Da Black Parade

 Today I've finished 10 Goff Gretchin, Da Black Parade as the unit will be known.

These are 2nd Edition monopose model, but have come out fairly well with some drilling on the autogun.

Join the Pioneers

Today's update is a small German Panzer Pioneer Platoon, for my German tank company.

Models are a mix out of my bits box, but I think are mainly Battlefront and Peter Pig.

Frosty Reception

This month I've been working on the Battlefront Finnish Tanks.

Firstly I have 3 BA-10 armoured cars. These are nice metal resin Battlefront models and have been painted into a winter white wash scheme like all my Finns.

Next up, I have repainted my 3 BT-42 assault guns. Again these are Battlefront and again in winter white wash (this time over tri- colour camouflage).

Finally this weekend I've renumbered and added a couple of replacement boards to this wagon.

Sorry for the inactivity.

So it's been a bit quiet here for a couple of months. What happened? Well life bluntly, I've currently got a DIY project on, there was a holiday and my girlfriend ended up in hospital (unrelated to the previous two events).

In between, I have built a lot of Flames of War infantry (about 8 platoons worth plus some additional bits), which are now sprayed and in the (now very long) painting queue.

In addition, I have been distracted (other than by life). I cracked and bought some Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition Gretchin for nostalgia. I trialled a paint Scheme on one yesterday. Here he is with classic Goblin Green base.

It was nice to get something done as a quick project. I picked up 30 off of these, so I may try to do more of them at some point.

That's actually Cricket!

 So this is a bit of a different one. My girlfriend is a keen cricketeer. As such, I picked up this cricket game for the OO model railway (when it gets rebuilt).

I've finally got round to painting them so thought I would show them off.

The models are from Langley Models.

Figures of Fantasy

 Slightly different update for today. I recently collected a couple of free figures from ChillCon earlier this year, and have got some paint on them.

The first is the Sir Gobbo free figure you got for attending. Here I've based him on an MDF base, and added a spare Chinese z-gauge model rail tree from eBay as a sapling.

The second is a Shattered Soul from Terra Regalis, which was being handed out as test models for Two Thin Coats paints. These are a simple one piece model, that I think could benefit from a different pose, as it's arm really blends in.

These have mainly been test pieces for new techniques. The Shattered Soul was used to test wet blending and edge highlighting, while the Gobbo was used to further test speed paints over a zenithal base, particularly the metallic silver.

Speed paints aren't perfect and I definitely think they benefit from over painting with proper paints for highlights in most colours, they are a quick and easy way to lay down some base coat and shading. The silver works well for large areas of flat metal but is quite bright and benefits from a dark wash to tone it down. In this case I used Army painter dark wash and gun metal to shade and highlight, before adding rust/weathering with Light Tone and Strong Tone.

Heavy Steel

This month's progress has been 4 IS-2 and 4 ISU-122s for my Soviets.

These are all Battlefront models, and as such assembled nicely.

Another 8 vehicles to tick off the list.

Flame On!

 So today's update is the latest addition for my Soviets, 10 OT-34 flame tanks. These are Battlefront models and have both the 76mm and 85mm turrets.

These strengthen my collection for an Operation Bagaration game I hope to run later this year.

Finnish-ed Conversions

Today's models are some more T-26 and BA-10 armoured cars.

These used to be in my Finnish force and are Zvezda and Command Decision models respectively.

This month I've built new Battlefront models for the Finn's, rendering these ones surplus. Rather than selling them, I've recycled them into my Soviet force.

This brings me to 10 T-26s for the Soviets.

More should follow soon as I've been doing more construction in the background.

T-26s

 I wanted to post these earlier, but a varnish accident (Colour Forge is a lot less tolerant of temperature difference than Vallejo) and a holiday prevented this.

These are 5 Zvezda T-26s. I hope to repaint my finnish T-26s to Russian to match, when I get the new Finnish T-26s complete (These are being built at the moment).

Finnish T-26s in progress, new battlefront models.

Token Contribution

Today we have a some tokens.

Last weekend I attended Corrivalry, a UK flames of war competition. I didn't do badly, I came 5th and joint 2nd in the painting competition. My army is below.

At the competition we were given a set of 3D printed attack, maneuver, defend stance tokens. I have painted mine up in the colours of Battlefield Hobbies, the store where the competition was held.

Hail of Shells

So I have managed to get my medium and heavy Soviet mortars painted, which is useful as if gives me both options for my Soviet force.

Also another 17 models painted!

Astute class

So the secret project is revealed, I've been working on this 3D printed Astute class submarine a friend did for me.

Interesting project as there are limited photos of these especially below the waterline, as such I've gone for a limited paint scheme, black with a few details in Grey or Dark Green.

The base is white based MDF which I edged with iron on strip.

2024: A Year In Review

So, another year, another annual summary blog post.

What can we say about 2024? Well, looking at the graph below, it's not been my most productive year.

However, it was at least better than 2022s progress, especially when you consider that I've moved house twice this year (and the pre/post work that involves), and lost my permanently set up painting space.

So what have I achieved this year?

Firstly, my Late War Germans got a big boost, with the following completed.

• 3 Panzer II
• 3 Sd Kfz 221/222
• 2 Jagdtigers
• 4 Stug IV
• 21 Sd Kfz 251 halftrack in various configurations
  
• 4 Jagdpanzer IV
• 4 Puma Armoured Cars

My Soviets gained a lend lease Tankovy of 21 Grants and 10 Stuarts.

For 1:72/OO railways I completed the following:

• 4 Gun Crew
• Universal Carrier
• 6 Pounder Anti-tank gun
  
• Cromwell
• Churchill
• 10 Beer Kegs

That's the stuff published anyway. In addition, over Christmas I managed to assemble 8 Soviet Heavy Mortars and 9 medium Mortars. I was hoping to get paint on these, but poor weather delayed priming and then illness delayed painting.

 

I also have another model in the works, which I will hopefully show soon.

In addition, in the Cloughbridge post, I also mention I was working on a small railway, while my OO layout was disassembled. I have made some progress on this over the course of the year, This has become my layout "Cherry Blossom", a Japanese Z Gauge layout. This is still in progress, but can be seen in it's current state below, including my repainted KiHa 40 motor carriage.

The other thing I need to do more is arrange more games, I haven't done a lot this year for various reasons. I'm booked in for Corrivalry at Battlefield Hobbies, so I shall try to build from there.

 

So, onwards to better progress in 2025!