Saturday, August 16, 2014

6mm ECW Cavalry and Command



My 6mm ECW project continues to make some progress. Today I finished basing five new units of Parliamentarian horse and some command bases. All figures are made by Baccus.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Battle Group Bits and Pieces

I'm still regaining my painting mojo after time away and busyness. However, the Dux is not one to be idle! Goodness me no. Here are a few bits and bobs for Battle Group. First up, some 15mm Brits, including:

A brace of Morris Quads from Flames of War...


...four Lloyd Carriers from Forged in Battle...


...and a couple of Forged in Battle 6pdrs.


My Soviets have also received some reinforcements, with a couple of Zvezda Sturmoviks.


I also got around to painting up the T34/85 turrets left over from my Plastic Soldier Company T34s. so now I can field an entire company of the tanks for Kursk all the way to 1945.


It's good to be getting a few things painted again!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Back from Adventures



Things have been very quiet on my blogging front for a while. Last holidays I spent three weeks in Russia, Poland and Germany on a history trip with 39 boys from school, and ever since I got back a month ago I've been playing catch up with family stuff and the huge mountain of marking and admin I usually get on top of during the holiday break.

The trip was great, with a main focus on visiting places relevant to our study of the war on the eastern front, Nazi racial policy and also the Cold War. We visited some harrowing places, saw some astonishing things and ate some great food. I was very proud of how the boys reacted to what they saw, even though at times they made me want to have hair so I could rip it out.



I'll put up some posts about some of the places we visited that might be of interest to some of you. First up. if you're ever in St Petersburg, make sure you pay a visit to the Artillery Museum. The exhibits span the whole history of artillery from the middle ages to tactical missiles, with part of the museum also dedicated to the history of the Kalashnikov. I earned some major respect from the boys by being able to strip down a AK-47 better than the museum guide. Heh.




The WWII section spanned covered all the major Soviet guns used during the war, and included many specific guns that had been preserved because they had been used in some famous feats of arms. Sadly I don't read Russian, but if anyone can furnish a translation of what's written on the splinter shield of the Zis-3 I'd be very grateful.