Make History! – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!

I may be a bit late with my New Year blog and end of year review but better late than not at all, I guess. I had hesitated when trying to decide how I would write a review of the year, hence the late entry. There have been some challenging times during 2021 that I have had to navigate. It felt like that even in a modelling blog, I should set my hobby in the context of some of these events. After much thought I have decided against this approach. Those that know me personally will be aware of them and those that don’t, will not need to hear of the personal challenges that I faced. I am sure that they have had plenty of their own ‘dragons’ to slay.

One consistent help through all of the year has been my hobby. It provides me with a respite and escape from the ‘real world’ and some semblance of control over at least a small part of it. I can only wish that you enjoy your hobby as much as I do and derive the same sense of satisfaction. So without further introspection and with time to fill on a rainy Saturday morning, here’s how I spent my time at the hobby work bench in 2021.

The Gaming year continued to be dominated by ‘Never Mind The Bill Hooks’. Although I had thought that my WOTR army was complete, I still continued to add to it. Without the need to produce units for actual gaming, I was free to take on some side projects such as Artillery, Baggage wagons and some of the more unusual troop types.

As well as the War of The Roses, my attempt to paint all of the miniatures that came with the Part work/magazine ‘Battle games in Middle Earth’ continued. As of last night, I had reached magazine number 16 and completed Ugluk, the Uruk Hai Captain. He is pictured below – not quite finished as the basing needs to be completed. I’ve also pictured some of my other models for this collection.

As you can see, I am also gradually adding to my Word War Two collection. This year, I added a Cromwell, Churchill and Beaverette Armoured Car as well as a couple of Home Guard units – A Northover Projector and a Blacker Bombard.

Ny Napoleonic collection wasn’t entirely forgotten. I added some commanders, a Vignette and a Battalion of KGL.

And finally, I manged to paint Mr Giraffe, who had been stood on the workbench for over two years…

Those are just some of my favourite models The actual count stands at 170 infantry figures, 8 Cavalry, 14 Personalities, 4 Artillery pieces, 3 Wagons, 4 Draft Horses, 4 Oxen, 6 Pavises, 3 Tanks, 1 Armoured Car and 1 Giraffe! All painted and based and housed in their new home.

Which brings me on to the most important development of the year in my hobby life – My very own war games and hobby room. Yes at the tender age of 64, I finally have my own hobby space into which I can relax and paint and game. It’s been a long time coming but is certainly a highlight in the year. I still have work to do to finish it but it is gradually taking shape. Even better, I have a home for my collection.

My Figure cabinets – nearly filled already!

To bring this blog to an end, I must add that I have also managed to enjoy a fair number of games, both with my regular Gaming Buddies, Pete and Andy and with other good friends. Perhaps the highlight for me was the Bill Hooks Bash, organised by ‘Other Pete Harris’ over in Derby. The day encapsulated the very best of the social side of the hobby. A full day of gaming against various opponents , all of whom were friendly, gracious and made the day inspirational. As the song goes, ‘One day like this a year will see me right’

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Vikings land in Newark!

Small ‘coastal’ Viking ship

The bank holiday weekend was pretty much booked up with Family stuff but I did manage to sneak away on the Saturday and wander down to Newark Castle whilst Mrs Wood was having her hair done. To be fair, I had also been to the Barbers to get a smart new haircut, but 5 minutes is about as much time as even the most careful of barbers can spend on my diminishing patch, so I had time to kill. I digress, having some free time I noticed that there was a Viking reactment taking place at Newark castle and as entrance was free it seemed a shame not to pop in.

Viking Combat! Shield wall!

I think that reenactors share a similar strand of DNA to us wargamers but have perhaps taken it one step further. I must say that it does hold a slight appeal to me but only the bit where you sit around in the sunshine, having a beer and chomp on a lump of charred beef whilst chatting to your mates. I cant be doing with running around hitting people, or even worse being hit by some one younger and faster than me, it’s too much like hard work. I do, however, admire the work that these enthusiasts put into their hobby and they are a great source of information. Not only is their equipment and clothing extremely well researched but they know a thing or two about the tactics, weaponry and are there to ‘bring history alive’.

