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.

Tanks for Everything

Biased I am, due to having cast these up,  but I think this is a lovely little tankette perfectly suited for VBCW even though it’s a yet to be released model for Akula’s Armies so meant for WW1 Fantasy.

It’s a seven piece resin kit inspired by French FT light tanks and built by Uncle Crouchie who was the man behind BEF miniatures.

I enjoyed both casting building and painting it but I’m not sure how many might be available so if you’d like one I’d suggest chasing Akula via the link above.

I’m going to have to scrounge another off him myself as I’d like one for my Anarchist band.

 

I Bike It

If you’ve been living under a motorway flyover you may have missed Warlord Games purchase of Uncle Crouchie’s BEF Miniatures. Aside from the pause in availability of the bulk of the BEF range while those cunning Northerners refiggle moulds and get it all ready for a massive relaunch, one thing has slipped out of near release. Namely it’s Crouchies long awaited motorcyle and side car for his early WW2 Belgians. With Antwerp’s Crisis show looming these would very likely have been launched there by the man himself as a follow up to last year’s wildly successful, if totally unexpected by the Belgi brussel sprout munchers, release of the Belgian miniatures.

Generous as Uncle Crouchie naturally is, just ask the boy Slug, he very kindly gave me a set of the prototypes which rather sadly have languished unpainted and only remembered when someone mentioned it in passing over at GWP.  Well here the bugger is, and rather delightful a model, although folk hoping to set it loose on British roads might notice the side car is set up for the continental way of driving. If you like it enormously why not email those top chaps at Warlord and beg them to get a move on.

Jihad Enough?

As the year draws to an end grown men and juveniles eagerly wait to see what, if any, lumps of  metal they might get as Christmas presents. Dining room tables have to be cleared and as a result the hobby slows down as gamers and collectors twiddle their thumbs looking back at the previous gaming year. At 6mil mansions the boy Slug and are have reached a couple of major stages of ongoing projects. This is the Jihadistan project where we’ve put the final touches to the fundamental forces, Terry Taliban, Harry Haji, Micky Mujahadeen etc.

First up is this wonderful captured BTR. It’s a bit more 80’s Afghanistan than the ultra-modern this project is all about, but it shall play it’s part. I can’t claim any credit for this is any way, it’s part of a purchase I made from Uncle Crouchie.

It’s a lovely piece and beautifully painted in a peacock pattern by the man himself.

The whole thing was based on a photo from the conflict and Uncle Crouchie has replicated it perfectly. Originally I couldn’t find a copy of the photo to show you the connection, so thanks to Lowtardog who shared it with me via LAF.

I’m thrilled with this and reckon it’s the best vehicle in my entire collection, but of course you can’t just have a stolen BTR.

Here’s my second Technical but lucky for us all the photos are better than they were when I finished the first one way back in September.

These feature several Stan Johansen miniatures, the driver and the gunner and loader. The latter pair which have been slightly modified so they don’t appear as the same figures on different models.  The sitting RPGer is by Empress.  The one thing I will avoid in future is keeping the windscreen. It’s a severe discomfort in the posterior which I could have well done without. Vehicles look fine without it.

The vehicle is a boot fair find, costing a whopping 25 pence, and is a pullback and go. There has been a temptation to do this, typically from the Slug, but I have a vision of the thing shooting across the table and smashing into the wall and showering to the floor as a few hundred pieces. So we still don’t know what it might look like.

This picture gives you an idea of the detail in the back, since taking it I’ve gone back and put spent .50 cal shells on the floor to the right of the gun in the space. It looks much better but I doubt I’ll take another photo of it, so you’ll either have to take my word for it or use your imagination.

Here’s the third and final Technical, again using an diecast toy which has to be taken apart to be worked and painted, as well as having a few pieces discarded. The driver and spotter are both Stan Johansen, the other two Empress.

This one is a mortar carrier, the mortar coming from a 1/76th spares box.

It’s worked well and taken a fair amount of detail without getting too crowded.

The driver piece is average, but the addition of an AK on the passenger seat and a book on the dashboard helps to lift it. It’s interesting to see how some pieces, when photographed and blown up larger than the reality look really rough, like the driver.

You need a few miniatures as well, and here’s the bulk of our hoarde. A mix of TAG, Empress and Johansen, totalling just over sixty pieces. About half of them painted by either me or the Slug, and the other half painted by Uncle Crouchie and bought from him. A most welcome boost to the forces.

Here’s a few more who didn’t make the first photo, combines they’ll be imposing daft religious laws on a table near me soon.

The only other thing I figured we needed where some civilians, these all being Johansen.

So that’s the Jihadist done and dusted, although there are some goats still in the pipeline, but aside from that there’s not another single figure to paint for this project unless I get some for Christmas.

