US Flak 88s and P-47 pictures

Here are the nearly finished Flak 88's.  Painted in US green with American crews, which seems a bit odd but it's what the customer wanted.  Battlefront guns, Peter Pig crew and Kerr & King bases.  Biggest pain was getting the crew glued on after removing their bases, but they seem to be holding ok now. 



I am also doing a pair of Pak 43's in the same scheme.  The bases and crew are all done, but I am still waiting for the guns.  The last part of the order is a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter.  It's almost finished, as you can see.  Just some weathering and decals to do.

I finished watching Prometheus and found it to be entertaining enough.  Its a reasonable way to waste a couple of hours anyway.  Deep joy of work at Tesco tonight, but needs must and all that.

Catch you all later.


PS.  For some reason I can post on my blog, but I can't reply to any comments.  So cheers Gaz, at least somebody is reading this drivel.

If you do get onto World of Tanks, I play on Friday evenings from 7.30 until about 9.  Hopefully see you there.

Fed up with tablets, but at least I am painting again.

So the stomach is still playing me up, despite being on so many tablets I rattle.  I am taking between 9 and 14 tablets a day, depending on how good or bad I feel, but don't seem to be getting any better.  My wife has decided that enough is enough and I will be going back to the doctors next week.  Deep joy.

On a brighter note, at least I am getting some painting done again.  I have finished the Flak 88's with American crews and the P-47 is nearly done too.  Pictures tomorrow or Monday, depending how I feel and what I have to do tomorrow.  I have also started another unit of Napoleonic Dutch.  More blue coats with blacks shakos, but needs must.  I do need to get my 25mm Wars of the Roses project finished as we are playing it at the December meet of the Devon club.  So far I have two units finished, with another 75% done.  The fourth unit is still on the sprues though, so I need to get cracking.

One thing I have rarely mentioned on here is my online gaming.  I dabble with several free online games, my preference being World of Tanks.  I also play Combat Arms occasionally and am on the beta test group of World of Warplanes, which is nice.  World of Tanks is fun though, there are 3 or 4 of us who get online together on Friday evenings for about an hour and a half.  we primarily play the lower level tanks as they are the most fun.  MS-1, BT-2 and the like, with little or no artillery and no surprise when your green-painted lawnmower gets blown up.  I have played with tanks up to level 6, but am sticking with level 4 or less now, as the "paying customers" don't bother buying special stuff for level 1 or 2 tanks.  If you have never tried it then give it a go.  It's free, unless you want to spend money on it.  I am Gra55hopper, so watch out for me if you do play.  World of Warplanes is also fun, but I tend to get shot down a lot.  My PC struggles a bit too, so new motherboard and processor is the plan for the new year.
Got to finish watching Prometheus, which seems ok.  Definitely a prequel to aliens, but nice effects and all that.  Not as much fun as Carter of Mars though.  I liked the books many years ago and don't think the film is too bad, especially considering its a Disney creation.
Off now for some tea before playing Tanks with Panjo and Nathan later.  Catch you next time.

Sick again, Maelstrom Games, Parcel Farce and X-Wing

Well, here I am at home on the 2nd Saturday of the month instead of being at the Devon Wargames meeting.  My stomach is playing up again and I need to go to work tonight, so I am taking it easy today.  Stupid pancreas.

It seems my last post rather pre-empted the situation at Maelstrom Games.  My order for guns is still outstanding and they are no longer using paypal, so it looks like I am out of pocket there.  Not impressed to be honest, seems like the head honcho at Maelstrom has a bit of a reputation for this sort of thing as well.  So I am off to order some Pak 43s from another source now, probably direct from Battlefront to save any future problems.

My next company to avoid is Parcel Force.  I sold some woodworking tools on ebay for a friend last Tuesday.  Had been paid by everybody by Thursday so booked them all to go via a courier service via Parcel2Go.com.  Five items were sold, ranging from 4kg to 20kg. Three of the five were shipped by my Hermes, one by Yodel(ex-DHL) and one by Parcel Force as they were cheapest for shipping to Norway.  Yodel picked up yesterday at about midday, my Hermes were here by 3pm and Parcel Farce were here..............never.  Yes, that's right, I still have a parcel here.  Despite paying over £33 for 48 hour shipping to Norway, the parcel is still here in my dining room.  Not a good advertisement for a shipping company to be honest.  So now I have to stay up on Monday after working Sunday night in the faint hope that Parcel Farce might arrive to pick up the parcel. 