Camp life.

Like all enthusiasts, reenactor’s are generally a friendly bunch and only too happy to share their knowledge – you just have to ask. As I was wandering around a few things caught my eye (no, I wasn’t doing a Harold impersonation…). First of all the tents that made up the encampment all generally followed a similar pattern. It was interesting to see how an encampment might of looked. Renedra make a Saxon tent set and it was good to see that the style looked about right.

Renedra tents in full scale!

It was also interesting watching some of the craftsmen at work.

Craftsman at work

I was intrigued by the ladies who were making and dyeing cloth for the costumes. They were in the process of dyeing some cloth with a ‘stew’ of Madder root and so I had quite a chat about the colours used. I had already noticed that in ‘real life’ the clothing tended to be in more pastel shades than I painted my figures. Also there was a preponderance of orange/red clothing. The ladies were happy to show me a sampler of the sort of natural dyes that they were able to produce and that they thought were fairly likely to be accurate samples of what would have been used on tunics at the time.

Dye Samples

As they explained, the dyes weren’t as colourfast as today and would certainly fade so although my tendency to chose bright colours for my wargames figures look OK on the wargames table, I think that my next Saga Warband might just have a more muted look. And Orange will definitely be on the colour pallet!

I should point out that the reenactors were both Saxon and Viking, so if in my blog I have got them a bit confused, I apologise. Here is a few more pictures of the Warriors going through their battle drill.

Stand ready…

steady..

Close!

Shield design

A final thought, I had always thought that the shield rims were beaten metal – these looked more like leather.

To sum up, a diverting and educational couple of hours. The tower to Newark castle battlements was also open and once again, entry was free, so for the first time I was able to climb to the top:

King of the Castle!

Next weekend I am off to Warwick Castle for a War of the Roses weekend. I will get back to my painting and modelling but I thought that I might as well enjoy the good weather whilst it’s here!

A Review of the Year Part 2

To continue with my wargaming year, the latter half of the year was as much about gaming as it was painting. In July, inspired as much by my attendance at the Wargames Illustrated Saga Iron man day as by the fantastic Footsore figures, I decided to paint a new War Band – Dark Age Irish. The Iron Man day at WI HQ was great fun and despite my poor results, I had a great time. If there is anyone out there thinking of attending one of these events, I would thoroughly recommend that you do so. The atmosphere is very relaxed thanks to the hosting skill of Dan Falconbridge, WI head man, and it is an ideal opportunity to try out something new. I think that Congo, Deadmans Hand and Frostgrave are just some of the events set for this coming year.

Irish Slingers ready for action

August continued with the focus on gaming. The club had decided to add ‘Muskets and Tomahawks’ to our gaming repertoire. However, as we had mixed success with this rules set, Andy Callan came up with one of his rules amalgamations, ‘Sharp Tomahawks’ or ‘Rules for old war gamers with short attention Spans’. I’ll repeat the link to the condensed rules here:

Sharp Tomahawks

Please feel free to print them off and use them for your own games.

Skirmishers engage at the woods edge in a game of ‘Sharp Tomahawks’

In September, I made good progress with the Irish Warband as well as fitting in a short break ‘Up North’ to visit Hadrians Wall, Lindisfarne Island and other iconic Castles in the area. Great inspiration for more games of Saga!

Irish warriors ready for battle

By October, I had finished my Irish warband, including making some scenery for my Saga games and had re started work on Napoleonic Portuguese.

Brian Boru surveys the battlefield.

My Irish War band consists of 51 figures, all of the Footsore Irish! I thought that the sculpts were so nice that I might as well paint the lot. Looking forward, I can see the same thing being repeated for either the late Romans ( If we ever do see the new Saga supplement Aetius & Arthur) or AngloSaxons. I really enjoy playing Saga, it’s just a struggle to get my gaming buddies to join in!

