an interesting week, not much done on the plastic side of figures but the last of my black tree Americans were finished this week.

the final 16 figures and 4 prone figures along with 6 dead Germans makes this the end of a long running painting session that started back in 2000 when i first got the Germans and Americans.

to begin with some of the Germans were painted very quickly then as other projects got underway the rest fell into the dark recesses of the gaming cupboard, so this year has been set a goal of getting them finished before they reached 10 years old.

next step is to use them in a game, rules as of yet unknown.

speaking of rules i got some free download rules today that look ok one set called 'breaking news' set in today not ww2 but the set looks to have promise as does 'impetus' a ancients to 100 years war type dba set that sets out a base size and leaves the amount of figures put on them up to the gamer.

they looked so good i built a roman Praetorian guard box today and got them undercoated as well.
anyway total done this week is 26 with another 20 started, making the month total 173 and 8 vehicles completed.

cross of iron

i forgot to add these 20mm metal figures in my last post, i came across them in my figure draw completely forgot i had them
these are old MLR/FAA cross of iron personality set with one old foundry 20mm German added in to make up the base,
so after finding these i watched the film (not that i need a reason lol) Steiner even looks like James coburn not bad sculpting for the scale.

as for the old foundry figure shame they stopped making them as the did some good tank crews but i have none of them left anymore.

so i can add another 6 to the weekly total

another battalion finished

another infantry battalion is finsihed this morning
42 figures from both valiant German sets
i had intended to use more of the pre built figures but as i had so many sprues lying around i decided to see how many i could make.
all these were made from 1 full sprue and spares from all the rest,
this battalion has been painted up in army camo splinter pattern i think im getting better at this pattern
so here we have another 42 figures to add to the week bringing the total to 99 figures completed and 3 Sherman's in total not bad.

end of the week

well another day, and a Sherman tank troop is done with many additions to the basic kit

crew and most of the stowage is from valiant miniatures

i think they look better with the 30 cal mg from valiant than the 50cal hmg in the box.
the 4th one of these has been altered like these but I'm just in the middle of making something else for it before it gets to the paint table.

also finished today are these 2 anti tank guns for the Spanish civil war in 20mm scale guns are from raventhorpe and crew are from lamming, but i believe that lamming got sold a while ago and not sure who makes them now.

so they are the last of my old scale scw range and up on eBay for whoever wants them..

another day another post, on a roll at the mo,

well here is the first unit finished this week, and I'm already got another two units started as well,
48 valiant Americans with many conversions, this is the lot that the officers and NCO figs are in,

the latest batch Ive done are Germans with some more heavy conversions to make up use from left over figures hopefully i will have them done by the weekend.

also just finished watching the hangover, great film, very surprised to see Mike Tyson in it and even for a small appearance not bad acting better than what i would have expected from him,

i wont give anything away other than its about a stag night in Las Vegas and the results of the hangover, well Worth seeing in my opinion

have a little faith man...

Always with the negative waves!!!!!

well here are Kelly's heroes arrived last Friday painted by Monday, dull coat and static grass added Tuesday, but i might gloss or satin varnish the leather jacket and helmet on oddball to give the leather a better look.

very nice figures easy to paint and in games they can be command figures

one night, 2 games

well one night and 2 games played, 1st game (both with 15mm desert forces) the rules used were the old grimsby waragme ww2 rules long before they were turned into rapid fire,
forces on both sides were 2 platoons of motorized infantry and a tank troop each. Matilda's for the British and pz 3 for the Germans.
after dicing each turn for who had the advantage the British had seen off the panzer 3's by the 3rd move and set about destroying one of the infantry platoons. so by the time the Mk3's had returned minus the one lost in the initial engagement the infantry were just about to be routed . thus ending any hope of the Germans winning the game.

now on to the second game same forces and terrain this time trying out blitzkrieg commander with the clubs own additions to the rules, the Germans got the advantage early on in the game and the pz 3's raced out to halt the British advance. in doing so they destroyed half a platoon forcing them into cover in the town, before having a go at the Matilda's.

they were eventually destroyed/routed but gave the German infantry time to reach both German and British objectives and also digging in to stand a good chance of holding their ground and thus winning the day

so in the end i think the blitzkrieg rules were better, but the gun ranges could do with altering but i would leave the movement distances alone.

as they seem ok.

next time i hope to have more British done as i didn't have enough command groups for them and i think a good scenario along with some objectives would make a good game.

it would also be a good idea to take more pictures as these were all i took all night and these were from the first game and not the German victory lol...

valiant conversions

this officer has had the right arm added from the German commander in the Germans in Normandy box.

this nco has had his carbine swapped for a garand M1, a new head and left arm with ammo box

this one has a new left arm and new head.

this officer has had both arms removed and a bazooka added along with a new head.



this one a garand rifle and a new head added also by drilling a hole on the helmet it sits better on his pistol holster

this officer has been turned into a rto and given a mp40 from the German set

i fought the law

just after finishing these anglian Spanish civil war figures and panzer 1 i found out that anglian miniatures is up for sale, bloody shame i cant afford it. lol

i hope that if it gets new owners they can keep up the good work already started on with this very nice range.
as you can see the panzer 2 still needs its base finishing off and the commander needs gluing in to place,
the figures are all assault guards a sought of para military police force that stayed loyal to the republican side mostly.

they are such a joy to paint very full of character but with no kit on them they seem to ask for that bit more when on the paint table.


also started this week is the Bilbao armoured car from force of arms a resin and metal kit , it went together ok and is so far undercoated, along with the Kelly's heroes and scw limited edition figures.

i have also built another valiant American battalion but as i was short on the number of figures needed i have been converting the officer and NCO figs to make the others needed, pictures to follow cos i am very pleased with the results.

so total for this week is 20 scw assaultos and a panzer 1 ausf a completed with 48 yanks built along with 5 character figures also started

limited edition???

when is a limited edition figure not limited?
the reason i ask the question is that these 2 Spanish civil war figures were listed as limited on the northstar site, after it had a revamp they listed a 'few' left.
just in case they are limited i ordered them along with Kelly's hero's and one week later they have arrived, not bad service, next to my anglian assault guards they look ok size wise.

hopefully i will paint them up as good as the two scw figures shown,
but i think i can do better than the Kelly's hero's figures since when did a Thompson look grey?
and these are the best painted versions i have found on the web.
these are also the first artizan figures i have had, again they size up ok next to anglian or even my black tree design figures, i only hope that these yanks don't take 10 years to do as i still have some of my old BTD figures part done.
one day i will use them in a game don't know were, don't know when lol.....

speaking of games Monday night sees the return of the dak to the grimsby wargames club my first ww2 game in a long while 15mm scale with me providing both sides, rules so far to be used will be our old club set before they were altered into rapid fire, battle reports and pictures to follow.....