Winterwar Kickstarter

I guess I should thank Mike over at Trouble at Mill for this though at the same time maybe I should curse him. He got me interested in my second Kickstarter Project this one being 28mm Winter War, you know the one before WWII got going where the Russians git a right royal kicking by the much smaller Finnish army. Not sure how the rules will handle the required Russian bull at a gate attitude to make this work historically though Mike is very into Chain of Command and I hope he can keep the rest of us interested.

So I went for the £60 per side option having just been handed some free money rather unexpectedly and this is what I will get, yes I will get all of the following.

Also the Field Kitchen has also been unlocked, I mean a FIELD KITCHEN how can you resist that?!!!!

So for £60 you get all of the items for one force, so the Russians have a base of 44 figures THEN add all the items on the right including the T-26 Light Tank and B-10 armoured car. In fact the Russian gets over 100 figures! a large mortar, HMG and even a Artillery gun. Yes you really do get all of that, not to mention free postage to ANYWHERE in the world!!!!

The first figures are expected to be supplied sometime in November which is in fact most of them and the rest plus the vehicles expected in the first quarter of 2014. Further stretch goals which will be also free add ons are Twin MG turrets for the T-26 for the Russian. Followed by, AA Truck for each side (if you go £120 like me that's one Russian and one Finnish. Last up would be a very cool Aerosan with crew for both sides, which means on the £120 pledge two Aerosan with two crews.

So far £31,000 has been raised with £40,000 required to hit the last free add on. After that all the add on's cost extra money. The kickstarter ends in seven days time but I suspect it will have a late surge as more jump in to take advantage of such a good offer. Lee who originally dismissed it as he has enough 28mm to sink any ship and has zero interest in 28mm WWII suddenly got the big eyes for the project and I guess I may have had something to do with that

A Day at the World Wargames Show

First time I have had to queue to get into a show in years, though we did wonder if we were in a queue for bacon baps ;-) It sure seemed busier this year than last and we stayed to the death and it only seemed to drop off around 4pm. After a spot of good fortune three days before I had some spending money so was looking forward to some retail therapy.

First stop was the Baccus stand as Lee wanted to clear Baccus out of the new French. So if anyone over the weekend did not get the French they needed, you can blame him. I have plenty in stock so will simply order more in a month or so. The new French are just as nice as Lee had mentioned and Peter had a sample pack ready for me of each of the new lines available in cavalry and guns all FOC so expect to see these up on the blog over the next week or a little longer dependant on me getting quality time at the desk this coming week. 

Whilst on the stand Andy Mc of Another Slight Diversion fame caught up with me and we arranged a later meet though that did not stop us chatting there and then, not to mention the handing over of these....

10th (1st Silesian) Regiment of the 13 Brigade of the IV Corps.

One 60x60 base of Line Infantry, not only are they so very well painted but the basing is just gorgeous as well.

Just look at the detail on these guys. It's a shame Andy does not have the time to paint up more of these guys. He is trading two bases to me due to it being a never to be finished project.

Here come the Landwehr, these are also IV Corp which is the one I have started work on so both will fit in nicely. So I will have to do these justice in future games.

Andy also had a box of early Prussians unpainted which Lee took off his hands, so that's another face to climb on Lee's 6mm mountain. 

I went to MDP stand to pick up some more of the Mr. Metal Colour paints but unfortunately he had not took them with him so that's for another day. I did get a Vallejo wash and some resin bases from him so it was not a wash out.

Talking of paints, I picked up two of the three I was after and a couple more of so. I need a few more colours just to get started on the fantasy figures, though some were bought with Cath's figure in mind.

I also picked up a bunch of Roman figures from Essex so I can make a start on that army which will be a fun change to all the others I have painted.

I also had some Knight Templar or Crusader figures on my list and picked up eight of these which are for dare I say it Fantasy Roleplaying. This will be quite a diversion as I need to get a load of figures painted up ready for starting a campaign with a mostly rookie group. Not on the list was any other figures for this game but I added a bargain bag of plastic figures that will come into the campaign later but will be painted up soon. From the same store I bough a bunch of old Grenadier orc's that are being cast by new owners of the moulds. They are flash heavy but they look good figures. Lee grabbed some of the adventurer figures, all of these were at the princely cost of £1.40 a figure.

