Show Report: Partizan, 2019.

I went to this year's Partizan with my pal Paul. As usual books are a primary draw. This year I knew I didn't really want to buy any model kits, as I've already accumulated so many. Nor any (or perhaps many is better?) wargames figures, as I have my fairly vast Napoleonic armies already. They just need painting and basing. Just!? Such a small word, such a large task...

I did think about buying scenery and basing stuff. But I still don't know how I'll be going about all that. So nothing doing there either. Most of the traders are in larger scales than those I'm currently into, and there weren't as many selling WWII 20mm stuff as there sometimes are. But it was in this latter category that I did wind up making a few small purchases.

One thing I ought to note is that I didn't take any means of photographing anything, so I can't, as I normally would, illustrate this with the eye-candy of the better looking games (compare this with my previous visit/report, to Partizan, 2017). As ever, it was fun to wander around marvelling at all the creativity and work people have put into some pretty stunning tables. That said, I wasn't quite as blown away as I have been on some other occasions. Indeed, I'd say - and no offence intended - that this year most of the games were simply at the better end of 'run of the mill'.

WWII German Panzer crew purchases.

I'm a bit old fashioned as well, when it comes to what interests me most, which is WWII (quite well represented, mostly in larger scales), and Napoleonics (less well represented than I'd like). My favourite Napoleonics game, in terms of beautiful figures and well realised scenery, depicted action in my least favourite of Napoleonic theatres, in what appeared to be North Africa, so probably Egypt (I didn't check what the battle was; could've been the 'Holy Land'!?).

Perhaps one of the best looking games was a WWI trench warfare jobbie. That looked amazing. There was a pretty steaming verdant tropical game as well. I'm less keen on the myriad obscurer eras, and even less so the fantasy or sci-fi stuff, including steampunk, which seems to merge those two previously separate genres. I can admire the creativity and imagination involved, but it just doesn't connect to the 'real history' buzz that is possibly the chief dynamo of my interest in all things mini-military.

Starting the clean-up prep at home, inc. removing bases from Orions.

In the end I did buy a few 20mm figures, pictured above, as I need crews for various vehicles. The Caesar German Panzer crews I bought (dark grey) are wearing winter gear, but many of them might well pass in other theatres/climates, once painted. They're made from a nice harder plastic, very much like that used for a set of Preiser figures I acquired some while ago. The Orions (in an unusual brick red!) - which I first saw as expensive resin products - are made from that horrible soft bendy plastic that so many 1/72 figures are available as. Hard to clean up, and tricky to paint.

What I love about the Caesar and Orion figures is the realism of pose and uniform rendering. Many of the standard 'for kids' style plastic toy soldiers I grew up wth, from makers like Airfix and Revell, etc, favoured 'action' poses that are both unrealistic in themselves, and then doubly so in how they are constrained by the moulding processes. These more recent makers seem to take the trouble to create figures in naturalistic poses such as you see in wartime photographs, making them infinitely better and more usable.

Some of Adler's 20mm Jeep crew, from Adler's own publicity images.

Also very well posed and sculpted, I bought my first Adler 20mm WWII figures; German tankers and US Jeep drivers/passengers. I'm looking forward to painting all of these figures and populating some of my vehicles. The Adler German tankers are actually DAK. But I'll be using them for Europe, from Italy and Russia, where their apparel should fit anyway, to the Western Front, where I'll be using a little licence.

Chausseurs a Cheval of the Guard, by Rousselot.

Book wise, I bought a large and very nice hardback called Napoleon's Elite Cavalry, which celebrates the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, 1804-1815, as depicted in the paintings of Lucien Rousselot, with an accompanying text in English by Edward Ryan. I also got Military Uniforms in Colour, an old Blandford title written and illustrated by Preben Kannik, which is a book I used to get out of my village library as a kid. A real hit of nostalgia!

Ah, the memories this evokes!

