"In the (Merchant) Navy" and some excessive brainstorming

This week I have been doing a lot of thinking (not neccesarely the smartest thing for me to do) about a few things, so I wanted to blow off some steam by making a Narco/Terrorist OH-6 with rocketpods. Oh boy, did that go wrong.....very thin plastic so it kept warping, very poor fit even after cleaning, and when I had drilled the hole for the flight base plug and surrounded that with Milliput to keep everything place the 2 halves refused to fit properly and the glue seemed to do nothing other then melt the plastic, but it just would not stick. Then I tried superglue and it only got worse. When I got in to my work space this morning I looked at it once and I could cry....the halves had come apart (again) and the top had set, but crooked.  Lot's of sanding and filler will be needed before this thing will ever become presentable. One of them days I guess.

Anyways, that is not what this post is about.

I follow quite a few blogs, some post frequently, others.....not so much.  Atm my focus is on games I can play with my existing collection and games I can play with a minimum amount of figures. In that vein, and because I rediscovered my 1/3000th fleet a while back, I've been looking at the Schnell Rules for Schnell Boote (thx to Jim ). The rules look simple enough, and when I last looked at Navwar they still sell quite a few torpedoboats that can be useful.

Wow, I sure did paint a lot of ships, didn't I?

Mostly post 80's tankers in this lot, a couple of conversions and some sunken/sinking ships. They are good to go as they are, other then that I will be removing the nametags by cutting them off and stcking a label on the underside. I've noticed I find nametags in that way too visible and when I use datacards with a picture of the ship on it, they are not neccesary.

A real mish-mash of cargo ships, military ships and various other items. Again, remove (or paint over) the tabs, relabel on the underside and they are good to go. I'll just need some more tugs, cutters, small merchants and barges before I can get to work on MTB's. Anyway, they have their own laballed drawer now so when I have time, I'll get on it.

Now, the excessive thinking part.

I'll be ignoring the 28mm elephant in the room and focussing purely on the 20mm one. I like scenery. I like making scenery. How can I make the most of the storage space that I have without making specific scenery for every single environment/war I'm interested in?

It's easier then you think. (Keep in mind that my perspective is a attractive table with little details that don't get in the way of the game but enhance it. It's the exact opposite of most Warmachine/40K tables, which are a affront to my eyes with a green pooltable cloth, a house, a mountain and some trees if you are lucky.). Ok, what do you see in almost every warzone since WW1? Wrecks, oil drums, barbed wire, roadblocks, debris, dead stuff, craters, and more recently, unfinished concrete buildings. Keep the basing to a minimum (like I always do) and generic colour wise and I should have no trouble fitting everything in.

So, after yesterdays failure, I decided to do something my Aspergers makes me perfect for......build the same damned thing over and over.

Crappy plastic ones from the Academy vehicles kit, topped with dirt for dirt filled oil drums. 4 crappy plastic ones from the Hasegawa Japanese truck but not as crappy as the other ones so they are ok. Both types ned to be sanded down for sprue lines. The yellow-ish oild drums top left are from 12 years ago when I got into this Historical hobby from a Ebay vendor (one of my first purchases) and they are actually knock offs (I had no idea back then) and a bit bubbly but they will work fine. The top right ones is a box of a dozen I got half off at a sale last year. I have loads more resin knock offs somewhere as well as a box of originals, and I'll use those when I will make battlefield specific markers, like ones with a roadsign for instance.

And that's it for today. I was supposed to turn in around 22:00 and it's now just shy of 02:00, so ....yeah....oops.

Naval gazing

Oh, how easy I flutter from one thing to another. At least it's one large , repeating, vicious circle! :D

A few weeks back, after watching another episode of Jinlges gaming Atlantic fleet, and noticing he mentioned it being available for Android, I went to their website, checked out the stats and figured it could even run on this clapped out PC. 10 Paypal euros and a Steam account later I was the proud owner of Atlantic Fleet and after going through the tutorials I kinda got the hang of it. Since then I've played it an hour here, and hour there, not so much, but since starting it I'm suddenly seeing naval wargaming topics pop up on my scope. A Java Sea one on the LAF, a review of 1/300 MTB's from Navwar, stuff like that. 