Jerry Built

Rough photos, but stunning figures and cracking painting from the boy Slug with these BEF Miniatures early war SS. According to Uncle Crouchie* these are all sculpted for him by the same chap who does a lot of the Artizan range, of course he was more specific but I’m pretty poor with names hence I’ve forgotten who it might actually be. However Artizan figures do have a great reputation, we’ve plenty of them ourselves, so it’s worth mentioning it even if it’s pretty vague.

We were lucky enough to pay another visit to Crouchie Towers today, primarily to grab a pack of BEF’s last release of Germans, but also came away with an Allied Boys rifle team, a Vickers HMG team plus a pile of Belgians. All of these will eventually feature on here, but we still have a couple of outstanding vehicles underway so expect to see those first.

* As the boy Slug now calls him, and to be frank it does rather suit the man himself.

Eat More BEF

The Slug and I are big fans of all things local. I’ve indoctrinated him with a type of micro-nationalism based on relative geography, so someone doing something a few miles away or even someone from around these parts who has wandered off to do something gets my wholehearted support without question. Tracey Emin is a prime example, even though she’s evolved beyond the simple seaside girl we might have originally known her as, it’s still a case of rah-rah her. So to discover via GWP the existence of BEF Miniatures in the nearby pretty but under-rated town of Deal was a joy of many beams of light, one based on the micro-nationalist scale, another being they manufactured miniatures, yet another being the possibility of going shopping without going to a shop, plus the chance to promote something worthy with this blog.

So I emailed the man behind BEF Miniatures, Crouchie, and asked if I might pop down to pick up a few figures, say “Allo” and save on the cost and delay of postage. “Sure” he replied, “You’ll get to see the centre of my empire, namely a damp lean to shed with a pile of boxes.” and we set a date. I told the boy Slug the minimum I could get away with, namely “We’re going to see a bloke in Deal.” Now if you’ve any form of memory of being a sprog, aside from the hopelessly nostalgic, you’ll likely recall how visiting folks with your parents tended to be incredibly dull – rating just above looking at a pile of bricks and deffo below just about anything else you could ever do for a few hours. So I deliberately played things down.

Come the day and we’d just enjoyed the first showers of snow, you know the light dusting of powder which grinds the nation to a halt, so this added to the drama I was so carefully building for the young Slug. Slowly we wound our way along the coast having sent a text ahead to warn of our impending visit, enjoying the enhanced beauty of Kent as well as near empty roads. I parked right outside his home and revealled the true reason for our visit to a flecktarn wearing Slug. The immediate surge in his demeanour beats anything the makers of energy drinks might offer.

A knock on the door later and Crouchie welcomed us in, plonked a cuppa in my hand and we started chatting. Yet again we’d found another old-school gentleman gamer, only this one happens to make miniatures too. He showed me the British range and I wanted the lot, along with one of his nifty Vickers Light Tanks (which will feature here soon) and he very kindly offered them at what can only be declared a bargain price.

We nattered on, him showing us various items which made us go “Ooooh!” and “Ahhhh!” and touching spoddy subjects until we settled on VBCW – him suggesting a socialist stronghold at the nearby colliery, me freting at just how many Marines would have been stationed in Deal at the time, with Crouchie treating the Slug as an equal throughout. It wasn’t long before Slug had mentioned Afghanis, and Crouchie asked him if he’d seen “9th Company”, all eyes lit up of course as we all adore this fine Russian film. Totally out of the blue Crouchie dug into one of his boxes and gave the lad a bag of 9th Company figures along with a couple of bags of Afghani to give them something to shoot at- as a gift.

Now it’s easy to declare someone a paragon of gaming when they’ve cut you a good deal or given you a gift, and possibly a little sordid too, so I’ll pull up slightly short of doing so – BUT for someone to accept us into their home and honestly share their enthusiasm is magical. I was delighted with meeting him, but for the Slug it was an epiphany which had him walking on air and proving to him yet again that to know about history isn’t a bad thing, to expand that knowledge with gaming isn’t either, how being both sociable and respectful with your elders via such an activity can be an exciting experience in it’s own right.

“Okay,” I hear you think, “enough of the soppy feel-good nonsense, what about the miniatures?”. Well you’ve got eyes haven’t you? You can see from the pictures how they’re simply excellent you should buy some and as you do consider how much of an ambassador for gaming Crouchie is, the antithesis of the faux chumliness you’ll find in GW shops. Hurrah for Crouchie, we adore him and his work plus he’s much nicer than Emin.

Finally a comparison shot, which people are fond of, left a Renegade piece which are typically the chunky end of 28mm, and to the right a BEF miniature. All figures painted by the Slug.