Roman Auxilla

Hi,

well the ancients project I started last Christmas is still moving along (very) slowly. I've finally got these two units of auxilla finished. All the miniatures are from warlord games mostly plastic except for the commands and two rankers which are metal. Under the Crusader rules these guys count as light infantry so I've based them three to a 40mm rendera plastic base. As usual there painted with a magic wash and then given some basic highlights.

As with previous units in this project my spare plastic models where hacked up and put back together with some green stuff to produce some casualty and disorder markers (one figure for casualty two figures for disorder) before being mounted on a washer.

The warlord games Auxilla are really nice my only quibble is that the spears/standards on the metal command are really thin and bendy I doubt they'll survive to many games before they need replacing. I would have preferred the option of command models in the plastic box set but sadly all 24 models in the box are rankers.

Cheers Jon

Indiana Jones toys for AK-47

Hi all,

here are some pictures of some Indiana Jones toys that I picked up in Tescos for a couple of quid each. Their scale isn't clear but they look right with 15mm miniatures to me.

The first one is a German truck http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indiana-Jones-Titanium-Die-Cast-Vehicles/dp/B001CEC6NC

They didn't require much work Indiana had to be removed and I took the box out of the back. Then it was just a simple re-paint. I rather like them they were dirt cheap and are very nice little models.

The other model is the jungle cutter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B002GOLIM2/ref=dp_otherviews_2?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&img=2

For this one I removed the blades and gave it a new paint job and it's now an armoured bulldozer for Lumatan pioneers. If it helps for scale comparison the miniatures with the trucks are oldglory 15mm moderns while the one with the bulldozer are irregular miniature 15mm modern soviets. Both these ranges are at the taller end of the 15mm scale.

Cheers Jon

Anglican league heavy support

Hi all,

having a broken computer has at least given me some extra painting time. So I thought
I'd post up pictures of my Anglican leagues new heavy support. A venerable old FT-17 with 37mm gun, no doubt shipped across the channel by some dodgy European arms dealer. True to form in it's first battle it was blown to pieces by a luck shot from a BUF heavy machine gun. The taken model is from force of arms in made of resin. The air recognition flag was added from tissue paper soaked in PVA.

Second up we have a WW1 vintage 13pdr gun. The gun is from Great war miniatures while the crew are from Gripping beast. to make them look like civilian militia I used green stuff to cover the puttees. The officer is from one of the great war miniatures command packs with a gripping beast spare head swapped for the original head. This gun too proved less than spectacular in it's first battle failing to stop the BUFs armour.

Cheers Jon

Anglican snow troopers

Had one of those horrible spray primer/varnish accidents the other day. I finished off a few Anglican figures for a game at the club that night. Last thing to do was give them a quick coat of varnish sadly being in a hurry I picked up a white spray instead, the screams of frustration where terrible indeed. Thought I'd share a couple of picks for anyone who could do with a laugh.

I'm back

If anyone actually reads this blog they may have noticed things have gone rather quite in recent weeks. Sadly my aging PC decided to die a few weeks ago. After some rather worrying moments I managed to retrieve all the photos and important stuff but the PC was knackered. So I bought a new one (and very nice it is too). Sadly I still couldn't couldn't get online thanks to my out of date modem that wouldn't work with windows 7. My Internet provider (AOL) where spectacularly unhelpful so we swapped to a new IP. Sadly it takes up to 25 days to sort a change of provider. Still this weekend the family home finally got Internet back. Now apart from having to provide a new Internet address to all those websites you need one for I'm trying to workout what I've missed out on on the net in my enforced absence.

On the plus side I've had time to take stock of my hobby and make a few decisions on where it's heading more of which later.

Tickets Please!

Hi all,

thought I post up pictures of my finally completed Anglican improvised armoured train (God Hammer) that will run along the track between Swanage and Wareham providing support for the Anglican troops in Purbeck. Some more pictures and info on the train can be found here http://jonswargamesminis.blogspot.com/2010/04/train-update.html
http://jonswargamesminis.blogspot.com/2010/03/armoured-trains.html

Basically I've added a front carriage armed with a field gun in side an improvised armoured box and an troop carrying carriage with improvised armour and plenty of places to fire a rifle from. I also added a twin maxim on an A/A mount (scratch built) to an exsisting carriage to supplement the 3pdr QF naval gun I'd already fitted. I think that's it for this train (although I was looking at some pictures of BIG rail guns the other day trying to work out how to build one, so watch this space)

I do want to add a platoon (about 8-10 figures in WGW terms) of troops to carry in the troop carriage. To that end I've converted up a couple of officers wearing the uniform of a train guard. These two models came from a job lot from a bring buy at a wargames show which I'd bought because it contained some Artizan Thrilling Tales figures. I think they are Copplestone Darkest Africa Naval officers. I gave them larger caps and armbands from greenstuff and then just painted them up to look like train ticket inspectors. The rest of the platoon will be made up of railway workers probably from Empresses SCW range which has quite a few suitable figures IMO.

Cheers Jon

Anglican League Air support

Hi all,

just finished this 1/48 Sopwith camel by New-ray http://www.newrayusa.com/index.php?link=product&productline=25&b_id=0&s_id=1617&page=2. I picked it up for a £5.00 in my local newsagents ages ago thinking I'd find a use for it sometime. The pilot is from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range. Generally I've kept to the the colours the model came in, just magic washing the whole model in my usual Winsor & Newton Peat Brown and Future floor wash mix. Followed up by drybrushing on some highlights. I did however paint the RFC roundels solid blue and add White crosses to mark it out as an Anglican league flyer.

As for background I discovered this little tid bit on the web and figured I could justify some air support for my Anglicans.

SWANAGE/WORTH Aerodrome:N50.35.32 W 02.02.46:Private aerodrome which opened on 16-8-1928.Located between Worth Matravers and St.Albans Head,it was operated by the very active Isle of Purbeck Light Aeroplane Club.The club used a Simmonds Spartan aircraft and in 1928 had a total of 128 members (Pilots,Observers & associates).Date of closure not known ,but certainly by 1939.However ,during 1940 a site in the locality,was used by Avro 504Ns fromthe Christchuch based Special Duties Flight, towing gliders for Radar trials.Maps exist showing the site used as approximately the same as the prewar aerodrome.However there is information that it was on the cliffs further south, adjacent to the TRE which was established in spring/summer 1940. .

Sadly I couldn't find any 1/48 Simmonds Spartans. I figured however a flying club might have all sorts of elderly old aircraft to use as pleasure craft. Thus this venerable old warhorse has spent the 30's mothballed after being used as a pleasure craft in the 20s. Now with civil war looming the Sopwith gets a new lease of life as a ground attack aircraft. Lets hope the Royalists don't have any Bofors guns................

Cheers Jon