Monkey Business

The Blog title seems to be appropriate. Over the weekend I went to a boot fair and purchased 3 Planet of the Apes DVDs No not the Charlton Heston version, but the newer ones. Ones which I have not at the time of writing seen. The princely sum was £1.50, having not seen them I have no idea if this is money well spent , but if they are as good as the originals (I doubt it) I shall not be disappointed.


In addition I have been painting some Lucid Eye Simians! Just the 4 but I have both a Tarzan (and Jane) figures to go with them If I choose as well as some rather large apes. So If I choose I can have a "Pulp Alley" crew/gang/mob up and running in no time at all. They can of course be used in many other games, 7TV or Judge Dredd or well anything you want to think of.

They are 28mm but are quite small and despite the sixe of human comparison would struggle to fin into many other games, although one could see a giant ape in New York city if one really tried to think about it.

I must say a joy to paint and with no flash or mold lines or other casting defects. I could and would recommend them to anyone who waned some model apes as they are really easy to paint.

I am in 2 minds about what kind of base to give them so I settled on just desert. In addition as they carry weapons I was thinking they should also have a primitive marking maybe a red hand. At present I have decided against as this way they are slightly more versatile.

That's it for today thanks for popping by and I hope you liked  them but that is it for now.

All the best and enjoy the sun and weather if you can but no skin cancer. Next post in 2 days time. Until then, take care have fun and enjoy yourself.

BTR APC 15mm for Ak47

yes another vehicles  for AK-47 despite the face I have not played it for over 2 years! I was not a fan of the re-write and as such it as a game fell out of favour with me. yet despite this I am still building up an army. Sheer madness I tell you but what else is knew!

This is actually the Zvezda kit of the BTR 80 at 1/100th scale. yeah I know it if not true 15mm but it is close enough for me.  We can all get perdantic. This is my first and Only (so far )armoured personnel carrier for AK 47 But I hope to get one more. Like all the Zvezda kits they are easy to put together and assuming you have at least 1/4 of a brain you will get all the pieces in the right place. I am not saying they are idiot proof but pretty close!

Overall a worthy addition to the AK force. And while only (in the rules) able to carry 4 stands at least that is 4 stands they will not have to walk to the battlefield!

Yesterday I went to Rochester Games and Model shop Yes here is a horrible Face book link. (I say horrible as I do not like Facebook) Link and I am sure if you live in the Medway towns you are at least aware of them. While there MHWC (Sittingbourne wargames club) and they had a game of Rapid fire going on. this is turn 1 and 2 in the photos I had real life to get back to.  As usual with ww2 game far to many tanks. A realistic ratio is 1 tank to 600 soldiers.  But we all do it.
Things when I left were not going in anyones favour. Yes the allies had lost more vehicles than the Germans But the Allies were ambushed and they would be able to replace their vehicles which at this stage of the war the Germans would not. My advice to the allies would be pull back and call in air support and let the infantry move it to mop up. hell but no one asked me and I was not playing so it was all up to them. But at this stage of the war the Germans could not afford to loose tanks or Fuel so no matter how the game was played the Germans were bound to loose!

A very Jaundiced view I realise, but that was the truth at this stage in the war. Why through away lives, call in air support and sit back and make a brew!

Should have some figures painted by Tuesday so enough of Tank and Tank things for a while. All the best and enjoy the long weekend!

Faith and Trust and some going backwards

Original board

But finally going forwards. It is easier to start again sometimes and yet sometimes we have a spark in the original that makes us stick with it. After a sleepless night I decided to strip the original board down and use what I could so with a panel saw and a hammer I saw the initial work destroyed. Not wanting to sound either cynical or complacent I knew it was not up to it and I knew I could do better.

Theerfore the new board will be 3 foot square and on several (not sure yet 0 levels. This is what |I have decided so far.

It is Important to recall that most wargames boards are FLAT! I just did not want that. This board is to represent a hidden "Canyon" perhaps packed with mysteries. As such I dismantled the back wall of the original board. It as would the other pieces not be free standingand thus be able to be moved into different board positions. As such I created a separate base and back for it. This allowed me to address the straight board edge and instead go for something slightly more natural looking. Noy perfect but working with the materials at hand.

 Creating an L shaped (in section) base also allowed me to enhance the cave areas and incorporate the caves onto the boards. The cave as seen to the right is embryonic at this stage and as such does need a LOT of work. But now at least I have a framework to work with.  You can see on the bottom right a second cave area drawn out but not implemented. Several attempts at planning and only one out come. That is the way of it.

From the side it is a total mess and some level of faith in my ability is needed sometimes it is lacking as I am filed with self doubt.
I do use a variety of different polystyrenes mostly to get a variety of thicknesses to try to create a more natural feel. It does not always work.

 To be honest Sometimes I need to walk away and come back a day or a week later. Then when you do you kind of guaranteed that you will either not have the time or the weather will be dreadful but eventually you find you can overcome these issues and move to the next stage.

