BoB: Ruined barn

29/04/2013

Another purchase from Brigade Games, a ruined version of their barn:

Comes as a kit in light weight resin – the roof is made of four pieces. A nice crisp casting.

This makes a dozen or more buildings for BoB/RCW which is the minimum you need to put on a Big Game over two 6×10 board along with the 200 inches of fencing…

And if you think 200 inches of fences is a lot, then to make a single 12 inch square field takes 48 inches, a 24 inch square field takes 96 inches. preparing enough scenery for Big Games is scenery making on an industrial scale.

The ruined barn should go well with another ruined building that is WIP…

Filed under RCW / BoB Tagged with , ,

Cats can get stressed

29/04/2013

Yes, Cats can get stressed, and one of mine is. Spades went to see the Vetette in February for worming and to check out his numerous missing chunks of fur. Since then his fur has worsened.

So after some feline gymnastics this morning to get him into the carry case, and then some more human gymnasatics to get him out of the carry case, the Vetette declared he was probably stressed and fighting with both his brother and neighbouring Cats and then excessively grooming any wounds/missing fur.

So he got a shot of steroids to calm him down. Then we couldn’t put the carry case back together, stressing him some more.

Then we got back home, to find my cleaner, hoovering up all the chunks of fur off of the lounge carpet. Which stressed him some more as he doesn’t like strange Beanettes, especially those making noise (hoovers).

After she’d left he needed TLC and was getting in the way of painting, then the other two miscreants turned up and wanted TLC…

A great start to the day…

Filed under Cats

The Tank park expands

28/04/2013 2 Comments

Taking advantage of a recent discount offer from one of my favourite sculptors, I bought some more tanks along with JP:

The “delay”, was a mere 5 days between placing the order and it arriving !
That’s a quality service, as usual from Copplestone Castings.

Now as it happened, I was out when the package was delivered (and signed for as per tacit agreement with my regular postie – this is a Local Postal Service, for Local People, we’ll have no trouble here).

And I was out collecting some of my BoB vehicles from Bennett Pinning Services (C)(TM). In this case some Austin-Putilov Armoured Cars by Sloppy Jalopy which generated a few swear words but when finished look excellent. And a Copplestone Garford-Putilov armoured car that the Bolsheviks used a lot.

Finally some FT17’s that arrived in the Crimea and Odessa regions thanks to the French and their Greek allies. A few more arrived in Siberia as knock off copies by the Americans and were promptly diverted by Red sympathisers to the Bolshevik partisans. FT-17s by Brigade Games.

Two with titchy cannon, and one with a Hotchkiss HMG.

Turrets have magnets so they revolve, and as you can see Bennett Pinning Services provide comfy foam trays as well. 😉

Maybe I’ll change my title to Director of Marketing, Bennett Pinning Services… 😉

In the meantime, I have painted and based 200 inches of fencing and have a number of new units ready for photoing so stand by…I guessed people wouldn’t be enthralled by lots of fences…

Filed under AVBCW, RCW / BoB Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Back to the Beginning

24/04/2013 2 Comments

Once upon a time, not so long ago…

One hot summer I was given some Airfix 8th Army 1/32nd soldiers, by my Grandfather.

Now living in deepest darkest Dorset, and following my interest in the figures, I was taken to Bovington Tank Museum where I then bought some Afrika Korps (pronounced Africa Corpse).

Since then I haven’t looked back

The Airfix range was iconic, and their multipose figures haven’t really been reproduced. At the same time Britains produced their Deetail range of figures that were sold singly.And my God parents bought me some of the vehicles from that range.

So, all these are residing somewhere in my parents’ loft, but a quick perusal of the Airfix site showed that they are re-producing a lot of these old kits…

A quick query on the Steve Dean Forum, and it sounds like the new Aifix can be painted straight with acrylics as they have re-released their figures in harder plastic this might be better as I know the soft plastics shed paint like fun.

I have done a quick binge on evil-bay for some of the Britains Deetail figures for the same reason as above, and plan to remove the metal bases, strip them and re-paint them.

All the infantry will go on the large round plastic bases from Renedra.

I’ve even managed to pick up some of the OOP multipose kits Airfix did (and that I mutilated as a 9 year old). This should give me quite a range of figures for a squad/platton game/collection/evidence in the medical records for certifiable madness.

I’ll build one set as the vanilla figures, then a slight variation set, and then go mad with the third set I have. 😉

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , ,

Special Guest Superstar DJ: The Transmitter

22/04/2013

A new Special Guest Superstar DJ: Roo.

Yup, he made the transmitter for the recent Big Game of AVBCW. here’s how he did it:

Ok a few notes on the transmitter:

1.) Base was a section of 10mm Tanallised MDF appropriated from a skip many months ago, shaped and sanded to replace the first failed hardboard option, paint warp!

Paint warp is a real pain, I minimise it by painting both sides of any card or MDF before starting to apply glue which causes the warping.

2.) Several large stones, left unpainted after all who can imitate nature better than herself!!
3.) Sections of an entrance hall mat liberated from a neighbours Monday morning Bin Pile under cover of darkness provided passable dead Bracken…passable in my mind at least.
NB; Items 2&3 held in place with lashings of one of those ‘No nails’ type things…need only one porous surface…ideal.

