Hobby admin - rebasing

Hi folks,

With the Polish Cromwells now done, I moved on to a bit of administration. Mainly driven by the fact that I've no space to store the models I've just painted. 

Over the last few years I've been transitioning to using 9 litre Really Useful Boxes, with Sally 4th storage trays, for my model storage needs. I place magnetic sheeting in the trays, and have ferrous sheeting on the bottom of the miniatures. This allows for a pretty efficient use of space compared to my previous methods. 

Note: Dave does this differently. He places ferrous sheets in the trays, and has bases with a circular hole cut into which he glues a 2mm by 5mm magnet. 

Recently, driven by seeing the smaller, neater, 60mm by 40mm bases that Dave uses for his 15mm vehicles, I have switched to the same method. The bases just look better for the scale of the models, and have the added benefit of using less space on the trays. How much less space? Here is a visual demonstration:

Using the Flames of War 'Large' bases, as I have done for years, I can fit a whole tank squadron on one tray. 

However, the same models on the smaller bases:

Now, rebasing all of the relevant models onto the 60mm by 40mm bases is going to take some time and effort. There is a cost implication (money for the basing materials, my time). I've had to spend a bit of time weighing all the pros and cons as to the best course of action - it is, after all, a fairly large job. 

Cost wise, one 9ltr box (~£6) filled with 2 x 50mm tall trays and 1 x 35mm tall tray (£18.50), using 4 sheets of A4 magnetic paper (~£2.80) is a fairly significant investment (~£27.30 without postage costs). I still consider that cheaper for more storage that the equivalent in foam (which I hate), but at that price per finished box, I need to make sure I am getting my monies worth.  

For the cost of rebasing, I increase my existing available storage by about 25%, while also making the models look a little better and updating the basing on some of my older models. One of the first batches I handled were my Polish Sextons:

Before - based on large FoW bases

After - based on 60mm by 40mm bases

Not a huge difference, but much neater and more focussed on the model.

Many discussions have also been had with friends who use file boxes, etc. Yes, these are often cheaper, but for the scale of mini's I collect, there can be as much as 2/3rds of a physical container as wasted space, which means I need more space to store the same number of models. The 9ltr boxes with trays store a lot of minis in a comparatively small space, stack well and are more resilient.

My plan is to work through one 9ltr box of models at a time. My pass over the Polish Shermans box also saw me correct and error I'd made with them (the only repainting I have done) - WW2 allied air recognition panels appear to have been a bright red, orange or white. While yellow smoke was used during Operation Totalize to mark friendly units, the colour panels on the tanks I'd painted yellow were incorrect, so I changed them to orange (having given Amy the choice). 

So there you go - the madness continues. 

15mm Normandy British infantry battalion

 Hi folks,

While continuing with the current painting plan and approaching completion on my Polish M10C's, I took the opportunity of a lazy day in the house to lay out my British infantry for Flames of War. 

I had planned two layouts - 3rd Edition and 4th Edition setups - but it took so long to do the initial setup that I cut my plans short a little. I then had to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fit the models all back into the storage boxes I'd taken them out of. 

I've come to the conclusion I need some sort of storage plan!

Anyway, the light was poor, with it being a dull November day and late in the afternoon. 

First up, I laid out the 4 rifle companies and the support company. This had the benefit of letting me see where I am short some bits:

- each company command section should have a carrier for transport. I'll need 3 more of these painted to fill that gap. 

- one company is missing the sniper teams. These are not used in v4 FoW, but the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had a scout/sniper platoon as part of the support company, so I'm tempted to fill the gap to represent this element of the ToE. 

- Pipers are missing from 2 of the company command teams. I've one currently in the lead pile, I'll need to pick up another and sort command bases. 

- I need to make a decision on whether to stick to the v3 organisation, or use the v4 one. While the v3 organisation is marginally more historically accurate (while still missing the ammo carriers, etc), I've tended to use the v4 organisation when playing. Switching entirely to v4 org would free up the carriers needed for the company commanders.

- I need to paint the de-frocked priests in order to do a large Totalize game, which was the point of the collection and something I've yet to do. As the battalion was down to 3 rifle companies at that time, I need to paint 12 of those vehicles. The existing 6 need re-work due to fogging of the varnish. 

- I still need to decide on what I want to do to represent the battalion HQ. 

Anyway, I took a few more pictures including some of my house rule 'extras' and the infantry support options. 

Medics and Engineers also included, along with the rifle coys.

RAF Forward Air Controller along with Vickers MMG's and 4.2" Mortars from 1/7 Middlesex Regiment

This included the regimental aid post and de-frocked priests, as well as the limbered 6-pdr guns. 

I do feel that I've cheated slightly, as I bought 5 platoons of infantry from a friend. However, I'm giving myself a break as they were nicely painted and resulted in me reaching my goal far sooner than I had planned!

Now I just need to plan another game big enough to get the whole lot on the table!

State of the collection pics

Hi folks,

I've finally resolved the photo issue I had, so thought I would post the still pictures taken between video's.

Apologies for the patchy lighting, it was later afternoon in the garage. Possibly the last set of model pictures taken there!

German armour:

German artillery and AA

German infantry and AT:

British armour:

British artillery and AA:

British infantry + recce: