Oh, the depths of WW2 geekery...

As part of my regular Xmas I normally get a WW2 aircraft print calendar. This years has some cracking art in it and having an admiring look through it tonight on my return home, I came across this:

Spot the mistake!!!

(I did immediately, resulting in loud sighs from A - 'does it really matter??' says she - all I could do was splutter in outrage and defence! Still unsure whether to write to the maker!!! Imagine getting one of my favourite planes wrong!)

Merry Christmas! + Swag

Merry Christmas every one. I hope Santa has been good to you all.

I received some great gifts, including:

Three M3 Stuart's, 1 AA Crusader and 2 M10C's. Finishing off three whole platoons. Also, two Kolinski brushes. 

Hope everyone has a great day. 

Full Thrust - Loss at Tab 1

"... Questions were asked in Pariament today after the Admiralty reported the loss of the Heavy Destroyer RNS Duncan and Destroyer RNS Dunkirk while enforcing the no fly zone around the interdicted colony of Tab 1. Unknown forces, presumed to be human but of no declared faction, were intercepted on an approach vector to the planet...."

From NAC Today News

Myself and C (one of my Full Thrust converts) had a quick low points game (400pts) - the first use of my kitchen table for gaming since the move. 

C used mechworld.de to build his ships. He got himself a small fleet of the new British ships from Brigade (http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Spaceships/British.html) and statted them up to be a low thrust, heavy weapon fleet. I think the plan is for them to be a corporate/private military contract fleet. For his 400 points he could field 2 destroyers and 3 frigates.

I went for two destroyers and a heavy destroyer using the stats for the new style NAC ships here: http://fullthrust.star-ranger.com/NACstats.htm

The result was me not identifying the points and mass cost of thrust 6 on my ships and the weaponry and defenses that thrust 2 ships gain. Combined with my appalling dice rolling led to my heavy destroyer and one destroyer being obliterated in a head on pass, and my remaining destroyer running with no systems remaining. And all I managed in return was some desultory damage on a couple of ships.

A rather sharp reminder that when you have maneuverability, you should use it!!! The next episode is in the works however! 

Also in the works this Christmas has been my second lot of infantry figures for the 6MMRPC, including my two Military Police figures. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

15mm Loyd Carrier Comparison (Battlefront, PSC, Forged in Battle)

On Saturday I was in Teeside at A's parents so went along to the Battleground 2014 show - formerly Smoggycon (my visit being cunningly organised by me to allow me to attend the show while A went to the hairdressers). While there I picked up some models - hence using my other Joker for the 6 Month Miniature Mountain Reduction Painting Competition.

The models in question were the Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Loyd Carrier and 6-pounder plastic box.

Image used without permission, no ownership claimed by me!

While I don't need these models just now, my Recce company list will eventually need 4 of these guns. And I really liked the look of the Loyd Carrier with the canvas hood on!

The models had a little flash on them, but were easy to clean with a craft knife and a small file. The instructions...

...were fairly straight forward but oddly difficult. The step 2. handily says 'Check orientation of Axle' - but gives no indication of what that actually means. The Engine sub-assembly section was also a bit strange as the front and rear sections of the engine are different, but the image has them being the same (the engine cover with the extra detail on it goes to the rear).

The sprues themselves have a lot of detail on them, including some jerry cans, ammo boxes, etc. The crew figures look a decent size for using with Battlefront models, but I have left them on the sprue for now as I will paint them separately  rather than as part of the model.

The model itself scales very well with both the Battlefront and the Forged in Battle Loyd carrier. For the purposes of the pictures I placed the plastic PSC model on the FoW medium base, as the other two models have the bases cast on.

In the pictures the painted model is the Battlefront model.

As the pictures show the plastic kit is a good match. Once I've had some time to put the 6-pounder together I will take some comparison shots of it with the Battlefront model. All in all a very nice kt, fiddly to assemble but it looks great and the detail is impressive. I love the canopy, and it really gives another option to something that can be quite samey when in a large army or collection.

So these will take quite a while to paint up, but I'm glad I got them (even though I felt a little like I was buying them just because there was such a lack of other options - 15mm WW2 models are getting in shorter and shorter supply at shows currently).