Gunuary Progress - Happy New Year

Hi folks,

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.

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!

15mm 15cwt Supply Truck Progress

With the start of the 6MMRPC coming up on the 1st of June I've been beavering away with prep work, getting many of the models I have been cleaning and prepping assembled and ready to start the challenge.

This has included drilling holes for aerials, attaching hatches and thinking about stowage.

However, I have also managed to spend a little time working on the supply truck I mentioned a few days ago.Just to mention, this was a second hand 'spare' vehicle I picked up at a flea market, so the paint job is not mine and will be replaced when the cargo is painted.

This has entailed searching about for the bits and bobs I wanted to try and include the the rear of the truck. This has included dipping into my collection of crates and jerry cans. I had tried to find a jerry can rack - which I am sure I had in my bits box. I'm not sure where I got them from but I was sure I had 2 and used one on my Sherman ARV mk1 conversion.

I ended up having a couple of shots at getting the cargo 'right'. One of them while working on the first draft of this post! I am aware that it was not normal for ammo and fuel to be carried in the same vehicle, but I am using artistic license...

This vehicle will primarily be for Battlegroup Overlord and as a little diorama piece for my army in general.

Anyway, here is the progress so far (please ignore the sausage fingers!:

 Not too much to do with this now conversion wise. The bars still have to be glued in place and there are a few areas where there is damage what I will need to try and green stuff. The wheels I am not too worried about as the basing should cover the damage there.

Next thing will be to try and decide whether when it goes on it's base it has some infantry figures around it. I do have some spare artillery figures holding small and large shells and perhaps one or two figures that could be places to they are shifting boxes - but that is a story for another post!