YouTube - Bruce Springsteen - No Surrender

YouTube - Bruce Springsteen - No Surrender

happy new year everyone,
for me this song just about sums up my year, I've gone from down and almost out to getting back on top, so next year will be better,

in the words of the great man , no retreat, no surrender for 2010

a belated merry xmas

well Christmas has come and gone, Santa left the usual suspects (slippers, smellies, booze) and a Springsteen CD from my eldest daughter, nice surprise she got one of the few i don't have.

as for painting i forced myself to do a few bits but nothing is finished as of yet.
the us paras from warlord are about 3/4 complete and some baker company VC got based up.
so a quiet time for me but i did win a auction for a 1/100 die cast Huey and sent for some flashpoint minis from the Vietnam range,

and with this weekends extra work delivering takeaways to fill in for the regular man i will be spending that money on the flames of war army sets for each side.
every little helps and a surprise he is away for the weekend,

on the TV side not much on as per normal on TV these days, i did see the Dr who on Xmas day, not bad and looking forward to this weekends final for David tenant.
also just finished watching the day of the triffids 2 part story, must say that Eddie izzard was good in his part and the story was good also.

next looking forward to the second season of survivors starting on the 12th Jan after seeing a trailer for it looks worth the wait..

twas the week b4 christmas

hmm Christmas was but a week away and after visiting the local model shop for some new plastics to do up i was shown the new box sets from warlord games, being weak i parted with some unexpected spending money on the screaming eagles box set.....
now the last time in had some new ww2 28mm scale figures they took about 8 or 10 years to complete. and as i was hoping to get on with some old Britannia Vietnam 20mm castings i came across under the stairs (probably put there on a spring clean) and remembering i got them about 8 years ago!!!
anyway so far the brothers in arms are cleaned up and i decided on a white undercoat for the paint method i have in mind for them

they are very nice sculpts done by Paul hicks as are most of the bolt action range

so as for any painting this is about as far as i have gotten this week , one 1/72 jolly green chopper and one 1/100 skyhawk,

apart from helping out with my daughters 13th birthday and Xmas shopping, at least there is snow on the ground for a white Christmas and we don't see those very often do we....

on a roll

despite this being December and a busy month for everyone i have been on a roll getting 50 infantry crew figures finished and 30 vehicles also finished, most are for my 8th army ww2 project 8 are 15mm Vietnam grunts for vehicles or choppers.
due to running out of decals for the 8th army that is all that is left to do, oh and a dry brush over the decals.
still i'm very impressed with how they have turned out. next some more infantry platoons and 25pdr's to complete..

the pictures don't do them justice with the bad lighting, they look much better in daylight but not much of that about this time of year lol..

peter pig Vietnam yanks i may redo the jungle boots as they look to bright,

also managed to build a jolly green rescue chopper in 1/72 scale, made from parts with no instructions i got it years ago in a box of other kits all with no instructions, the rest went on eBay long ago but i kept this one, so far it is built and undercoated also built today a 1/100 scale skyhawk for the Nam project in 15mm

why not it's Christmas after all, and all wargamers like to start new projects don't we!!!!!

brown water navy

at long last the 1st Britannia Vietnam landing craft has been finished only 2 more to go.
i got these a few years ago and started one but lost interest, now with the wargames illustrated articles about IA drang i have been motivated to get it done,



i have also been trying out some old peter pig Nam grunts from the passengers from the M113 they make.
more to follow soon.

november total

well the mad month of December is here again, and the poor total for November was 53 figures and 7 20mm scale tanks and half tracks.
these valiant Germans formed the bulk of the figure painting. hopefully they will sell well to get some more figures with the profits.
these also include the last HAT A/T gun i will not be getting anymore of these as they are a pain to glue together.
so these 42 infantry along with 3 MLR German paras & 8 28mm scw figures are all that got finished in November,

I'm looking forward to next year already with a view to doing the Nam in 15mm and why not, if i sell enough valiant figures it should pay for plenty of new lead lol...



still on the paint table is the 15mm 8th army slowly progressing to the end.

and i managed to get to see 2012 a good special effects film worth watching to see what happens. recommended..

still having to work on Mondays so no visits to the wargame club but i may take a look at the Tuesday lot who rent out the club to see what is on offer for games

paint it black

the painting was going well until the new wargames illustrated arrived.
as it is mostly about the Vietnam war battle at la drang with some very nice looking hueys.
i must say i'm very tempted to get some
the rules read ok and look like a lot has gone into them, as a one off it looks like a winner, i hope battlefront support it and it is not a fashion game like games workshop do and then drop it as soon as they have made some money out of the public.
on the buying side the hueys are a bit expensive when you can get a QRF model for £8, the revell kit for about £5 when they can be found. but the BF model is £12 but it comes with door gunners and flight stand and decals or their is also the pencil sharpeners i have for £1.86
the army deals look good and give you everything needed to start gaming so 10 out of 10 for this months copy of wargames illustrated,

still on the Nam side of things i have got hold of tour of duty all 3 seasons brings back memories lol.

and while on the film/TV front i have just seen Harry Brown. Michael Caine's new film. very impressive for a old actor, one of his best fr a number of years i think. a must go and see if you have not yet seen it. death wish has nothing on this for making you think a bit.

eye candy

like all wargamers i'm always keen to see the nice figures/vehicles on offer from all manufactures after my recent visit to the ipms show and finding Cromwell models there who can resist spending some hard earned cash on his nice models.???
this marder 3 with pak36r looks good but a set of instructions would not go amiss to help build it. with the seat configuration and thin parts i put the gun into the travel position just to give it some strength.


this sig 33 another from the Cromwell combat ready range, nice easy to build. (3 parts) just needs a commander figure, not yet sure if to add markings to them both. i also built a German battalion from valiant figures this weekend, so far they are half painted.

