Legion

Legionnaires from a Legionary. Well, a sergeant now actually, and celebrating fifteen years of service this November. These arrived yesterday from France, appropriately enough, but I didn't have time or good light to take some pictures, so without further adieu...

Not the greatest figures ever produced but not too bad either, in places. As you can see, the first couple are LMGs.

MMG

Officers.

NCO and rifleman.

SMGs.

I haven't done a desert since Somalia and am not about to start now, so these will probably end up being converted - don't think Dave will mind since he converted from a Marine into a paratrooper himself! There are a few other poses but these were the best of them, a set for the collectors among you I think.

Yet more Russians

Just some better pictures for you all.

LMGs

SMGs

Detail

Riflemen

Officers

Double pose arrangements

Detail

Esci, Revell, Plastic Soldier.

New Russians

57 figures including officers and LMGs; nothing heavy.

The plastic is of an extremely good quality, neither too hard or too soft, and glues very well indeed.

The sculpting is first rate, all of the figures are well animated with realistic poses; several have facial details equal to if not better than the one above.

Several figures require assembly, although there is only one or possibly two variations you can achieve. These figures are equal to the best currently available from anything that I have seen. They may not mix that well with others but time will tell. I would recommend this set to any collector without reservation.

Arrived!

Apology accepted! At a quick glance these look superb, perhaps in the same style as Revell, however these are of a far superior quality, easily the best on the market. Will post a few pictures tomorrow in better light.

Bastions

We need a couple of bastions for our Calais game, so I'm experimenting with some options.

Multi-level and reasonable big, there should be no problems housing a company sized garrison. A bit more playing around with them should yield better results.

Civilians

Certainly not something I'd normally bother with, however, some civilians have their uses. Each stand represents a group of 5-10 people, and are for the Norway raid scenario I have been planning - guest starring Paul as the Germans. Each turn they move a random distance in a random direction, and if they come within an inch of a military stand during this time then they take casualties until they are eliminated. The side that delivered the damage gives the other one victory point. Small CD scenarios often have special rules or details to fit with the historical requirements, just something a bit different.

Jungle

Made a few bits and pieces for jungle warfare over the weekend. They are mostly bits from old fish tank supplies, which is strange as I have never owned a fish tank. Anyway, they still need a little more paint-work to take of the gloss of the plastic, but getting there.

Plan to make some more huts as well for the jungle collection, but always need lots of trees first; spent some time working is this sort of environment, very taxing on the body it is too, must have been worse in the days before Gortex, etc.

BA-64

This is a good war games model, cheap and quick to build. Despite some issues with the body work it turned out okay.

I added a figure to the turret but nothing else. There were four choices of markings, Soviet, Polish and North Korean, I chose the latter but only a true rivet counter would know.

This vehicle saw service with quite a few nations from 1942 into the 1960s, as it will with my collection. In CD this is counted as a weak AFV because it can be eliminated by small-arms fire, albeit with a substantial modifier to hit

Progress

Started this recently. Like the other earlier vintage (BA20) this kit had some serious design flaws.

Both sides of the armoured frame had to be quite heavily filled as there were two rather noticeable cavities. I like the variety and price of the Ace range of kits but this is the second one that has come with less than desirable engineering results.

Layout

This is a trial layout for a Commando raid game. The actual event took place in December 1941, in Norway. This village had a power station and several fish oil storage tanks which were the focus of the raid. The maps I have to work off aren't too bad but a couple of important features are proving hard to place, so I may yet have to make or acquire these before setting it up again properly.

Because of the small numbers involved all units will begin the game on cards which will be moved on the board until it is spotted, then replaced by its miniature. This is because each player gets a few dummy cards to move as well. There needs to be special rules to restrict the movement of German reinforcements until the raiders have been spotted, air cover, AFVs, etc. Historical games benefit from accurate map to table translations, so I have made a number of notes and the next layout should theoretically be much better.

Radio platoon

I seem to have a lot of support units for my German collection but very few for anyone else. So recently I started putting together a few of these, the first being a radio platoon for the British.

In CD, radio or telephone platoons allow an extra order to be issued as long as they remain stationary. They are usually found way down the back of the board on a hill top. I use them mostly for directing air support or off table artillery.

ME 262 finished

In the end the whole radar antenna was missing plus a couple of bits from the under carriage.

Started with a disruptive pattern, however I laid the black ink wash on a bit thick and had to change plan.

The insignia is in no way accurate, but I like it; have dulled-down the decals a bit since taking these pictures.

Only the second German fighter in my whole aircraft collection, so far, unhappily no crew figures for this one though.

ME 262

Started this kit Friday night. My daughter bought it for a while back, and have only just got around to putting it together. Unfortunately, it was missing a few parts but nothing too major, so we'll see how it works out finished.

We took the dogs with us to Whataroa on Sunday for a RSA get together, where I got a chance to hang out and talk with other ex servicemen. This picture shows a bit of the scenery, looking east towards the Southern Alps.

New Buildings

These arrived in the post today, you can never have too many buildings. I'd like to get some oil tanks or other refinery items next.

AA Gun and Tractor

Took my time with this one, just the standing crew figures left to base.

This picture shows the massive gap in the bonnet. This kit had a few flaws but this bit was the worst; I have plans to fix it up over the weekend.

I managed to glue this just right, the gun elevates and traverses.

The rear of the tractor shows another couple of problem areas that I need to fix. The plastic was missing from the bottom of the ammunition lockers, which I suspect maybe in part due to the age of this kit.

Here are the three trucks that I have, the one to the fore I got from an auction site and was already converted this way, I'd like to get some mud guards for it eventually, but for now it will do.