In Chigh's little world

15mm German captured Stalinets tractors

2012-02-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

I admit, these were a mistake. When i bought these last year i thought they were german RSO tractors (they were listed on ebay as such) and i only realised they were actually soviet Stalinets tractors when i was halfway through painting them! However, i finished them in german colours and markings, and they now serve as captured soviet tractors (thier stats/rules for Flames of War are identical to RSO tractors anyway)

15mm French SA-34 25mm anti-tank gun platoon

2012-02-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Battlefront miniatures.

15mm French Fusiliers-Voltigeurs platoon

2012-01-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

Battlefront miniatures French Fusiliers-Voltigeurs infantry platoon, for early-war Flames of War. Command team, 3 rifle squads with MG and a VB grenade launcher team.

First completed models 2012

2012-01-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

A nice change from the 15mm stuff, 3 Orks from Games Workshop. Had a difficult time getting these to matt-down, and i admit to having very mixed feelings about Army Painter's spray varnish (sometimes it works, sometimes it dont!) Pictures are not the best, but im just happy to get my first figures 'on the board' in what i hope to be a productive year.

Soviet objectives for Flames of War

2012-01-11T03:24:00.000-08:00

I built one of Zvezda's 1:100 scale soviet ZIS-5 trucks with an open bonnet, and have used two spare soviet artillery officers from Battlefront to make this objective marker for Flames of War, a broken down supply truck. The poses of the figures suited this piece well, and i have modelled them as if they are discussing a problem with the engine.

This second objective marker is a fuel dump. I used matchsticks and 1:72 scale oil drums here, with another spare Battlefront soviet standing guard. The canvas covering is made from Greenstuff.

Zvezda 1:100 scale soviet ZIS-5 trucks

2011-12-16T03:36:00.000-08:00

After reviewing Zvezda's 1:100 scale Panzer II's in my last post i now move onto something a little more tricky; thier soviet ZIS-5 truck kits.

Box art and sprues:

17 parts to this kit (16 if you dont use the canvas cover) and its quite well detailed. The instructions could be a little clearer though, particularly regarding the rear wheels (care must be taken as it could be quite easy to fit these the wrong way round!) and also the order in which the parts are to be assembled. Let me explain:

Once the cabin, bed, suspension and wheels are assembled, the next task is to attatch the bonnet. The bonnet piece (top left part in the above picture) comes in an open position, and to fix it closed it must be bent into the correct shape. This part could easily be broken if you play around with it too much, and it is fairly difficult to attatch this to the truck without damaging the attatched front wheels.

A nice little kit though, with some good variations: roof on or off, and option for open bonnet showing the engine (i shall be building one this way next, for a soviet objective marker)

The first finished model:

Zvezda 1:100 scale Panzer II kits

2011-12-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

Box art and instructions:

Sprue containing the 5 parts:

These kits are made from a rather glossy soft plastic, and although they clip off the sprue easily you must take care when removing mould lines as they can easily be scratched. A new blade in your craft knife is recommended, and i also used some 300 grade wet & dry sandpaper for this job. Having said that, these particular kits had a minimal amount of mould lines and were prepared in less than 5 minutes.

After preparation i cleaned the parts in soapy water before assembly. As can be seen in the instructions on the back of the box, the track sections are held in place when you join the upper and lower hull sections together, and being snap-fit they do not require glueing (although i did use a little glue with mine) The same applies to the turret, in fact while i did a 'dry fit' of the first turret i could not remove it again, and it is rather difficult to make it turn round. A minor fault, but one that wont bother me personally.

The first tiny tank. The detail is rather good in my opinion, and a lot better than i was expecting after reading some other reviews of kits from this range:

Being so small i imagine these being rather tricky to paint, although i will be putting mine onto medium size bases from Battlefront (a personal preference for my FOW vehicles)

Another small drawback for me is the lack of any decals with these kits. However, given thier price (going for between 2.50 and 3.00 GBP a kit) its not a big issue to spend a few more pounds for decals.

