Friday, 6 June 2025

My Generation Was Killed Part 5 - Friends

 


‘Sup Killers and welcome back to the blog 😎

Friends? What’s this you ask? I thought this was about toy soldiers and something-something War on Terror comments..?!

Stay calm, that will come, this week I was planning on writing something, then as often happens in the creative space, I had a different idea…

Names are not mentioned to protect the innocent…πŸ˜‰

In case you weren’t tracking, my whanau and I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2006. A mere 26,000KM trip from the UK leaving behind all of our friends and family. We landed in Auckland in May 06 and a week later drove to Palmy where we met the first of a line of Kiwis that have gone on to become our very close friends. That person and their whanau have reminded close friends to this day, and I have also been fortunate to pick up other close friends in the military along the way.

But that’s a small circle for sure. I don’t recall if it was 2006 or 7 when I wondered into the Palmy hobby store’Heros for Sale’ (long since closed ☹️) and picked up a blister pack of Battlefront MW German Infantry. I took them home, painted them and based them and didn’t think much of it.

A week later I was in the store again and noticed there was a rule book for this game, ‘Flames of War’. So I picked up a copy and Festung Europa, the army list book. I took them home and read through them and especially loved the pictures of painted minis…

On Monday I took that book to work and was reading it at lunch when one of my JNCOs asked me what I was reading. I showed them and they were also interested… So we decided to try a game. He decided to be the Russians and I obviously went for Ze Germans. We built and painted a 600 point force (oh remember those days of points in 100s not 10s…πŸ˜‰) And used to play at lunchtimes at work. This draw some derisory comments from the OC and CSM, but meh, what (literally) did they know…

That guy also went on to become a solid friend.

We then discovered there was a whole tournament scene in NZ and overseas, and for the next decade I hurled myself into almost every event I could get to, which pretty much meant all of them…

I moved from being a very average painter to winning every ‘Best Painted’ trophy at all NZ events and some overseas ones too in Australia and Canada. I then started to contract paint for Battle Front and have my work in many of their source books from the mid 2010s. I always seemed to get the work that the studio staff didn’t want, Zouaves anyone…?! 😜 Then I started a wee business painting other peoples stuff as well.

All through this process I have been fortunate enough to pick up some solid friends, and I do mean solid. These are the types of people who put you up on a coach or spare bed for events, feed you and expose you to their own families. They are also there when you have health issues, are going through a rough patch, and just need a shoulder to literally cry on πŸ™

So where am I going with this and what’s the connection here?? Well, without this silly game, I would not have these amazing people in my life, and pat yourselves on the back team, you know who you are. πŸ™πŸ’Ÿ I am fortunate that these good people have been there for me, especially during the dark times of my PTSD and depression, which brings us back to reality…

Remember last week I mentioned MOPP suits and CBRN and USMC?? Well I did some digging into boxes and came up with some stuff from back in the day. First up is a still sealed M256 Detector Kit. I was issued this from the USMC as a part of my CBRN detection capability. It was a handy box of tricks that would detect a range of nasties! See pic below:


You can see the plastic case the kit comes in, on the left is an opened detection slide with the various chemical and biological compounds that would be used to detect stuff, and on the right a part of the enclosed instructions.

Next up is a page from my CBRN notebook with 1 and 3 Color detector paper that has had a substance splashed onto them to indicate what they would look like in the event of a real attack. I don’t remember WHAT was splashed onto them, but I don’t think it’s harmful..😷


And finally before I get onto minis (remember those..?!) here’s a hand drawn diagram that was given to me by my USMC counterpart. It’s a schematic of a CBRN decontamination station that we would use in a mass-casualty event. You will see it has clean and dirty areas, areas for walking wounded and those on litters etc. This was my reality in 2003 and it’s interesting to see it over 20 years later. We never needed this (See my upcoming blog ‘WMDs, more Wanton Misuse of Democracy than Weapons of Mass Destruction πŸ˜‘) as the Iraqi CBRN capability was extremely limited, and AFAIK, not used during the 03 period. But still, this was what I was trained for, had been training for, for years, and was prepared to put into place. Happy days…


RIGHT! Back to the plastic crack! Oh hang on, friends… So, you may recall a week or two ago I stated I was no master sculptor of Green Stuff..? Well, fortunately my very good friend IS. And that very good friend just happened to be the person who sculpted most of BFs stuff, including modern stowage…

SO, I did buy one pack of modern stowage at $17.50, but calculated I would need about $300 worth to make my trucks look how they should. Well… My friend just made me a resin mould of the original sculpts, and now using Grey Stuff I can churn out dozens of bits of stowage for next to no cost!!!