Finally something good.  After my purchase of the X-Wing game, with its two TIE fighters and single X-wing fighters, I have just received my first wave of reinforcements.  Another X-wing and TIE fighter, supported by a Y-wing and TIE advanced.  Very nice they are too, although I still see a need for some more.  Another X-wing would allow the trench run for the attack on the Death Star to be replayed.  Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter  each with an R2 unit and proton torpedoes adds up to 102 pts.  They are a trio to fear in X-wing fighters, espescially Wedge. I will also need 2 more Y-wings, to do the same mission.  Then some more TIE fighters to match them up.  I think another box set, which will give another X-wing and two more TIEs would be a good buy, followed by two more Y-wings.  Then some TIE Interceptors when they come out.  I'm not to bothered about the A-wings, I just don't like them much.  I will need a Millenium Falcon though.  I mean, who doesn't want one.

Anyway, keep playing and keep smiling.

Painting, Gaming and slow delivery

Its been a while since I last posted here, so its time for a quick rundown on what I have been up to.

Painting - I have had a few orders to do.  A bunch of US infantry on snow bases (which I stupidly forgot to photograph before sending them), some US Para gun crews and, lately, some German guns in US service.  I'm guessing these are from the latest FoW book as they are a new idea, but the order was for two Flak 88s and two Pak 88s with US crew.  More on that later.

Games - I have been playing several games lately.  Maurice is still one of my favourite games, but the last few games have been of other systems.  One new (to me) set that I have played is Medieval Warfare from Foundry.  Much as I hate to say it, I liked it.  The combat is a bit of a fiddle to work out, but the command, movement and firing is all good.  Plus the basing that I already have for my 25mm Wars of the Roses works fine for it.  Maurice has me still buying more, but finances are limited due to being off work for several weeks.  I am back at now and things are getting back on track, but its not been good for the last few months.

Purchases - Some Peter Pig AWI Continentals marching, making a new unit.  I have also been led to the dark side and ordered the new Fighting Fantasy Games "Star Wars: X-Wing" game.  Just the basic box set for now, but I can feel the pull towards more ships.  Still waiting for it to arrive, but it looks like its going to be a good filler game for Monday night games.  The box comes with two TIE fighters and one X-Wing, but more TIE's, and X-Wings as well as TIE Advanced and Y-Wings can be ordered.  The next release has the TIE Interceptor, A-Wing, Slave One and Millennium Falcon. :)

Slow Delivery - I am a fairly patient customer.  I feel that we are a bit spoilt nowadays as we see it online, order it there and then and then sit, waiting for it to arrive within a few days.  I don't mind if it takes a week or two to be posted as I don't expect people to have everything in stock all the time.  I do mind if an order sits "processing" for 4 weeks, with no notification about why its taking so long.  My first slow delivery was an order earlier this year for the Maurice rules and card set.  They were ordered from a supplier that I had used many times previously.  Order placed on June 12th, then I waited, and waited, and waited.  On July 9th I rang them to be told that they had come in that morning (amazing coincidence) and would be posted out to me the next day, which they were.

I thought about not ordering from them again, but gave them the benefit of doubt and placed another order on September 4th for two each of Battlefronts Pak 43s and Flak 88s, guns only with no crew.  I also ordered a P-47 with them.  At the same time I ordered some US gun crew from Peter Pig and scenic bases from Kerr & King.  The gun/aircraft order was the largest in terms of cost, but that didn't make any difference to delivery.  Three days later I had the Peter Pig gun crew, with the Kerr & king bases arriving the next day.  Great, awesome and thank you to both of those companies.  And yet, here I sit on October 4th still waiting for anything of the guns order.  I rang them yesterday and they have deigned to split the order and post out the Flak guns and aircraft, but the Paks are still not in stock.  So I guess my customer will just have to wait a bit longer.  Seems that Maelstrom Games are losing a customer though, which is a shame as they have been good for 4 years, but the service has definitely dropped off in the last few months.

Well, thats it for now.  I am off to try and get back into painting again, but the mojo is missing at the moment as I am feeling pretty ill.  Stupid stomach.