A few festive bits and pieces

Over the festive break I managed to do a bit of painting whilst avoiding getting myself any more wargaming stuff (there are 3 armies in the paint queue already...), and also fit in a trip to Guernsey.

The end result is a rather random mix of WW2-themed photos for your delight and delectation! 

First up is a pair of Sdkfz 251/9 engineer vehicles in 10/12mm scale from Redders at Red3. These complement the rest of the German force I painted up last year, and give me some guys to jump out and blast their way through any field defences I might encounter in BKC or O Group.

Next up was a dog-walking excursion to Batterie Dollmann in Guernsey - strangely enough the first time I've managed to get to it on many trips. The restored French 10 tonne, 22cm gun sits overlooking the coast in the nicely restored open bunker

There is also of course also the nearby Pleimont Observation Tower, which I think is open for visitors during the summer months,

The battery is defended from the landward side by a load of refurbished trenches, and what looks to me like it could be a Somua turret (although I've since had it suggested that it's more likely to be from an FT17) dug in as a bunker.

You can get into the turret from the adjacent trench, but as it was about 6 inches deep in water when I visited, there was no "Madaxeman in a Bunker" photo opportunity this time around!

More bunkers make up the complex, overlooking some seriously impressive cliffs. 

The biggest risk now however is not the big guns, it's falling into the well-camoflaged trenches!

Back on the small scale stuff, these M3 half tracks with British crew from Red3 again were a joy to put together - this shows all of the bits, as vehicle is pretty much cast as a single piece, with the turret gunner and cupola all cast as a single drop-in item. 

Using Vallejo Bronze Green as a base coat is pretty simple - and here you can see the cute strips of crew as well all painted up in British Khaki ready to be glued in. 

 

Some weathering and a few stars that I have accumulated over the years - most of these are spares from the Victrix Shermans I did last year I think

And this is the full set of 6, ready to take the Tommies into battle.

  

Podcasting Live from The Winchester !

OMG! I've just found out that some people do actually leave reviews on Apple Podcasts and other platforms for the Madaxeman Podcast!  

I'd always suspected this might be the case, but had never looked them up or stumbled across them before until a new stats package came along :-) 

And, as well as the, well, just quite "nice" comments, there are some absolute solid gold belters in there too - here's just a few of them.   

(extra points for the Shaun of the Dead / Minder reference here!)

Thanks again to everyone who's left a comment or clicked for a review - wherever it's been left. We all really appreciate the feedback, whatever it is 

You can listen to the Madaxeman Podcast on Podbean or by searching for it on pretty much any podcast platform 

The Devonian Classic - 5 Tapas & Pasty Match Reports

Another 5 Madaxeman L'Art de la Guerre Battle Reports from The Devonian Classic, a competition in the west country that was straight outta Brixham - a small town in Devon, packed full of pasties, pirates and, erm.. pubs ? 

But, more importantly home to an eminently rentable community hall, plenty of cheap off-peak off-season accommodation (and of course the new venue for the fabulous Steve Price Towers), and more fish and chip shops than you can shake a stick at - all making it an ideal location for hosting an ADLG competition of the large but perfectly formed variety!

To this event the newly-minted Spanish army of Sertorius came, singing sea shanties and burping chorizo and garlic at all and sundry, towing behind them the legendary BURNING CART OF DOOOOM!!!. 

These five resulting L'Art de la Guerre match reports are your chance to see how an Iberian army does against the Early Arabs, Seleukos, the Mitanni, the Might of Rome, and the rest of the Successors in 5 full-definition, seagull-targeted battle reports full of the usual stuff and nonsense.