I also met up with Tamsin who did not take the opportunity to gouge out my eyes for previous comments. Unfortunately I was pressed for time and did not have as  long to chat as I had hoped. Given it was past lunch and only money spent was the entrance fee and a couple of coffees I was desperate to get that corrected.

I chatted with Dr. Mike who was again running his painting clinic and dropped off the flocking powders, I am interested in what he makes of them. Whilst there I also bumped into Steve who I really need to get some British Naps painted for which leads to the meeting with Matt who did not even mention the Zulu's I almost started this month, so as they are linked I had better get on with it.

I also bumped into Loki funny enough on route to Warbases (he had escaped for a look round) again just a quick chat before seeing him back at the stand were I picked up a few bases for the town. These being a mix of 60x120 and 120x120 to allow some less linear sections.

As I mentioned before we did stay till the end but again  a chunk of the time was back at the Baccus stand chatting with Peter now the rush had died down. Peter has a lot of plans for the coming decade, well that is what it sounded like from what he was saying. The French Napoleonic's will feature heavily into next year but his WWI and WWII will broaden Baccus footprint in the hobby by a massive amount whilst he has plenty of other irons in the fire for the future.

So all in all a good day though I was blasted by time I went to bed. Little hobby time today so it will be Monday before I get to feed off the extra momentum a show always supplies.

1815 The Waterloo Campaign Book One by Peter Hofschroer

Maybe I like to be different, or was just plain lucky but I read the second book in this series first. That one covers the battle of Waterloo and the rest of the campaign until Paris fell. This book covers the campaign till the end of the 16th of June.

So why am I so pleased to have read the second book first? Well Hofschroer is akin to a rabid dog when it comes to Wellington in the first book and if I had not already read the second book which looks like his publishers forced him to rein in the hate. It's not that he does not have a point, it's the delivery and the rate of delivery. A brain damaged goldfish would understand that Wellington was a deceitful, self promoting, deceitful, lying, deceitful cad. The reader, well this one started to wonder if their was any direction to the book as Hof. again and again took the slightest opportunity to point out one or all of the above points. Indeed more than once he stretches credibility to tie in another attack on Wellington. If your looking for objectivity, look elsewhere. The crying shame is that it's a great book turned into a good book and should be read as it supplies a much needed view of the German side of the battle though he admits that he has slanted the narration massively in favour of the German so as to right the balance against all the English slanted accounts in print. Well that makes sense on planet stupid. 

I would still recommend reading both books (but in order) though I would say that his attitude is enough to get a sympathetic reader to start to resist his view. I think he added about 5% to the page count just on his attacks on Wellington, some based on flimsy points but here is the real shame it's mostly just repeating what he has said before. He is writing about Ligne but he harps on about something that happened two days before, then moves onto Quarte Bras and again out of context reminds the reader about said event. Often each reason to have a go at Wellington is repeated time and time again. Indeed the last chapter was all about Wellington's failings and one point was driven home at least five times with no explanation why he felt he had to repeat the point so many times. That chapter took some finishing not because I became angry, I just got bored. 

I think if you want to understand the 100 days campaign these books are a must if you want more than the Wellington subscribed view of the events but don't take his word for anything that involves Wellington and do read Waterloo New Perspectives by David Hamilton-Williams which is a more neutral view point. 

You Going To Derby This Weekend?

Well if you are you, your in the wrong place as the rest of us will be at Castle Donnington! I know they have used the name Derby for so very many years but please get a grip boy's and change the bloody name. Wonder if they will do so once they run out of bags  ;-)

Anyway, Lee James and myself are off for a day of fun on Saturday and I already know a few guys I want to catch up with will be there. I don't have a massive shopping list so it's mostly going to be a social event. That said I will be on the look out for some things including my Santa Clause items for the blogger I have had picked for me paint for. So apart from they secret items what else am I looking to buy?

I need to pick up some of the new Baccus Napoleonic French Figures, these being the newly sculptured cavalry and artillery. To be more exact that's Dragoons, Hussars, Cuirassiers and Chasseurs for the cavalry and 4, 6, 8 12pdr and howitzers in artillery with crews in shako. The Bicorne crews look yet to be done but I will know for sure in a few days. So I plan to paint up these as soon as I can. Lee saw them pre-release and was very forward in his praise for them. I think in fact that was why he gave me his old unpainted cavalry as he plans to have only the new figures in HIS army. I plan to paint up most of the old ones as allied cavalry. Having seen them on the Baccus website I can see why Lee is really hot on these and I am sure they look even better in the flesh.

