Last of the french & End of Year Musings

Around December 6th I had talked a random family member into ordering me some more Crusader french.   Ordered on December 6th, it got here(to Canada) in only 8 business days.  I had ordered  another pack of Rifle grenadiers, infantry w/ carbines  and Commanders(to round out my Platoon commands), as well as 1 each of 60mm mortar, 81mm mortar, and Hotchkiss HMG.(and a German 80mm mortar, but he'll get treatment later)

Crusader French painted & based on 26 hours

Well due to Christmas/preparations and a few other sidetracking occurrences I finally go to work on them Tuesday night around 10pm. I had trouble getting tired tueday night so I was up until 6, painting on and off.  I Woke up around 9, went out on errands until 2 and then painted off and on again until 10, when i finished all 32  french. they were all based by midnight.  Total turn around time stat-to-finish , 26 hours(actual time probably around 8-9 hours).

You May have noticed that that gun isn't Crusader(but the crew are). In fact I have no clue what manufacturer it is. Dave Hoyt gave the gun to me, as he had cannibalized the crew for something else. The 2 kneeling crew members are the 2 remaining VB grenadiers I had(sans rifle), with an Irate officer(he is pointing his pistol at one of their heads!).

You may have also noticed the quality of the pictures has suddenly gone up.  I got a new 12.2 megapixel camera(with super-macro!) for Christmas.  I also got the Black Powder Rules, along with 2 Hourtouille Napoleonic books (Wagram and Borodino).  I've been interested in trying black powder for a while, so this is a great gift, especially since I never seem to spend much money on rules.


As seems to tradition  with Miniatures blogger, i feel the need to sum up the year.  DEspite being unemployed for jsut over a year now, I've managed to stay pretty  busy. I  built a heck of a lot of terrain this year, which along with painting commissions was the main reason  I have been able to start into my World war 2 project. I built a lot of fields,  rock outcroppings, the Indian village, 6 2x4 terrain boards, and numerous hedges, walls, and fences. I also finished a lot of pre-made terrain, including  10 Pegasus Russian houses, 1 Pasticville log cabin, 30 Lionel telephone posts,  and several small pieces from Acheson Designs.


For WW2 I finished off my 204 infantry(including crews) 18 crewed weapons(just the weapons),  15 tanks, and scratch built 70% of a French truck(waiting until I can afford to have the wheels rapid prototyped to finish) in almost exactly 3.5 months.  Before that I painted nearly my entire collection of French and Indian wars figures(200 figures in it's own right). In between I painted all sorts of things, including some Napoleonic Dragoons, ECW dragoons, ECW infantry,  Renaissance Polish, and lots of 40k(mostly on commission).

Fore the new year, it looks like i might be starting into an 18th century Imagination project with Dave Hoyt and a few others  we will be likely using out preferred Horse & musket skirmish rules, Sharp Practice.  I'll be doing the Electorate of Lustigzollern - Großgesaß.  Which of course is ruled by Kurfurst Friedhelm Ivo Großgesaß.  I have done up an initial concept for the uniforms of the Kurfurst Regiment. I think I may change the pants to  the yellow.  the Kurprinz regiment will be yellow with baby blue facings.




Anyway,  I hope everyone had a merry Christmas(or a happy whatever-you-celebrate), and I hope everyone has a happy New Year!

AGNM Hotchkiss H-39 platoon

Sunday when i got to MIGS,  Dave Hoyt had 3 H-39 tanks  for me.  He had picked them up for me while having lunch with the owner of AGNM(to save me the cost of shipping).   I was very happy!  these are beautiful models. the detail and quality of these is even higher then I have come to expect from AGNM vehicles.

Hotchkiss 39 platoon from AGNM

The model comes in 4 pieces: Hull, turret, gun, and Muffler. the only piece that requited any cleaning was the muffler, and even then it was very little.  there was a 5th piece, but after a conversation with  Vince at AGNM, it turns out that it probably isn't for this kit.   I have to say that i enjoyed painting these. It took a bit longer to paint then normal, but I think it paid off. The black lining of the colours really makes them pop.

More On The Laffly S-20

Last night and this morning I spent another 4 hours on the Laffly S20 I'm building.

 Laffly S20 WIP show with

The model is sitting on a plastic bottle cap, which makes the vehicle  5mm higher then it should be. also the wheel is just one I had on hand, and is about 2-3 mm in diameter larger then the final wheel will be.  So far I am pleased.  I still have to make the grill for the front, sculpt the engine vents on the sides of the front, and  use putty to smooth joints and  fill gaps.  When it's finally done,  it will come in at about 31mm tall, plus the 3mm base it will be put on when it's finished.

Progress on the 1/56th Laffly S20

I selnt about 2.5 hours working on  my 1/56th Laffly  model.  I had mentioned my attempt to build one of these in a thread on TMP and asked for some help on dimensions and such. 

Plans by M.C.Bell, provided by BlackWidowPilot, 

rearranged by me to have all hte views I wanted in a single file.

Two posters stick out  as as particularly helpful: Jeff Ewing and Leland R. Erickson(aka BlackWidowPilot ). Jeff Ewing was helpful in deciding on which set of dimensions to go with. he also gave me link to pictures i had not yet seen.   BlackWidowPilot  said he had some plans and scale drawings of a few variants of the truck, and sent them to me Sunday night.  I sized and printed out some of these drawing and you'll see them  in the pics.

WIP(bottom) compared to scale  

colour printout(WW2 drawings website)

Anyway, yesterday i cut out the 2 side pieces, and tonight i cut out all the other pieces present and assembled them. so far I'm about 2.5 hours into the project. I'm fairly happy so far with the results.  I need to add a slight ridge to the side and back and i still need to flesh out the drivers bench and dashboard.

 Side and rear views of the S20 WIP, compared to scale 

printouts from M.C. Bell Plans

I'm not going to go nuts on the detail of the undercarriage, since the final product will be a single resin piece with smaller add-on (steering wheel, etc) on a base(similar to AGN miniatures, which make up nearly all my vehicles). I'm only going to do the stuff that will be visible from the side.