Misc: Wish List & Reference Resources

It's quite normal for me to have a plethora of pages open in my browsers simultaneously. This can make moving back and forth between the few most active pages hard work, as I scroll past lots of pages I'm really not using. I know this is what the 'bookmark' function is for. But I only really use that for a certain core of oft-visited sites. So I've decided to compile some of these links, or rather those related to my mini-military hobbies, on a post or a page here.

First is a list of useful reference type links. I'm starting with a few on casting in resin, or similar. As that's something I'm about to have my first go at.

REFERENCE / RESOURCES

Casting resin parts

Resin casting tutorial - David Damek.
Sylmasta - casting & mould-making - tutorial by the people I got my resin casting kit from.

BJB, Moulding vid #2 - not directly miniatures related, but filled with useful moulding and casting info.

Blue Stuff (new to me!)
Blue Stuff mould-making tutorial - David Damek.

Vacuum Chamber (for removing air-bubbles from silicone, etc) & Vac-Forming
DIY Vacuum Chamber - how to construct your own vacuum-chamber for getting air our of silicone, etc.
Mini vac-form set-up - could be useful in getting set up to vac form small parts for kit conversions and scratch-building?

And then here's a somewhat larger list of stuff I lust after (hence the Tex Avery pic, atop this post)...

WISH LIST

1/72 WWII German 

Ace Models - Citroen Avant staff car

Ace Models - SdKfz 10 w 37mm flak

Ace Models - 3-ton softskin truck

IBG Models - Own brand 1\72 home page, loads of great stuff, inc. Universal Carriers, etc.

IBG Models - Roden Opel-Blitz Omnibus Stabswagen, €8.50!!!

IBG Models - Roden SdKfz 4/1 w raketenwerfer, €8.50!!!

Mac Distribution - Steyer 1500A

modelhobbies.co.uk - Mac Distribution, Mercedes Benz G3 Ambulance, c. £20

Modelling tools and equipment

Amazon UK - 2 x Xacto style craft knives, +100 blades, £10.70 (free shipping)

Misc: 100 Posts In 2019!

This post is the one-hundredth of 2019. That's the most posts in any one year so far, since I started in 2014. And there's still one-third of the year left. So I'm in pretty good shape for a bumper year of blogging. It also seems to me like a good moment to take stock. What have I achieved, both in blogging and more generally? Am I happy with what I'm doing? And all that sort of thing.

A new display case, with dust-busting glass front! [1]

My motley selection of wings. Just two are actually completed.

First off, however, a word on my 54mm Napoleonics, as they've been my latest practical hands-on modelling project. I've more or less finished the three Frenchies, pictured in the next section of the post, below. But I have yet to even make a start on the two British figures. I have a feeling that I'll be taking a break from 54mm figures for a spell, and getting into my languishing 6mm and 10mm 1812 armies. That's an area I'm less happy about; the inactivity on that (Eastern) front!

One noteworthy development of 2019 was an invitation to review for Pen & Sword. I've been an Amazon Vine reviewer for a number of years. But, rather annoyingly, and despite getting lots of great stuff, almost none of it has been related to my mini-military interests. Andrew Roberts Napoleon The Great, for example, was given out to some Vine reviewers. But not, alas, to me. I love being part of the Vine program, But that really galls me! I wouldn't be surprised if I was amongst the most history and Napoleon obsessed of their reviewers! Hey ho...

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But afore I go any further, yesterday's and today's activity, modelling wise, was further work on my 54mm Nap's: I did a tiny bit of touching up here and there, including some gloss varnish followed with washes (braid, horses mane, that sort of stuff), and a couple of coats of matt varnish. This time, with the latter I managed to be a bit more patient and methodical, thereby avoiding the dreaded clouding.

Rosewood bases, masked, ready for Milliput 'soil' to be added.

