Egyptian / Generic Middle East units

Here are a couple of photos of my 15mm T-62s and a couple of BTR APCs for my 1973 Egyptians / generic Middle East force. I've just got to finish the commander in the leading tank's turret.

The T-62s are from Battlefront / Team Yankee, and the BTRs are from Zvezda. 

Israeli Magach 6 tanks 15mm

Israeli Magach 6 main battle tanks for my 15mm Fate of a Nation / Team Yankee Israeli forces. Two are post-1973 with over barrel 50 cal MGs but 4 have been converted to be historically accurate for 1973. These will face off against Egyptian T-62s, both units need to be painted though. 

New Necron reinforcements - Catacomb Command Barge, Overlord and Scythe flyer

Here are some photos of my new reinforcements for my Warhammer 40k Necron army. 

The "Croissant of Doom" is a flying unit, able to be configured with to a Night Scythe assault transport (with swirling disc of teleportation) or a Doom Scythe ground attack unit (with glowing blue Death Ray). 

The solitary figures is a Necron Overlord with Hyperphase Sword and Resurrection Orb, who my wife calls Senor Supremo. He has a magnet on his base for either a scenic diorama, or he can ride a Catacomb Command Barge (the smaller croissant shaped hover unit). 

The Barge itself can either mount the Overlord or I can attach a Tesla Destructor battery for it to be used as an Annihilation Barge. The magnets and alternative options enable me to get more mileage out of each individual model, and hopefully all of these will significantly bolster my Necron Dynasty. Hope you like the photos! 

More Martian Tripods

Amongst some Warhammer 40k units last weekend I managed to finish the last couple of Martian Tripods for my All Quiet on the Martian Front home made rules.

I have replaced the original heat rays, which look like remote controls, with spare Gauss Cannons from my Warhammer Necrons. The result is a more death ray looking weapon. 

I've done scenic bases for both units - one is a ruined building (possibly church) with a charred, dying human trying to crawl away. The other is a simple graveyard with a toppled headstone, a metaphor for the inevitable death the Martians will bring to mankind.

Now I have a full set of 6 Tripods, one leader, one scout, one with Black Smoke Launcher and three regulars with Heat Rays. The only things left to assemble and paint in the Martian force are 4 Drones (repurposed Spindle Drones, again from Warhammer) and some human (or to the Martians, fresh snacks) storage pods which I'll make from plastic shot glasses and some scenic bases. 

Command Bunker operational again!

After approximately 2 years of my blog on Facebook, I have decided to move back onto Blogger, for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, I get very bogged down in Facebook groups related to my hobby and that impacts the time I spend on blog posts / updates.

I also believe Facebook is having a detrimental impact on my mental health and general communication / emotional availability with my wife. With a new addition to the family on the way and fatherhood beckoning, my hobby time will be severely limited going forwards, so I want to move the blog back onto this, less intense platform.

In addition, I have followed a few warhammer 40k groups having got back into that game in a big way since early 2019, and the volume of negativity, anti-creative sentiment and cantankerous baiting has taken its toll.

However, there have been some positives. Facebook has enabled me to share posts and photos in a wide variety of groups and as a result it has grown to approx 500 likes / followers. Another especially great thing personally was to share my work on All Quiet on the Martian Front with the game's creators and close knit community including the author of the corresponding novels. I hope some people follow the blog as it transfers across to here.

More blog posts to follow soon!!! 

SYW / WAS French infantry and artillery

To round off a trio of Seven Years War posts, here's my first unit of French infantry and accompanying light cannon. These are the white / beige coated soldiers of pre-Revolutionary France, so there's no dark blue to be seen. They were really hard to paint but I'm happy with the way they turned out. I'm hoping to build on my Seven Years War collection to stage a scaled down version of Fontenoy  one of my favourite battles of military history. Led by Maurice De Saxe, the French won a bloody victory against a shaky alliance of British, Hanoverians, Austrians and Dutch, who attacked the fortified French but were unable to break through to relieve the siege of Tournai.

AWI / SYW British infantry and Hessian artillery

Here's some photos of more Zvezda infantry and cannon appropriated from their Great Northern War range.

This time, tricorne-sporting British redcoats advancing with fixed bayonets, supported by a Hessian 6 pounder. I wasn't going to worry about any Hessians for my wargaming armies, but I have just finished reading "1776" by David McCullough, so now my mind has been changed! The number of Hessians sent across for the American War of Independence was astonishing to read about - they numbered in many thousands.