Test of Honour Scenery

Having been inspired by Bill's Samurai game at the Norfolk club I thought I'd invest in some scenery and figures for 'Test of Honour' Originally it was only going to be a few figures and maybe a building or two but then it seems to have expanded somewhat!

A house from Blotz, these are really nice models that come together well and are easy to paint:

Another Blotz house:

A small roadside shrine, again from Blotz:

Two market stalls from Sarissa:

A rice store, again Sarissa:

A small wooden bridge, I think this was Sarissa as well:

A Tori gate from Blotz:

A small thatched house from Sarissa:

A larger version of the thatched house:

I think these came together well and look better than a lot of MDF buildings, which of course encouraged me to buy more! Test of Honour only uses a 3x3 table so that's probably enough buildings, I'm looking to add a few things like a walled Zen garden, a Koi pond and perhaps some walls to the collection. I already have some paddy fields and bamboo patches from my Vietnam stuff I can use as well.

The Men of Company B Jungle Huts

Two more buildings for my TMOCB set-up, another hut painted in a slightly different way to the rest (basically without the hessian adding to the wooden panels):

Secondly a 'meeting hut' which turned out to be far larger than I expected, I thought it would be the same size as the larger huts but it is in fact twice as big:

Happy with these, the hut looks a bit different without the hessian panelling and was much easier to do so I ordered another one to go with it!  

28mm Terrain Builds

While I was recovering from a bout of Covid19 I wasn't really able to paint figures but did manage to make quite a few new buildings. These will mainly be used for Chain of Command (and maybe Sharp Practice).

First was a church from Empires at War, I've wanted a church for a while now but most models I saw were either too big, too expensive or both! This one is one of the smaller ones I could find:

Secondly a farm complex with damaged barn and stables, again from Empires at War:

Another Empires at War house:

Finally a small factory or industrial building, this time from Sarissa Precision:

They all came out okay I think despite me not being the greatest model maker! The Empires at War buildings being sort of pre-painted are a reasonable compromise between the expense of 4Ground and the need to fully paint Sarissa buildings. I've got some 20mm Sarissa colonial buildings to finish for The Men of Company B and some 28mm 4Ground Eastern Front buildings to finish off as well so hopefully they will be done soon!

TMOCB Vietnam additions

A few more things for the Vietnam games. Firstly some VC/NVA commanders from East Riding Miniatures with basic paint jobs. Do 20 mm metal figures ever match plastic ones? These are far chunkier than the plastic I have:

Next a couple of buildings from Sarissa so I can make up six villages:

Finally some cache markers (bags of rice, crates of weapons and a VIP):

Sea Tractor!

I've always been fascinated by the tractors used by fishermen to pull their boats. Why are they so old?! Why are they always painted blue and orange?!

When I saw Sarissa Productions had brought out a suitable tractor model I persuaded myself I needed one for the 'Operation Sealion' project though I was a bit dubious as to how an MDF tractor model would work.

It arrived quickly as usual and was only a little fiddly to put together. Obviously I painted it blue and orange:

Considering it is made from MDF it looks good and just like a sea tractor should (apart from the rust of course)!

This is a real Norfolk sea tractor:

Some research (aka 'Google') informed me that the reason why they use these old tractors is that they have no electrics, modern tractors with electrical systems don't survive exposure to sea water! Apparently it is an increasing problem for fishermen sourcing replacement tractors.....

British Pill Boxes for CoC

Another of my (many) ongoing projects is to collect scenery and some Early War Germans so I can play some Operation Sealion games with CoC.

I saw Sarissa Productions had some nice looking British Pill Boxes and, after my recent experience with the BEF against the Germans decided that the British defence budget would stretch to a pack of these!

The pack contains two concrete boxes and one brick one:

They were very easy to make and painted up well I think. Together with the Post Box and Telephone Box I did earlier they should contribute to a British look for the Sealion games.