So, as per my list below and our latest YouTube video, My list of stuff the year is massive...PLUS I acquired Mikes awesome terrain and stuff as seen in our latest YouTube vid, and so I decided that although I was in the field and on duty during the week, it was time to move from assembly line work onto finishing some figures. 

What better to choose then than the only figures I acquired from the sale of the wargames items that belonged to the late Mike (RIP); the Wargames Foundry downed German aircrew.  

So I really want to say I cant take any credit for these figures except for basing and a few details. Apart from that, this is how they were when I got them- and I wanted to keep it that way so they are Mikes figures. 

I touched up dings, rebased and did the few details to make them look fresh and give them longevity. The bright, decaying leaves are a bit bright on these figures, but that does match them with all my other NW Europe basing for coherency. The leaves are a godsend to add some colour to bases for German and Soviet field uniforms and avoid them looking washed out. 

​These are quite clearly not the greatest photos in the world, as per the 'workbench pics' principle we use on blogposts and sometimes Instagram, but I threw them down on a piece of Scenery I also got that was Mikes and snapped a few pics in some crazy light- I thought it actually matched that of dappled light coming through the canopy of the copse of trees they are navigating through.

​I confess that I also got some lighter colour onto the head bandage as highlights, but I figured Mike would've ended up doing that anyway, so I gave myself a pass there!

​So there you go, Hope you've enjoyed seeing some pics of them and feel like I finished them off in a way that would have done Mike proud. Easiest 'tick' off the list ever...but Ill take the win, and add these guys to my shelves of German WW2 for a future scenario! 

Dan

Hope you had a chance to check out the video on YouTube showing shelves full of work needing to be done! if not, check it out here:

2024 HOBBY GOALS

Colour/ Key;

Completed

In progress

EW= Early War

LW= Late War

LAST UPDATED 23/2/24

Historical WW2

German;

EW Krupp Protze  IN PROGRESS- Assembled, base coated 

Sdkfz 234 with variant parts AS ABOVE

Marder III AS ABOVE 

Sdkfz 251 D x3 AS ABOVE 

Sdkfz 251 C Pioneerwagon 

Lorraine Shlepper AS ABOVE 

UNIC P107 AS ABOVE 

EW Pak 36- & Crew  IN PROGRESS- base coated

EW Leig 38 & winter crew variants – removable crew

EW Opel Blitz  ASSEMBLED 

EW Pz III F ASSEMBLED

Pz Lehr MMG

Pz Lehr Sniper team

Winter dismounted Pz Crew

Sdkfz 232

EW MG34 MMG removable crew IN PROGRESS 

EW infantry x 32 IN PROGRESS

Detail 112 x EW infantry 

LW Grenadiers x 70

DAK infantry x 50

Pz Lehr infantry x25

Luftwaffe 88 crew x 7 IN PROGRESS

Waffen SS inf x 65

" " Nebelwerfer – removable crew

"" Pak 40 – removable crew

"" MMG x2

" " Med Mortar – removable crew

Heer pak 40 with summer and winter crews -removable

Last levy infantry ( Berlin) x 20

Luftwaffe tropical ground crew x 5

Mike's Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew ( basing and detailing only) COMPLETED

Stuka x1

Fallshirmjager infantry x 70

''Med Mortar removable crew

" Pz shrek team

" Sniper team

" Flamethrower team

" mule handler and mule x1

Opel blitz fuel bowser truck-  In process of assembly

Heer weapons teams

British Airborne;

Vehicle crew x 30

Polsten guns x 9

6 pounders and crew x 3

6 pounders limbered x 4

Med mortars x 3

MMG teams x 3

Light Mortars x 3

Piat teams x 2

Tow jeeps x 4

17 Pounders and removable crew x 2

Infantry x 150

British/commonwealth;

Sherman V x3

Sherman VC Firefly x1

Infantry in B/dress x 22

8th Army inf x 4

Bedford QLT truck ASSEMBLED 

8^th Army Lee tank

Cromwell with Burlap camo ASSEMBLED 

Soviet Army;

Infantry x 100

Detail /repaint soviet infantry x 100

Rebase soviet infantry x 150

45 mm AT gun with removable & alternate ( SNI )crews x 2

MMG team

HMG team

Dog mines x 3 teams

M3 White scout car

ATK rifle

Amplumet

FT team

L Mortar team

Peoples militia x 12

Jeeps and crew x2

T34/85

T34/76 (warlord)

T34/76 ( Rubicon)

GAZ AA/AAA trucks x 2

Soviet Naval Infantry;

Bronekator patrol boat

Infantry (Warlord) x 44

Infantry (3D prints) x 30

MMG team

HMG team

45mm AT gun and crew -removable

FT team

Standard bearers x2

ZiS 3 and crew -removable

Heavy Mortar and crew- removable

Light mortar and crew

Pz faust infantry x3

Medic

Photographer- Yevgeny Khaldei

Naval political officer x 2

SMG squad

Terrain;

2x collapsed parachute canopies

Urban barricades x6

Eastern Front log houses x 2

Eastern front village base

3D printed buildings x7

Additional berlin apartment building floors x2

Stalingrad tank factory & Base

Stalingrad Barmaley fountain x2

Destroyed European buildings (MDF) x2

Dock buildings and scatter-qty

IJA Tank emplacement- IN PROGRESS 

Dock crane

Lowest priority "Nice to do" list;

IJA/IJN;

150 Infantry (incl teams)

Repair/paint med tank

Rebase Infantry x 100

IJA LMG relocating

Italian;

6 infantry

Replace heads on 5 Coastal Div infantry

Arditi squad

MMG team for coastal div

WW2 Character models;

Mussolini

Otto Skorzeny

Charles Upham

We have ways characters x 2

Berlin soviet flag characters

Vasily Zaitsev

Desmond Doss & casualty

David Stirling

Jock Lewes

BA 'Stalingrad' set soviet sniper team

USMC Cappy the devil dog & Handler

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army;

Huntsmen x 10

Helstorm Rocket battery

Outriders x 5

Head replacement on militiaman

Bear Musician model 

So on Saturday, I headed over to Craigs house for a game of Bolt Action. I was really looking forward to it as Craig not only has produced a great looking table, but has also just finished painting an entire 8th Army force, based around the 2nd New Zealand Division and some special guest stars ( some might say 'rogue heroes' ..) with their ill gotten gains from a certain Mr Stirlings night out in Cairo...

