more buildings shortly ...

Just a quick scribble to let you know that I've been making more buildings - no pics yet tho - and will be putting another teaser post of them as a group up tomorrow (hopefully!)

I've been spending a lot of time away from home recently as part of my new job (hence all the building) and this time I've taken the buildings I've made along with a section of Black Tree Design WW2 British infantry to give some size relation to the photos that I'm going to take of the buildings and hope to publish this week.

I'm going to do a post per building so that might mean ... take a deep breath and make sure you're sitting down ... more than one post in a day !!!!!  I know it's a shock, but I hope you'll be able to cope!   ;)

Buildings ...

Not much of a post today ... some 'teaser' piccies of the buildings that I have most recently assembled. These are 'group' shots with multiple buildings in each and I intend to do a more detailed post on each of them. As well as the buildings below, I have put together some 'ruined' buildings, and I'll do some posts on them after the buildings.

These are all 28mm-sized and are Dave Graffam Models made with foamcore as the main building material

Apologies for the quality of the 2nd & 3rd pics - I took them this morning just before leaving for work and them seemed to be ok on the camera view-screen :( ... anyway, hop you like them!

Red Gambit series ...

I've been reading quite a bit recently, more than I have for a long time. As a fan of alternate history and military fiction, I had a search on Amazon and came across the 'Red Gambit' series, which begins with Opening Moves.

This series posits a Soviet attack upon the western allies in July '45 with nothing differing from actual historical events up to this point. The story follows the pattern established in other 3rd world war novels - such as Red Storm Rising - of following characters on both sides of the fight and moving around the war zones.

There are a few innovations in the story - such as ex-SS officers instructing the allies on how to fight the Reds and a novel use for Nazi vehicles captured by the Soviets - that have made this series, IMO, an enjoyable read.

The series continues with Breakthrough, followed by Stalemate, then Impasse and is not finished yet (the 5th volume has yet to be released).  Each paperback volume costs around £10-11 and they vary from 600-800 pages, although the kindle versions are much cheaper (£3-4).

Personally, I would recommend this series to anyone interested in Third World War stories. Apart from being a cracking good read, it certainly makes a change of pace from the usual acronym-filled, technology-heavy stories.

HOWEVER, if grammar mis-use of things like apostrophes, they're/there/their, we're/where/were, etc is something that you find excessively annoying, then perhaps these books will not be for you ...

still here - wherever that is!

Well, I've finally managed to secure new employment, having started my new job on 23rd June. So far, half-way through my 2nd week, things are going well and I'm enjoying it.

However, prior to now I've been coping - well trying to anyway - with the effect of the repeated rejections I've had upon my condition.  This battle has not been easy and one of the casualties has been - as you may have noticed - my blogging.

I know I've posted this previously, but I'm going to post it again even so - I hope to pick up blogging regularly soon; as regular as I've ever managed that is.

I've not been idle on the hobby front. As things began to pick up for me - between being offered the job and actually starting was a 3 week delay caused by security clearances - I began to do some more things which I hope to post on. I've also been reading a bit, so will share my experiences on the WW3 and alternate WW2 series (2 of the former and 1 of the latter) that I've read.

Until then - apologies for yet another extended absence

6mm City

Waaay back in this post :  not-city-but-building, I posted pictures of the first of the 6mm buildings I made for ATZ: Mass Hysteria.  Well, I made quite a few and got them out to take pics today. In this first one you can see the building from the first post in the centre right of the pic, and in the centre background is one of the 6mm police bases I've done

This next photo shows the police base a lot closer and 28mm zed-me to give an idea of size

Here we have the city as it is right now; I intend to add a few more buildings

 From a different angle

And a close-up of one of the bigger buildings at the back with the police base on the roof

For those who don't have ATZ:MH, it uses 3" square city blocks, which is the standard I've used above. All the buildings above are free from here: http://www.hawkwargames.com/blogs/downloadable-buildings

They are designed for 10mm games, but I printed the A3 pages on A4 which is about 60% - just right for 6mm

update ...

Hi All, Just letting you know that I am still here.

However, I was made redundant at the end of January and my health has suffered as a result. Consequently, I have neither been blogging or reading those blogs that I follow.

I've had 3 interviews over the last week and am waiting to hear the results, so hopefully things will pick up soon.

I have a bunch of things that I want to post on now, so hopefully the next update will appear a bit sooner that it took this one to arrive!

Building Again ...

For a variety of un-interesting reasons, it's taken me a while to post once more; sorry guys (& any gals that might be there!)

Hobby related stuff that I have been doing recently is creating more buildings from print & build kits that I've got via Wargame Vault.

Having played - & thoroughly enjoyed! - WW2 skirmish most recently, I decided that I wanted to have a ruined village. As a result the first model I put together was Dave's Games' Wrecked House. You can see the first pic of this to the right with Zed-Me in front to show the size. The model assumes that it will be made from card, but I used 5mm foamcore for the walls as card (or 2mm mounting board that I've used previously) simply is not thick enough to seem 'right' with 28mm models. This meant having to cope with the inner walls each being 5mm too long; not a problem, but definitely something to consider if you do the same

 I've also decided (at the moment) not to put half the roof in place (as you can see to the left). The roof is made from 2mm mounting board (basically just 2mm thick card from Hobbycraft), as it 'seems right' for that to be thinner than the walls. The floor is foamcore, but I've put a layer of board under that. I made it larger than the model's "footprint" as I was intending to add scenic bits to it, but I'm not so sure now as that will make it harder to store safely - always a problem ...

Finally - for this build - to the right you can see the staircase as I've made the first* floor removable - not a standard feature of the build. To do this, I had to glue the roof piece in place, but I'm happy with teh result.  I'm going to cut down the board under the model so that it is a rectangle of the model's size (IIRC 6 x 9 inches) and cover the exposed corners of the board with some kind of 'rubble'.

*- I believe those on the wrong side of the pond would call it the second floor

Next are 2 versions of Dave's Games' Ruined Longhouse. This shows the versatility that the 'layers' in Dave's Games' models gives to all their products. Buying one model gives you access to lots of different appearances for your builds. Again, I made the walls from foamcore and and very happy with the result.

Sometimes though, this very versatility can cause problems ... with this build to the right, it wasn't until the final assembly that I realised there was no door! Easily remedied though, by hacking a hole through one of the end walls!

Waaay back in this post: dave-graffam-models-5-low-ruins, I posted about the low ruins I'd made.  I've never really been happy with them due to the wall thickness I mentioned above. So, I've made another couple of them using foamcore instead and they 'feel' much better.  I've used the same options for them, so at first glance they look identical, but have put different internal walls in them.

The internal walls aren't part of the kit as standard, but I just printed some extras walls with 'yellow concrete on both sides and then hacked them about until I was happy with them

This time though I've cut out the windows and doors and they look better for it!

Finally, to the left is a snap of the ground floor of my next build as a tease ... anyone recognise it?