The pic below shows the original BF soft-metal product, the new mould and a host of new moulded stowage parts. Not only are they cheaper than the OG ones, the use of Grey Stuff makes them so much sharper and there is almost zero flashing to boot! Result!


What else have I been up to this week..? More trucks, OF COURSE! Chopped up another three of the 3D Hummers to make more open-top trucks. Started putting some Grey Stuff cam-net rolls on them and added the weapon mounts. The only issue I am going to face is TOW… I need approximately another 12, 15mm TOW launchers, and I have 3… You only get one with each BF sprue and I am not sure if you can 3d print them… I may end up just making a more basic version out of plastic rod etc… Anyway, pic below for added value!

And to finish, I managed to get some paint onto the crews for the Iceman and Shady B’s trucks. Had a lot of fun making the ‘Elvis Sunnies’ for Ray and adding in things like respirator haversacks. I ended up using a mix of AK, Model Air, Atom, and Vallejo colors as below:
  • MOPP Suit base - Model Air 71.022 Camo Green
  • Desert Helmet Cover base - Val 837 Pale Sand
  • MOPP Suit / Desert Helmet Cover light green - Val 886 Green Grey
  • MOPP Suit / Desert Helmet Cover brown - Val 871Leather Brown
  • Body Armour / Webbing - Model Air 7138 US Sand
  • Respirator Haversacks - AK 796 NATO Green
  • Shade - BF Skin Shade all over
I used a mid-blue for scope lenses, bino’s, goggle lenses, and Rays Sunnies! Just because I liked it and it stands out! I also gloss varnished Rolling Stone’s helmet as he has no helmet cover and in the early episodes of the show, his lid REALLY stands out!!





Right team, if you have managed to read through all of that, pour yourself a drink! πŸ˜‚ If this was a ‘TLDR’ moment for you, oh well… πŸ˜‰ I’ll make no apologies for blog length or content! This is my blog and I’ll say what I like, and I like what I say!! Seriously though, this is a cathartic process for me, so I appreciate your patience if I go off minis for a while and talk through the events that led to this list being created in the first place!

On that note, have a great weekend and Stay Frosty People 🫑


Sunday, 1 June 2025

Back baybee!

 Greetings readers, tis I! It's been a few weeks - I've been travelling a bit of late and haven't been home to game or to commit hobby time.



But it's a long weekend here for the Monarch's Birthday so figured it was time to get some catchup work done.

 First off, I finished off the squad of Adeptus Sororitas for my Imperial Agents collection. This gets my Knights army done and dusted and will allow me to also run the Officio Assassinorum detachment that I affectionately call X-Force. It's dreadful but it'll be SO much fun to run.

 I'm only middling about saying I enjoyed painting them because honestly, I don't think I did. Even with the miracle sauce that is contrast white, this was hard yakka. Having said that, I'm really happy with how they've come out and they look great with the two Immolators that they're going to be riding around in with their special friend Inquisitor Greyfax.

Shortly before I went away I spent my ValleyCon award on some new toys for my Late War Germans, partly inspired by blogger Tank's ValleyCon army (which I'm keen to iterate on) and partly for just stupid: 

The WaffentrΓ€ger are just a solid way of getting some cheap-ish long 88s on the park when I don't feel like the challenge of running Jagdpanthers and what's not to love about the Sturmtiger? It's lunatic but I think it could be a very entertaining addition to some of the more cheap and cheerful

There's also a box of Stukas awaiting my attention but I need to do some thinking about magnetising the weapons...  

Next Time

I'm helping Blogger Pel test the list he's taking to GenCon so will try and do a write up of that. I'm breaking out what I think might be the best Italian build I can come up with so I'll be curious to see if it does the business. I've also got a couple of boxes of Space Marines that are demanding some assembly for getting my Deathwatch up to par in 10th so will be getting onto those shortly.

