Sometime you need to try something NEW

What 2 blog posts in 2 days, has he gone MORE insane ? well the answer is quite possibly! Yesterday I received a parcel.  Not a huge surprise I had sent for one from this company .butlersprintedmodels  I was expecting it and to be frank it was not a company I knew about or had heard of. But I thought "Why Not?" so I sent for some samples. The company had kept me informed so I knew the parcel was dispatched and in the hands of Royal Mail. For those of you who do not know Butlers Printed Models make wargaming pieces on a 3d Printer. They mostly do 20th century vehicles and NOT figures. But I would suggest they are worth checking out. I know I am glad I did. Anyway here are my samples and 1 model cleaned up and primed.

Delivery was very prompt. I ordered late Thursday night and it arrived on Wednesday morning after a bank holiday. Everything is well wrapped and I am confident other deliveries to me will be equally swift.

All prices are correct at time of publication.

Samples:

1 T72 A (Mk I believe). £4.40. 2 Parts. A Standard Soviet main battle tank still seen in 2nd rate units and in satellite nations. BUT for cold war 1980s perfect! This 15mm model was simple to assemble (der the turret goes on the hull) and required next to no work. Apart from paint this tank can be played with straight from delivery. This is deffinitley on further shopping lists as I shall need 1 or 2 more at least to start.

 1 SA13 "Gopher!" Again 15mm and again £4.40. Obviously it comes in 3 parts, and requires some assembly and cleaning up. I have not started it yet but I have high hopes. I needed (I thought) some air-defence and this made a pleasant change from the Zvezda Shilkas . Cost wise it is cheaper and I suspect more robust. Although on the last point time will be the judge.


1BRDM 2 Armoured car. 15mm and just 2 pieced. This required a little more cleaning up. That said the company DO have a video on Youtube and instructions on their website so do not be afraid, you can do it with a little time and effort. More of this model later.

 1 SDKFZ 7 with  quad 20mm (to scale) AA guns. This is ww2 german. It comes in a choice of variants, it come in at £4.13,. I went for the unarmoured deployed option. Of the medels I got this needs the most work but I am hopeful it shall be straight forward and easy. NONE of the vehicles comes with crew but that is an easy fix I suspect. (Looking into it today). Again 15mm and for the price well worth the sligh hassle of cleaning up.

 1 BA 3 Russian armoured car. THIS IS 1/200th or 10mm) I changed scale for 2 reasons. firstly this is for my Spanish Civil War wargames. This cost £2.20 again it comes in a variety so just read abut and then order the one you want. There is tidying up to do but nothing that should put a serious wargamer or modeller off. It most definitely does not put me off. It is about 1/2 the price of a similar Pendraken one so fill your boots!

With the exception of the BA3 armoured car all the models shown are 15mm (or 1/100) for wargaming purposes. BEFORE odering I would watch the Vidio the company has on youtube. ALSO be aware that as they are 3d printed perfect curves are NOT going to happen. But if you can get past that they are great wargames models.

As I only have wargames vehicles that is the only criteria I use to judge them. That side they are perfectly good for wargaming. And as that is what I want I shall order more.

Yeah but I don't play 15mm. Well good news they also make them in 20m and 28mm (but the price as expected does increase. So have a look and you may see what you are looking for. Afterall what have you got to loose.

BRMD2 Armoured Car.

Firstly it took about 10-15mins to clean up. So I would suggest make a cuppa before you start. The Plastic cuts easily ad with a scalpel (no 11 blade if that makes a difference to  you, it makes very little difference to me). I did find the model light so added an MDF base. Although it should not get eaily moved on the table really. To me though a base finishes it off nicely.

 There are only 2 parts so a very quick internet search (If you have NO common sense) will show you how it should look when finished. There really is very little to it. I am confident you will do a good job. It is worth highlighting that there is no accurate curves and they are instead made up of little steps. But the steps are so small that a layer or two if  paint will reduce them dramatically.  As wargaming pieces go you will already have dealt with bigger metal flash issues.

