May 2023 Hobby update

On the hobby front May has been a mix of finishing and fiddling about trying things.  At first I thought I hadn’t done much but on review I have, so this is a long one!

Completed

I started the month making some scatter terrain for swamp/marsh areas:  

I then spent some time looking at micro armour, painting up some Heroics & Ros and Butlers' Printed Models samples I've had for years.  I wrote up a comparison which you can see here.

Going up a notch in scale to 10mm I painted up the two Pendraken M24s that I bought at Salute.  Lovely little models.  Not sure what I'll do with them though. 


And going up to 1/72nd scale I finished off painting the H-21 and H-34 helicopters for the Algerian War project.  I also painted up the 6 helicopter pilots from Elhiem to go in them.    You can see more of them here. 

Completing the 'copters got me back into the Algerian War mind set so I knocked out 4 more ALN fighters.  These were actually Battlezone Miniatures USMC Raiders Command picked up at Salute, but with the judicious addition of a moustache it's amazing how Arabic they can look!

I also completed some more FFL Paras.  These were part of my "not going to Salute" (yeah right) order.  

In progress

The only thing in progress as we end the month are some plastic zombies.  These will get used for Zona Alfa and Last Days when I finally get round to playing them.

Gaming

Thanks to the plethora of Bank Holidays I got a chance to get a couple of games in during May.  Both were set in Belarus in 1943 and followed the fortunes of a small Home Army partisan band:

  • The first game Devil in the Woods using Ambush Alley rules, was played using figures from my 1/76th collection. You can read the AAR here. 
  • The follow up Deep in the Woods, was a 28mm game played using Force on Force rules.  The AAR is here.

Research & Reading:

I've started reading Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers.  This was a big influence on Patrick Todoroff the creator of Zona Alfa game so it's required reading really.

After fiddling about with micro-armour I'd been looking at my WW2 and Modern rules.  I'm trying to decide on what period/periods and have narrowed it down a bit.  

Incoming!

After the splurge at Salute last month I've been reasonably controlled in May:
  • Realm of a Dying Sun volume 1.  I've had volumes 1 and 2 for a good few years but never had the first volume.  I was pretty chuffed to pick it up for £12. 
  • I also had a good result in getting the Iron Maiden British book for Team Yankee for less than a fiver and the new version of the mini rules for £1.40.  I have the original full size rules and wanted to see how they differed, the answer being not much.  Battlefront stuff is beautifully produced.   If you don't want the very latest version you can pick it up quite cheap.  I believe they've done the decent thing with Team Yankee and not changed the points between versions.  
  • Over the late Bank Holiday Helion had a sale on digital versions.  I picked up a couple of titles which should stand me in good stead for a new project. 

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