Remember these? It's been 7 years now since I painted most of these, and they have sat unused ever since. I bought a Convoy rulesset a bit after that but it never clicked with me (no one seems to play it) so the models got put aside. Reading about MTB games (there are quite a few more rulessets for those) makes me think why not use those in 1/3000th instead 1/600th or 1/300th? You should be able to get more bang from your table, I'm used to painting and labelling small stuff, though I've moved away from visual tabs to stickers on the underside as to not make it stand out on the table. It's not like I'll have 30+ ships on the table anyway, and simple flip of the ship will tell me what it is anyway in case anyone is confused. I have not bought anything for this though, and I do not intend to atm! I have 2 big boxes of WW2 and Modern ships that will see the light someday, and I will read up on MTB rules first before I make a purchase of 1/3000th MTB's in the future. If such a thing is available...I haven't checked tbh cause I'm busy enough with studying and yet another sick child (now it's Emma's turn to be sick....jay...) >> just checked. Navwar does E-Boats but not S-Boats for example. I'm pretty sure I might have a few in the boxes, so I'll check that first.

Seeing as my interest is still focussed on small scale engaments for a low cost, it is on the books though. Just no idea when that will be actually.

Fluttering from that flower to the next......

I'm really smitten by Gaslands. I'm not, however, by the lack of rulesset or possibility of aquiring it at this moment (it being a future Osprey release). This is also the reason I did not pick up the counter and movement marker set at Poldercon......I have no idea if something, or anything, will change and I don't want to waste money as it is so deerly needed atm. This however hasn't stopped me from rummaging through my bits boxes to find some suitable vehicles, scenery etc to have a go at for the game....since it is basically 20mm most of my collection of scenery is suitable anyway and having watched too many user videos on Crossout MMO (which is still in BETA testing) gave me tons of ideas for suitable scenery anyway, quite a few matches my ideas on scrapyards and Eastern Europe perfectly. I'm really aiming to get the most bang per buck out of my collection.....limited space, limited funds "help" in this case.

I picked up this car to be my first build to see if I enjoy making these.... I'll convert it completely to a in your face - ramming vehicle, with all the armour on the front and none in the back. Spikes on the wheel hubs, armoured visor on the cabin, and vicious blades on the front. Maybe a magnet in the roof so in the future a weapon mount can be added just in case. Since I don't have the rules, In know nothing about points cost, effectiveness and even game legality, so this is just a fun build, nothing more.

In the back is a red mug, new to my collection of quirky mugs.....I saw it at the goodwill earlier this week and I knew I needed it. I'll let you guess why that is..... And at 40 cents, it was a steal. ;)

I tend to pick up stuff to motivate me from time to time. It could be a kit that I've always wanted for one of the armies/warbands, or a piece of hardware that relates to them. It can be the weirdest things. Recently I've been googling for a Pāsdārān head band to go around my Iranian helmet (which is just a US tin pot) and I'm guessing our national Intelligence services are keeping tabs on me now cause I've been on sites from the Middle East I've never been before. All kinds of colours, printed or embroided, quotes from every saint from the Quran it seems, and not that expensive, 11 euros per band. I'm looking for a red band with yellow or white print, yellow with black print or green with white print, but decided "not today" when I got a shipping quote for 30 euros to my location for what is essentially a 100 grams of printed cloth. And I can only find 1 online shop for them. Well, maybe some other day. No rush with either my Iranians or Iraqi's.

I did make a 2 part purchase to motivate me for my study and my German army in one go. 2 part, because I bought a basic helmet for the start, and a promise to buy a Heer helmetcover for it when I pass all tests and graduate.

Is it a real one? Yes and No. It's the post war Bundeswehr aluminium version of the M40, but has no airholes and a modern inside. Piers said it was his first helmet when he did reenacting and that it was a Spanish one so I'm assuming they used the same. Well, at 40 euros I'm not complaining....I've been after one for a couple of years now and original and copies go for much more money then I can afford. This one looks the part, and with a helmetcover none will be the wiser.

