British North African Motorpool – Part II
I got my kits via a dutch onlinestore, Tabletopper.nl, and shipping was quick and easy. Shipping rates are reasonable, and I got some other items along with the bedford trucks as well, an Austin Tilly and some stowage.
The British had a variety of trucks and tows in service during the war and especially in North Africa. With the Bedford QLT and QLD kits available as plastic kits, I could take care of that addition to my forces, as most of the vehicles are regular combat vehicles, as you can see from the first article, with the exception of some lighter vehicles / armoured cars.
In Bolt Action these are 3 ton trucks with the capacity of 12 men, and you can go for a QLT upgrade to boost that up to 29. To be honest a bit of overkill, but I went with the kit more for the aspect of variety as for the actual opportunity to carry all of my men in a single vehicle.
Thunderhawks – Hooo!
Closing the gap on the area between Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis got a bit easier, with the recent release of Astartes Aircrafts. And among those aircrafts, is one of the most famous flyers the Space Marines have, the mighty Thunderhawk! (Imagine the Thundercats intro ... hooooo!)
I have to be honest, the Thunderhawk has a special meaning for me. Beginning with the first Thunderhawk, all metal kit, that was released in the late 90s and I even held that one on my first visit to Warhammer World in 1999. And that particular kit got much more attention this year, when Emil a.k.a. Squidmar got one of these Thunderhawk kits, painted it up and sold it for an impressive 25.600 GBP.
British North African Motorpool – Part I
Following on the late war Allied motorpool for the US Americans for the late autumn / winter of '44, are the British in North Africa, mid-war around 1942-43. With this set of miniatures, I want to be able to play the theatre selectors of the Desert Rats / 8th Army in 1942-43 and the Long Range Desert Group from 1940 to 1943.
The infantry is build upon the magnificient range by the Perrys, mostly plastic.
US Motorpool – Part II
I got around to build the transporters for my late war US Americans. The latest addition were these kits, build around the half tracks and a "heavier Jeep" if you want.
As Tabletopper.nl carries Empress Miniatures as well, I got myself some matching crew for the kits. I'm not a huge fan of the infantry by Rubicon, they are to slender for my taste and with the option to get some Paul Hicks sculpted minis, the choice for me was easy. Going with the Empress codes. As you can see, they fit very well with the plastic kits and are not just generic drivers, but wearing the matching winter gear.
US Motorpool – Part I
As mentioned in my reducing the stock and moving posts, I cut down on open projects. This affected among other projects Bolt Action. I merged some off the themed armies and sold the surplus, especially the vehicles.
I made a mindmap for the projects that will stay. And the Bolt Action armies, which will be set up in a way to be able to put to use in other systems as well, for example like Battlegroup, are:
Late War - Winter of 1944/45
- Germans (Ardennenoffensive / Wacht am Rhein, Unternehmen Greif)
- Combined Allied battle group of Americans (Battle of the Bulge, later Operation Lumberjack) and British (rougly Operation Queen, but British troops fighting their way from Belgium/Netherlands towards middle rhine)
Mid War - Desert and Jungle
- Deutsches Afrikakorps
- 8th Army
- Chindits
August 2021 review
Parental leave is over and since March 2020, I went back from remote to physically being in the office in August. That certainly is a different situation, among others "loosing" an hour a day on commute.
It feels a bit weird to say, that with having reached September, it is only 4 more months until 2022. Times moving insanely fast. With that said, one of the gaps in my limited miniature collection could be closed, with an 10 year old miniature, the 2011 Salute event miniature sculpted by the Perrys. Quite happy about getting my hands on this one.
Wednesday is my new streaming day. A new Marvel What If episode, along with updates on Warhammer+. I did a recap on the animated series on here, but todays update, that "only" covered a new episode of Angels of Death didn't really have that much of an impact. Only 17 minutes long - incl. intro, but revealing the foe of the narrative. It didn't really develope the story and the sound composing issues are still there, along with some weird clipping of the shoulder pads on the Blood Angels themself. Looking forward to a new episode of Hammer & Bolter and hopefully some throwbacks in the vault.
Adeptus Titanicus – Legio Astraman Ad Arma Part III
This takes longer than I thought. For multiple reasons.
First of all, I really am not used to painting these kind of models. My experience is mostly with humanoids and tanks, and as I pointed out in almost every review on the Adeptus Titanicus range, these kits have an incredible amount of detail.
I managed to take my regular scheduled painting times, but due to their size and getting to know the models, it honestly takes forever to block in the base colours.
So beside showing you some half-painted miniatures, I'd like to share some learnings:
- Leave the armour plates off until painting. Seriously, it is much easier to paint them. On about one third of my titans I glued them on, and they are a bit more difficult to paint, than the later stock where I didn't do that.
- If you have access to a spray can or air brush, make use of it to block in the primary colours. I primed the models black with a spray can, but seperating the parts into those who would need a metal primer (and that's a lot, I underestimated the amount of blank metal these models cover below their heraldic / armour plate), and those covering your legion base colour(s), yet, depending on your paint job and multi-colour scheme of your legio, that might not be necessary.
- Prepare what you're going to do by studying the product pictures or other painted examples. Seriously, there is so much going on, especially on the back and underside, that it really eats up time for me to check, is this something that would be painted in metal or heraldry colour? Where does this plate end and the other section start?
Reinforcement straight from the foundry
I usually pick up Wargames Foundry at shows likes Crisis or Salute, but with the lack of shows "lately" I went for some direct ordering. As I have friends in the UK, I'm able to order without the hassle of customs and fees. These were ordered in April, Foundry did a great job having them delivered only a few days later within the UK, and I only recently came around to arrange the hand over. So that's only a solution for some non-time critical items, never the less - let's take a look at what I got myself.
Adeptus Titanicus – Legio Astraman Ad Arma Part II
A brief update on the summer challenge.
The first block are 6 miniatures, I went with two Reaver Titans and four Cerastus Lancers. After thoroughly cleaning mould lines and gaps before priming most of the models, I started with blocking in the base colours. Starting with Army Painter Gun Metal for the metallic parts of the titans.
June review
Managed to get some things going in June. Some new and final arrivals to my collection.
I am a huge fan of the work of Paul Hicks, and one of rarer miniatures (besides the event miniatures he sculpted) is this set of British Napoleonic soldiers, strongly influenced by Sean Bean in Sharpe. After looking for a trader in Europe and trying to get these second hand - but with no results for over almost a year, I decided to order directly with Brigade Games. Shipping wasn't cheap at 28 USD (for a total of ~50 USD worth of miniatures), but went incredibly fast, as these arrived within 10 days - incl. going through customs.
This isn't going to be some mass combat, but really a small skirmish setup around Sharpe's Rifles. So after looking at Osprey Games' Chosen Men, but putting that aside for it being far too large, as it is more like Saga at 40+ miniatures and not what I had in mind for the small battles, I went with Song of Drums & Shakos by Ganesha Games. Tabletop Stories has a review on the rule set. And if you're already there, give their Mecha-Spin off of What a tanker a go.
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