A Sandbox

Finished the plane and as well as doing some 1:1 terrain construction (some railway sleepers in the front garden) I have finished the transfers. I was hoping that the transfers would have included an active squadron but instead it gives you the markings for a 1950's reserve training unit in Florida. (You can guess where by looking at the wing...)  They went on very easily though. Still, it looks handsome enough and the little blue pot that came with it is another addition to the paint supply. The Anthracite colour is rather good too and will be used on vehicle tyres.  The thing with aircraft is how to finish them, would dry brushing be too much? I limited a wash to the area around the engine. Anyway, that scratched the itch of 'a change from 6mm.' Although I did also find some random transfers that allowed me to 90% finish a Vichy Dewoitine 520 for my side side side project of Syria 1941. Nice colour scheme and the Vichy certainly seemed to want to know who was ...

The summer holidays this year have been a whirlwind of trips away: Northumberland one week, Norfolk the next. So no hobby work has taken place. I did, however, managed to find a few moments to wander into  Hunstanton Models  , a well appointed shop with friendly owner and I picked up a summer diversion project, a Revell F4U- 4 Corsair. A plane I've always liked- the gull wings, the daft proportions of the set back cockpit, like some pre war racing plane and it's fearsome reputation. I'm going to paint it as is- a US Navy fighter.  The multi coloured cliffs of Hunstanton. 

Some initial pictures, a write up to follow. 

I realised last weekend, during the Crisis Point games of Maurice, that I had no areas of marsh or rocky ground. These can feature in the set up or can suddenly appear on the battlefield if a player uses one of the Event cards to stymie an opponents movement plans. So this week I have been trialling some techniques to make marshes. I settled on a simple one of painting an MDF base in brown then adding sand round the edges for the solid ground areas. I used a mix of French Mirage Blue, some black and a little bit of a brighter blue to take away some of the grey shade for the water. A wash of Agrax Earthshade followed. A gloss varnish was then applied. The tufts are from Army Painter. I think maybe a more brown shade for standing water in future, but they'll do for now. The rocks are cork, painted and dry brushed. More terrain and finishing off a unit of 7YW British for Maurice will be my plan for the Easter weekend. 

An excellent weekend in sunny Dungworth again, hosted by Richard C and family. As has been mentioned by Andy T in his   blog  we were called upon late on Friday night to come up with a game and felt that an encounter between the Honourable Black Sea Company, envious of the success of the EIC in south Asia, thought to gain a foothold in Andreivia. The lure of the trade in pork, bear fur and cheap wine was enough for shareholders and the British Government of the day to finance a company army with some support from regular British forces. Naturally, the locals were not keen on handing over money and power to these foreign adventurers and so the Royal Andreivian Army reached for their pikes and called upon their French friends and 'advisors' for help.  The hill which saw Company infantry struggle towards, especially not helped by an Event card that saw a Confused unit splash through the stream, get Disrupted, then suffered some effective musket fire that fin...

I bought these on eBay a while ago and they've been sat with a spray grey undercoat in my To Do pile since then. This week I have based them, using masking tape for texture around the building base and added some cars and scatter as a garnish. Happy enough with them, they'd do as a housing estate on the edge of a big city, somewhere in 1980s West Germany.