18 November 2013

Toy Tree Upgrade


Spanish copies of Britains Deetail Toy Trees

Britains Deetail Toy Tree Upgrade


These are Spanish copies of Britains Deetail toy trees.

I've had them in a box since last year, just before Christmas, when I got them in a department store where they were selling shiny plastic plants and trees for Nativity scenes.

As I'd been working on some other scenery stuff over the weekend, and after seeing that the shops are stocking up again on Nativity scene stuff, I remembered I had these hidden away and so I dug them out of their box.

The trunks and branch structure are basically really good.

The only things that needed changing are the radioactive green shiny plastic leaves.

I gave the trunks a drybrush and added some dark foam foliage.

They just need the bases flocking and they'll be finished.

26 October 2013

Plastic Soldier Company Russians with new heads

 

I started these conversions more than a year ago, and got distracted (don't we all ...), but finally they're finished, ...at last.

I changed the heads on these PSC figures for heads from Italeri and Esci Russians.

Not really all that necessary if you're going to use just the PSC figures in squads on their own but as I wanted to mix them with my Esci / Italeri / Revell / Pegasus Russians, their heads were oversized
compared to the other brands.

Nicely sculpted figures in a hard-softish GW type styrene plastic that's easy to trim, file and glue.

18 October 2013

Armourfast StuG III


We got together on Wednesday evening with our wargame group "El Brazo de Nelson" for a quick game and we got to use for the first time these two Armourfast 1/72 scale quick-build StuG IIIs that were built and painted by Carlos de la Concha.

Lovely models, unfortunately they were under my command and with my notoriously bad dice throwing skills they couldn't hit a barn door during the whole of the game.

15 October 2013

Elevator shoes



I'm finishing off a bunch of HaT / Waterloo 1815 Italian Infantry at
El Alamein but I'm not too keen on the officer figure that comes in
the set so I've decided to replace him with the stylish officer figure
from the Airfix WW2 Italian Infantry set.

One problem though, at 1/76 scale he's too small and his 1/72 scale
subordinates tower over him so he's been made to look taller by
sticking some padding under his feet.

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13 October 2013

HaT WWI British Artillery Crew



A quick post of some HaT WW1 British artillery crewmen that have just been finished.

Also added a comparison picture with some Emhar figures and an old Airfix 13pdr Gun from the RHA set.

10 October 2013

Altaya Sahariana


This is an Altaya Sahariana currently on the workbench that was given to me by my good pal Carlos.

The Waterloo 1815 Italian drivers he stuck in there look really cool.

This is a first test post I'm uploading by email from my mobile.

So if you are reading this and can see the image ok, then it has worked !


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14 July 2013

Arnhem campaign no.1: Recon rescue - Disposable Heroes Rules

Well, here we go again with the Arnhem campaign with Ironivan Disposable Heroes.

Set on September 27, 1944 when the British reconnaissance squadron, commanded by Major Freddie Cough, began to move towards the Arnhem bridge. His orders were to get ahead of the infantry and take the bridge in a surprise attack, but when they advanced they fell under the fire of an SS Training Battalion. The Major was killed by machine-gun fire and the soldiers who accompanied him were wounded. The British objectives are to rescue the wounded and destroy the enemy machine guns, while the German objective is to maintain their troops in good order and destroy the largest number of British units.

The battlefield :


The wounded para next to his overturned jeep in the centre of the table


British paras in jeeps roar onto the table to rescue their wounded comrade.





German troops open fire from the cover of light woods



We've got him ! Let's get out of here !


German snipers take aim


Meanwhile a British light mortar fires into the woods at the Germans to cover the retreat.


The Brits finally manage to evacuate their wounded comrade, although they have suffered various casualties in the process.




27 May 2013

More 1/72 Post Apocalyptic Madness

Some more pictures of the "post-apoc" figure conversions I started off some months ago.

(LINK 1) (LINK 2)







I'm pleased with the way the head-swaps have worked out on the modern figures.

They are mostly Caesar with a few Revell moderns thrown in (US and Germans if I remember rightly) and the majority of the head swaps with caps coming off Imex Korean War figures and a few Revell DAK.



The bearded long-haired para-military guy above is an Orion modern-Russian with a head taken from an Emhar Viking oarsman.
Comments and / or suggestions are more than welcome.

Cheers, John

19 April 2013

1/72 Sci-Fi / Near Future / Post Apocalyptic

Following on from the previous post in November (LINK), a couple of pictures of some completed "1/72 sci-fi / near-future" figure conversions.

A "Mad-Max" type punk-rocker sporting a colourful mohican haircut



The head came off an Esci WW2 Paratrooper.


 The Law - Police / Military / Control-Troopers. 



