Have been doing some thinking. Houses, streets and such…

At some point I am going to produce houses again. All the farm houses that I will be using for my “Battle at La Fière Bridge project” must be finished as the first thing – and I am very eager to get going. Making these farm houses will give me plenty of that kind of houses and the next thing in line will be classic small town houses in the best Normandy style, like those in Carentan, St-Lo or Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

In the planning stage it is very easy to thinking about going back to my original plan that was to make molds of my houses and duplicate them – but I forget how boring that phase is compared to how much fun I have when making the originals. Making molds and cast several duplicates which I then can make small changes to, especially in the painting, for vareity is tempting compared to scratch build every single house, but I also know that the process will drain my energy…

I will need to make up my mind about which way to go. Until then I will keep studying photos and make sketches.

The Red Army at my doorstep

They are here now. The first platoon of my russian battlegroup. Organised into squads, support units, HQ, ‘spare bits’ and then put neatly into a box, where there is a chance that they will stay untouched for several years. Hopefully not.

I felt an urge to buy a full company, but my economy wont allow me doing that. I will buy a platoon or some gun crews now and then. The chance that I run out of figures to paint is second to none as I have 17 more boxes like this filled with figures…(!?!)

In my search for a 120mm mortar in transport mode, I today stumbled upon a new website selling gaming stuff that I thought was a danish online shop. They had several models that I don’t find in my usual shops and I quickly found some boxes that I couldn’t resist, especially some Zvezda AT and AA guns for my red horde, but also Nebelwerfers for my Fallschiermjägers.

A thing, I also ordered, that I especially look forward to have in my hands is two trucks, one polish Fiat and a Praga truck, both some I will mix together with Opel Blitz’s to give my german army a more “ragtag” kind of look. These two trucks are from the polish company called First to fight. This will be my first models from this brand and I can’t wait to see how the quality is.

After the order was placed I got the usual confirming email and found out that the shop wasn’t danish at all. This was a polish online shop… which for me isn’t a problem, but I found it quite fun that the url was danish and even the language was translated into danish. Well after I found out that it wasn’t a danish site I also found several errors in the translation that a dane wouldn’t do. Check it out yourself. Most of the brands are eastern European, but there is alsvo some Italeri and Dragon boxes. I give you the international url ;-) www.super-hobby.com

Russians from AB Figures – Out Now!

Some of the new russian AB Figures. All painted by Tony Barton himself.

Some years ago it was announced that AB Figures, the best 20mm WW2 metal figures if asking me, was closing their business down. This was bad news for me as these figures have been the backbone of all of my armies because of their big variety on poses, but mostly for their unmatched high standard. Some months later the good news came, the Australian based company Eureka Miniatures, headed by Nic Robson, had joined forces with Tony Barton, the sculptor of AB Figures, to continue manufacture the AB line. The first years Tony and Nic was busy making new moulds and fill in missing bits. But now they are ready to launch a new big batch of figures: Late War Russians!

Missing russian figures from AB has been the only reason to why I have not been doing Eastern front. And the news of them comming is both good and bad for me. Bad news because I already have a mountain of unpainted figures. Good news because I always wanted to build a russian battlegroup.

The new figures looks fantastic. I was tempted to order a full company right away, but managed to keep the order to a few US and German figs that I have been missing…
…and in the end a tiny russian platoon was also added to the order. Can’t wait to get them.

Buy them from: http://www.abfigures.com (outside Europe)
or http://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk (in Europe)

Finally got these…

Got this sets with mail today. Two Academy sets I have wanted for a very long time. The Dodge Ambulance I actually already have, but this is converted into a radio car. The other Academy set I mainly wanted for the motorcycle, I need a dispatch rider for my US battlegroup. I have lots of M3’s already, but can always need some more. The Seep I will give to my russians, when getting there.