Zvezda also make the Panzer 38(t) in this scale, so its possible to build a decent sized Panzer company from the FOW Blitzkrieg book for under 30 pounds, and i cant argue with that!

German efficiency

2011-12-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

Just got these delivered, literally 5 minutes ago: Zvezda 1:100 scale Panzer IIs. Bought them on ebay on wednesday morning, they were marked as 'sent' 1 hour later and now i have them in my clutches :)

I'll write up a review soon

Forged in Battle - Im not impressed

2011-12-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

Last week saw the delivery of my first pack of miniatures from Forged in Battle, 4 schwimmwagens. Here are some pictures:

Starting from left to right in this first pic, the first 2 are pretty much ok, but as you can see numbers 3 and 4 are not so. The propeller at the rear being the most obviously damaged part. Number 4's folded canvas roof also looks to have been melted? and there are chips out of the front seats also. I would say this last piece was completely unusable, although i may try to make an objective marker out of it.

The next picture shows the sides of the last 2 models, showing another angle of the damaged propellers, and also small holes behind the front wheels on both sides. These holes are present in all 4 models, both sides.

There are also a few with pieces of side skirt broken off. Now, most of this damage is repairable but what got me was the fact i found very few resin chips inside the packaging, leading me to assume that these were packed in the factory in this condition, as opossed to being damaged in transit.

I will check out an infantry pack or 2 from FiB in the future, but i certainly wont be buying any more resin vehicles unless i can get to see them first hand before buying.

Soviet Komissar Vasilevsky - Flames of War

2011-12-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Despite promising myself a break from FOW infantry after i completed the Soviet penal batallion, i found 4 soviet casualties that i had already painted a while back so i painted up the rest of the set they came with; Komissar Vasilevsky and blocking detatchment. These guys offer your soviet troops a little 'encouragement' to push forward: "Komissar Vasilevsky and his HMG teams make sure the resolve of the soviets does not waver, any who take a step back will be dealt with as traitors"

Click picture to enlarge:

Those who have seen the movie 'Enemy at the Gates' may remember the early scene featuring Vasilevsky, mercilessly gunning down the retreating soviet soldiers, which can be seen at 8.00 mins in this clip:

Soviet tank found in Rostock

2011-11-18T02:49:00.000-08:00

Saw this on a German news site this morning (please forgive the translating)

Rostock - Rostock construction workers have found a Russian tank from the Second World War. In it were human remains and live ammunition.

Joachim Kozlowski is in a small pit at a construction site at the Rostock lock bridge and inspected to get what his employees out of the earth with shovels. The patient transfer of the German War Graves Commission tries to find out who the dead and wants to give them a dignified final resting place.

Construction workers had the metal parts on the day before by accident and notify the ammunition recovery service. The unearthed the front half of a Russian tank from the Second World War, the completely rusted gun barrel can still be seen well. "It's a Russian tank, probably a T-34," says explosives expert Fred Tribanek, who is responsible for the salvage.

Nice weathering

Inside, hand grenades and rifle ammunition were found. "The ammunition is still live, but as long as it is quiet in the tank, nothing happens," said Tribanek

It is unclear whether the bones are the remains of Russian or German soldiers, says Kozlowski, and it is still unclear whether the bones belong to one or more dead. "Usually these are armored with four to five men busy." After the identity of the area was cleared and searched around the tank, the bones were buried at the war cemetery in Rostock. "The second half of the tank is on the other side of the road must also be investigated yet," he says.

"We knew we were here on contaminated work area, but with a tank, we were not expecting," says Anja Koch. Rostock was on 1 May 1945 by advancing Soviet troops. According to the city, the street where the tank remains were found is an access road and at that time was therefore known as the "road of liberation."

Nevertheless, such a discovery he had never Tribanek says, shaking his head. Big bombs from the Second World War, frequently find, whole armor actually never. Then the tanks rolled on a flatbed truck which remains to the depot to be further investigated

Soviet Shtrafnoy batallion finished

2011-11-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

Finished this a few days ago but the weather has been dreich so i couldnt get good pictures untill today.

