Post-Apocalyptic 1/72 Chernobyl Diorama

The author puts a lot of work into this diorama. The military vehicle is plastic kit, but the structure is scratch built. I was amazed while I watched the author add details after details to this diorama. Watching this video was a truly rewarding experience.

#2 Business Card Structures

Beverly Buchanan Inspired Art Shacks

Here is another business card structure. This one is in 1/72 scale and was created from two standard business cards.

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Business card structure #1

Shanty # 2-Post-Apocalyptic #1

This is my first Post-Apocalyptic shanty and my second scratch-built shack & shed. It is number 12 in the Shacks & Sheds series. I built it in 1/72 scale for war-gaming terrain and it will be one of many eventually!

It is built to represent an all steal construction, steal plates that might have been savaged from abandoned or grounded ships. You can see other elements of steal plates that have been left to the sand and rust. The shanty has seen occupancy by many bands of post-apocalyptic adventurers. It has been attacked by the elements and with chemical and biological weapons.

1:72 Bum Far West Town

Very Nice Art Work on Box

This is my second BUM model kit and perhaps my last. I purchased this kit for war-gaming. As you can see from the second image the kit includes twelve figures and two structures. The structures are made from some very flimsy and shiny plastic. The kit is supposed to be in 1/72 scale, but the figures and the building look like they could pass for 1/87 scale. There are two horses with two riders. The mix includes six cowboys and six Indians.

My Lament for Barcelona Universal Models

How often have I visited the Barcelona Universal Models blog to view their new offerings? How long have I searched for these offerings via my regular and un-regular channels all without the satisfaction of my being able to purchase a single set?

Recently I did find a few of these BUM models being offered online and ordered a copy of BUM’s 1/72 New Zealand army figure set w/tank and gun. There are forty-four pieces including twenty-eight figures, two razor-wire sections, a tank and a field gun of some sort. The figures are relatively flash free and I look forward to assembling the tank and gun and put these soldiers to task.

Blackrock Castle

When I first read about this toy castle I was determined to find a copy. I was surprised that a set like this was available for the price of $1.00 (well 1.49). I don’t suppose that it is true to scale. It might work for Z scale or if you wanted to use it on a N-gauge layout I would suggest placing it toward the back of the layout. In either case I would leave the figures out, in that they are close to 1/72.

Castle Parts

Castle Completed

1/72 scale castle figures

1/72 Scale Zulu War British Infantry Soldiers

“The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.” Although the British would at first, suffer a major defeat, they would eventually triumph over the Zulu.

The front cover and a painting illustration on the back demonstrate how these miniatures should be painted.
   

There are fifty soldiers in several different poses on two half's of a sprue. The detail is good, but there is some flash and at this size will make preparation a bit of a challenge.

Age of Mythology Mythical Pieces: Egyptian

From left to right

Wadjet: Cobra goddess of Lower Egypt; Sphinx: a winged monster of Thebes. It has a woman’s head and a lion’s body; Anubite: God of Ancient Egypt. Had a body of a man with the head of a jackal; Scorpion-Man: Head, torso of a man and body of a scorpion; Mummy: is a human whose skin has been preserved using herbs and portions and wrapped with ribbons of cloth; Phoenix: an eternal bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn; Son of Osiris: god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead.

It seems that the ancient Egyptians were the most imaginative when it came to their mythical entities. Was it something they smoked or was it the hot desert sun?

Age of Mythology Mythical Pieces: Greek

From left to right

Cyclops: a one eyed giant; Medusa: a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes instead of hair; Minotaur: had a head of a bull and body of a human; Manticore: body of red lion with a human head, shark like teeth, and bat-like wings; Centaur: upper body of a human and the lower, the body of a horse; Hydra: hugh creature with multiple snake like heads.

