Church

Did i quick paint job last night on a resin church i picked up off ebay, in fact i got 7 buildings for a few pounds they were classed as miscast but since they are ruined buildings any way i cant see anything wrong with them.

Dipping

 Had my first go at dipping a couple of days ago. on reading about it on the net i decided to go with a cheap Wilkinson's wood stain rather than the more expensive army painter dip as it is supposed to be the same thing and it wouldn't be too  much of a waste if i don't like the effect.
I didn't dip the figures when it came to it i just painted it on for better control. I have to say the effects don't really seem to be any better than using a wash which has been my preferred method before this but it has to be remembered that this has also given the models a very hard wearing varnish,I'll decide for certain once I've got some more dulcote and seen if the shine goes.

                                The whole squad

                                          Close up of the Sergeant

         before
             &
          after 

Wargames illustrated 305

WI 305

 slightly better magazine from WI this month all though the theme of 1066 was a bit of a damp squid with just 2 battle reports (OK 1 was a mini campaign) and no history but some nice articles on Turks vs Britishh in Iraq (with history!) and Egypt in 1882 with some of the usual nice pics of dioramas/battles and modelling articles and only a minimal advert article from battlefront (Vietnam), worth a purchase.

FW190

A pair of H&R FW190's in Russian front winter camouflage

Heroics ross FW190

i must say the h&r model seems to not quite capture the shape of the FW190 might upgrade to a raiden one

Typhoon

A pair of H&R typhoon 1B's

Heroics Ross typhoon

Didn't know British aircraft had such colourful spinners but googling some images for colour schemes and they all seem to have it

Wargames illustrated 304

I suppose it should come as no surprise that this months copy is full of articles on operation market garden since battlefront has released some new books for that campaign but they go maybe a but over the top. We have some new army list variants which you cant use unless you buy the German book a scenario but how many people are going to build dutch style raised up roads? apart from all the battlefront coverage there is game based on a real incident during the Zulu war featuring a Bonaparte which i never knew.a couple of reviews of an ACW rule set and battlegroup kursk as a nod to non battlefront/osprey stuff a game for french and Indian wars and some modelling articles make up the rest apart from the start of a series of articles over the coming months on the development of the tank which this month actually features ancient chariots but not in the form of information piece but as 3 short pieces of fiction featuring chariots in battle very strange! not sure where WI is going with this not actually any help for the wargamer at the moment. As it stands at the moment WI still trails behind Wargames soldiers and strategy, and miniature wargames in the magazine stakes.

He 162

A pair of H&R He162 German fighter jets

Heroics ross HE162

one of my favorite aircraft of WWII ever since i read the commando book 'The jets from nowhere' as a boy great!

Yak-1

A pair of H&R yak1's, i got a .05mm fine liner pen and thought i would give a go at drawing in the flap lines and it is much easier than trying to paint the cockpit.

Heroics ross Yak-1

Battlefield

When i actually get round to it this is where my battles take place

Progress

my first squad for my imperial guard army painted in their base colours.I'm going to try dipping these guys . heard good things about wilko wood stain so will give that a go

 
Also me and the kids have been learning 5th edition WH40k rules (cheap but still nice and shiny) , easy enough even for my ten year old and his Tau(he's loved firewarrior on the PlayStation since he was 7).

FIELD OF BATTLE

where the magic happens

 

Eldar Warlock Titan

After about 20 years i finally finished my Epic eldar warlock titan

DO-217e-5

here is a Dornier DO217e-5 carrying a couple of HS293 guided bombs

Heroics ross Do-217

 and a look at the bomb

i never know what colour to paint the cockpit blue, white or black never seems right oh well

FRENCH AIRCRAFT

here is a couple of i think  H&R french aircraft i got off ebay with no information. looking on the internet i think the one on the left is a morane-saulnier M.S.406 and the one on the right is a Bloch MB.152 not a great paint job and for some reason the french used blue with green and brown for their camouflage not too sure where they are trying to hide

ZTZ-99

Armstrong miniatures ZTZ-99 MBT you can get these from H&R now

Heroics ross ZTZ-99

Wargames Soliders & Strategy

Wargames soldiers & strategy No63

let me start by saying i like WSS its my favourite wargames mag since when i first found it when its was still printed in Spain, i have to say since the dutch have had it, it has only got better.
First up the reviews of figures always covers more ranges than any other mag and the height measurement is very handy when scale means about as much as women's clothe sizes(ask the missus),a couple of sort articles one on battle group kursk rules, second a Nap battle then a feature on mob rule in Republican Rome different! the main feature is the AWI with history battles figures and even a navel campaign in the Indian ocean? some painting and modelling articles or those who like that sort of thing a look at square bashing by peter pig and a quick look at some books also in the magazine are the usual colums from the guest writers (including rick priestley!) all in all even though I'm no fan of the American war of Independence or being British a rebellious province still the best mag you can get, if you can get it can be quite hard to find but you should be able to get you local newsagent or smiths to get it if you ask nicely.

