Strelets...mmm...

Well blogger is still being wierd, I would love to respond to the comments but it sends me loopy-literally! Anyway thanks for the comments-I do like to read them and get guidance from others-indeed the comment about Strelets not being the best quality was correct. I feel that these minis have some character rather like Irregular Miniatures, it even occured to me that they are like Ian Kays sculpting, this is a compliment as I have bought from Irregular for years and I like them immensley.

Anyway I completed the first company of Russian Civil war figures from Strelets and it was a war of attrition just to get them off the sprues. I have another company undercoated and based but I think I would hesitate to paint any more of these at the moment as they are untidy even when you have taken care painting them. The Turks are a work in progress and they are much easier to paint, once the Hat figures have been coated in PVA and undercoated they are hard enough. To aid in handling I try to use a thick base-I buy these from East Riding Miniatures who have an excellent mail order service.

I will have to work on my photos...included is a pic of Chitraporn, she is due back from Thailand at the end of the week. Thanks for looking .

Check this out!

Hi Chaps,

I have been painting Russians! No pics till later but I have to tell you about an excellent blog-blogger wont let me follow it but its on my favourites and I would recommend you have a look around, this fellow knows his stuff.

http://minimike-ministories.blogspot.com/

Enjoy.

Blogger is playing up!

Thanks for the comments below...unfortunatley I cannot respond due to blogger playing up. Maybe one day we will meet up for a game or a chat or "compete" online?

I do hope that blogger sorts itself out as I really enjoy the blogging format, I am sure that it is an excellent and positive forum for the exchange of information that this hobby is craving for.

Thanks for the 5000!

5000 visits-thank you!

Hi,

a landmark for my blog...5000 visitors-I didnt think there were so many wargamers out there! I have been fumbling around building odds and ends, currrently working on a Spanish type barn but nothing I could do will come close to this chap http://paulsbods.blogspot.com/2011/05/roman-town-172nd-scale.html#comment-form I would like to leave a comment but blogger is playing up. These buildings are truly amazing and I am determined to get some foamboard to give this medium a try.

Thanks again for looking, if you get chance there is a free set of wargames rules floating around the web called "And was Jerusalem builded here?" These are a really clever set that I am going to be putting into use, I have never really given a thought about the weather reducing spotting ranges. This really obvious statement is handled amazingly well in the rules-they are by PDE....I suppose he knows who he is and a good rule writer he is indeed.

Toy Mk1V tanks

Hi,

a local cheap shop has started selling a toy MK1V tank-the moulding and detail is very good but it does have little wheels....it has 405 marked on the turret...I wonder has anyone seen these? They look a good size maybe 1/48 scale which is good for 28mm....I'm a bit reluctant to take a 28mm figure in to compare! I once read an article somewhere about these toys being useful for gamers...I dont game 28mm but for £1.99 I may just buy a couple to repaint.
Thanks for any info in advance.

New build...almost complete

Hi Chaps,
last night as I sat next to my boy as he slept I made this little building. I have yet to paint the window and front door...and the plumbing needs attention but basically it will work on the tabletop and cost less than a pound to make. It is rather relaxing making these little terrain pieces and who knows one day I may even be able to use them in a game.

Sorry its a bit pic heavy but I wanted to show the process which is fairly simple. Table mats from charity shops make good bases...Any one used Strelets figures? They look pretty good and chunky, I dont like spindly horse legs! The Strelets figures look substantial-what do you chaps use?

Scratch build ...and cider.

Last night I began to mess around with some scrap balsa and plastic card. I had nothing in mind but I did want to test out if all the bits I had lying around could produce something passable for the gaming table. In the end I think my measurements were a little on the small side, I have revised my plans for some Afghan type dwellings. Maybe the three litres of cider that I drank whilst making this had a detrimental effect?

Today I splashed out £4.99 on a book (big money for me as I usually buy from charity shops-I'm not tight just broke!). "On secret service east of Constantinople" by Peter Hopkirk. This chaps work is amazing and well worth a read but be careful because you will be ordering figures before the last chapter.

I would add that I use paint samples from the cheapest shops I can find, they cost around a pound and last for ages-dont use your expensive paints on terrain!
Thanks for looking.

Campaigning

I would wager that every wargamer who ever rolled a dice in anger has embarked upon a campaign. I seem to be inbetween periods and projects (other than a WW2 German/Russian painting venture) and was thinking about starting a full blown campaign.

I have a tried and tested method of campaigning, its very simple and relies on commanders writing standing orders, an order of march and goals. Officers and junior officers are named and given specific orders. Maps and routes must be marked...one chap in our mess insisted on writing out a list of ammunition and food requirements for any command he was given-I found this to be excessive but he was very thorough!

Once the grand plan is in place a random event chart can be constructed to add some problems for the commanders...also a weather chart...and then of course there is the enemy. Often the practical problems of manouvering and billeting an army are forgotten when one plays only single battles. Ametuers talk tactics and professionals talk logistics is so true!

