More Terrain Pieces.

Around 14 odd years ago, I purchased a couple of large terrain pieces produced by an outfit called Scenic Effects. The first of these terrain pieces was to represent a certain Italian Monastery of the Benedictine persuasion. I based my order on glowing telephone descriptions from the vendor, and a hazy small black and white photocopy of a picture from a catalogue. So sight unseen, I placed my order and waited for a large package to arrive from Australia.

Spot the 1/72 scale figure in this picture.

Quite bombed out, but still very roomy.

 While quite a huge piece of terrain, it is extremely light. This is due to it being made out of expanded foam. I have been storing it for quite some time, and have been tempted to onsell it on more than one occasion, but I think that I might actually paint it up and use it in a game. Possibly a WW2 Italian front game? - Maybe 1944 on the Gustav line?

Another view. Spot the 20mm Grunt.

And another view. This thing is massive.

Comes complete with trenches.

Another view.

And yet another view!

 It has lots of detail which would be picked out nicely by a good wash! I can see this taking an entire weekend to finish, but I should paint it up and use it before it gets much older!

The Paper Cave - A gold mine of resources!

 On Saturday I went to see Warren, owner of the Paper Cave, to collect some books. The Paper Cave is well named, as it is warehouse fill of books, magazines, and comics, ranging from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Actually, it even has holdings dating back further, but the main holdings of the collection fall in these decades. Of particular value to anyone with an interest in military history is the vast amounts of paperback editions of biographies, popular histories, and academic histories that Warren has. Now, this post is going to be a shameless plug of the Paper Cave - but since in Christchurch most of our decent second hand book stores have closed down, making getting your hands on books even more difficult -I figured a shameless plug would be worth while. Naturally, I am adding the standard disclaimer that I have no financial or other interest in Warren's business - just that I am a chronic bibliophile....

Lots of NZ Heritage - A great start for any NZ related project.

One of the issues covering WW2.

The Crete issue.

The covers feature work by a variety of NZ War artists.

My own purchases: Lord Russell of Liverpool's books dealing with Japanese and German war crimes in WW2.

A history of Imperial Japanese air power from 1937 to 1945,  and Caesar's 'Conquest of Gaul'.

Colour plate from a wartime magazine.

Princess Elizabeth.

Warren also frames colour plates, and advertisements, from various magazines. These look fantastic, and can range from Airfix ads through to Varga girls. Warren is a gold mine of information on publications in New Zealand, and is extremely helpful in helping you track down issues of out of print work, be it paperback editions of Japanese memoirs, or just copies of the humble war comic.

Banana boxes of humble war comics.

 Warren is contactable on 03 942 1127. He's a thoroughly nice guy, and if you are hunting for something in particular - he is well worth a call.

A Trench Too Far Pt. 1

About ten years ago I ran a large WW1 game called a 'Trench too Far'. the game was set on the western front in around 1917 and had around 3-4 players a side. The venue was the University of Canterbury Students' Association's boardroom, which had a huge boardroom table which was perfect for running large games on. Of course a big WW1 game needs lots of trenches. So I had to figure out a simple way of building trenches that would be easy to make, easy to store, easy to transport, and able to be reconfigured for other games. Fortunately, my good friend Adrian had previously made some trenches based on the instructions in the GDW Book 'The Soldier's Companion' - which is the miniatures rules system  for Space 1889. Naturally, I adapted this idea, and Adrian's well crafted trenches, into something that could be mass produced by undergraduates.

The trench box, with 20mm Italeri  (Esci reissue) US Vietnam War Infantryman for scale.

The lid is removed.

Standard trench section.

Cross section view.

 Essentially, the basic design was to make a standard footprint of cardboard, run two sections of 20mm high cardboard, 22-25mm apart, down the middle of the section, and put foam, plaster,or other material, on either side to build up the trench sides. While a wider trench footprint would have allowed for a much gentler slope and looked much better, storing and moving them would have been a hassle. A larger footprint would have been more difficult to deploy on the tabletop in large numbers. given these factors, and the need to churn them out in numbers, compromises in realism were made to increase playability.

Angled sections created kinks and zags in the line.

Cross section of a late production trench.

 Towards the end of the production run  angled cardboard was used to build up the trench sides.

Top of a T section, to allow communication trenches between trench lines.