Friday, 30 May 2025

My Generation Was Killed - Part 4 - Character Sheets

 

CPL Josh Ray Pearson rocking the Elvis Shades…

‘Sup Killers! Welcome back to MGWK part four, ‘Character Sheets’. Character Sheets you say? Has this moved to like D&D or something…? Nah, this week is all about the main characters in the show and how to portray them in 15mm…! 🀩

SGT Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert with his M4 and NVGS Scope

The above pic shows the Iceman in typical pose with his M4 out of the window, scanning his arcs. For this mini I used a 3D print sculpt with an added greenstuff NVGS scope. This was fiddly, but I felt it needed to be done. I doubt you’ll see much of Brad once he is inside his Hummer, but we will see…


Next up is Ray doing his best Elvis Presley impersonation…! This one is BF ‘soft sculpt’ AFV crewman mini that I swapped the head with from a hard-plastic BF Infantryman. I added the Elvis sunnies and I am hopping you will be able to see these golden glasses shining out from inside the truck!


LCPL Trombley and M249 SAW / Minimi

I have just realised that I need to alter my Trombley mini as I have given him googles and he clearly does not have any… This mini is a BF hard plastic Infantryman with a shaved head to fit inside the Hummer. I will angle him so that he is pointing his SAW out the window, scanning for civilians, camels, or dogs. Which seem to be his favourite targets…


Next up I have SGT Leandro ‘Shady B’ Baptista’s crew. These are mostly conversions from the BF hard plastic minis. The main add ons are respirator haversacks, goggles, and filling out the bottom of the pants to simulate the MOPP pants that are worn by all. 

MOPP gear… Mission Oriented Protective Profile, or in British parlance, and NBC or ‘Noddy’ suit. Wearing one of these in +50 degree C heat was just the BEST! Even more fun when we had to don our respiratotrs. Now I am wearing a multi layer suit over my combats, AND I have a rubber face-welly stuck on my fizzog 😝

Photo below shows me in my Rover just before the kick off, with a copy of ‘Loaded’ magazine in my hands. I think there was some kind of free subscription deal if you sent in a pic of yourself in a war zone with a copy of the mag, but I never did send it in…! You will notice the small pieces of paper on the sleeves of my NBC jacket. That’s detector paper 1-Color and was in place to detect any droplets, mist, or splashes of chemical agent that may be in the atmosphere. As the lead NBC LO for my REGT, I also had 3 Color paper on the outside of the Rover and I had a CAD / CAM in the truck as well.


Next is me just after we were attacked by artillery for the first time. We were driving into our designated AO and BOOM, incoming… The first part of the chemical safety drill states, “If you experience a bombardment of ANY KIND… Assume a chemical attack has taken place, and adopt the chemical IA drill”. This meant me pulling off the road, getting onto the radio net and shouting “GAS, GAS, GAS” down it on repeat. Lol and I (Lol was the dude I was sharing the Rover with) along with the rest of the convoy then debussed and we started to dig in on the side of the road.

More shells were falling so the hole digging increased, it was around this time that a Cobra appeared and began strafing some Iraqi positions up ahead. Having shut them up, he then buzzed off to another sector. I felt a sense of relief when the Cobra appeared and a slight pang of angst when it left… 

Anyhoo, after some radio traffic, I checked my detection systems for any signs of chem or bio activity. Having found none, I reported this up the chain and was given the OK to conduct a 2-man sniff test… Fun times… That and the individual test was clear, so I got on the horn and gave the order to de-mask. This was not the last time that we went through this little procedure however…

Pic below shows a fairly nervous looking me having just removed my respirator, and our column of heavily armed and armoured, desert-cammed vehicles…πŸ˜‚



Almost forgot, Shady B’s crew…! These will be placed in the open-backed Hummer once painted.



You can see the added bottom of the MOPP pants and goggles here


These are the .50 gunner standing, and Shady B in the passenger seat with Bono’s. He’s converted from a metal BF WWII GI. I added a neck to his helmet, goggles and a respirator haversack. He’s gonna look pretty sweet!

Well my friends, that’s all for this week. Not a whole lot going on due to being in Welly all week for work.

Hope you enjoyed the read, comments as always are welcome!

‘Till next time, Stay Frosty πŸ˜‰






Friday, 23 May 2025

My Generation was Killed: Part 3: I am Greenstuff-ED…!

 


‘Sup Killers, and welcome to MGWK Pt 3! Hope you have been enjoying the ride thus far, its sure been fun writing 🀩

 It’s been a big, BIG week on Hummers! I have completed 7 trucks, or around a 1/5th of the total…! It’s been a wild ride, so come on and I’ll walk ya through it πŸ˜‰

As you know, this army is based on GK and so the trucks need to bear at least a passing resemblance to the main ones used in the film. As we said last week, BF Hummers are Army, we need Marine ones. The main visual differences at 15mm are fitting what is known as the ‘Wading Kit’. This in the main consists of a higher air intake (Snorkel) mounted on the hood at the passenger side, and a higher exhaust mounted on the drivers side rear.

