10mm Downsizing : WW2 Americans on eBay

With space running out in the Madaxeman bunker, a small effort to pretend to downsize sees a 10mm BKC force make it's way onto eBay: See them on eBay now!

Infantry

• 12 x Infantry bases (48 men)
• 2 x Engineers (10 figures)
• 5 x HMG / LMG bases (10 men)
• 1 x Observer base (artillery or air support) 

Armour and Vehicles

• 1 x M10 Wolverine
• 5 Shermans (including 1 x Jumbo)
• 4 M3 Half tracks (including quad AA mount)

Air Support

• 1 x P47 Thunderbolt (drilled for wire flight stand) 

All painted and magnabased, perfect for BKC or other WW2 Company / platoon scale rules. The models are a mix of manufacturers including Minifigs & Pendraken - the P47 is a plastic kit.

It's worth over £50 in unpainted lead, based on current Pendraken prices, but starts here at just £5.
10% of all bids also go to SSAFA, the UK Armed Forces charity

See them on eBay now!

WW2 15mm stuff - going on eBay

With my 4 Bisley 15 drawer filing cabinet (eBay link) figure storage solution rapidly approaching "full" status, rather than test the floorboards (and my domestic harmony) with a 5th cabinet it's become time to have a bit of a new year clearout.

The end result is that onto eBay rumbles a 15mm WW2 Russian army (well, probably more like a company with armour support) as well as some excess 15mm German armour.

The Russian figures - and there are nearly 200 of them - are mostly original Battlefront metal Russians - well fed little chaps with those cute big round heads. 

Originally collected and based for Peter Pig's PBI ruleset, there's also a host of casualty markers included.

The accompanying armoured support is eclectic and numerous - T34's, KV1's as well as some more exotic bits of machinery as well.

PBI bases its LMGs and AT rifles as separate teams, as well as officers for each platoon and company HQ.

The tanks are mostly (but not all) Rocco plastic ones in 1/87th scale. That makes them a smidge larger than normal 1/100th 15mm vehicles, which I feel fits better with the slightly oversized 15mm infantry that Battlefront make.

They are also better proportioned than many of Battlefront's supposedly 15mm-scale AFV's, which seem to be stretched vertically to scale with their infantry too.

And then, in a separate listing, the German armour.

Two Forged in Battle Tiger 1's, and a couple of (I think) Skytrex metal PzIV's both is late war cammo schemes.

(this is the one out of the FiB 3-pack that I'm keeping - the ones on sale are identical, but are numbered 201 and 213)

Both lots are on eBay now and will end next Sunday evening (20th) around 7pm. A %zge of all sale fees go to SSAFA, the armed forces charity. 

All the links in this post will take you to eBay to bid for them if you wish.

Vietnamese People's Air Force Museum - Madaxeman.com on Tour

Having accidentally found myself in Hanoi with a spare morning, a trip to a military museum was required. Originally intending to go to the supposedly disappointing Vietnam War Museum, my driver ended up dropping me off instead at the Vietnamese Peoples Air Force Museum.

This place doesn't appear all that prominently in the normal guidebooks but as you will see is still pretty good, especially for a wargamer!

(yes, it does appear to be an "88"..!)

The museum has a large static park containing and (admittedly) limited range of aircraft and AA guns as used by the Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam war and immediately afterwards in some other conflicts (which don't really seem to get much of a look-in).

You can walk around the grounds and climb all over the kit if you wish, so its very much a hands-on experience.

It was a fairly decent and bright day without being overly sunny, so I managed to get a good number of pretty clear photos using my iPhone camera, all of which are now on Madaxeman.com

Normandy Beaches - D-Day tour

Another summer trip, this time a guided tour of the Normandy beaches including a stopoff in Portsmouth to see Southwick House where the invasion was planned and where the decision to "go" was taken.

Here are the photos:

The invasion map at Southwick House - made by workers from a jigsaw making company in the Midlands

Pegasus Bridge - the new version (the old one was too small for modern traffic so has been replaced and is kept off to the right of this photo)

Cafe Gondrian. Painting tips if you have one yourself

The plastic chairs are not very WW2 vintage

 Looking back across the bridge to the 50mm gun position on the far side.

Not been repainted since the war...?

Sword Beach

Juno Beach

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Sherman at Gold Beach. I think this is a Jumbo?

