French Armoured Car find and Orion conversions

I decided to take a look at some miscellaneous poses from numerous sets in the past. I noticed a couple of poses from the Israeli set that I could use for a French Army VBL that I found today which I got from a good friend of mine a while back. It's to scale, so I put that ol' exacto-knife to the test and converted an otherwise useless pose for a great vehicle.

Here it is. Found it in an old container on the shelves in the basement. Hadn't seen it for months, but it felt good to find it and put it to use.

Yes! It's to scale! Now to just find a figure to use.

Looks like a found a winner. Sorry, bud, but you have to get half of your body cut off.

Looks like it's a perfect fit. Now just for the paint job and then the gluing... my favourite part.

Looks to be okay. I had to look up French army camouflage for the project, which I turned out to be good at painting it.

Maybe I'll it for any upcoming games. What? It's not cheating to put 2 allied armies against 1 huge army. Since this is French, I might need to pick up a French set somewhere to support it. I don't really feel like basing this one, just the wheels will do. Stay tuned!

My favourite manufacturers of the month: September 2011

Just to let you get to know me, I'm listing my favourite miniature manufacturers.

No. 5:
Revell. Revell has given me some great sets in the past, and it deserves a spot on my list.

No. 4:
The No. 4 Spot goes to Orion Miniatures for giving me some awesome figures in the past. 

No. 3:
Elhiem Figures! It's a rather unknown manufacturer, but I love it so far, and I plan to buy some sets from them in the future.

No. 2:
The No. 2 spot goes to Empress miniatures. I found this manufacturer recently, and I really like the detail that goes into their sets.

And Finally... the No. 1 Spot goes to (drumroll please):
Mongrel miniatures!!!!!!!!!!! I have ordered 3 sets from them recently, and I really like their sets. They have the Cold War British series, which I have really come to like.

The Adventures of around the house

It's been a slow week so far, putzing around the house, bored. It's almost fall, and I'm starting to feel the cold front coming in. I haven't been doing much other than finishing up the Russian Federals and starting on the Chechen Rebels. I've documented a lot of me just putzing around the house, time to take a look!

Here's Dukey, the "Goose dog". He honks like a goose whenever he's upset.

Miles (left) and his girlfriend of 4 years, Daisy (right).

Ah.... here we have a cat that I have a personal vendetta with, Boris Katnikov. He's a spy (so we think) from Odessa, in Russia.

J.J. (Or Jacob Johnson on the left) and his actual brother, Miles (right). They are actually brothers, even though they look nothing alike.

And to finish this post off we have Tartarus. I gave this figure to a friend a little while back (so this picture is rather old), and we figured out that he could open his jaw. Of course, rolled up an old receipt and he went and puffed away. 

I may do a post soon of the Chechen Rebels. I have about 5 done so far, but more are to come!

The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

The Russians are coming! They literally are, too. I've finished 2 of the Orion Russian Federals so far, and they ARE on there way to fighting the Rebels, whenever they may be done. I'll probably give them really stereotypical (not against any Russians out there) Russian names, like Ivan, or Boris, or Nikolay or Dmitry. Either way, they're still the same old miniatures!

Here's one of them, with a blue Paratrooper (or VDV as their known in Russia) beret. It took me about 25 minutes to paint one of these. Patients is key, my friend, patients is key.

Here's the other one, in the glory of his goatee. I might change that, but hey, maybe not. 

The Ruskies and the Rebels have arrived!

I am very excited today, because my Russian Federals and my Chechen Rebels arrived in the mail.

A tale of two sets. Though I show you guys the figures on the sprue, theres quite a bit, so I'll show you that later. Cheers and happy Cold War month!

Painted A Call to Arms WWII British Infantry

It's been a pretty lazy Cold War month so far, putzing around the house and painting. I have, however got those 1950's British Infantry painted up. Here they are, in all of their glory. 

Section A of my 1 Platoon is done and ready to fight.

Everyone remembers that Grenadier I showed you guys.

I turned the kneeling rifleman into a medic, even though medics are non-combatants. Heck, I gave him a gun anyway.

The standing EM-2 rifleman.

Charge!!!!

I painted the radio holder and I designated him a Colonel.

Another charger.

The Signalman which I had last in the previous post I did.

And finally the very gory wounded rifleman *queues the song "Taps"*

Twas the night before Cold War month

The long-awaited A Call to Arms WWII British Infantry came today. I should have the first miniatures up by tomorrow. 

Here's a full overview of all of the poses (though not all of the miniatures) in the set. I've been watching a lot of documentaries lately (hence the reason for Century of War tin behind the miniatures here)

Here's a poor casualty. Looks like I might be painting some blood on this one, unfortunately.

Here's a charger with an SLR. They didn't use these in WWII (thus the misconception of the 'WWII British Infantry' title), which sort of makes these Post-Korea British infantry.

Though it may not be perfectly visible in this photo, the charger in this photo is armed with an EM-2. The EM-2 was never sent to war with the British Army, but it was briefly adopted in the 1951-1953 range. I take it that this set was possibly designed for that era.

A kneeling EM-2 rifleman.

Here's a little more weapon-visible photo of an EM-2 rifleman.

A Grenadier.

Here's a miniature that I haven't quite identified. He's holding a radio, and pointing at something.

Last but not least, a lonely signalman. As I've said, I plan to start painting these tomorrow.

A furture set...

I plan to be ordering these soon for Cold War month (September, yes I know, it's not yet here, but it will be soon, and this set will probably be ready by then). I took a look at the set on Plastic Soldier Review.com, and it looks to be the British Army in the late-50's, just the period that I like. I might have these in a few weeks, hopefully. Tune in then and hopefully I'll have them prepped and ready for painting. Cheers!

Plastic Soldier Review: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx