warhammer, wh40k, flames of war, bolt action, aeronautica imperialis, star wars, models, news, views and stuff
On the cover of a recent Miniature Wargames was a sprue of Wargames Atlantic Werewolves. I constructed the models and based them on two pence coins.
I then gave the models a white undercoat.
The next stage was to use Citadel Basilicanum Grey Contrast paint as a base coat.
More soon.
I’ve always liked the Arvus Lighter. I did think about getting some resin versions for Aeronautica Imperialis. I was pleased to see the plastic versions for Legions Imperialis and they did go on that awfully long wants list. Visiting Jadlam Toys and Models in Glastonbury I was browsing and saw they had a box of the Legions Imperialis Arvus Lighters on sale at 33% off. Bargain, so I bought the box.
The Arvus Lighter is a solid and reliable workhorse shuttle, affectionately referred to as ‘Little Pig’ among air crews. The Solar Auxilia employ these durable craft as unarmed combat transports, to insert officers and specialists into a war zone with pinpoint accuracy.
In the box you get eight aircraft, across two sprues.
Alongside with flying bases and a transfer sheet. With appropriate bases they can also be used in Aeronautica Imperialis.
I am planning to paint four of them using the same painting method as I did with my Valkyrie transports.
The other four will be in a different Imperial scheme.
I have put the forthcoming 28mm version on that wants list.
After thinking about it for a while I have ordered the Battlefront Militia Group and Pickup Trucks for Team Yankee. Back in 2022 I was intrigued and pleased to see the announcement of the release of Team Yankee: Red Dawn.
I like the concept of armed militia and pick up trucks with HMGs on board, they had been on my wants list for a while. They could also be used for games in Wessex: The Second English Civil War for insurgent and militia forces. You get four pickup trucks, each armed with an HMG. Having constructed and undercoated the trucks I made a start on the militia group.
In the militia group, you get twenty six miniatures. It contains:
5x Assault Rifle Teams
2x RPG-7 Anti-tank Teams
1x M224 60mm Mortar Team
These are the battlefront images.
The models come in a blister pack.
Rather than paint the models on a stick, I cleaned the models and stuck them to the included brown bases.
I then used the Woodland Scenics turf for the bases. For larger scale models I would use Citadel Sand, but the scale of these models are too small for the sand.
The next step was a white undercoat.
I have a spare model which I am going to use as a testbed for painting, and then will use it in one of the pick up trucks.
On the cover of an issue of Wargames Illustrated was a free sprue of Napoleonic British Line Infantry from Warlord Games. You get five models on the sprue. I think these will supplement my 95th Rifles models as soldiers of the South Essex.
Having started on some French Infantry, I constructed the five models. These were very easy to put together, the body was a single piece, needing to only glue the head to the torso and the backpack to the back of the soldier. I based them on two pence pieces.
Well I based four of them, as I then ran out of two pence coins. I had to wait until I had some more before I could base the fifth soldier.
I then added Citadel Sand to the bases using PVA white glue.
Next stage was a white undercoat.
My first experience of wargaming was Napoleonics with plastic Airfix soldiers and metal Minifigs.
I really enjoyed both watching the Sharpe TV series and then reading the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.
The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.
I have been constructing two 15mm models of the Maus Super Heavy Tank. One from Zvezda and the other from Clash of Steel. Having given both models a white undercoat I gave them a base coat of Army Painter Desert Yellow Spray.
This is the Zvezda model.
This is the Clash of Steel model.
I sprayed the tracks with Mechanicus Standard Grey Spray, though I think they will be painted a dark brown colour eventually.
The next stage will be painting the tracks and the camouflage. I am going to go for the similar pattern as on the GF9 Clash of Steel model.
Though as I don’t have an airbrush I am going to have to do this by hand with a paintbrush.
I got the Legions Imperialis: Rhino Transport boxed set as a present last Christmas.
The Rhino is the most widely used armoured personnel carrier in the Imperium. Based upon ancient STC technology, the fundamental design is robust, reliable, and easy to maintain, with an adaptive power plant that can run off a wide variety of fuels. Within the Space Marine Legions, the Deimos pattern was the most widespread, serving as the basic armoured transport available to the Legiones Astartes and the foundation on which a number of other war machines were based.
In the box you get two sprues that can be used to construct ten models. I made up five of the models and gave them a white undercoat.
I then gave the models a spray of Army Painter Demonic Yellow.
The next stage will be painting the tracks and other details on the models.
On the cover of a recent Miniature Wargames magazine was a free sprue of SneakFeet from Wargames Atlantic. Of course in any other place these would be space hobbits or halflings. Another place calls them Ratlings.
I borrowed some spare round bases I had and constructed the four models.
They were a little challenging to put together for me. You certainly get a wide choice of arms and heads, I wasn’t always sure about the best arms to use. However quite pleased with the end result.
The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.
This Maus came in the Operation Unthinkable starter set for Clash of Steel. One of seventeen tanks in the box.
This is the sprue.
The model was a relatively simple build.
I kept the tracks off the model to paint separately.
Having recently constructed the Zvezda Maus, it’s interesting to compare the two models.
They are pretty much identical.
However from a modelling perspective, the Clash of Steel version is much easier to put together.
I then gave the Maus a white undercoat.
The yellow of the plastic can still be seen, but I wasn’t trying to do a thicker base coat, this was about setting a primer for the sand base coat later.
Next step will be painting the model a sand colour.
The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.
I’ve always been impressed with the 1/100th scale models from Zvezda as well as being good quality plastic miniatures they are also reasonably priced. I was intrigued to see that my local model shop had the German super heavy tank Maus in their range of Zvezda kits.
I think it might have been priced wrongly at £3.50 as similar boxes (i.e. the bigger boxes) were £7.00. So I bought two for potential objectives or models for alternate history games set at the end of World War Two.
The model comprises two plastic sprues and look detailed and I think it will capture the feel of this monstrous tank.
The sprues have sat around for a while, but having recently purchased a similar 1/100th scale 15mm Maus from Battlefront I was intrigued to see the comparison.
The next stage was to construct the models, even though it says snap-fit, decided to glue the model together. I was going add some weight to the model too, so give it some heft and ballast. I think a super heavy tank, even at 1/100th scale, should be “super heavy”. However, I didn’t have any weights to hand. The model was not as simple as I thought it would be to construct, I had issues with getting the gun the right way around, but got there in the end.
This is a large 15mm model, as compared to the M18 Hellcat in the same scale.
The next stage was a white undercoat.
I have the Operation Unthinkable boxed set containing the American and Soviet tanks. The GF9 Operation Unthinkable boxed set, the American versus Soviet, contains 21 tanks. Two of these are the M18 Hellcat.
The M18 Hellcat is a tank destroyer used by the United States Army in World War II and the Korean War. Despite being equipped with the same main gun as some variants of the much larger Sherman tank, the M18 attained a much higher top speed of up to 55 mph by keeping armour to a minimum, and using the innovative Torqmatic automatic transmission.
This is the GF9 finished model.
This is the sprue.
The model goes together quite easily. I like how the track sections are complete parts.
The turret was a little trickier, but got there in the end.
I gave the model a white undercoat.
The next stage was to paint them, using Army Painter Army Green Spray.
The next stage will be painting the tracks.