A man after my own heart, raiding discarded rubbish, and bins…

4.) Corrugated card that has lain in my Bureau for nigh on two years awaiting that ‘special project’…combined with some 5mm foamcore to provide strength and rigidity to form the Nissan hut. Trimmed matchsticks provided a rudimentary door frame. Painted in various Valejo shades but mostly Russian Uniform, same wash as stage 8. Latrine the same but using balsa for frame.
5.) Ground cover, watered PVA and builders sand liberally spread, painted burnt umber, highlights Vallejo earth with final drybrush of earth and sand mix.
6.) Liberal amounts of static grass…colour unknown but my favourite.
7.) Base of the tranmitter was a 50mm x 2mm warbase painted granite with a lighter drybrush to simulate concrete..ACW cavalry base.
8.) The Transmitter was composed of 4 sections of plastic modelling material from a local model shop with GW plastic sprue added at the top. Fixings in the ground were screw in loops from broken curtain rings and garden wire providing a poor representation of guy cables. All sprayed black and highlighted granite and silver with a GW flesh wash and silver mix to simulate rust.
9.) Resin crates and barrels bought at show orginally for 28mm Italian Wars project donkeys ago. Some wire cable reels using garden wire, balsa dowel and corrugated card. Balsa planks and garden wire cables.

All told about 5 nights work on and off. A pleasure to make after a false start, a joy to present and the comments received justified the effort.

Indeed – despite my own scenic efforts this terrain piece was a highlight of the day and heavily fought over.

Thanks to Roo !

Filed under AVBCW, Painting, Scenery

BoB: Barn and Outhouses

21/04/2013 1 Comment

I bought several buildings from Brigade Games a month or so ago. The box arrived and I thought when picking it up it must be a part delivery not the full thing. I was wrong.

The resin they use is very lightweight but very sturdy.

This is the barn (duh!), the other two buildings are WIP. I often find that there are not enough barns and outhouses on wargames tables.

The roof is removeable.

So I finished off the spare 4Ground MDF buildings I had. An outhouse and a privy. These help increase the clutter around the village that I will be putting together for my BoB Big Game in June 22nd if anyone is interested).

Filed under RCW / BoB Tagged with , , , ,

Mark V Tank

19/04/2013

First Mark V Tank (Male) painted as a British tank.

The colours on the horns are too big, and the second photo misses a lot of weathering which I have still not got right.

I have a tank park big enough for each of british, White and Red armies of Male, Female and hermaphrodite that will be built and assembled over time.

Models by Brigade Games/Company B.

Filed under AVBCW, RCW / BoB Tagged with , , ,

All Gone !

18/04/2013

Yup all my base paint has been used up, an entire litre of emulsion gone in just over a year:

Makes you think what other base paints you use up at such a rate.

Or maybe its because I do scenery on an industrial scale ?!

Obviously this has all been going somewhere, and I’ll have a few new painted figures and vehicles posted in the next few days as I know I haven’t put up much in the way of my own painting efforts recently. 😉

Filed under Painting, Scenery

AVBCW 2013 04 13 The Second Battle of Much Marcle II

18/04/2013

As Umpire I left this table much to its own as JP is well versed in the game, but I kept an ear out for events. This table seemed to be overwhelmed with lucky strikes by mortar rounds that deviated from intended targets onto other unfortunates.

The approach to the cider factory – an apple orchard and a long road…

JP’s Anglican’s move through the orchard, and his newly purchased tankettes advance along the road.

Gav A’s Anglicans under Rev Verity march across open ground fronted by their Sutton Skunk armoured tractor.

The Anglicans close in on Weston’s Cider Factory woith the SA Rugby Team On Tour defending and the locals are….to the rear…

The Skunk gets up close and personal to the SA Rugby Team On Tour !

The Rev Verity leads his troops forward.

With style, JP’s Anglicans jump over the stile… (sorry)…

The Reverend Verity and the command squad get hit by yet another stray mortar round and are wiped out !

The Royalist and BUF forces held out, just.

However, the Anglicans prevented them supporting the counter attack at the Radio Transmitter. This resulted in a moral/technical victory for the Anglicans on Table 2.

As a result, the BUF are in control of the Radio Transmitter on the Much Marcle Ridge, but have only a tenuous supply line to the site.

maybe the next scenario is: A Ridge Too Far…

Filed under AVBCW Tagged with , , , ,

AVBCW 2013 04 13: Food & Links

18/04/2013 2 Comments

As we have so many players, so few food outlets nearby, and can’t rely on everyone turning up with much more than a curly cheese sandwich, I include catering for my Big Games in the Village Hall:

This ensures that people don’t go driving off into dangerous terrain in deepest darkest Herefordshire. It is done by local caterers using local (organic) produce for the most part. Anyway, there is the spread we had on Saturday which 9 grown men could not finish off !
(Not quite the full spread as the gannets had already descended and started stripping the table bare)

If anyone in Herefordshire wants to know the names of the caterers I use, contact me as I can seriously recommend them – extremely good value for money.

Meanwhile

Here are some alternate reports on the events of Saturday…

Radio Ga-Ga – JP’s take on things (Table 2)

Richard’s take on events. And yet more A/C for my RCW/BoB armour park…

More to come…

Filed under AVBCW Tagged with ,

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