The finished dark age house, complete with new owner.

In November, the Portuguese took over the painting desk as I committed to finishing the brigade, some 96 troops in total. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite get there but I do have 72 finished now! I did also get to see my article published in WI!

Painting Portuguese article

And so as we come to the end of the year, I am finishing off those last 24 Portuguese as well as a couple of mounted officers. My tally for the year is just shy of 200 painted figures. If you include horses as separate figures, it’s just over that! I’ve played well over 50 games, including Black Powder, Saga, Lion Rampant, Sharp Practice, Muskets and Tomahawks, Sharp Tomahawks, Chain of Command and The Men who Would be Kings, visited at least a dozen museums or historical sites, completed a distance learning course on the Battle of Agincourt and I have not counted the books, magazines and internet articles that I have read.

23rd Ameida Regiment take shape.

All in all, I’m quite happy with the enjoyment that my hobby has given me and I can only hope that the same is true of my customers and friends that are part of this hobby that we call wargaming. So Once again, I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and of course, a Happy New Year. I mentioned last week that there was a bonus for those who bothered to read the blog. If you do decide to shop at Arcane Scenery and Models over the Festive period, please enter the code blog2016 when you go through checkout. You will get 10% off of your purchase as well as the usual free postage worldwide. There are some exclusions, we can only post aerosols to limited locations in the UK and some of the woodland scenic products are banned for export to Australia, New Zealand and Japan but you still have another 5000 or so lines to choose from! Of course, feel free to pass the code on to your gaming buddies – the code will work until mid January 2017. Once again, Merry Christmas!

I forgot to mention that I painted the goats…Goats in a manger is about as Christmassy as it gets here…

A Review of the Year

Before you are put off by the title, this will be a Brexit, Trump, Sport and Dead Rock Star free zone, which I suspect will make it unique amongst reviews of the year. Mind you, there is a danger that it will read like one of those round robins that you sometimes get in Christmas Cards. I just thought that it would be worth reflecting on what I have achieved this year in my Hobby and perhaps it will help anybody reading this to reflect on their own achievments. I do find that writing a blog helps to keep me on track with my hobby and whenever I am feeling jaded, the thought of writing the blog spurs me on. I must enjoy it – I have written 48 blog entries so far this year, so I should hit 50 by the end of the year.

Napoleon & his Guard

Strangely, for me, I started the year with a French Napoleonic subject, Napoleons Coach. I have no intention of ever painting a Napoleonic French Army, but this model from Warlord Games caught my eye. I think that the figures are beautifully sculpted and the piece makes a nice addition to my display Cabinet! I like making these mini diorama pieces and I hope that in the coming year, I will spend a bit more time on this sort of project. I already have my eye on my next display piece, the new Napoleonic boat from Perry Miniatures:

The latest from Perry Miniatures!

Talking of Perry Miniatures, my next project was the Perry’s British Napoleonic Dragoons boxed set. I completed these as the British 11th Light Dragoons for my Waterloo army.

11th Light Dragoons

Looking to the future, I hope to finish two other regiments to complete the brigade but I suspect they are on the distant horizon..

February saw slow progress as regards painting but our Wargaming group did stage a ‘mega battle’, the Retreat From Bitteburg. These battles are an opportunity to put all of our ‘toys’ on the table and fight for a full day rather than the usual club evening battle that we conduct. The battle ended in a French Victory and inspired me to try and put together a campaign for the club. It didn’t quite work out but I haven’t yet abandoned the idea.

The Scots Greys prepare to charge

In March, I completed yet another British Napoleonic Infantry battalion, the 32nd Foot. The intention is to build the 5th Infantry Division, with the 28th North Gloucester and the 79th Camerons.

First Battalion 32nd Regiment ‘Cornwall’ ready for duty!

I have actually started the 28th but they will feature in a future blog!

And so into April, which despite being a busy month with us attending Salute in London, I put together a small Vignette, my Campaign General, Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond.

Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond watches on as Private James Riddles rebukes the French!