The pictures immediately above and below show the other thing I did yesterday, which is beginning the basing. I cut the bases from Indian Rosewood, on my bandsa and a hole cutting bit. They required quite a bit of sanding, and the circular ones needed the central drill-holes left by the hole-cutting bits  filling. I then masked a 5mm band around all the bases, built up Milliput 'earth', and tidied it with various tools so it follows the edge masking.

Figures on their bases, Milliput and gravel earth built up.

Scenic gravel and stones were then added, after which I marked mounting points from the base of each model, using the wire I'd glued into the feet/legs of each figure to mark the positions of the desired holes. I used a pin-vise drill through the still soft-ish Milliput and the wooden bases, which worked fine. Once the models were pinned in, and pressed into the Milliput, I used some liquid superglue to secure the models and the gravel in situ.

I'll let them dry and harden overnight, and start in on painting tomorrow. If poss', I'll add grass then as well... we shall see!

A different view. Grenadier's scabbards fell off!

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Note tiny hole drilled into grognard's left buttock.

Well, it's now 'tomorrow' today, and I've painted the 'earth', and added some more gravel. I also attached the Guard Grenadier's scabbards with a tiny little metal pin, as they'd fallen off two or three times, and I was getting fed up with gluing them back on, especially as it entailed repainting that whole area, the gluing process having messed up the paintwork.

Scabbards superglued into position. Will this do the trick?

I'm now letting everything sit awhile, myself included, as I type this. And then it'll be time to add some grass. Think I might watch a YouTube vid or two on the subject first, to see how to go about it! I seem to recall folk using diluted wood glue... let's find out!

Bases ready for the addition of grass.

All of this recent stuff, WWII vehicles, planes, 54mm figures, book reviews, are digressions from my 6mm and 10mm Russia 1812 stuff. But there's no sign of any let up, and I'm tending to go with the flow. After all, this whole mallarkey is, for me, chiefly about allowing myself self-indulgent pleasure. And it's doing that aplenty.

A recent trip to Ely inevitably found me furtively sneaking into the City Cycle Centre model department. They've rearranged their stock (again!), and now have some models by a brand that's new to me, Forces of Valour. I decided I'd check out their King Tiger model, as I've been wanting to build a version of this mighty metal monster Sorcifically done out in the obscure but fascinating 'octopus' camo' scheme.

I think this might be my next build...

And this is the camo' scheme I intend for her.

In the meantime, however, I'm still working on basing my French Napoleonic dudes. Here are few pics showing how that's progressing. The plastic bottle with extra holes in the top is a home-made 'static grass' dispenser, based on an idea I've seen online; you simply shake the container vigorously, and both it and the grass being plastics, some static ought to be imparted to the latter. I did an A/B test on two bits of cork. The one at left had the static bottle treatment, the one at right didn't. I can see no discernible difference!

A small plastic bottle destined to become a static grass dispenser.

First use of my recently acquired Dremel-type tool, drilling yon holes.

Left treated, right untreated... hmm!? They look identical to me.

A first covering with grassy stuff (mixture of flock 'n' static).

Forward focus on same bases.

A liberal second covering, prior to 'shakedown'.

In researching basing I've learned a fair bit by simply watching a number of YouTube videos, some of which I already knew, such as flock and static grass being two different things, some of which I didn't; commercially available static grass dispensers are very expensive! One of the videos, by model railway scenery builder extraordinaire Luke Towan, shows how to make your own DIY dispenser. I think I'll be doing that at some point! In the meantime, I tried to emulate the Noch brand plastic bottle static grass dispenser, as chronicled above. Not sure if that was worth doing or not yet...

The bases unmasked.

Viewed more fully, models 'n' all.

Anyway, as with much of this stuff, one can continue fussing and finagling without end. I got my 54mm (or 1/32) models to a point now that I consider more of less finished. As pictured above, I've removed the masking, and I'm pleased with the overall results. I made a conscious decision, partially motivated my laziness, perhaps? to keep the bases blocky and simple. I could've routed ornate profiles (probably would've gone with an ogee). But I thought the grain of the wood is beautiful, and by keeping them simple I could make more of that.

