Five Sherman’s 1/285 Miniatures

The Sherman, a US medium tank, was the most common American tank in World War II. The Sherman proved itself somewhat effective against German Mk II and Mk IV Panzers, but was thoroughly outclassed by the Tiger, Panther and King Tiger tanks.

Although the Sherman might not have been the best tank on the battle field it held its superiority in the number units that were produced. The Sherman was mass produced by the Ford Motor Company. More than 49,234 Sherman’s were produced between 1942 and 1945.

The Sherman was used in all combat theaters and by many allied nations; United States, Great Britain, the Free French, China and even the Soviet Union used the Sherman

These 1/285 Sherman miniature will be used along with Panzers I recently made a post on in a skirmish game of some sort. More will follow…

Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin

And of Tuor a son of Huor and kin to Hurin, a lord of Man traveled abroad during the first-age of middle earth.

“Tuor went on now in great hope and delight, finding a path beneath the southern wall…

…thus Tuor journeyed slowly for three days, drinking the cold water, but desiring no food though there were many fish that shone as gold and silver, or gleamed with colors like to the rainbow in the spray above.”

Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin, Unfinished Tales-The Lost Lore of Middle Earth, J.R.R.Tolkien.

Unfinished Tales, by J.R.R. Tolkien-First Impressions

Unfinished Tales, like the Silmarillion was published posthumously by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son. The mass marketed paperback edition contains 493 pages including a 59 page index. Unfinished Tales includes lore from the first, second and third ages of Middle Earth. The text includes maps from three locations of Middle Earth; Númenórë, Far Harad, and Dagorlad.

Although many topics are discussed within this text the publisher has featured three topics at the preface of the text. They are:

1. The telling of the origins of Middle Earths wizards
2. The story of Galadriel, the daughter Finarfin and the co-ruler and Lady of Lothlórien. It is said that she had almost unlimited magical powers
3. And the story of Bilbo Baggins before his great adventure.

Unfinished Tales will bring depth to many topics that are mentioned only briefly in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I have started my reading of Unfinished Tales at, Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin. This is one of those texts where I can see myself jumping around a bit.

The Hunt for Gollum

Screenshot is from the opening of The Hunt for Gollum.

The Hunt for Gollum is a thirty minute unofficial Lord of the Rings prequel that is based on the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. This is a very impressive short film depicting a time toward the end of the third age of Middle Earth. It was a time when the forces of darkness were encroaching upon the lives of everyday people and where rangers of the good patrolled the wilds to counter these forces of evil.

More Historical Board Gaming Supplement Parts

What is nice about the Historical Board Gaming site is that you may order supplement parts from many different versions of Axis and Allies. I currently own a copy of Axis and Allies 1941, but I was able to add some unique pieces to my game from different versions of the game.

I made the order to obtain several sets of dice for other games, but since Historical Board Gaming were offering some of their parts on sale I decided to purchase a few of these game pieces. Some of the more unique pieces that I purchased were a set of American WWII P-38 fighters, several Liberty transport ships, and a set of Japanese Type 95 ha-Go tanks.

These parts will be a welcome addition to the game, as the game no longer provides enough pieces to go around. Instead you must use markers to represent multiple pieces. Markers are a good thing in that they keep the very congested board from becoming impossible to work with. However, it is still nice to have additional pieces to pull from, when the need arises.

A Mossflower Prologue

“Late autumn winds sighed fitfully around the open gatehouse door, rustling brown gold leaves in the fading afternoon.

‘Come in, little one, and close the door’

The mouse did as he was bidden.

‘You said that you would tell me a story, Miz Bella.’

The badger nodded slowly.

‘Everything you see about you, the harvest that has been gathered, from the russet apples, to the golden honey, is yours to enjoy in freedom. Listen now, as the breeze sweeps the last autumn leaves off into the world of winter. I will tell you of a time long ago before Redwall Abby was built in Mossflower.’ “

And thus starts another adventure of Matthias the Warrior, the mouse who had helped save the Redwall Abby from the clutches of the fiendish rat, Cluny the Scourge. Mossflower is second in a long series by Brain Jacques about Matthias the Warrior, mouse, the Redwall Abby and its occupants. What a poetic start of one very noble and gallant mouse.

Mossflower, Brain Jacques

The Ecstatic Reepicheep Speaks

With only two volumes left to my reading of the Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is so far the best volume in this collection. With its adventures, King Caspian and his crew went looking for the lost Lords and encountered new lands, peoples and creatures.

“Yes, yes”, cried Reepicheep, clapping his paws together. “That’s how I’ve always imagined it-the World like a great round table and the waters of all the oceans endlessly pouring over the edge. The ship will tip up and stand on her head-for one moment we shall see over the edge-and then down, down, the rush, the speed.”

“And what do you think will be waiting for use at the bottom, eh?” said Drinian.

“Aslen’s country perhaps.” said the Mouse, his eyes shining. “Or perhaps there isn’t any bottom. Perhaps it goes down for ever and ever. But whatever it is, won’t it be worth anything just to have looked for one moment beyond the edge of the world?”

The Wonders of the Last Sea, The Dawn Treader, The Chronicles of Narina.

