On the workbench - February 2011

With the exception of a few colonial casualty bases I've cracked through my January workload in fine time, so it's time to move on to my latest target. It's quite ambitious and I suspect it will take more than February to get them all completed, but here goes:

• SYW Bavarian Infantry (4 x 24 fig battalions)
• SYW Bavarian Grenadiers (24 fig battalion)
• SYW Bavarian Cavalry (2 x 8 fig squadrons) - I know they didn't fight, but they did in the WAS - I'm also trying to find out details of their Hussars in the WAS, Knotel only shows an officer in 1747.
• SYW Bavarian Artillery (4 guns and crews plus 2 limbers)
• plus some command and casualty bases
• finally some SYW black grenadiers for my imagi-nation.

So a big list, but difficult to break down into smaller chunks as they'll start off as big batches and then gradually shift over to work on individual battalions and squadrons.

Zvezda Germans

Just like the Russians the Zvezda Art of tactic Germans have a limited range of poses, marching and firing with rifles and knelling with an SMG. The MMGs are excellent and fill a useful gap, though I would have preferred a loader rather than an observer.

In the background are my Pegasus German mortar teams that I upgraded at the same time. I also mixed in a couple of Fujimi figures (third row)

Snow on their boots

The last of this current batch of Russians and the remains of the Pegasus Summer/Winter Russians. Addded to my Revell Siberians, etc I now have enough winter based Russians for two battalions, but of course no Germans yet!

On to Berlin

and other patriotic slogans, after some entertainment with the tracks my latest Russian Armour is finished.

First off the venerable Airfix T34/85. The kits were quite old and the tracks were rather inflexible and wouldn't bend round the road wheels, so I put them in the airing cupboard to warm up and they then bent into position. Next morning a couple had snapped so they were welded and glued back in place. Then off on holiday and on return, yes another one had snapped so another fix. No others have suffered the problem since then, but I do wonder what might happen once they get stored in the cold attic.

The nice thing about the kit is the second turret so you can also have a T34/76

Then there is a Fujimi KV1, I had track problems again, this time with them not being long enough (they must have shrunk) so I had problems fitting them, including snapping a front idler. I then had to drill it out and strengthen it with wire.
All now completed, but it shows the problems of leaving kits too long before assembly

Back from Morocco

After all the cold weather I booked a last minute holiday to Marrakech. A week of continuous sun was just what I needed. My wife and I managed to do every museum in the city, but there was nothing of note militarily except an old battered French 75mm gun in the middle of a traffic island by the main mosque.



Now back and refreshed after an excellent holiday. I've also managed to catch up on a substantial reading backlog as well.

Russian Infantry

I've completed the Zvezda Art of tactic Russian figures. The pair of MMG teams are easy to spot as I kept them complete. The rest are scattered amongst the Pegasus Russians in summer uniform and are the ones with helmets. Conveniently the Zvezda riflemen had puttees like the Pegasus figures, they are slightly bigger but not enough to notice in normal use.

The Zvezda infantry are not that cheap at £2.50 for 10 figures and given there are only 3 poses of which the pointing NCO is really distinctive I wouldn't recommend buying them. The MMGs are much better value as they provide something that is difficult to find in plastic except with full sets. The Pegasus figures have only one LMG in the whole sprue but otherwise a good standard set of plastic figures and with the puttees and side caps different from other sets.

M20's completed at last

Yes after several months the M20's are now finished. The big issue was the MG pulpit that doesn't fit securely against the braces. Eventually I added some thin wire around the front of the pulpit and then fixed it to the uprights. The gaps at either side were then hidden by filling with green stuff. I had the same problem with both models so it was not a one-off moulding fault, however it seems I have the older versions produced by Milicast so others may not suffer the same problem.


In the background is a Ready to Roll M15A1 AA half track with twin 50 cal and a 37mm that I acquired at Warboot and repainted.

I now have to sell my Italeri M20 that I was using as a stopgap. (link)