The 88 is one that I needed. I have two from Hasegawa already, but I need four. I wanted to check out the quality of the Zvezda model before buying one more. The first impression of the set is that it looks good, fine details and great quality of the plastic. The sprues seems to have been bent though, I am a bit concerned that it will give me problems later when assembling the model. But the price is so low that I guess I can live with a model that is a little bit deform.

This two Academy sets have been sold out for several years where I normally buy my stuff. I was happy to find a seller on Ebay that have both sets, always nice to save a bit on packaging.

The last couple of years…

Every once in a while I make an update like this telling about why I have not been writing about wargaming for ages. The reason have been the same every time: I have moved to a new place and because of that used all my time to get the new place in shape. The same this time. Almost two years ago we bought a little house that we, since then, have been renovating. As a part of this it has (only) been possible for me to get a mini-room (2,1 x 2,1 metres) where I can set up a desk and fit in some drawers to all my hobby stuff. To be honest I don’t need more space, the bigger room I have the more mess I have to clean up.

The good news is that this should hopefully be the end station, or at least the place where we settle down for many years. So very soon I hopefully will have much more time painting, building and be gaming.

It has been really hard not to be able to build and collect for so long time. I am very fond of making small lists for everything, how many figures do I need to be able to play this or that mission, how many trucks do I need to buy before my army is complete and so on. Because of these lists it is also quite easy for me to quickly get back on track ad carry on where I left, even when I have been away for two years.

So what will happen when I am back? I will continue building houses for my La Fière Bridge project.

I have been thinking of building a typical french manor for some time now, as there are quite a lot of missions having one, and have decided to build something similar to the Brecourt Manor, which is the big house closest to the german gun trenches that Easy company took out on D-day. I have been collecting pictures of the manor and will just have to find out how close to the original I want to be.

One thing that have come up while I have been away is that AB Figures are making russians now. They are not out yet, but it can’t be many weeks before they can be ordered. I have always said that I will not touch the Eastern front, because in my mind there is no good russian figures… well that ain’t the case anymore. There is nothing to do about it, I will have to collect an Russian Battlegroup. I just have to make up my mind about doing these before painting my British Battlegroup.

Here are some WIP’s of my little work room:

This is not a prison.

Walls are coming up.

Everything still needs to be done: get new floor, new ceiling, walls, electricity…

New floor, new radiator, walls and ceiling fixed. The frosted windows will be changed at some point.

Cabinets for all my unbuilt models.

“Wooden” tiles that is easy to clean after I have been using the airbrush for hours.

The real stuff…

While most of us collect small mini versions, this old dude collect the real stuff – in his basement!!!

Check out this article: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33381772

Restart…

Every time I been away from the hobby I always “restart” by buying lot’s of new products instead of working on the massive load of stuff I already have. In this way the space I need to store everything need to be bigger for every break. The reason to why I take breaks has been because of moving to new places, but for some kind of weird reason I am away for at least a year every time.

Anyway – I think I am back!? Just bought some Fallschiermjägers to be able to make a full Battlegroup Overlord company. I have also invested in some of the new US stuff: crew for both jeeps and halftracks. The new US squads in trenches will become very handy. The new SS jeep crew also look very nice. I bought some crew for Universal Carriers (I actually have a british company unpainted) and finally crew for my Hummels.

Luckily I am quite found of making list, taking notes, organize and gather information which make it easy for me to be away for a long time and still be able to just carry on where I left. So my goal is still Normandy and especially the figthing on La Fiére Bridge.

If my paint is still wet, I will soon be painting again :-)

Fraternizing with the Enemy…

Found my 3.5 year daughter playing around with a fallschirmjäger helmet… Well a wannabe helmet – it is just a ordinary bike helmet dressed with a copy of a fj cover. Looks good on everyone though ;-)

Great inspiration!

Guys! While nothing at all happens on my blog in the summertime, I warmly recommend you to browse over to Arkiegamers game blog: ArkieGamer

Arkie is very talented and makes some really authentic looking games, mostly WWII in 20mm and 15mm American Civil War.

Who doesn’t want to play a game on this board?

FURY

This is going to be good!!!