The reality is that I very possibly set myself up to fail right at that fateful decision. I normally play my own game anyway, so I really didnt need to see what Craig was doing with his deployment. I would've been better off choosing and denying him the high ground. His Medium mortar and 25 pounder -both without spotters if I remember correctly- would possibly had a harder time seeing my units. Although, the palm bases counting as rough ground, no penalty to hit firing across them, meant that the table was deceptively open in regards to shooting!

Both forces tried to dominate the centre of the battlefield from the start. I wouldnt normally try to capture the objectives so early if they were in the relative open, but on this battelefield the two flank central ones were in the wadi (hard cover) and at the ford in the centre that was hard cover by virtue of it being a destroyed bridge, with the remnants providing hard cover from the sides. With that in mind i pushed my Green FJ squad up on my left flank,  initially behind the StuH that was providing hard cover from fire. 

​Come Turn 2 however, Craigs FAO called in fire for effect with an artillery barrage, which- well placed by craig- put pins on several units and devastatingly rolled a six for the StuH, then setting it on fire and the crew running for the hills (wadi's?!) and its knocked out! (Below) The Green FJ scarpered into the wadi and took cover behind some scrub while checking out what was inside the ammo case the DAK casualty was clinging to as his life slipped away 

( Sidebar: see the objective above- not my best painted but hurriedly knocked up and painted the water to try to match Craigs stream from a photo. I was actually quite happy with it, one day ill go back and detail and highlight them!)  

Not only did the bombardment play havoc, but the 25 pounder and mortar turned into sharpshooters to pay me back for my gift of high ground to Craig! with successive sixes to range in, my medium mortar and sniper team were reduced to offal over the first two turns! Craigs target and order dice allocation priorities were excellent, and swinging the order dice advantage way in his favour.

In order to rebalance the centre of the board somewhat I ran the officer on to get within range of the much- diminished FJ squads so he could balance out the pins and motivate them into action the next turn! the truck attempted to do a road-assisted long advance move and disgorge its 10 man & SMG heavy FJ squad within shooting range of the bad guys (good guys?!?) advancing on my units at the ford.

Unfortunately, after an abysmal roll on the pothole environmental effect check, the pothole spotter was clearly fighting Indiana Jones or something and the truck bumbled forward, leaving them out of position for where I wanted them...Aaaaaargh! 

Heres the view down the road from Craigs side, one can see the pressure hes kept up in the centre and turn three he brought his Blitz buggy in from his right flank. Hosing down the Green FJ squad, they took a single casualty, in addition some more shooting whittled them down to two men, who rather inconveniently had stayed inexperienced. However, they got their sweet sweet revenge when they assaulted the blitz buggy at the start of turn 4, and the buggy failed its recce escape move. Being the spiteful man I am I stalled it right where it was and the FJ proceeded to slice and dice and drop a grenade in the now empty vehicle, destroying it...a solitary victorious moment for the last couple of turns for me!

​Meanwhile back in the centre of the table, Craigs dice advantage and sheer number of shots in his shooting order was paying dividends. I had to try and get some momentum and swing some dice back in my favour, so I snapped to with my officer. the three man brit squad just heading into the rough ground had to go as Id unloaded into them last turn and failed to cause a morale check with less than 50% casualties. this turn I knew I had to charge them as they were sticking provocatively out into the open ground. 

In addition, the large regular squad that Craig had disembarked from the truck had failed to do much damage to my large FJ squad on the ford, so they too needed to be assaulted while i would strike first on the charge. 

As it turned out, I won both CQ assaults, which was great but i then had a poor regroup move roll by my smaller squad which had three men left. I was sure i couldnt reach the observer squad if i charged them because I was in the bushes at the side of the road thanks to the poor roll- bugger! However- i COULD reach his truck- until it failed an order check and reversed out of charge range...damn! What DID go well was assaulting with my (formerly) large FJ sqd vs his universal carrier with the 2nd Lt in the back, forcing him to disembark and fight and resulting in him being diced up somewhat.

But in return Craigs Veteran squad ( shown below to the left of the carrier) finally surged forward- advancing out of their cover and shot the FJ squad to bits, wiping them out!! Craig ranged in on another 6 on the officer squad in the hard cover in the wadi by the bridge, wiping them out also. 

Surveying the battlefield I decided there was little I could do to stop Craig from holding the Centre and objective closest to his side. His vehicles were likely to contest at least one of the flank central objectives i held, and he had done a great job earning so many dice for kills off me, each three providing him with a VP. I did what any good opponent would do and extended the hand to shake that of the victor- Craig played an excellent game and thoroughly deserved the win! 

A fantastic game on a fantastic board, thanks Craig! the amount he has achieved in such a short time in having a  fully painted army and a great looking table of terrain is inspiring- keep it up! 

Hi Everyone. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing this Christmas, Rex and I hope you have a happy and safe Xmas and New Years. I'm away on my honeymoon at the moment ( there is an obvious clue to my whereabouts in the images below!) but Im sure Rex might drop an update also in the coming fortnight or so.

about 10 weeks or so ago, Rex and I put out our podcast updating our hobby goals we set at the start of the year. In that episode I was really happy with my hobby output for the year against my goals I had set- with one notable exception; I had committed to painting 100 German Grenadier infantry, and hadnt painted a single one, and despite my having finished dozens of Waffen SS and Panzer Lehr It rankled me that this goal was unfulfilled. 

