Work in Progress - Rorke's Drift Hospital and Supply Depot

My wargaming buddy Carlos recently bought the Italeri Battle of Rorke's Drift set which comes with a very nice MDF version of the hospital and supply depot.

Image from www.italeri.com



Carlos had put the buildings together but said he wasn't in the mood to paint it, so I was more than happy to give it a go.

The walls were first given a thin coat of Vallejo "Sandy Paste" to give them more of a gritty look.



Then once the sandy paste was dry, the buildings were given an undercoat from a cheapo spray can of matt black paint bought in a local Chinese shop (here in Spain there are thousands of these shops that basically sell low-grade dollar-store items and cheap / tacky stuff. They're affectionately known as "chinos" as they are generally owned and run by people from China).

After the undercoat was dry, the walls were "whitewashed" with a few thin successive coats of acrylic paint.



The buildings were then detailed, and finished off with some dry brushing, washes and given a good dousing of pigment powders.

Enjoyed painting these, it was a nice change from tanks and figures, and I'm pleased at how well these laser-cut MDF building look once they're painted. They're also very sturdy but lightweight at the same time.

Anyhow, Carlos now has the buildings back and hopefully he'll finish the roofs soon - he's going to use some fake-fur to give them thatched roofs - we'll post some pictures when they're finished. 

Italeri German Motorcycles and Sidecars

The big car in the background is a Hasegawa Mercedes that I rescued from a pile of old kits in a box and found a nice canvas roof from the spares box that fitted perfectly. After taking this photo, I've realised that the paint on one of the wheels has either chipped off, or I missed that bit when painting :-(

I changed a few heads to give them all helmets and I'll be using them for the 1940 campaign in France - The uniforms are all wrong, but no-one will notice too much (hopefully) painted in Field-Grey uniforms with Panzer Grey bikes and sidecars.

The figure with the binoculars has a helmet grafted on from the accessories that come with the Revell German 105mm Gun & Crew.

Napoleonic Skirmish in 1/72 - A Song of Drums and Shakos

On Saturday our friend RoH came to see us and organized a skirmish game with the rules "A song of Drums and Shakos".

The rules are very good, and they have a system of activations and changes of turn that are quite easy to follow. We played two rapid games in less than four hours.

A dozen British (some Scottish and English) used to take a hill defended by a handful of French.

The British ones are a mix of Revell, Airfix, Esci and Italeri brands and the French ones are new from Italeri - and they are huge figures, they looked gigantic next to the British ones.

On the workbench - WW2 Russian Infantry Conversions

Last week I got a two new sets of the new "made in UK" Plastic Soldier Russian and German Infantry. The plastic is nice to work with, hard styrene which is glueable, and cuts easily and can easily be trimmed and sanded.

You can see some of the Russian infantry here with new heads, mixed with Esci and Revell figures for some Russian squads I'm putting together. With the smaller heads the poses mix well with the other Esci and Revell figures.

The heads etc., are just dry-tested / stuck on with a bit of blu-tac, I'll get around to pinning them sometime over the weekend.

Some of the brave figures who donated their heads to the Great Patriotic Cause....

DAK - Work in Progress - Carlos (Brazo de Nelson Wargame Club)

I took some pictures last week of some 1/72 scale DAK stuff my mate Carlos has on the go when we met up at the shop where we usually game.

Repainted Altaya PzIIs



Repainted Altaya PzIVs



New Italeri Fast-Build Kubels + "Passengers"



Italeri DAK with head-swaps





Pegasus "German" Trucks





HaT German HMG Team conversions



Bunch of finished squads




Italeri Panzerjäger

Italeri DAK

Some pictures of figures from the new Italeri set, painted by Carlos de la Concha.

Very nice new additions to our club's WWII Afrika Korp wargame forces

1/72 Scale Italeri Coastal Defense Bunker

Italeri 1/72 Scale Coastal Defence Bunkers.

Nice solid models that paint up really well.

These were made and painted by Carlos de Concha from the Tenerife Brazo de Nelson Wargames Club.

Modern(ish)

Esci (now Italeri) NATO Pilots and Ground Crew.

Also a Revell Deutsches Kommando Spezialkräfte - better known as the KSK - hidden in amongst the figures there.




Hasegawa NATO Pilots 

Matchbox 1980s British Paras