Last swap & sell for the year: Bayonet Model Clubs Annual Model Competition and Swap Meet – Saturday 9th November, 2013

Hello again all, the last swap & sell for the year that I know of here in Melbourne is coming up: Saturday 9 November 9am kickoff, down in Werribee.

Run by Bayonet Military Model Club, and held in the B-24 Liberator hangar. Click here for the notes from the horse’s mouth!

I had a great time at last year’s…click here to read my adventures.

Maybe I’ll see you there! I’ll most likely be wearing my World Of Tanks cap.

Armourfast are making 1/72 buildings – newsflash!

Well, not a newsflash, as this news has been circulating for almost a month…

seems that Armourfast has a European-style Farm house in 1/72 scale for our market…

have a look at this link.

I’l try to keep an eye out for one – looks OK.

Have you already got one or seen it? What are your thoughts? Share them in the Comments section below!

 

 

For DaveM – next few Swap & Sells

This sunday, 14 April 2013, in BALLARAT: The Modellers of Ballarat Club 12th Annual Ballarat Regional scale model exhibition & swap ‘n sell. 10 am to 4pm. Location: Caro Convention Centre, University of Ballarat, Mt. Helen campus, University Drive, BALLARAT. See http://www.themob.websyte.com.au/ .

 

Sunday 12 May 2013, in CHIRNSIDE PARK: Model kit swap & sell + NNL competition. 10am to 2pm. Location: Chirnside Park Community Centre, 33 Kimberley Drive, CHIRNSIDE PARK – Melways ref 37 F3.

 

Model Expo Swap & Sell, Monday,10 June 2013 from 10 am – 12 noon. Sandown Entertainment Centre, Sandown Racecourse, Princes Highway, Springvale. Melway ref 80 C10. Entry is from Princes Highway.  See http://www.modelexpo.com.au/swapnsell.html

Start saving those gold coins and small notes, 1:72 scale fans!

French camouflage – may be of interest to some

I’ve been made aware of a new book about French AFV camouflage, covering the years 1900 to 2013 –

you can read more about it here.

May be useful for those modelling/wargaming captured French materials taken to the Eastern Front…

A bit smoky in here…need to do some cleaning and re-organising

Two years ago I explained and demonstrated (with photos and all) how I made my wargaming smoke markers – if you don’t remember, click on this link. I’ve been very happy with them ever since and they have been serving me very faithfully, with no problems whatsoever.

Well, Paul from “Plastic Warriors 1/76 & 1/72 Plastic Soldiers,Armour & Aircraft” has shared on his blog how his mate Dave makes wargaming smoke markers. I was very impressed! Not only are the materials pretty easy to come by, there are times when a smoke marker having some sort of flat base to correctly position it (or anchor it, if you play outdoors and it’s a bit breezy) is  a great idea. Mrs Funker, like Paul’s wife, would not be happy with using the family oven for drying – I think sun-drying during the summer or indoors for a few days in a quite-warm, low-humidity room in winter would do the job adequately…after all, if not perfectly dry after a couple of days, it’s very easy to just put them outside again during the next sunny spell…

Anyway. This is something I will remember for next time I need to make smoke markers…and I may even ‘base’ a couple of my existing ones using my current supply of caulk, sheet styrene cut to appropriate sizes and shapes, and paint. Thanks Paul, and thanks Dave!

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The blog ‘War and game’ is gone – it ceased being accessible last year, and I mentioned this on this post here.

But I didn’t remove the link and kept forgetting to do so every time I logged in to WordPress.

Realising today that I really need to do a little cleaning up and re-organising around here, I have removed it from my Links…

…

…and added a new link!

Chris Kemp’s blog “Not Quite Mechanised: Fastplay Operational-Level Tabletop Wargaming” http://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/ is taking up the slack! It’s a blog about 20th Century wargaming, and one tank model on the table represents a whole company (which s quite different to ‘Panzerfaust: Armoured Fist’, which is 1:1). There are great photos, plus progress reports and lots more. So, welcome Chris!

3D printing and miniatures and model kits and wargaming

3D Printing is a technology that those of us in libraries need to be thinking about at the moment. Phil Bradley has already done so on his blog. (If you want further explanation about the technology itself, then here’s a ‘How Stuff works” entry about 3D Printing).

