Plans and random Ebay purchases

Hi folks,

I'm making a conscious effort to post a blog this week, as I've been a little lax of late.

Unusually, I've not finished anything painting wise since the start of October. I spent a lot of time this month preparing for the winter. I'm hoping to do the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge again this year, and I plan on focusing on German artillery for 'Gunuary' this year as well as trying to get some German armour painted.

In the shorter term, I have been working on some 5cm A/T guns and 7.5cm Infantry guns for the Germans. While the guns are mostly done, the crew are taking a bit more time than I had planned. I'm unused to painting Germans and the enthusiasm just isn't there. I'm getting there though, just a few final bits to do and the main colours are blocked in.

I've had a couple of lucky purchases this week. The first was a painted unit of HUGE Pak43/41's. These are really massive guns, much larger than the 5cm A/T guns I have - 89. Infanterie-Division apparently had some of these in it's artillery units, and there is photographic evidence of Polish tanks advancing past a knocked out one. I got 4 of these guns for a very reasonable price. While they need stripping and a bit of work, and didn't have the full crew compliment, they will do!

I also got this:

Which is a map printed by the Royal Engineers in 1948 and covers the Operation Totalize battle area. Again, I got this for a decent price. No units or anything marked on it, but I am tempted to get it framed... The immediate area that effects my Highlanders:

154 Brigades objectives were the Cramesnil, St. Aignan de Cramesnil and Garcelles Secqueville area.

You can also see the main Caen Highway running up and down the map - the Canadians were coming from the top of the map southwards on the left, while the Highlanders were on the right of the road. Near the bottom you can see Cintheaux and Gaumesnil - Michael Wittmann's 'last charge' was up the right side of the road from Cintheaux, with Whittmann himself being killed opposite Gaumesnil (most likely by Canadian Shermans in Gaumesnil, as opposed to the belief that the fire came from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry in the woods south of St. Aignan de Cramesnil). 

A visit to Redcar - and Gaming Figures - got me a load of FoW miniatures with a 30% discount due to their Halloween sail. 2 boxes of 88's (the mid war plastic ones), a box of two Shermans (yeah yeah) and another infantry platoon (plastic this time, for Battlegroup and to mix in with my metals). All for far less than I would normally pay!

So yeah - some cool purchases, and some plans that seem to be settling on getting my German AA and some of the armour done over the winter, along with some of my 6mm stuff.