FOW: Counting and Organizing my Panzer Lehr & 101SS SPz Abt

I have started with painting and building of the miniatures, but finding the right parts was a bit of a challenge. I had boxes and blisters everywhere. So I started organizing the parts and counting the vehicles.

Below a photo of the vehicle count. There are still 4 SdKfz 251 in backorder (1 flakvehicle arrived today) and  I forgot to order 1 Kfz68 radio.

The count: 202 vehicles and a lot of parts.

The count is:
37 Unarmoured vehicles (kubelwagen, Kfz11 etc)
54 SdKfz 251 of various types
10 SdKfz 250 of various types
 6 SdKfz 234 Puma
 5 Stug III G
 4 Panzerjager IV
12 Pz IV
12 Panther
10 Tiger
 1 Konigstiger
50 Support vehicles (Flak, Artillery, OP etc)

I also purchased some airplanes, because I used to use Fortress Europe for my army lists regarding the expense of Panzer Lehr in the Villers Bocage book. With Earth and Steel I'll use the Panzer Lehr list again, because of the point reduction.

As I am supposed to have finished my purchases for the Panzer Lehr, the counting made me realize that I want some extra SdKfz 250's and some Puma's. Not because I need them, but because they are so cool.


Next was to organize the parts and men. The stuff lay in different cabinets, some still in blister, other unpacked. I wanted some more storage space, so I wanted to cram as many parts as I could in the boxes.
I tought it would take me an hour or so, the picture below was taken after 2 hours...... A lot of work and still not finished.

the organizing.

The result of the organizing.

130 Panzer Lehr

101SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung

I also started to basecoating in large numbers. I like it. Some 30 vehicles in one go !

Big numbers basecoating.

Next time I will show the armylist.

Till next post.

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

I personally think that the engine is quite nice. With a little effort you can change it and/or dress it up with some wiring.

Posts on this subject:

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

Related posts:

40K: Orks WIP part 1, the stock

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

Exhaust piping.
First thing I wanted to do was to make one engine with the short exhaust pipes (like a racing engine) and one with the longer exhaust pipes, which end behind the cabin. I started with the short exhaust pipes so the engine would look like the photo below.

The engine with the short exhaust pipes on both sides.

To do this was fairly easy. Just cut the both outer ends, which are to be connected to the engine, exchange them and glue the parts together. I advise you to pin them together with some kind of rod. You don't have to be that accurate (otherwise you wouldn't build the Ork-way). In my case I drilled the hole of one pin-connection wrong, so the join wasn't perfectly aligned. As you can see on the photo I eliminated the problem the Orky-way by wrapping a wood-glue soaked piece of paper around it. (Later I think I'll paint it a leather colour or so). For the engine, I just drilled two holes in the side for the pins of the exhaust.

Making a pair of exhausts the easy way.

For the long piping I still haven't got a clue. But I will when I'll be able to properly test-fit the piping with the cabin in place.


The wiring.
Another easy job. I examined the engine and made the decision that it's a 6 cylinder multi-million Hp engine (I'll take the red paintjob). As the spark plugs on such an engine need some serious electrical current, the wiring should be thicker than the rest of the wiring. In elderly cars the spark-plug wiring came from a coil....there are two things that can resemble a coil, but they are on the wrong place for some proper wiring. So I took some plastic sprue, drilled some holes in it and glued it on the end of the engine and named it "coil". Now I could properly contruct the spark-plug wiring.

As I feel the spark-plug wiring makes the engine better-looking, I wanted to really connect the engine to its other parts and to the cabin. So I drilled some holes where I thought it would be appropriate and wired it together.
One important thing was the booster pressure cylinder. It needed to be electrical connected to open the valves (otherwise I would need to model a Grot mechanic to open the valves when needed).
The other important thing was to connect the engine to the cabin. I kept two wires disconnected and bend them to fit between the cabin wall and the cockpit.

Below some photos of the result of the wiring.

Note: The thick wiring on the photo's I purchased in a Model Train shop, for the thin wiring I scavenged the broken down electrical toys at my loft.

The engine is connected to the cabin.

Until next post :)

Tv Camera on modeltrain

(october 2010)

My son has a Marklin railroad for his (and my :) ) hobby. He was frequently lying with his face down the track to watch the trains from ground level. As I was searching for trains with camera's, I found one. Problem was only that the thing had a price of over 1.000 euro's. Well, that wasn't worth it. So, I went to my 'usable stuff repository' (the loft) and found a small 2.4 Ghz security Camera with receiver which my father gave to me for my RC models.