Although I'm not currently reading as much as I once was on the subject, I'm still deeply into the Russia 1812 campaign, and hoping to start making inroads into painting my mountains of 6mm and 10mm figures for these campaigns. And in relation to this I still seek out books on the subject. On this occasion I bought With Napoleon In Russia, 1812, by Lt. Vossler, a Würtemberger. (I have so many books on Russia 1812 I'm a little worried I might already have it!)

As mentioned above, usually I'd have my iPhone or iPad on me, and take a bunch of pics. But this time I had neither, as both are suffering with recharging issues. On the one hand I wasn't as impressed with the games this year as in some previous years, but on the other, a show report with no pictures of the many games seems like a failure on my part! Never mind. I enjoyed the show and came home with some fab swag.

Chausseurs a Cheval of the Guard...

the kind of stuff that got me so excited about this era...

I mean, come on... talk about martial splendour epitomised!

Perusing the Rousselot paintings once home in the evening - and I only managed the Chausseurs a Cheval before exhaustion did for me - I realised that this purchase alone made the whole trip worthwhile!

Kit Review: 1/72 Caesar Krupp Protze

I seem to be doing some things in threes: three Elefant, and now three Krupp Protze. This, the third of the latter, is a Caesar kit. I've bought their figures before. But this is the first kit I've bought/built from this company.

Unusual but quite nice to see black rubber tires.

It was only after I'd detached the parts for steps one to three - I tend to gather the parts for several steps, clean them up, and then blitz a few stages in one pass - that I noticed some had what looks like heat damage (i.e. melting) fresh out of the bag/box. The box itself is still pristine, and the contents were in an undamaged sealed bag. So obviously this damage has occurred at the factory, at some point. 

The single most obviously affected part is the piece shown below, where molten styrene disfigures the front right bumper and the right section of the engine hood. But I subsequently noticed, as shown in the next picture, that this issue also affected several much finer parts; two of the levers from inside the cabin are damaged, as was the steering wheel column. One piece, part 50, is missing altogether. Given this kit was bought brand new, factory sealed, etc, I do wonder if I ought to make a complaint?

Note the molten styrene on this part of the model.

Look closely, parts 48 and 49 are damaged, piece 50 is missing.

Fortunately I was able to fabricate replacement levers etc. from stretched sprue. And the damage to the fenders/hood, once cleaned up, might pass muster as dents received in the field. Still, there's the principle of it: a new model should be pristine! Will have a think about what to do re registering a complaint.

Plastic surgery: the disfigurement might be tolerable.

Also damaged, the steering wheel column; stretched sprue to't rescue.

Only the rightmost of the three levers is the original part.

Parts laid out ready for assembly.

I'd say the majority of 1/72 kits I build start with chassis/running gear. This one starts with the cab. Detail-wise it's on a par with the ICM model I recently built, only here the parts - at least the undamaged parts - are more robust. The ICM was rather too delicate in places. This is chunkier, albeit nowhere near as chunky as the First to Fight kit , but still nicely detailed

Cabin etc. assembled. Looks great!

Preparing the chassis components.

This all went together very nicely.

Today's modelling was done fitfully, around and in between watching a snooker match on the telly. At end of play Judd Trump was the champ, and £100,000 richer, and the accompanying pics show how the model looked, the spare wheels in their rubber tire glory in place. Aside from the damage to the parts, this is a really quite decent kit, of an interesting vehcle. I can't wait to continue and finish the build. Tomorrow... hopefully!?

The exhaust pipe kept its integrity, unlike the ICM kit.

Wheels and suspension laid out.

It's now tomorrow, and I'm pressing on. Now it's the turn of the running gear. This is lovely, going together better than the ICM, and b big way more detailed than the single-block First To Fight part. I'm not sure when I ought to out the tires on. Part of me says at the very end. I.e. keep 'em off whilst painting the truck. Paint and weather 'em separately, and then finally add them. Hmmm!?

Then it's the turn or the rear bodywork, which is all rather boxy. I have to stop, and go do some teaching, alas. So the model is on hold again, till this evening. But it's nearing completion, assembly wise.

