Gunuary Roundup + Christmas loot

Hi folks,

With us now being into the 2nd week of February I think I'm about ready to call it for my Gunuary themed month. I feel like it's been productive and I've got a lot done - although I'm feeling a little burnt out currently. Especially as I finished off all the various units last night and my Christmas models from Battlefront (ordered in November) arrived today. Including more guns...

Anyway, here's what I had as my initial working list:

- Getting the bases of all artillery and mortar units up to date (flowers, tufts, etc)
- Building, painting and basing all 8 outstanding 25 pdrs
- Finishing all outstanding 25 pdr crew figures
- Sorting out the replacement figures for my 4.2" mortar platoon
- Building, painting and basing my 2 Battlefront 40mm Bofors (and finishing the whole unit off)
- Building, painting and basing my 5.5" guns (on the assumption the whole unit arrives in January - a tearful Amy informed me last night that despite the order being placed with Battlefront in November during the sale, none of the models ordered for my Christmas have arrived)
- Paint my Auster AOP model

So, from that list I completed everything  other than the 5.5" battery - the last two guns of which only arrived today. I posted pictures previously of my finished guns (although none yet of the updated 1st battery).

This week I finished the updated crew for the 4.2" Mortars and a highlight and base update for my 3" Mortar platoon. The 3" Mortars were some of the first units I painted so they really benefited from the update.

The work on the large Mortars consisted of swapping out some of the crew figures for the older sculpt - mainly the ones holding their hands over their ears. I then fixed the damage done to the basing.

Returning home tonight I found a parcel waiting for me. At last, my Christmas presents!

These units add quite substantially to my force - and basically mean that the lead mountain is back to the level it was before Gunuary! I'll need to think about getting the 5.5" guns and command units done soon, in order to finish off the artillery. But for now I am going to switch to trying to finish off my M10Cs and a couple of Shermans. I'll also have to think about the transport options and getting them all painted as well. I still need one more 15 CWT truck and one more jeep as well as 4 Quads and 6 of the AA tow vehicles in order to finish off all the transports for the artillery units - which is a lot of £££ value for not many points on the table.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks to the guys on Tabletop Commanders for helping to keep me motivated and for all the enthusiasm!

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!

Merry Christmas! And introducing Gunuary!

Hi folks,

Having had my blog roll fill up with bloggers all over the world wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, I thought I should do the same. So a Merry Christmas from me and mine to you and yours!

And with the New Year approaching, I'll take this opportunity to express an old Scottish sentiment to everyone out there: Lang may yer lum reek!*

This won't be my first Christmas spent in England, but it will be my first Christmas and New Year living here. The next year is going to bring a lot of change (again) with hopefully a house move at some point and our wedding in October. Hopefully, on the Hobby Front, I will also be able to find somewhere to play and keep going with my painting.

I'm planning to start the new year off with a theme, in order to give me some focus for my painting. So I've decided that January will now be Gunuary - A time for me to focus on getting my artillery units up to scratch. This will include:

- Getting the bases of all artillery and mortar units up to date (flowers, tufts, etc)
- Building, painting and basing all 8 outstanding 25 pdrs
- Finishing all outstanding 25 pdr crew figures
- Sorting out the replacement figures for my 4.2" mortar platoon
- Building, painting and basing my 2 Battlefront 40mm Bofors (and finishing the whole unit off)
- Building, painting and basing my 5.5" guns (on the assumption the whole unit arrives in January - a tearful Amy informed me last night that despite the order being placed with Battlefront in November during the sale, none of the models ordered for my Christmas have arrived)
- Paint my Auster AOP model

And if I have time (doubtful) then looking to build, paint and base my PSC 6 pdrs for my 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry list.

Phew! I think I will be lucky if I finish one item from that list, but I will push myself and try to get as much done as I can.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! I hope Santa is good to you and the heartburn medication works out fine!



*Long may your chimney smoke/May your always have fuel for your fire/Live long and prosper ;)

State of the Collection - 1st Video Blog!

Hi folks, a quick mid week blog post for me based on something I worked on at the weekend. Egged on by Paul to try out video blogging, and with the new felt table cover to try out, I decided to lay out my painted collection and do a bit of an overview of everything!

The video is a bit long and I could have prepped more (and remembered where the mike was throughout) but you get to listen to me say 'hey ho' several times in my Scottish brogue, so it's not all bad!

For those of you not keen on shaky camera work...

Let me know what you think of my first video blog! Constructive criticism welcome!

Posted with Blogsy

6MMRPC: Flames of War British 4.2" Heavy Mortars Finished!

Phew!

A rather busy week for me this week, as it was my first week working away. Unfortunately the public transport and having to carry a weeks worth of work clothes stopped me taking any painting with me, so my efforts have been focused on getting something done this week on my two days home.

I have spent jokers and need to make some back! More details on this later.

My efforts this weekend were focused on getting decals on the vehicles and getting the gun bases finished. I consider that the unit is now done*, so I'll be marking it off my painting chart.

Some pics of the vehicles - the Loyd Carriers are from Forged in Battle and the Universal Carriers are from Battlefront (these are actually two of the three I got from Cameron and that were re-purposed). Two aerials mark out the OP Carrier and one the Command squads carrier. These guys carry the markings of 1/7 Middlesex Regiment, who provided the Vickers and 4.2" support for the 51st Highland Division.

I just realised I still need to do some weathering on the decals. I was also short a small allied star, so one of the Loyd Carriers is missing one. As usual these vehicles have the WD numbers on the side as well (not very visible from the pics).

For the guns, I got the bases finished and the crew mounted on them last weekend. Now, I have real issues with the crew figures in these. I used some green stuff to make the mortar bombs the loaders are carrying a bit beefier, as Battlefront have used the same crew from the 3" Mortar for the much bigger 4.2". I also hate (and I mean hate) the pointing guy. I mean, really. If these mortars are close enough that one of the crew has to point out the target, things are going badly. This has really been on my mind this last week. A few months ago I was looking at a out of production pack of these guys on Ebay that had much nicer older sculpts. I decided not to get them and stuck with the models I had. I now regret it.

This has been on my mind and in my normal 'worm in my brain' fashion I ended up burning a joker to buy a pack of the Italian 4.2" platoon. Purely because there are crew figures in it I like. I have no need for 2 platoons of these guys, so this really is a waste of time and paint, but I decided I just would not be happy unless I fixed the problems I have with the crew on these guns. I'm not sure if I will paint up the other platoon or just take the figures out I want and swap them with the guys in this platoon I don't like.

Yes, I have issues. I can't explain how these things annoy me, I find myself thinking about them all the time until the only way I can resolve it is to do the thing I already know is just silly! I try to make my units as varied as possible given the figures and the idea of these mortar crews looking exactly the same as my 3" platoon just annoyed me.

I also tried something new with these models, for the first time adding aerials to the command and FOO team. I quite like how they look and may go back and retrofit my existing squads. Both radio men on these bases are from Peter Pig (I think!). Detail on the infantry has been something I have been thinking about, and I'm wondering whether to actually try and find a way of including the arm sleeve markings - nothing detailed, just a vague idea of the HD patch. I may need a magnifying glass!

*the other purchase was some ships from GZG. I decided to take advantage of their 30th Birthday sale to pick up a few bits... because I obviously don't have enough ships!

Also, 209 posts! Go me!