Saumur Tank Museum

The Musée des Blindés tank museum in the Loire Valley town of Saumur is one of the world's largest tank museums - and I managed to take a load of photos there a couple of weeks ago!

According to Wikipedia the museum has the world's largest collection of armoured fighting vehicles with over 880 vehicles, although less than a quarter are exhibited. Over 200 of the vehicles are fully functional, including the only surviving German Tiger II tank still in full working order!

On the workbench....

Every now and then I remember that this website is basically a blog (and there is in fact a Blogger version of it was well), so this statement is true in a very literal sense as well), and so perhaps sometimes I should just make some entirely self-indulgent posts about what I'm up to right now.

So, in between updating this site and doing various BHGS things, I also am attempting to finish the following painting pile:

• 2-3 x 28mm Swiss / Landsnecht Kiels for FoGR (including Arquebus "wings")
• Updating some of my 15mm Greek & Cathaginian elephants with new versions for ADLG
• A 28mm Oliver Cromwell (because one can't have too many 28mm Renaissance generals..)
• 8 x 28mm Norman/Christian knights for Saga, plus a priest..
• 2 bases of baggage to go with the Landsnecht Kiels
• A pack of Mainforce 6mm modern British infantry 
• A 15mm PBI WW2 Belgian army which has been stuck at the stage of being based and undercoated for about 8 years... 
• 20-odd bases of 15mm Renaissance American Indians for FoGR
• Another 10 or so bases of Eastern shot in 15mm for FoGR 
• Casualties for the above... 
• Oh, and casualties for the Kiel..
• Boxes and barricades in 28mm for Malifaux
• 20mm WW2 Us Heavy Weapon teams, for CHain of Command or Bolt Action
• 4 x 15mm Scythed Chariots (no idea...) and 4 bases of 15mm Carthaginian Heavy Cavalry
• A full 15mm Scots Renaissance army, to be everything from Covenanters to Jacobites
• Loads of 20mm WW2 Germans, who are based and undercoated in Uniform Grey, but that's about it so far. 
• Some 10mm ACW Union troops that I was donated (I already have far too many..) 
• 5 x Modern Russian 6mm T90's - cheap GHQ in a bring and buy that I couldn't resist
• 2 x 20mm WW2 buildings (MDF) to assemble
• 16 bases of Polish/Russian Renaissance Shotte - undercoated, but now becalmed... 
• A 10mm WW2 landing craft 

and that's all before I start thinking about rebasing stuff for different rulesets, or selling things on eBay..

How on earth I find time to update this website who knows !

Reviewing the new "Painting War" series of magazines

One of the nice things about producing a website such as this one is that occasionally nice people send you nice stuff - and this is exactly what happened when Quino Ruiz contacted me via the Madaxeman.com Facebook Page to see if I wanted to road-test a couple of editions of their new magazine (more of that later...) Painting War.

Read what I thought about the first three issues in my comprehensive review

The matt varnished Shermans & Churchills

As promised in the previous post, the finished articles are here:  Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Shermans, 15mm Churchills, and Battlefront Bren Carriers all painted in Halfords cammo green.

This really has nailed that "bronze-green" effect I was hoping for!

PSC US infantryman based on a penny for scale.

Not quite sure what's gone awry with the varnishing on this flank of the tank, it's not as obvious in real life as on this photo.

The top decks look great to me - the "puddled" Army Painter varnish on the one in the foreground's read deck is something I'm quite happy about actually - maybe it could have been brushed out a little though?

And the Churchills... again a great result IMO

I am toying with the idea of a final drybrush, but the details already "pop" so much I'm not sure if that would be too much..?

The colour that's been achieved is pretty much perfect IMO

The early version turret AVRE. Several of the transfers have ended up showing their edges, which is annoying as this normally doesn't happen with my "two layers of clear gloss" technique - maybe my gloss poly needs replacing - or maybe they were just old transfers?

For essentially a one-piece casting these track assemblies are fantastic - well done PSC!

The drybrushing really picks out the stowage boxes too.

Morer slightly odd effects on the big blank flanks of the Shermans here - but again, not as bad in the real world, and in some ways quite good to have it so irregular (ish). The driver's face has done really well here.

 With a PSC infantryman in the foreground

The Battlefront bren carriers.

A final close-up of a rather smug chap - probably waiting for his cup of tea! Make sure you saw the first post too in this two-part series.