As well as Sir Sydney, I also knocked out some Snow bears as a little project for DeeZee;

The finished Snow Bears

May saw a change of direction. Inspired by reading a book about the Napoleonic campaigns in the Caribbean, I painted another batch of troops for this theatre. This time it was a company of 14 Maroons from Trent Miniatures. Who knows, may be this year I will get to play a Caribbean themed game!

Maroon skirmishers

At the start of the Summer, June seemed to be a bit of a flat month in regards to painting but in reality I had several projects on the go. I started my Portuguese Infantry for the Wargames Illustrated article that I was writing, the Dark Age Irish were under way. In reality, it was quite a productive month and I was ready for my weeks holiday in the beautiful island of Skiathos.

11th Penamacor Regiment

So that was the first half of the year over. In the next blog post, I’ll show you what I have been up to in the last part of the year and for those reader(s) that do stay with it, there will be a little bonus at the end…

Merry Christmas!

New Range of Scenery.

Full-henge from N-FX & Arcane Scenery

We have been working on a new range of scenery with our good friends Nick and Tash at N-FX. The plan is to offer a comprehensive range of scenery for war gamers in all time periods and genres. A rather ambitious task but something that we have been keen to do right from the outset of the business. I guess the clue is in our name.

We already have a few unbranded products that we are able to resell under the Arcane Scenery name and we will start to bring all of these together so that they are more accessible to customers, along with a bit more help as to how best to use the products. Again, a pretty obvious thing to do but a massive task in itself.

The other issue that we have been wrestling with is that of pricing. There are some items that we can buy in from other suppliers such as pet shops, DIY stores, florists and other miscellaneous sources that we know will be invaluable for Wargames – I use many of these products myself. The thing is, will customers be prepared to pay the addition cost for the convenience of having these items in one place and being able to buy in suitable quantities or will they feel that they are being taken advantage of?

A good example of this dilemma is illustrated by the product, Basing Sand. Lets face it, it’s just sand! You can get it for free if you visit the beach. Or, if you go to a builders merchants, you can get a 10kg bag for about £5.00. There will be enough to last you a lifetime of basing! The other alternative is that you can go to a model shop and pay £5.00 or so for a small tub of the stuff. I guess, it is up to the individual which option that they choose. You either pay for the convenience or you get a hernia lifting the 10kg bag into the car!

I have digressed somewhat, back to our Scenery range. We decided that we would start our range with subjects that would support and fit with our DeeZee range of Ice age/prehistoric animals. We also wanted something that would be a little bit different. So we have started with a range of Neolithic ‘buildings’ and constructions.

Stone circle on Dartmoor

I have long been fascinated by these ancient structures. I was brought up in the West Country of England – Dartmoor has many stone circles, standing stones and stone bridges that I visited as a child and picnicked next to! That led to my interest in other such structures, Stone Henge, the Avebury Stones, and more further afield, the Moai on Easter Island. As a teenager of the ’70s I was also sucked into the writings of Eric Von Daniken who postulated that some of these monuments were made by visitors from outer space. All very entertaining, if now somewhat daft, but great background for Pulp gaming.

Moai and Lucid Eye Neanderthal Chief

We have launched the range with four subjects, a Moai, our version of a stone henge and two burial cairns. There is of course more to come, so that you will be able to create a complete themed look for your gaming table or just make a one off feature. I think that the scenery will be suitable for any sort of fantasy, pulp fiction or science fiction themed game. Of course, it will be ideal for an ice age or Neolithic setting.

Small Neolithic Burial Cairn

In designing the range, we have deliberately not gone for exact copies or scale models of subjects but produced our interpretation of the subject. The pieces are sized with ’28mm’ figures in mind but would be suitable for other scales. We have also ensured that there is plenty of texture on the models that can be brought to life with a simple dry brush technique when painting them.