And this is the next stage. I mixed up filler from Wilkos and using it coated some bandages.. I will know later today if these have dried out sufficiently well. Early indications are that they have. If so I can and will move on to the next stage over the weekend. .

By the way if I have not mentioned it I hope-plan to have this all (3 foot board) finished by February and shall enjoy blogging each step be they forward steps or backwards steps.

I thought to do this as a beak from painting Tanks. but be waned there are more of those coming. With luck I also plan on getting some Victorian Science fiction done as well.

Until Sunday when I plan to post again, take care and paint if you feel like it
all the best Clit

A couple more tanks

yes two more 15mm tanks for "What the Tanker!" A panzer MK III and a T-60. The Panzer 3 is the big one (Not words I have needed to say before!). As we tend NOT to think of a Panzer 3 as being a large tank.

It looks like I have surcummed to peer pressure at the club, Or as others would say seen the light. As such this will be the last Russian tank for this project for a while.

Instead I will swap to Early war France for now and see how that goes. I did after all get 2 kills and would not just throw them away! The T 60 in particular while fast not fast enough to be rated as a FAST tank is interesting in the rules as it has a low profile. In the rules this means it will need an extra acquisition dice in order to acquire it. This is I my opinion and if used correctly quite a bonus.

 But As I will no longer be focused on the Eastern Front (no more snow for a while) I have re-painted the Panzer III to fit the colours of France (and the Low Countries) in 1940.

 Therefore this is the repainted Panzer 3 in a mid-dark grey. Now I find it interesting that the German tanks were repainted after the Spanish Civil War to be a Grey. As they fought the Russian tanks which were then Grey (I believe the Russian tanks were shipped via Mexico and they may or may not have been painted there!

As a side note Russian tanks were painted Green after the SCW so it seems that they swapped colours. What actually happened I don't know but to me it seems odd! There are 2 more Zvezda kits on the paint table. So it is likely that at least 1 more will be in the next post.

BROADSIDE SHOW: As a club we shall not be running a game this year. We have had a string of bad luck and were down to 2 peeps to run the game. Therefore with regret we have been forced to pull out! I shall still be at the show of course so either hide from me or say hallo whichever suits you best. I shall possibly be on a Flea market stall.

Until next time. Take care, have fun and get something done for the hobby. (AND NO EXCUSES!)

Yesterdays game

Board of play
Somewhere in Northern France 1940
All pics taken without me leaving my chair!

Before I talk about that I just want to say it is too damn cold in the bloody garage to build terrain. Feel free to call me a wimp but I do not want to be too cold to work properly! Therefore terrain post will get pushed back yet another day.



I had 2 A13's(White and Blue)
Graham and Tim were my adversaries
They each had a single Panzer 2 each.
Points were equal.

Ok here we go. Yesterday at the club we had a game of "What a Tanker!" by Too Fat Lardies. Graham had set it all up before I arrived so it was too late to through a hissy fit and say that I did not want to do France 1940! The electrician was supposed to be coming to the club to give us more lighting...... he did not turn up!

Realising that if I could divide them I stood a better chance
I went right to face Graham.

Tim started to flank me
so I countered as Graham was playing hard to get
the tease!

I was able to trap Tim with the terrain
and some bad dice by him and him not
knowing the rules at all.
Graham had read them, I just watched Youtube videos!



I was able to reduce his command dice at first.
all the while Buttoned up and Graham
using Rapid Fire with a 20mm auto cannon.
Tim reduced Blues command dice as well

But Tim was not able to move as much as he wanted
he was still acquired by both of my tanks
An Aim, a Fire and 3 hits (2 of which were crits)
and Tim brewed up



Graham spent several turns Moving out of cover shooting and
moving into cover BEFORE I could fire back
The result was that while he did nt penetrate my armour he did force me to retreat.
and I retreated backwards into a building
Tim finally arrived and with a Panzer 3 this time.
he fired at my blue tank.
It missed.
So I returned fire and he failed to save with any armour
dice. the consequence is that 2 turns on the table
And Both of my tanks were on one kill.

I was still taking "temporary " damage and losing command dice
But I was holding on.
Time was lucky and managed to bring on a Panzer 4
I was now up against it.



I managed to retreat back but was out flanked.
Blue had slipped down to only 2 command dice.

Things looked bad for Blue Tank!

Tim Fired and it was a Hit on Blue.
But not a penetration and I was forced to retreat yet again!
I did ask them where they wanted me to go
And they both said off the table!

So with 1 tank against 2 having lost 50% of my tanks I conceded the game
AND WON!
 

Conclusion: The British had destroyed 2 German tanks. While the Germans had only damaged 1 British tank. (Tracks and Optics) Yes I had conceded the French village but I had not taken sufficient damage to result in a loss of tank!