Age of Mythology Mythical Pieces: Norse

From left to right

Nidhogg: Dragon; Frost Giant: Very large humanoid creature; Dwarf: Short stocky creature; Troll: Live in isolated locations and are usually antagonistic to humans; Valkyrie: female figure who chooses who will live or die during battle. (Don’t spurn this one)

I don’t know how these soft plastic castings will take to paint, but I am going to give one of the Trolls and Frost Giants a try.

Game Pieces of the Age of Mythology

My Age of Mythology game pieces arrived the other day from Eagle Games and I have plenty to report on my newly acquired miniatures. I thought I would start out with the basics. There are three fractions included in the game, including Egypt, Greek, and Norse combatants.

Listed below are the colors I chose followed by the colors that are available for each one of plastic sprue.

Egypt Pieces [Color:Brown], Dark Brown
Greek Pieces [Color:Light Green]. Green
Norse Pieces [Color:Medium Blue], Dark Blue, Light Blue

There are roughly 145 parts on the three plastic runners. I have included a link to a Plastic Soldier review of each set.

Norse Pieces
Jarl
Throwing Axeman
Villager
Huskarl
Classical Norse Hero
Heroic Norse Hero
Mythic Norse Hero
Troll
Frost Giant
Dwarf
Valkyrie
Nidhogg

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Greek Pieces
Villager
Toxotes
Hoplite
Hippokon
Mythical Greek Heros
Classical Greek Hero
Heroic Greek Hero
Manticore
Medusa
Centaur
Cyclops
Minotaur
Hydra

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Egyptian Pieces
Chariot Archer
Spearman
Priest
Pharaoh
Villager
Elephant
Phoenix
Mummy
Anubite
Sphinx
Son of Osiris
Scorpion-Man
Wadjet

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Dead Things Board Game

Screenshot of title page of game PDF

Dead Things is print and play mini-game preview by David Fitzgerald. All of the game components are included in a PDF and include a game board, twenty zombie and four survivor counters. There are two and half pages of set-up instructions, character properties, weapon hit-chart, Luck counters (these are used with special rules that are mentioned within the text), and rules to play the game.

The game scenario is as follows. You are leaving a mall and realize that the parking lot is crawling with Zombies. Your objective is to use the weapon you have at hand. A golf club, shovel, shotgun, and a pistol are employed to shoot or club your way to your car.

If your “Luck” runs out before you reach the car you are dead. If no humans reach the car alive, the zombies win the game and the world is lost.

The game board is a colorful and measures approximately 6 by 10 inches. To make the game a bit more life like zombie miniatures in 1/72 could be used as a substitute for the card counters.

Merry Christmas from Et le Pere Noel, the Mice of Redwall, & Google

The 1/72 Et le Pere Noel miniature is from Ykreol and is part of their Nativity set. The miniature was fun to paint, albeit it has become a tad frustrating. On two occasions paint peeled of the miniature and I was stuck having to touch the old gent up with a dab of paint.

The Christmas miniature with the mice and tree are not really the mice of Redwall. I only imagined the mice of the Abbey being so employed decorating their Christmas tree in this fashion. The miniature is actually from my wife collections of ceramic pieces, something she puts out during the Christmas season.

Google is featuring a set of Christmas Doodles. This set offers several holiday themed paper-craft toys. At the time of of this writing Google has published two Holidays 2015 Christmas goodies doodles.

Revell's 1/72 Sopwith Triplane

Revell's #04187 1/72 scale model aircraft is modeled after a British WWI aircraft that was first introduced in France in 1917.

The box indicates that this model is for a skill level 3 modeler, which according to the literature on the box means the kit has 100 or more parts and is geared for an advanced modeler. However, with only two spree and approximately 25 parts this model could be built by any modeler with some kit experience.

The parts are well formed and the instructions, with its illustrations and building symbols are straight forward and easy to understand. The only down side to this particular model is if you want to depict the aircraft in an authentic livery you will need twelve colors of paint.

Included in the kit is a pilot figure. Figures are always a plus when trying to create a realistic prototype or scene. There is also a set of decals that identifies the aircraft as one belonging to the Royal air force.