Single Henge

I hope that you will enjoy these pieces and find them useful for your games. The range will grow steadily to encompass some of the more fashionable war games periods, Napoleonics and World War Two spring to mind! Over the course of my blog, I’ll put together a few articles showing how I painted and based my examples. In the meantime, if you would like to have your own ‘henge’ or Moai, click here.

The Legend of the Hartlepool Monkey!

Arrest that French Spy!

I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent since finishing my last Battalion. I mentioned that I fancied a change and whilst sorting through my ‘lead mountain’ I came across a limited edition figure of a Pirate Monkey, issued by North Star. It instantly reminded me of the Tale of the Hartlepool Monkey. I wondered why the Hartlepool Town football supporters were known as the ‘Monkey Hangers’. Every Saturday on Soccer a.m., Tim Lovejoy would refer to the Monkey Hangers and laugh, so I had to find out what the joke was.

The story goes, that back in the Napoleonic Wars, a french ship was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor was a monkey, who was dressed in french uniform to amuse the crew. The locals who found the monkey, had neither seen a monkey or a french man before, and decided to hold a trial, accusing the monkey of spying. Unfortunately for the monkey, he was unable to answer the questions put to him and was indeed found guilty of being a french spy. The poor monkey was duly sentenced to death and hung on the beach!

There are two other versions of the story. In one of the alternative versions, the poor unfortunate that was caught and hung was just a poor cabin boy, or ‘powder monkey’. The most plausible (for me) was that the whole episode was based on a comic song from the 18th century that was simply poking fun at the locals in Hartlepool. You can read the official versions on wikipedia and see the song lyrics for yourself!

Hartlepool Monkey!

So I decided to paint my own version of the Harlepool Monkey to use as a French spy in my wargames! It would amuse me to be able to poke fun at my French opponents and come to that, some of my friends from the North east – little things please little minds and all that… The plan is to create a little vignette, with two of Hartlepools’ finest, arresting the monkey. You will get the idea from the picture at the top of the page.

I painted the monkey using Vallejo paints as usual, the main colours being Beige Red (flesh), Beige ( Shirt), Off White (Trousers), Prussian Blue (waistcoat), Gold (trim) Black Brown ( fur). I use these little projects as a chance to try my hand at ‘proper painting’ rather than using the army painter dip method that is so useful for churning out Battalions! So, I’ve highlighted with lighter shades of the base colours and used a couple of thin washes to add shadow. It’s just the basing to do – I’ll keep it quite simple – perhaps just a sandy base! I haven’t yet decided whether to use the figures that are in the picture (a couple of spares from my earlier attempts at building battalions) or remodel some new ones. For now, I think I’ll go with what I’ve got, after all. it’s just a bit of fun.

The Heroic Stand of The Inniskilling, 27th Regiment of Foot

Inniskilling memorial at Waterloo

In last weeks post, I gave a brief description of La Haie Sainte Farm House and my observations from the battlefield visit to Waterloo. This week, I thought the I would take a look at a different part of the battle. When we were planning to visit Waterloo, it seemed appropriate that we would take some of our figures to the actual battlefield. I had been inspired by the stoic bravery of the 27th Regiment of Foot, the Inniskillings, during the battle and had painted one of my Battalions to represent them. It just seemed right to take them to the Battlefield.

The Inniskillings had been held in reserve during the battle until around 3.00pm when they were ordered up to defend the crossroads. Following the loss of La Haie Sainte, they were ordered to form square. This wasn’t so much a response to any imminent cavalry threat but such a formation would allow them to deliver fire to the side towards the Brussels road as well as to the front, over the ridge towards the french advance.

The densely packed ranks of such a formation made a tempting target for both the French Guns and the many French skirmishers – a target that they could hardly miss. As a result, the battalion, commanded by Captain John Hare, suffered terrible casualties, losing 66% of it’s men and officers. Of the Nineteen officers with the Battalion, sixteen were killed or wounded, leaving many of the Companies to be commanded by Sergeants. The memorial reads:

Inniskillings on memorial

In Memory of the heroic stand by the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815 when, of the 747 Officers and men of the regiment who joined the battle, 493 were killed or wounded. A noble record of endurance. Of them, the Duke of Wellington said, ‘Ah, they saved the centre of my line’. Erected by their successors, The Royal Irish Rangers (27th Inniskillings, 83rd,87th) 18 June 1990.

