Assyrian army

Assyrian army

Saturday 29 June 2019

Test post 2 - the Germans

My WW2 forces are best described as chaotic. Some are survivals from the 60s, they then run a complete gamut up to  now. Scales, 1/76th, 1/72nd, 1/300th, 15mm, 20mm, 28mm...

So, perhaps concentrating on 1/76th to 28mm late war Germans. Not all in good condition or finished.

As I think I said - chaotic.
I would again say yes, the 'smaller' tanks fit in OK as do the bigger ones. I also think it was a good choice to just use a single storey for the buildings, perhaps two stories would be a bit overpowering.

I did get carried away putting everything out.

This little lot must represent at least four different manufacturers over a thirty year period - at least they are all nominally the same scale.

Ones from the past - a converted Airfix armoured car. The Airfix armoured car was weird - a strange hybrid between the 231 and 234 series - the 75mm PaK40 gun of the 234/4 on a 231 chassis. So, new superstructure and balsa turret gave my 1970s/80s armoured divisions a more typical armoured car - this is the sole survivor of half a dozen, now replaced by more accurate Frontline Miniatures vehicles. The 105mm artillery piece is the Revell offering, probably 90s, - I still have the other gun and horse team in it's box.








Friday 28 June 2019

A test post - checking if things 'look right'

I set up some of my 28mm Newhaven stuff with a view to seeing how things 'fit in'. The original thought was the Rolls Royce armoured car of course. These things are about 8' high whereas the model scales out at nearer 6' in comparison with the 28mm items.


Instead of using the buildings as two storied buildings I set them up as one storied. Knowing that I was going to be using smaller scale figures in my tests I didn't want the size difference to be completely overpowering.

Putting the Rolls into the setup my sole question was 'does it look OK?'
Looking at it - well, it's smaller and not as imposing, but overall it LOOK OK, so on balance it's usable.

Next thing is to check against WW2 wargames models...






Thursday 27 June 2019

HBLS Rolls Royce armoured car

Twenty or thirty years ago I bought some HLBS armoured cars. Coming across them recently it seemed like a good idea to start incorporating them into the Newhaven Pulp universe...

So I've started with the Rolls.
I haven't spent a lot of time on it - few coats of light olive, no shading or anything - it has to fit in with everything to a degree and they are unshaded. So far I haven't put a coating of gloss varnish on it but think I might.

The other two are both 'Russian' - an Austin Putilov and a Garford Putlov. No matter, Newhaven doesn't have either geographical or temporal restrictions.
My one regret with this range is that I didn't buy more when they were available. I want some Leichter Kampfwagen IIs.

Saturday 22 June 2019

A quick bridge

Somewhere I've got this model bridge. I think it was made by Hovels a long, long time ago. Went looking for it when I was setting up the Five Dogs but couldn't find it.

It's a bridge. A sort of rickety locally built thing on a back road somewhere. Should be easy enough to just quickly knock up something that would do the job.

No drama. I was right. Started setting the scenario up in the morning, was taking photos of the setup that afternoon - though the paint on the bridge was still wet.
Road just 3 pieces of balsa, fence posts my normal thin rod taking from the blinds kit I bought years (and years. And years.) ago.

Nothing 'clever' about any of this - road just painted earth over the base and bits of different browns brushed in.

The fence was simply sprayed army green that acted as the base coat.

The underside just had 2 lengths of balsa to raise it off the ground and act as a support.
Looks good on the table, that's what counts.










Friday 21 June 2019

A sort of balsa Review

More a quick comparison of some of the balsa tanks and planes I've produced over the decades.
I started with tanks a long, long time ago. Most of those are gone but my 70s to 90s Japanese army had a lot of scratch built tanks and guns.  In those days, I made no attempt at doing accurate wheels - paint did the job. Just noticed that I didn't get round to posting my Japanese gun park, I'm tagging it on the end of this post.

Aircraft more recent - the Sukhoi Su2 is only a few years old. The A13s, on the other hand, followed on straight from the Japanese tanks and I did make an attempt on the wheels. The CS version has an early attempt by me at making moulds and casting in resin.

A comparison between the Sukoi and my nice, shiny 'new' Stinson and Boeing look-alikes.

The sheer size difference between 1/72nd scale (20mm) Sukoi and the other 28mm planes is quite obvious.

Next plane I make I might try and paint the fuselage as much as possible before I put the wings, etc, on - should make it easier. Though at the moment the ones most in consideration (apart from a tri-motor?) would be more Sukois or some Night Witches. I really would like a flight of Night Witches...
And here are some of what used to be a much larger and more varied collection of Japanese guns.Old Tiger road wheels were very useful.






Wednesday 19 June 2019

Boeing 247 Finished

Quite a bit gone on with this since last post, it's now finished. Before I go into details, I'll issue my usual warning: It's not meant to be an accurate model of a Boeing 247, I'm not good enough for that, it's meant as a wargames accessory for various pulp games that is designed to represent a generic 2 engined 1930s plane that just happens to be loosely based on a Boeing 247!
This shot is just to show the plane in relation to my pulp figures and Lledo vehicles. One thing I think I will do is to make the door a bit bigger.
The number NC13366 is not pure fiction. I've seen pictures of a couple of these starting NC133 - including  NC13361 - so the number may even have been borne by an actual plane.