I took an old broken wagon and taped the camera on. After a few rounds I found it satisfying and screwed the Camera on the wagon (together with a taped-on battery).

It works nicely and the children have lot's of fun with it, altough my son tends to play a 'chase' game, where he sets one train at a fixed speed, and tries with the other to get as close as he can only on camera sight. Sometimes that results in a crash. Because the trains are quite expensive toys I regrettably had to forbid that game.

Below some photo's of the carriage and the sight on tv. I still have to connect the camera to my Handycam, so I can make movies of my son's exploits.

What kind of train is that !

All on one carriage.

A bit distorted picture of the tv. (in reality the image  is better.)

A bit colourless picture with artificial light.

Till next post.

Painted my son's gaming board

(September 2010)

My son has chosen a Battleboard for his Bakugan game as an achievement present, because he did succesfully finished a test for his coming swimming diploma.
I found the colouring of the board a little dissapointing, certainly when regarding the price of the thing.
So I suggested to my son to paint some colours in it as seen on the box, he agreed to it.
I also added some rubber bands, because those Bakugan balls were flying and rolling all around the house...
However...I didn't realise at the time that it would be quite some work.

The board and box-art.

The colourless original.

After the paint job.

Till next post.

Futuristic 28mm scenery with recycled material

(October 2010)

As I had to come up with a game plan for the Ronfest, I quickly had an idea for the game. I planned a futuristic treasure-hunting (a relic actually) game with GW 40K miniatures. In the game I planned, I wanted to use the Space Hulk board game for the treasure-dungeons. I was only lacking an entrance on the surface.

As I am notoriously weak-hearted at throwing away things, I took a time out at the loft (my personal miniature, scenery and 'usable stuff' repository), and found a nice looking obsolete infrared remote control (RC is another hobby).
Using some XPS foam board, a knife, screwdriver, glue and some paint and flock, I did manage to produce 2 very accebtable pieces of terrain in a short time.

Doom lies beyond the entrance !

The top of the RC transmitter with two 40K bases. 

The battery lid (top) and the PCB (front).

Again, the PCB was a 'Scotty, beam me down !"-device.

Before disassembly.

After disassembly.

Till next post !

FOW: Pz Lehr Panzergrenadiere, started painting.

As I have my army as complete as I want it, I have started painting my Panzer Lehr infantry. The goal is to finish the army in one year. I don't know whether the plan is realistic. The 14000 pts took me 2 years to collect (a year longer than planned).

I have painted for about 4 weeks now and I am almost finished with the first batch. They are not finished yet, but good enough to show.

Below som pictures of the WIP's.

Almost finished, some flesh touch-ups needed

Zum Angiff !!!

On the photo I noticed somebody forgot to give the NCO a camouflaged Zeltbahn

Three of a kind

The current batch

I am quite happy how they turn out. I had some difficulties getting the colours right. Especially the epaulettes are a pain in the ...

Well I hope you like them.

Tools: Static grass applicator (home made)

Last weekend I decided to assemble my static grass applicator, because I want to use it for the basig of my Flames of War mini's.
I had seen an easy to build applicator for about 5 euros in material cost.

Here's the link (in Dutch, but the images are good enough to build one yourself):
http://www.nproject.org/nl/modelspoor-scenery/statisch-gras-leggen-op-de-modelbaan.html

My applicator looks like this:

I can't wait to try it out.

Note: Back again with a big backlog

Maybe you have noticed that I haven't updated the blog for a while.

I did run into some problems with my computer and had a busy time at work.
The computer problems are solved and did have a few weeks of relief at work...until now.

Oh, and my girlfriend totally wrecked my car.....

Side view

front view

The airbags did their work

In november she (tried) to drive her sister to her brother. The road was iced, she drove about 90 km/h, the car slipped and eventually hit the guardrail head-on. They got out of the car without a scratch. The paramedics couldn't believe that they were unharmed and they had to remain in the hospital for four hours.
The car....is unfortunatly a total loss....
In the past she nagged me for months to get a station car instead of the Mini. I was very reluctant to get rid of the Mini, because it's a very loyal driver's car.
My Miniii......(sigh...cry....)

Maybe I'll eventually get the better deal.........a Mini Countryman...........(gnagnagna).....


Back on topic.
I'll post the backlog of events and progress in building and painting in the weeks to come.
So...stay tuned.