A Car Boot Haul!

I took my sons for a quick wander around the regular local boot sale this morning. I wasn't really looking for anything, except possibly a couple of DVDs, however, as we were just about done wandering around I noticed a copy of the original "How To Paint Citadel Miniatures". So I couldn't resist having a closer look.
Under the painting guide was a copy of Battlefleet Gothic and Chapter Approved 2003. I have already got the painting guide and Chapter Approved, and I have never really had much interest in Battlefleet Gothic. So at this point I started to turn away, I then noticed another box on the floor with several GW books in. I enquired how much they were, and was told £3 per book, and £5 for each bag of figures. Intrigued I dove in!
Now I don't play much 40K nowadays, I still have all my Tau and Kroot, and Dark Eldar, but I don't have any plans to play 40K for a good while. Still, at £3 each for hard-backed books I had to have a look. First up, was a copy Apocalypse, I was very tempted by this as all the books were in excellent condition. I decided against it, as the chances of my ever play Apocalypse are virtually none. Next up was Imperial Armour Apocalypse Update. Even though I had passed on the first book this interested me, as it had a few Tau units in it... but no. Finally was a copy of Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Volume One. I like reading modelling guides, and this is a gorgeous book so that was that, I had to have it.

As well as the books there were three plastic bags. Now I am trying to avoid impulse purchases of miniatures at the moment, but I could see that a couple had Necrons in and I have always fancied getting a few, I also knew that my two gaming pals, Del and Jeff, both have Necron forces, so one way or the other they would find a good home. The first bag had a lot of basic Necron Warriors in it and the second bag had several Necron Destroyers. They all looked neatly painted, even though the colour scheme was a little loud. The third bag had a few Chaos Space Marines in it. I dumped the CSMarines, but decided to take the two bags of Necrons.

I've had a closer look at them now and there are 33 Necron Warriors and a couple of extra pairs of legs, several need some TLC, but otherwise they are in good condition. They are painted in a metallic purple and white scheme, which is a bit loud, but is neatly done. A little bit of work and they will be ready to field. Also in the bag, was a Necron Lord, again in good condition. The only problem with all these miniatures is that the Light Gathering Rods are missing from their guns. I can soon replace those, and will pick up some Light Gathering Rods this week...

The Destroyers are in a similar condition, slightly damaged, but nothing I can't fix in about 20 minutes. There are six in all, one includes the Destroyer Lord Upgrade kit. Again, neatly painted, and with a little finishing I can get them to a usable condition.

My gaming group has been planning to do some Post Apocalyptic gaming and I think these Necrons, would make a great little skirmish force of Terminator style robots. Alternatively, with the purple colour scheme, they would possibly even be useful for my Retro Sci-Fi plans.

 I have just totted it up and I reckon I got around £150 worth of GW stuff for £12 (I even talked the seller down by £1). Not a bad trip to the car boot sale, if I do say so myself.

My only regret is that I didn't pick up the two Apocalypse books. Even just for the read, they would have been worth the extra £6...

Landmines, an unusual commission!

A couple of years ago I was asked to produce some dummy landmines, to be used in training mine detection. I produced the first two of a planned half dozen, but unfortunately the client never came back for them...

So I was left with the two I had made lying around the workshop. I recently donated them to the local regimental museum (The Gordon Highlanders Museum).

As you can see from my photos, they are small anti-personnel mines. I was given rough plans of the mines, and estimates of the dimensions. 100% accuracy was not necessary, as these things were going to be buried and dug up, over and over again... One requirement was that they had some metal in them so that metal detectors could be used on them.

I found these photos online, and I feel that my dummy mine looks fairly close to the actual one...

East of Scotland Model Show

On Saturday I took a trip down to Dundee to visit the East of Scotland Model Show. This was a gathering of various model building clubs. Although I don't build plastic kits very often now, I used to build a lot when I was young and I like to support any model making shows I can...

There were a great selection of models on display, and all well put together and painted. My sons particularly enjoyed the RC boats on display, as well as getting a shot of an airbrush...

There were three or four trade stalls there, mainly selling model kits, but I did manage to pick up a set of sanding needles, something have been meaning to try for some time, and three MIG pigments in various rust shades, which I want to try after watching the video I posted the other day!

Scale Model Medic Chipping Effects

This is an excellent introductory video from the Scale Model Medic.

I must admit I have not spent much time developing my ageing effects for vehicles and scenics, but after watching this video I think I will have to give it a go...

More Wargame Terrain by Tony Harwood

My copy of More Wargame Terrain by Tony Harwood turned up over the weekend and I must say it is an excellent book.

I've had a couple of quick skims through it and read some bits and it is an excellent resource for any terrain modeller. The book expands on Tony's first volume and goes into more depth, but the results are beautiful and this book should take pride of place on any wargamers bookshelf.

As a professional model maker most of the techniques were familiar to me, however even having said that the book offers plenty of inspiration and makes me realise that I really should be building more scenery...

I will say that the title is a slight misnomer, there is no actual terrain building in the book. It is all about constructing model buildings and structures. However, as wargamers tend to call anything on the wargames table, that is not a part of their army, "terrain" then the title is understandable and totally acceptable.

Well worth picking up, and as it is a limited print run I would recommend getting hold of it fast...