A Crazy Thing Happened This Morning

A crazy thing happened this morning: I sat down to put together one of the model kits I've had laying around for a few years now and I just kept building.  Sure there were interruptions and I even had to shuttle my wife around for a few errands bet every time I came back to the kitchen I picked the glue back up and continued to stick stuff to other pieces of stuff.

This almost never happens but I'm glad it did. 

L to R: M4A3, M4 and the Pz. Kpfw K-V2

Both the M4 and M4A3 kits came with options for alternative turrets but the M4A3 came with enough parts to actually build both.   I haven't looked into what the differences between the two are (if any) but it never hurts to have options even if they are purely cosmetic.

I don't have any Bolt Action stats for the KV-2 but it shouldn't be too hard to translate something from Disposable Heroes or Victory Decision.

I've put quite a bit of paint on the Warlord minis and have even built some terrain pieces but haven't managed to take any photos of them, I'll try to get that corrected some time tomorrow.

Up next a Jagdpanther and a pair of Fw190's.

T-34 Update

Managed to put the clippers and glue down long enough to get a bit of paint on the engine and gearbox of the T-34. I'm rather chuffed with the results, especially since most of the greasing and oiling work was done with a toothpick. The flash in the camera has made the colours look a lot stronger than they are, the overall effect to the eye is a lot more subdued.

I think I'll take a night or two off and get back to the small German 28mm horde that is sitting patiently half done.

Group Build - First Steps

Here's the first night's work on the T-34. It's a refreshing change building a tank from the inside out but dealing with all these fidlly pieces in such a cramped space is starting to give me an appreciation of how difficult it must have been for the guys who rode around in these things.

Pro Modeller Group Build: Great Patriotic War

I'm going to participate in the latest group build project on the Pro Modeller website. The theme is the Great Patriotic War and since I had this T-34 kit laying around I thought why the heck not? Everything I've built recently has been for wargaming so this is going to be a bit of a step up in terms of the quality and detailing required.

Entries don't need to be in until January 2010 so I've got a bit of time. Which is really good because all my miniatures won't paint themselves. I think I might take a break from painting the German 28mm miniatures and get some more of the German 1/600 aircraft done.

Or I might watch some Dr Who first, I have a lot of catching up to do... at the risk of sounding like a soppy nerd "Doomsday" had the saddest ending to any sci-fi show I have ever seen, period. We'll see Rose again right? I mean the Doctor can do anything... right?!?

Some days are better than others

Some days it's just so awesome being a wargamer and today is one of those days. First off I sorted out payment for an auction I won on eBay, a German Focke Wulfe Fw190. I'm so looking forward to putting this one together.

Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.

Then at lunch I head down to the local game store to use the rest of a gift voucher I got for my birthday. There wasn't a lot of 1/48 armour kits its left in stock and I was having a hard time picking something that would play well and look cool on the table. I was about to give up when I was directed to a huge shiny pile of new kits that hadn't been put on the shelves yet. I grabbed two of the kits when I thought to ask the prices, $20 per kit I was told, so I promptly grabbed another two. I was so close to picking up a couple more but thought against it (see Vicki I can control myself).

US M4A3 & M4, German KV-2 754 and a Russian T34. The T-34 was a especially sweet deal as the interior of the tank is modelled as well. It's huge kit with 372 parts over 13 sprues.


Here's a shot of the pile of unbuilt or unpainted kits. I really have to say that I'm so impressed with the Hobby Boss kits. They're not as detailed as the AFV kits but they're way ahead of the Tamiya ones. What's also nice is that the kits come with alternate parts, including complete alternate turrets for one of the M4's.


Pleased as I was with my purchases of the day, I came home to find my order from Black Tree Design waiting for me. I may have looked calm and collected but on the inside I was giggling like a madman. Everything was there except for the LMG teams for the US Paratroopers. At least all the Germans are there because you kind of need them for any WW2 game. Besides I'm more interested in playing the British than the Yanks anyway.


I am so glad I have the airbrush setup now. Painting these all by hand would take me forever, no actually I'd probably never finish as I'd loose focus and just end up playing with unpainted minis for the next decade. No, I will say focused and I will finish these. I'll just have to get myself more organamasized.

StuG III

I bought another tank. Since the British and the Americans have a tendency to team up against the Germans I felt it only fair to even things up a little. Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.


Again the kit is pretty much what you would expect from Tamiya with detailed parts and clean mold lines.


I bought some more air (canned) for my airbrush. Yes I know it's cheap and nasty, but it's better than painting them with a brush... right? I will eventually buy a real-life airbrush and compressor but right now that's $300 odd that I can use to buy a Russian force. Then I can buy all those cool Russian tank kits. Anyway when I've got this kit finished I'll spray all three kits together.

More photos as the build progresses.