So each of my crews get a kill ring and if they each get 4 more (total 5 each tank) they become aces. A long way to go but a very good start.

Aftermath: Now I am faced with a dilemma. Do I Carry on doing the German and Russians, OR do I swap to German and British? 2 kills is not a start I would chose to give up easily. However Russian Zvezda tanks are cheap and to me that makes a difference. In the tying of this I think I have made my mind up but I would still like some input from you.

Until next time Take care have fun and paint if you get the chance. All the best Clint

Hoka Hey (and a few other things)

Painted these for Peter at the club he's had some kind of accident and broken both wrists and elbows, I do not know the details but we wish him well.

These are the foot and mounted figures from Hoka Hey Wargames (Link). It is in the Border reivers section.

I was given the instructions to "Paint it dark" and having sent the pics to Peter I am assured that it is dark enough! Again no work on the bases as I know Peter likes to do his own bases. This is fine by me and I am more than happy to leave it that way. After all less work for me!

I did ask if this member of the clergy was regular or secular and that is what prompted the Paint it dark comment. The figure was very nice and I would be interested in getting a few more it is also quite chunky as you can see. I do not think you would get so many to the kilo as other manufactures would achieve. However it is a very nice figure and I would be happy to paint more of them as they are hardly ever seen in the south of the country.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch (or other similar clichés)

On Thursday I meat Dave stone. Yes that is him in the picture! He turn out to be a really nice bloke. (I will tell the truth another time) he is in charge of Wargames Terrain Workshop, (LINK). Well when I say in charge his good (or maybe not so good) lady might well dispute that! A terribly nice guy and I am sure if we lived closer we would become good friends, no matter how much he would try to put me off! "No sorry Clint I am not in this month.... did I say I was moving?" kind of thing, you get the idea!

If you have not yet checked out his web site please do, I am sure it will be very much appreciated.

While out to meet Dave I did a little shopping! The APC is for my AK 47 force. The Panzer Mk 3 is now started and has already taken me about twice as long as the T-26 did! Yeah I know, This one came with instructions which made it HARDER! The T-60 is yet to be started I'll let you know how I get on! And Finally some Elephant tusks from Wargames Terrain Workshop. Do not expect me to paint these for at least 6 months. They are for a long term project at least 1 year from now!

Well that takes me into Saturday morning and some emails to send and a Panzer to finish hopefully by tomorrow!

Lewis Gunners and Tea chests.

 Well painting for the club members again. The figure on the left (with the finished base) is for Matt. While the two on the right are for Richard (aka Dick).
Starting with Matts figure it is converted and as such has a head swap. This is not a problem for me after all I did not do the work, I just slapped the paint on. It will go with his VBCW collection. I have painted it to fit I with almost any of his factions so It may be a fascist or a miner or an Anglican or well you name it.


The two figures on the right are painted for Dick. They are Ironclad miniatures Miners. Richard did not provide bases or give any indication or how he wanted the bases done. Therefore I have had no input on what exactly he wants so I have left them bare so he may base them. When I paint for Peter at the club (some very soon, hopefully tomorrow) I am instructed not to base them as he will do that himself. Consequently I have left an email for Richard but have not yet received a reply.  And to be honest unless I get one this morning this is how I will hand them back to him.

Finally for me some Ainsty castings Tea chests. They all came in one pack are enough scatter scenery to edge the dieselpunk project just a tiny bit closer. For those younger then myself you may never have come across a Tea chest! I only vaguely recall them from when I was 5 years old. They were used after that time but I have no personal recollection of them at later dates.

Needless to say they were what tea was transported in from China or India to the UK. As such they were wooden chests with metal edges. I have only used 2 colours of brown for the wood as they are just scenery and will get shot by players (no not literally) as figures take cover behind them on the big airships and in the warehouses.

That is it for today. Please enjoy any weather and have as good a day as you possibly can.

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.

Crimean Artillery

Yes 28mm foundry. And therefore yes they are for Matt. And NO he has not seen them yet. (Unless he looks here that is or maybe checks his emails on Monday when at work,)

I did quite enjoy painting them, they were far easier than the Hussars! British Navy gun crew of the late 19th century again I know next to nothing about so I took the colours from the Foundry web site so if I am wrong so be it, more to the point so are they. Matt did suggest all 6 figures to go all on one base. I did try it and while they would all fit without looking daft I just felt they needed a bit more room. I Know Matt is OK with that as he did say if it looks too crowded I was to base them separately.

 This (for now and at least until next weekend) halts the Crimean war for me.  I still have a few commission pieces to paint for the club as well as my own stuff so I can honestly say there is a wide variety of things on the go. Including my Terrain boards.... but until I feel I have some more to say about them I will just plod away in the background.

Hope you get out in the sun and have a good time. If Not enjoy some painting and gaming and watching TV it is all up to you  as long as you strive for happiness!

All the best Clint