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Sunday 29 November 2015

Tally Ho!

The RAF have arrived! 

1/200 resin aircraft miniatures from Armaments in Miniature on Eleven Tree Designs flight stands:

 Spitfires and Hurricanes
 This JU87 Stuka  is easy prey for the Hurricane!
 The German BF109 pilot is no match for Douglas Bader!
 Spitfire in Douglas Bader's markings
 Various underside colours and markings
 The planes from above
On patrol over southern England
 

Friday 20 November 2015

WW2 Italian blackshirt infantry

Mostly Black Tree Design (couldn't resist one of their regular 40% off sales!) but I had to draft in some Warlord command, LMG teams and a mortar.

I'm not as ken on the Warlord Italians- they're very much on the 'small' side, and although they'd probably be ideal with the Perry range, they wouldn't work at all well with the chunky Artizan miniatures.

I really like BTD miniatures (well- the earlier ones) but they still have glaring gaps in their ranges which is a shame.

 

Terminator Endoskeletons

I managed to get the new 'Terminator' game from River Horse brand new on eBay for a considerable discount, and have got as far as painting the endos up. 

The human resistance will take a lot longer so are still on the 'based and primed' mountain!

The second photo is of some very old and out of production metal Terminator miniatures by Leading Edge Games. They're more 25mm.




1/200 scale WW2 Aircraft

I bought 'Wings of Glory' by Ares games and some of the pre- painted fighter planes, but what I really wanted were the classic 'Battle of Britain' planes that I'd built and painted (badly!) as a child.

Apparently these were available when the game was manufactured by Fantasy Flight Games, but when Ares took over they decided to make different models of aircraft, and a vacuum has been left now that the older models are out of production.


I did a bit of research and found the excellent resin models by Armaments in Miniature. 

Shipping from the USA to the UK was pretty much a flat rate, so I ordered what I wanted and a few extra that I'll sell on (hopefully!)

Decals are from  Mehusla on eBay and are really superb quality- easy to apply and they really 'finish' the models. 

I had to hand paint some of the numerals by hand- not east at this scale!

All are AIM model apart from the JU52 and JU88 which are Zvezda plastic kits. Just wish Zvezda made more in 1/200.


















 

Nazi Zombies!

I bought a few of these from eBay just for fun- I think they paint up quite well!


Thursday 12 March 2015

Desert Rats Bedford QL

Based on an old metal Dinky toy with scratchbuilt rear frame and canvas:





Sherman Platoon

Three plastic Sherman M4's from Warlord Games. 

Same issues as the Panther with tracks not joining up, and the commander figure looking way too small compared to most 28mm miniatures, but again, excellent value overall:









Warlord Games plastic Panther Tank

I decided to paint model this up in three- tone camoto match an illustration I had of an example from 9th SS Panzer Division 'Hohenstaufen' fighting in Normandy during the latter stages of WW2.

Minor frustartions were caused by the tow rings snapping easily; the tracks leaving a gap at either end; the commander figure is way too small compared to most 28mm miniatures, and the  zimmerit paste looks a bit too uniform. but overall easy to put together and excellent value overall:






British Universal carrier

A plastic kit from Warlord Games. 

Easy to put together and an interesting vehicle:

Click photos for larger size:





North Africa: German Afrika Korps

I really enjoyed painting these miniatures from Black Tree Designs. 

I wanted to go for a real mix of uniform colours to reflect the fading caused by the sun, but to still keep the figures looking like they belonged to the same unit:

Click on photos for larger size:



North Africa: British 8th Army 'Desert Rats' mortar team

Another set from Artizan- great character in these sculpts.

Click on photo for larger size:


North Africa: British Morris Quad and 25 pdr gun

A nicely detailed resin model from Blitzkrieg Miniatures with a metal commander originally bought from Warlord Games, but now sold by The Wargames Command Post.

I had some problems with paint flaking off the resin model, despite being very thorough with washing the components in soapy water and using Halford's oil- based plastic primer- frustrating when you've finished the model and have to retouch it!

Click on photos for larger size:



North Africa: British commandos

Two sections of British commandos and an LRDG/ SAS team from Artizan Miniatures. 

Great character in these sculpts- they remind me of the hardened comic strip heroes from the 'Commando' comics!