Quite a few of the aircraft pictures I've seen included a large logo or similar behind the door so I thought - why not?

This shows the simple design I've used for the wheels. I've got a length of brass tubing going from the wheel into a hole in the engine housing with a second, shorter,  strut that stops it going in too far. Being easily replaceable I could easily swap the wheels with floats or skis - though not sure if I'll make them


So that's it. Colour scheme was because I felt it had to be green or blue/grey and I had a can of Wolf Grey lying around that I generally use to represent water.

Now, that's the two I wanted - generic single engine plane and generic two engine machine - do I go for broke and add a totally unwarranted  three engined Ford TriMotor clone?







Monday 17 June 2019

I've updated the Five Hounds post!

Set up, photographed and ready.



Plus I'm still messing with the blog layout - trying to get a different picture on each side. May take a while.

Sunday 16 June 2019

1897 More Prussians painted

Looking through my various 'currently in the dip' jars I found that the Zinnfiguren Prussians were ready so, why not? - only 10 of them, over 3-4 days....

Now finished.
Nice looking figures, being home drop-cast not as good as spincast but usable.

Issues easiest seen on the stocks of some of the rifles. Some don't have a stock.

On balance though they still look alright - especially if you look on them as toy standard rather than model standard.

Don't really know how the backpacks should look but happy with this colour scheme. Toys...

Perhaps I should have chosen a better infantryman for the close up!





Saturday 15 June 2019

Boeing update

Basic model complete except for engines. Must admit I enjoy doing these - they serve a need, no one really makes them and I'm generally using materials that are lying around anyway  - apart from the 70mm mdf circles for the bases, bought those to mount trees and will have to replace them!
Wing assembly - cut out template from plan, draw across fuselage on wing section, then other wing mirror image of first.

Slot wings in fuselage - I'm surprised how close a fit I managed. For me.
Very surprised.


Tail assembly nearly finished.
And still looking fine.
And... since writing this did some more work on it and may may as well add the extra pictures - though props still in an unfinished state.



One nice thing about this plane is the retractable undercarriage. That means I can 'slot in' a removable undercarriage, skis or floats.









Friday 14 June 2019

The Battle

Now the shooting starts...


Things starting to appear and trying to cross the hedges. This was one of the main features of this battle - tanks rolling dice to cross hedges and failing.

Mostly the tanks managed. Meanwhile, the reluctance of the German infantry to advance across an open field proved to be right as they ran into fire and quite a few died.

The panthers and one of the Tigers concentrated on the Shermans which eventually died. Another thing about this battle was that most things (apart from German infantry) didn't want to die - think I've mentioned my families' ability to roll low?

This lot for instance. 9" normal move through these woods so I said 'OK, 1-2 = 3", 3-4 = 6". 5-6 = 9". They managed 9" in 3 moves.

The battle here finished with one King Tiger and the 76mm Sherman dead. I later realised that, because the model was a Firefly, I was treating it as gun class 1 - it should have been class 2!

American tanks dead, infantry in hiding, German tanks shooting from the hedge, infantry advancing...

And this guy still stuck on the hedge. Well, he's over 30 years old. Could be 50.

Learnt a few things. King Tigers difficult to kill. Actually, everything difficult to kill or move if you keep rolling 1 or 2.  On the other hand, gave me a chance to re familiarise myself with Rapid Fire moves.



















Wednesday 12 June 2019

Generic Boeing 247 or similar

Still not getting much done with the battles, but have started the next part of the pulp air transport component- very loosely based on a Boeing 247.
Initial attempt needs taller cabin, lower nose - out with the knife.
General body shape still subject to change!

Still working on things - the passenger windows have been drawn on too high up.

 Getting the fuselage looking right is always my first concern. The wings will have to be a bit thinner than on the original 'inspiration' and the fuselage could have done with being wider - but, just using what's already lying around, that includes available size of balsa!

As far as the layout changes go - I'm getting sorted a bit, will need to take some photos to use on the background - starting to see how it will go...















Tuesday 11 June 2019

Starting the battle

Got in a couple of moves between other things - no more than twenty minutes. It's my grasshopper thing - I am doing several things at once again.
Diced to see what was coming on and where. First to appear was some German infantry. They came and.... stopped. So there are a load of German infantry in cover along the hedge and the M3 sentry - didn't spot them...

So, more attempts and this time the dice said that tanks were coming down the road. This time the M3 saw the tanks and decided it was time to go. Meanwhile, the German infantry - well, still didn't move.
There is a standing joke in our family that we never roll high. That's proving true a lot here. The only high rolls (5 or 6) were for the infantry to come on, then the tanks, then rolled 6 for type of  tank. My intention was 1,2 Panther, 3,4 Tiger, 5,6 King Tiger. Of the 3tank types, naturally the only one that still at the base coat only stage was the King Tiger - so that's the third time the dice went high!

Next move the shooting should start, but the way things are going could be a while.