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

2 steps forward and some steps back

Well the title says it really. Had a re-think. Yes I know that's dangerous!

Firstly PBI western desert is no longer on the cards. Given I am now reading the rules it is not TOO late. My opponent has late war Germans and late war British and I have late war Americans and mid-late war Japanese it makes more sense to carry on in Europe. (Yes I a aware Japan does not fight in Europe!) So with the infantry in this box which I had already bought but done NOTHING with I should have nearly enough to get a force together.

That being the case I am re-painting some old vehicles.  So this has had another paint job. I shall start the other one today. I will be short of all the options but I am already closer than I was for western desert. Also more is available with regard to purchases.  In fact I shall be able to re-start a stalled project. Well here's hoping. I should say I am confident I will get the first platoon done by Monday.



Elsewhere. I am still working on my 15mm DRK AGE collection. This is a Peter pig "Gift from God!" and counts as LOOT in the Longships  game. It is the only piece of loot I have so far and as 15mm figures go was a joy to paint. All the colours are authentic so as a prize will work out just fine. When I say Prize I mean in game terms you still have to get it.

Additionally I have started to order my next force for "Gruntz". This time an Alien Race and that should arrive over the weekend. So you have been warned it shall be 15mm figure heavy on this blog for a while...... You are warned!

All the best Clint

DAK started!

DAK of course means Duteches Africa Korps. (may be spelt wrong.. just live with it, I  am.)
But of course you new that. All the figures are 15mm ww2. A mixture of "Flames of War" for the Horch Personnel carrier and "Forged in Battle" for the armoured cars. The VERY start of a "New Project!"

The personnel carrier first. While it did see use throughout the war this one is circa 1941-43 and in use in the western desert. It was used to transport people as well as light guns and thus saw a lot of use in every place the Germans were involved. On a personal level I DO need to but a lot more of these, but one for NOW is OK.







Also for the scouting section of the Afrika Korp I have finished 2 armoured cars. Again 15mm and as mentioned above "Forged In Battle". For those with a technical incline they are SDKFZ 234/1 armed with a 20mm arutcannon. In the western desert this should be enough fire power as all the vehicles are thinly armoured. This part of ww2 is not about having the most armour and the biggest gun. So as such it hardly maters.

I shall leave the arms races to  the kids! (Been there done that)>

Fiat 621

Well I must be honest yesterday was I can't be bothered day! I did manage a teeny bit of painting.  This is a MISCAST 20mm (1/72scale) Fiat 621 Truck.  It was used by the Italians in ww2 Western desert. Captured ones were used by the British And commonwealth troops as such drivers speaking Indian or with Australian accents were not that uncommon. It was also used by the Germans when they were re-captured. As such I have put no markings on it simply because all the forces could and DID use these trucks. 

The model is (MISCAST) Frontline (Link ) and 20mm or 1/72nd scale. I shall SLOWLY be building my western desert forces. So more are on their way!

But  as mentioned above I was in a can't be bothered kind of mood all weekend so got little done!

Thanks for looking and more again in a couple of days! All the best Clint

Yet 2 more Jungle Huts.

Yes 2 more jungle huts in 15mm for my Pacific WW2 forces. While I do not promise these will be the last, they should be in this scale for the foreseeable future. They are by Frontline Wargaming(LINK) Tim (of said company) was running one of the Flea market stalls (with me and Peter, as a club venture) at Broadside about 10 days ago. I had bought 2 of these before but well terrain is always a pleasure so at the end of the day he stil had these left and I had a little spare money and an exchange was made.

They were quickly repainted as they had a very few chips and scratches. And they are now part of my Pacific War terrain. Which means I just about have enough to put on a decent game of US vs Japanese WW2 in 15mm. Yes we can all want extras of everything But 25mm pacific buildings I should have enough as it was not then very built up and overpopulated.

That's it for today thanks for looking and more in 2 days. All the best Clint

Blurry Photo time!

Yeah when I took these it was dark and they just did not come out as well as I hoped. Still never mind you can at least get the idea.

Two more Zvezda tanks. First u is the Panzer 38T.

The model kit was simple as they all have been so far, and straight-forward in that is you tried really hard you could put it together badly. That would however require a concerted effort, as itgoes together the correct way without difficulty.

German tank commander Otto Carius, did command one before progressing as the war went on to a Jadg Tiger (when captured by the Americans). Commander Carius is also reputed to have 150 "Kills" which makes him Germanys equal 2nd rated Tank ace. (Michael Wittman is either 4th or 5th depending on what you read.) Either way you look at it for the time it was used the Panzer 38T was still an impressive tank well up with it's contemporaries. In What a tanker this is one of the tanks I aspire to progressing to. fast and with a good gun the 38T was in its day a vey good tank.


