Thrud

Thrud the Barbarian

Thrud.

Who was Thrud?

Thrud the Barbarian is a comics character created by Carl Critchlow in 1981. Although Thrud himself is a parody of Conan the Barbarian, particularly as depicted in the Arnold Schwarzenegger films, inspiration for the character’s adventures and adversaries has been drawn from several fantasy sources. During the 1980s, a Thrud comic strip was a regular strip in White Dwarf.

This model was painted by me and was done in the 1980s using a blending style and minimal washes, with some dry brushing. The rocks on the base are milliput.

"The House Subscription Deal is now sold out"

If you were thinking of doing the subscription deal for the new houses from Battlefront you are now out of luck as the House Subscription Deal is now sold out.

The House Subscription Deal is now sold out

The main advantage of the deal was the free shipping, the guarantee that you would get every house released and all the extras too.

As a bonus for subscribing to the full set you will receive an add-on set, including villagers, monuments, walls and other urban extras to the value of two houses. We will also throw in free shipping as an added bonus.

So it sounds like you’ll get these walls and the monument.

The Add-ons - Walls and Monuments

Not sure if that bonus includes the extensions?

The Add-Ons: European House Extensions

Well I am very pleased with my Calais House which arrived today. It is really nicely done.

Update: The Calais House has also sold out, so if you want one you will need to check your local shop, but I suspect you would need to be quite lucky to get one.

Comet

This Comet is at Bovington, well the photograph was taken fifteen years ago I think, so it was certainly there back then… 😉

The Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of World War II.

The Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of World War II. It was designed to provide greater anti-tank capability to Cromwell tank squadrons. It was armed with a 77mm HV, a derivative of the 17 pounder, with the result that it was one of the few British tanks with the firepower to challenge late war German designs.

As a development of the Cromwell, it was an interim design before the Centurion tank. Seeing post World War II combat during the Korean war, the Comet remained in British service until 1958. Comets sold to other countries continued in some cases to operate into the 1970s.

It is one of those tanks that I think I like because of the Airfix and Matchbox influence, there was a lovely 1:76th scale plastic kit of the Comet from Matchbox that I remember building. I am expecting that we might eventually see one for Flames of War… you never know.

Tanking in the Last Crusade

Tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Though we know it wasn’t real, and though we know that there was no actual historical version of it; I am sure most of us who have thought about recreating the Indiana Jones films on the table have wanted to use that tank.

Yes the tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

It appears at first glance to be a Mark VIII with a turret, the reality was that it was built specially for the film and was built up from an excavator.

Mechanical effects supervisor George Gibbs said this movie was the most difficult one of his career. He visited a museum to negotiate renting a small French World War I tank, but decided he wanted to make one. The tank was based on the tank Mark VIII, which was thirty-six feet (eleven meters) long, and weighed twenty-five tons. Gibbs built the tank over the framework of a twenty-five ton excavator, and added 6.4 ton tracks, that were driven by two automatic hydraulic pumps, each connected to a Range Rover V8 engine. Gibbs built the tank from steel, rather than aluminum or fiberglass, because it would allow the realistically suspensionless vehicle to endure the rocky surfaces. Unlike its historical counterpart, which had only the two side guns, the tank had a turret gun added as well. It took four months to build, and was transported to Almería on a Short Belfast plane, and then a low loader truck.

Now regular readers of my blog may remember this photo.

The Talisman Archaeologist from Talisman Timescape

The Talisman Archaeologist from Talisman Timescape is very much an Indy lookalike and many years ago I started to formulate a series of rules and background for creating games in an Indiana Jones style universe that was called Tally Ho!

I always wanted to get a World War One era tank to fit into the game and recreate that battle with the tank from the Last Crusade film.

Well now I can get a 28mm tank just like that one from the film. Copplestone Castings have released the K64 Mark IX Beast Super-Heavy Tank and Accessory Pack.

Mark IX Beast

This is an almost perfect replica of that tank from that film.

Really impressed with the look and quality, might get one. As for rules, well I will probably mash up the rules from The Great War with the Old West. Or even just the Great War rules.

Buying a house

This month sees the initial release of the Normandy style houses from Battlefront. The first model is the Calais House.

They do seem to have been very popular, with lots of pre-orders.

Our first steps into the real estate market have proved even more rewarding than we had anticipated with our first property, a sunny little house in Calais, selling so fast that we will probably be out before the end of the week. The reason I bring this up is that currently we have orders from our stores around the world far exceeding the supply and we are only three days into solicitation. As our original plan was to make a set number and then have a new one come each month we are overjoyed by the response but we will not be making more of the first house. We will have no choice but to allocate stock to stores to be as fair as possible and give at least some to everybody that has made orders.

It looks like the Calais house will sell out imminently and may have even sold out by the time you read this. After some consideration I did go and order mine, I was hoping to buy it from a local shop, but if the pre-orders are anything to go by then I would probably never have managed to get one.
I did consider doing the subscription deal, but not sure if I want ALL the buildings…

Space Dwarf, okay it’s a Squat, with a Lasgun

We came to know them as Squats, but when this model was released they were Space Dwarves!

Space Dwarf, okay it's a Squat, with a Lasgun

I do like this model, no idea why I painted it “pink” or is it purple. I think I was playing around with the different Citadel Colour paints at that time.

Space Dwarf, okay it's a Squat, with a Lasgun

Lots of blending, but could probably do with some “washes” to smooth out the starkness of the paintwork.