Im now taking a long break from 15mm infantry! The basing work is particularly tedious

Click on pictures for a better view.

Its been a while....

2011-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

....since i posted here. Big bad Real Life has been a bit hectic recently, and since my last post (5/6 weeks ago) i have only managed to paint 39 Flames of War infantry (thats about 1 a day!)

I have also been suffering from a bout of severe insomnia (again!) and that does not help matters. Mind is too active or something, too many random unwanted thoughts; A few mornings ago, at 5am, i realised i had a really excruciating song by Sophie Ellis Bextor running in loops around my mind, and upon this realisation i cracked, got up and put the Mp3 player on the headphones. The Misfits have been on the playlist recently, and the song titles "Horror Business" and "Night of the Living Dead" suited my situation perfectly.


Absolute "murder"

Getting a bit more painting done the last few days though, hope to have something to show soon.....

FOW Soviet Shtrafnoy Batalon project

2011-09-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

My next Flames of War project will be to build a Soviet Shtrafnoy (penal) batallion. 93 figures in all.

Soviet Shtrafnoy Batalon

HQ-
Command SMG team
2IC     SMG team
Batalon Kommisar team

1st Company-
Command team (Soviet warriors Lt. A V Pyl'cyn and Rita Makarievskaya)
Kommisar team
8 SMG teams

2nd Company-
Command SMG team
Kommisar team
8 SMG teams

3rd (weapons) Company-
Command rifle team
3 Maksim HMG teams

HQ section painted:

8 figures done, 85 to go:

Happy Oktoberfest!

2011-09-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Munich

A few of these...


....and a few of these.

That'll do nicely. Cheers everyone!

Soviet snipers - Flames of War

2011-09-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Noble sniper VG Zeytsev and Soviet snipers, plus 2 german casualties, from Battlefront miniatures.

Little Rose

2011-09-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Rose, by Hasslefree miniatures. 40mm scratchbuilt base (Rose is 18mm tall) Painted for the Hasslefree competition on the WAMP forum.

Silly me.....

2011-08-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

Ive been wanting to have a look at Citadel Finecast for some time (pretty much since it came out) but i have either been short of cash or the models i have seen did not inspire me enough to make a purchase. So a few days ago i bought this:


Looks a bit like my ex...

Its PLASTIC!!! Now, i know it does not say 'Finecast' on there, i think i was too busy looking at the price (€10.50) and the fact that it was in clear plastic packaging (similar to the finecast stuff) contributed to my error. Its an expensive piece of plastic, but it is a nice model, crisp detail, sculpted base etc:

Live and learn i guess....

Some better news this morning though, i recieved 4 Battlefront RSO tracktors i bought on ebay for half the retail cost. They are already painted (to a fashion) so i wont need to prepare or undercoat them before i repaint them. Cool :)

Cool cat

2011-08-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

Got my weekly email-newsletter from Battlefront this morning (its always in the mornings due to NZ-Euro time difference, and its always a nice read while i have my morning coffee & ciggie)
This one included a link to pictures from the 'Iron Cross Painting Competition' held at Historicon. Some lovely entries on show, here is a link to the page. My personal favourite is the german motorcyclist petting a cat by Bruce Oberst, which took first place in the 'objective' category. A lovely little piece, im sure you will agree.

Napoleonic Black Watch highland officers

2011-07-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

The first 2 completed models for a unit of 28mm napoleonic Black Watch highlanders which i seem to have been painting forever.....

Some kilted guardsmen should be making an appearance soon (once im happy that i can paint a half-decent tartan)

From Victrix.

Napoleonic Prussian landwehr officer

2011-07-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

28mm metal, from Warlord games Black Powder range, painted in East Prussian colours (poppy red facings & white buttons) This fellow will eventually join a unit of Prussian landwehr i have primed and stored away in a box for later, i painted this piece for the Warlord games competition on WAMP forum

The Younger brothers, 28mm

2011-07-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Cole Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War, he was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger. After the civil war the brothers, along with Frank and Jesse James were part of the James-Younger gang of outlaws who robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches. In 1876 the Younger brothers were captured in Minnesota after attempting to rob the Northfield First National Bank.