BUT, with Rex coming over for the wedding, we had a big game planned. It was going to be based during Op. Barbarossa in 1941- and I hadnt a single early war German painted...but the answer was simple; Paint the early war version of the grenadier- the German Infantryman- over a hundred of them!!  

 So anyways, Im VERY pleased to report that I made my 100 German 'grenadiers' ( they werent called grenadiers yet, but ill give myself a break!)...in fact 111 of them, in 3 months, while working and prepping for the wedding and the honeymoon...I think I shall rather unusually give myself a wee pat on the back ;)

I shall look forward to formulating and sharing next years hobby goals with you. probably something to do with all the figures in my luggage from our trip already! 

Talk soon, stay safe and Happy Xmas to you and your families!!

Regards,

Dan

Hi All, I just wanted to help the cause by compiling the photos that I have seen posted by BOTH Pauls...Paul from Empress Miniatures and Paul Hicks of course, the sculptor! There may be other pics out there that I've missed, and there was a few further 'angles' of these same models that I didn't post here to avoid further repetition.

  I will avoid captions or naming characters etc. but I've grouped them together logically (I Hope !). Enjoy! I will discuss more during our next podcast.     

(...Well, almost the New Year for one of them anyway!)

So, before the xmas break Craig and I had decided we were going to get some wargames in. Craig comes a strong boardgames background where he and his partner Allyson have been playing and enjoying for many years. Their fantastic game room ( more later!) has all the evidence of massive amounts of fun they have had, stacked with games such as Gloomhaven, Undaunted, pandemic, memoir '44 ( ok, yes so im guilty of noticing all the games that are in my familiar genres, lol! ) and a HUGE amount more!!  

Allyson and Craig  have been playing more games that have been moving from meeples into fully cast miniatures such as various games from Fantasy Flight games etc. and this has kickstarted a desire to dabble in some games without boards, and this has led to them discovering the game "Gaslands" and the games "refuelled" updated rules, which are, of course, for high speed and high fun games of racing with weapon bristling vehicles in a post apocalyptic setting...cue the opportunity for us to organise a reciprocal event where I would learn Gaslands and Craig could learn Bolt Action. Score! 

  The first leg was a visit to Craig and Allysons game room for me just before the New Year, where I was met with the sight of their fantastic games room, complete with their excellent vinyl collection and Hifi system-nice!

So, to the background music of ACDC, Thin Lizzy and more, we did a quick bit of battleprep. Being given the generous option to choose which pair of color-coded vehicles with which to bring violence and speed to the table I -of course- chose the pair of maroon vehicles and luckily won the roll off for pole position where ​I chose what I felt was an inside straight line for my vehicle for the first gate on our figure of eight track.

​Naming my vehicles came fairly easily; The buggy was "The No-love Bug" ( centre rear rank in pic) while "The Maroon Machine" for the car ( in pole position, or front left as we look at the pic above). At this point I probably should apologise to both Herbie and The Parachute Regiment for commandeering their nicknames...but I suspect that the rest of my regiment would also be more than comfortable with a weapons platform emblazoned with that name bombing around other warzones in addition to Kabul!

  My adversaries were also cleverly named, featuring such crowd favorites from previous races as Allyson's 'Malicious Maneater" ( centre front rank in pic, converted awesomely and well painted,  looking much like a certain well known Aussie police interceptor....!), and Craigs "Katsu Chicken" ( rear left) which was also converted into a sweet ride with aerosol huffing, missile loving petrol-heads who appear to have installed a missile pod on the top cover position!

  What followed was an awesome death-race of hilarity and ruthlessness, interspersed with the odd moment of almost pity on the new guy ( me!) as I attempted poorly to race ahead of the carnage behind me as Craig and Allyson's vehicles fought out old grudges and settled scores from previous races. I had a game plan of racing the Maroon Machine ahead with minimal pauses for shooting except at opportunity targets, with the No-love Bug running interference. 

  This game was so awesome and Craig and Allyson kept me entertained with their great knowledge of the game and the game moved so fast and i was immersed so I only took one more pic which was from the first checkpoint!; 

​So... basically my No-Love bug got ripped open by Allyson's gunwagon at the 2nd gate and was obviously pretty ineffective as support whilst being a flaming car wreck! Eventually, the only vehicles left were the Maroon Machine who'd missed a gear and dropped back, and Katsu Chicken, whose color scheme of the Rising Sun-on-white  reminiscent of Kamikaze bandanas did indeed telegraph the manner in which it drove during the second half of the race, and ended up stitching machine gun fire into my Maroon Machine as it was a mere 4-5 inches from the finish line ( enfilade fire from a defilade position...nice one Craig, lol!) , The Maroon Machine rolled....and ended up with the nose of the vehicle 3 or 4mm over the finish line!! Does finishing the race in a body bag count in a post apocalyptic setting?!?! 

What a game, thank you so much for hosting me. I can see the attraction as its full on fun with inexpensive 'miniatures' that you can either customise or not to your hearts content. I hope to play again for sure!! 

​The 'return' leg saw Craig and Allyson visit us a couple of days into the New Year. I had been unsure who was going to attend until the time. Max is home and had become available and Allyson managed to make it also,all of  which was FANTASTIC!!  But left me in a quandry...I wanted to include as many people as possible and didnt feel that a introductory game of bolt action really lent itself to multi-player as there was so much going on. But what could we play?....Aha!

​I had been after a copy of " What a Tanker " for quite some time, but I really wanted a physical copy. This is a definite "Me" thing, as there's something about reading a physical copy of rules that allows me to actually take the info in, as opposed to reading off a device. So I had got one in Hamilton when visiting friends there. 

 The problem? I hadn't read them! I think I had 15 minutes to read through these. Once I knew who was playing  I quickly did so, grabbed two tanks each player and appointed myself GM for the game so I could look stuff up and make consistent rulings ( even if wrong!) for the game whilst it was in play. 