The riot-helmets with visors are heads taken from the Revell German KSK



13 April 2013

Strelets Colonial British Infantry

Strelets 1-72 20mm Colonial British Infantry

The figures  had practically no flash and are quite easy to paint up and are made from a sturdy semi-hard plastic.

I can’t say I’m 100% keen on this type of sculpting, but after painting them they do have a kind of charm and they fit in well as opponents to  the Strelets Boers.










26 March 2013

Italian Infantry Support Group In Progress

A box full of Italians on the go right now and they need a few 47mm guns - which I don't have.

What I do have though are two very old Hasegawa US 37mm guns, plus an unmade one which should (I'm hoping) make some fairly good substitutes for a "Cannone da 47/32"



Inspiration came from a photo from an old Airfix article by Gerald Scarborough.



Two of the ex-Hasegawa US 37mm guns now based and the third unmade kit has now been put together to represent a towed weapon.

The guns, minus their breech blocks, now need painting up. I also need to put together a suitable crew.



I have no Italians with mortars or heavy machine guns but this was solved with some head swaps - a mortar figure from the Esci WW2 French Infantry set, a crouching Esci WW2 US infantry figure and two figures from the Waterloo 1815 Japanese Infantry set.



The Japanse HMG is "supposed" to represent a Breda M37. It's not perfect but it's not too bad either once painted up and when I've got the bases flocked it shouldn't be to obvious.



And some of the Italian figures that are currently WIP.

21 March 2013

S-Models Italian L3/33 Tanquette

A few shots of the 1:72 scale S-Models Italian L3/33 tanquette by Carlos de la Concha from the Brazo de Nelson Wargames Club.



These are for a small Italian / Commonwealth campaign in North Africa that our gamemaster Iván Cáceres has put together for our wargaming group.

18 March 2013

Modern Conflicts - FUBAR in 1/72

Photos from a multiplayer game with 6 different players in an "Ambush Alley" style game using some very simple, fast and very effective rules called "FUBAR" -

http://thegamesshed.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/fubar-core-rules-4th-edition1.pdf

SCENARIO

In the midst of a war between various factions in an imaginary country, a squad of U.N. soldiers has been tasked with taking a ransom payment of 50 million dollars to a meeting point in the war-torn city.

On their journey to deliver the ransom money to the group that has the two allied pilots as hostages, they've stumbled into the middle of a battle between multiple rival factions fighting each other.

The U.N. VAB carrying the ransom money on its way to the drop-off point has been hit by an RPG fired by one of the warring factions and completely immobilized.

Apart from fighting each other, all the factions are targeting any foreign troops that cross their path or come into their field of view.

PLAYERS / MISSIONS

Player 1 - International UN troops stranded / wounded around the VAB. They have to find cover and fight off any attacks until rescued.

Player 2 - French Legionnaires under UN command - tasked with reaching the VAB and bring the UN troops back to safety.

Player 3 - US special forces with two armed local interpreters enter the city - their mission, to locate the detained pilots and get them out of there

Player 4 - A corrupt local government official has knowledge of the plan to pay the ransom and has  dispatched a group of mercenaries to head out and intercept the ransom payment and keep it for themselves.

Player 5 -  German special forces from the KSK have discovered the corrupt government official's plan and they have been sent to intercept the mercenaries.

Player 6 - Umpire and warring factions. The umpire has informed each player separately about their mission, none of them know the others' missions. He also controls the warring factions' actions and appearance on the table using dice generating random events, actions and numbers.

GAME PHOTOS

The disabled VAB burns in a small plaza. The UN troops bail out.



They scramble to find shelter in nearby buildings under heavy fire from all sides.



US troops enter the table accompanied by an armed interpreter.



KSK carry out a brief recon of the neighbourhood from a rooftop position on the edge of town. Intel tells them the mercenaries will be entering from this area.



Bloodthirsty mercenaries prepare to make their way to the plaza to try and get their hands on the booty.








Over on the other side of the neighbourhood, a small group of French Legionnaires make their way on foot through the backstreets.



All the time warring factions take potshots from the rooftops at each other and also at any foreign troops that move within their field of view.





As the mercenaries near the plaza, they find the road blocked by a large oil tanker lorry



They dismount and head out on foot



German KSK commandos swiftly reach the plaza, confer with the UN troops and quickly "rescue" the ransom money to exit town before the mercenaries even get there.



One turn later and the Legionnaires reach the disabled VAB, and together with the UN troops they make a fighting retreat, evacuating the stunned and wounded



The group finally makes it back to the outskirts of town and to safety.









The US troops also managed to locate the pilots and bring them back to safety (but no pictures unfortunately), while the mercenaries never reached the town centre and were practically wiped out by a large group of local militia who stumbled into them when the umpire revealed a random event card.

There was a lot of action during the game, a lot of firing and a lot of fun - and of course we always keep in mind that thankfully this is just a game with toy soldiers.