Scratch built 1930s English petrol station & workshop Part III

Things have progressed nicely over the last week or so and I've now just about completed everything I wanted to do. The last few days have seen me both build and paint both the office/shop to go with the matching workshop.

I've also added a pair of scratch built petrol pumps, a couple of barrels and some gas bottles to scatter about and add character. In time I'm going to some other paraphenalia like signage, a pile of old tires and an oil tank but that'll have to wait.

Here's how the new items look. I'm especially happy with the pumps. They were deceptively easy to knock up from MDF offcuts, some wire and a couple of shell-shaped beads.

We tried them out on the table yesterday and they worked a treat. Very happy with them indeed.

Cheers,
Millsy

Scratch built 1930s English petrol station & workshop Part II

I've managed to get the paintwork and detailing finished on the workshop part of the project now.

In the end I opted for blue timber details and a dirty red roof. I also Googled up some period posters and stuck a few to the walls and doors to add a little character. All up I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out.

Next up I'm going to build a smaller office / shop building and a couple of petrol pumps plus some general clutter to go round the outside. Stay tuned for that...

As I was setting up to do this post I realised this is our 400th(!) post since kicking off the blog.
It seems appropriate at this point to thank everyone for their comments and visits over the years.

Evan and I very much enjoy the interaction with our global blogging friends and it makes our hobby time so much more meaningful when people drop by and share in our craziness. Thanks all!

Cheers,
Millsy

Scratch built 1930s English petrol station & workshop

With the finish of the 6th Annual AHPC and a new job piled on top I've had precious little time for modelling and what time I've had has been rather distracted and unfocused. Although I've done a little work with the brush on some Oldhammer chaos warriors I've been more interested in terrain work of late.

One of the things I've wanted for some time is better terrain for our VBCW games. The last few days I've been working in a 1930's era petrol station and I've now completed building work on the workshop part of the project.

The main structure is cork tile with decoration and additions in card, mdf off-cuts and foamcore board. It's now been given a blast of black undercoat and I've started painting the walls a very light grey / white colour to simulate a rendered concrete finish.

I'm not sure what the main highlight colour will be at this point although it will likely be a blue or green roof and matching timber work. I'll also add decoration in the form of some period posters and old paraphernalia.

Stay tuned for a progress update...

Cheers,
Millsy

Painting Challenge entries so far...

Time has been limited by various real life occurrences of late so blogging has been lagging behind the painting a bit I'm afraid despite being on hols. Anyway, I've found a few minutes while the paint dries (better than watching it!) so he's a brief recap of what's been painted Challenge-wise thus far...

 

This is my entry to the Bonus Round Number One, Ethel the Fire Engine and crew. Loads of other great entries to see and one day of voting left so pop on over...

And finally a small unit of crossbows for my SAGA Normans...

Two more submissions are ready today so hopefully some more eye candy for you in the not-to-distant future...

Cheers,
Millsy

Eddie and Wallis

One more post for today - a photo of the completed Partizan Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson figures I mentioned yesterday. Lovely characterful minis with lots of detail. I've based them up as if they are at some sort of garden party, walking outside with the flower beds in the background...

That's it for the forces of the right at least for now. Back to the Reds for the next batch.

Cheers,
Millsy

Better photos of the Chester BUF

As promised here are some better photos of the Chester BUF which I posted a few days ago....

HQ including Political Officer

A Section

B Section

HMG and "Post Rider"

Char B1s "Valkyrie"

Transport Section

As it stands the full force looks like this:

Command
1 x Unit Leader with Pistol
1 x Colour Bearer with Pistol
1 x Political Officer with SMG

A Section
1 x Section Leader with SMG
1 x Lewis Gunner
8 x Troopers with Rifles

B Section
1 x Section Leader with SMG
1 x Lewis Gunner
8 x Troopers with Rifles

Support
1 x Vickers HMG and 2 x crew

Armoured Unit
1 x Char B1s

Transport Section
2 x Lightly Armoured Covered Lorries
4 x Drivers

Reconnaissance / Post Driver
1 x Unarmoured Single-seat Sports Car

They're intended for use with Bolt Action but really could be used with any skirmish level rule set.

Cheers,

Millsy

Paint Table Saturday

Hello All!

Time for another instalment of Paint Table Saturday. I'm well and truly back in the painting groove at the moment, working on both my own material and the beginnings of a large 40K Space Marine commission for a mate.

First up is a batch of tactical marines for a Dark Angels force I've been commissioned to paint. These are the snap-fit models from the Dark Vengenace box set and to be fair they are pretty good models for the price. The detail is a little soft of the shoulder pads but a little careful knife work and layered painting and it comes up OK.

15 down... 15 to go...

