Building the Wargames Factory 28mm War of Spanish Succession Artillery

I liked this kit so much that I built it right away (instead of adding it to the ever-growing pile of projects). Aside from a complete lack of instructions it was no problem to build but I can see where someone unfamiliar with 18th century cannon could run into a problem or two. I will point them out as we move along.

removed from the sprue the parts revealed minor mold-lines, 

these cleaned up easily with a sharp X-Acto knife

Wargames Factory 28mm War of Spanish Succession Artillery set

     I found these during a recent visit to Michigan Toy Soldier and I must say that I am glad that I did! Cast is a medium gray hard plastic with crisp detail and nearly no mold lines these are very nice indeed. The uniforms are generic enough that they will do for most combatants (with a little extra work they could extend back to the Dutch War of Devolution and as far forward as the 1740's). The cost of 28mm cannon models has long been an obstacle to having a large collection in this period, these models solve that problem nicely as they come in at about US$20.00 a box complete with crew and tools and have a a bonus of two mounted commanders as well. An excellent deal.

again the dreadful box-art

NEWS FLASH Perry Miniatures set to release 28mm plastic AWI British

Another great entry in the expanding line of Perry Bros. Miniatures British troops for the American War of Independence. And they look lovely! Take a peek:  http://www.perry-miniatures.com/index.php

Blood Bowl Tourney?

This is something that I've been mulling for a while and we sort of tried out when Honest Dan was around. I think now is the time to actually try and execute it, though. Right now I have access to at least 3 computers which can play Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition, each of which can be transported to Anton's house. This means that we could, theoretically, have three games going all at once.

My proposal is this: We should run a quick, however-many-guys tournament this weekend as a proof-of-concept. It would be TV1000 and would stay that way, meaning experience wouldn't be accumulated during the tourney. This way it keeps things simple and we aren't slowed down by guys needing to do their book-keeping immediately after their games. It also would keep things less complex, as we'd all be playing with the standard lists.

For those who read the blog and are in the group: Are you up for this? Since the computer basically does all the rolls and keeps things consistent with the rules, you don't really need to be all that knowledgeable in Blood Bowl to play. So don't think that "lack of knowledge" is a preventative factor here. If you are, I'd prefer you to send me your teams to my email (Which is (my username without spaces)@gmail.com) or simply post them here so that I can have them made up beforehand and save us a little time.

If this isn't a good weekend for anyone, however, please speak up. I don't mind moving it to a later date where we can get more people, but I'd like to try it in the next month or so.

An interesting site

     I know I spend too much time mucking about on the interwebs and not enough time building/painting etc but every once in a while I stumble across a gem. I found one such site w short while ago: The Prison Art Chronicles , an oddly named but highly amusing portion of the MillionMonkeyTheater.com website. It is a recording of one man's obsession with building models out of stuff that is essentially free (or nearly so) and he has built some beautiful models along the way. Take a look, also take a peek at the host page if you are at all interested in cheesy old movies (they review some real whoppers, truly MST3K worthy stuff).  Enjoy!

Building the Zvezda 1/144 Hawker Hurricane

     I have to confess that the Hurricane was always one of my favorite aircraft, overshadowed by the longer-lived and far sexier Spitfire the Hurricane was the backbone, muscle and sinew of the RAF during the hard days of the Battle for France and the the Battle of Britain. Easier to build and maintain, the Hurricane was numerically the most significant fighter of the RAF through those dark days. I always thought it looked cooler as well. Zvezda has added this aircraft to their growing line of 1/144 scale models and it is a beautiful kit.

box art is rather uninspired

Building the Zvezda KhT-26 flame tank 1/100 15mm

     This little model hardly needs an assembly article, but I have dome them for all of the other kits so here we go;

the front of the box, nice illustration

More Russian Beauties, building Zvezda's Matador truck 1/100 15mm

     This is another of the kits that I did a sprue-review on a little while back and have finally gotten around to building. As always with Zvezda kits it is a little gem of detail and very creative thinking in the "make it a snap-tight: way. This truck was one of the real work-horses of the British war effort so if you are building a Brit army for WW2 you will need a goodly many of these. Good thing that they are only about five bucks US.

Spending the afternoon with some Russian beauties, Zvezda I mean, Part IV; building the PZ IV d 1/100 15mm

     I remember doing a review of this kit ages ago when it first came out but, for reasons unknown, I never posted a build on it. Well better late than never, so here we go.

box art and contents

Spending the afternoon with some Russian beauties, Zvezda that is, Part III Building the PZ III Flam 1/100 15mm

     Having reviewed this kit some time ago I finally got around to putting it together. As anyone familiar with Zvezda kits would expect it went together without a hitch, the fit and finish of the parts was superlative. I still can't believe that these are snap-tight kits, they simply are as good as plastic gets in this scale.

box art, OK but not great

Spending an afternoon with some Russian Beauties Part II, The BA-10 1/100 15mm

     Having finished the last big boat project I needed something different. I cast my eye around my overcrowded "toy room" for something simple and undemanding and there they were, a bevy of beauties from the far-off land of Russia; a pile of Zvezda kits that I had picked up and never built! I scooped them up and got to work right away

      The Stug kit being a dead-easy build I looked for something that would be more of a challenge, there it was the BA-10. Not that there is anything particularly hard about this kit but is does have lots more parts and they are tiny (and my fingers are bratwurst-sized). Off to the races I went!

Box art, nice to see something other than all-green on Russian armor

Spending an afternoon with some Russian beauties, Zvezda that is, Part I The Stug III 1/100 15mm tanks

    Having finished the last big boat project I needed something different. I cast my eye around my overcrowded "toy room" for something simple and undemanding and there they were, a bevy of beauties from the far-off land of Russia; a pile of Zvezda kits that I had picked up and never built! I scooped them up and got to work right away

       First up we will consider the Stug III kit

box art, captures the subject very well