More Tiger and Sherman Photos

I was going to pack up the tanks after my last post but didn't. I'll just put on a couple pieces of tracks on the Firefly to see how they fit. Well I ended up finishing one side and then the other


All in all I'm pretty happy with the size of the 1/48 stuff.



The rubber tracks on the Tiger proved to be waaay more difficult to put together than the hard plastic tracks of the Firefly. I found the tracks of the Tiger to be way too short and the fit was very tight until I stretched them out a little. While I was stretching one of the tracks it ripped and I had to trim and join it, making the track almost 5mm shorter. It still fit, just a little tighter than the other side. And thinking about it now I'm not sure how painting the rubber track is going to go. Will acrylic paint crack and flake off? A little research is needed I think.





Anyway they look fantastic and for the price you can't go past them. Now if I can only find someone who sells the Tamiya "TS" range of spray paint. All the stores here have the PS range which apparently doesn't work well with model kits.

So what's next? Unless I can find something for the Americans that isn't based on a Sherman hull then it's probably this:

Firefly and Tiger I Update

I'm pretty much finished building the Tiger and Firefly kits. I haven't put the tracks on the tiger yet as I can't find a screw driver that's small enough for the screws in the kit. I've decided to glue them on anyway, mainly because I don't want the tank to move during game play. Also I think that if the tracks do move then people might be tempted to play with it and that's when stuff can get broken. Anyhow all that's left to do now is paint them.

Here's some shots of the almost completed kits. Remember to click on a photo for a bigger version.


The detail on the AFV kit leaves the Tamiya one looking quite bland. All the surfaces have pit marks and even the weld beads look fantastic. They even include some photo etched grilles which should look fantastic when painted.




Some shots to show the size difference between the Tiger I and the Firefly.






More photos once I start painting.

British Sherman IC Firefly - Part 1

With the Tiger kit on hold until I can decide if I'm going to use a brush or spray to paint it I decided to start work on the Firefly. What can I say, not only do I have the ability to not finish projects but I can do more than one of them at a time.

First the good news. The model kit comes with a die cast base which in itself is a mixture of good and bad. It's great in that add adds a little heft to the model but the only superglue I had laying around was a gnarled up tube of Bostic Multi Bond which has been in my paintbox for years. Surprisingly it hadn't dried up and with a little coercion it went where I wanted it to. I think I'll get some more tomorrow for the wheel assemblies though as they have smaller surfaces and big blotches of glue will stand out.

(Remember to click on the images for bigger versions)


Interestingly enough the kit has all of the wheel assemblies glued to the die cast section but once completed it itself is screwed to the upper hull.


Ok, now the bad news. While I was trimming the other side of the muzzle (?) off the sprue it shot off to the other side of the room. I looked and looked for the dang piece but heck knows where it went. Not sure exactly what I'll do about it yet. I don't want to order a complete 'G' sprue just to get that piece. Maybe I'll make it out of greenstuff by the way of a press mold. Maybe, dunno. I'll have another think about it when I've calmed down a bit.


As for the kit itself I was a little surprised that a lot of the panels were smooth with only a few weld lines here and there. The kit cost the same as the AFV one but the Tiger has way more detail to it than the Tamiya one. I don't think it's going to show in the finished model and I'm only painting these for gaming purposes not display.

Tiger I - Part 2 - It's how big?

I've started putting the Tiger kit together and I'm really pleased with it so far. I haven't put it all together yet as I want to spray most of the components first, that should happen this weekend. As soon as I had enough of the kit together I just had to see how it went with some miniatures.

(Remember to click on the pictures for a bigger version)






I have to say I think it looks good. The tank does look big but after all it is a Heavy Tank and those things were, well big. 9' 4.75" to be exact and if you work on the average human height being around 5' 10" then its close enough to work.

While I was picking up some glue and paint for the Tiger I thought that I should even the playing field a little and give the Allies something to fight back with. So I grabbed one of these:


A British Sherman IC Firefly, it's a Tamiya kit (32532). This should keep me busy up until my minis turn up from Black Tree, if not then there was a Mk IV Cromwell at the store...

Tiger I - Part 1

With my last order to Black Tree I figured my Germans were starting to get both outnumbered and outgunned. This wouldn't do, so I picked up a little something that should even things out somewhat. It should also give the Piats something to fire at :)

It's been a while since I've built anything above 1/72 scale and I'm simply amazed at the detail on this. The metal plates have weld joins and the surfaces have a nice pitted look. The steel cables actually have the rope pattern on them, simply amazing. The kit even comes with screws to fit the wheels so they can turn.

I just hope I can give this the justice it deserves in construction and paint job. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I procrastinated over which scale to use with my 28mm. Turning to Google to give me the answer only confused me more. It seems no two people can agree on what scale is technically correct and also looks good on the table. In the end I figured I had either 1/48 or 1/56 to choose from. I eventually went with 1/48 as I personally would prefer my tanks to look a little too big than a little too small.

Now if I'd only remembered to pick up some glue...