A bit of a delay since the last blog entry. I hope everyone had a great time over the festive period and wish you all a fantastic 2016. As a friend text me, may your paint never chip!
I wanted to share a sculpture I saw, while out this weekend celebrating mine and Amy's engagement anniversary. This is called Eleven 'O' One, and is in Seaham. The locals call it 'Tommy' and he sits beside the town war memorial (facing the memorial). It's a large sculpture (about 9 feet tall) and is very detailed. I believe he is made from segments of steel plate.
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| A rather chilly day, so a well wrapped up me next to the sculpture - for scale purposes! |
A link to more info on this sculpture can be found here.
Over the last few weeks I have been working towards my goal of getting all my outstanding 15mm Flames of War British artillery painted (not including transport, but that may change).
So far I have made some progress. All the crew figures were added to my 4.2" Mortar Loyd Carriers, as well as my Universal Carriers. These crew figures were the ones that came with the Forged in Battle vehicles. The main issue was that what should have been a 2 minute job took hours, as none of the drivers fitted into the driving compartments on the Universal Carriers. In the end I had to cut off the front webbing pouches and trim some metal from the drivers backs, as well as trim out the seat backs from inside the vehicles. Even doing that still had some of the drivers to tight in their seats that no glue was required. This also meant repair work was required where the paint on the models had been damaged by all the work...
I also managed to finish off all the outstanding infantry and gun crews I had left over from the 6MMRPC challenge.
I also worked on the supply truck for Battlegroup, as you can see above. It looks pretty smart with the bars on and painted and I just need to finish off some figures for the base before I get the basing done. I also finished off the last few details on my AA Batteries command team jeep. It just requires basing as well.
As part of Gunuary, I opened up all the blisters for the guns I have (still no sign of my models from the BF November Sale, purchased for my Christmas). I cleaned up the metal, trimmed everything that needed trimming, discovered one tiny part missing from my 40mm Bofors guns, which I have emailed BF about. I also washed all the metal and bought some new and some bigger sticks to painting the guns on.
The next part was to get all the crew from these blisters painted, which I have made a good start on this week.
I think there are around 68 figures in all from this lot - and I am remembering how much I hate painting flesh on these guys. Hopefully I will get these guys finished this week while I am off. This includes all the infantry and crew figures from the 2nd pack of 4.2" Mortars. I'm still not sure whether to fully build and base these up, or just to use the crew figures I like for the unit I have finished. My army can only field one unit of 4.2" mortars, so the second unit would be pointless. I could always build it and sell it... but I am unsure just now what I will do.
I've been really strongly aided in all this work by a new group I have joined. Tabletop Commanders are a Wargaming Community group across various formats. They have a Blog, Facebook Group and produce Youtube Videos.
The thing that has really helped my have been the regular paint and chats - normally held on Google Hangouts (a video conference service). It's really good to be able to talk toy soldiers and military history while working on your own stuff, and has really helped to keep my motivation up and keep me painting. It's amazing how much I have managed to get done. I was also pleasantly surprised to find a couple of people talking about the 6MMRPC and wanting to participate in the next challenge - conversation unprompted by me!
Well worth checking out!
Anyway, on with my painting for the day. If anyone chooses to join in with Gunuary, even just to paint up one unit of artillery, please let me know - I would be happy to share a link to your post or video!
They're all looking just the job, and as you say the truck looks very smart.
ReplyDeleteDid you get to visit Games of War at Seaham? Never been myself, but I believes there's gaming tables as well as the sales side to the shop
I did Roy, I had totally forgot that there was a shop there until we arrived - we had actually gone for ice cream having been down the coast anyway. The shop had an excellent range of paints and hobby supplies. They had the whole Panzer Aces Vallejo range as well as a huge number of Vallejo paints. Just the standard fare for models, X-wing, some Bolt Actions, 40k, etc. No Flames of War stuff. The gaming area looked quite good as well, although I think Waugh Games has a similar sized area and is a lot closer to home for me.
DeleteAh, I forgot about Waugh Games. Never been, but the Catterick Garrison club goes over there quite regularly and also takes part in the tournaments he runs.
DeleteCrackin' progress ! Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThat statue is fantastic. Must have taken months to weld all those pieces of metal.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you are enthused and painting! As a matter of fact, I do have some arti that needs painting for a Flames of War tournament in April I am considering entering. We will see.
My Battelfront Carrier drivers had the same issue and I too was annoyed as heck when I had to grind down my careful paintjobs to make them fit, though only two patrols.
A further 68 crew to paint - yikes.
Those 68 crew are being a nuisance, that's for sure!
DeleteLooking good so far. Vehicles are coming along nicely.
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon,these two models have been kicking around almost painted for a while now.
DeleteI totally dig hanging out with people and painting ones own projets. Bit hard to arrange normally. The group hangout thing is pretty cool actually.
ReplyDeleteIt has really helped me Dave - if you join the tabletop commanders group on facebook the chats are advertised and links posted there. They normally have 3 regular ones a week, although this week there were more than that as there was a game of Blucher being played online by a few of the guys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygFI3GMnv_I).
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