Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

During the first part of February I completed all my outstanding 20mm Second World War figures.  These are all Sgt. Major Miniatures sculpts, now sold by Battlezone Miniatures (Red Army) and Early War Miniatures (Germans).  These are the last of the five packs I picked up at Salute in 2024. Five of the Red Army are the Assault troops pack (those with body armour).  The other two were from the SMG 2 pack, all are from the Winter Russians range ( here ).  I finished them all in the so called "amoeba" camo which unfortunately you can barely make out in the photos.   These are great sculpts full of life and character.  I really like the figure holding the PPSh 41 outstretched.  Having handled one, I reckon he'd have to be very strong to do this for any length of time, but it's a great sculpt.   The Germans were from a "late-war German Grenadiers in Winter attire pack".  Unfortunately, one of the barrels of an STG44 had broken and it was...

My first finished miniatures of 2025 are a baker's dozen of 20mm Second World War Red Army infantry.   I picked these three packs up along with two others from Battlezone Miniatures stand at Salute last year.  The sculpts are Sgt. Major Miniatures. They're all dressed in winter clothing.  There's a good mix of greatcoats and the padded jackets and helmets and padded hats.  Two of the figures were in all-in-one suits, so I chose to leave these until I work on the pack of similarly dressed assault engineers I've got. I like these figures.  They're what I'd term "classic" wargames figures.  Maybe the proportions aren't great, maybe they're a bit cartoony and maybe the weapon are quite crudely done, but they've got bags of character which comes out as you paint them.  They're pretty robust too so should take handling during a game without any trouble.  They also fit in very well with my existing Red Army figures from Battlefield, New Line a...

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 Warga...

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...

I'd decided at the end of July that as soon as I'd completed those in progress, that I'd be having a break from painting figures.  I've kept to that.  I'm not a summer person and I’ve struggled for motivation this month.  It’s not helped by my hobby table being in a South facing room so my hobby time is limited to evenings, by which time my eyes are frazzled from work.  I'm hoping to get my mojo back and accomplish more next month.  However, I did update my Ovelists ( gaming and doing ) inspired by the Hobby Support Group, and that made me feel a bit better seeing the items being checked off.  Completed I've not managed to fully complete much this month.  These were almost done at the end of last month: 28mm Warlord Games WW2 Germans Grenadiers.  The main colours were done and it was a case of doing the camo on the Zeltbahns and the details.  I made one as an SS NCO using arms from the Early War Germans and a head from the DAK set.  The ...