And Tank 2. Well a Tank Destroyer, a STUG III, Based on the Panzer 3 chassis it was armed with a short 75 at the beginning of the war. This was still a very good gun but in mid or late war they needed more power and penetration so a longer 75mm gun was used. In game terms it has a LOW PROFILE so an extra acquisition dice is needed to acquire it. being a Tank destroyer it may also change one of its dice to a Aim dice which can make it very flexible. It also has very good armour so in early war great crew survivability. The main draw back is no turret so quite often you have to move in order to get sufficient options in aim. But as shown in the last game this is a lesser consideration as long as you have other tanks running interference. If we stick to early war I would hope after 15 or more kills to swap in to one of these as they can be quite deadly. Not a starting tank in the game at all but one to aspire towards.

As with all the Zvezda kits (so far tried) it goes together easily and is just about impossible to get wrong UNLESS you deliberately try to. So with almost no flash it is easy to recommend the 2 kits.

The last 2 pics are of them bother side by side. This clearly shows both the height and width of the 2 models. However both are very welcome in my collection as they were a joy to put together

That's it for today. I plan to finish reading the Maximillian 34 rules and review them next time. So with luck see you Friday and until then remember to dream big as it does not cost you any more!

Yesterday atthe club

My Tank
A Panzer 2

I was having a 5H1T day yesterday, everything I tried went wrong. And then I got to the wargames club. and things went right (at least until I left). Ahh the joy of a decent hobby.

I was going to play Matt at Aeronef, but I broke 2 models looking for the fleet and dropped a box of figures. So I phoned Matt and he was "Don't worry we can do something else!" We did do something else, we both Joined a game of "What a Tanker!" which was run by Graham.  This time it started with me and Graham as the Germans and Dick (aka Richard) and Matt playing the British.

The map from
my seat.

 Both the British were in A-13 Crusiers which I had used last game so I knew they were an OK  tank for the period I was in as already mentioned a Panzer 2 while Graham had a Panzer 35 T which is (game wise) exactly the same stats as the Cruisers. So it was even on points.

The map was a little more open than last time and having almost no armour and a little pop pop cannon I was going to be reliant on using any and all cover I could! (Gulp)

Das Hero Panzer(yeah right)



Dick Tank



Grahams Tank

Matt's tank

As Dick shot at me and missed. I was suffering
from cruelty to small tanks Syndrome.
Yes I ran away and tried to put a hill  between us.
It did not work and he shot at me again.
and again missed







Matt went hull down and Graham  started shooting at him

Richard felt confident and pushed forward determined
to persecute a small and weaker tank

But My tank had teeth.
I was able to circle around and By using the Building
as a covering piece of terrain
get behind him and fire into his weakest parts.
 

Despite being hull down Matt takes enough hits to drive him back
 and then destroy him.

Graham takes cover from the 2 new British tanks

Richard tries again to be needlessly cruel to small and cute  small tanks
 and pushes forward . Trapping me behind the building

Matt's Second tank dies easily on the next turn
having only been on the table 1 turn

The cruelty to small tanks continues and Richard sets me on fire.
Seriously guys there needs to be a law against cruelty to small tanks
 



The game did not end here 2 more people joined in. And now I took charge of a panserjaeger 1. (the weakest of all Tank hunters). Naff armour but a good gun for the period.

 

And I turned it around. even if I took no pics. Graham lost his tank and brought on a second 35T. Kev joined the Germans in a Panzer 3 and Tim joined the Brits in another A13 cruiser tank.

 

After a while the game ended.  and the battle field was strewn with tank wrecks. Some German but more British. The only survivors were Matts Bailed out crew on one kill. Grahams crew on no kills and my crew on 4 kills.

 

I know that next time we play they will all target me especially if I am in a Tank Destroyer. Not just for revenge, although I am sure that will be a factor, but as much to stop me becoming an ace tanker and getting an advantage or two. The rotters. (I am sure I would do the same though so I can't really complain). Either that or they will all start to take German panzerjaeger 1's so do not buy any more Graham.

 

 

That's it for now. As no pics you are free to believe I did not do so much damage and I will not blame you even to me it seems far fetched and unlikely! (And I was there, in front of witnesses)

 

Enjoy the day. Play if you get the chance and dream if you can't play

All the best Clint

Zvezda T-26 (I/100)

On Friday I purchased a Zvezda 1/100th scale kit of the T 26 Russian tank. here is it finished! Yes that is it in front of the box in the pic.

