Eleven Minis Painted and Counting...

I've actually gotten some painting done. Six old west minis (mostly Foundry and an Artizan) that were actually started back in Pittsburgh at one of our paint nights... what... three years ago? Four? Well they are finished.

I also finished five Copplestones (I think the biker is one of his Grenadier sculpts from EM-4/SG mirlington) from scratch. In the background are two 1/55th scale cars... the Unimog 1500 is from Siku and was picked up on Ebay last fall... the Honda CRZ is from Majorette and was one of two I picked up at the supermarket two weeks or so ago.

I've got about a squad's worth of WW2 US Infantry from Artizan cleaned and mounted, and a platoon's worth of Copplestone Casting's Chinese troops that will be painted as WW2 Royal Thai Army, all waiting for dry weather to be primed.

Hobby Off Run...

After work today I swung by Hobby Off. Basically it's a big second hand shop for all kinds of hobby stuff... games, musical instruments, stereo and computer components, cards, figures, models, trains, toys everything.

I hit the 1/72 scale WW2 aircraft models, and came away with these for ¥630 each. the Thunderbolt will be painted up as an RAF Thunderbolt Mk II to support a future Chindit force in Bolt Action. The P39 and P40 will be painted up as early war USAAF support for my US Platoon in North Africa and the Pacific.

I also picked up another Kotobukiya MSG attack helicopter drone (not pictured) and this gigantic MS Gundam MSN-04 Sazabi in approximately 1/60 scale I believe. You can see it dwarfing those TAG Marines on the 80mm round. Not sure when or where I will be using it... but I have a 28mm scale giant robot now....

I do have a couple 1/48 scale mecha models that remain unbuilt, and a number of LBX kits that stand about 1/3rd as high. The LBXs are a bit too small to make believable cockpits spaces in the torsos... i will probably use them as Sentinel-like robots instead.

Or maybe once a month...

January was a pretty quiet month hobby wise.

I did decide to get into Bolt Action - mostly because of Facebook conversations with my friends back in the States; particularly Lee (the man behind CIA games, and an annoyingly good professional miniature painter).

So last month I took advantage of a free shipping and free model deal at warlord Games - indeed because of the efficiency of Royal Mail's international delivery - I often seek out distributors in the UK over US and even Australia based ones.

The Warlord stuff (D-Day Firefight Starter set and the Italeri produced M4 Sherman Medium Tank in 1/56) came along rather quickly. The starter set included 20 US infantry, 12 German infantry, 1 Hanomag halftrack in 1/56, a smaller format version of the basic rules, plastic ruined farmhouse terrain piece, 10 D6s and 10 order dice (five each of black and olive).

I got busy building a US BAR gunner and soon confirmed that the Warlord produced minis are not to my taste. I had expected that, and already had an order in for seven packs of Artizan US infantry figures, as well as an order in for applicable Vallejo model color paints from Volks in Osaka. Interestingly, despite being ordered on the same day, the Artizan shipment from the UK beat the Sagawa transport shipment from a shop 4 hours away by car. I love Royal Mail.

Writing off the plastic infantry is a bit of a waste, but given the two vehicles and dice and book... i think I would have spent more on them separately (20 for a PDF of the rules (the cheapest version), 20 for the M4, 17 for the Hanomag, 16 for the farmhouse, and about 10 for the dice... so 83 pounds total for the 70 I spent) so I have no compulsions about sending them off to the parts bin or more likely gifting them to a friend who would use them. Also, although I like the Italeri kits... future vehicles will probably be Rubicon... they are just cheaper and I think a shade nicer.

Now, with figures and materials in hand... I've decided to set the goal of having my American reinforced platoon table ready for my trip back to the States in August to table against Lee - who's notoriously unlucky with dice - heheheheheh.

In other news, I am waiting for the sealant to set on the first 6 painted minis of 2016, and the new house. I'll post them when I get the bases finished.