28mm Sarissa Precision Railways

Taking advantage of a railway special offer last year,  I had bought Sarissa's 220 Mixed Traffic Locomotive and Signal Box packs.

The Signal box was a joy to build and looks a great reflection of the prototype. The 220 engine was a beast to assemble, but again looks magnificent. More work on sanding the boiler flush and sourcing some buffers and vac pipe before painting.
Considering a generic black freight/ mixed traffic livery with plenty of weathering to reflect wartime austerity conditions.

So now I own two armoured trains, this loco and some lineside equipment. Just need to base the track and build some embankments and the railway project is complete...  apart from a British WW2 armoured train for Bolt Action.

Bolt Action Game

My first real game in ages, 2000pts. I opted for a late war British armoured unit, my opponant a late war Waffen SS list.  Needless to say I was rusty and got trounced thanks to 'Mr Naughty' a Tiger Tank.  Great fun though.

 The dining room table repurposed using the new Killing Fields teddy bear fur mat.

 The line of advance for the British. Somwhere lies a PAK40...

 Burning Cromwells

 Lots of burning British tanks. German forces having pushed hard over the table.

 More burning Cromwells...

 17pdr armed Achilles taking a shot

 Sexton strikes a Panzer Mk IV

 The infantry engage with the Panzer Mk IV

The Sherman Firefly strikes a hit on the Tiger amid a field of knocked out tanks

Salute 2019

Once again the annual pilgrimage was made to E16 at the Excel Centre. This year I met up with some wargamers from Romford and had a chilled walk around the exhibition.

Some of the stand out demo games photos are presented below. Dave Thomas was regretfully absent which meant the metal Perry Miniatures line was not available as well as Wargames Foundry not carrying their sizable Napoleonic line either, that said their stand is massive and good to see them continuing on the show circuit. Thankfully there were other traders in abundance too. Another good year from the South London Warlords.

The mandatory stash photo!

Notable purchases: Gangs of Rome, Bread & Circuses, Sarrisa precision's Ornate Trelis, Osprey Publishing's Rebels and Patriots, Urban Constructs Churchill Ark tank,Rubicons 20mm Okerlion cannons, TT Games Venice MDF buildings and Empress Miniatures late war Britiah infantry packs.

 Gringo 40s Gulf of Tonkin table

Friends of General Haig, Lutzen

 The Battle of Ligny

 WW2 Far East

 The Longbow Society, Hundred Years War

 To the Strongest, Romans vs Celts

Paint table Sunday

Managed to get some brush time and knocked out some Gangs of Rome characters including Marcus the Orator (you may recognise him from the HBO series Rome), a Domine, geese and a Mob base. The rest the Gangs of Rome collection was coated in Testors dull coat to protect them.

40k Imperial guard flashback

The other day I spent an hour or so in the loft re-boxing my collection. Part of this was re-boxing one of the very first armies I ever collected, 2nd edition Imperial Guard.

All rather nostalgic! The Army is based on the Perrys 2nd Edition Cadian Shock Troops. The Army is heavily mechanised with a full tank company. Most of the Army is heavily converted being inspired by WD220's Tsargrad article. Troops wear peas pattern camouflage whilst the tanks are in Ambush pattern cam. All rather WW2 Germanic.

My collection was previously on a thread on Commissar Proboards about ten years ago, here are some images from that period.

 Commisar doing a Blam!

 Heavy stubber crew conversion

 Karskins

 Leman Russ Conqueror tank conversion

 King Russ (Vanquisher) conversion

 Bombard conversion

 Chimera bridge layer conversion

 Tank company

The whole Army... okay I am a treadhead

Bronze!

As part of the Gangs of Rome I acquired some of these new fangled Sarissa Precision MDF fountains and statue plinths. Assembly is very simple. I mounted on them a Foundry legate and a mounted Julius Ceasar model.

Then the paints came out. Starting with black undercoat, I dry brushed them in copper, dark gold, light gold then ran a wash of watered mint green. The result looks quite stunning. Very pleased with the result. I know the real statues of the day were painted on top of the bronze casting, however the weathered bronze effect renders them timeless.

I'm back!

It really has been a while. Alot of ground has been covered since last we met, chiefly the birth of my son and the crapness of the blogger app! More posts to follow as there is a fair bit to report.

The Prussian project has moved on... four line regiments, one Jager and two Landwher painted. Blucher and his command stand complete.Russian legion started.

Gangs of Rome. This is my new addiction! Love the miniatures, reminds me of the awesome HBO series 'Rome'. Amazed at the buildings by Sarrisa, my first dip into the world of MDF terrain and the resin from Irongate. Looking to do more of this in 2019.

Bolt action. Vehicle hoarding continues apace and even managed to get a game in although I was soundly thrashed by the SS

Blood red skies, bought a copy at Warlord Shop in Nottingham, impressed by both the models and game play.

Empire project. The oldhammer/middlehammer bug has struck.I have been hoarding three armies for nearly a decade that I previously played in my youth, being Empire, Dogs of War and Bretonnians. Have been filling the gaps in my collection recently and stock taking of which you can see some of the Empire hoarding.