Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotives

This week the Royal Garison Artillery have taken delivery of the first of a new type of machine, the Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotive! Running on endless tracks, and with the power of no less than twenty-four good horses, these fine machines have the capacity to manoeuvre even the heaviest of our guns into position.

Hey Internet,

I do present two Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotives...

The eagle eyed amongst you will, of course, recognise the models to be Soviet WWII era 'Stalinets Tractors'. However, I have cunningly painted the radiator casing, headlamps and doorhandles a brassy-coloured metal colour, flawlessly transporting the machines back in time to turn-of-the-century England!

A gift from a friend who had no use for them, these models had been an unloved part of a Soviet Flames of War force for five years or so. Interestingly, this force had no artillery in need of towing, so they never got used. Not even once.

Coming across them quite by chance recently, I thought they'd be just the ticket for the late-Victorian / Great War-ish project that I am currently working on.

I've had a bit of a play around painting them. Being the first vehicles in this project, I wanted to tie down a number of painting techniques and effects that can then be rolled out across all of the British vehicles for the project.

I had to get the green just right. I wanted that particular shade of pale green used on some British equipment around the time of the Great War.

The colour had to be fairly easy to achieve so that I could paint up a dozen or so tanks and other vehicles in a uniform matter. It took three attempts, but I think that the one that I settled on looks about right.

This was the colour that I was going for.

Other than that, it was the smaller details, but in particular, I wanted to try something different with the windows and headlamps. For a long time I've been painting both in the same way, going for a sort of 'blue gem' effect, but recently I've noticed that, while pretty, the effect is totally overblown and utterly unrealistic.

Instead, the windowpanes have been painted flat black and lightly gloss varnished. I'm quite sold on this look for medium scale models like this.

Hopefully the headlamps are looking more realistic too. With them, I've just done highlighted circles of silver. Looking at the photo above, I can't help but feel that its the way to go, particularly with the big lamps of the first quarter of the century.

Some Blue Moon Mark I Tanks and a pair of Flames of War Tog IIs should be on their way before too long. I'm quite looking forward to giving them the same treatment.

Do let me know what you think, eh?

Mr. Marx.

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +59       Painted: +69          Total: +9

Tokyo Was Not Built In A Day... [2]

Hey Internet,

A little while ago, I started construction of Japan City, Asia.

Originally, I'd planned to do the whole thing with Resin buildings, but after some reflection on the hideous cost involved, I've decided to switch to 'papercraft' terrain.

I've never been a fan of paper terrain. To me, its always looked a bit..well...crap. That said, the buildings in the classic monster movies that inspired this project were hardly a lot better...so if anyone asks, its a homage, not me being cheap!

Two down, a fifty or so to go. 

I've made a start. Two buildings - took me about an hour each. Turns out folding and gluing paper really isn't something I was born to do...

Some 'free papercraft building' links;

http://www.sarna.net/files/media/cardstock/

http://dathbain.tripod.com/id1.html

http://www.timewarpcomics.com/gamesite/btech/?what=terrain&pagenum=1

MM.

TOG 1 or 2 ?

Hey Internet,

Today a package finally arrived in the post - yay!

Within it was a Flames of War TOG 2 tank model that I ordered about two weeks ago, and have been looking forward to receiving with childlike excitement.

For you that don't know, this magnificent beast is a TOG.

Irritatingly, I ordered two, the other one has been placed on 'back order', whatever that means.

More to the point, as soon as the postman was gone, I of course got out my new toy for a bit of a play.

As fate would have it, I recently took delivery of some Blue Moon Mark I tanks. The Blue Moon kits come with both 'Male' and 'Female' sponsons....and I'm building them as gun tanks....and the 'spare' machine gun sponsons just so happen to perfectly fit my pretty little TOG....

....so.....why shouldn't I build the model as The Old Gang of the Royal Navy Landships Commitee originally intended?

These drawings gives a fairly good impression of the original design. 

I mean, the sponsons are not *100%* historically accurate as they are from a Mk.I, rather than a Mk.V tank, but on the other hand, the machine guns contained within would be being used to mow down Martians in revenge for the 1899 'Rape of London', so, I'm not all too fussed on that front.

I'd need to get some Matilda II turrets to complete the transformation, but that is no problem really.

Feeling really jazzed about doing this.

Let me know what you think!

MM.

The Living 'Wants List'

Hey Internet,

One of the things that I have come to enjoy as part of this funny old hobby of ours is the swapping and trading of miniatures.

Like most of us, sometimes I find myself hankering after some long out-of-production lump of lead, or would like to buy a single figure without having to shell out for twenty of his identical friends.

Up to now, I've done my trading though the 'Lead Adventure Forum' (Username: Mr.Marx), but it occurred to me that this blog would be a good place to do the same thing.

So, here is a living list of the various bits and pieces that I look to acquire. It is 'living' in the sense that I will update it from time to time as my interests change and things come into my possession.

I've got Paypal, a chequebook and a heap of wargames stuff to trade.

If there is something on the list that you just happen to have laying around in need of a new home, drop me a line through the comments box below, or on over on the LAF if your also a member.

***

WANTED

Nothing Right Now.


***

FOR SALE

Nothing Right Now.

***

Last Updated: 13 - 07 - 2015

Black Hat British Infantry [2]

Hey Internet,

I've finally gotten around to finishing my two platoons of Black Hat British Infantry.

All in all, its taken me two weeks to get the thirty of them painted up and based. To be honest, it was quite a chore to get them done.

The painting itself was not bad at all, but the clean-up of the flash and mold lines was really quite arduous.

I got these figures from a friend* who had them around collecting dust, so they are quite old, and given that fact, I have no idea if they are reflective of Black Hat's casting quality nowadays.

That said - and I am loathed to give a bad review - but the casting quality really was awful.

Almost every figure had prominent mold lines - sometimes two sets of mold lines per figure! Some of them also had major 'mold misalignment' issues. There was one 'pose' of figure that was so systematic in the poorness of its casting that every last one of the 'pose' had to be discarded.

After many hours filing and cutting, I got around to painting them. The figures are 'really big 15mm' or 18mm/HO scale, and as such they possess a pleasing level of detail and paint up rather nicely.

After a good deal of 'umm-ing' and 'ah-ing' I decided to go with turn of the century Khaki uniforms rather than the more stereotypical scarlet Redcoat. This made painting them a far speedier process, which was rather a good thing as, to be honest, the whole 'casting' issue had soured the whole modelling project for me, and enthusiasm was in short supply.

I've got some more Black Hat Commanders, Artillery and Gatling guns yet to do, but I think I need a rest before getting back into painting them.

I've got the first of the 'Tanks' on the way, so I'll probably do some of them before boomeranging back into the rest.

Mr. Marx.

* cheers Neil :)

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +59       Painted: +67          Total: +7