My act of remembrance was to take the regiment that I had painted to the battlefield – here they are on the memorial once again, facing out across Waterloo.

The models are Perry miniatures from the plastic box set. I have painted them with Buff facings and with buff cross straps. I am not sure if this is entirely correct. Some pictures show the troops with the standard white belts, others with buff. I have also painted the officer with buff trousers or coveralls. I suspect that this is incorrect as the Officers would have worn Grey trousers as was standard for campaign duty. However, I had seen a picture showing an Ensign in buff trousers and according to a reference in C.E. Franklins British Napoleonic Uniforms, the Officers wore Buff breeches – however, I think that this is the dress uniform rather than campaign. That all said, Officers were responsible for their own uniforms and given the haste with which the British Army moved out to Waterloo, may be this officer stayed in his dress uniform… Regardless, I just wanted the unit to look a bit different on the gaming table. Finally, here is a close up of the models actually on the Battlefield of Waterloo, roughly in the position that the real Troops would have made their Stand.

Inniskillings 2014

Monday Round up

We”ll do this in a reverse order of excitement (although depending on your perspective…).

We are extending our range of Tamiya spray paints which are ideal for painting your tanks pretty speedily. We have added 14 new colours to the range, so you’re sure to find something to suit…

We have also added to our ever growing base range, again there are bases for pretty much every need…

If you need to do some filing, and who doesn’t?, we have the Flexifiles in all their glory back in stock. If you haven’t tried these you might wonder what the devil these weird things are. They are perfect for sanding in curves, and you need to do that don’t you? Is your model 2D and with no curves? Really?…Really?…Have a look at the Flexifiles

From Plastic Soldier we now have in the German Half Track kit which offers you 3 tanks for 12.95. Meaning you can swiftly develop your army in well made qaulity tanks, for relatively low cost. Also from Plastic Soldier we have the fourth varient of the Sherman tank, and in the pack, which makes five tanks, you can make two versions of this version… Never need you have that emabrrassing moment of turning up to the skirmish in the same tank

The ever popular SAGA range warband packs and blisters are in and available to buy. This game has really taken off. To the extent that we can barely keep the dice still long enough to put them on the shelf. Buy these chaps while you can we never can predict how long we will have them!

Equally fast running off the shelf are the Trent Miniatures Battalion packs. New in are the British Black Rangers. Often these are of the when it’s gone it’s gone land so if you want them, buy them before someone else does!

And finally, from Victrix, the Athenian Armoured Hoplites. These are the best quality plastic models that the boss man has seen in quite some time. So much does he love them that he’s considered reneging on his promises to Mrs boss man and making an Athenian army…if he can think of a way to fit them in his house that is.

Personal Projects: Rob’s rats…

Though Arcane’s main theme (such as it is) is Napoleonic, as that is what the bossman loves, not everyone about these parts is a fan of the little French dude, or indeed historical gaming…

Office Ninja Rob is a fantasy gamer and is currently in the process of building his latest army for Warhammer Fantasy, a Skaven army. Rob tells us more about the army, which is currenly in progress…

Why skaven?

The models are really distinctive, everyone has elves, dwarves and orcs but skaven are unique.You also get a big army, and its not one that many people do because its allot of figures to paint. Most Skaven armies are around 200 infantry plus toys.

What is the design theme?
Basically based on medieval Japan. Its a quite interesting period of warfare. It is very different and distinctive. I guess I liked it because the people did things because it was their duty and not because some bloke in a castle said do it or I’ll chop your head off! I’m doing it because I like doing it!

What does your army consist of?
At the moment I have got the Doomwheel, a warp lightening canon, 25 storm vermin, and 75 clan rats. So far. Plan to have eventually everything…Vermin Lord, Screaming Bell, Gutter runners, Abomination.

