Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Well darn it, we're a third of the way through 2026 already.  April has been a bit less stressful month than March real world wise, just steadily working through my stuff. April always means Salute for me and you can read my thoughts on the show here .  The end of April is also where I take stock of my progress in the year to date.  You can see how I've been doing with my projects here and with gaming here . Completed Here's what I completed during the month: 20mm Platoon 20 French Indo-China War Vietnamese.  I completed four pairs of porters, a mule team and the artillery crew this month.  Porters and mules were a vital part of the Vietnamese war effort.  They add something a little different to the table and they've come out rather well.  I based the recoilless rifle and all the crew on small magnetised bases then made a base out of magnetic receptive sheet as I'd done for my Ancient Germans and Imperial Romans.  This gives me the flexibility of...

March has been a very disjointed month.  We were away for a week in Malta.  Unfortunately, both before we went and on our return there's been some serious family medical business to attend to and normal life has been very disrupted.   I've been left to my own devices for quite a bit of the month, so from the hobby perspective it's been a good month.  To be frank though most of it has been rubbish.  The importance of being able to sit quietly and focus on something that you have control over should never be underestimated.  Completed Here's what I completed during the month: 6mm Iran-Iraq War afvs.  I based up the last four vehicles I'd painted last year.  I'd held off on these as I did consider using them for the Soviet-Afghanistan project but decided they'd be better for the IIW.  I also found a Command stand that just needed the ground texturing so I did that too. 20mm Platoon 20 French Indo-China War Vietnamese.  These were...

I didn't manage to reach the hobby heights  of January this month.  Strangely enough feeling better has impacted hobby time as I've felt well enough to do other things but it's all swings and roundabouts. Completed Here's what I completed during the month: 20mm Platoon 20 Vietnamese civilians.  The majority of the painting for these was done last month, with just some highlights, varnishing and basing to be completed.  They're nice "classic" wargames miniatures, not over fussy or detailed and for those newbies only used to plastic or 3D print figures probably appear basic, to which I’d say bollocks. 15mm 16th Century arquebusiers.  I finished off the rebasing of 22 Essex Miniatures figures onto single 15mm round magnetised bases.  This gives the flexibility for keeping them as singles for  skirmish and forming units for larger games. I need to work out how to base the pike and musketeers, in a way that captures the era but is also practical for gaming,...