Overall I am impressed and will paint it tonight but expect no issues. I am already planning my next order and maybe get some larger scales to try out. But generally I would buy some items from this company (If you have a reason to) and make the judgement for yourself. I have and I like them

All the best Clint

Hanging around FAR to long! 10mm SCW LMG's

Yes I am still working on my Spanish Civil War figures. Well actually until the new year at the earliest I think I have stopped. At Xmas I am  due to get a set of rules and that might spark it off again.

Now the new rules have 1 Light Machine Gun per platoon. So I have painted up 8. As the rules are either 2, 3 or 4 platoons a side 8 is the most I think I shall need. 6 being the average and 4 the absolute minimum. The rules call for 3 platoons a side, 2 if they are elite(elite in the SCW does not mean elite in modern terms, most troops were untrained) and they would get 4 platoons each side. Therefore 8 LMGs should be all I need!

The figures are 10mm (1/200th scale) Pendraken. As such they are not super detailed.  But are detailed enough In game terms.

Just 8 starnds of 10mm figures to round out my SCW stuff. And that should be all I need!

Bet is is not though. I imagine some bright spark player will want Morocan troops while another will want Guardi di Assulto! I know who they are and they will be 2 and 3 against the wall when the revolution come!

Still these are finally painted after 2 years on the painting table and now put in the correct box ready for me to read the rules in the new year!

That's it, back to the 15mm Western stuff for now.
Thanks for looking and more again soon.

All the best Clint

3 different things

I have no excuse I get side tracked by the world cup! Certain of you I can hear "Tutting" as I type this. But here at least is what I have done!

Firstly some barrels. These are 28mm Ainsty Castings ( http://www.ainsty-castings.co.uk/) Find them in the Cargo Hold section if ordering online or just ask Andy is a nice guy and worth a chat if you see him at a show.)

I went for a VERY simple paint job. Simply gun metal followed by a Black wash. This should make them useable from about 1910 on to sci fi! Stuck them on MDF Bases, as you can see 4 on one base and 2 on another. It was either this or have them run around loose and risk loosing them.

So a quick and easy thing to get going with. No problems and easy to do an quickly managed and all done and dusted and very versatile.






Now at times I can be dense. (I know who you are and I can see you nodding!) At the Broadside show on the flea market there was 2 guys selling off some old "Snapdragon Studios" Castings. I can honestly say I wish I had purchased more from them, These 2 cost me £2 unpainted and they wee the only 2 of these they had. As far as I know Snapdragon only produced in 2 scales, 6mm and 28mm. That does not at all bother me as I do intend to use these as power generators on my 15mm sci fi boards! (See later). But with nothing to Scale them against and being science fiction how would you ever know!

In Retrospect I should have put something on to scale these. Oh well live and learn, (In my case sleep and forget it all). But I am very happy  with these and as hinted at they are without scale so could be used in any sci fi scale. Shame you just cannot get snapdragon any moae I used to really like them but could never afford to buy much.


Lastly for today! I hyad a little think and it has occurred to me that I might be better using my "Moon" Boards as and "Any-scale" sci fi terrain. Yes I know I am slow if off the mark and most of you would have thought of this before!


The conclusion of this epiphany is that I shall now need to repaint my 1/300th scale sci fi stuff from Ice Planet to desert planet! There fore here are 3 Civilian vehicles (Painted red so as not to be at all camouflaged). I started painting them red as they were going on an Ice planet and I did want them to stand out! But as it turns out bright red works almost as well for a desert planet! Lots more (2 armies) to do for these but at least I now have a start and can continue at my leisure..

That's it for today. I hope to have more on Saturday until then, take care paint if you can. All the best Clint

Plans! (2018)

My plans are as always very fluid. However here are some thoughts for the new year. I will of course continue to paint for Matt (and other club members if they pay me). But that is not really a plan of mine for the new year.

Bellow are the things I want to achieve for myself I will try to only show the basic plans and hope this time next year I can cross them off. (I usually can't).

1] I shall continue with the BoB (Back of Beyond) Project in 20mm. This will definitely happen as I feel enthused by the whole game ethos.