These miniatures are from Blue Moon manufacturing

Cole,Jim and Bob Younger

More german objectives - Flames of War

2011-06-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Another 2 german objective markers for Flames of War. An Opel Blitz supply truck and an ammo dump.

40K Orks gretchin mob

2011-06-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

A project started way back last august, i decided to finish it off for the purpose of raising some funds on ebay. At first i was unsure about my attempt at OSL on the orks weapon, but since it has actually come out better in the picture than it really is, im very satisfied with it!

Group shot, click to enlarge

Soviet speznaz scout platoon - Flames of War

2011-05-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

Some Soviet special forces from Battlefront, and my first attempt at soviet amoeba camouflage in 15mm. I'll be looking to give these guys some transport soon, in the form of captured german halftracks or amphibious jeeps (whichever i can find 'on the cheap' first)

Click to enlarge

CMON Mini exchange 26

2011-05-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

The 26th CoolMiniOrNot miniature exchange (and my third involvement) is currently underway, and i was delighted to recieve my package of 'mystery minis' today.
I got GW stuff, firstly the chaos demon Be'lakor, an OOP metal chaos bloodletter, an old space wolf terminator and some nice scenery pieces (the white bits are plaster, possibly Hirst arts but i could be wrong)
Its always good to get new toys to play with :)

Chaos spawn no.2

2011-05-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

A quick TTQ job on the second of my old chaos spawn figures (did the first one last september ) Good fun, happy painting, lots of drybrushing.

Kinda reminds me of this guy:

Victrix 28mm Duke of Wellington

2011-05-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

A pleasure to paint. Learned a lot from this piece, particularly doing the tunic and the horse.

Soviet HQ objective - Flames of War

2011-05-16T04:37:00.000-07:00

Made from toothpicks and greenstuff, and 3 spare Battlefront soviets (including the groovy blonde radio operator chick whom i have named Tanya)

Is it working again?

2011-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Seems to be fixed now.....although i need to rewrite yesterdays post......damn blogger......

Friday the 13th?

Stylish blogger award

2011-05-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

A big thankyou to Kingsleypark for nominating me for this award :) If you are not already following his excellent blog i suggest you go check it out because its a damn good read!

Seven things about myself? Hmm, let me think....

1. Despite the fact it says 'Germany' on my profile, i am in fact originally from Scotland (this is why i could not spell 'schürzen' correctly....my apologies to mork :p )

A Scotsman

2. Im related to Jon Bon Jovi (weeeeell....my dads cousins daughter is/was married to him or something, thats good enough for me)

Not really a relative

3. My work has been sat on by legendary (and sadly now departed) soul singer James Brown. Weird one eh? Let me explain: I worked for BBC Scotland building tv sets for a short time, and we built the BBC stage for T in the Park (a big music festival in Scotland) I was watching the highlights on tv & they interviewed him while sitting on the edge of the stage.

I got style - He got soul

4. Another singer called Brown, Mr Ian Brown, is so far my 'most watched music artiste' Ive seen him in concert 3 times.

Mr Ian Brown

5. Im running out of interesting things to say about myself...

6. Aside from painting little tanks and soldiers i also dabble in a bit of DJing/sound engineering (indeed, i studied audio technology for a year)

Too cool a pic NOT to add

7. Ummm, ive run out of interesting things to say about myself.....

********************************************************************************

Now to nominate 7 blogs i think deserving of this prestigious award

1. exilespainting - Historical wargames figs, armies, stage-by-stage guides, an excellent read.

