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Sunday, 24 July 2022

Hobby Update 23rd July 2022

 Still not dead...but I have been pretty busy and pretty ill with COVID in the last little while, so hobby stuff has been intermittent at best; and hobby stuff has been less intermittent than gaming! Still, I have managed to get the odd thing done and the odd game played, so my hobby is still painting and gaming, rather than thinking about gaming!

The first project involved a little bit of painting but was mainly a re-basing exercise. I wanted my C17 pike and shot troops to serve equally well for the War of the Three Kingdoms and for The Thirty Years' War.  I had the standard bearers integral to the unit but what I did was take out most of the figures from the first rank, just leaving an officer and drummer, and then creating separate standard bearers on small circular bases to be placed in front of the unit.  It is not a perfect solution but it feels like a reasonable compromise between aesthetics, functionality and economy.

Anyway, some bases of Protestant Foot:



And some bases of Imperial/Catholic Foot.  Using some of the figures spare after the re-basing added to a few extra pike, I created some double depth Foot bases to represent the earlier, heavier tercios used by some of the Imperialist and Spanish forces in the TYW.


(All the above figures are Baccus 6mm).

Next up, there are some early WW2 French more-or-less complete.  The infantry are from Forged in Battle, the vehicles are from QRF.



 As long-suffering blog readers will know, I use 15mm and 6mm for my WW2 gaming, depending on the scenario.  There are some 6mm Early War French, with the figures from Adler and the vehicles and 25mm anti-tank gun and crew from Heroics & Ros.



I have also picked up a few additional items for early WW2 British: a few Matilda Is, a few Vickers VI light tanks and a few Boys anti-tank rifles.  These are all from Heroics and Ros.


Continuing the Early War theme, here are some 15mm WW2 Poles: again, infantry mostly from Forged in Battle, vehicles and anti-tank riflemen from QRF.





And yet more WW2: I have managed to get some paint on some of the 1/300 Plastic Soldier Company Battle of Britain aircraft - some Hurricanes and some Bf109Es.




The 6mm WW2 Germans got some extra LMG teams in smock:


 And I also picked up my first buildings (as far as I remember anyway), from Battlescale Miniatures.  These are really rather nice!  And of course, you cannot really have too many buildings...I will be getting more.

From L-R: a Culloden croft, a rendered farmhouse,  a water mill, a rural house with annex, a dunker church and a ruined terrace,


And a couple more bits of 15mm WW2: Germans with anti-tank rifles from QRF.


So I haven't been entirely unproductive, but there is still (for me) quite a lot on the painting pile.  Off the top of my head, I think it looks like the following:

Some 28mm WW2 British Paratroopers (these are for my son rather than myself)
Some 28mm Frostgrave Barbarians
Some 28mm Stargrave Crew
Some 28mm Skaven
A few 28mm Vikings 
Some 6mm WW2 US vehicles 
Some additional 15mm vehicles and figures for Cold War Gone Hot/Twilight 2000
Finish off the batch of 1/300 Battle of Britain aircraft.
A few additional 6mm Vietnam War extras (both US and VC)
There are also some 6mm Napoleonic French (these are for adding additional French Allied units, as and when I need them).

There isn't much on the shopping list at the moment, since the above lot should keep me busy over the summer until the early autumn shows.  So FWIW it looks something like this:

Some more 15mm Cold War Gone Hot/Twilight 2000 figures (East German infantry, West German infantry)
Some additional items for early war WW2: particularly some additional tanks, reconnaissance vehicles and anti-tank weapons for the Germans, although the French and British could use a few more too.  Plus I really need to to think about my WW2 collection in terms of basing and organization and stuff.

I don't think there is much else that should go on there at the moment, although I do have quite a lot of ideas for the next batch of projects.  But I want to get these ones done first.

14 comments:

  1. Good progress, especially with the lurgy of Covid - hope your recovery is in full on that. The 6mm WWII bases looks like a good candidate for an ‘O’ Group army if that avenue interests you.

    I do like the Battlescale stuff, Steve Clay puts out a good range and it is always quality without any air bubble marks etc.

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    1. Thanks Norm. I feel fine now, although I was really knocked back for a fair chunk of May and June.
      I probably should give O Group a proper look at some point, although I haven't really got on with Dave Brown's rules in the past. No reason why this one can't hit the sweet spot of course.

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  2. That is certainly a pile of painting! I'm glad I'm not the only one who does the same armies in 6mm and 15mm. Hope you continue to recover well.

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    1. 6mm and 15mm make a nice pair! In theory I wouldn't object to getting some 28mm too, as long as they were really for a single section per side as an absolute maximum.

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  3. Sorry to hear about having Covid, which caught me recently too and am still recovering. A nice mix of projects there and I like the seperate flag bearer bases for the 17thC forces. Despite Covid your production rate puts mine to complete shame!

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    1. Thanks for the good wishes Steve - I hope you have likewise have a good recovery. It is rubbish feeling that poorly! Glad you liked the flag-bearer bases. It really comes from an old Arthur Harman idea, who perhaps more daringly proposed it for Napoleonics...

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  4. Very nice, especially when under the thumb of Covid.

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  5. Sorry to hear if your bout with Covid. You you are feeling better

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    1. Yes, feeling much better now and very grateful to be spared the worst of it and to be out of it.

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  6. All the best and I am glad you are feeling better.
    Great looking lot of figures and enough to keep you busy.

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  7. My goodness, that looks like a HUGE amount of progress to me. Not just a unit here and there but entire formations and 'armies'!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James, I appreciate the vote of confidence! TBF I definitely go for 'acceptable and speedy' rather than 'thing of beauty' so that helps keep production numbers up.

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