Something unusual - aircraft wheels

Some bits finished for Thursday's game - Operation Caravan


My aircraft are all finished as flying models, but for the game I need them on the ground - this is OK for fixed undercarriage planes, but these left over bits will go under my aircraft to give the right effect. Here's one deployed

The SAS jeep is also just finished it's a repaired Early War Miniatures reject

German armoured cars - sdkfz 232, etc.

Just off the painting table four armoured cars from one Plastic Soldier pack. From the from counter clockwise sdkfz 231, sdkfz 232, sdkfz 233, sdkfz 263 all painted for early war. So how I have the option of replacing my old 6 wheeled versions.


The sdkfz 263 is a bit of a fudge as I had parts left when I upgraded an Airfix sdkfz 234/4 with bits from the Matchboz Puma sdkfz 234/2. The difference in the scales made it more difficult than expected


For Andrew, the fudge involved adding plasticard to either side of the Puma lower hull, but the tricky bit is matching it to the upper hull as the angles are different. Another difficult bit was cutting down the old Airfix mudguards, they are about 2mm too wide but the angle is about right. The rest is just a matter of normal assembly with the front and back hull filled with plasticard shapes to fit. The spaced armour was added to hide the distorsion.

Another milestone - 29,000

Hurrah, with the painting of the US winter infantry I've passed the 29,000 figure mark in my 20mm collection. For those including myself who like to see a breakdown. it certainly highlights where I've been concentrating since September 2016.

Period	Sep-16	Oct-17	Delta
Ancients	2202	2282	80
Dark Ages	395	438	43
Early Medieval	492	492	0
Late Medieval	1029	1213	184
Aztec/Conquistadores	434	434	0
C17 Polish/Ottoman	631	789	158
C17 TYW	1036	1262	226
C18 WSS	720	741	21
C18 SYW	1866	1866	0
C18 AWI	1292	1332	40
C18 French Revolution	658	658	0
C18 Napoleon in Egypt	331	331	0
C19 Napoleonic	6632	6635	3
C19 Napoleonic skirmish	241	241	0
C19 ACW	1220	1220	0
C19 Anglo Zulu War	860	875	15
C19 Colonial North Africa/Sudan	1066	1066	0
C20 WW1/RCW	1225	1230	5
C20 Interwar French/Rif	180	192	12
C20 Early WW2 Europe	855	884	29
C20 WW2 North Africa	1238	1274	36
C20 WW2 far east	119	119	0
C20 late WW2 europe	2523	2557	34
C20 WW2 winter	401	537	136
C20 post WW2	373	373	0
Grand Total	28019	29041	1022

Hopefully I may pass the 30,000 mark by the end of 2018.

A significant diversion - more US winter infantry

Having acquired the extra infantry needed to complete two Rapid Fire US Infantry Battalions at Derby I decided to paint them straight away.


I included a number of extra figures so I could use them as a couple of Platoons for either Chain of Command or Battlegroup


These include the figures completed for a game in September


Makes me feel cold!

Vikings

Just finished the Vikings, the pictures are not the best, but I decided to post anyway. I created three shieldwall units, a skirmishing archer unit plus a commander.


Figures are one pack of Zvezda Vikings plus a couple of old Airfix Ancient Briton archers to make up the number of archers.

A short pause in output

Spent the laste three days in hospital having my pacemaker repaced with a new wizzo version. It should have been a day case, but a minor complication meant I had to spend two extra days on oxygen. Hopefully I'll get the Vikings finished soon.

A motley crew of pirates

I always like to keep a unit of "irregulars" somewhere near the painting desk so I can add odd bits of left over paint to aid the lack of conformity. So I have just finished half a set of Orion pirates, except for the guns which are too small.

Typically, when I was part way through, I realised that when I sold off the unwanted half a couple of years ago, I had sold two identical sprues instead of two different ones, hence the duplicate poses.

Strelsy - 12th Moscow

My final regiment of Strelsy for now - the 12th Moscow (front)



I've now ordered some Zvezda Russian Noble Cavavalry to fill out the force

For those interested here are the Palmquist plates I based the uniforms upon:




I used this to adjust the information in George Gush's Rennaissance Armies, which can now be found online here (link)

Derby - the booty

Quite a haul this year

Mostly from the B&B. All the vehicle and walls came from the Early war Miniatures mis-cast box, so I'll have some fun repairing them. So I have

• French 13.2mm AA - a much needed bit of light AA support for Battlegroup Blitzkreig
• German Henschel 33 Pioneerkraftwagen - just what I "need" for my engineers
• German Steyr 1500 truck - no plan yet
• Italian Breda 40 truck - no plan yet
• Italian Saharina x2 to boost the rest of my Italian Reece
• Italian TL37 tractor - more tows for my Italians
• Italian TL37 truck - may become a gun truck
• French Light Infantry Command - will fill a few gaps in my Legere
• Spanish Command - A couple of battalions of Spanish to "support" my British
• Spanish Line Infantry - ditto
• US Infantry (Winter Uniform) - a bargain and what I needed to complete my Bulge Americans
• Austrian Infantry Late XVII Century - a trial pack to see how they turn out
• German Panzer IV - another bargain - these will also see action in the Bulge
• French Cuirassiers - replacements for my old Airfix Cuirassiers that have seen better days
• Polish Lifeguard Uhlans - Undecided whether to replace my old Les Higgins figures or just paint them as Polish Line Lancers
• German HQ in winter uniform - useful for either Stalingrad or Bulge
• Osprey Black Ops - needed for some games at the club
• Charlie Wissencraft's Practical Wargaming - certainly one of the best early wargaming books and One I don't have.

Pictures from Derby Worlds 2017

Along with two others from Deeside Defenders I drove across to the new venue south of Lutterworth. It may have been warmer and less noisy than the old venue, but it was far more cramped. Plus it's a lot further to drive so if it's held there next year I won't go.

However it had a selection of inspiring games and a large selection of traders. The pictures reflect those than interested me.

Madanu 616BC, waiting to start


Buford's cavalry at Gettysburg




Quintin's new "Napoleonic" skirmish rules




Boondock Sayntes French & Indian wars all washed down with the traditional glasses of wine!




Blood and plunder




Another Gettysburg game


Russian Civil War fought beneath the walls of Bukhara




Massed Napoleonics


The Ilkley lads superb Italian Wars game








Port Arthur 1905, the Russian fleet, a single japanese ship can just be seen at the top.

On the workbench - October 2017

Three quarters of the year already gone, and I feel that I'm not making enough progress . So I'm going to try and get a bit more done this month as well as finishing what's left from last month

• Finish the third regiment of Russian Streltsy
• Complete the Vikings
• Finish the Pirates that managed to sneak onto my table
• Two units each of GNW Swedish Cavalry and Dragoons
• PSC sdkfz 231 armoured cars
• Work on the various resin vehicles I bought at Phalanx and Colours

I'll be at the "Derby" show on Saturday, but then the next show will probably be Recon in Pudsey.

Streltsy - 10th Moscow

Another unit of Streltsy (at the front) the 10th Moscow.


As before the unit is assembled from all the bonus Streltsy figures in the Strelets boxes.