The sections were sprayed before flocking, some with base back, others with base brown, with generally another coat of brown sprayed over top. My plan is to refurbish these sometime this year, by respraying and flocking, and adding in some duckboards and other bits to each trench. I might even get organised and put an inventory label on the box. I am rather fond of these trenches, and have used them as a teaching aid, when teaching Year 10s about Trench Warfare. At the same time I built up sections of barbed wire and I will put up pictures of that at some stage.

Airfix Bedford MK Tactical Refueler

So I decided to build up one of the kits from the Christmas haul. The one I chose to make up  was the Airfix Tactical Refueler kit given to me by my friend Steve for use in Harad. It is a rather nice kit which goes together quite well. The only difficulty with the kit is that the cab and windows are cast in a single piece of transparent plastic. This meant that I couldn't just assemble the kit, spray it in grey primer, and then paint it up - or did it?

Dulux Grey Primer. A simple solution for a simple man.

 I remembered that I had been given previously by my clever wife, a masking solution that I had never used. All needed to do was paint it on the window sections of the cab, and then spray it grey. So I did.

The blue bits on the cab are dried sections of Micro Mask.

So now the whole truck was ready for undercoating. Of course, at this stage the whole thing could still turn to custard..... in which case Plan 'B' was to paint the window sections black and never discuss the matter again.

Front view of tanker sans cab.

Side view of primed tanker sans cab.

Primed cab sans tanker.

After waiting for the primer to dry, I took everything back inside to paint with Vallejo Model Colour 70819 Iraqi Sand, as everything for Harad seems to get painted.

The primed and painted cab.

The removal of the Micro Mask.

 The removal of the Micro Mask went well. I still had to touch up a few sections, but it was still less work than having to hand paint everything carefully, and resulted in an acceptable finished product.

The finished truck, after getting the traditional Devan Mud wash.

Another view of the same, note that I have completely forgotten to put on any of the supplied transfers.

Another view of the truck sans transfers.

The view from above.

So, i now have another completed logistics element for my Haradian CD3 forces. The real vehicle was designed to act as a support element for advanced airbases - refueling helicopters and Harriers, but I wonder if I could fudge using it as a refueling vehicle for ground forces? Given the knowledge base of those who look at this blog, I would be very interested in their opinions.

Battle Kings Tank Transporter

Having enjoyed painting up my Airfix Mighty Antar, I decided that I should revamp my old Matchbox Battle Kings Tank Transporter for use in my Harad games. Of course, the tractor unit of the tank transporter is quite unlike any vehicle I have ever seen. The tractor unit has an almost Gerry Anderson feel to it, and as such has a certain charm to it. 

Battle Kings K-106 Tank Transporter tractor unit.

When first released in the 1970s, Battle Kings were painted in metallic colours.

The trailer was later used for transporting a helicopter in a later Super King set.

Both ramps are present! No scratchbuilding required!

Trailer comes with cable and tools!

The beast with an Airfix Attack Force Centurion.

The view from above.

Disassembling the cab for spray painting. The cab is held together by only one rivet which had been previously drilled out to replace the rear wheels.

Stylish silver interior, complete with tools and work bench.

Grey primer for the cab.

Flat black for the interior and chassis.

Grey for the flatbed trailer.

 No prizes for guessing the next steps, assembly, painting with Iraqi Sand, and then a quick wash with Devlan Mud! Since spraying the interior black also meant the rear exhaust stacks and the front air scoop became black, I decided to do a test assembly to see how I liked the colour combination and how it all looked with the original orange/yellow tinted glass.

The Beast in all its glory!

The new paint job blends in better than the old metallic green one.

 Scale wise, the trailer works. The tractor unit is probably a little too big, but it does have a certain appeal. That being said, tank transporters are generally not small vehicles, so I'm not too concerned about it being a massive vehicle. The 'Gerry Anderson' factor is probably more of an issue - but then, this is a game world which does have a few science fiction elements in it. At the moment it fills a niche in Harad, so I will use it, but I am interested in others thoughts on the matter - or if anyone knows where the designers got their inspiration for designing this and the Battle Kings wrecker/recovery vehicle from.

Gungans - Eight to a box!

So it's been almost a month since I've last posted, but I have been doing some gaming related stuff - honest! I've also managed to acquire some reinforcements for my Gungans, via the good offices of Glenn. Glenn found these on a local online auction site, and facilitated their addition to my collection.

The packaging keeps them fresh for decades.

More stuff for you to buy!

A closer look at the eight figures.

 Slowly, but surely, my Gungan army grows.......