The other half of the post this week goes to the VBCW's own Sid and Nancy comedy act, Eddie VIII and Wallis Simpson. These were giveaway figures at Partizan a few years ago and I'd wanted them since I first saw them. I asked a chap on the old GWP forums if he knew where I could buy a set and he very kindly sent me a set and refused any monetary recompense whatsoever, even for postage. I really can't say enough about the generosity of our little part of the interwebs at times...  I liked the tie so much on the link above I nicked the colour scheme for mine.

Psychedelic Fur Stole.... Isn't she pretty in pink?

That's it for now. I'll be back in a day or so with some better images of the BUF and a few other bits and bobs.

Cheers,
Millsy

The Chester Flying Column, British Union of Fascists 1938

Hello All,

I've been rather quiet of late but I've not been resting on my laurels. Firstly, I don't have any laurels. More importantly, I've not been resting anyway.

What I have been doing is beavering away at my BUF project for our VBCW campaign. I finished the painting and basing tonight and thought I'd throw a few quick photos up to keep things ticking over.
I'll take some better ones this weekend, but this will do as a teaser...

The force consists of a HQ, two flying squads, two transports with drivers, a HMG team and some armoured support.

Hot on the heels from painting Nug's BUF force for his 40th birthday present I'm pretty much over painting these right now as you can possibly imagine. Once I regain my composure and have a couple of games under my belt I'm considering a couple of additions - most likely some cavalry and maybe a heavy mortar.

Comments and criticisms welcome as always.

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday - VBCW BUF armour

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of painting and today I've managed to finish a small VBCW project - a French Char B1 tank in the service of the Chester branch of the BUF. The photos are pretty poor, mainly due to the fact I simply can't be arsed to set things up properly this arvo :-)

I've named her "Valkyrie" after Unity Valkyrie Mitford, an English socialite and fascist whose sister Diana was married to Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists.

In the background you can see I've made a small amount of progress on the supporting infantry as well. Hopefully they should be finished in 1-2 weeks, assuming I don't get distracted. Which often happens :-)

For those who are interested you can read more about our club VBCW project on my Port Sunlight 1938 blog which having been neglected for a couple of years is about to see some action at long last.

Cheers,
Millsy

Goodbye 2012, hello 2013...

So that's another year of gaming almost under the bridge. Another rather productive one to be precise, both in terms of painting output, games played and blogging activities.

On the blogging front the number of posts (57 for the year including this one) and the number of followers (now 60 and almost double last Christmas) have grown at a pleasing and steady rate. My good mate Evan and I also started up a new blog entitled Die Kriege des Zobelshuts to chart our progress on a new Age of Reason imagi-nations project. We also joined Emperor vs. Elector and had some terrific blogging fun over there too.

Painting has gone mostly to the plan I established last Christmas, although not without some quite significant diversions. I had four main projects for the year so how did I do in 2012?

Warhammer Dogs of War
Solid progress to say the least. A good number of units painted and a couple of games played to boot. See below for what got completed.

Gruntz 15mm
Whoops. Some progress made, mostly finishing up my New Israelis and the vehicles for my second force. On the plus side I made great strides in 15mm sci-fi terrain so not all bad.

Colonial Sudan
Really good progress here with plenty of Empire and Mahdist units painted plus a couple of cracking games played to boot. Cap it off with both a village and a fort in cork all complete and it was a great year for colonials.

1938 A Very British Civil War
A bit of a bust on the VBCW front. Next to nothing painted apart from a single unit of White Russians. A couple of games played here too but we're not 100% happy with the rules we're using so we're going to try again soon with Disposable Heroes.

All things aside though, I made massive strides elsewhere when there were previously no plans to do so (hapy days!). In addition to the above I managed to complete the following:

• The best part of 180 x 28mm English Civil War pike and shotte miniatures, plus rebasing all my cavalry
• A very large chunk of a 2,000 point Flames of War MW German Grenadier force for the Ostfront
• A monstrous amount of desert defences for Flames of War, used to great effect in our Alamein game
• Two regiments of 15mm French Napoleonic Chasseurs, plus a good few games with Nug
• Rebasing of approximately 80 x 28mm SYW figures, painting of another 20 and a bunch of other reorganisation

Phew! Quite a list if I say so myself... Not that I expect you to believe me without proof so here's some documentary evidence of the year gone. ;-)

 

So what's on the books for 2013? Plenty of games I hope, plus the following painting:

• Some more ECW, mostly command stands plus a unit of dragoons
• A division of Saxons in 15mm for my Napoleonic force
• The remaining grenadier platoons for my Flames of War MW German Grenadiers
• About 30 or so 28mm Napoleonics for Cory and I for skirmish games
  and finally...
• A very large number (200+) 28mm imagi-nation troops for both Evan and myself

Right, that's all that needs to be said to close off 2012. Thanks for popping by during the year and for all the positive comments and feedback. Thanks also to all the other bloggers who share their work and enthusiasm. It's a great motivator and a huge pick-me-up when tired or lacking drive.

Best wishes all and here's to a great 2013 for all of us!

Cheers,
Millsy