An experimental mixture

I have painted up a selection of 3D printed figures from different periods as an experiment to see how they turn out and in general, it worked quite well.

The confused general for DBA, scaled up from 15mm to 20mm and it is detailed well enough to scale larger if needed

Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish Governor of Lousianain the AWI printed in 28mm to go with my Spanish for Sharp Practice. A free figure from 3D Breed.

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, the Wargames Illustrated Giants in Miniature scaled down to 20mm, somehow I managed to print a pair of them, so one of each will be a decoy.

On the Workbench - September 2023

I am now beginning to keep up with my plans and making progress through the stash, but now I'm taking a late holiday. So taking that into account hopefully I'll see:

• 3D printer restarted to print all those new items I have found and also some bits for friends
• 4 x Napoleonic French Dragoons to make an existing unit up to strength for Rebels & Patriots skirmish
• 6 x KGL Light Dragoons for the same
• Hanoverian Luckner Hussars (8) for the SYW
• Try and finish more terrain before the weather changes and stops me using the garage
• 4 x British WW2 Fairmiles plus a tanker
• Triremes and Pentaconters
• Then as time permits get started on rebasing my Dark Age Saxons, which will be my big task for the last quarter of the year

Jacobite Artillery

The matching set to the Strelets British Artillery provides the Jacobites and they are quite an non-uniform bunch. The guns provided were the same, but I have painted them red to represent possible weapons provided by the French

Wadis and Depressions

I've created a number of shapes that will enable me to create either wadis (dried up river beds) or depressions, both of which are common features of arid ladscapes such as North Africa.

This was my first use of foamex rather than hardboard as the base material and it was quite sucessful, so I will be getting more to be able to make area shapes

After playing one of the Rapid Fire Reloaded Crete scenarios I have realised I will need some extra straight sections so I have got started on four 300mm lengths.

Baggage Camels

A baker's dozen 3D printed baggage camels for the Crusader period. The handlers are suitable left overs from various sets.

Although particularly wanted for a Montgisard refight, they will also make good objective for Lion Rampant games

File available from Vae Victis or via MyMinifactory(link)

Reworked Mediterranean hills

As part of my terrain rationalisation I have cut down a number of the hills I created for Sicily back in 2015 to ensure they fit in my normal storage boxes and also to flatten the tops.

Typically the paint and flock colours have varied from the originals, seems odd as the paint and flock are the same batches I used, and the hills have not been exposed to much sunlight.

Hopefully I can still use them if I re-run the Lentine 1943 game, but the cover provided by the hills will not be as obvious as it was.

Yet more Napoleonic Spanish

Not planned,but when they turned up with the earlier Spanish I decided to get them done as well. These are Hat Austrian Grenz painted as the Voluntarios de Seville.

Not the best fit to the small bases I use but it works. At some point I need to add more of these early Penisular war Spanish volunteer units that were equiped by the British.

British Artillery for the '45

There is a lot of character in these Strelets artillery figures for the Jacobite uprising in 1745. The Royal Artillery was only really used for the close of the uprising at Culloden, and the artillery used before then was served by a mix of veterans and amateurs.

More Napoleonic Spanish

I had a lot of left over HaT Spaniards, that were no use for "proper" units, so I have painted and based them for Napoleonic skirmish games.

There are four units of 12 figures, one Grenadier and three fusilier.

Just the job for Rebels and Patriots.

German horse drawn wagons

It's also a delight to print something unusual on my 3D printer and these Hf-2 wagons are just that. They were created by a creative chap called Dani Dunbar and available theough Wagaming3D (link). They are accompanied by a metal Sgts Mess 37mm flak that I picked up cheap but was a pain to construct.

I was a bit clumsy with the first print I made and broke one of the wheels, rather than repair it, I created a wrecked version, very common on the roads of Normandy.

I'll certainly be printing the If.5 Anti Aircraft Wagon in my next batch on the printer.

Hit the beach - waterline LVTs

The advantage with a 3D printer is that you only need to print the parts that are above the water. Therefore these LVT-2s only took half the time and half the resin to complete. I did have to buy some clear acylic bases for them so that I could use them on any sea surface.

The gap between the base and the LVT was filled with acrylic caulk, quite a messy operation but any errors just look like water splashes.

I will be able to use the same parts that I have used for the land versions (link) to give them greater flexibility in use.

More SYW Austrian Grenz

My second batch of Grenz for the Seven Years War to replace my old Revell plastic conversions.

Waradiner Creuzer

Slavonish Peterwarsdiner

On the workbench - August 2023

Making steady progress through the stash I'm now planning to tackle the following and hopefully get some time away as well.:

• Strelets Government and Jacobite artillery for the '45
• 12 x Baggage camels for the Crusades
• 48 x Napoleonic Spanish infantry for skirmish games
• SYW two units of Austrian Grenz
• Six waterline LVTs for Pacific games
• Then as time and weather permits try and finish the bulk of my current terrain needs

Twentieth Century miscellany

To finish off the month a mixture of bits I have completed.

South East Asia water buffalos, for use in Burma, Vietnam etc.

Some pillboxes, a pair each of AT and MG boxes as I have none available for NW Europe games. The basic construction is foamcore, but the doors were 3D printed.

Finally a pair of Indian Pattern Armoured Carriers to replace the one that exploded.

Replacement fences

My old fences have seen good service over the years but they are now past it (by my current standards). So I've created a new batch out of large lolly sticks, matchsticks and an old rattan blind.

Still need a few more gates, the ones I used were MDF, but I will 3D print some more.

The whole batch

More gliders have landed

Another pair of 3D printed Waco gliders, but in this case they are depicted being unloaded.

A jeep is in one and a trailer in the other. These were the slightly smaller versions shown earlier

More Ottomans for Palestine WW1

I decided to increase my Ottomans for Palestine so I acquired a second set of the lovely Strelets figures. Part of the bundle was some more artillery crews so I printed off some Krupp 77mm Feldkanone for them to use.

In due course I will dispose of my older HaT Turks (link)

Some WW2 allied bits

I've recently finished a few extras from my oddments tray

Some US airborne jeeps that I have modified before 3D printing to remove crew from the back and add stowage. The smaller jeep/trailer combination is 1/80 and will be used as loads for my gliders.

A pair of Challengers to go with my Airfix Cromwells

Pictures from Attack 2023

Had an enjoyable day at the Attack show in Devizes yesterday. I had chance to catch with many old friends from "down south". It was particularly aided by a pint of excellent Black Rat cider. Here are some pictures of things that caught my eye.
Some lovely 28mm figures from Eagle Miniatures

Romans v's Successors

The Borderers at Oosterbeek in 28mm

Caretan in 15mm, lots of lovely laser printed buildings and vehicles

Nice 28mm Cowboy characters from Black Scorpion

A tempting selection of 20mm buildings from Blotz

and 28mm for western gunfights