IMEX 1/72-25mm Eastern Friendly Indians

The Eastern Friendly Indians set is part of IMEX’s American History series and includes a combination of 43 figures and scenic pieces. The quality of the figures is not stellar, however these miniatures would work well setting up an Indian village diorama.

Projects for November

Last month, I seem to have gotten side-tracked with more than a few Print and Play games. I have been busy cutting out game boards and counters. I have eleven Print and Play games that are ready for play. I have few more that I would like to prepare, one of those is listed as a project this month. I did complete two of my projects from last month. My other miniature from last month only needs finishing touches. Here is my list for this month.

1. Give the one mini (old gentleman) from last month its finishing touches
2. Paint baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Angel from Ykreol Nativity set
3. Paint two dead trees from Imex 1/72 Alamo Accessories Set
4. Cut and paste counters fronts & backs, for The Battle of Lobositz game

Suppliers of Plastic Sprue

In a previous post I mentioned the existence of other sources of plastic spruce. These single plastic spruce usually contain only a few torsos, but also contain multiple alternative parts like heads, arms, legs, guns, and other equipment. These spruces allow you enough parts to assemble the figures in a couple different configurations. Often these spruce come from the supplier’s regular miniatures boxed kits or sets. Here is a short list of suppliers of plastic spruces:

Perry Miniatures

Perry Miniatures supply 28mm plastic miniatures and offer the largest selection of miniature sprue. Perry offers a Desert Rat command, Afrikakorps command, Continental command,15th century European Mercenary command, Russian Napoleonic Infantry command, Austrian Napoleonic Infantry Command, Confederate Command, and British AWI command miniatures to name just a few of Perry’s offerings

Warlord Games

Warlord Games offers 28mm plastic miniature spruce from many of their line of products: Hail Caesar, Pike and Shott, and Bolt Action lines. Warlord offers plastic spruce from the following eras: WWII, Anglo-Zulu, Napoleonic, and ancients from Celtic warriors, Casers Legions, and Greek Spartans. By the way, Warlord is currently offering 50% off their stock of plastic spruce.

Valiant Miniatures

Valiant Miniatures offers a few plastic spruce in 1/72 scale depicting WWII themes. Two of their spruce includes wheeled equipment like a British 6 pounder and a German horse drawn cart.

28mm Persians

I recently received six plastic sprue from the Wargames Factory. All of the sprue are identical and included a total of twelve Persians. The sprue measure 3 wide by 4 inches long and each sprue contains the following components: two torsos with different poses, six arms molded to hold a verity of weapons and or shields, one arm is holding a bow, four heads with different poses, two swords, two shields, one full length, a battle axe, a spear, and a quiver with a bow and set of arrows. The detail looks pretty good.

What I really like about these plastic miniatures is that there are so many possible configurations and combinations of swords and a shield, or shield and a spear. There are other sources of plastic sprue miniatures and in a couple different sizes. Like I mentioned, these are in 28mm, but there are also plastic miniatures in 1/72. More about this 1/72 sprue supplier and others in an upcoming post.

Art of Tactic Game Card

The following game card accompanied my Zvezda British Vickers Machine Gun with crew 1/72 scale model. The literature included in the packaging explains that the card is used in a gaming system. I visited the site, but did not see any further information on the importance of these cards.

1/72 Scale British WWI Scout Car

I purchased this 1/72 model (72102) sometime ago from Squadron. It is manufactured by RPM , a Polish company, and represents a 1916 Ford Model T. The model package is small as well are the parts. The package contains two spruces with many small, well formed, and delicate parts.



There are no figures included in this kit, much to my dismay, however there a sheet of decals, a good set of instructions printed on the back of the box, and some illustrations indicating how the model could be painted.

A couple of the models enduring features are its small size, its unique lines and its Lewis gun. There aren't any ammo boxes included in with this kit, but these can be easily fabricated out of some scrap plastic strip.