2] Crimson Skies: While still reading the rules I see this as a club game that may actually take off. I still need to read all the rules but so far so good. It should make a very suitable game for the club and I am at present contemplating making some sky boards even maybe a zeppelin! Remember you heard it here first.


3] WW1 Historical. For this I really need to do a few things first. The easiest being talk to Tim at the club. When that is done I need to sell all my colonial figures (to raise funds and make space.) Tim has an UNPAINTED Turkish army and an UNPAINTED Imperial (British) army. So I will need to see what he says on Sunday and maybe start an army within 2 months of that. As well as Galipoli and Lawence of Arabia there are many other battles that did take place and it makes such a change from Western Front.

4] Dieselpunk. As I had the "Gaslands" Rules (osprey) for Crimbo I find I like the ules but dislike the setting and scale and therefore changes NEED to be made. As such I intend to make a scale change to 28mm. Easy done just enlarge the templates. I also want to take it back to a 1930's setting. Yes this will be loads of work to get the cars right.... in that they will need to be converted. But just imagine how spectacular it will look. Assuming I can get it finished. I know this is by far the biggest plan and fraught with difficulties but if it works it will be great.



In addition I will continue to work on my dark age aries (yes I have 2 started, one in 28mm and one in 15mmm) > These are not a priority at present so do not expect huge leaps to be made in them. I also have some Lord of the Rings figures to paint and hope to do one every 2 weeks.

Lastly I expect TO GET SIDE TRACKED. This is almost inevitable so do not hold it against me. Hope fully something will grab you as well. If so please feel free to leave a comment.

All the best Clint

And little can be done until a chat at the club but at least these are my plans.

Sci Fi trees?

Ok lets us start by saying NO ONE KNOWS what trees will be like on another planet. I really do not, not got the foggiest idea. NOT A CLUE. I don't even know if we will recognise them as being plant life> I have no idea.

However wargamers being human will always tend towards what they know and as we know what a tree is like on this planet, and as all wargames rules want some soft cover/concealment, these will do for now!

Now many of you might remember Joe (AKA Zabadak (Link to blog) purchased a plastic "flower" ball from the 99p store. I followed suit. I will turn it into Jungle in short order.

Now as you can see in the top picture there are a few purple "Fronds". I had initially no use for the purple "fronds" but waste no want not. I have turned them into sci fi trees.

Taking it apart (there were only 3 purple, the rest are green). So using a glue gun, I stuck them to 2mm MDF bases.

An easy job, and done quite quickly. You could stick them to plastic counters as well, but you would need to "Key" the surface or the glue will have almost nothing to cling on to.  I would choose not to use the glue gun on coins as they really do need to key to the surface. But you are welcome to try it if you like, BUT I would not recommend it.

The Glue guns are quite safe as long as you don't try anything silly, like squirting hot glue in you eyes or onto your tongue. And if you get any on you quicker to wipe it of than run to the sink and pour cold water on it. Look it is common sense.

Also cover everything with news paper as it makes tiding up easier and you will get nagged less.

Once dry. Trust me it is quick. I waited 30 mins (go and make a cuppa for the better half). It was simply a matter of painting with dark brown on the base and sprinkling sand in place. No need to be precious, every thing is already covered and no one really cares about the bushes. So be quite liberal in the sprinkling.

Once sprinkled I repainted again with dark brown and then hi-lighted in a desert sand/yellow.  That way job's a good un and only the tidy up to be done. leave over night to dry and in the morning put them away, or don't put them away and get nagged at, the choic e is yours>

Quick and easy sci fi terrain. I just wish I had a few more to bulk out the terrain.

Being Sci Fi they can of course be any scale and being purple they have an otherworldly look to them.

gentlemen, start your .... too late they are already off!

Well it arrived! What arrived? Well the thing I got on eBay that I was excited about. Am I still as excited. Well truth to admit no. but I am still excited, just not as much. (I think that is inevitable).