I started with the air intake and initially was making them by hand from a 5mm piece of plastic rod, and 1mm sliver of sprue. After I had made two I wished I hadn’t started, and the prospect of making another 29 just didn’t feel me with joy…πŸ˜‘

I was then fortunate to have a phone call with my good friend and Ex-USMC Sniper, Adam. He talked to me about the wading kits and then sent me some pics of his own 15mm Hummers that he had converted. What had he used for the Snorkel..? a NAIL! Yup, a small nail… SO I checked my extensive collection of nails and screws and found a bunch that were perfect! Now all I had to do was drill a small hole, snip the nail to size and we were GTG! First lifesaving event of the episode…


This is the passenger side of SGT Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert’s truck, note the 2-piece Snorkel construction. I added Greenstuff door rolls, and a covered spare tire, and also the external stowage, more on that later… I also drilled out the windows and slimmed the doors, real fun…!


This is one of T-Boss’s ‘plain’ Hummers that I added the ‘nail’ Snorkel to, WAY easier! This one also gets door rolls, a spare tire with a tissue paper cover, and external stowage. The shiny panel on each truck is made from a Tomato Puree tube and will replicate the hi-viz warning panel that is on each truck in the show in that location. These differed widely in their placement in the real world, but I guess someone in the show’s art department liked it so they’d stuck with it for all the trucks.


This is LT Fick’s, the PL COMD’s truck that he rolls around in with G/SGT Mike ‘Gunny’ Wynn. It’s a 2-door ‘Wendy House’ stores / general use Hummer that has a large hoop-framed canvas back. This one was cut down from one of the 3D Hummers and was fairly easy to do. The canvas cover is once again, Puree tube and you can see the nail Snorkel and high-level exhaust. The exhaust is made from a piece of household solid wire with a few bends, covered in a 40 year old, that’s FOUR DECADES! Old, piece of Verlinden etched brass that I have had in the spares box since I was 15… πŸ˜‚ I KNEW it would come in handy one day!!!

Although making these little extra bits is fiddlly, I really feel that they change the look of the trucks and make them stand out from the norm. Pic below is the same truck with the canopy removed to show the wire hoops and flooring made from, yup, you guessed it, Puree tube πŸ˜‰


So, back to the title of this episode, I am Greenstuff-ED…! What’s that all aboot eh..? Well, it’s a known fact that Greenstuff and its derivatives are used in the modelling world to make changes to things, add extra parts etc. I haven’t really dabbled in this before apart from using it to fill gaps etc. So making 15mm stowage was certainly going to be a challenge… To aid me, I bought ONE pack of the BF metal stowage at $17.50. This was to give me ideas on size etc, and allow me to use the parts on some of the trucks to add weight.

So I started making thermal mats, and once they had dried, packs to add them to. The pack-straps were a challenge and probably scale out to about a foot wide…! But hey, you need to see them from 2 feet away, OK?! These are a bit of a strain on the eyes and after making a half-dozen or so, I am done. Below are some shots of trucks with various Greenstuff stowage on board.


Rear of Brad’s truck showing the packs, spare tire with cover and WWII period BF Jerry cans in frame, perfect! Note the high level exhaust.



Front side of SGT Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Reyes 2-door flat-deck truck. This was also converted from a 3D one and involved cutting the top off, filling the rear doors smooth and installing the side rails and flooring. I also needed to make the .50 cal mount as shown and added a spare tire and a heap of stowage.


Same truck from the rear, the gaps will hold 3 Marines, one manning the .50 and the other two in firing positions. There will be Marines in all of the open top trucks, and I am also fitting them to Brad’s truck as the ‘signature’ vehicle in the army.


Another open-top truck, haven’t decided if this will be the 2nd HQ truck to go with Fick’s or if it will be one of the other signature trucks, maybe Pappy’s or Shady B’s. This one was another 3D conversion, this time loosing the roof and all the doors and adding the framework back in. This was the only other vehicle apart from Brad’s that had the OG 2-piece Snorkel arrangement. This one was fun to build, and I expect I will do some others.

