Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

It's been a very busy month all round, and the hobby front has been no exception.  Therefore, this is quite a lengthy update.  Completed I completed the following this month: Verrotwood Cultists.  I really enjoyed doing these, you can see more here including the concept of the Cult. 20mm Second World War Late-War Grenadiers.  There's more of them here .   While doing the above I gave some attention to the rest of my late war winter Eastern Front forces  I've touched up the paintwork where needed and added more texture to the bases of both the Germans and Red Army platoons.   20mm Red Army and Waffen SS I've also weathered and thereby finally completed one of a pair of Jagdpanzer 38s that I built about 20 years ago.  At the time I gave them a very basic finish with the information readily and freely  available being a fraction of what it is now.  I've only done the one as I want to add camo to the other before weathering. ...

At Salute last year I picked up a packet of Early War Miniatures 20mm German Grenadiers for my late Second World War German Grenadier platoon.  These are Sergeant Major Miniatures sculpts now sold by the good people of EWM, although I think it was the Battlezone gents who were running the Salute stall.   This was a squad pack with ten figures marked as being ready for Chain of Command.  There's an MG34 team, an NCO with an MP40, six K98 rifle armed grenadiers (some of which also have Panzerfausts) and one with a Panzerschreck.  I don't know why there was a Panzerschreck armed figure as this wouldn't really have been allocated at individual squad level and they were used by a two man team, but otherwise it's a good selection for the squad.  As there wasn't the applicable crew member I didn't base up this figure.      I really like these sculpts.  They're probably not the greatest out there, but they have a lot of character and they fit in...

I recently finished off my first cult for Verotwood - they are the Wisentii. I used the Frostgrave Barbarians from Northstar to make them, two from the male and two from the female set.  The Sprue Shop were doing a deal of a frame of each at a slightly reduced price and that met my needs very well.  They're built entirely from those sprues.  I didn't do any kit bashing using parts from other kits, as I could complete my concept for the cult from just the Barbarian sprues. The Wisentii are a cult devoted to the ancient forest bison.  In the times before the tolling of the bells and the shadow falling across the Verrotwood, the bison were a mainstay of their lives providing everything they needed, in the manner of Native American Plains Indians. Even though the bison are gone, the Wisentii still revere the mighty beasts.  Each member takes on an aspect of the bison.  The Heart is the leader of the cult.  The Hooves are the muscle to trample the enem...

Here's the final summary against the original 2023 plan ( here ), which was revised at the end of August ( here ).  New projects for 2023 Late-Romans/Pre-Arthurian (28mm) -  👍 👍 After a late start on this project I've made some good progress. 13 Germanic warriors and 8 Romans  are ready for action with only the shields to do on another 6 Romans, with another six Romans started.  I'll  be working on  these and the command figures for both forces in 2024 and then I'll see about cavalry.  The South African Border Wars (1/300th)  -  This new project wasn't on the original 2023 plan, it snuck up on me in the summer and after a bout of intense enthusiasm it left me almost as quickly  😄 .  For the moment this one is parked, not abandoned as I still have interest in it. A War Transformed - This was another project which wasn't on the plan.  I've said enough on this in other posts.  It didn't cut the mustard for me, sold o...

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all have a marvellous 2024.  I'm doing something a bit different this year.  Usually I split the year into three sections of four months with Salute in April being the first key point to work towards.  For 2024 I'm trying out the Ovelist approach of The Hobby Support Group.  I've chosen  nine things to work on for the whole year.  I'm still going to take those check points at April and August and revise if needed. The starting numbers for the year are: 128 28mm; 10 20mm and 152 15mm.  I started 2023 with 321 unpainted figures made up of 108 28mm, 53 15mm and 163 10mm so broadly similar, just replacing the 10mm for 15mm really.    New projects I've currently got one brand new project to work on: 1st Century. A.D Imperial Rome.  I've had the Infamy, Infamy rules for well over a year now, but could never find figures I liked as I wanted to do it in smaller scale.  I really liked Cromarty Forges' 10mm...