Buddha on a Unicycle!

Has it really been almost five years since I last blogged? So much as changed, and yet so much has stayed the same. The wordpress software has changed enough to reduce typing this post, and putting a photo of handsome me in, a bit of a slog. My deviation from 6mm into other scales has ceased as the boy Slug reached his twenties, has far more pressing things to do than spend much time in the hobby, and no longer influences me away from the true path.

Back in the dark days of 2012 I ended up posting everything I did on the rather excellent Lead Adventures Forum and being 28mm there was much discussion, but now I’m back into 6mm it’s fallen quiet – just as it was when I first joined and did nothing but. So I’m now considering kicking this back to life, although I do wonder if it’s worth it.

An interesting development in all that time is gaming on Facebook, especially the 6mm Wargaming and Terrain group with over 3000 members and a solid core of regular posters. It’s great to see how everyone in 6mm has upped their game, the manufacturers have increased and improved, everyone else is working hard to make their efforts stronger, and as such quite incredible. It’s indicative of what I see as gaming and military modelling becoming closer.

The one problem I do find with Facebook groups is how content vanishes rather quickly and once gone is difficult to find again, unlike a forum or a blog, hence I’m considering posting it all here, it’d be quicker to post a link to this blog on multiple groups than the palaver of posting several pictures and a bit of text on Facebook.

I’d love to know what others think about reanimating this, at one point this got a lot of readers, but have you all migrated never to return?

Build it and they will come

It’s been a busy few weeks at 6mil Mansions working on three new models starting with the RV/Motorhome above made by the talented Crouchie. It’s an iconic vehicle most recently associated with the “Walking Dead” series, although my commissioning it was driven by only recently seeing “Breaking Bad” which I enjoyed immensely. If you’d like one, and we’d really like you to buy one, there’s more details here. Folk in the U.S. can get one from Brent at Company B. Brent has a great forum presence over at LAF being always willing to share how to do things and he’s greater to work with. Even before he had received the first shipment he’d produced some decals for this model, including both US and UK number plates. What a star!

Secondly here’s a set of city ruins, inspired by Akula’s need for some govermental looking ruins for his “Planet of the Apes” project which we’ll see at Salute 2013. I hope they’re good enough as his project is quite stunning in it’s scope including as it does the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a Subway station complete with rusted wrecks of trains. His only problem is finding enough figures as he’s using out of production Eureka apes via forums and ebay. Should you know anyone with any for sale please get in touch. These ruins can be seen over at the Slug Industries site.

Finally the pentultimate Hesco piece in the shape of this command bunker. It’s a massive piece and the mould only just fits in my vacuum chamber. It’s hollow cast to keep the costs down, which is a wise move as there’s been an out-of-the-blue price hike in resin.  The roof lifts off this little beauty, and has an interior ripe for detailing. Not that I’ve had time to do that yet.

Legion 2012 Photos

Sunday past saw the fifth year of our local games show Legion and although small it’s both perfectly formed and growing every year. Originally it was just three or four tables squeezed into a tiny room. This year saw the second year at the old Pfizers social club down on the Sandwich Road, with around a dozen games and about half a dozen traders. Sadly it lacked Fenris Games because Ian isn’t very well so collectively we all proclaim “Get Well Soon!”.  I did take quite a few more photos than those here, but have only posted the least blurry.

Akula Kon

Being lucky is always a good thing, no more so than when I was lucky enough to find a golden ticket to the world’s smallest gaming show: Akula Kon. Held in a secret high-security facility hidden deep within the Yorlshire Moors I gathered with a number of Frothers; project maniac Akula, renaissance man Bungle, paint maestro Duff and Hasslefree’s master sculptor Kev White. There were no traders and only one table, but what a table. Visitors to Salute 2011 should remember Akula’s Battlefield inspired Arica Bay table, and that was what we played on except with a couple of hundred zombies. What follows is a number of photo’s in no particular order taken while I strained to keep up with the conversation. It’s dificult to talk with a beer on the go…

A good time was had by all, and on behalf of all his guests a big thank you to Akula for his hospitality and the sport. The only perturbing part was the vaguely homoerotic ceremony some of them seemed to enjoy. I can’t bring myself to describe it, but you will find photographic evidence of the depravity below.

