Great Deal from Helion Books

     Helion Books is offering their "Russian Army In The Great Northern War" book at 1/3 off through The League of Augsburg blog this is a great deal on a truly superb book. If you are at all interested in this subject you really should have this book. Don't miss this deal.

My how the time flies!

     Just over four decades ago I played in my first "real" wargame. I was hooked from the first turn. My first armies were Airfix plastics, long since given away. My first army of metal figures was Byzantines, there was only Hinchliffe available to me at the time and I avidly saved my money and bought a pack every time I had accumulated sufficient cash. They were painted with my Testors model paints and glued to whatever I could find that was roughly the right size for a base. As time passed better figures became available, first the "second generation" Hinchliffes, then Citadel brought a lovely range and just recently I returned to my love of Late Romans because of Gripping Beasts new products.

     Unlike other armies that have come and gone I still have every single Byzantine figure I ever bought. From time to time they still are deployed on the table and they fight as well as ever despite their clearly advancing age. I know I rave a bit about the quality of this or that figure but I think you should understand what we were looking at in the misty dawn of time when I was a new gamer; so I dug out some examples of how things have changed. Behold the sort of progress that upwards of forty years can make!

 

the family photo, time passes from left to right

Size comparison, Old Glory T-55 vs PSC T-55 vs Peter Pig T-55

    Having put a spot of paint on my new T-55 I decided to see how it compares to the venerable Old Glory version that I have in my AK-47 collection. Once again the grid lines are 1/4". Given its age the Old Glory model holds up rather well.

Cold War Workhorse Part II The PSC T-55

   I have had this kit for some time and just now realized that I had not done a review of it. So Here I go...... Plastic Soldier Company has done a great job of bringing affordable, highly-detailed models of the most common tanks to the wargaming community. In this subject they have produced an excellent model of the most common tank in the world; the Russian T-55 (and a good many of its variants). With some estimates running as high as 100,000 models made the T-55 will figure large in any wargaming of the post WW2 era.

 

front box art

     Molded in a medium gray plastic that shows detail well and cast without flash or noticeable mold-lines this kit provides parts to build six variants of this long serving tank.

Photo review of Conquest miniatures 28mm Medieval Knights

   I had the pleasure of reviewing the latest issue from Conquest Miniatures, Medieval Knights for the period mid1100s-1200AD. Don't let the tragically bad box-art fool you, these are really good figures!

A more or less typical Night with Anton

I have been waiting to post this one for a while as I figured I should wait until Anton came back to the land of the living (sober) after his revelries.  I figured posting would be a good sign so now that he has made several I will launch this missive. 


So, for all of you gentle readers who have never had the pleasure of an evening at Anton's I thought I would write this one up to reflect the modus vivendi of the group. 

Review of the PSC Cold War Soviet Infantry

     I had a chance to review the new Plastic Soldier Company Cold War Soviet Infantry set. Top quality product all around!

28mm Plastic Horse Size Comparison

     In response to a question I received I did a side-by-side size comparison of some of the plastic model horses in my "to do" pile. The grid in the background is 1/4" graph paper positioned directly behind the models to reduce parallax effects. This is in no way comprehensive, just a way for readers to get an idea of the size, proportions and detail of the various manufacturer's product.

left to right

Perrys Miniatures from their Mounted Men-at-Arms 1450-1500 kit

Conquest Miniatures Medieval Knights 1300

Gripping Beast Late Roman Heavy Cavalry (also Dark Ages Cavalry)

Warlord Lace Wars (they use the same oddly proportioned beast for all of their cavalry)

Victrix Napoleonic Austrian (sorry, I have no Victrix cavalry at all)

Fireforge Mounted Sergeants

 

Cold War Workhorse the PSC M-60

     I did a review and build of the Plastic Soldier Company's M-60 model for the Michigan Toy Soldier Shop
You can read my review here

     This is what the model looks like once it is built

Photo Review Gripping Beast Late Roman Heavy Cavalry

 

cover art, nicely done, good painting ideas 

except that the silver-faced helmet was used only for games and exercises, not battle

     I now these have been around a while now, but I finally got a chance to open up the box and start on building them. While I was doing that I thought I would do a quick photo review of the models for anyone that hasn't seen them in the flesh (er....plastic?). 

Kearsarge Komplete

     Well,  I managed to find a few hours and finished this model. Overall it was a fun build. I think the model is effective in conveying the style of the ship, even if 55% of the hull was shortened away.

 

side-shot, ruler for scale 

Sometimes Things Just Happen Part V

     Truth be told, I get bored easily. I just finished painting my way through a small mountain of 1/300 buildings for R.U.P. to use in his upcoming Batteltech Extravaganza. I have a dozen other projects on the "Urgent" pile but I had the itch to build a boat. I remembered that my friend Steve had expressed an interest in having one of my pre-dreadnoughts for his own and that he found the two-tier turrets of the Kearsarge class of USN battleships to be intriguing.

      Then this sort of happened.......

 

at the end of a couple of hours I had this worked up

 

another few hours brought further refinements and some paint

     She still needs a fair amount of work; guns, boats, ventilators, masts and railings, but she is taking shape nicely. As usual lots of concessions have been made to both playability and storage-space. A fair half of the hull length is missing as are the attendant midships guns. Other details have been ruthlessly pared down to the bare minimum to reduce breakage and clear deck space for the crew.
The picture below gives you an idea of how much was traded away to reduce the model to a manageable size.

 

this is the "missing bit" the funnels and cranes will be re-arranged to make sure

 that they appear on the model , the bow and stern have been foreshortened as well 

     I skipped on the step-by-step as there is nothing new in the modelling techniques used in this build. Check "Adventures in Blue Board and Foamcore" for step-by-step articles on my prior projects