  How did it go? Well, my initial quick look caused some significant errors where i was making target acquisition too hard, but aiming too easy.

Another error I made is that, having grabbed whatever tanks were painted purely for aesthetic pleasure for the players, I then actually used the tanks as those precise variants. As I was writing the 'strike' and 'Armour' values down on the players tank dashboards I could see that we had a variance from 5-8 in these attributes across the players tanks, but in my  head- currently set to "Bolt Action" including tank wars for that system- 2-3 PIPS on the dice wasn't that huge...but in WAT this is 2-3 DICE needing 5's and 6's to counter hits. 

  The levels of tanks listed in historical and technological progression will help new players be on a more level playing field OR simply place whatever tanks on the battlefield but choose stats so each new player has 1 of each of two stat lines/spec abilities in order to have a level playing field.  

  Anyway, as we played it through we discovered many points I hadn't yet in my limited read and fixed them. We had two tanks each for this one...Max lost one of his Sherman III's first from a magnificent shot at range from one of Craigs T34/85's that caused 3 unsaved Strikes and brewed it up!;

​Max then cunningly went on a route that boxed around the cover on the battlefield and destroyed Justine's ( under my control while she made a beautiful dinner-doh! bad Dan, bad future Husband haha!) Panther that id stat-lined as a Pz IV for the game, and we then lost the Pz III to Craigs other T34/85!

​Allyson's StuG ( yes i know it has the StuH barrel on it, I didnt change the howitzer barrel out for the AT Gun in my haste..and none of us were counting rivets!) was playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in angles and cover with Craigs T34/85 that was in depth by barricades  in cover that showed how good they are at Gaslands can carryover to tanks! 

 Until, finally the Soviet tank commander capitalised on his turret advantage to destroy the "Tank Destroyer" ( Air quotes added by Allyson in a moment of laughter during the duel! ;) 

​Of course...in the heat of the moment, I forgot to take photos of the endgame ( Duh Dan!) but the last two players left in the game were Max with another Sherman III and Craig with both T34/85's remaining. 

Craig proved Lanchesters Law of combat power ( Its a thing- look it up, ladies and gents) to pin Max's tank then destroy it with his other to end up this game day's champ!! Well done AGAIN Craig for winning, but also to Allyson who had what turned out to be a bit of a handicap with the little StuG that could (n't quite)!! Bad Luck to Justine for having me take over and coming back from dinner prep to flaming tank crew,  and well done to Max for coming back from losing the first K Kill to going down to the wire with Craigs Soviets.

All in all, this was a great enjoyable day, i hope my errors didnt take away all the fun from the players game and they had a nice time. I am REALLY looking forward to games of these again with everyone, and an upcoming Bolt Action game vs Craig.

THANKS GUYS!!!!

Learnings from Game 1 of What a tanker!

- Allocate tanks much more evenly than a game such as Bolt Action/Tank wars as strike and armour differences are REALLY powerful, much more so than in those systems.

-Print/laminate stiffened paper dashboards or 3D print/MDF for solid dashboards. 

- Print and Laminate the ace ability cards. Playing cards can be used for the activation sequence numbered chits just as simply as printing them off...I used my trusty NZ army museum AFV cards from 1984, woohoo! 

-Dashboards ideally between A5 and A4 size so dice can sit in the boxes provided, for usable gameplay tools. 

- This game is awesome! suitable for one off but having a campaign would be great too! 

- prepare tanks for the various levels of similar stat lines , especially the lower level (s) for entry.

So, I've finished my challenge. Im really happy with what ive achieved actually... Hope its been mildly entertaining for you also? 

For those of you who are playing along at home (or just want to laugh at my folly!!). Updates are in BOLD

Tropical FJ for our book's " How to paint tropical Fallschirmjager" video, linked to our you tube page- DONE!!!

British M7 Priest SPG -DONE

5 x D&D Characters- DONE

1x goat, 2 x Cows, 1 mule, 1 German shepherd, teddy bear DONE

2 sheep, 2 Geese, 4 chickens on bases- DONE

FJ and pack mule

Para chaplain and chaplain -In Progress

5 dak infantry vehicle mounted

1 British airborne morris- DONE

SIX(!! Yes ive doubled the original number for insanity check purposes) British airborne jeeps ( various patterns & manufacturers)-DONE!

2 Airborne jeep trailers - DONE

20 Airborne jeep crew- DONE

4 x Brit airborne containers DONE

2 parachute canopies on ground DONE

Sdkfz 10/4 captured by British airborne DONE

British airborne 6 pounder DONE

British airborne Tetrarch tank- DONE

1 skaven engineer

12 skaven stormvermin

10 empire huntsmen

1 empire Hellstorm rocket battery and crew

1 empire musician/bear mascot

5 empire outriders

4 x Luftwaffe tropical ground crew

German marder III gun and crew- In progress

German schwimmwagon x 3- DONE

Assemble and paint UNIC P107 half track- IN progress

Lorraine Shlepper- In progress

Repair SS tank rider MG42 DONE

Vampire counts roadshrine

Mussolini and Skorzeny

Greater Demon of Khorne

German Vampire officer

27 Offensive,empress and westwind German Battle of Berlin 'last levy' DONE

Repair ruined keep, broken masonry DONE

3 x SW Landspeeders

Arjac rockfist

Njarl Stormcaller termi and power armour

SW Iron Priest on foot and mounted torso

Murderfang

18 Bloodclaws

SW HQ landraider

SW Rhino

2 x lascannon longfangs

12 plastic FJ- In Progress.