 

Euro Miltaire 2012

It was the yearly pilgrimage to Folkestone for the talent showcase which is Euro-Militaire on Saturday and the Boy Slug, Captain Stinky and myself dutifully made our way down there bathed in sunshine. Although the quality gap between modellers and gamers work is shrinking year on year there is one glaring difference between the two, namely the price of everything. Model kits and accessories are hair-whiteningly expensive in comparison but the modellers don’t seem to mind. Big thanks to the ladies on the door for their friendly welcome, although I do think many visitors don’t bring themselves to say “Good Morning” to them. Why I couldn’t say.

Bumped into Jason Salkey, who is well-known to Salute visitors, otherwise known as Rifleman Harris from the TV series Sharpe’s Rifles, also chums Daring Dan, Fascist Child Killer Tony and a few lads from the local gaming club. The most intriguing stall was the Airfix one showing their much anticipated 1/48th modern British models, which were very nice but they just had a display and not a single one for sale.

Despite the great organisation and obvious efforts by all involved a couple of gripes remain. One is the number of visitors who insist on wearing large rucksacks in a well attended and therefore crowded show. Typically they move as if they weren’t wearing them, sending the uninitiated flying. Regulars have in turn developed their own techniques for dealing with them from braced standing to returning shoves and it doesn’t help the atmosphere.  The second is the lighting in the display and competition rooms, which is only a problem if you’re taking photographs – and there’s a lot of folk snapping away. Gripes aside it’s a cracking show and as the European wide attendance shows it’s worth making the effort to pay it a visit.

Here’s just over a hundred photos from the weekend, mainly stuff which took my eye, had reasonable light and wasn’t too crowded to get near.

Should anyone know the story behind the photo of Ken’s Cup, featured above, I’d love to hear it.

Even more Bazaar

Filling out the Jihadistan project gave me the chance to paint these rather brilliant Eureka miniatures‘ middle eastern civilians. There’s also a couple of stalls but I haven’t quiet figured out the best way to base those so they can wait.  It’s easy to assume how simple figures are simple to sculpt, and the burqa clad ladies might ecourage that train of thought.

However I already have a couple of burqa wearers and they’re simple figures simply done whereas these have been much better made. Each figure has a distinct attitude in it’s carving making them look more like a moment frozen in time.

They’re also rather timeless, with the exception of the woman with carrier bags, so could fit in an ancient scenario right up to the modern day. Although I wouldn’t buy anything from the traders I’ll be knocking on Eurekas door again.

Military Odyssey 2012

Here’s a few photos from the Odyssey show at Detling this year. Rather lazily it shows just the few pieces of immediate interest to me rather than a bit of everything. It was fun, but did seem to be less well attended than previous years, not just visitors but stalls and reenactors as well. Apparently it had a new organiser this year who took a hands-off approach, something he’ll not do next year.  A bit thanks to all the reenactors for the great effort they put into their displays, we appreciate it.

Dressed to Kill

The boy Slug has an eager eye for a uniform, especially a decent colour reference for basing painted figures on. Recently he found a whole pile of them and thought he might share them with you as well as have them in one handy online place. Sadly the picture above is the only British one but in the gallery below is a wealth of German, Russian, Polish and United States WW2 uniforms for your use. Enjoy but please don’t hotlink to them.

 

Crouchie’s Workbench

En route to Dover model shop  the other day I pooped in to see Uncle Crouchie to deliver some resin cats to him and got the chance to see what everyone’s gaming Uncle had on his workbench, well his dining table.

First off this delightful light tank whose name I’ve forgotten. He did tell me but my knowledge isn’t as broad as his especially when it comes to the obscure which he builds a lot of to our delight.

Hopefully this is due for production, but we’ll have to wait and see.

This charmer is an early WW2 Belgian motor trike. Crouchie tracked down a couple of photos during an exhaustive search and from those he started this. The motorcycle is an adaption of his combination for the Belgians.

The bad news is how this isn’t for production, it’s just for his own use. A shame not least beacuse I imagine the VBCW crowd would snap this up.

A Very British Civil Forum

An interesting development for VBCW players has recently surfaced – the creation of a forum dedicated to the genre and very neat it is too. VBCW originated over at the Gentleman’s Wargaming Parlour but recently there’s been some issues with it’s performance, slugging out and sometimes not being available at all. A couple of eager players decided it might be best to find a space uniquely for the delightful what-if which is VBCW, and what a space they’ve created. There’s categories galore making everything easy to find, and its just the thing to create a whole new pile of interest. Well worth a visit, and you can do so here. Well done to all involved.