Back from Cornwall

We spent the weekend in Cornwall at my Dad's place, which was very nice apart from the journey there and back which took ages. There were roadworks on the A303 on the way down which slowed things up and led to some diversions down bendy B roads, with the result that both of the boys upchucked all over the laybys of Dorset, my car and my trousers. At least it was pink Ribena and Hula Hoop sick rather than the usual variety.

Anyway, the weekend was very enjoyable and I even managed to pick up a couple of second hand books, one on Athenian Triremes and the other on the Israeli airforce (an odd combination but both relevant with respect to the contents of the lead mountain).

I also squeezed in some time this evening to decal the North Africa aircraft, using the excellent Dom's Decal sets for both the Italians and Luftwaffe. I still have to do some minor tidying up and detailing, paint the bases then matt or satin spray varnish them, but they're otherwise finished.

BUF Armour Support

The Musketeer BUF figures that I ordered the other day have been posted off so they should arrive today or tomorrow. In the meantime I've been thinking of some armour or artillery support for the blackshirts. I'm going to scratchbuild some improvised armoured lorries using some of the various Days Gone By diecasts that I've collected for the Back of Beyond. As always I have about four times as many as I need so I'm sure I can divert some to the VBCW.

However, I'd also like something like a tank or armoured car to scare the pants of the reds. There are several options I've looked at including Pzkpfw 1's and those 'tin can on tracks' Lancia tankette things, either of which are available from Force of Arms, Empress, Army Group North and Company B via the Wargames Command Post.

I've even found one of those experimental German multi-turreted uber tanks in 28mm by JTFM ...but that might be a bit too much like overkill, especially for my bank balance. There's also the Copplestone option with the Lancia armoured car and the Medium MkII for example, both of which could be feasible armoured support for the BUF in 1938.

At the moment I'm leaning toward an Italian influence so the tankettes are top of the list, including the flamethrower variant for some extra morale checks. However, I need to get some input on which models are he best in terms of value for money and casting quality, so will post a message on the Gentlemen's Wargames Parlour for some feedback.

Bf109F and SM81 update

I grabbed an hour or so to do the canopies on the SM81 and Bf109's this evening, together with minor details like the exhausts, wheels and engines. The canopies are OK but not quite as neat as I'd like. I think I need to invest in a new OOO brush to get the highlights and blacklining a little thinner.

I'm away in Cornwall this weekend so won't have the time to finish the North Africa stuff off. It's really down to the decals and a few bits of tidying up now before I paint the bases and give the whole lot a nice spray of satin varnish. That will have to wait until early next week when I'll be starting on the Ju88's.

I will, however, be taking the VBCW Sourcebook and Gathering Storm supplement with me over the weekend for a good read through as they arrived in the post today. I also received the SCW figures from Empress and they are very nice indeed, reminding me of the Woodbine Design Company style of sculpting. I've got enough figures for a section of BUF together with some excellent character figures from the Assault Guard Command and Condor Legion packs

Raiden 1/600th P51 Mustang

As promised, here's a photo of the Raiden P51 Mustang (top) alongside the Tumbling Dice version (bottom). Once again the photo upload thingy has decided to do everything in portrait but I don't think it matters too much as you can see the key details either way. I haven't cleaned up either casting so that you get a good comparison.

Raiden Ju88's

Mark has delivered the rest of the Ju88's today and they look quite a formidable pile of lead, although I'm confident that I can get them up to a decent standard by the end of the month, assuming I get some weekend time to crack ahead.

The first stage will be to give them a clean up, which shouldn't take too long as they're very well cast, as you would expect from Raiden. I'll undercoat them in light grey rather than green, which was my initial idea, as this will be a good base for the first layer of grey paint on the undersides of the fuselage and wings. After that it's onto the serious business of masking off the lower fuselage and applying a basecoat of mid-green.