I also will pick up another French Infantry Booster with plans to get the twenty odd Battalions of French Infantry I would then have unpainted all done. I may add a few other bits to the mix and will pick up just a few bits from Adler to finish off the Prussians needed for Waterloo. Though I may just may also start the Spanish from Baccus but that's not likely as I just won't have the space on the desk to get them started for quite a while yet.

I will though pick up some Essex Roman Command figures so I can START painting up the figures I received well over a year now. I still have to pick out exactly what figures I will buy though, some homework needs doing and it's late as usual.

I did want to get some Russian WWII planes for Check Your Six so if I see a fool proof set I hope to get those but won't hold my breath.

The boring stuff like a few paints and maybe tufts are a given. I may even get some Fantasy figures if I see some I like as I now have a group of 4-5 players that want to get going, mostly rookies which is interesting to say the least.

Thinking about it, that is a fairly large list, oh well lucky Christmas is coming.

A QUICK MENTION.

Secret Santa list closes on Monday so I would recommend that if your interested in joining in then let me know in this post or a Secret Santa post if you have not already done so. I will try and post a list of names signed up before or on Monday so you still have a bit of time.

In case you are not aware, here is the details.

Each person signed up is given details of another participant, you spend about £15 on that person in figures, terrain etc. that may be based on a list they have on their blog or just what you fancy from looking at their blog.

You of course will also receive something done the same for you. The idea being is that you will get something you would want on Christmas Day and what's more it will be a surprise. 

Last year was a massive success with everyone getting excellent presents and it was a great part of my Christmas checking out what each person got. Cath ran it last year and had so much fun she demanded to be allowed to do it again this year. So if your sitting on the fence, don't come and jump into our garden.

World Peace Day With a D-Day Touch

My Wife has brought this to my attention and I had to share. This is it reported by the Daily Mail. The view you see is from one of the Normandy beaches and shows thousands of silhouettes representing those who lost their lives on D-Day no matter their nationality. Please click on the link for the full story, I hope you will find it of great interest.

It does remind me of the time the CND sprayed outlines on the pavements and roads in town centres to represent the dead from the first two Atomic Bombs when I was only about sixteen years old. The beach one is that bit more symbolic in how they were removed from the beach.

Terribly Obscure Wars A-Z Ly Bon's Rebellion A.D. 541-47

Ly Bon (also known as Ly Ban, Li Bi and Ly Bi) is recognised as being the leader of the first attempt of the people of what was to become Vietnam to rise in rebellion against the Chinese. He overthrew the Governor of what was then the Giao-chao Province and captured the capital at Long Bien the following year. 

Now part of Modern Vietnam used to be the Kingdom of Champa

The area that Ly Bon ultimately commanded was vast by the standards of the time and was comprised of most of what today is northern and central Vietnam, much larger than the actual province he liberated. Before this though he had to defeat an invasion from the Kingdom of Champa (now southern Vietnam) in 542. 

The following year he named himself Emperor and his rule was recognised by all the nations in the Red River Delta. He named his Empire Van Xuan, the meaning being it would last One Thousand Springs.

However this was not meant to be and just four years later he was defeated by a Chinese Army in a battle to the north near a village called Chu Dien. The defeat must have been complete as he fled to Laos but a local tribesman killed him and sent his head back to the Chinese.

So ended the first attempt to gain independence but two more attempts to throw off Chinese rule were made in less than 50 years but it would be another 550 years before it would be realised.

Wargaming the period. 

I can only assume that figures would have to be based on the Chinese of the time, though I would use more auxiliary types of units rather than the more exotic or centralised unit types for the Chinese. For the Van Xuan forces I would start with mostly light and medium troop types but come the battles with Champa I think something between those of the Chinese and the Korean of the period for both sides. 

Information is so sketchy it has to be made up as you wish. I can't see the Chinese accepting the loss of a province for six years and have to assume at least one campaign against Ly Bon each year and given Le Bon gained the recondition of surrounding Nations you have to assume that this was done by defeating other Nations armies.

