Battlegroup Stat Cards - Homemade

 So I made a PowerPoint where each slide is a stat card for a vehicle, ATG or man-portable AT weapon. Printed them out in colour, four slides per page, then laminated them in groups of eight, and finally chopped them up. All while watching a YouTube video about how no-one makes disaster movies anymore. 

I chose to laminate them so I can write on them with a whiteboard pen for keeping track of ammo and casualties in gun crews. Although in my experience a gun crew rarely survives taking any casualties.

I went to The Tank Museum

 I saw neither David Fletcher nor David Willey. I also didn't see any of the younger guys making YouTube content. It was a shame. I did, however, see a bunch of cool tanks, some of my favourites, and see 50 students aged 13/14 enjoy themselves looking at tanks. Some of them got scared about there being a tiger and a panther there... not sure if they were serious or not. As part of being there on a school trip they allow you to sit in a small group inside a Mark IV male tank. The guy gave a really engaging talk about what conditions were like inside. It was awesome. 

Here is a bit of a photo dump.

 First two photos are the view from walking up to the cafe and school group area.

Action shot of another WW1 tank.

I love the Matilda 1. Such an awful vehicle, but a good example of what an early tank was supposed to do - a moving bunker. 

I had forgotten that they have a land battleship there. The Independant - such an utterly insane idea. Looks amazing though.

I think I prefer an A10 cruiser, but an A9 will do with its stupid extra turrets. I have an old Airfix guide about British tanks of WW2 and the pictures of A10s excited me. Something about the shape and suspension just spoke to me. I love them.

My personal favourate. When I rounded the corner and saw it, I had to snap a photo. I loved seeing this vehicle. I love it so much. The shape, the gun, the story. 

FT17s are just cool. End of discussion. 

I feel like we were just awful at designing tanks between wars. What a dreadful looking machine. 

First tank model I ever built. Matchbox Panzer II, along with a Wespe. I remember handing over £10 pocket money - each kit was £2.75 or something. Those were the days. 

One of the last 20mm kits I made. Such a cool shape - dreadful though as a tank.

I always wanted the Matchbox/Revell double set of this tank and a smaller one. 

Tiger 131 - most famous tank in the world. I couldn't not take a photo of it. 

Saving Private Ryan.

Panzer III is probably my favourite actual tank of the war. I like the size and shape. 

Beautiful. 

I built a Fujimi Valentine and I messed up the road wheels, meaning they stick out a little. Still, a cool tank to be fair. 

I have a few Cromwells knocking around. In the early days I always wanted to have one as they had pretty solid stats for a British tank. But I couldn't find a kit of one to save my life. Now - Airfix do a decent one. Armourfast also used to make a pair that were servicable. 

All in all, a good day out. I highly recomment. I didn't get to see even close to everything I wanted. 

Flooring from table dressing.

 Ten years ago I bought two red, square place mats to protect your table from hot plates. They had the texture of sci-fi flooring. I have used them only on a couple of pieces of terrain so far and they have travelled with me through three house moves.

Below you can see the two different textures on the landing pads. I prefer the top one. However, with them being bright red, paitning them was a pain and there are times where I think you can see it sticking through. 

This summer I found some grey place mats in Aldi probably. Picked them up for maybe £1 each. I genuinely feel like they need a dry brush and that is all? They will do as is. I am loathe to even cut them up. Pictured below with some 6mm figures, a 28mm(ish) Star Wars Miniature, and some mech from some 3d printed prototype game. 

 

Bulking out the ranks - Soviet LMGs and ATGs and British support weapons.

 A while back I bought some assorted figures and vehicles that were missing. Notably Soviet LMG teams and British platoon support weapons - Bren teams, 2 inch mortars and Vickers HMG teams. They have been sitting for a few months partly painted. This weekend I decided to smash them out. 

The British are painted a different colour to the rest of my brits, but I don't mind too much. I am pleased with how they have all come out.

I wanted 3 45mm cannons I needed more LMG teams so painted up like 12 of them.

I actually think I prefer these British. They are nice and light so don't look like brown blobs.