6 westwind FJ with P/Fausts DONE

6 SS pioneers DONE

7Luftwaffe Field Regt 88 crew. DONE

2 x Hungarian infantry

Soviet flag at Reichstag vignette

4 x metal offensive FJ

One thing i noticed is that I painted ZERO fantasy of Sci fi that was on the list, apart from the D&D characters. I think thats very indicative of where my main effort is at the moment, and very telling that i added many more NEW models to the list that were historical rather than painting the sci fi and fantasy on the existing list. oh well! Whatever makes one happy i guess, no point painting when its a chore, you have to be in the mood to be motivated to paint whats in front of you, or choose another project!

​I have shot a video update of my last months progress and it's up on our channel HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWQLUHpY82Y&t=5s

I hope your hobby projects are going well? Let us know what youve been up to! 

Regards, Dan 

So after around a year of no new podcasts- we are back!! Our new episode can be found by following the links in the previous blog post. Tune in and Enjoy it.

Meanwhile, here are some photos to help you picture what we are discussing, especially in regard to the tables we've played on each game. Rex may even edit this by adding a few in here himself. Hope you enjoy the podcast and these help! 

Note that any references to 'My ' game are meaning 'Dan's', that should save confusion here for you. 

​As if by magic, the Bratwurst gods showed us a sign on the motorway on the way to the venue...the message; "Eat Brats for lunch, dudes"...

Saturday; Game 1 

​My (Dans) Table for Game 1...note after the roll off I was given the opposite side to the view shown here. Underneath is a pic of James' army. Note the super-cool objective markers discussed on the podcast!

​So after visiting Rex ( more info on that in forthcoming blog posts, Podcast and Youtube content !!), on the way out of the country I visited the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. Not only is the building amazing and full of fantastic (if heavily orientated toward the clothes-horse type of ladies & gentleman) shops, but its home to Hobbyco ( a great model and hobby store) that I DID know about, but I found this gem of a store that I DIDNT know existed. Here's a link to the online store, and for those of you in NSW that may want to visit, be aware they are moving premises soon apparently and will update their address accordingly on the site;

http://toysoldiers.com.au/

 And what a store! Beautifully sculpted, painted and classily presented toy soldiers and display scenic pieces, with many of them displayed in dioramas. I was aware of companies such as King and Country and Thomas Gunn that make these, but I was unaware of many of the other brands on display. The scale seems to be pretty consistent at 1:30 scale, described by some toy soldier sites and collectors as ' within the 1:32 scale family', which places them around 54mm and again within the family of size of your old Britains toy soldiers and Matchbox/Airfix 1:32  plastics...oh, and what a joy to see!!! 

  Each is a work of art within itself, basically a small statuette or vignette if a group. the painting of them is excellent, and the price they command is hefty yet strangely tempting...almost like that old Schweppes advertisement; "reassuringly expensive"! Some of the scenic items are scalable such as palm trees etc i noted, as its very hard to find a great palm tree for 28mm.

  I will go on to do a photo dump below- enjoy!

   It did make me wonder though- why will people pay a fortune for these toy soldiers, yet baulk at and attempt to drive down the price of even the most beautifully painted army of miniatures painted to the highest standard...if they were displayed and sold like this in a high end store...would they sell as pieces of art rather than treated with relative contempt by potential purchasers? I have plenty of thoughts on the matter- maybe its a future podcast-or- Youtube vid- worthy subject. Your opinions readers?

So here's an update on where I am up to on my 'Around my wargames room in 80 days' Self challenge...  

In preparing for the MOAB convention in Sydney, I decided my theme would be; whatever will get the most stuff ticked off my list, while including something awesome and historical....AHA!! that'll be British 6th Airborne Div Recce troop in Normandy along with captured Sdkfz 10/4!!! ( See below for historical image). 

Of course, some of this project isn't even ON my list- But time to get it added so I can tick it off!! 

This project has been threatening to become reality with all the random cheap Recce jeeps and commonwealth jeeps I' ve been picking up here and there the past 2 years. Plus, it became reality when I bought a Rubicon Sdkfz 10, and was fortunate enough to win Rubicon's facebook page banner competition for August. When I asked for one of the cheapest kits they make ( the flak 30 that completes the 10/4 construction) , I'm pretty sure they took pity on me as a complete lunatic and immediately succumbed to my suggestion that they might (please!) have airborne crew sprues from a commonwealth jeep available at the factory somewhere...and VOILA!! all the kits and parts required to make this historical build! Thank you so much Rubicon Models, you rock.

Also done in this pic are offensive miniatures' parachute drop containers, some animals for farm terrain dressin.

Note that the winter cam Tiger I tanks were NOT done by me... I picked up these two tanks at a steal on Trade Me. Robert is the name of the gentleman who did these, and he's started up a website selling commission painted miniatures and terrain. Here's his website , go take a look;

https://www.sharpmilitarymodels.com

I might take some pics of them for another post. Anyway, they were getting a shot of matt varnish over the decals when everything else was getting theirs done. 

 Heres the list updated with what i have completed and in progress for those of you who are playing along at home ( or just want to laugh at my folly). Updates are in BOLD;

Tropical FJ for our book's " How to paint tropical Fallschirmjager" video, linked to our you tube page- DONE!!!

British M7 Priest SPG -IN PROGRESS- Being detailed and weathered

5 x D&D Characters- DONE

1x goat, 2 x Cows, 1 mule, 1 German shepherd, teddy bear

2 sheep, 2 Geese, 4 chickens on bases- DONE

FJ and pack mule

Para chaplain and chaplain

5 dak infantry vehicle mounted

1 British airborne morris- IN PROGRESS, basecoated, camo underway 

SIX(!! Yes ive doubled the original number for insanity check purposes) British airborne jeeps ( various patterns & manufacturers)-DONE!