All in all an interesting side project for anyone who already has figures from this period. The only souce material I could find being George C Kohn's Dictionary of Wars and Britannia.com. 

Building of the Week - Large Medieval Town House

I painted up this weeks Building of the week with the two I did for last week so thought I may as well share the results at the start of the week for a change. Sticking with Leven Miniatures we have MED06 Large Medieval Town House also costing £2.50. I was so surprised that both this house and the other two cost the same price that I took them to work to weigh them. Each of the smaller houses were 17g whilst the Large one was 34g so twice the weight for the same cost. I would say the work that went into each of the two prior building was as much if not more than this larger but simpler one.

Not that I want you to think this building lacks detail, that would be to mislead you as you will see from the pictures included. It still has detail but it's not as involved or tightly packed as the other buildings. Indeed I see this building being of more use than last weeks buildings as I think it can be used for a wider time period.

The sun was a little bright so the patchy effect on the render does not show through as well as I would have liked on these shots. Unlike the traditional German buildings the wood sections are far more spaced out making painting them easier if not quite as attractive.

Here you can see the patchy a little better. I really like the way Mike does the tiles for the roofs, they are easy to paint up and time wise it's a quick paint up, something we all want when we can get it.

So overall I think it's a very useful building that is a snip at £2.50 and it will see a lot of action on my tables. I hope that Levin will do a few more buildings in this style as a mix would be really good. It's all well and good having lots of buildings with character and detail but you also need plenty of ones that the eye does not dwell on when in a bunch. Mike has the skill of turning out buildings that look great on the table, be they fancy or regular.

The Giveaway RESULTS

OK I got up made myself a Drink and started to crank up Random.Org for the numbers. Last night I wrote up the spreadsheet and added the last few on getting up. One thing I like about Giveaways is seeing what is the most popular of the items and er, what tanks. So before the results here are the items in order of popularity.

Brushes with 52 requests beating out the rest by a country mile

Salute Figure

Flocking Powder

Leven Buildings

Both DVD's scored the same but had a mix of different and same person requests

54mm Figure

Tarawa, A Hell Of A Way To Die

So this will be the order I will give the results.

The Brushes was always Ray's, after all he said they were. I don't know how he bloody does it but yet again the bugger wins top prize. I think I won't bother entering any draw the lucky sod goes in for!

Salute Figure The last guy to put his name down gets the prize, well done Peter

Flocking Powder This has been won by Mike, who I think would have a bit of bother getting into The Works so it's a good score.

Leven Miniatures Thomas N comes in good (did you not win the last lot?) so nip over to Leven pick your buildings and I will get them on order for you. I have even added a link to make it easier for you.

Immortals & Thin Red Line where won by the same person so well done Chris

54mm Figure-the painting of was one by Tamsin, now all Tamsin has to do is find the figure she is not sure that is made, oh fun ;-)

Tarawa is all for Gary Amos

And that wraps up the prize giving. Thanks to all for entering the giveaway. If things go as expected today will be rather aptly that page views will pass the 200,000 mark, now that's hot sauce! As much as we may play it down sometimes, it's the continued interest from others that spurs on blog writing and that in turn gets us to pick up our brushes so thanks for the support.

If any of you lucky winners are at Derby next weekend can you let me know and I will bring along your prizes. Otherwise can you e-mail me your address

ian_willey @ hot   mail   dot      com

Again thanks to all that entered and thanks to all that visit and especially comment on my posts, as some know it has been a source of strength when most other things seemed to be going base over apex.

Building(S) of the Week - Medieval House A-B Leven Miniatures

Been quite a dry month for painting so far with not a lot finished and far less time spent at my desk. Managed four hours this morning though so hope to show some more figures here during the coming week.

Anyway on with the buildings, started them on Tuesday with a total of three sessions in total spent on these two and a third I will be posting about later in the week. Here we have two of the buildings I recently had delivered from Leven Miniatures. They are part of the Medieval/Saxon range and I figured they would look OK as part of my town, the old part of the town to be exact. 

These will also be great for the future ECW battles we will be having once we have enough troops painted up (how often do you have all the buildings painted up before the figures?). These two are MED04 and MED03 and cost £2.50 each and are the usual Leven standard. I wanted to go for old looking and got the effect on the left hand one with inks whilst MED03 had chestnut brown ink added to the woodwork rather untidily and then the top coat (Vallejo German Camouflage Beige) painted over the recess area's just a little thin which gives a bit of a mottled finish.

