Felix's Gaming Pages

54mm D-Day on display at the Nothe Fort

It was seventy-eight years ago that the liberation of Europe began with Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings on the 6th June 1944.

In the depths of the Nothe Fort in Weymouth (as well as a civillian nuclear bunker (now abandoned)) there is a really beautiful 54mm scale model of the D-Day landings. Lots of different models in there including an Horsa glider.

It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

More photographs of the evocative 54mm scale D-Day model at the Nothe Fort in Weymouth.

Bristol Beaufort

The Bristol Beaufort is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber.

The Bristol Beaufort was the only monoplane produced for the Royal Air Force that was designed from the start to satisfy the dual role of general reconnaissance and torpedo bomber.

The prototype flew for the first time on 15 October 1938 and Beauforts entered service with No.22 Squadron in November 1939, remaining Coastal Command’s standard torpedo bomber until 1943. Beauforts first saw service with Royal Air Force Coastal Command and then the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm from 1940. They were used as torpedo bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers until 1942, when they were removed from active service and were then used as trainer aircraft until being declared obsolete in 1945. Total Beaufort production was 1380, including 700 built in Australia.

While operating in Coastal Command, Beauforts saw action over the North Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic. In 1942 all Beaufort squadrons were deployed to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean to meet a changing enemy threat. Malta-based aircraft were particularly successful in attacks on Axis shipping at a critical time in the war in North Africa.

Beauforts also saw considerable action in the Mediterranean; Beaufort squadrons based in Egypt and on Malta helped interdict Axis shipping supplying Rommel’s Afrikakorps in North Africa.

The Beaufort was adapted as a long-range heavy fighter variant called the Beaufighter, which proved to be very successful and many Beaufort units eventually converted to the Beaufighter.

The Bristol Beaufort at RAF London is a Beaufort Mk.VIII A9-559 – a composite of several RAAF aircraft.

Pre-ordered the Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino

I was pleased to see one of the new Horus Heresy releases announced at Warhammer Fest was the Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino. So when it was available today for pre-order I clicked through and ordered the kit from my local FLGS.

Looking at the sprues (on the GW site) there are a lot of parts, a lot more parts than when the original plastic Rhino kit came out in the 1980s.

I like the kit and retro yet modern look they have achieved with the kit. Well Forge World did do that ten years ago… This is of course a plastic version of that Forge World resin and plastic hybrid kit.

I did think about ordering the big £180 Age of Darkness boxed set, but decided I would probably never paint all that plastic.

Constructing the Thermic Plasma Conduits

I picked up a copy of Warhammer Imperium Issue 37 which comes with some Thermic Plasma Conduits.

This kit is no longer available from Games Workshop and you get one sprue which allows you to build a series of conduits.

The kit goes together quite easily. I made mine into three large conduits.

The next stage will be a white undercoat.

de Havilland Tiger Moth

The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft.

In addition to the type’s principal use for initial training, the Second World War had RAF Tiger Moths operating in other capacities, including maritime surveillance and defensive anti-invasion preparations; some aircraft were even outfitted to function as armed light bombers.

Thermic Plasma Conduits

I picked up a copy of Warhammer Imperium Issue 37 which comes with some Thermic Plasma Conduits.

This kit is no longer available from Games Workshop and I did quite like the idea of these and using them with the ruined factorum models that I also got from earlier issues of Warhammer Imperium.

You get one large sprue which splits into two smaller sprues, and allows you to build a series of conduits.

The finished model looks quite effective.

Bristol Beaufighter

The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The prototype flew on 17 July 1939 and the first production Beaufighters were delivered to RAF Fighter Command squadrons in the April 1940.

It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber. The Beaufighter proved to be an effective night fighter, which came into service with the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, its large size allowing it to carry heavy armament and early airborne interception radar without major performance penalties.

The Beaufighter strike fighter, with its formidable fire power, operated with distinction in North West Europe before gaining a considerable reputation in the Mediterranean and Far East. Operated by both the British and Australian air forces in the Far East it quickly became known to the Japanese as the ‘Whispering Death’.

Later the Beaufighter was introduced into Coastal Command as a strike fighter. Its original formidable gun armament was retained but rockets and torpedoes were added giving it even greater firepower.

A total of 5562 Beaufighters were produced and the last one was delivered in September 1945. Fifty-two operational Royal Air Force squadrons had been equipped with the type.

After its withdrawal from front-line service many Beaufighters were converted to target tug duties and in fact the last flight of the type in Royal Air Force service was made by a TT10 on 17 May 1960.

Undercoating the converted ruins.

Having picked up the Ruined Factorum sprue that came with Warhammer 40000 Imperium 31 a couple of weeks back, I set myself a reminder, to purchase issue 34 for the second sprue .

The ruins are from the The Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sub-cloister and Storage Fane kit which did cost £37.50 at Games Workshop and contains two similar sprues. So at £8.99 you would be making a saving of £9.76. However you can’t buy the kit anymore anyhow.

This time, as before, you get two more corner ruins, all coming on a single sprue. I did manage to pick up a second magazine and decided that I would convert them. It was a relatively simple conversion swapping over the corners. With the larger sides I needed to cut them down.

Having converted and constructed the models, so I now have two different (yet similar) ruins.

I gave them a white undercoat.

You can see what I did by comparing the photo above with the photo of the unconverted ruin.

This is the other converted ruin.

You can see what I did by comparing the photo above with the photo of the unconverted ruin.

I am intending to follow the same painting process I used on the original ruins.

Sopwith Snipe

The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of the conflict, in late 1918.

The Snipe was not a fast aircraft by the standards of its time, but its excellent climb and manoeuvrability made it a good match for contemporary German fighters.

It was selected as the standard postwar single-seat RAF fighter and the last examples were not retired until 1926.

Undercoating some more of the Ruined Factorum

I got a couple of Ruined Factorum sprues that came with Warhammer 40000 Imperium 34. The ruins are from the The Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sub-cloister and Storage Fane kit which did cost £37.50 at Games Workshop and contains two similar sprues. So at £8.99 you would be making a saving of £9.76. However you can’t buy the kit anymore anyhow.

There are going to be further releases of these ruin sprues in later issues of Warhammer 40000 Imperium.

Having constructed the models I gave them a white undercoat.

The model has two pieces, a larger ruined building and a smaller ruined corner.

This is the larger corner ruin.

I bought another sprue. One I am going to paint in the same manner as the first Ruined Factorum I got, the second I am intending to follow the (white and red) paint scheme as outlined in Warhammer 40000 Imperium.