One thing you cannot see, as I removed it… All the 3D Hummers have open, and folded flat front windshields. Now that doesn’t work for my needs, so I had to painstakingly remove each one… It’s a pain but the hi-viz panel covers the damage well πŸ˜‰

No, I am obviously no Evan Allen when it comes to sculpting in Greenstuff or any other medium! So its a good job that the real Evan Allen is a good buddy of mine who only lives 40kms away… On a visit to see him today, he not only gave me a spare BF Hummer sprue, awesome(!) but we also got chatting about me making stowage out of Greenstuff. Now Evan is a Master Sculpter and was the BF Lead Sculpter for 25 years until they decided to ‘retire’ him recently… (That’s a story in itself..) He told me to use Grey Milliput as the best option, noted, and then had a rummage in one of his bits boxes…

Upon finding what he was looking for, he held up the OG masters for the stowage I was trying to replicate!!! He then casually told me he would make me a mould from this so I could cast my own!! Second lifesaver of the gig!!! SO now instead of having to make around 120 Greenstuff packs… I could just cast them to my hearts content!!! RESULT!!! 🀩

Well, Ladles and Jellyspoons, that about wraps it up for this episode. I am away on a course all next week so progress will be light, but I plan on churning out some of the figures I will need to crew these babies and post about that at the end of next week.

In the meantime, please hit me up with any patai (questions) or comments and I will do my best to answer them. Thanks for reading this far, and I do hope you are enjoying the ride!

In the words of the Iceman, ‘Stay Frosty People’…🫑

Thursday, 15 May 2025

My Generation was Killed Pt 2 - I need Hummers, LOTS of Hummers…


 ‘Sup Killers! Well, here we go on pt 2 of the Blog, and yup this week we are concentrating on the backbone of the list, the venerable HUMVEE, High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle in case you didn’t know… πŸ˜‰

In a world of high-end tanks and tank-killing HELO, what better panacea than 31 Hummers..? Yup, you read that right THIRTY ONE Hummers, SIXTEEN of which have TOW 2… Oh yeah…!

So, 31 Hummers, easy right? Just order from BF at about $50 plus post for FIVE… 🀯 So that’s about $300 JUST in Hummers, umm, YEAH-NAH…!

So I reached out to my friendly neighbourhood 3D Printer-Man, T-Boss. 3 days later and I have ALL the Hummers PLUS some awesome ‘chunky’ infantry to represent 2nd PL, Bravo COY, 1st RECON BN USMC, AKA ‘Generation Kill’…

Check his Insta as below for all your 3D printed needs!



I am using some BF Hummers, but they are Army ones, and lack the deep-wading exhaust and high air-intake of the USMC ones. They also have armoured doors, and solid windows, and they are of only one shape, the Bustleback. 

So, with the BF ones, I need to smooth the doors, add a high exhaust and intake, drill the windows and add a tonne of stowage etc to make them rep the Recon Marines ones.

Remember when I said this was also about my time in the sandpit in ‘03? Well here’s a pic of me with a Marine Hummer to just illustrate how crap these things were. This was armoured warfare and these dudes are rolling in soft-skin vehicles with ZERO protection… Note also they are all in European theatre Camo… Much like the trucks I was using… More to follow on that later..


Note the M16A4 with underslung M203 and Iron Sights, no ‘Scopes here..! Note how flimsy the doors look, they are literally a metal frame with a canvas skin. Barely keeps the rain out let alone 5.45 Russian…

Note I am wearing Desert DPM Pants and private purchase desert boots, but I am wearing a DPM windproof smock. At this time, about 3 weeks before the start of the ground war, I was the only soldier in my REGT that had a set of Desert DPM Shirt and Pants. And that was only because I had been in AFG 18 months earlier… Prepared we sure were not…

You may ask why I was hanging out with the USMC so often? Good patai… I was my REGT’s CBRN adviser and as such, had to build relationships with flanking FF, in this case the USMC. I was in charge of all CBRN Training and the issue and maintenance of CBRN detection equipment such as the CAM, Chemical Agent Monitor, a smaller hand-held device that needed very specific batteries.

I remember having to go the REGT stores QM one morning as my new CAM’s had arrived in country, which was handy as at this stage I had none… SO I uplifted 4 new machines and left to set them up. I got halfway back to my lines when I realised I had no batteries… SO I turned around and went back to see the Q-Bloke. “Hey mate, I forgot the batteries for those CAM’s, can I have say, 10?” His response, “Nah mate, we don’t have any…” 

“You don’t have any I replied? WT ACTUAL F? Bro, you realise were about to kick off, that we’re here to find WDM’s (Spoiler Alert, there were none, Thanks Tony…) and that I NEED those CAM’s to protect the REGT as it advances?” 