To help with the generally run down and unplanned look I staggered the buildings. I really want another four or six of these or similar that I plan to add to a few bases either in rows or in a winding fashion. I'm really pleased with the end result and think I can do them different enough to keep them looking none regular.

I plan to change a couple such as removing the chimney or removing the brick pattern on them. I may also add a lean too or such to one or more to show that it's been changed since being built. I also went with wooden tiles for the roofs, after all we all like a good fire when we wargame!

Some of the tiles on the closest building have been replaced (more on the other side) so they are not totally forgot about. If you look close you will see the roof is just that but bowed and some of the rows of tiles have slightly bigger tiles in parts or are not evenly placed with the odd row being set further back. Nothing that sticks out a great deal but adds to the ramshackle effect.

The ink used on the roof was Vallejo flesh tone and the walls were treated to Sepia from the same range. The HMG matt varnish took just the right amount of sheen off the models, that is to say it matted them right down! Still love that varnish though it takes an age to dry.

I'm wondering if I can get three maybe four of these on a 60mm square base. That would be some serious real estate for Broke Row. At £2.50 you can get through a fair bit of dosh if you want to do crowded over a larger area but it will look great. Also cost is relative, if you compare with the other market leaders it would be a chunk more. 

Next week I will do an update showing the town with all the buildings I have finished and based laid out. I still have a fair few to base and oh so many more waiting to be painted. I think I could go to Derby next weekend, spend not a penny and still have a couple of years worth of stuff to paint. Not that I am planning on spending much, but I am so looking forward to the show though.

Chatter Behind The Bike Shed, Evil in the Hobby?

Blog Post Warning. 

If you are the type who go red in the face and shout at your monitor whilst adding a zero to the end of your blood pressure, it may be a good idea to skip the first four or so paragraphs. 

Poor old Loki has been rather worked up over at Lokis Great Hall. What could have been a proud moment when a group of fellow wargamers want to use some of your painted work on their show's advertisements ends up being a lukewarm glass of vinegar.  Now what I find interesting is the comments posted by followers which seem to range between, chop off their nads with a rusty axe to it's all OK as they are wargamers and well maybe your son also rips off other peoples work. Of course the truth will be somewhere in between. Almost certainly close to the middle. 

It does beg the question though of  "Was it an intended miss use of one or more copyrighted images" or was it just plain lazy can't be bothered to find the person to attribute rights to? But consider the fact that the second is just the first dressed in it's Sunday clothes. Yes the irony of the fact I have used someone else's image above without seeking permission or supplying the authors details does not mitigate my point.

Andrew simply has the right to decide if he want's to be OK about it or upset. After all he is the one who the deed done to him. What gets me a bit wound up is the defenders of the guy/s in the wrong. At this point I am not really thinking of this instance as is just other hobby related rants that have gone off. Let's take it off topic and go with something my wife has seen on a Cross Stitch forum. 

Post 1. Will company X have another sale before Christmas?

Post 10. Yes they will, they are always having sales, no need to pay full price.

Post 11. People like YOU are ruining their business!

Post 14 WTF? Hope you die Bitch!!!!!

Post 584. Oh they have a 30% sale so fill your boots....   ;-)

OK this is not exact and has been exaggerated but not by as much as I would like it to have. My point here and it's with our hobby too. If some guys like a company and it gets heat from someone sometimes we tip the balance and go for it. Hell sometimes the company can really balls up and yet are seen by some as having done no wrong and the lengths we go to to cover the mistake with justification would make O.J. Simpson blush.

But are they Evil? Mostly no. It's not comfortable thinking that some of ours could actually be bad people. The fact is of course that some of us through the laws of physics must be. I stopped going to my old wargames club when the odd C word became a regular mid game explosion where the most obnoxious guy I have met in wargames would start to bellow and physically muscle up against his opponents when his warped view on the rules would be questioned. Was he evil? possibly, a Twat? Definably! I just had better things to do in an evening than have that going off in the same room as me.

I also had a guy call me a cheat after he lost a game of Settlers of Catan, it was during a competition and I was locked in another game trying to get another win for a chance of winning the competition (I came third) I cooling remarked that if he was still there at the end of my game I was going to throw him out of a window (2 floors up). Fortunately he left via the door or he WOULD have taken a short unsuccessful flying lesson. Was it him or me who was evil? Still not sure. 

