30/07/2021

A fair contest?

French Gendarmes of the Maison du Roi v's British Cavalry
The British units are Schombergs's and Wood's
I also finished a number of commanders for both sides, in particular Marshal Villars at Denain
After the painting by Jean Alaux

27/07/2021

Some extra bits for my WW2 Germans

A selection of my recently finished Plastic Soldier Company vehicles
A variety of 1/72 sdkfz 250 Neu, these will be replacing some old 1/76 versions that will now either be sold or reused for an earlier period
RIP Mike Yates, a member of Deeside Defenders, I bought these part-built sdkfz 251s from his collection sold off a couple of weeks ago. They will be a tangible memory of Mike.
Finally, some Steyr 1500A heavy cars with an extra Mercedes version added in
For the Mercedes conversion I used the left over parts from the PSC kit, with a donated PSC Mercedes truck front end bodged to fit and extra wheels cast with Greenstuff in Oyumaru molds from the originals. It was a lot more effort that I think it was worth.

21/07/2021

Gaz office trucks

A combination of PSC Gaz trucks and S&S office bodies provide this selection of command and/or radio trucks for my Soviet forces
They were quite easy to assemble as the S&S bodies just dropped into place on the chassis.
The bodies were fitted on both the Gaz-AA and Gaz-AAA chassis as it seems there was no difference in use especially given the extemporised conversions used.
Link for S&S here

19/07/2021

Lets not be defensive

A stack of eastern european fences have just been finished. Based on wide "lolly" sticks and using an old rattan blind
The vehicles are a couple of Fabbri diecast BA64s that I have got around to repainting.

11/07/2021

Last of the WSS French Infantry

This last pair of units was made up from all my remaining Stelets infantry both French and British. I created the Greder Suisse and Greder Allemande.
The colour of the Greder Allemande uniform is described as Turquin blue and as Turquin is a grey-blue marble I settled on using Vallejo blue-grey but it was a little pale so I added so Turquise to emphasise to blue.

05/07/2021

On the workbench - Jul 2021

Some left overs from last month to start off with
  • 1 German & 1 Swiss WSS infantry units in French service - just started
  • 2 WSS British cavalry units
  • 1 WSS French Chevau Leger/Gendarme unit
  • Various WSS commanders
  • 6 PSC Steyr heavy cars - assembled, I'm building a couple of the Mercedes version from the left overs
  • 6 PSC sdkfz250 Neu - various marks - assembled, I'm not happy with the over-sized chunky crew and I'm replacing them.
  • 6 PSC Gaz trucks - assembled, I've ordered the office bodies from S&S to complete them.
  • then depending on progress
  • the Redbox musketeers of the King of France and guards of Cardinal Richleau
  • the SYW infantry regiment Roth-Wurtzberg

03/07/2021

2021Q2 - Progress against plan

Continued the good progress from Q1 and my total painted stands at 1,394 items
  • WSS 432
  • Ancients 334
  • WW2 252
  • Modern 197
  • Napoleonic 67
  • Colonial 64
  • AWI 26
  • Terrain 22

Compared to plan
I’ve decided to concentrate on five main painting/modelling themes this year, quite a bit is based on new and forthcoming releases:
  • Complete rework of my Vietnam War collection by integrating the new figures from Orion - started with the newly released figures from orion and waiting for more
  • War of Spanish Succession - French infantry and cavalry plus British cavalry, plus more as Strelets release them - Well underway with these, most of the infantry are now painted and about to start on the cavalry. I'm also waiting to see what Strelets next release will bring
  • WW2 Japanese for Battlegroup Pacific - not started, I acquired one pack as part of a job lot of figures
  • Rebase my Early Imperial Romans - these are the last ancients that I haven't upgraded - Completed
  • Napoleonics, Prussian cavalry, reworking old artillery limbers, Russian peasants for skirmish scenarios, more Spanish cavalry, potentially upgrade British infantry? - completed the Prussian cavalry and Russian peasants in Q1 nothing done since

Then a host of minor themes in order of preference rather than importance:
  • WW2 SAS & LRDG. - Completed
  • More "Three Musketeers", especially once the new Redbox mounted figures are available. - not started, although I have bought these lovely new figures
  • Colonials - Boer Artillery and French Foreign Legion in camp and 37mm. - Completed
  • TYW Imperial Croatians/Polish Pancerni/Cossack horse archers/Russian hussars. - not started
  • More British and Jacobite for the 45, WAS and SYW, when Redbox release more figures. - not started, still waiting
  • Medievals - Scottish shiltron, Revolting Peasants (Zvezda), other odd units for Montgisard. - not started
  • SYW Austrian infantry (Roth - Wurtzberg) - not started
  • Revolution Cisialpine Infantry - three or four 12 figure units. - not started
  • The terrain I have failed to make for the last two years. - Vines completed, started on some Russian fences

Then if time permits:
  • More WW2 German cold weather infantry - 2 platoons. - not started
  • Rework/Rebase Zulu War forces. - not started

I’m not making any plans for gaming, but once the show circuit starts I’ll try to get to as many as possible. Plus Crisis Point in April and a possible 2021 Big Game. Crisis in Antwerp would be a big attraction if it goes ahead Shows still seem a way off, but at least my local clubs at Airbus and now Elton have got going