Warhammer 40,000 – Speed Freeks
As part of Orktober, Games Workshop delivers a stand-alone boxed set of orkish racing - Speed Freeks! It was already announced back in August on Warhammer Fest Europe and there were rumours about a revival of Gorka Morka, so now we know what these were about.
Game Envy Hobby Holder painting handle
Back in 2017 Game Envy started a Kickstarter for a new paint handle and collected almost 90.000 USD with their crowdfunding campaign. The 3d printed prototypes are replaced by a final injection moulded product and I'm testing one today.
I got the Hobby Holder along with a handle mod. This sets you back 20 USD for the holder, 6 for the handle mod and additional shipping (~10 USD to Europe). My kit came with a button, a strip of blu tack and 5 bottle caps.
Spiel 2018 Preview
This Thursday, the October 25th, Spiel starts again. It is the largest board game con in Europe. You can download the Spiel Guide for the show here for free.
It's been 3 years since the last time I've been there, and I've covered it on here, Spiel 2015 Part I, Part II and Part III.
Sci-Fi Soldiers with long coat
In July I covered the Bolt Action Winter German kit by Warlord Games and the possibilities within the game / setting it self, using it for conversions.
As the Bolt Action plastic range is 28mm heroic scale, a bit overdrawn, it can be used as a base for all kinds of longcoat troops. A brief comparison of the bodies next to the ones of bodies from the Warhammer 40k Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum range.
Diorama photography and scenic backdrops
I really like scenic pictures of miniatures and battle scenes. They capture the stories of the scenarios we play so well. One great example are the motives on the Calendar by Stronghold Terrain they released as part of the German translation of the rulebook.
Modern Combat Tamiya 1:48 Humvee
After watching Sicario 2 - Day of the Soldado and enjoying that amazing Behind the Border scene with the HUMVEEs and mexican police, modern combat came strongly back to my head.
All pictures shown above were taken from promotional material and are copyright 2018 of Sony Pictures / Lionsgate / StudioCanal.
Heer46 Carro Armato P43 Bis
Following the Krupp-Steyr Waffenträger from Tuesday, today we unpack and build the Armato P43 Bis by Heer46.
This is another tank from the resin series produced in cooperation with Rubicon Models. The Armato P43 was an Italian heavy tank that was developed by FIAT and Ansaldo, but never left the draft stage. The sources why the development stopped are not clear, some say the design was dropped in favour of the lighter P26/40 tank, but it is likely that the resources were just not available after the armistice of Italy with the Allies in 1943 and the Axis had other things valued higher than Italian tank development. Only two mock ups were build, but as mentioned before not further progressed. The tank was intended to weigh around 30 tons and have a 420-430 hp diesel V12 engine. The name Carro Armato P43 stands for armoured vehicle, P for pesante - Italian for heavy - and the number '43 most likely standing for the development year.
Heer46 Krupp-Steyr Waffenträger
There is a new range of 1:56 scale resin kits produced by Heer46 in cooperation with Rubicon Models, as an addition to Rubicon extensive plastic range. One of the vehicles offered as part of this assortment is the Krupp-Steyr Waffenträger.
Among the several Waffenträger (and their blueprint / papertank / prototypes) the Krupp Steyr Waffenträger is one of the less known vehicles. And like many of his kind, this tank destroyer never actually saw service. Only a similar concept of this Waffenträger, known as the Ardelt project was produced and can be seen nowadays in the Kubinka tank museum in Russia. Two wooden models and one trial Waffenträger were produced in 1944, that had a chassis constructed by Steyr mainly using parts from the RSO (Raupenschlepper Ost), and armed with an 8,8 cm KwK 43. This was the base for the model we see here. Due to the turret, and in combination with a small mobile ramp, the firing arch of this Waffenträger was amazing versatile. As this is a rather special vehicle, there aren't that many further information available. Most may know the Waffenträger from games likes Warthunder or World of Tanks.
More Planes! More Messerschmitts!
While preparing the Western Desert book, the airfield raids came back to my mind. I already have bought an Airfix Dogfights Double and have a couple of the Dust huts, so set up the matching terrain.
Daniel bought himself a Messerschmitt Bf109 G-10 by Revell, and after I saw how cheap you can get this (8-12 EUR per box), I decided to get my hands on two kits to fill up on my squadron of 3. These kits are in 1:48 scale, a popular scale for aircraft modelling.