Five PzKpfw III H 1/285 Miniatures

The PzKpfw-III was a medium tank manufactured by the Germany before and during the World War II. Germany built 5774 during the years 1937-43. The PzKpfw made up the bulk of Germany’s armored forces.
The tanks were delivered in two parts, the body and their turrets. The tanks turrets fit inside a rounded indentation in the body and can swivel.
I don’t know how close or far I am from having my C in C, G-18, PZKW III H battle tanks painted in authentic colors, but they are fine for my purpose. I will using these miniatures along with the set of US Sherman’s to play a skirmish game. Once I have acquired enough of these miniatures I can use them in a full blown war game.

Axis and Allies Land Units

Table Tactics produces several Axis and Allies expansion sets. These expansion sets are distributed through Fair Play Games. The expansion sets include a total of 48 Infantry and armor units. If you are in the market for land units that factors out to about four cents apiece. The set includes various types of tanks and infantry units to add to those that were already supplied with your game. The various pieces could also be used to bring additional capabilities to your game play.

Dragons and Sea Serpents

Not since reading Vern’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth, have I encountered a monster either on land or at sea. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a volume within The Chronicles of Narnia, makes mention of a dragon.

In this chapter the crew of the Dawn Treader arrives at yet a non-named island. Eustace the priggish cousin of Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, decides to make himself scarce and gets himself helplessly lost. Being thirsty and seeing a pool up a head Eustace heads toward the pool for a drink. As he finishes refreshing himself he becomes horrified as he notices, what looks like a dragon heading toward the same pool he had just taken a drink from. Too scared to run Eustace steps back into the shadows and keeps a keen watch on the dragon.

The dragon moves very slowly toward the pool. The dragon takes a couple of laps from the pool and then becomes very still. After what seems like a life time Eustace waits to see what is to become of the dragon. The dragon seems to go to sleep, but after a while Eustace notices that the dragon seems to have stopped breathing. The dragon had dragged itself out to pool to give itself a drink and to die.

Eustace was ecstatic, of course he would be, but all that excitement made him very sleepy. Eustace wanders over to the dragon’s lair and notices gems and articles of gold upon the floor of the cave. He stuffs his pockets with the gems and slides a golden bracelet on his arm and lays down to sleep.

When Eustace awakes he perceives that he had taken up residence with the dragons mate for he perceives steam coming from her nostrils. There was no other dragon, however during the night Eustace had become a dragon. So the dragon in which he sensed was actually Eustace.

In the chapter that follows “How the Adventure Ended” the crew and passengers of the Dawn Treader had left the island, which King Caspian aptly names the, Dragon Island, and were on their way to find the lost lords. They weren’t too far out from Dragon Island when a look-out noticed what looked like a set of rocks a way in the distance. It wasn’t too long afterward when it was noticed that these semi-submersion objects were seemingly following them and were getting closer all the time. The lumps that had been mistaken as rocks were the fins or the humps of a large sea serpent.

The sea serpent coiled itself around the ship. The ship’s crew and passengers worked diligently to remove the serpent from the ship by sliding its body off the ship. They were successful, however the decorative ships stern, which was fashioned after a tail of a sea serpent was lost to this monster of the deep.

Sorting Out my Spruce

Here are those Games Workshop spruce by type. As you can see all of these miniatures come in four parts and are either distributed on one, two or three separate spruce. All of the miniature have great detail.

High Elf Horse

Wolf

Bretonnian Horse

Empire Horse

In retrospect, I wish I had ordered two wolf miniatures and had not purchased the Bretonnian Horse as the wolf has more appeal. The other two horses look great and will fit perfectly into my plans for a couple of fantasy scenes I have in mind.

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WTF are these kits hiding?

Projects for June

Although I am rather free with my posts I am rather slow in getting my projects completed, I keep on purchasing new items, which of course adds to my “to-do” list. However, unless I plan, nothing gets accomplished. Here goes:

1. Finish painting 1/285 WWII German Panzer tanks
2. Paint 1/285 WWII American Sherman tanks
3. Assemble and paint at least one 28mm Persian miniature
4. Assemble and paint the Games Workshop 28mm Wolf miniature

These projects may be completed in any order, as the mood strikes.

The list is small and by rights I should be able to accomplish these tasks within the month of June. Well let’s hope so.

Can you Identify this Pig?

The other day while extending a flower bed I came upon the following discoveries: a three foot piece of string, an eight inch piece of rigid plastic tubing, a rusty metal canopy or tent peg, and this duffer. He like the rest of the artifacts was encrusted in dirt, but this duffer did clean-up nicely. Both arms, I presume, swiveled as his right arm does. Where the duffer lost his other arm is anyone’s guess. He is made of a dense hard plastic. Any ideas of this duffers origin?

My Plastic Sprue Have Arrived from Great Escapes Games

Although this pile of plastic spruce needs to be sorted out, they represent four Games Workshop’s 28mm miniatures. These miniatures were ordered from Great Escapes Games in Great Britain. With exchange rates as they are and the charge levied on me by Paypal for currency exchanges, this is one very expensive pile of plastic.