Scratch Building in 28mm, Materials

Hi Chaps,

It has been an odd few weeks finding my feet again in a hobby that has moved on in light year in just a few months. The investment made by individuals and companies now makes my hobby of the 1980's look so painfully slow in it's progression compared to what we see today. despite progress I still love the Peter Gilder figures and older Essex 25mm.....

Yet again I had o buy another camera-third one in five years! Again another cheap ebay buy at £24! But the real bargain I have discovered is Depron! A cheap foam material that cuts very easily, takes paint and seems to glue OK. You may have already heard of it but if you haven't then it is available here

http://www.depronfoam.co.uk/

This is the cheapest form of building material that I have found so far (excluding free boxes from Tesco etc) and you can also scribe into it but be sure to use a hard pencil (4B or so) as painting out black lines on it is difficult.

Painting some Russians

Hi Chaps,

It's seems like a long time since I sat painting but at last over the previous couple of evenings I have been able to use my brushes. Painting must be a degradable skill! Nothing seemed to be in the right place at first and indeed a couple of mistakes in choice of colour where made but eventually everything settled down.

These figures are from the Plastic Soldier Company and are an absolute bargain in 28mm...after all these are only meant to be bullet stoppers for my beloved Germans!? I thoroughly recommend these to anyone looking to build an army on the cheap-if only I could have bought a similar army pack for the Germans.

The impending arrival of Mrs Hendrickson has forced something of a clear out and a couple of projects that I have little enthusiasm for will go onto ebay to clear some space. In Her Majesties Name will feature heavily this year- despite trying to make space I just ordered some more figures...oh well.

Keep blogging Chaps, I feed off your ideas and enthusiasm.

Fighting communists, crazy paint and marraige

Hi Chaps,

Its been a busy few years but now I am hoping that life settles down into a family routine once again.

Whilst in Thailand I came across these vehicles left over from Vietnam's push to destroy the Pathet Laos which spilled over into Thailand....pretty impressive stuff just by the roadside and painted in the maddest possible colours-I asked a guy who worked as a curator and he said the colours were authentic. Good news for modern players! You cant get it wrong.

I was not brave enough to go inside and play with the 50 calibre machine gun in the cupula as my wife is a phlebotomist whop deals with around a dozen snake bites a week....speaking of wgich here is a pic of my wedding. I am amazingly lucky to have met Oijai.

Now back to the hobby...

Kirkup Report into Furness general Hospital

Hi Chaps,

My posts have tailed off lately because of awful events that happened in July 2008. The government commissioned Bill Kirkup to write a report into the death of my wife and son and write a bloody good one he did!

Anyway this is not war gaming but just an excuse why I have not been posting. Pretty soon I will be back in the "real" world and enjoying our hobby again. It has been a pleasure to follow the updates on what you have all been up to...your all insane and its awesome!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2977147/Eleven-babies-one-mother-died-catastrophic-failures-seriously-dysfunctional-maternity-unit-inquiry-finds.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31699607

Please don' feel the need to read the articles...but be aware there are bad people everywhere.

Keep gaming!