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To conclude this 100th post, I return to more general thoughts.

What have I achieved with this blog? Well, sharing my work with the world at large is definitely a type of motivation, and it's great to get some feedback. I'd certainly like more followers and a lot more comments [2]. I hope that'll come as I continue. I reckon I need to get more into following other bloggers as well. I did more of that when I started blogging. Indeed, that's a large part of what got me started. As with YouTube, other people's blogs are a great resource/inspiration.

More generally, I've drifted away from my 6mm and 10mm Russia 1812 projects, and gotten more into 1/72 kit builds of late, and book reviews, which is all fine 'n' dandy in itself, but... I definitely do very much want to get back in the saddle in those areas. I'm also slowly getting better at finishing things off. It's certainly easier, I find, to finish hand painted stuff, as I still feel that I'm an airbrushing novice.

Military movies remain an interest, although finding decent ones is getting trickier, as I've now watched an awful lot of the better known more mainstream ones. Recent viewing has run the full gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous, 1864 being of the former, and The Battle for Warsaw the latter. It seems from viewer stats that my film reviews are of less interest to readers of the blog than other content. But as I'm really into it, I'll continue posting them.  I still need to work out how to code a dynamic hot-link 'picture wall' for the movies page.

Books remain a constant interest, with much reading and reviewing. Now that I'm getting stuff from Pen & Sword it's hard to keep up with these two activities and yet not get burned out. I try to hop around between types and titles, to prevent exhaustion. Sometimes things serendipitously connect, as when Philip Warner's excellent Anglo-centric D-Day book (my review here), from P&S, makes an excellent companion to Stephen Ambrose's much more American focussed D-Day, which I picked up in a charity shop for £1.50!

And the bookish and filmic stuff occasionally intersects, as when reading on the Bismarck (review here) and watching Sink The Bismarck. Or, whilst reading the above-mentioned D-Day books, watching the really rather excellent Ike, Countdown to D-Day, in which the rather unlikely casting of Tom Selleck as Ike actually comes off really well.

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NOTES:

[1] This supplants my home-made pair of glass-less shelves. Models on those got very dusty. I found this shelving unit dumped on the roadside. It was a very lurid bright pink originally! So I stripped/sanded and painted it, and it'll serve me well. Though I do need more glass shelves and shelf support pegs.

[2] One thing I occasionally do with this in mind is post on TMP, The Miniatures Page, another source of inspiration and information. And I do find that does help drive a little more traffic to my blog. But nowhere near as much as I'd like!

Terrain & Buildings: Russian Buildings, 6mm or 10mm?

Undercoated in Halfords grey primer, base coats going on.

I bought all these buildings quite a long time ago now. They were gathering dust, very literally, in a plastic tub. I decided, when I recently made a scratch-built Russian church-tower, to get these out, dust them off, and start painting them.

All the better buildings base-coated.

The buildings from the Big Battalions range by Total Battle Miniatures are fab, and very nicely varied, even including burnt-out/ruined hovels. I've base-coated them in a range of grey/browns, some veering towards beige, some brown, some green-ish. Only a result of these building have much stonework. As was the case in Russia at the time, most buildings were largely constructed from wood. And most old external wood turns a silvery grey, unless it's somehow preserved or painted.

Some other 6mm buildings I bought, at Salute, years ago.

Pictured above are some 6mm scale buildings, by Timecast. These are a lot lower quality, the resin being fairly brittle, and therefore more prone to chipping. They're also less well sculpted, being rather too regular and 'foursquare'. I will probably wind up using them. But perhaps hidden in amongst my Smolensk project scratch-builds. One good thing about them is that they're smaller than the Total Battle buildings, so actually work with my 6mm figures and my own scratch-built buildings.