My employer (an academic library) has already received a user request asking when we will set up a 3D Printer, for the Engineering students.

I began wondering how such a machine could be used for miniatures and for wargaming. Seems I’m not alone – John Lambshead, writer of the blog John’s Toy Soldiers, has done so already.

There’s also been discussions about it on a number of hobby forums – for example:

• The Overlords 40k forum;
• Benno’s Figures forum;
• The Warhammer Forum;
• Fine Scale Modeller’s forum; and
• the DakkaDakka forum.

Copyright and Intellectual Property will play big roles in how hobby people use the technology. For now, the cost seems pretty limiting – but probably in 5 years’ time they will be accessible and reasonably priced.

Anyways, food for thought at the start of the New Year 2013.

 

 

Memories of an SU-76 commander

I was meant to put this online last year, but somehow overlooked it. As part of a New Year’s email cleanout, I found it again. So, I present to you:

Rem Ulanov, SU-76M commander
Source: “Tankomaster” No. 4, 1997
Translation: Bair Irincheev

Not much about fighting, but some details about unit strengths and also lots of anecdotes about life as a Russian tanker.

 

“War and game” blog gone!!??!

I recommend a good post on a good blog to you on Wednesday, then last night I get a note from Stephen AKA cheetah185, author of the In my own time wargaming blog, that the “War and Game” blog has been deleted by its authors! I checked the links myself today and he’s right!

Oh well, sorry everyone. Here’s what Wikipedia has about the Jerrycan. You see? You’re still learning something from my blog!

A brief but excellent post on the Wehrmachtskanister, AKA the “jerry can”.

I feel terrible that I don’t check up on the War and Game blog more often. It’s a great historical blog and archive. I’m glad I did catch up with it last week, as it recently had a great little post all about the Wehrmachtskanister – or what the Allies called the “jerrycan”. Go read about its brilliant design and why the Allies copied it!

Bayonet Model Club Swap Meet results – plus the B-24 Liberator…

Trainee Funker was not obeying any orders for a while during last saturday morning and I nearly didn’t get to go to Bayonet Military Model Club’s modelling competition & swap ‘n sell YET AGAIN…however, he finally responded to discipline and so I was able to hit the Western Ring Road and Princes Highway down to Werribee.

The trip is worth it for the B-24 Liberator alone. Here are my photos – approaching the restoration hanger (the competition and swap ‘n sell is inside, along with the plane):  , and now inside, looking at real, restored history:  ,  ,  ,  ,  , some of the business purposes of the vehicle –  , great campaign pitch  – hard to say ‘no’ to that!,  ,  , “pilot to gunner!” –  ,  ,  ,  , again the business reasons –   , their contact details on their advertising trailer if you want to find out more:  .

I scored pretty heavily at this swap ‘n sell:  .

• 2 T-34/76’s (in 1:76 scale, though) to add to my existing 8 which gives me a complete company;
• 2 250/9’s which added to my existing kits now gives me two platoons and a spare of these recon vehicles;
• 2 recovery KVs for particular scenarios;
• 3 KV-2’s which, if I add to my existing 3, gives me more than a company. But the first three KV-2’s I assembled and painted weren’t painted very well, so I might just give them to Trainee Funker when he’s older and start afresh with these;
• 3 ISU-152s to add to my existing three which gives me a company plus a spare;
• a total of five KV-1’s (there is no real difference between these two kits) which is a whole company straight off. I already have a whole company of KV-1’s, in the same situation as my KV-2’s. Two companies? Or one for me and one for the Trainee?

Pretty darned good, if you’ll agree. Plus, all those PST kits were a paltry $5 each, all sealed and in perfect condition. So, $65 bought 13 kits. All the above cost a total of $99.

Here are ‘drool’ photos of some of what was available:  (a fair whack of this stuff can home with me – this was taken upon my arrival at the venue);  ; wow, 1/ 6 scale stuff!:  ;  ;  ;  ;  ; even 1/1 scale stuff for re-enactors…  .

A great way to spend a morning. See some real history and buy some small-scale plastic replica history. Thanks for organising it, Bayonet Military Model Club, and I hope to attend every year from now on!