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More Sand, Different Desert

This evening we moved from the deserts of the Sudan to ones in Libya. We also jumped forwards about 50 years to a conflict between Germany and Britain. This time we had tanks. Or rather a tank each! We went for What a Tanker this evening.

My Matilda in the foreground faces off against a MKIII in the background. Although the Matilda was slow, in the early parts of the game she was off like a whippet across the sands.

I managed to get a ranging shot in my but failed to do any damage…please note the house the extreme left, it played an important part in the ensuing battle.

The only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme Tune as we chased each other around the building. We manged to fire lots of times, but kept saving the hits… once again my dice were on form…

Reload, Shoot, reload, shoot reload… this happened so many times… eventually my lucky dice rolls began to tell.

In the end Joe was down to a single command dice so we called it an allied victory.

It’s a really fun game with much hilarity throughout. Although I really enjoy the game, I reckon it is not a one I could play week after week.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 6 Comments

Tanks…and yet More Tanks

So nothing painted today, but a few more tanks printed…

So here we have six Matilda, three Somua, three Char B, a Honey, a whippet and a very outnumbered MKII. I am part way through printing another Char. I have got some more early British cruiser tanks ready to go, but for that I need the laptop as they are stored on it’s hard drive.

These are destined for Games day next month. I still need to print some more honeys and some more whippets (possibly) then go daft printing more German tanks.

Each tank is taking about an hour and a half to an hour and forty five to print. Not the fastest thing to get on the bed, but to be honest some of the stuff I have printed took ten hours so by comparison these are speedy.

The buildings are already done and have been for months… April to be exact…

https://bogenwaldblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/08/desert-house-5-update/

Evidently way back in March was the last time I printed any tanks.

https://bogenwaldblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/11/printing-tanks-ii/

The rules I will be using are ‘What a Tanker’

I decided on these thanks to Mark in the States who ran some games at various conventions and his local club I think too. He must be very persuasive on his blog as I have Sharp Practice and couldn’t get on with it at all.

I purchased them and liked their simplicity…As Mark pointed out… very easy rules for a participation game.

My plan is to basically print and paint two forces, plus a couple of small villages. One shall be for the Games day and the other is as a give away. Shetland is trying to get our own MRI scanner so my plan is that if people make a donation to the cause then they get a raffle ticket to win the second set. I will have to check all of the ins and outs of this. I was going to contact the guys to see if They would donate another second set of rules to go with the tanks and terrain. I think I have probably run out of time now…

I would have printed out some German tanks, but sadly my good lady had wandered off with the laptop and forgot to bring it back.

So tomorrow, if the laptop returns then I will print out a whole pile more tanks from both sides. I might print out some armoured cars, just fir the hell of it. My favourite being the German 222. Not sure why but it is most certainly my favourite armoured car.

We shall see how many tanks (if any) I get done tomorrow…

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Aww Isn’t it Cute

I managed to print off the British MKVI

I still have a Panzer MKII to test print as well. I have also managed to find an M3 Grant that I can print. This one is 1/56 scale so will need reducing.

On the 3D printer front: I did purchase the village set from Terrain4Print. $10 for a pile of files is pretty good price. I will test print some of them as soon as I can.

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Somuaaaaaaaaa

Somua ah ah

Print the tank and drink your tea…..

Somua ah ah print the tank and make coffee…

sorry was listening to Black Lace there….

Anyway tis’ done.

Here he is the little rascal, all printed and ready to go.

I moved positions on the build plate and he worked fine. I did manage to rip the back of the turret off when I was removing the support struts…which was quite a pain in the backside. You can just about see the line. I now have two Char B and the Somua.

I would like some of the little Renault FT tanks if I can find some.

I would have printed up another Somua or a Panzer MKII or even a British MKVI Light tank (or was it a MKIV) but decided to print up a small desert house. It is 2 hours into a 3 hour print. I have also got a two story one but that will take over 5 hours to print.

I managed to get some more paint onto the dwarves…

Still a long way to go but getting there.

I actually haven’t opened the submarine game box all evening. How about that for self control😖

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Printing Tanks II

So tonight I decided to get the Somua S35 completed.

A nice French Medium tank…

Nice flowing lines etc….

Sadly I returned to this!

To be fair there are some nice flowing lines in there too…it must have popped off the bed the second I left the room. Interestingly enough. I tried again, instant failure. I decided to give another Matilda a go…

Worked fine, I went for another Char B… last time I looked at it an hour in, all systems were go.

The one that failed was front left, the ones that succeeded rear left. It could be that the front left has lost the level or that it is a bit greasy. Either way I will give it a wash and a re level tomorrow.

As can be seen from the photo above the Char B came out spot on! Below is how it came off the plate.

As with some of the other tanks the 37mm gun was a little fragile and snapped off.

So tomorrow we try the Somua again (possibly in a different place 🤔).

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And The Mystery 3D Print was…

Pete correctly guessed….

I just printed a 1/100 scale MkIV tank on my printer… I am still grinning like a Cheshire Cat…I started of with a bare plate then 3 hours 19 minutes later I have a tank.

Like Wow! It’s an effing tank! That was printed by me in my house on a printer…. The turret turns and everything. I was going to print one with the plates on the hull and I uploaded the wrong file….

As you can tell I am a little bit excited 🤪🤪🤪

Next up a Panther methinks, or maybe a Tiger or a Hetzer or a Jagdpanzer IV…..

Did I mention I was excited 😉

At this moment I am being a kind father and printing some eggs for my daughter who wants to paint some accurate bird eggs.

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Tanks …

I am calling these finished.

They could do with some weathering, but as I don’t have the water slide transfers, I don’t want to weather the sides and then have a white shiny insignia sticking out like a sore thumb.

I finished the M4 , the tracks were an absolute swine. I could do with filling in the gaps with Greenstuff.

No exposed commander on this one as I am not sure whether it is to be an American or British version.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 2 Comments

Tank Spraying

As I had the German tank airbrush paint…

I thought I had better use it

This is the second time I have ever used an airbrush and the first time was to undercoat some 28mm figures.

To be honest I am quite pleased with the result. All the non camouflage colours are still to do, but my mate is wanting them a bit quickish, so I will see if he wants them as is or finished.

The Dunkelb colour has disappeared in places, but they still look camouflaged, which is a plus 😜.

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Tanks for the Memories

Three Char B1’s finished

To be honest I am glad to see the back of them. Some of the bits were so fiddly to fit that it became a bit of a chore. I worked out various bit and pieces to make my life easier after the first one. This involved ignoring the instructions at times and building parts out of sequence.

I will get a base coat on them and then send them on their merry way.

These are all captured German versions.

After the battle of France the German’s captured 161 of the 369 built. They were slow, 16 mph, meaning the faster German tanks could flank them easily. That is not to say they were obsolete, they were a formidable fighting vehicle, designed as a breakthrough tank when the war would end in the stalemate of trench warfare. The 47mm gun was a danger to the German Mk1’s and 2’s. The 75mm howitzer would flatten most things.