i found this picture on a forum site showing empress miniatures next release, 28mm modern Afghans and sas troops. the sas boys look like they will fit into lots of games look forward to seeing them in the metal at a show sometime

work rest and play

well after a busy time working, not much time for painting or gaming i have some progress on my 8th army vehicles as always trying a different approach to the painting to get a more varied look to them and so far quite pleased with this batch, still a long way from getting finished

motor rifles transport

another 2 cohorts of Romans finished but i have left a space for a dead or wounded figure to add to this one with my fist Celt charging into the line but on the same base the scale difference is more noticeable.

just arrived today after a mere 3 day wait my latest Spanish civil war order, being weak for nice looking terrain i added this barricade from empress miniatures along with some more nationalist figures bit by bit the scw project is getting there, i'm even thinking about making some terrain boards for it (only thinking at the moment mind)

also finally finished these few 20mm vehicles at one time it was all i did. now sold but a few remain after being found in the darkest parts of the cupboards lol,

this 251 ausf d with Britannia crew finished along with a revel panther and some Cromwell tigers that just need bases finishing off.

finally still on the scw i finished these Spanish foreign legion figures from empress (ex anglian) full of caricature and one day they will face the game table...

on the bad news side my order for Romans from weyland games never arrived and after waiting from the 26th September i finally got a refund from pay pal weyland never replied to emails, unless from pay pal, and after getting a refund i will not be using them again.

on to TV, a remake of the prisoner has been shown on American TV to mixed reviews i have managed to see the first episode and so far wouldn't recommend it as it has no plot to it and little mystery but i may give another episode a go .

on the plus side the new V is betting better every episode better than the original in my opinion

RAF COSFORD MUSEUM

a inside view of the Hampton bomber undergoing restoration at RAF cosford this was found about years ago in Russia after the Berlin wall came down it has a long way to go before it goes on display at the museum.


these first world war planes will one day see the sky's again after their restoration they told us these two will fly again.

a fairy battle undergoing restoration

a side shot of the Hampton, they have most of the aircraft, and when it is finished one side will be as it was, and the other as it was found on the crash site, one of 9 Hampton's lost on their way to help Russia out in the second world war

another shot of the ww1 planes.

the TSR2 a long way from the biplanes of ww1,

a what if it was made plane, the history of its project cancellation will remain a mystery, all i know is the labour government of the 60's and the American governments did not want us to have it as it was better than anything the Americans made and it would have stopped the Americans selling their aircraft.

a Russian MiG from the same era as the TSR2 and a F111 behind it

a shot from the balcony in the cold war hanger

a fairy delta experimental plane

another experimental plane, i think it is a Bristol 188

the V1 and V2 among rockets and missiles in the warplane hanger.

a me410 night fighter

an interesting shot of a junkers ju52 in British airways markings, the upper gunners position was covered over and riveted in place to make it a civiy plane!!

the last lincoln bomber boy is it big. not sure if is bigger than the lancaster or not.

a german komet rocket fighter, bigger than i imagened.

all in all a good day out and well worth a visit and a nice change to see inside the restoration hanger but its only open for this one week a year.

scale model show @ telford

a busy weekend was had at the ipms scale model show at telford.

having never been to a model show it came as a surprise as to how big it was and how busy it also was,

we arrived on sat morning about 6am to set up, i was helping a friend out on his stall heritage aviation models

after the initial set up the doors open to the ipms members, followed by the rest of the public at 10am. after hoping for a quick look around before we got busy that never happened as we got busy and stayed busy for the rest of the day,.

i have never known a show were money is no object. at times customers were 5 deep in the que at our stall. it was work all day long, at times amusing when the darleks came past collecting money for help for heroes the two people inside them were full of comic lines as the collected the money, even having a water gun in the ray gun and wetting anyone who got in the way...

it ended at 6 pm on sat night leaving time to get some food and a drink before collapsing into a long sleep for the night.

Sunday started out a bit quieter giving us some time to see the show. on display were some good models. even some time to pick up a few bits.

it was good to see cromwell models at the show, got some nice bits from him ,and he told me they should have a new web site up soon. but they have been busy selling and designing and little chance to reply to all who try to get in touch with them.

apart from some figures from AB FIGURES i forgot to get some bits from a company called fieldwork's, who produce some very nice buildings

it ended at 4pm Sunday not quite as busy as the Saturday but still tiring none the less after another nights rest we then went to RAF cosford museum as this week is the open week for the restoration hanger took lots of pictures here and in the other hangers were the TSR 2 is kept. ill post again when i have picked the best pictures.

blood bowl, nam and V

well im not getting much work done on painting, partly due to getting the psp game of blood bowl, got to say it is not bad, it plays well like the miniature version.

my only gripe would be some of the teams are missing, no undead, elves or dark elves, halflings

but you do find the star players in the one off games. not started the campaign yet still getting used to it but i would recommend it.

Vietnam, one of my favorite era's in history, great films made about it and having done it in 20mm scale and even started it in 28mm but still not finished enough for a platoon of grunts.

today i found these on the flames of war site, now doing the Nam in 15's at first i'm not sure about it, but the slicks look good and i like the way they have done the rotors moving in clear plastic

even these troops don't look bad in the scale looking forward to wargames illustrated next issue to see the rules even if only for ideas.

finally on to V watched it online last night, i won't give out any spoilers but a big improvement to the original, darker, better approach to it, (bsg put a whole new look on sci-fi ) cant wait for the next episode but it would be better on a big screen, no idea when or if it comes over here no doubt on a sky channel first so no chance of watching it on TV

probably have to wait for the DVD to see it on the big screen,