Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

After a less than productive August, I went away for a week at the start of September.  I'd started to get my hobby mojo back before I went, but being away really sharpened my enthusiasm for cracking on when I returned.  Sod's law though since being back real life has been so busy that I've only managed to get in odd snatches of hobby time, with no games at all. Completed I've only completed three things this month: Early War Miniatures 20mm Pz IV H's. I'd finished the majority of the painting on these last month, and just had the crew, some extra details and the weathering to do early in September.   Now they're all done I'm very happy with them and I’ve had some good feedback.  I hadn’t painted a tank larger than 6mm for a good few years and it took me a while to get into it.  It’s made me think about revisiting the tanks I made over 20 years ago and bringing them up to this standard.  You can see more of the Pz IVs  here .  Anschluss Wargames 15mm Mar

As often happens when I get to Autumn my thoughts turns to what I’ll be working on for the rest of this year and what new projects to look at for the year to come.  This year I’ve been quite focused, and a combination of clearing the backlog and buying very little that needs doing, has left me in a good place to start something new.  There’s a few projects that have been on the to-do list for a while, but the one I’ve decided to kick off in what remains of 2024 is a 1980s Cold War "what if?" project. Being of a certain age and long being interested in military matters, I remember very clearly what seemed the continuous threat and fear of an enemy horde advancing across Europe from the east.  Not much changes does it?  However, current events aside it did have an impact on my formative years.  Being primarily an aircraft modeller at the time I made models of lots of service aircraft like Harrier, Jaguars, Phantoms, Tornadoes and A-10s and also some contemporary tanks.  I also

I started the month finishing off the 20mm Pz IVs from Early War Miniatures that I'd been painting in August.  I bought this pair at Salute in April.  I didn't start working on them until June.  One of them had the wrong turret and it took a few attempts in contacting EWM to get the correct one sent through.  They're what I'd call classic wargames models.  Made of resin hulls with metal turrets, barrels and accessories they're sturdy and will take handling during a game well.  I think originally these may have been Skytrex models but if anyone knows for sure please leave a comment.  They needed a fair bit of clean up but there's very little assembly to do, just glue the 75mm cannon barrel in and then add what stowage you want.  EWM provide a nice selection of stowage but I didn't add too much as the PzIVs in the photos I was looking at (from vehicles of the IV SS Panzer Korps on the Eastern Front in summer 1944), didn't have a lot on them.  I didn't