Not Colours 2020 - part one

What with "One thing or the Other", Colours (along with a lot of other things) has been cancelled.

Having been inspired by my recent purchase of Oathmark and the release of Frostgrave II (though that is a story for another day), I put in an order to North Star for a quantity of Oathmark and Frostgrave goodies (plus lots of bases).

 As I have posted previously, I am basing my human sized Oathmark and Frostgrave figures on Renedra round bases (they are nicer for skirmish games). Oathmark works on 25mm square bases with five figures per rank.

Renedra have two sets of "sabot" bases for 25mm round figure bases, one of two ranks (ten figures) and one of four ranks (twenty figures)

 You get two sprues (four sabot bases) per pack.

Even the Gnolls (probably the most unruly of the Frostgrave figures) sit nicely in the sabot base (even if the "officer" is slightly out of position on the overhead view).

Colours 2019

So once again it is time for the journey to Newbury Racecourse for Colours.

First port of call was Empress Miniatures, they had just received the castings for the Ontos so I wanted to buy one before they sold out. I only just made it. There was also the M113 ACAV, the rest of the Vietnam USMC and the current NVA figures. I also bought a T1E2 pre-war US tank.

I have to sort out the colours for the M113 and get the M50 Ontos book by Osprey book.

Crooked Dice had lots of new stuff, including this cute Giant Robot.

My stack of Rubicon kits does not seem to go down. Though I added this lot, so perhaps there is an explanation.

For the first time in 20 years or so I bought some 1/300 vehicles from Heroics and Ros.

 Some Russian vehicles (and a Warrior)

British vehicles.

 I also bought a box of Wargames Atlantic's SF infantry.

 They are likely to end up as Hydra troopers or something similar.

Gringo's 40 had their new 28mm Mule self propelled recoilless rifle.

Warbases Space Corridor - part one

Warbases have recently introduced their new Space Corridor range. This is a range of simple modular MDF corridor sections that can be assembled in many different arrangements to make up spaceships and planetary bases.

At Colours I bought one of their dead end corridor sections to see how they go together.

The kit is supplied in a plastic bag, but with no instructions. Here are the bits.

 I started by building up three sub-assemblies (the three walls). As you can see, the two side wall panels are identical, the how they are attached to the supports determine which is left and which is right

The right hand wall was glued in place first. The end wall then slots into place followed by the left wall.

 As you can see, the corridor is roomy enough for figures on 25mm bases, and their is sufficient space to put two figures on 32mm bases side by side. You probably could not get a dreadnought in their, but a Warlord Games M5 Jackal walker fitted both width and height wise (though it might have issues with doors).

William Killian inspects the corridor end.

View from above. As you can see, there is room for the figures and accessing them from above.

Not quite sure what the holes on the outside of the columns are for, but they do give it a nice stage set look.

Once the glue had dried, I gave the corridor section a good coat with Halfords grey spray primer. I then misted some Halfords black spray primer in corners, on the bottom of the walls on the outside and on to the floor. This was followed with some Citadel Corax white spray. The outside was given a further coat of Halfords grey primer.

A Soul Drinker Space Marine defends the corridor.

Certainly an interesting idea, I will be picking up a few more later in the year.

They could do with adding some rooms and a starter set.

Colours 2017

So it is that time of year again, so it was off to Newbury Racecourse for Colours. The convenience of the station opposite was slightly spoiled by the train set owner closing the line after 1400 (they are converting from clockwork to electric or something).

What was noticeable was the absences this year. This slightly spoilt my buy list, but never mind.

Crooked Dice had a nice selection of items (unfortunately I did not get the secret base set, too heavy). There were some new MDF and resin scenery items including a set of bunk beds. Photographs when I start building and painting them.

On my buy list was the new Rubicon Models Jeep. Even though I was there early I could not find any at the usual suspects. Having given up, I found one (of two) on the Great Escape stand. More on Jeeps later.

I had a rather badly written list of figures I wanted from Empress. This included their new "universal" figures in generic uniform with Soviet/Russian weapons. They can be ordered with a range of heads. Perfect for ImagiNation armies. I had forgotten to add the Mutton Chop British infantry suitable for Operation Sealion.

On the subject of Sealion, I bought one of their Spanish Civil War Panzer IB with 20mm cannon.

I also bought one of their new Jeeps, not for WW2 but for later conflicts.

 Scale shops with William Killian (the wheels are just blutacked on)

 The jeep is scaled at 1/50 rather than 1/56, so it is bigger than the Warlord one.

The Rubicon one is also scaled at 1/56 (you might be able to see it inside its bag).

Simple Miniature Games had an offer on Halifax box sets, so I took advantage of the offer to buy some more Resurectionists and other figures. Admittedly the "Stitched Together" was bought for looks rather than utility.

Spectre Miniatures had their new Technical upgrades on sale so I bought a number of them and a Technical Bravo that they had sold out of at Salute.

Technical Bravo is a more modern version with a four door body and shortened cargo space.

 This is a comparison with the SUV, also from Spectre.

This is the Spectre Technical Bravo compared to the Empress Technical.

Lead Legion Colours

The Lead Adventures Forum has a Space Marine Chapter and there has been a discussion on the colours.

The Citadel colours are (vertically, left to right):
Castellan Green; Zandri Dust; Death Guard (Snot Womble) Green.
Rakarth Flesh; Bleached Bone (discontinued); Ceramite White; Pallid Wych Flesh; Rotting Flesh (discontinued); Castellan Green.
Bleached Bone (discontinued); Rakarth Flesh; Pallid Wych Flesh; Kislev Flesh; Rotting Flesh (discontinued).

"Daylight" fluorescent - no flash.

 "Daylight" fluorescent - no flash - colour corrected on the white.

"Daylight" fluorescent - flash.

 "Daylight" fluorescent - flash - colour balanced on the white.