The better buildings, from the Big Battalions range, are intended for use with 6mm scale figures. But they are too large in my view: if buildings are made in 'true' scale to an individual model figure - and remember each figure usually represents about 20-30 actual soldiers - they actually wind up seeming oversized. So I think I'll use the 6mm scale buildings from Total Battle with my 10mm figures, and build my own 6mm buildings.

Gradually getting into layering the paint on...

Painting is proceeding slowly... but it is proceeding. The Total Battle Miniatures buildings are superb. I'm painting them with a mixture of artists acrylics (Windsor & Newton, Rowney, etc.) and Vallejo. Using washes occasionally, to build up uneven patchy finishes, for a more natural look. When I've done the basic blocking in I'll give the lot a gloss varnish, and do some oil paint washes, to bring out the detail, and then seal it all off with some matt varnish.

Lighter colours and oxidising copper roofs blocked in.

Painting Progress: Basing #1

Pictured above is the scene of prolific semi-organised chaos on my 'workbench'*. 

I decided to unearth some 10mm Napoleonic 1812 battalions - only two: one French, one Russian - and think about basing some figures, at long last. In the process I recovered some other almost forgotten figures, including four 40mm AWI figures by Front Rank, which my wife bought me at some show several years ago, in a bid to get me working in a scale she could appreciate without an electron microscope.

AW 15mm Peninsular Brits (discontinued?) [1]; Magister Militum 10mm French, and Old Glory 10mm Russians. [2]

Unfortunately I have very little to hand suitable for basing, as I've yet to come up with definitive decisions on my methodology. I have, however, collected some odds and sods, in the form of a few packets of various sized pre-cut MDF bases. Mostly by (I think?) Minibits.

I soon discovered that, out of all the odds and ends I can currently find, only two, or perhaps three, at best, were suited to my current wants and needs: consequently I could only base one French 10mm battalion, an (under strength) 15mm British Peninsular battalion, my 20mm SS Cavalry, and the 40mm Front Rank AWI guys.

I opted to pair these guys off, excepting only the dismounted fellow...

... who stand guard over an assortment of temporarily discarded gear...

... whilst his buddies are out on patrol.

I used to base my old Minifigs 15mm and the like on card bases (!?), onto which I'd superglue the figures, before 'bedding them in' with Milliput. This last step was done to create a stronger base where the white metal bases of the figures would be flush with the tops of the scenic bases. I used to texture the Milliput with a pin (!?), before blocking in with grass green, and finally doing a dark green wash, followed by a light green dry-brush. Before the enamel paint had dried I'd scatter some green railway modeller's scenic flock over them. Presto, my basing was done!

Fast-forward 20+ years, and these modern MDF bases are so much better than my flimsy card bases ever were. But I thought I'd honour the old tradition, at least on some of the larger scale figures, and use Milliput on some of these bases. So rather than starting on the 10mm or 15mm units, I went with the SS Cavalry and AWI bases. The process can be seen in the two accompanying sets of pics on this post. This time around I used an old toothbrush and a cruddy paintbrush to texture the Milliput.

40mm giants ...

... trudging through Milliput snows ...

... with some Spring in their step.

I'm actually quite pleased with how these came out. I will be working further on them; adding sand, grit, grass, etc. But I have to confess I do like the rather toy-like simplicity of blocked green bases!

* The dining-table!

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NOTES:

[1] Looking at the AW Miniatures site today, it appears they no longer do their 15mm Napoleonic figures. A pity that, for me, as my two 'battalions' - one Frnch one British - are both woefully (but, historically speaking, more accurately, perhaps?) under-strength.

[2] These 10mm units were amongst the first units to be painted on my return to the hobby, and have sat, unfinished and gathering dust, for a number of years. Until now!

Painting Progress: loadsa figures...

Nothing too specific in this post, just keeping myself motivated on the painting front, really.

I bought a can of matt grey undercoat paint, from a car parts shop in Ely, on a friend's recommendation. You get more coverage for your buck! I bought the can Saturday, it's Tuesday today, and I've emptied it already. 