2. wabcorner - A blog about Warhammer Ancient Battles, and showing some beautifully painted miniatures

3. warpaintguy - An excellent WH40K blog

4. MaGies blog - Stunningly painted fantasy miniatures

5. Marios blog - An excellent collection of minis, various genres

6. Thr REAL Leigh Griffiths blog - This one wont mean much to those who dont know Scottish (Dundee in particular) football, but its given me (as a supporter of Dundee United) many a good laugh. Its 'teckle' :)

7. week-ender - Music from the 'Madchester' era, my fav music genre

Victrix 28mm British general Hill

2011-05-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

General Rowland Hill. A brigade commander at the battles of Rolica and Vimeiro in 1808, and the battle of Corruna in 1809, he then commanded the 2nd Infantry Division at the battle of Talavera (1809) and the battle of Bussaco (1810). In 1811 Hill became a corps commander and took part in the battles of Arroyo dos Molinos (1811) and Almaras (1812), and the Siege of Burgos (1812). In 1813 he commanded the Right Column at the battle of Vitoria and commanded a corps in the battles of The Pyrenees, Nivelle and The Nive, and in 1814 the battles of Ortez and Toulouse. In 1815 at the battle of Waterloo Hill commanded the II Corps. He led the famous charge against Napoleon's Imperial Guard towards the end of the battle.

"Look, i've got a big hat"

German objectives - Flames of War

2011-04-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

At the weekend i raided the bitz box and built up a couple of objective markers for Flames of War. One is the obligatory ammo dump, and ive made an abandoned/disabled anti-tank gun also. Finished painting them last night...

1:72 StuG build complete

2011-04-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Some 'pre-paintshop' pictures of the completed 1:72 StuG 40 Ausf.G kit from Revell

Liebster Blog Award

2011-04-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

I was recently given the 'Liebster Blog Award' from Mario. For this i say a big thankyou! :)

Mario has a cool blog also, and is currently painting some nice Empire troops and Ogre Ironguts for Warhammer.

Im very happy to recieve this award :)

Major-General Montgomery - Flames of War

2011-04-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do an early-war combined british/french force for some time now, and have been gradually stocking up on models for this. I bought this one without checking the rules, and was sad to learn that an army led by Monty cannot contain a) french support or b) tanks. This is a problem because a) i have lots of french and b) i have tanks (in fact, i have french tanks!)

A really nice little piece though, had a lot of fun painting it.

German grenadier platoon - Flames of War

2011-04-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

At the third attempt, i think i finally made a decent job of my old german grenadier platoon.

Soviet heavy mortar company - Flames of War

2011-04-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

More FoW Soviets, this time a heavy mortar company. Bases have scratch-built mortar pits, made with branches, decorators filler and sand.

German 7.5cm PaK40 platoon - Flames of War

2011-03-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Flames of War German 7.5cm PaK40 anti-tank guns and command team with Kfz 15 staff car. After many attempts at painting german camo smocks in this scale i have finally found a method i am happy with. A basecoat of VMC green grey, random patches of Luftwaffe camo green and red-brown then small dots over these patches using the original green grey. Finally a thin wash of GW devlan mud to shade and soften.

Scale creep

2011-03-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a good example of 'scale creep', the tendency for some miniature manufacturers to make differently sized/proportioned models within the same scale. Both of these models are given at 28mm scale but as you can see there is quite a difference in size and proportions. On the left we have a Bavarian from Hat, on the right is a Prussian from Warlord. I have even placed a small piece of card under the bavarian so that both models are standing on the same level.

Michael Wittmann - Flames of War

2011-03-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

Flames of War Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittman, with his famous Tiger 1E '007' and Schwimmwagen. Tank insignia had to be hand painted, as i had no appropriate decals

53 Night goblins (and a little squig)

2011-03-07T04:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the Night Goblin army i painted for the army challenge at WAMP. Finished a week later than scheduled due to all my recent Flames of War commitments, and unfortunately missing 2 squig herds (herders got done but i couldnt finish the squigs in time) Big thanks to Exiles for the majority of the miniatures

Group shot:

HQ and fanatics:

Spearmen unit:

Soviet 37mm obr 1939 AA guns - Flames of War

2011-02-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

Following on nicely from last weeks Soviet aircraft i now have some air defence, in the form of 2 37mm obr 1939 guns. Perfect for dishing out some punishment to those pesky Luftwaffe raids

