The hobby week - 29 January - 04 February 2022

This is what I've been working on in the first week of Feb.

Painting/modelling  

  • I finished revamping the bases of my French Indo-China War figures so they fit in better with the terrain.  They got a dark wash and then I added a mix of static grass and lichen (which I'd put through an old blender) and then various grass tufts.  Finally I added a few more earth tones. They look a lot better now.
  • I made a base for my Indo-China village buildings detailed here.
  • I did some more to my jungle scatter terrain, adding a few more earth tones to the bases.  I really need to stop fiddling about with these.  
  • Painted a load of corrugated cardboard in preparation for making yet more jungle terrain and started to make some more.  You can't have enough.
Village surround in progress
  • I've been experimenting with making my own scatter material.  I'll probably do a post on this later.

Research

  • I started to read A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne again.  It's been years since I last read it so well overdue for a reread.
  • I'm continuing to dip into my book collection and look online to read about the French Algerian and Indo-China Wars as much as I can.  

Purchases

  • Grass tufts.  I usually buy my grass tufts from Tajima but decided to check out another provider.  Tajima provide a quality product and despatch very quickly.  These were from one of the many eBay sellers and were slower in delivery and the quality wasn't as good.  But they were cheaper especially if buying a few and help to bulk out the foliage on my scenic items.
  • The Centurions by Jean Larteguy.  A classic fictionalised account of French paras in Indochina and Algeria.  I wanted to reread it and I managed to pick up a copy for less than a fiver, the library no longer having a copy it would appear.  Good to have in my book collection anyway.
  • Battlezone Miniatures US Marines squad and Native Raiders.  Once again Steve Renwick pulled out the stops.  They were with me within a couple of days and Steve also sorted out some spare heads suitable for converting these and the other Battlezone figures I have into ALN fighters for The Algerian War project.  I have to repeat what great service and what a pleasure Steve is to deal with.  I've already got more orders planned with Battlezone.  

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