Point is that most of us will have a handful of opponents that we can relate bad vibe games with, ASL has a larger percentage of face to face morons and keyboard warriors but also has some fantastically generous guys just like this sector of wargames.

I would go as far as to say that this hobby has quite simply far more saints than sinners and we are the richer for it. I also think you need the bad experiences to remind that your average experience is in fact a joy. 

A Present Through The Post

With the recent rash of parcels coming my way of late it's easy to get used to getting home from work to another parcel. Today's edition of Don't Pass the Parcel though was different. I did not know what was to be hiding inside, just an idea. Jonathan from The Inevitable Spark had offered to send me some of his lead mountain, figures from the LOTR no less so seeing a parcel from the States I was quick to snatch up my scapulae and start cutting into the tape around a rather stout box. 

One open I was not disappointed, the first items out of the box was such a blast from the past. This being the goblins that was included in the magazine version that serialised the game system. I remember buying a couple of copies and painting up the Goblins that came with it BLUE! These were for a special scenario I had devised when my poor adventures were on a river boat and beset with River Goblin's. 

These 18 goblins will be painted up as regular goblins and I know I will have great fun as part of my mind will be on the past as well as the future. I felt these were the best Goblin's ever produced with the figures being more correct for how I saw Goblins.

Next up was an Orc and again these look better than the far more bulky types you see outside the LOTR camp. I will need more of this type of Orc at some point. I don't plan on including the banner on the figure and would change the hand to a spear but may yet keep him as he is.

Two Elves armed with polearms another with the two handed sword and a fourth with a long bow, these will be useful for a few ideas I have for GM'ing and look really nice to paint.

Elladan and Elrohir were still in their blister but I could not contain myself as I had them out nice and fast. Again these can get multiple use or even become player character figures at some point. These need searous thought before I start to splash the paint.

I now have a Frodo! what an excellent hobbit figure he is. I will certainly enjoy painting him up and he is bound to get a fair amount of play as a regular Halfling. It would be a shame to paint him up as Frodo and not get any play out of him.

So a BIG thanks to Jonathan and I hope he approves of the paint jobs I will do doing on these fine figures. So I think you can guess at some of the future posts will feature. If you have yet to pop over to The Inevitable Spark I urge you to do so, Jonathan paints a wicked figure and has a great mix of history and eye candy.

The Santa Clause is GO

OK by now all eight Santa Clause participants should have received the e-mail telling them who they are paint up some lovely figures for. If you have not, then check your junk and if your still wanting then get in touch and I will check with Cath.

It would be great if you just confirm (as some have) with Cath that you have received your target. I have mine and have already started to look at what I can get for them and start painting it up. 

It's up to each person if you want to let the receiver know who you are. I certainly will as I want to post about it on my blog as well. 

Don't forget you have just a little longer to get your name down for the Secret Santa, that's where you spend about £15 worth of shiny for a randomly picked participant whilst getting the same from another wonderful gamer. This is one way to guarantee some wargames fun will be under your tree this year and whilst you can make a list on your blog you can also just let it roll and see what comes of it. If I got Big Lee in this, I would supply him a set of dice with just 5 and 6 pips on all sides. Maybe though that could be a bad idea as the dice may NEVER stop spinning.

Talking of reminders though, time is also running out to put your name down on the 500 post come two year Giveaway, so if you like DVD's, Brushes, Flocking Powder or little painted houses you need to click here. Or if books, old Salute figures or a 54mm Figure painted for you, well go here. 

You can enter both giveaways and you can put your name down for any of the prizes and even enter if you are not a follower, it's cool just go for it.

What Another Giveaway?

No not another give away, more a continuation of the last one ;-)

I have three more items to add to the items on offer HERE. Same rules apply as before with this one addition. If you have already put your name down for one or more of the other prizes you can still enter this one. 

Indeed you can go for one or all prizes in both giveaways. If you win one prize you remain in for the rest. You have till I pick the winners on the 22nd September so not much longer. So what are these other prizes?

The 2011 Salute figure. OK I did not go to the Salute show but a friend who did gave me this figure as part of payment for painting up some of his figures. So if you missed out you have the chance of bagging this fellow.

