Kill The Dwarves!

Fresh from the workbench...the Goblin king and his minions swarm onto the throne platform, ready to rend the hapless Dwarves of Thorin's company limb from limb.

Closer shots of the king:

And the scribe, who evidently lives in this swing contraption:

These are the scenery and goblins from Games Workshop's new "The Hobbit" boxed set. The boxed set is fantastic value for money and the models are, as one would expect from GW, first rate and a joy to paint.

Where's that Labyrinth?

This is a minotaur from Reaper Miniatures' new Bones range. The plastic is fairly soft and slightly flexible - not as much as the "army men" we grew up with, but close. Detail is good and price is even better. I created some shading effects with layers of paint and then used Army Painter's Dark Shade to blend/tie together/ add more shading.

Dwarves!

Several years ago I purchased two of the "Battle For Skull Pass" Warhammer boxed sets so my son could play with bunches of goblins. Well, that left the Dwarves, so I started painting and added a few more units.

The first Dwarves were painted in a scheme very similar to the one illustrated by GW (my son loves blue), but I wasn't happy with that, so a quick bath in Simple Green ensued, followed by another trip across the painting table for fresh uniforms.

I've played a grand total of one game of Warhammer Fantasy with the version 8 rules and the Dwarves won. They still added a new grudge to The Book, however. Those darned vampires shouldn't have been in our mountains to start with!

Anyway, on with the show. The current theme was inspired by roleplaying with friends using the old, old Chaosium system "Runequest", set in a bronze age world. So, Dwarves as hard as the stone they're associated with and dressed primarily in bronze...

The chieftain, his standard bearer and assorted junior officers, including a rune master:

The immovable front line, two units of warriors flanking a unit of longbeards:

Fire support provided by Thunderers with their mastercrafted firearms:

and Quarrelers with the finest, dwarf-manufactured arbalests:

Turning up (hopefully) behind the enemy's lines should be the Miners:

All these "fighting" Dwarves are ably supported by the Guild of Engineers, lead by the Master Engineer and his apprentices:

The engineers have brought along an organ gun:

A pair of bolt throwers:

A pair of cannon, for when big, solid balls are needed:

And a grudge thrower (catapult being such an unseemly human word):

Last, but not least, the Royal Dwarfish Air Arm is represented by an engineer in a gyrocopter:

The force assembled:

T-34s and Ukrainian Orcs

Final shots of the detailed T-34s. One has new owners:

This pair have been given officially sanctioned graffiti (important in Uncle Joe's day):

This is a pair of orcs from Zvezda, 28mm(ish - they're bigger than GW 28mm orcs) for their not-a-Warhammer-table-top-fantasy-battles game:

I decided to experiment with kin colours, hoping to gain ideas for when I get around to my collection of injuns and african-american "go west, young man" types.

DAK Attack

I put this platoon together some time ago to support Fallschirmjager in North Africa. The platoon needed rebasing and repair, so here are a few Panzer IIIJ (early) from 21. Panzer Division, Libya 1942.

Holidays in France

As much fun as the kradschutzen are, sometimes the motorcycles need to be left behind and trucks are used for transport. This collection should be enough for all my early war Schutzen and their support weapons:

Just in case those pesky French put up resistance, along came the StuG section:

Word eventually reached the Yanks across the Pond and so, in 1944, they decided to try the delights of France themselves. This is a Quality Casting model of an M18 Hellcat. It's a nice enough model, but I suspect it is visibly smaller than any of the other manufacturer's offerings:

A Tale of T-34s

Some time ago I decided to start comparing 15mm WW2 models from different manufacturers, for use building armies for Flames of War.  Here are three T-34/76 tanks, one each from Plastic Soldier Company (PSC), Battlefront (BF) and Zvezda (Zv).

First of all, a little blurb about what you get and construction.
PSC and Zvezda are injection-molded plastic kits. Zvezda's model is designed to pop together without glue, although trimming with a knife and using glue give a nicer, tighter fit. PSC's model needs glue and trimming is recommended, of course. PSC's model comes with an interchangeable turret for the T-34/85 tank, which is nice.

BF's model is their classic resin-and-metal offering; sometimes you need to use a Dremel and files to clean these up, sometimes, as with this particular blister, it just falls together. Admittedly, this was an old blister from back in the days when New Zealanders slaved away in a converted warehouse near Auckland's harbour.

Prices: Zvezda was about USD2.50, PSC is 5 for USD25, BF is USD12.50 for one.

Boring stuff:
All three models are the same width. PSC's offering is 1-2mm shorter than the other two. Zvezda's is shortest while BF's and PSC's models are about the same height. There are detail changes, as the photos will show.

From the front:

Frontal view, bird's eye:

Line astern:

Line astern, bird's eye:

Trundling away from the camera:

In all five shots the models are, from left to right, PSC - BF -Zv.

Auhagen Farm, Finished

Yep, farm buildings based, base painted and flocked. The camera, as ever, as helped pick out those spots that could do with more attention, but this piece of terrain is ready for the table top.

I suppose I should make some fields to go around the farm, so that the farm has a raison d'etre.

Auhagen Buildings (2)

The farmhouse that featured in my lost post is finished, along with the other buildings from the kit:

 I decided to arrange the buildings on a permanent base. Plasticard to the rescue...

 The grey cobblestone-patterned material is another Auhagen product (this is why I discovered Auhagen's buildings - a couple of years ago, Evan at Battlefront created cobblestoned bases for stands of British paratroops; they looked so good that he explained how he'd created them and named this product on the BF forum). White fences from Atlas.

The remaining blank areas will be spackled and/or painted and flocked as appropriate. Lastly, I will need to fill the gap between the wall and the house (mea culpa; during dry-runs, assembly was faultless and gap-free).

Auhagen Buildings

last year I started looking about for buildings that would work with Flames of War. I found the Auhagen range of TT/HO scale buildings.

Here is a mid-construction shot of the inside of a farm house. Note the base plate (tan) and the window frames in the walls.

Here are a couple of completed buildings, a corner structure and a house:

I've added a plasticard base to the yellow house, the first one I built, so that there is a sidewalk in front and a small garden area behind. Eventually I will treat all the city houses this way, so that they can be moved around and arranged however I wish.

On to the inside. The roofs are glued together but not attached to the buildings, so they lift off. I've made plasticard inner floors so that my little army men can lurk in the upper storeys and eaves:

Lurking SS grenadiers:

An outside shot with a Panzer IVH and a Hanomag for size comparison:

I have left off the extra detail that could be added outside (gutters, drains, more flower boxes) and inside (paper decorative sheets to cover the windows that would represent curtains, flower pots, etc, when viewed from outside).

I like the kits and intend to add more to my collection. There's some work involved assembling them and making internal floors, but they have much more character than the ready-painted houses available from various manufacturers and they look more "to scale".

In Search of Le Vin and Les Femmes

Finally finished! Two platoons of German Schuetzen in 15mm, on foot for when the motorcycles are no longer convenient.

The first platoon is made up of figures from Peter Pig:

The second platoon is made up of Battlefront figures with a PP anti-tank rifle team strolling along in the background:

I like the early war German uniform with the grey trousers and all the insignia but it is a pain to paint! Ah well.