Focused on Ships Again

I managed to complete the painting and assembly of a few more 1/700th ish vessels. Here is the current line up. They need more rigging done but I have not figured out how much I will plan to do.

These are from multiple sources. Starting with the back row, from left to right: a brig from Saturnalia studios (My Mini Factory), A Bermuda sloop that was resized from a 28mm one from Wargaming3d, A Ketch from Saturnalia Studios, a Ship-Sloop from Henry Turner Miniatures (My Mini Factory or Wargaming3d).

Next two rows are schooners from Black Seas. The back one painted as a Frrench Vessel with cleaner sails and the forward one painted more or less as an American vessel.

Next row is a Cutter/Sloop from Productions Diratia and a Ship Sloop from Saturnalia Studios (both found on My Mini Factory).

The front row is a Lugger from Hagen Miniatures in Germany. I still need to add sails to this vessel and some rigging.

These were great fun to paint up. Most of them were primed with the wrong primer. It added a gloss finish with it and the paint didn't always stick. I bought some Army Painter Primer for some of them that worked out much better.

I also have some others on the bench that could be in the same shape in a couple of hours of work.

On the left you can see four of the flat boats that I made. These are very simple models that I made in Tinkercad. They will work for some scenarios that I put together. Then there are two vessels from Saturnalia Miniatures. A Brig and a bomb ketch. Their sails are partially done. The masts didn't fit and I had to do some work to make them fit. Then another flatboat of mine. Lastly there is a small bomb vessel. It was the same model as the previous one but i will be rigging it as more of a cutter than a ketch.

I still have four more Black Sails schooners to paint up. However, these are very heavily armed vessels and much larger than most that I have found for the scenarios that I wrote. I also have some more Henry Turner prints that I am struggling with fitting masts with. I think I have painted most of my Saturnalia prints so far. I have two more Hagen models to paint (a gaff riged gunboat and a small cutter). I also have some wrecks and a shore battery to paint up from Hagen Miniatures.

I will be reviewing scenarios and checking on what models I am missing so I can finish up my AWI scenario book. I will use my 1/300th models as well but they work better for vessels smaller than ship-sloops.

Hobby Time

I managed to grab some hobby time today. I glued about 70% of a Team Yankee T-72 together. I also finished gluing and primed a BMP-2, also team yankee. Then I primed three T-55s (Old Glory), a QRF M60, some US Infantry (Khurasan I think) and some Russians (Khurasan maybe).

But I also did some brick work on the old Warehouse building that I put together years ago. I have finished the tin roof on it. I will add framing to the doorways, some lintels on the windows and then weather it as the brick work paper that I have looks a bit plasticy. The tin roof looks good but needs weathering as well. Looks too brand new at the moment. I am very excited about this as this building was a plain white with a black roof before.

The Team Yankee BMP-2 comes with the upper hull and turret to give you the options to make a BMP-1 instead. I glued together the turret and have the hull top. I am thinking of making a stuck in the mud version. It might make a useful objective at some point.

I have not started on the Merkava tank yet that I purchased. Nor on the M163 (?) Vulcan for the Israelis. I did get an unexpected auction win though. I placed a $1 bid on a Blue Moon corner tavern. Somehow, I won it. The shipping was expensive but still cheaper than the actual building by far. however, in double checking the auction, the picture was the saloon but the description was for building set #6. So it was still a bargain but not sure I am as happy about it. It will be fine.

I found my old documentation on how I painted my previous Cold War minis. Even found a business card with the Israeli infantry painting guide I had made. I am really looking forward to painting them up.

I still have a table full of ships that need painting. I just am not feeling it at the moment. Hopefully, I will get some time to work on this again. Or steal a few minutes daily and get this stuff knocked out.

Cold War continued

i got in two of my ebay orders. A Merkava mk1 speue and a 3d print of an M169 (?) vulcan.

The Vulcan came with some supports still attached to the cannonball they came off easily with nothing broken. Other than the banana yellow color, it is great.i will paint this for my 1982 IDF force.

Cold War Chain of Command

While I still have a bunch of ships to paint, I am being drawn to Cold War Chain of Command again. I have reviewed my miniatures again and am excited by what I have painted. I would like to paint up a second platoon of Soviets and at least another squad of US troops. I have some more armor but I have enough to start. I have some more miniatures in the cart at Brookhurst Hobbies to complete out my IDF platoon. I am just missing m203 gunners for the IDF platoon. I got some models from Wargaming3d for a Magach 6 that I want to print out. I also bought an ebay model of a Merkava mk 1 and a M163 Vulcan. This will provide some interesting support options against the Syrian T-72 that I still need to build. Of the five t-72s that I have, I will make two for the Syrians and three for the Soviets.

I picked up 3D models for a number of other vehicles. These include civilian cars, civilian trucks, T-80s, BMP-1 & 2, BRDM-2, BTR-70, BTR-80, T-55s, T-64s, T-72s, BRDM-1, M109, M1128 Stryker, USZ-469, Chieftan and HUMVEEs.

I started to print out a Magach 6. The print completely failed. I think there is an issue with my print bed. I need to sort that out. Once resolved, I think I will be in good shape.

Progress with AWI Scenarios

I have completed the Royal Navy ship list based on the information in Winfield's book on the Royal Navy of the period. The various state and Continental navy list is proving to be far more difficult as many list only the number of guns and not even the size of the gun let alone the vessel. State Navies are worse than the Continental. I purchased a new primer. The one I had been using previously was a cheap spray paint that wasn't allowing the paint to hold to it very well. I bought an Army Painter primer that I am trying now. I hope to find time this weekend to get some painting in.