It is of course all a learning curve, no plan survives contact with the enemy (or the elements or even the terrain) and how we as commanders (all be it of miniature armies) learn from dealing with these problems is for me what wargaming is all about.

So why am I rambling? Maybe a campaign could be run via the blog system? Every participant could be given the strategic overview and generate his own plan along with his details...the campaign organiser could then refight a situation (or just give a result for movements etc) and send a report back.

Very little effort would be required from the generals unless they wanted to play out the games themselves-which would be just as good. My question is has this been done before? If it has could you tell me what happened? Did it work? Have you any tips?

OK thanks for reading this far...lets face it we all need quality time away from our problems even if its just in our head and on our wargames table.

Online help

I was just having a look around the web before I travel out to my local toy shop (Im in the back of beyond so no model shop here!). I am extremely impressed with Wills wargame blog, please take a look at this http://willwarweb.blogspot.com/ most of you have probably already visited this great blog, I certainly like the use of 20mm plastics-and they look good! (for some reason its not ever given me the option to follow?).

Above is a pic of my painting spot...the model cars are picked up at car boot sales for if I ever start a back of beyond game. The brushes were brought back from Thailand and are excellent quality, the giant came from a boardgame and the US troops have still not been painted-maybe tomorrow.

Lost posts...

Hi Chaps,
seems blogger has had the gremlins but Im not complaining as its free! Anyway my post on removing flash has disapeared into the ether so I will post something similar again in the near future. In the mean time can I pass on my thanks to the chap who recommended the Great Northern War period from Zvezda? http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=15 If you are in need of a miniature fix then spare a few minutes drooling over what has happened to the 1/72 scale model soldier!

Hope that the Plastic Soldier review site dont get heavey with me for using their pics (dont sue please I have nothing!). The only improvement I could think of is if the figures were available in bags of say 100....maybe it could save on packaging and sprue plastic could be recycled at source? I'm trying to be constructive and just thinking outloud..
Have a good weekend chaps

Flash removal-the right way

Just began to prepare my Russians last night. They are Revell figures but thouroughly horrible, the quality took a dip when they produced these fellows. I used the small candle and pin technique to rid the figures of a ton of flash....and it was very relaxing! The result was visible immediatley and now I am left with a couple of companies of Ivans to spray up and paint.

These figures have been coated in PVA and will get their undercoat in the next few days. If anyone has a Black Powder army in 20mm I would be grateful of a link as I cant settle for which period to start in....using plastic 20mm means for less than £20 one can rapidly build an army-my only problem now is that I seem to have a small mountain of unpainted plastics!

Company markings and terrorists.

Hi Chaps,

well I've just completed the third company of German WW2 infantry and the battalion HMG. I have marked all the bases so that the troops will now forever be in the correct company...which may seem wierd but it needs to be done. Maybe I took the photos too close because again the figures look pretty messy-groan...

Also nearly completed a few more terrorist types, this hobby is really addictive and it doesnt help when there are so many good blogs out there! I think I may time travel to the Sudan next and try to build two opposing armies, half of the fun is discovering which companies produce the figures you will need.

Removing Flash from Plastic figures

I have completed two companies of my late war German infantry and feel as though I am finally finding a way of painting these little chaps without going blind or bankrupt! Unfortunatley I tried to remove the mould lines on them using a modelling knife....it looked to have been succesful until I undercoated the figures-it seems I had simply folded the excess plastic out of sight.

Anyway here is a link to watch a master remove flash http://osborneradloff.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20clean%20your%20figures Now given that I have been saving pictures of other peoples work I maybe tempted to try Black Powder in 20mm. The rules allow for big bases which will help prevent damage to the figures and they should play solo fine. Together with the cheapness of the figures I am sorely tempted!

Have a good time with whats left of the weekend and keep posting pics of your work-I need to copy it-sorry use it for reference!

Panthers almost done

Hi Chaps,
just completed my first Rapid Fire German company. I have really lost the art of painting 20mm (thats if I ever had it), as a younger man I painted lots in this scale so it may take me a while to tune in again.
The price of these little men are making me think of the Russian civil was or first world war...the choice available now is mind boggling! This company are new to me...I have their Russian machine gun pack and they seem decent quality http://www.modelsforsale.com/catalog/modelkits.php?manufacturers_id=13861?Zvezda

Panthers work in progress

Painted after my son fell asleep last night so I got just over an hour in. The Panthers are now coated in their dunken gelb (?) and are ready for their green and brown cammo, I will add mud splashes when I attach them to a base. These are the first tanks I've painted in years and it was very relaxing, a couple of boxes from Italeri and my forces will be merrily bulked out enough for a game!
I think I took the pics a little too close as the tanks look far neater when viewed on a table...it could be my old eyes dont see as much detail as the camera but the brown wash helps me with the small parts!

Last pic is of some russian peasant type houses that will be on my tabletop shortly, plain flat roof of black card to simulate the felt they just rolled over roof boards and white emulsion walls these should be fairly quick to complete once I get started.