I was recommended this book after doing a book review on another book on the subject of Tarawa. Still need to do a review of the book but the short of it is "Good book, but not as good as the one I had already read". This may not be totally fair given the whole account has to be scripted the same for both so any follow on book will tend to be a bit of the same. However it's still a good book and well worth reading so here it is.

I mentioned in yesterdays post I had a three figure 54mm base to paint up. This is it, a scene from the Charge of the Light Brigade. Now this is NOT what's on offer, this I intend to take to work and have on my desk for some time before I even think of off loading it. instead I am offering to paint any 54mm figure the winner want's me to do for them. The only stipulation is they have to pick and pay for the figure themselves and I will paint it up and get it back to them. Now all I have to do is hope someone wants to go for this prize or I am going to feel a lemon LOL

Don't forget the two giveaway's end 22nd September

FINISHED Ultracast RAF Fighter Pilot Battle of Britain 1940

Finally have the figure and base together and call this finished. I will take it to work tomorrow and pass it on to my Boss. It's been a good fun project that with the lack of much high detail work has come along in sizeable chunks. Now I don't profess to be as skilled as most of the larger scale painters but I'm pleased with the results and as it's for a none painter so they will think it's the dog's danglies.

I have to say I was really pleased with the quality of this Ultracast figure, not a lot of clean up work and the details are really crisp.

I originally was going to texture the base and add grass etc. but I changed my mind once the base was sprayed up as he looks right on a high gloss base.

The last stages went really quickly as they were relatively small though the boots had a bit more time spent on them as originally I wanted them polished but went with a matt finish in the end.

Cath spotted that I had failed to do the braid on the cuff on the hand that's in the pocket, fortunately I still had the paint mixed up and was able to paint it on without having to mix it up again and hope to get it the same.

The scarf is glossed in a few area's to give the look of a silk scarf but does not show up here so well. I am pleased to say that when I took the figure in my Boss was really happy with the figure and spent quite a bit of time looking at it which makes the painter in me happy. So tomorrow it gets to go to it's new home. 

Next p in that scale is the three figure base I showed here a few months ago. I already have the flesh done as I did that at the same time as this figure. That one is far more a challenge and will have more update posts that the feller above.

Building of the Week - Warehouse Leven Miniatures

I am again going back to a building I had painted some time ago but based only recently. Looking on the Leven website I could not find this actual building but I think it was an earlier version of IND10 Warehouse at £2.50 which I have already painted up. 

This was one of the quick paint up's I did before really finding a definite style. A simple cream like colour with a lot of brown wash slapped on to the walls for a grubby look. It's not much to look at but I like the look of it all the same.

As I said above I already have the more recent version painted up but I also have just received the newer version in my latest order so it will get a third paint up.

The drainpipes have been removed on the later version and for me that is better for the period I want to use them in. I am sure I would do a better job if I was planning to do it again though.

This one has got a corner road section which means it will tend to be in the inner sections of the town. Talking of the town a fair few of the buildings I bought in the latest draft will be thrown into the town mix. I still have a lot of the Fachwerkhaus buildings to paint up, nine to be exact! this will make sure the town will have an obvious older district as well as the later period buildings. I plan to have so many buildings with plenty of options for the roads etc that I can use it for lots of periods. I doubt I will use all the buildings together when I have them all collected.

Here is what I think is the replacement of the building featured this time. As you can see they share a lot of detail but the one directly above has more detail.

On the subject of Leven you may want to see this. Leven Miniatures may have a TEMPORARY suspension of trading due to needing to find new production facilities. It looks like Mike will be able to continue providing buildings but it looks to impact on the speed he can get the models out so it's worth considering this in the meantime.

The changes don't look to happen till December and due to this Mike has released all buildings that were due to be released up to this point in time. This means Leven have a raft of new buildings available now so it's a good time to get any items you have been hanging your nose over.

Another Parcel :-)

For the second day on the trot I got home to a parcel waiting by my computer. This time it was chock full of Leven Miniatures buildings. I ordered them over the weekend and given that I received TWENTY TWO buildings or wall sets I think the speed of delivery was nothing short of brilliant. 