What is your approach to painting?
Spay them brown! As with most figures that are not of a sci-fi origin they lend themselves well to a brown base coat. This covers one of the main fur colour as well which cuts down the amount of block colours you need to apply. I’ve got a strange basing style as well, I’m using bamboo skewers to create the effect of the army moving through a forest. I will eventually add clump follage to these to finish the tree effect.

What did you play with before the skaven?
My previous army was Warriors of Chaos. It was the first amy I collected for the WFB game system so I have got a little bit of everything. There’s no particular style with them I was just getting into the game.

What else do you play?
Hordes and War Machine. I have two armies. Cygnar classic blue good guys with lots of guns and lighting bolts, and Circle of Orboros , which are forest druids with pet werewolves. I haven’t painted any of these yet, they are still in bare metal. As Privateer Press are an American company there are no painting requirements to play. It’s not that I won’t paint them I am just concentrating on the Skaven at the moment so I can get them tournament legal.

Any painting hints?
Colour primers. 90% of everything that you paint you can paint off a grey or brown primer. Most colours will apply well straight from the pot. I thin everything down with water to get smooth coverage, its better to put two coats on and keep the paint smooth. For paints I tend to shop around for paints I primarily use Vallejo’s model colour, a few gems from the foundry range and what’s left over from my Workshop paints. Although I haven’t used it on the skaven, quickshade, or Army Painter dip is really good, you can paint things really fast with it.

If you’d like to show off your work email us at arcanescenery@gmail.com

Monday round up

This week we have a mixture of new and new to us. As you probably know by now, Steve is on a mission to ensure that Arcane has the most complete ranges possible (its that collector thing “must have ALL!”). So some of our items this week are filling in our ranges, or in the case of some are items that have been out of the country for some time, those Chinese model makers didn’t want to share toys I guess…

The first item is new, its some bullets. Perfect for the AFV Long Tom gun the Howitzer 155mm and 203mm bullets and stowage case in 1:35 are ideal for adding some ballistic realism to your model. AFV are a very popular brand with some great reviews across the board.

From Trumpeter we have now in the WW2 LCM 3 USN Vehicle Landing Craft, and T-34/85 1944 Tank. These are both in the 1:72 scale and are filling in our ranges, to make them all the more complete. Trumpeter kits are highly detailed and very accurate kits; ideal for the historic enthusiast modeller, but also great on the games table.

We have quite a few HobbyBoss items that have appeared this week. First of all the rather dashing Drainsine “Krasnaja Zvezda” which is a Russian diesel train with KV tank turrets. Then from the 1:35 scale we have some contributions from the other Red Army, the Chinese. There is the ZTZ 96A MBT tank, which is also known as type 88C main battle tank. Next we have the BJ2022JC YONGSHI SUV, which is a light military vehicle often used on the parade ground, and another tank the ZTZ 99 MBT. To even things up a bit we also have the American M3A1 Scout car in its early production model, which was a scout car not really suitable for scouting, and so was often used for other duties.

Do check out our new items here and here as items are being added all the time…literally.

Ebob and Fray Bentos

We love hearing from our readers and shoppers, and this week’s hobby post is from Ebob. Ebob has to take the award for the speediest hobby completion, taking just a weekend from purchase to completion.

Basing his scene on the Battle of Fray Bentos, which was not a battle over unappetising pies, but a battle involving a tank nicknamed Fray Bentos in the First World War. Ebob has made use of this Emhar model, which he reports was good to put together though the rails were tricky as they are in three parts.

And this is what he has produced…

If you want to know more about the battle there’s a couple of sites that might be of use …here and here.

If you’ve got a project you’d like to tell us about please do so by commenting or using the contact form!

Just a note…

Hi folks,

We’re having a little blog rearrangement. The Friday round up will now be the Monday round up, and mostly the posts that were on Mondays will now be on Fridays…mostly.

We thought we should let you know just in case you thought you were going mad.

🙂

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Category Archives: Make History!