On the Bench at the end of 2021

 My at this point almost traditional NYE hobby session has been a success. The following has been achieved:

1. Flesh painted on 2 squads of 6mm Wehrmacht troops and 2 squads of US GIs. 

2. Ground painted on a number of terrain features.

3. Three Sci Fi figures mostly painted, along with two APCs of some kind. 

4. I attached some WW2 Soviets to bases in preparation for a test painting. These are the Irregular Miniatures figures.

The APCs and some burng out buildings.

A  stone circle of some kind, a based Flak 88.

The three Sci Fi figures. They are lawmen. I need to finish their gear. They will be ready before the end of the weekend.

The Soviets ready to paint. I am sure the vehicles will be fine, once I choose my couple of shades. The infantry will be more of a challenge. I want them to stand out from their bases, but their uniforms will be some kind of khaki, brown or so.

WW2 Soviets - Irregular Miniatures

 So myself and siblings have an annual secret Santa. This year we drew names, my brother Alexander from The Players' Aid immediately messaged me to ask me what I wanted. I said WW2 soviets. A week or so later we cancelled the whole thing, but he still got me a soviet armoured division pack from Irregular Miniatures. Now, my 6mm WW2 collection is exclusively Heroics and Ros, so I was interested in seeing what a different manufacturer looked like. Well here are some images of them. No comparison to any H&R figures yet though. 

T 34s. Some with commanders, some with one rider, some with multiple riders, some with nothing. Guns are all mostly bent, but that is easily fixed. The wheels and tracks look a little rough, but then it is 6mm. I will hide that with mud. I don't know how they compare to the H&R miniatures.

Trucks. Good. Three 76mm Zis 3 guns (I think). They also have their crew moulded to the gun which I think i prefer to buying them separately. I love the look of those giant guns also.

This looks enough to be a good platoon with an extra squad. I have four Maxim MG teams, what look like four sniper teams, four mortar teams and two command teams with a mounted figure. I like the idea of someone on a horse. I might have some AT Rifle teams, but am unsure.

They all seem to be SMG armed infantry. So that is fair enough, but I want rifles. At the end of the day, it looks like I will be making a purchase from H&R anyway: the superb looking Summer Russians, some early war tanks, and some 45mm ATGs. It won't be £67 worth of Russians though, which will save me some cash. Or...give me more money to spend on other miniatures...desert stuff for example to go with BG Tobruk.

The command strip. It excites me with the prospect of 6mm horse mounted figures. I want to get some ACW dismounted cavalry from Baccus for my 6mm Sci Fi collection. There is also a new set of mounted militia over on Brigade Models, specifically for Sci Fi.

Just a close up.

Welcome to Back Water outpost.

 A tiny outpost. An unregistered freighter. This can only mean hijinks are afoot. I finally flocked and did some drybrushing on this. I have been dormant in this hobby while the building work has been going on. It is now the Christmas break and I intend to spend a few evenings and early mornings doing some painting and building. I have quite a backlog to clear of half finished stuff. 

New work laptop. I can't seem to edit photos on it, and I refuse to boot up my personal laptop which will take 40 minutes to load, then crash.