Let's be honest the kit only had 5 pieces to it, so it was just about impossible to get wrong if you applied just the slightest bit of common sense. The turret was a single piece, the hull came in 2 pieces (top of hull, bottom of hull) and there was a left and a right wheels and tracks. It really was that easy and should not challenge anyone. The kit was very clean with no flash or mold lines and all the pieces fitted together very well. Being honest I was impressed. simple and effective.

So here is how I painted it!
Step 1: Knowing I wanted a Russian Winter feel I sprayed it with white primer.  I was not too precious with it and it was in parts patchy as the primer applied from a spray can was not all that even. I could have given it another light coat but to e honest I wanted it to look rough.

Step 2: A "Black green" wash was applied. It went on too heavy but oh well never mind.

Step 3: I over brushed with white. This covered up most of the black green where it was too heavy.

Step 4: I painted the tracks. First with a bronze, then a gun metal and then in part with a white and rust..

Step 5: The rubber on the wheels was added with a black

Step 6: I applied the rust. Anywhere and everywhere I thought rust would be.

Step 7: Glued it to an MDF base.

All in all took about 25 minutes including drying time and assembly. I think it looks pretty good for the time and effort spent on it. Yes when I do the next one it will not turn out exactly the same, maybe it will be better and maybe it will be worse. Who Knows! This is the basic started tank for Operation Barrbarosa used by the Russians and yes I do intend to get at least 1 more for club games of "What a Tanker". While not the best tank of the period it was still a good tank and as a starter tank what else could you ask for.  I know a lot of players will want to start with powerful tanks but then they would also be fighting powerful tanks. Therefore by starting with the T-26 it should give me a foundation of how I want the tanks to look.

AK 47 Tank Ok a JS2

For those that do not know AK-47 is a set of rules by Peter Pig. I have tried the newer set (still quite old now) and do not like them. I do however like the old AK rules. I also think the club would benefit from a continuous game. ( I am reluctant to use the word campaign as they seem to think we will play the same set of rules every time, and let's be honest we all want a change). So on Sunday I will propose starting an AK 47 series of games.

I hope to set it up like one of my old necromunda campaigns so people an drop in and drop out as the whim takes them. And yet still have consistency of groups and people. BUT no you will not be able to control more than 1 African faction. As a side note Shame Fran is not in the area as I really do think this would be his sort of game as it usually is devoid of hedges but does nave other things to hide behind.

Anyway this is a Zvedzda 100th scale (therefore many use them as 15mm) JS2 heavy tank used by a great deal of countries around the world in the 1970's . Painted in a fictional colour scheme which I think is suitable for Africa (You are of course free to disagree but Africa is rather large and it does have a WIDE variety of terrains).
The model went to together very easily and despite my best instincts really was fool proof. I will be interested in getting another of these just to give me some variety of units and Knowing the rules having a "professional" quality tank on the table costs a lot of points BUT does tend to scare the opponents in AK terms.

That's it for today. next time either more about the campaign proposal or far more likely some Vikings. Until then take care have fun and roll some dice like you are a dice rolling fiend intent on winning.

Swimming Japanese tanks (15mm)

Firstly the tanks swam in real life, not the models. I feel If I don't say that then there will be a comment from someone trying (and failing) to be clever.

The Ka-Mi Tanks were real ww2 Japanese tanks. And rather than being developed by the army were developed by the navy. Here is a link (LINK). Being developed by the navy they were mostly used on pacific islands. As such I am not sure they were ever encountered by the British army.


Yes that is a real life pic of one swimming. I knew if I did not include one I would be doing the tank a dis-service.

You will note the model tank has a taller turret. Clearly it is a bolted on section to stop high water from waves getting in. As is the funnel over the engine. When they had landed several part and flotation areas could be detached and a more normal tank would bee seen.  If you look at the model the front two and rear 2 sections (where the diagonal groves are) dismount as they are flotation devices and offer minimal protection but do make the vehicle harder to steer around tree/building.

 The models did not offer the choice of swimming and land based vehicles. The turrets all came in the larger format and the hulls all came with flotation devices. The funnels did come separate but seriously what would be the point of leaving these off.


 As you can see, the picture on the box shows 3 tanks on the front and back however when opening it turns out there were indeed 5 tanks included. When you buy things online you can't always tell until they turn up, and to be honest for the price I paid I would have been happy with 3 tanks. Let us be honest with each other the models are great but in real life the tanks were not. Do not expect them to win battles on their own. They simply will not. But to round out my Japanese ww2 forces I am more than happy.

Thanks for looking and more (but no idea what) in a few days. All the best Clint

Remember to paint if you can and play when you get the opportunity.