Starting to look more complete.

I think it's actually my favourite of the three Krupp Protze models I've recently built, and that's in spite of the molten-atyrene issue. It has the detail of the ICM model, without being so fragile, and it goes together, by and large, with the same chunky simplicity as the First to Fight kit.

Chassis assembled.

Getting ready for the final assembly.

The spare wheel frame, etc, at rear is great.

Figure assembled...

Just tires, windshield and painting left.

Rear view... very nice!

Got back on the case when I got back from teaching. This is a great kit (aside from the damage), and I've really enjoyed building it. I think I'll look at painting up the three Krupp Protze soon, and getting decals on.

Painting Progress: 1/72 & 1/76 WWII German troops

Left and rear, the acrylics I already had, by Vallejo and Howard's Hues. The large group at right, the new stuff. All Vallejo.

A few odd or even downright bad experiences with enamel paints recently [1] have lead me to decide to go for it on the acrylic paint front. I have bought a few acrylics here and there over the preceding years, but on the whole since resuming miniature figure collecting I've stuck with enamels.

But a few days ago, as some grey-green Revell enamel reacted strangely with the Tamiya dünkelgelb basecoats of a few of the German figs I'm currently working on, I decided to pop into the Ely model shop, and get properly tooled up with all the necessary acrylics to make a decisive change in medium.

So, anyways, here are a few more pretty cruddy pics of the mass of German troops, now that I've started blocking in the base colours. This is all a bit experimental and work-in-progress. But I'm liking the Vallejo paints a lot. 

I want some of these guys togged out in the highly attractive and very intriguing camo-patterns the Germans developed. Working these out, so they look right to me, is proving an interesting challenge.

Lilliputians on lollipop sticks.

The foreground three rows here are all Nebelwerfer crews. If anyone knows the name of the brand of the figures nearest the camera, please let me know. I've forgotten who I got them off at whichever Salute it was a few years back! Rows two and three are Esci, rebranded as Italeri. Also visible are some Caesar and Dragon Panzer crewmen, and some Milicast SPG crew.

To the left of the previous pic are these guys. Too many brands here to list! But a lot more green in evidence. Some of the more basic figures, esp. the Airfix ones and similar, are getting the early-war look, with grey trousers and green jackets. But there are also plenty that I'm doing as mid- to late-war, a good few of whom will get some form of camo.

At the very rear are another brand currently unknown to me. Very chunky figs, but nice nevertheless, benefitting from good active poses. They appear to be in winter-sheets style get-up. But I've opted to paint them in grey greatcoats with camo smocks and helmet covers. I dunno, perhaps they might even get an unusual/unofficial (i.e pillaged from some non-German source) camo colour scheme - the Italian pattern, perhaps? - for a bit of interest.

On this latter thread, there's a great pic in the Blandford Uniforms of WWII book I'm using  for ref., of a German soldier in baggy Italian pattern camo. There's also a very interesting post on this topic here [http://souvenezvous44.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/camouflage-petits-pois-contre.html?m=1], showing that this pattern was used in theatres other than Italy itself.

Even closer in on the Nebelwerfer crews. I think I took this so I could see their back-packs/gear better!?

13/5/'16 I worked into one of the camo schemes on some of the figures today, as pictured below. Still in the 'blocking in' phase... slowly but surely! It's hard work, this four-colour pattern. 

There are a few subtle (i.e. barely discernible) differences in amongst these various groupings, where I've tried different combos of colours, but in search of the same overall look.

I do wonder how best to get the right effect, taking the small scale into account. Obviously the pattern is going to be much simpler, and is - I have to confess - very slapdash and approximate; I'm still essentially experimenting. The next step will be the various coloured dots. And then belts, heads, faces. Weapons, ammo, etc.