Let me explain. for years (since my first copy of "Space 1889" I have really enjoyed steampunk. But having seen more than a few Youtube videos about Asylum the Lincoln Steampunk festival I kind of lost faith. There were to many people dressing as pirates or fairies or fluffy animals or well you get the idea. NOT Victorian science fiction at all but tea drinking fantasy. Now if that is what they want good luck to them. But I have moved over to "Dieselpunk" Now many of you will not have heard of dieselpunk no worries it is fairly new to me.

But I have made my first purchases... well actually I have not they were actually made several years ago but I got them for steampunk.

Ok cutting the waffle what did I get.

Well diesel punk is a lot less common than steam punk. but one thing it does have is planes. Lots of aeroplanes. So I bought planes.

These are all Wizkidz plastic Crimson skies planes. I am not hppy with them, they all need re-painting. Theer is nothing wrong with the current paint jobs of course. However they were painted by someone probably on minimum wage with no interest in dieselpunk and probably no interest in much other that the pay check either.

Still I digress here are the planes. I have 26 in all. Lots of them style wise I d not like. but that is not going to stop me at all.


 So gentle and not so gentle reader grab a coffe and a ciggerette and hold on it is going to be a bumpy ride.

Firstly I need to aquire some rules I like. and then make an airship so nothing is going to happen over night.

Just stit back and try to ignore any turbulance it is just the pilot trying to find the best and fastest route.

Should I ask for any suggestions as to painting schemes feel free to chip in. But at present I am thinking Camoflage rather than bright colours.

That is it for today. thanks for looking and back to the aeronef paint mines for me.

Still working on SCW

Yep I am still working on my armies for the Spanish Civil war.... Although I must admit I am running out of steam.

These are all Pendraken 10mm figures. Actually the Anti Tank gun is old Skytrex Action 200. Which n longer seem available. And that just shows how old I am.

These are all nationalist troops, but that said there is no reason they could not be Republican troops. It really was not as clear cut as we would like to think.  The Antitank crew are actually WW2 British Navy, but does that matter? I think not. There is no point in playing the SCW and getting fussy about which is which and what is what. Everyone used anything they thought was best.

I was lucky enough to be asked to playtest some SCW rules. And they should be commercially available before the end of the year. I will not at this stage go into detail as that would be very improper. I will just say they did work, but from my point of view (not having seen the final draft) they did not seem very different to WW2 rules and the Spanish Civil war was very different. SO I will need to wait and see what the final draft is like before saying anything more.

Just 4 more stands 3x Light MG's and 1 Anti tank.

Not a lot more to add. Thanks for looking today and back to 28mm for Sundays post... (assuming they get finished today.)

Progress (2 steps back)

At the moment it if 2 steps back for one step forward. However this will change very soon. Since yesterday I have (working in an unventilated garage) given each hex tile an undercoat. This should get them all to the same colour. (Fingers crossed we will see how it dries)!!

Yes there are issues. I had to paint over the existing flock which has left some bumps. Also as I had previously varnished some Wadis they are some what smooth. But at least they are all now the same colour. And Being the same colour is an excellent place to start. The Previous version (shown on the right) was a mix of colours. Now as you can see it is all one colour. This means that I am able to make some more tiles as well and they will fit in perfectly.

The next stage will take a while so no more quick updates.
I have to purchase enough flock in desert colours to add sufficient vegetation everywhere. While this WILL be time consuming I am not even tempted to do any work on it until at least 2 weeks.

That is it for today. Thanks for looking

All the best Clint

I am inspired

Yes this is a LONG term project bought back to life. NOT a new project but 25-30 years old!

Yes that long ago I started planning and working on this project, now It has finally got the go ahead... yes it could have gone faster.

1/200th or 10mm wargaming western desert.

Most of my old stuff in Skytrex and I do not think is still even produced. Let me know if It still is. I may well place an order. Not that I want much at all.

What I like about the Western Desert in WW2 is many fold. Firstly no single side had all the advantages. There was no big heavy tanks and as everyone used anything they could get their hands on no side can claim equipment superiority.  As see to the right a British tank being used by the Germans. Captured  use of trucks was of course far more common with a typical convoy having British, Italian and German trucks no matter the owners nationality.

