The Big Push 3.

More for the Syria 1918 game at Colours, Newbury, this September.

Firstly, the last two vehicles for 12th Light Armoured Motor Battery. The Rolls Royce Armoured Car is from HLBS and the Rolls Royce Tender is from Company B.

The excellent Crossley Tender from Trenchworx. This will supply 7th Light Car Patrol.

Some Crusader Miniatures early WW2 French infantry painted up as French Legion d'Orient.

Dismounted French Spahis. Woodbine Designs figures with added greenstuff on the headgear and a number of Empress Miniatures SCW figures in adrian helmets to make up the numbers.

Next? 20th Mounted Machine Gun Squadron and a unit of French Mounted troops.

A Little Musical Interlude.

Tsuba Miniatures Russian Bandsmen. Painted up as the regimental band of the White Russian Kornilov Shock Battalion. All part of a cunning development for the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers' recent gaming weekend. I also painted up another band in a different White Russian uniform but I neglected to photograph them before delivery. Fool.

Turning Japanese.

These are Tsuba Miniatures Russo-Japanese War figures, destined for a 1920s Back of Beyond setting. Painting the two officers in armour was great fun.

The Big Push 2.

The new camera arrived yesterday so I had a good excuse to play with it and photograph the latest progress towards the display game at Colours, Newbury, this September. The Anti-aircraft theme continues with an Austrian Schwartzlose Machine Gun team from Scarab Miniatures and a Scratchbuilt (by Adrian Shepherd) pedestal mounted 75mm AA gun and crew (figures from Woodbine Designs and Perry Miniatures). We found a photograph of German "technical specialists" seemingly instructing a turkish crew with what appeared to be a French 75mm gun on a pedestal so Adrian replicated it. A few weeks ago I bought a battered Matchbox Models of Yesteryear 1911 Damiler for very little money. It was originally yellow and it just cried out to to be made into a Staff Car so here it is with a Driver from Warbases and a Staff Johnny, an Empress Miniatures SCW driver figure. The last session at the painting table saw the first of the French troops get some greenstuff added to their headgear to try to create something that looks a little like dismounted Spahis. I played around with some colour choices to get the distinctive French Khaki. By rights they should be wearing Adrian helmets by 1918 but a few figures with this distinctive headgear will add some visual interest. The mounted unit will follow eventually. While all this was going on, in the background, lurking, was a Russian band from Tsuba Miniatures. Instructions were to paint them up to add to an existing collection.... nothing to do with the Big Push but they were fun to paint.

The Big Push.

One of the benefits of teaching is a long summer break. This summer will be devoted to getting together units for the next display game at Newbury this September. The Light Car Patrol is now complete. A second Rolls Royce Armoured Car is finished. Two scratch-built 3-ton trucks are done. Attention now turns towards figure painting. The first completed element is this Ottoman machine gun set up for anti-aircraft work. French Spahis and Legion d'Orient wait their turn as do some more Turks and Tommies. No rest! Oh... nearly forgot... the early part of the summer was spent building aeroplanes. Here is a Rumpler C1. An Albatros DII, a Phalz Eindecker, a Bristol Fighter and a Bristol Scout all need to be photographed. This won't happen until I buy a new camera. Sadly, the old Minolta has given up the ghost and I had to borrow Mrs H's camera to photgraph this lot.

More Bolsheviks! Special Task Unit (ChON).

Copplestones with greenstuff headgear.

Converted Light Car Patrol Model Ts from Matchbox

Preparations have begun for the next demonstration game at "Colours" in September. The quest was on for some Model T vehicles for the Light Car Patrol that will play a prominent part in the game. I had gently tried scratchbuilding some (posted earlier this year) and converting a 1/48 Model T Ambulance kit (also posted earlier) but I was not entirely convinced by the results of either. They look fine, will do the job, but ......

So, having failed to find some 1917 Model T vehicles out there save the Ambulance kit, I bit the bullet and hunted around for some Matchbox Models of Yesteryear 1911 Model T Saloons. I found a couple on a well known auction site. I got them for next to nothing. They were battered, well loved and clearly had been played with by someone a long time ago. They were 1960s vintage with hard plastic tyres, not the soft rubbery plastic that later models were produced with. The seats were missing. I didn't care. They were painted in gloss metallic red paint. Not any more.