2 Airborne jeep  trailers - IN PROGRESS, basecoated

20 Airborne jeep crew- DONE

 4 x Brit airborne containers DONE

2 parachute canopies on ground DONE

1 skaven engineer

12 skaven stormvermin

10 empire huntsmen

1 empire Hellstorm rocket battery and crew

1 empire musician/bear mascot

5 empire outriders

4 x Luftwaffe tropical ground crew

German marder III gun and crew

German schwimmwagon x 3

Assemble and paint UNIC P107 half track

Lorraine Shlepper 

Repair SS tank rider MG42 DONE

Vampire counts roadshrine

Mussolini and Skorzeny

Greater Demon of Khorne

German Vampire officer

27 Offensive,empress and westwind German Battle of Berlin 'last levy' DONE

Repair ruined keep, broken masonry DONE

3 x SW Landspeeders

Arjac rockfist

Njarl Stormcaller termi and power armour

SW Iron Priest on foot and mounted torso

Murderfang

18 Bloodclaws

SW HQ landraider

SW Rhino

2 x lascannon longfangs

12 plastic FJ

6 westwind FJ with P/Fausts DONE

6 SS pioneers DONE

7Luftwaffe Field Regt 88 crew. DONE

2 x Hungarian infantry

Soviet flag at Reichstag vignette

4 x metal offensive FJ

​So thats it..1 calendar month to go. With me heading over to Rexs place in order for us to to attend MOAB in Sydney, I  will need to make decisions on what to take to continue the challenge from over there. There is a chance that in fact nothing will go with me due to space constraints ( after all...why would i want to miss out on a bargain from the bring and buy at MOAB that i never knew i needed, simply for lack of room in airplane baggage??!!) although I might fit in a few minis and then add them to the list for my troubles! 

Ill update again at the end of october with how I finished up my challenge..wish me luck! If anyone else takes up the challenge in your own 80 day window you choose, we'd be interested to hear and see how youve got on! 

Regards, Dan. 

So, on looking around my wargames room's display shelves after unpacking some carry cases full of miniatures I have come to the conclusion that 'out of sight is out of mind' truly is a thing, especially with those wargamers who have a  strong collector's streak!

I have oodles of projects still to be finished, but I'm concentrating on whats sitting on the shelves undercoated , or assembled etc. 

Its a mix of historical ( mostly WW2) stuff, with a good sprinkling of 40k and Warhammer fantasy battle ( not that god awful Age of Sigmar though!) thrown in for good measure! Didn't know I was into other stuff? I  have quite considerable 40k and Fantasy armies actually! I will drop a pic below. 

I also had  a great haul on Trade me which is our version of 'gumtree' or other local/national buy and sell page type website...picked up a whole haul of die cast vehicles ( pic shown below) for $11 New Zealand! After looking at the pic i figured I couldn't lose...either the schwimmwagons were the correct size and everything else was about 1:72 or 1:100 scale. or everything else was the correct size ( unlikely!) and they were too big...turned out the first statement was true...and what a match!! see the other pic of the comparison with a completed Rubicon model below-perfect!!! Excuse the grainy photos, as the first was a screenshot from the website and the other was taken just now at night. YUCK ..but you get the idea.

Anyways...im setting myself a challenge; see how much of the stuff on my shelves i can paint around my wargames room  in eighty days. I was going to start this immediately before the army decided to send me away for  the best part of a month, so I only got three days in ( having painted the first model on the list below which was filmed for a video on you tube- check it out), but I'm continuing the challenge from tomorrow minus those 3 days, so 77 days from now means...27th of October. Thats my finish date.

  I know i wont get it all done...as with many of the challenges I set myself I will try to 'shoot for the moon, land among the stars!' and see what i can actually manage!! 

Heres the list of stuff that needs to be painted:

 Tropical  FJ for our book's  " How to paint tropical Fallschirmjager" video, linked to our you tube page- DONE!!!

British  M7 Priest SPG

5 x D&D Characters

1x goat, 2 x Cows, 1 mule, 1 German shepherd, teddy bear

FJ and pack mule

Para chaplain and chaplain

5 dak infantry vehicle mounted

1 British airborne morris 

3 British airborne jeeps ( various patterns & 2 trailers)

12 British airborne vehicle crew.

4 x Brit airborne containers

2 parachute canopies on ground

1 skaven engineer

12 skaven stormvermin

10 empire huntsmen

1 empire Hellstorm rocket battery and crew

1 empire musician/bear mascot

5 empire outriders

4 x Luftwaffe tropical ground crew

German marder III gun and crew

German schwimmwagon x 3 

Assemble and paint UNIC P107 half track

Lorraine Shlepper

Repair SS tank rider MG42

Vampire counts roadshrine

Mussolini and Skorzeny

Greater Demon of Khorne

German Vampire officer

27 Offensive,empress and westwind German Battle of Berlin 'last levy'

Repair ruined keep, broken masonry

3 x SW Landspeeders

Arjac rockfist

Njarl Stormcaller termi and power armour

SW Iron Priest on foot and mounted torso

Murderfang

18 Bloodclaws

SW HQ landraider

SW Rhino

2 x lascannon longfangs

12 plastic FJ

6 westwind FJ with P/Fausts

6 SS pioneers

7Luftwaffe Field Regt 88 crew.

2 x Hungarian infantry

Soviet flag at Reichstag vignette

4 x metal offensive FJ

So thats what im going to be up to everyone...wish me luck, ill post updates as I go.

Talk soon, Dan 

We hope this update finds you safe and well wherever you are.

Rex has done amazing work on the (Now finished!) additional table for the book...we can reveal now that Rex has made an additional table for the initial assault on the bridge and which also stars in many of the detailed close up shots in other scenarios within the book.

I think it looks amazing, and Rex has really outdone himself yet again- you are in for a treat! That means you are going to see TWO versions of Primosole Bridge in the book- one representative and one closer to scale. The first photos from this new board are REALLY impressive!!

The Hobby section has now been expanded greatly from what was first envisaged also, with extra detail being invested into the detail of how to build terrain for the campaign and how to build up an impressive table layout for your games and/or photography of them in progress!

