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,

month total for october

a busy month for October, more new figures than painted and more painted than i thought i had done, i only got to the club once for a game in October due to working, i did try to get there on the Thursday session but upon arrival it looked closed last week.
so on to the figures finished last month, total was 151 figures, 60 re based, 1 Sherman tank and crew, and 8 buildings finished.
part of the finished or almost finished are the 2 bases of Romans that need shields adding when the basetex is dry. the reason the base has a gap at the front is for a Celt to be added and a dead roman when i get some for making the bases look good.

the 3 lighter looking Romans are done with army painter dip and silver spray, all the rest are done in bolt gun over black undercoat i think it looks better and i don't loose detail like i think you do with the dip method

these 5 1/100 scale kits i got from a Friend at a good price all for AK47 games and as he runs a business i will be helping him at next weekends IPMS show at telford just a shame he only makes aircraft mostly or large figures as in 120mm scale

so all in all a good month, this month sees the release of the remake of V in america from the trailers i have seen it looks very good no idea if or when it gets shown over here probebly have to watch it on line if it gets put up.