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.