The picture you see is after a good ten plus minutes of ripping and tearing bubble wrap off all the buildings. All I can say is that I am glad Mike does not wrap my Christmas presents! It's a right old mix of buildings which I will touch upon in future posts. Some of these will get painted up fairly quickly, especially as some of them look really easy to paint. I love the post windmill, though I will need to scratch build the post having washed the one supplied down the sink when I was washing them. Yes in the first hour I not only opened the tiny packages but also had washed them all ready for a bit of a clean up and spray ready to get going on them.

I took a punt on a few by going for the Medieval buildings in the hope they will fit in with the buildings I have for the town and looks to me that they will work well enough. The ones two that are meant to be either side of the gatehouse are on the small size, comparison wise but I intend to bunch them with a few more as a part of the town that is older than the rest and this will work well. Don't think I am questioning the scale, I am not. Simply they are smaller houses as that was how the Medieval dudes rolled  ;-) 

Of course that means I need to buy a few more which is such a shame. I may paint them up but I won't base them yet. Others will jump forward in the queue so no problems for the building of the week for awhile.

I will also buy some larger tiles from Warbases so I can have some jumbles of houses amongst the more ordered and also a few diorama like bits that are just crying out to be done.

Anyway I have done almost no painting since Sunday so I'm off to wave a brush in the general direction of some figures.

New Metallic Paints - Oh Shiny

Got home this afternoon to find a nice little box awaiting my attention. Inside was three pots of metallic paint which I had ordered along with a resin base for the RAF Pilot I have almost finished. I ordered the items Sunday evening and here they are, so great service and well wrapped items.

I bought them from Model Display Products who I first saw at Triples this year and who is assured more purchases from me in the future as his gear is very nice indeed.

These are Mr. Metal Color paints by err Mr. Hobby and cost £3 each. Each tub is 10ml of paint so it's not going to be the cheapest metallic paint you will buy (it's about twice the price of Vallejo) but it's not just any old paint. I have yet to have a play but I had seen the effects that you can get from using it. You see it goes on rather matt but if you rub away the top surface it becomes shiny and the colour is more pronounced. I hope to try a few tricks with it towards the weekend so will update you with a few work in progress shots.

Here is the base, I was expecting a square one but this one looks better so all in all I am very pleased with my purchases.

Project Waterloo Prussian Leaders

After reading a few books on the Prussians it seems to me like the Prussians almost had two separate commands through Blucher and Gneisenau, though Gneisenau was officially subordinate to IV Corps commander and needed to request rather than order Bulow which is one of the reasons the IV Corp did not get to Ligny.

Anyway that's the story why I have painted up two army command stands, though I don't think both will be used in the actual battle, I was happy to have some fun.

Army Command Stands are represented with four figures on the base. This could include someone on foot though dead do not count ;-) Here we have Blucher who being a man of action has all on his base riding at the gallop. I also included a Hussar ADC as a nod at the fact he was an old Hussar officer.

At Ligny Blucher started the day on a white horse but had it shot from under him and had to use an aids horse in the retreat. I stuck with the white horse, well he could have got another from somewhere else.

Gneisenau by comparison I have surrounded by stationary staff, one looking through a looking glass (maybe looking in vain for the British lead help on the 16th?) again I gave the top man a white horse but with no better reason than I could.

One aid is looking at a map, possibly trying to work out if THAT was the road help was supposed to come from, pity they ended up being French troops.

Overall I think the base gives the impression of uncertainty and lack of vigour. Of course this will curse me to suffer poor roles every time I try to activate his command.

Next up is Steimetz commander of the 1st Brigade of I Corp. Brigade commanders are represented with a two man base. I'm not really sure who is who on the base but the dude with the bicorn looks a bit important.

For a moment I thought he would ride straight into the barn wall but looks like he turned in time. I just think he is a bit put out by so many of his commanders turning up at once.

Poor Steimetz seems like his Corp commander Ziethen has now turned up. He had best make himself look busy! Obviously the chap in the middle has got to be Ziethen as he is waving his hand about.

Corp commanders have three figures on them. In this case I have them pointing in different directions as if they are having a discussion before the brave leader points the way to Wellington's salvation. Again I like how this base turned out as it's rather simple but gives the look of being a little diorama.

All figures are Adler from the Army Command pack that they sell. You get a nice mix of figures but I'm not sure why the need to supply two each of Blucher and Gneisenau especially as they are in the same pose. Not that it matters that much as I am sure they can also be used for other command figures.