D-Day display

Our youngest sings in the church choir, he came back from practice last weekend all excited about this.

The local Air-cadets with help from local modellers have built a quite spectacular D-Day display using 1/35th scale models and figures, the whole thing has lights to simulate explosions and machine-guns plus a sound-tack.

The display hopes to remind viewers of D-Day and those brave men who died during WW2, there is of course a collection tin for the British Legion too. The whole thing is truly massive, my photos don`t do it justice -

Work/hobby cross-over

As some of you may know we run a guesthouse in Swansea, well last night Paul Thompson of Early War Miniatures stayed with us.

Its one of those rare occasions where my real life and hobby mix. Paul is a real gent and we spent a few pleasant hours discussing all things French and EWM and 20mmzone products, really, really nice. I got to show off some of my toys and Paul gave me sneak preview of his latest creations - French Poilu in early dress (1910-1915) in kepi and frock-coat armed with long Lebel rifles and bayonet, plus some stunning St. Étienne Mle 1907 machine gun teams (both firing and moving teams).

He was also kind enough to give a review sample of 20mmzone`s newly released Renault AGR truck.

All-in-all a nice evening and pleasant morning combining work/hobby.

Railyard/Water-station

My boys are growing up and this leads to regular clear-outs of toys and clothes, etc. Among the last major lot to go was Christopher's Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. Among the boxes I found this -

 

 So after a week of messing about, I now have this -

Obviously I messed about with the tower, adding the platform and access ladders, then painted and weathered it a bit.

The shed and coal bunker are Wills Scenics, the walls are cut down and modified Britains.

I`ve added various clutter to break up the open areas - crates, stacks of wood, large drums all found in my bits box, the oil wagon was cobbled together from similar bits.

Arab compound

A simple Arab compound, designed for our Tunisian games

The buildings themselves started life as the two-part box of an Iphone-4 which John Dowman used to send a model to me a few weeks back. The roof domes are halves of a Kinder egg; I cut the slot windows and added all the door/window frames and two doors from bits of wood & balsa. For the main windows i made shutters (from plastic wicker baskets).

The fountain is a resin piece from Gamecraft Miniatures, the doorway and arch come from the diorama base of the Matchbox Ft17 & Char B kit. 

The walls and gates are by S&S Models.

All-in-all i`m pretty happy with the results.

Deserty Hills

I`m hopeless with terrain, I freely confess I just don`t have a clue or the time of patience for those wonderful constructions you see in the wargames press of online.

We have been renovating a house we own, part of that renovation was insulating an outside cupboard to protect the internal walls from damp. I used insulation boards, very handy and easy to use, there were of course left over bits and off-cuts. I decided to try and build a few simple hills for our tabletop. Nothing fancy, cut to shape glued to hardboard bases, painted with several coats of magnolia and terracotta paint, then stained with a dark wood-stain. Simple, cheap and only took about 48hrs (including drying time). I`ve included a couple of figures and a vehicle for scale.

Clearing the decks

My final last few DAK figures (left over figures).

Mostly Raventhorpe and Kelly`s Heroes, but one odd Britannia guy who obviously got lost?
Some have head-swaps using Raventhorpe heads, others have had minor alterations.

 

 

Horch towing 20mm AA

This was the di-cast model which came with a magazine.

Repainted, added stowage and crew (AB Figures, SHQ and S&S Models)