Wargames illustrated 301

My thoughts on this mag

 I've been reading WI since about No. 38 its always been my fav wargames magazine, however just lately i feel like I'm reading white dwarf. Every time there is something new for FOW the mags stuffed full of it but does that make the contents bad?
First up there is a 18 page FOW battle report which i have to say i didn't like at all. The way they had it written gave me now sense of the game at all it was a mess so much so i gave up half way through shame i like late war WWII but this was a bust.
Then you have a new saga faction the Byzantines with a battle board on the back cover good if you play saga useless if you don't, followed by 3 modelling articles (making terrain, a diorama and basing) then a piece on heroes for Victorian games based in the middle of nowhere, finished off by some more articles about painting and terrain with a small scenario for Spanish vs Incas. no historical information of note i hope this isn't how the magazine is going to go now i would give it only 3/10

Bases

looking for an alternate to MDF bases i came across these

they are plastic come in brown, grey or green and don't cost a lot check out the range
http://renedra.co.uk/webstore.html#Bases

Bases

while basing up more epic imperial guard infantry i ran out of bases, so i was left with trying to get some off ebay or using mdf ones untill i found these

just the right size and plastic so its easy to glue the infantry to and does not cost a lot
check the range here http://renedra.co.uk/webstore.html#Bases

Zombies, thousands of em sir!

Nothing can beat a bit of zombie bashing.
Zombies!! is a  great game, dead simple and quick to play
You start on a single tile and each turn you add extra ones which can have stores where you find things to use like a chainsaw etc or just more road and all the new tiles get zombies until you get the helicopter pad which if you get to you can escape, to slow the other players you the player move a random amount of zombies in your turn. Great fun! all for one and none for everyone, nice.
Had a game with my son the other day and this is the result

As you can see i made it to the helicopter pad to be rescued while son No2 went the wrong way and got stuck behind a lot of walkers

Paint scheme

trying out some colour schemes to paint my imperial guard. just going to give then a basic quick paint job.

left to right
Flames of war late war German armour spray, Vallejo gamecolor camouflage green, Army painter army green spray and no paint.
think I'm going to go with army green with different colour shoulder pads but not like the one shown here.

Warhammer 40K on the cheap
My son has been badgering me lately to get a WH40K army to fight his greenskins(orks).
Now in days gone by i had the startings of a sisters of battle army but the cost of completing it was proving to be too much so i sold them i got some AT-43 instead.
Now a few years later and the AT-43 have been sold and i am going to get Imperial Guard but i cant afford (says the missus) to by it all from GW
I want imperial guard because they have the firepower sisters of battle lack but need a lot of models.
The solution Warzone!
here is what £20 gets you from 
http://www.princeaugust.ie/ 

that's 80 count'em 80 figures

As you can see from the above they are sort of multi-pose but quite limited in the amount of posing you can get from them but for rank and file i don't think it matters too much not to me anyway.
The figures have a world war 1 look  40 Bauhaus Ducal Militia (Germans) and 40 Imperial Army Regulars(British). I am going to be using the British for my 2 infantry platoons.

Epic 40k
in my opinion still the best game GW have ever produced,kind of lost its way after 2nd edition.I think it might be the only game by GW where shooting is more important than close combat. Real shame it got canned along with all the other specialist games. It was dirt cheap too you could get 240 marines and 24 rhinos for £5 back in the day. Even the plastic infantry aren't cheap today. Over time i have had a lot of different armies Chaos(thousand sons and worldbearers)tyranids, eldar and titan legions (20 warlord titans) but my heart and head has always been for imperial guard and slowly over the years i have been building up a force which is now nearly complete

 Just need to base up a second heavy weapon company and it will be done. Finishing armies is not my strong point to easily distracted  by some other shinny toys but as i get older my discipline gets stronger. I still have an eldar army that could do with a good pasting from these guys.

do-335 airplane

read the manual for my camera. can now get even closer to the miniatures(not very flattering to the paint job!)

do-335 airplane

Here is a  H&R Do335, haven't painted any aircraft for a long time. in fact i don't think I've ever done any better than a single colour on any 1/300 planes but recently I've been making some 1/72 plastic kits (reliving my youth) so now i have all the correct paints time to get some mini air forces.

All the pictures that I've seen of the do-335 show it in green camo which might have been how the test flights were done but i reckon if it got into service it would have carried a low vis camo like the BF109 and FW190 so here is my attempt at grey mottle camo