Mark was also kind enough to include a sample model from his forthcoming 1/600 scale range, a very nicely sculpted P51 Mustang. Needless to say, it's a bit of a cracker and beautifully sculpted. I'll line it up next to the Tumbling Dice version, which is very good but not quite as refined, then post a photo here for you to draw your own conclusions.

Painting Update

I didn't have much time tonight to work on the Axis planes for North Africa but did manage to mask off and paint the white identification bands on both the SM81 and Bf109F's using Tamiya tape. This is a fiddly job at the best of times but, as my hands are knackered due to the cold weather, it was particularly long winded (and painful) to complete this time.

Nonetheless, the masking and painting is done but I'll leave them until tomorrow morning before removing the tape to make sure that it peels off cleanly. I also managed to add another layer to the Bf109 canopies and aim to do the blacklining and highlighting tomorrow, once I get home from work around 8pm.

In the absence of a WIP photo, the picture of the Bf109F Trop above is from this excellent site:

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/multimedia/profiles/dekker/dekker.htm

Troops, Weapons and Tactics

I had forgotten about this set of WW2 tactical rules but bumped into them again on the Toofatlardies site when I was looking at material for Bag The Hun 2.

Im a bit of a fan of the TFL way of doing things. I especially like the use of turn cards and the fog of war, like the ubiquitous blinds that crop up in just about every TFL set of rules, so I decided to download the TW&T rules despite their ridiculous title. As yet another alternative to Rate of Fire or Disposable Heroes they were worth a £10, especially as they have the usual background notes and details that characterise TFL systems.

The rules are very well laid out, with simple but effective mechanics and some nice features that should be ideal for the sort of thing I'm thinking of doing with the 28mm Late War British figures that I got for my birthday. They're also a good read in their own right which is something you can't say for most sets of rules.

A good addition to the bulging rules library.

The elusive Bf109F's

Ah ha!

There you go...that's technology for you. Always works when you don't actually need it.

SM81 and Bf109F Camouflage

Another couple of hours of work and not much to see to be honest, although I've actually done quite a lot to move things on. The SM81 has been washed with Gryphon Sepia then drybrushed with a couple of lighter shades of the basecoat. The undersides have been painted and the canopies have had the first two shades of Foundry Sky Blue. Next up is the finishing highlights on the canopy and some black lining, along with some work on the engines.

The Bf109's have been washed and then fiddled about with to try and produce some sort of panel lining and highlighting. It's not quite right but it's getting there. The canopies have a base coat of Foundry Sky Blue shade.
The next stage is to finish the canopies and black line them, which is the 1.285th plane equivalent of the eyes on a 28mm figure. I'll then black line the exhausts and do the white tips to the wings and the prop bosses (for some tedious technical reason I can't seem to upload any photos of the Bf109's without them appearing upside down, so I'll stick them in a seperate post if I can).

VBCW mini-project

I've decided to go ahead with the BUF for VBCW and have ordered a selection of figures from Musketeer, Empress and Artizan. The Musketeer stuff is from their BUF range while the Empress figures are from the SCW Republican Assault Guards which are a good match for the BUF figures, at least according to the posts on the Lead Adventure Forum and Gentlemens Wargames Parlour. The Artizan figures are from the Sky Pirates range and may or may not get used depending on what I can think of.

I've checked out the contents of the leadpile as well and I think I can use some Copplestone White Russian gun crew figures and a Great War 18 pounder field gun that I had set aside for the Back of Beyond. A couple of the figures have puttees and British style uniform jackets, together with field caps, so might mix OK with the others.

I also had a rummage in the loft and found the 1/48th scale Smer CR32 kit. It's got a few badly moulded struts that I'll have to replace but otherwise it's spot on. I also uncovered a floatplane version of a Heinkel 51 that I could use if the CR32 isn't fixable. Both very nice planes and perfect as BUF air support.

When I'll get round to all of this is another question. We're off to France (again) at Easter, so I may take the VBCW figures with me although every time I've done this before it's been a non-starter.

Worth a try this time?