I really have no definite plans as yet for shading or weathering, etc. One thing's for sure tho': with the volume of figures I want to paint (and I really need to get back to my Napoleonic hordes!) I can't be too fussy. And I think with the advancing years my eyes tire quicker than they used to. Hey-Ho!

14/5/'16 - Update:

I decided to look into the subject of German camo patterns, and find out what it was I was about. I discovered that I'm gravitating to two particular types, one called (I think?) flittertarn, and another knows as Dot 44 (and numerous other things!). Pictured below is a reproduction jacket in the latter pattern, made by Epic Militaria. 

Above is a snapshot of my slow progress towards this pattern, on some of my Panzer crew figures. At such a reduced scale the pattern is both very random, and vastly simplified. But I think it's headed in the right direction. Needless to say, it's driving me, er... dotty.

15/5/'16 Today I went pretty dotty, painting little dots. Originally I separated out a bunch of figures with the intention of concentrating on some erbsenmuster  (the Dot 44 or 'pea') pattern. But then I started to work further on some figures I intend to have in splittertarn or splittermuster style gear.

In the pic immediately below the top row (Nebelwerfer crew) have splitter (splinter) patterns, the next row down (Panzer crew) are in erbsen or Dot 44. Then there are the Dragon Tiger Aces figures, in what was also originally meant to more Dot 44, but went a bit more 'Dijon Mustard', and now looks more like platanenmuster herbst, or the Autumn side of the 'plane-tree' pattern camo'. Not sure yet which way to go with the other Nebelwerfer crew, down at the bottom!!

A slightly closer in view of some of the latest camo' work.

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NOTES:

[1] It's odd: I only have two or three Revell enamel tinlets. I used one - a kind of grey-blue - on a lot of the helmets... and no probs. But when I tried the grey-green, for jackets, etc., the enamel reacted horribly with the Tamiya basecoat... dissolving it, in fact! 

1/72 & 1/76 WWII German Figures

Circa 115-120 little Germans...

I decided to start painting some figures today, to go with all my German vehicles. 

As can be seen, there's a real variety of manufacturers, materials, and quality/style. There's even a mix of scales, most being 1/72, but a few being 1/76. There are a number of drivers and tank crew, several self-propelled gun crews, some infantry, and a few odds and ends, like the AB motorcycle policemen, and artillery crews by Airfix, and Zvezda.

Other manufacturers/figures include Italeri (old Esci) Nebelwerfer crews, Caesar plastics (Panzer crew), Dragon's Tiger Aces, some Milicast resin tank and self-propelled gun crews, and some white metal figures I got a few Salutes back, by a couple of brands whose names escape me now.

Some of these are excellent, like the AB drivers and traffic cops, the Dragon Tiger Ace's, and the Caesar tank crew. Some are just okay, and some, like the very basic and rather wooden-posed older Airfix figures, are quite poor. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly!

The Milicast figures are odd, inasmuch as they have aspects that make them quite desirable/good - interesting outfits/poses - and qualities that are less winning - odd proportions and some rather awkward poses. The range of sculpted proportions across the various manufacturers is also very wide, from the most slender and naturalistic, to some really quite stocky fellows. 

Unsurprisingly it's the white metal figures that tend to be the more heavily built. Though the AB range, whilst heavier set than the Dragon or Caesar panzer crews, show that old-fashioned 'tin' soldiers can be just as pleasing to the eye as the best of their plastic brethren.

And of all the driver figures the two AB sets are hands down the best, both in terms of pose, but - and more fundamentally (unlike the Milicast drivers, which haven't fitted in any vehicle I've built yet - not even the two Milicast models!) they actually fit inside 172 and 1/76 vehicles very snugly.

One or two of these figures remain undercoated in black, as per my old method of painting. The bulk, however, after getting a coat of black, have had a coat of Tamiya Dunkelgelb. 

So, all in all, a very mixed bag!

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Bang!

Sadly, time for modelling and painting ran out, and I only got as far as two undercoats! But I was at least able to console myself with a bit of Sharpe on the box whilst eating dinner.