Latley, my selling-purchasing ratio has been improving, I'm really hesitant to buy much of anything really and sales have been going out in dribs and drabs. Seeing as we just bought 2 new beds (well, 1 second hand and 1 new just to make sure we could get identical beds) for the girls as well as matresses our expenses have gone through the roof a bit......but the beds are worth it. Very girly (pink) and lot's of little details, should last them a few more years, now to find a buyer for the old set so we can swap it out when the girls are at my parents for a few days.

My mood is a bit foul atm, I keep running into things and there just don't seem to be enough hours in a day to get everything done I want. Yeah, I'm a crybaby :) After school tomorrow I will start drawing lines on my workspace again and get it sorted step by step till it is cleared and it becomes easier to do my homework here. Then repeat for the rest of the week.

And with a final note, I've just bought 2 kilos of 0.6m floral wire to make trees with (2kgs is roughly 1800 strands which is about 90 trees.....). Yes, it's a bit much, but with shipping included it's way more economical to buy in bulk then per 100 strands. And to my surprise Nikki was watching the tutorial with me and she really liked them, so I think I'll sit down with her and bend a few strands with her just for fun. Kim asked if I would be willing to make 1 tree per night for the next 3 months straight, and I said nay as that is not the point :D Make some test trees, see how it goes, then make a few winter trees (basically sans foliage) and then see how I proceed with more bushy ones.

That's it really. And sell more stuff, of course....

Fire in the North - The Navies - More Soviets

Managed to get quite a few bits started this week, based, cleaned and updated 2 Alligators (removed 2 cranes, trimmed the funnel, added cargo hatches and masts), a Kresta II ( new guidance radars, new missile mounts (still way oversized sadly) and trimmed off the shopper and put it on a base so it looks like it is about to land) as well as a start on a Udaloy and HMS Fearless (trimmed and opened up the stern so I can place a few landingcraft around and in it. When and if I find them, can't find the little blighters anywhere! And yes, I know she's not a Soviet vessle :)

I've added more ships to my wish list, some Yank destroyers as well as more Soviet landing craft, and it looks I'm in the market for some of Odzial Osmy's Ka-25 helos to round off this part of the fleet before I go and start stuff like the Kiev and the Moskva. Need to get more NATO done before that anyway, but I'm missing a few bits for that as well so a mini order to Navwar might be in order. But first sell more stuff to fill up the wargames chest.

I've been doing plenty of other stuff as well, mostly 20mm, but I'll divulge more about that next week.

Fire in the North - The Navies - Soviet tester done

Right, finished the tester, noted down the steps and colours used.

These colours work for me for the "Evil Empire", so this part is done. I won't do the base till I've got a fair number of ships painted so I can factory line them. I will give a wash again to the turrets, they are a bit dull, and I need to highlight the deck, and try to decal the bow. Other then that, I think it is a good standard.

Now I can wait for the order to arrive and paint other things :)

Oh, and for the real size:

Fire in the North - The Navies - Starting the Soviet Navy

For this gamebuild, I'll be focusing my efforts on the Soviet Navy as well as a few NATO ships and merchants.

While watching paint dry on the Isuzus (doubt they will be done tomorrow) I updated the paint trial ship for the Soviets, a Sovremenny class Destroyer.

(yes, thats a 1 euro cent coin)

Quite a few updates on the model, the model looked like it had just 4 SSm instead of the 8 seen in pics so used plasticcard to replace them , quite the differerence. Now they actually look like SSN-22 containers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-N-22). Also chopped a bit off the main mast, added radars and some additional mastwork. Also replaced the main guns with a bit of brass (should really be double, but this is the thinnest brass wire I can get) and trimmed the barrels off the 30mm AA guns....just not visible and no need to represent them.

Painting them should not be too hard, a dark shade of grey and 2 tones of brown red for the surface, 1 or 2 details picked out in near white. If I still have a sheet somewhere, I'll number them, as I've stopped adding nametags to the rear. No need for the enemy to see what you got and if I can't remember what I'm sailing I'm fighting the wrong battle (it's not like you will have 50+ ships on the table, for the average game 5-10 is more then enough)

Already put out an order for a few Destroyers, Frigates and landing craft for the Soviets as well as a small British fleet with additional NATO ships for Piers. I might add a few severely converted or even scratch built merchants to the fleet, maybe build another carcarrier, we'll see.