His reply almost made me laugh.. “Yeah sorry mate, the RAF have declared them as DAC (Dangerous Air Cargo) so they are coming on a ship, ETA SIX WEEKS.”

SIX WEEKS?! Mint! Go Air Farce… I turned around and left, no point getting out of shape with this bloke, he was only telling me what he knew. So, what to do I thought to myself..? I know, my buddies down at the USMC…

Let me introduce you to the two main USMC dudes I was hanging with, Warrant Officer CASS, and the other guy… I feel bad that I don’t remember these guys names, had a lot going on. All I do remember is that these guys were legends and couldn’t do enough for me and my REGT. Anything I needed, if they had it, I got it. So, 10 CAM batteries? Sure Bob, no worries, here ya go! Sign for them? Nah, we’ll just say they fell overboard… Now THATS how to conduct business! 😜


And yes, we are all smoking cigars INSIDE a tent… Ahh, 2003…!

Right, back to the minis! Here’s a pic of what I am dealing with in Hummers alone…


As you can see, there are a few there… I have 8 with built in stowage 7 BF ones and the rest are plain bustle backs. I will need to do some conversions as I will need 2-door ‘Wendy House’, no-door, open tops, and a few other variants. I have started converting a BF Hummer into the Iceman’s vehicle. I drilled out the windows, added a spare tire from greenstuff and a high-level air intake and an air-recognition flag on the hood, top mount is the MK19 AGM. Still to go are the high-level exhaust, plenty of stowage and the minis to rep The Iceman, Trombley, Person and ‘Rolling Stone’.

I plan to have the signature vehicles from GK in the list, prepped as they are in the TV show. They are not exact replicas, but then the ones in the show aren’t either!

Next up is SGT Tony ‘Poke’ Espera’s truck. This one needed some thought as it’s a no-door, open top vehicle. Now the BF ones have an interesting inner-bracing that runs inline with the side windows, they also have zero interior detail.. So, how to make this one? I turn to one of T-Boss’s 3D-ers! And even better, I use one of the ‘failed’ prints that he sent me for FREE… So, I chopped the roof, added the side and top rails, gun mount and spare tire. The air intake is plastic rod and a sliver of the Hummer spruce. To add are stowage and the crew. I am pretty happy with this first attempt at a conversion, let me know what you think!


So, that’s the START of TWO out of THIRTY ONE trucks…! Man I must be insane! But hey, I am loving this! Hope you are too πŸ™ Not sure if this post was too long, but it’s probably indicative of how things will roll from now on… I guess I shouldn’t look to have this army finished too soon…!

Right that’s it for this one, take it easy and feel free to let me know what you think. I am not in this for the ‘likes and subscribes’, but I am happy to hear from you! 😊

Thursday, 8 May 2025

My Generation was Killed…

 


Oi Oi!

Well, here we go… Long time reader, first time Blogger…

What’s this all about you may ask..?

For those that don’t know me, I’m a war gamer / painter and a Veteran. This Blog is going to combine my love of tabletop gaming with my journey through the war in Iraq in 2003.

The plan is to build and paint a Team Yankee force based on the Recon Marines from the book / TV show’Generation Kill’ with some added stuff from my time in Iraq.

I’ll be using a combination of BattleFront minis, 3D printed stuff and scratch building to get to where I want to go.

It’s going to be light hearted with the odd tinge of darkness, so buckle up and let’s go for a journey with the Ice Man, Whopper Junior and Captain America…

Now I just have to work out how to add pictures…!!

Sunday, 4 May 2025

ValleyCon '25

It was a great weekend! The format of running bulk medium tanks was a lot of fun. Of course, the lazy post-event blog is the photos from the army parade:

Tom's Panzerschule

Richard's Russian SUs

McBeth Sr's Tankovy

Russell's Tankovy

McBeth Jr Jr's Clausewitz Panzers

Julian's Recce and TDs

Sofia's Desert Rats

Graham's Shermans 

McBeth Jr Sr's French

Steve's Brigade Panthers

Ric's Comets

Tom's Tankovy

Bob's Chaffees

My Brigade Panthers


 How did I do? Fourth equal, one point behind friend Bob's Chaffees that gave me SO much trouble in the fourth round. And Best Painted, which is a nice result for me. I like the cleanliness of my summer Germans and the foilage adds a nice touch. I was, when I did it, and remain, very pleased with how the ambush camo came out on the Hetzers and the Jagdpanzer IV/70s. 

Next Time

I'm aiming to finally finish my Soroitas squad. I've done six of them now so just four and a cherub to go...