Wargames Atlantic have informed us that the free plastic Italian sprues are also winging their way in freight to us ready for inclusion with your book!! Thanks WA!

Now for the not so good news; The transit time of the final shipment of miniatures to Rex for photography was grossly outside our timeframes we had planned. Previous shipments for the book under the same shipping constraints have taken approx. A week, with 10 days maximum. This shipment took almost FIVE WEEKS.

Added to this, the printers have asked for an additional editing/production process for our images prior to printing. Rex has been working on our existing images night and day, but still has some yet outstanding. It also means additional work on the final photographs too.

The fact the final photography has been delayed almost a month, and now there is additional work for each of those photos has really damaged our print and dispatch schedule.

We had planned to be dispatching the book before end of April, but for these reasons we need to push this date back. We do not want to have any further issues that mean we need to do this again, however, and so we would rather make a bigger correction now and ensure we are within this new timeframe.

To that end, we now have had to push back the forecasted dispatch date to no later than the end of June.

We are sorry for the delays and hope you can understand given the delays above. We are working hard behind the scenes to make this book have the WOW factor, and are disappointed that events have conspired to foil us with the finish line so close.  

Thank you to all of you who have been in touch with us with excited news of your hobby progress in preparation for the book, such as having printed off your free STLs and progress on new armies for the campaign...your enthusiasm is also inspiring to us! 

Talk soon! Dan & Rex, Valhalla Games.

Well, here we are...arriving at the first of our 'final times'...the last time we do a particular activity in prep for the books production ...

STLs have been sent within emails to all the Kickstarter backers (if you didn't get the email let us know at: https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/contact), along with the contact details for WOW Buildings in case there are technical questions or other queries regarding the files.

STLs for the pre-order customers should be sent in the next 24 hours

The Final wargames Atlantic sprue numbers have gone to them for production and supply of the sprues to us.

In other news; while continuing his work on the (currently unrevealed) realistic scale battle board that will provide photos for the book ( and hopefully a board with which to attend some wargames shows/events sometime in our future!) Rex decided he needed some blockhouses and barricades. Having designed them for 3D printing, Rex has decided decided to share them here with you..... for free!;

https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/barricades-and-blockhouses

So follow the link and print some off ( or get someone to do it for you and buy them a beer!) and get yourself set up for your scenarios when you receive your book!

In the 'background' but very much at the forefront of our minds and driving our timelines, we've been refreshing our quotes and checking lead-time with the printers.

Spread the word: pre-orders still open ( despite the free STL and sprue deal having finished due to our deadlines for those suppliers-apologies!), so if you want a copy, reach out and we will let you know how you can  place your order.!

There's a couple of weeks of hard work and immersion in the written content for the book as final editing is ongoing. Following that we have final photography and working through further logistical demands. Thanks for staying there with us in this journey- some of this stuff isn't the sexy/glamourous/exciting news to show and tell you about...BUT it is essential work to add polish to this production, and we hope in some small way you enjoy hearing about this in order to feel informed and reassured of the professional work going into the book.

Thank you and we will update you again in a couple of weeks time with another update! 

Regards, 

Dan and Rex

 WOW! Thank you everyone who has backed "The Battle for Primosole Bridge" already, and thank you for your interest to anyone who has just found our project and is here to find out more...

We certainly didn't imagine we would be at almost 200% funded at half way through the campaign! Thanks very much for your confidence in the book.

We continue to work doing editing and additional final photography for the book. Another load of miniatures is winging its way ( Airborne of course!) from New Zealand to Australia for further photography as we continue to capture images that fulfil our vision of bringing each element of the battle to life. We were confident we were on the right track even before we revealed some of the books images to you for this campaign- and now you've shown you are as excited by our work as we have been to bring it to you, we are so excited for all the images and content that you haven't yet seen in the previews!

We only have some 14 days to go!! If you are reading this and you haven't secured your copy yet, or your buddy is keen but has lost track of the time... now's your time to get that order in before the start of the busy festive season.

Perhaps Santa might bring some wargamers The Battle for Primosole Bridge? If he wanted to here is the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/valhallagames/1015543703/

So here's the first squad (plus) of a new army. In this case; men of the Durham Light Infantry in Sicily '1943.

It has to be said though, that they will have a dual purpose as representing New Zealanders in summer dress in the Italian mainland campaign.

The figures are Warlord games plastics; British and Canadian infantry 43-45. But i have kitbashed parts from their 8th army box set, mainly the weapon arms in shirtsleeves. After doing so, the sword bayonets needed to be exchanged for 'pig sticker' bayonets to be correct.

There are also some other parts from various Warlord Games' kits in there...can you spot them?!? Answers on a stamped, self-addressed envelope...;)

Now...where are those British airborne I need to finish...? (there's always British airborne to be finished!!)

​One does whatever is required to get the figures onto the table... 

This is the result of hoteliers thinking that their guests all want "mood" lighting and not proper lights anywhere in their rooms ...except the bathroom apparently! 

  That and neighbouring guests snoring so loudly that I firstly couldn't get to sleep and then second; woke up at 0520.

  And yes...although I'm away for work who DOESN'T take figures and paint away with them??!!?? The answer is , of course; the wargamers who look back and wish they'd spent a couple of hours in their hotel bathrooms painting last night and this morning.

  And YES of course it turns out  I'd left a couple of colours at home that i wish I'd brought with me- its traditional for the guerilla painter! But its great to be getting layers on and making some progress while sensibly leaving the areas I wanted to leave for my painting hobby  light/magnifying glass such as faces etc. 

   Apologies ...but now you'll understand and hopefully forgive me for the poor lighting and slightly blurry images!

  Stay classy, Dunedin colorblind  Hedgehog bathroom-painting collective. 

Dan 

​The No surrender Event was held a couple of weeks ago here in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

We have this event and my ( Dan) games as a feature in our next podcast, to be released soon to ( firstly) our Patrons via Patreon. Then soon afterward as a general release on your favourite podcast app and afterward, our Youtube channel. Check it out! If you are interested in receiving content such as this early and would like to help support us please feel free to click on the link on our homepage and check out our Patreon.