Soviet IL2 Shturmovik flight - Flames of War

2011-02-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

Some Soviet air support for Flames of War, 1/144th scale Battlefront miniatures IL2 Shturmovik Flight

Warhammer 40K Chaos shrine

2011-01-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

A small scenery piece made from plasterboard and various Games Workshop bits

1:72 STuG 40 by Revell

2010-12-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this picture of Revell's 1:72 scale STuG 40 (a variant of the STuG III) i built many years ago. Its an excellent kit, although i wasnt entirely happy with the brushed paintjob. I have another one of these kits though, and i also have brass etched Shurzen plates for it (there are none included with the kit)

Very impressive, GW

2010-12-24T02:10:00.000-08:00

This popped through the letterbox yesterday. Its Games Workshop's High Elf prince on griffon, from thier recent Warhammer starter pack release 'The Island of Blood'

The first thing that struck me was the size of the thing, its bigger than i was expecting. A lot of other GW releases look bigger in the pictures on thier website than in reality (the new plastic Demon Prince and the Ork's Killa Kans spring to mind) but not this piece.

Then there was reconsideration of the price. I got the item, had it delivered (recorded) to my previous adress in the UK, then reposted over here to Germany all for under 8 pounds! Im very pleased with this, an excellent model, and i look forward to starting it sometime in the future, once ive completed my current projects.

Night goblin fanatics

2010-12-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here are the night goblin fanatics i recently finished. They will eventually join a unit of night goblin spearmen im doing for a Night goblin army for the army challenge competition at WAMP

German snipers, Flames of war

2010-10-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

Some german snipers (and russian casualties) for flames of war.

Chaos spawn

2010-09-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

A Warhammer 40K Chaos spawn i painted up for selling. Base by Micro-art

Orks Gretchin mob (part 1)

2010-08-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

Another mini i finished last weekend was this little grot for Warhammer 40K. I got another one of these models as part of a miniature exchange on CoolMiniOrNot so i decided to finish this one off, and use the other one as part of a mob.

My collection of gretchin has been steadily growing this week, and i have built up an ork runtherder/bully for them. Converted from a standard Ork boyz model, i like the look of this one. I think the pose is a lot more dynamic than GWs 'official' runtherder/bully models. He really does look like he is driving those cowardly gretchin onward into battle! I also like the electrical 'grot-prod' he is armed with, and i think i will be trying a little OSL on there

Here is the gretchin mob so far, and i have another 4 waiting to be built

28mm British paratrooper

2010-08-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

At the weekend i started to get some of my unfinished miniatures out of the way. The workbench is becoming too cluttered lately, and i have several new projects i would like to start.

Firstly i finished off the 28mm british red-devil paratrooper from Warlord games, given to me by my buddy Exiles for a competition at WAMP i never got round to finishing at the time. Im fairly happy with the result, although the flesh areas are a bit too light, and this looks even more pronounced in the pictures

FOW StuG repair workshop

2010-07-31T03:58:00.000-07:00

Here are the 2 StuG III 's that come with the Flames of War starter set 'Open Fire'. Comprising only 2 parts; the hull, running gear and armour plates are single piece cast resin, the other part being the metal gun barrell and mantlet.

I originally painted them a basic dunkelgelb, simply to get them looking decent for the gaming table. However, after a while the 'Schurzen' armour plates began to break off, the resin being quite thin and brittle. This is not uncommon for these pieces, but it can be easily rectified.

I measured the dimensions of the plates i drew these onto paper, then i used some clear blister packaging plastic to cut the plates from. I didnt cut the individual plates out, rather just the strip of 4 for each side. The lines where the individual plates meet were simply scored using an old hobby knife, taking care not to cut all the way through.

The original resin plates were fully removed using needle-nosed pliers, then sanded down before attaching the new plates with superglue

Here they are finished, ready for the gaming table:

So it begins

2010-07-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hello. Im In Chigh, and this is my blog.