Over the last few months I have been focused on completing a Confederate and Union Army for use in Black Powder or other rulesets such as Longstreet and Sharps Practice.

Meet Lulzbot Mini

The mini was reviewed as a intermediate level printer, but an easy learning curve.  I try not to spend money on simple devices knowing full well I would upgrade in the near future.  So we got this one from Amazon for $1250 USD.  Of course I had to buy a bunch of filament for about $30 per spool.

Miniatures in production:

I hope you all had a great 2016!

I going to take a whirl wind tour of what peaked my interest this year:

With the 72 year anniversary for Market Garden this year, our gaming club decided to go with two battles Hell’s Highway and Nijmegen Bridge.  I was tasked with the pleasure of designing and setting up the Nijmegen table.  My  son and drove across the bridge in 2015 and the picture shown is looking south over the River Waal.

One of the most iconic weapons of the Cold War are the aircraft.  The A10 is my personal favorite.  The only way I would have joined the Air Force is if they would have guaranteed me to be an A10 Pilot.  They couldnt, so I joined the Navy and became a Civil Engineer Corps Officer (Seabee)

The Battlefront A10 model is top notch.  It is easy to put together with minimal clean up on the ordinance.  I cant wait to play this on the battlefield.

On the Soviet side is the small and sleak SU 25 Frogfoot.  Such a small craft with a powerful punch.  Again great model,  it took quite a bit of time to clean up the ordinance on this kit.  I picked the 357th squadron as the model for the camouflage pattern.

US Rotary aviation is the Battlefront plastic model kit of the AH-1 Cobra.  This is a very well done kit and I like it better than the original BF resin Cobras.  I went with the plain Jane US Army appearance.  Even today the Blackhawks dont really have many markings.

Saving the best for last.  The Mi24 Hind.  I remember this beast from the movie Red Dawn in the 1980s.  I was so enamored by it that I made a lego version as a kid.  Overall this model looks great, but sucks to put together.  I had issues with the rotor blades and the cockpit.  Hopefully, version 2 of this model improves upon assembly!

 

The question here is… how much do I expand my Pacific Theater Forces?

The Answer is “of course I need one more USMC company and support”

I have a hard time saying no to new shiny models.  In this case my excuse was I dont have a Japanese Special Naval Landing Force!

Well here it starts.  The first platoon of SNLF troops and a platoon of HMGs.  Now I need to find two more BF platoons.  An observation is that the BF figures are significantly thicker than Peter Pig.  I think the Peter Pig miniature better represent the Japanese solider at the time with respect to size.

It has been an insane 5 months since I last posted.  Work has keep me on the road almost continuously.  I have been modelling and I have actually plated a couple games of Flames of War at the local shop in Mainz.  Below is most of my progress since January sitting ready for matte varnish.

I have completed a number of FOW units this year.  The big one being the 5th Gebirgsjager Company.  I should have added beards to my miniatures!!

Progress has been steady but slow over the last year on my AWI collection.  Word of warning… no flag as I have been LAZY!  I have beautiful GMB flags, but I keep putting it off.