  Heres the pics to follow along with the podcast to find out whats going on...i better not spoil the results or fun here!! ;) 

​Game 3 vs a veteran Japanese Infantry army ..back on the Tunisian table.

And Finally...Back to the Tunisian table for the final game vs Regular British Late -war infantry...

So thats it everyone...tune in to the podcast for results and details! Thanks and we look forward to us joining us then. Dan.

Needing To build upon the Waffen SS army that ive been working on so they can provide suitable enemy forces to my allies, I have been forging ahead, using the outside chance that I might get to Sydney for MOAB this year ( should it be run in the current COVID 19 circumstances!-Kids of the future ask your parents ;) as a deadline/ impetus to get the job done while in lockdown.

  Latest additions are some SS tank riders from the always-fantastic Offensive miniatures, and a pair of Rubicon models. I added the sdkfz 250/9 upgrade kit (also from Rubicon) as id always admired the build, and then having played against one in my chain of command game at Lard Island vs Richard Clark it looked so fantastic on the table i had to get one myself! 

Once armed it was full steam ahead to get the models put together. This was honestly the ONLY time ive ever had an issue using my plastic glue on the Rubicon models. I DID get the plastic magic glue as a back up purely due to the fact i couldnt get any trusty citadel glue. But my issue was the application of said plastic magic..Honestly; the bushes provided coupled with the fact the level of the glue is so low they barely make contact, then the glue dries barren so fast i just gave up! and later i did regret it; various parts didnt glue as well as previously.

I really cant complain as they quite clearly state this may be the case. Its just that IVE never had this issue before with citadel glue. never mind, got there in the end.

BTW- the pick in the pioneer tools on the opposite side to the photo shown below?..dont bother. it sits awkward on the stowage box on that side &  the hole guides they tell you to drill out are too big. MEH...leave it off and consider it stowed elsewhere from sight.

Incidentally; if you are wondering or had missed it ; YES! the 250/251 autocannon upgrade kits let you make  2 turrets each with cannon; 1x 250 alte , PLUS either a 250 Neu OR 251/23. good value. so ive kept the remainder so i can make a 250 NEU, as i believe the 251/23 wasnt actually produced except prototype. 

The schwimmwagon was lovely to put together also. Another fine model from Rubicon. One  suggestion i would have is leave the double-pioneer tools (on the side facing us in this pic) off until you apply paint and then the load /weight decal and then superglue the tools on. I didnt do this- my vehicle like many doesnt have the painted details intact. no issues. but if you want to apply the decal then try my suggestion perhaps.

I grabbed another vehicle i needed to spray up and got out my long-suffering airbrush and whipped up some;

Dunkelgelb ( VMA Dark yellow), zenithal  highlights adding a tiny bit of ivory to the 'gelb.

Green camo; Tamiya NATO green

Brown Camo; VMC Flat Brown / Chocolate brown in a 66/33- ish!  ratio .

i used some blisterpack sponge and chipped with;  

firstly; the dunkelgelb mixed with a little VMC Ivory...just enough to stand out slightly against both the dunkelgelb base and the areas of the zenithal highlight also.

then when dry; VMC Black grey was  sponged on.

 A Burnt umber oil wash was used in a 'standard' way that scale modellers use to define detail and plates of armour etc. 

When everything was done, then all the details painted in to satisfaction, i used Tamiya TS80 flat clear spray ( as i always do!) to seal and knock back the sheen from the  thinner from the wash and the paints themselves. I love this varnish. it doesnt kill the vibrancy of the colours but makes the model lovely and Matt- try it! 

( The Borgward Wanze only got the green cam for a last levy cam pattern)

Its a shame that this schimmwagon kit didnt come with any plastic sheet to create a windscreen. I dont know if Rubicon provide that with other light vehicles. I did have some spare from warlord opel blitz kits but of course- id just used it elsewhere! never mind; at the moment mines kicked out following damage, and ill add one later if i wish.

Heres some staged pics;

The subtle mud effect on the vehicles like all the ones i have done on this army are the "Vallejo Environment" product 73.826 "Mud and Grass", and a dusting from tamiya weathering makeup kit of dark sand and sand just to pick out tyre treads etc. 

Ive left the pair of optional pintle MGs of the swimmwagon at the moment, i can add them if i choose they just slip in and out of the pintle.

The tank riders work is underway and i aim to finish them off in the next few days.

​Well, the holiday period is a memory of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away for all of us now! Remember holidays?!..me neither.

However, as followers will note, I decided to make a crazy commitment to paint 12 seperate sets of models in my "Twelve days of Xmas " blogpost i did immediately before Christmas. How did I do?!!?....

Well; I failed. 

BUT; Did I ? in the post-new years resolution semi apocalyptic wasteland of Mid February, where guess many people are regrettably feeling down- I actually dont! Why? because i set a massive bold target that was always going to be a big ask. With the ethos that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, i threw myself into the task and achieved WAAAAAY more than i possibly would have if i hadnt made a public announcement of crazy intent!!

Between travelling to a seperate piece of the country, enjoying family time over the holidays  and then getting deployed to an exercise mid/late Jan i was hamstrung for carting large pieces of terrain and tanks on my paint list away. But, excuses aside, i feel like i 'shot for the moon and landed among the stars' anyway with the quantity i did get done. so without further ado heres what i got done;

Hope you agree and maybe you can relate or you might find it helpful to take another look at some of your projects you feel you 'Failed' at yourself and see them in a more positive light...remember its fun not life or death, and if you had a great holiday but ALSO suprised yourself with better productivity due to the challenge, then its got to be good for you! so i AM planning to do the "12 days of xmas " challenge again next xmas- whos with me??!!?

Regards, Dan.