Proper 'toy soldiers' these!

These fellows in zeltbahn needed their right hands adjusting, to look more natural/realistic: left as bought; right, after plastic surgery.

But then I have sprayed base-coats on quite a bit of stuff: about 150 1/72 plastic figures (not the hard plastic type either, but the 'toy' soft plastic sort!), from several different brands, inc. Airfix, Revell, and Caesar; then there are about 40 or 50 28mm Retreat From Russia figs, almost all of which are Perry (there's one figure, of Ney, in the famous musket-toting, long fur-lined-jacket wearing pose derived from that famous painting of him fighting with the rearguard... but I forget who the manufacturer is!?); and fourteen 28 hard plastic hussar mounts (Perrys again!).

Ready for undercoating.

I love these figures!

Can you spot the lone non-Perry fig?

The can also saw service on Saturday and Sunday, as well as today, covering a further 10 or so mounted 28mm figs, and around the same number on foot, both groups being Napoleon and staff. 

There are also a few random extras, like some Salute figures from various years. And then there are all the ongoing 20mm WWII Germans, that I started during Half-Term. Oh, and the 10mm Russians, and the 28mm Front Rank drummers, and...

At left, Gringo 40's rather nice 28mm Murat, a pied; centre, a Salute ACW officer (shades of Custer?); right, Foundry's Murat, also in Polish garb.

One of my several 28mm Napoleon's, this a one-piece casting, from Foundry.

Another great Salute figure: Colin Maud, or rather Kenneth More, with blackthorn stick and faithful mutt, Winston.

Well, it's all proceeding in a rather haphazard manner. That kind of bothers me on one level. I feel I ought to fix on one project, and see it through. But, thus far at any rate, I seem incapable of doing that. So, never mind, I'll just follow my whims for now!

More Miscellany - A Loon In June

New drill bits!

In between painting stuff Over the half-term hols, I've continued to fiddle with a couple of models, inc. the 54mm Hussar, and drilling holes in the Sdkfz 7/1. 

The first panel completed.

I have a model-making engineer buddy who tells me he mostly drills holes these days. For me it's still sufficiently novel as to be an almost meditative form of relaxing fun; except, that is, for the hunched posture I feel forced to adopt. Some kind of raised work surface might be a good idea?

That's enough for one day!

So, I'm now well over half way there with my hole-drilling. And, on the whole, I'm not yet wholly insane. 

Two more Russian Grenadier battalions ready for priming/painting.

I'm also working on further batches of 10mm Napoleonics. All Russian at this point, and mostly by Magister Militum, save for the odd Pendraken officer, and two squadrons of Old Glory Hussars. A lone squadron of MM Russian Hussars includes a few figures toting lances. The OG figures don't include any lancers. Can any of you folks tell me what you do, re including lance-bearers in Russian Hussar regiments/squadrons?

The guy on the right of the standing officer with the bicorne is no longer pointing forwards.

I've also had the scalpel and superglue out, doing a bit of surgery on one or two figures. At this tiny scale I don't mind the uniformity of pose for rank and file, but it's nice if officers aren't all identically posed, as they stand out a bit more. So I've lowered a pointing arm (and removed the indicative digit!), and I've got another fellow turning his head. Small changes, but worthwhile, I feel. 

A slight twist of the head to look over the right shoulder for this officer.

This standard bearer kindly donated his plume to an officer.

I also had to add another shako plume to a plume-less Pendraken officer... very fiddly!

And last of all, when I popped over to the Ely model shop for a pot of Vallejo silver acrylic - swearing I'd not be tempted buy anything else - I did at least remember to pick up more 0.5mm drill bits (3! So I have a spare or two). But I spotted an Academy 1/72 German truck (they don't specify the make/model), and simply couldn't resist!

Sadly they only supply sufficient parts to build either/or, and not both variants.

