the box of "glued".

 Airfix also released a new infantry kit for British - I rather like these.

As a fan of Command Decision I have always wanted to get back into some small games, I have also used Rapid Fire before so I've been thinking about small campaigns I can play at night. Nothing more than a Battalion or two in size but enough to satisfy my urge - I have always wanted to do the Pacific (Kokoda or other small actions) and an invasion of a Channel Island.

I picked up a set of the Solo WW2 Battle and Campaign Rules "Fight Your Own Battles" and "Fight Your Own Wars"  (http://www.fightyourownbattles.co.uk/). A very interesting read and more to come on this subject.

The motivation for this are simply classic movies

"The Eagle has Landed" and "Too Late the Hero", both Micheal Caine movies that would suit small scale actions.

Command Decision WW2 and Napoleonic Update

It's been along hot summer. I have done a lot and have a series of blog posts ready but I never seem to finish anything to post. Luckily the weather turned here as a cyclone came and it was nice and cool - perfect painting weather.

Archduke Piccilo and myself have been getting ready for a Desert War game using the operational rules. My Italians have needed to be finished, but that has now expanded into the 8th Army vehicles.

I have been quite industrious here. I based all the infantry and tanks, and then spray painted them  (Desert Primer for the Italians and Light Sand for the British).

 The vehicles were then given a dose of Army Painter Quick Shade, and I am really please with how they came out. I am currently painting the infantry equipment and then they will be quicktoned too and I'll finish the bases.

And I am slowly basing my 1/72 British for my Grande Armee refights

Painting Options

As I have recently returned to 1/72 scale for armies in a number of solo periods the issue of painting them has come up again. While I paint 15mm and 28mm in a certain why, the beauty and attraction of 1/72 is being able to create and paint largish armies quite simply and quickly.

While my Napoleonic figures can be painted to some degree of detail my WW2, ACW, Fantasy and other armies don't need as much so I am going to experiment on them by using Army painter Quickshade.It has mixed reviews but recently I have seen several posts regarding it and the results look quite good.

After reading a few posts on blogs and forums I followed the recommended technique and applied it using a brush, dried and followed with a Matt Varnish. I then wanted to see what they looked like to decide if I need to highlight any colours.

I was suprised how shiny the quicktone made the figure but with varnish (applied properly) they looked quite good. So I tried a number of different periods and figures to see Quickshade fared.

 1. Italeri CSA Infantry (Good result)

 2. Esci Union Infantry (50/50 Result - Something about them nags at me)

 3. Esci Soviet Infantry (Good result)

 4. HAT\Airfix Napoloenic (Good result though I may highlight lighter colours as I like bright figures)

 5. A Italeri CSA cavalryman. (Great result).

 6. An Italeri Prussian Infantryman (Good result for an awful figure).

 So, I am quite pleased with the process. I was able to paint the these figures very quickly whcih was great, quicktone dry (1 day) and varnish dry (1 day). I am pretty confident I can finish the rest of the Napoleonic and ACW armies very quickly.

Then I can get back into my 300 or so 28mm Prussians I need to start.

Paper Terrain

Given my recent burst of motivation I have continued my painting and terrain building. I was pointed to Cardboard-Warriors, which is an excellent source of knowledge and resources as I still need to complete a few items I purchased.

So in order to practice and not make the same mistakes encountered in making the Waterloo kits I decided to practice on some designs by "grendelsmother64" of the Laketown Village.

These were printed on 100 gsm as its the only card my printer can support and I made them rather quickly (my biggest fault). But not bad for some quick themed terrain at short notice.

Cardboard Buildings Repair

Around five or so years ago I picked up a Pireme Publishing Waterloo kit for around $10. I hastily made it without really thinking about its sturdiness and longevity. The completed item below in around 2011/2012.

5 years (ish) later I found them in the garage a few weeks ago in all sorts of states. Over time and poor storage they had warped and been damaged. So, as I am quite fond of them I started to repair them, firstly adding coffee stirrers in an attempt to strengthen them and also iron out the kinks. A good dose of glue gun and PVA also helped.

Le Belle Alliance  (below) was the first patient. What a world of difference the first few braces made and the piece is looking far better than it did, it also feels a lot sturdier.

So , onwards I continues bracing all the other kits as well as starting on Hougonmont kit that I had never touched.

 

I am currently basing them so I hope to have some completed pictures soon.

Happy New year !

Corgi Trucks

Hi,

During Archduke Piccilo and I's recent foray into Operation scale WWII games I needed to dramatically increase my logistics units for the Romanians.  As part of my Early War Desert Italian forces I was quite short on trucks so I went for the cheap version and simply press ganged several toy trucks into the fold.

Here in NZ, the Corgi Cadbury toy trucks are everywhere . I can usually pick up three for $5 so I managed to by around 12 of them about a  year ago. They are not 1/72, slightly larger but I don't mind as they are close enough.

A simply spray paint, wash and dry brush has provided me with a emergency backup if I need a lot of trucks at once.  Two of the eight are below:

After watching a terrain tutor youtube clip, I also thought I would experiment with basing vehicles but by using some old foamboard I had. I did not have 3mm board but thought I would try it anyway and am quite pleased with the results of my simple efforts.

I will add a final highlight to the trucks ( to tidy up a lot of the bad dry brushing) and some Italian unit markings but on the whole I am happy with the results.

Merry Christmas to you all !

Scratchbuilt Fantasy Building

I am currently in the process of repairing my 15mm Hougonmont and Le Haye Sainte which are Pireme Publishing card stock buildings. That shall be another post but it did spark my desire to complete several other projects that have long been on the back burner.


Marksman Gaming posted a tutorial some time ago on how he makes his Tudor Cottages. Seeing as I had nothing to do and wanted to practice\learn myself I decided to give one try. One small project I  have is to build some fantasy\medieval town buildings and my Zvedza fortress, as such I need buildings.

 The only building I have made before is the effort below some 10 years ago, not the prettiest thing I might add. Horrible actually but  I guess by 2037 I should be able to make something half decent.

The frames cut out per the recommendation.

Hey Presto - glue gun action, coffee stirrers. matchsticks and PVA glue later the frame is completed.

 I could knock this together in an evening so I was quite pleased with myself. I do want to make some more and all I had left was to paint it and see what it looked like in the light of day. A few glaring errors and improvements needed (Not sure why I used matchsticks) but cheap, recycled and easy to make. They will suit the purpose I want them for so that is good enough for me !

Of course I did try some other things too such as a 1/72 siege tower. I just needed something and this was better than anything else I had.