In the next few weeks/months I will be re-making my desert boards I purchased the paint this morning! Here  is a pic of what it is currently like. I know not everyone like hex boards but they should work very well for the PBI rules I intend to use. As you can see several different sand colours were originally used as one "tester" pot ran out I switched to another. But instead I have purchased a 2.5 litre pot and intend to create them all in the same shade of desert.

This inspiration has come from several sources and the strong desire to actually finish this project.

I have raked out some of my OLD (Very old) figures and while the Infantry are just no good several of the vehicles are.

I have 1 0r 2 Companies of British 8th army infantry ready to start as well as Lee's Honeys, Valantines and a number of German vehicles as well. So while I will inevitably do some updates at least you know what I am working on when all is quiet!

A mixed bag

yes a real mix of projects today. Yet one thing they do have in common is the photography is terrible. Not making excuses it is just one of those things where nothing has worked!  Oh well.


So starting with some air support for my Japanese in 15mm. This is an Academy 1/144th scale Japanese Zero. The model was just a couple of pounds on eBay. It was easy to put together. But not all that easy to paint. The actual colours went on OK no problem there. The problem comes when trying to get the right colour green. Let me explain. Aircraft modellers will tell you tat the correct Japanese green for Aircraft is a bit of a mystery. Because the colour faded so fast when applied there is no definite answer to what the "Proper colour" should be. Indeed white may be as authentic as green as the colour faded and bleached in the tropical heat. Yes you do see some Navy planes painted white, but army planes as far as I am aware should be green. So this may well be the wrong colour green. But I will not be getting a Munsel diagram out to find out. It is close enough for me in a game where it only appears occasionally

Then we have some 10mm Spanish Civil war regular army light machine guns. I will be also doing some militia LMGs as well but this gets them finished for the regular ARMY. So that is one side finished for Bayonet and Ideology. Although you can hardly see them the figures are Pendraken and in army uniforms. Green clothing but with grey helmets.

Finally here is a single Pic of my first figure from "the Walking Dead"  game finished. A single walker.  the figures are very nice and I will be doing more as soon as time permits. The figures are hard plastic and paint very well. Each of the Walkers is different so the first thing you need to do is work out how long they have been dead and paint the skin appropriately. Therefore I will be painting a variety of skin tones to represent those killed very recently and those killed during the out break.

Well that#s it for today. with luck my get up and go will return soon and I will be able to carry on with gusto!

All the best Clint

The last of my....

"I am not going to Salute!" spending.  Firstly a small order from Pendraken Miniatures  (LINK ) Just some more Spanish Civil war stuff. And so far the only thing I have finished painting is shown to the right. It is quite the ugliest vehicle I have ever painted. Which is not to say it was not well cast but is to say the design of this type of Republican armoured truck is like a sink on wheels. In fact I have called it in my head either the sink or Bathtub of doom! As vehicle designs go it is not all that inspiring.

Just to show you how bad it is here is one more shot.  In the game (Bayonet and Ideology) it comes in pairs and can only more 1 space per turn while off road...On road it can motor! Needless to say these were not built in factories in the Spanish civil war but garages. I have not put it in any particular colour scheme or with slogans as I want it to be used by militias of each side.

Other than the sink of doom I mostly purchased light machine guns as I had none and in the rules I plan to use there can be 1 per platoon . Which is far less than you would usually get in a WW2 game. But that is the Spanish civil war for you.

The other Purchase is The Walking Dead (all out war).. Yes I like zombie games and saw a few play throughs on uTube  before spending any money. I plan to build a battle board and terrain, but that will be on another blog. (28 Dice Later) I may even intend to platy a few games, but that is for the future and not yet. There is nothing As yet on that blog.

That is it for today I am just waiting for paint to dry on some Russian Civil war Cossacks as I type this. So they should (fingers crossed be finished this afternoon.

Thanks for looking today, have a good and long weekend and with luck see you soon.

All the best Clint