Painting Progress: 10mm Napoleonic Russian Grenadier battalion

Determined to return to my Napoleonic 1812 armies, and in true Napoleonic fashion, I decided I'd try to paint a battalion a day over the 1/2-term break. I only got as far as priming and (temporarily) basing this lot on Saturday, and then I got as far as pic three below, by Sunday, whilst ... on bank holiday Monday. 

Well, you get the picture; I'll be lucky if I finish one battalion at this rate!

Before I could start in properly on these fellows I noticed (only after undercoating, as can be seen in the above pics) that one of the figures - a lone Pendraken amongst an otherwise Magister Militum battalion - was sans shako plume. So I cannibalised one from a spare figure, and super-glued it in place. As a by the by, it's interesting to see how different the above pics -taken on my iPhone - are, from those taken on the iPad under exactly the same lighting conditions.

A Humbrol grey acrylic basecoat, plus a few major blocked in areas, inc. dark brown base for flesh!

I'm using some pictures from the Blandford Colour Series title, Uniforms of 1812, by Haythornthwaite and Chappell. Most of my uniform reference books remain packed away in boxes, as we await the purchase of our new home. It's fortunate I stumbled across this handy little book at Salute, as I can't face attacking the Eiger of book boxes! 

Rear view, as above.

At Partizan I was somewhat tempted by a big expensive book in Russian, except that not only was it over £60, but it also only had a small portion of the book given over to the Napoleonic era. I saw an amazing (but even more expensive) Russian book on uniforms - but this one, I think, dedicated to the Napoleonic period - on the Ken Trotman stand a few Salutes back. I do wish I'd bought it! But I think it was £120 or more!

Most major colour blocks in place. Starting in on detailing colours.

But the long and the short of it remains that I have far more and far better ref. on the French and their allies than I do regarding the Russians. It's a good job there's the interweb as well. I've been offline a lot recently, due to being between Holmes, so to speak. Posting to the blog has been a right pain. I finally caved in and got a TP-Link portable hub thingy. It's made getting online easier, but not hassle-free, as we live in an area with appalling network coverage (for most networks, apparently!).

Still a ways to go, but flesh helps them to start looking more human and complete.

Reading the Haythornthwaite entries on Russian Grenadiers, as well as studying the pics, was most useful. I believe I've now picked up some useful general info on Russian line infantry organisation, including some interesting and useful uniform info. It seems that the vast bulk of the Russian infantry will have looked much the same, with units differentiated by very minor details, such as colours and numbers on their shoulder-straps, and the two-colour combinations on the shako 'rosettes' (or are these their pom-poms!?).

More detailing. Boy does it take time and effort!

I've recently bought two work aids, specifically for painting miniatures: a self-illuminating lamp-cum-magnifying glass, and a magnifying visor. The batteries in the lamp stopped supplying sufficient juice after 30mins use (so that may well go back to john Lewis!), hence my buying the visor. The visor is very good, but I'm a long ways from being used to using it. I did use it a fair bit whilst painting these - most the time atop my noggin as an expensive headband - but I figure I'll just have to get used to it at my own speed.

Day three (four, I guess, technically!?); knocked off one a.m. with figures looking like this.

When I think about the mountains of figures I have that need painting, it fills me with foreboding. How on earth will I ever paint them all?

The two pictures above show the present state of these figures, as of Tuesday, May 31st, at two of the clock, post-meridian. 

I quite like them in their current pristine, simple state. I recognise that shading is not on, with so many figures at such a small scale. Were I doing a small diorama, with just a few figures, I might really go to town on them. But given that I want to field large armies, I think it'll have to be a wash, at best.

Anyway, after four days of painting these buggers in almost any free time I could muster, it's time for some couch action, with a mug of hot Java and David Chandler's Campaign's of Napoleon, wherein he's currently guiding me across the bloody fields of Waterloo. It's splendid stuff. And I intend to post on the topic of tip-top trilogies ASAP!