Austrian Jager - part 1

While there has been an explosion of new sets and ranges in 54mm plastics over the past decade,  there are still a lot of things you can't get.  I see this as a benefit as it encourages a bit of creativity, to the point where I look at a set of figures and think "what else could they be?"

I picked up two boxes of these Brunswick Avant Garde chaps in time for the Waterloo game in 2015 (they were cheap) and painted a set up as God and HAT intended.  They can be seen here defending Hougoumont.  The headgear put me in mind of something else though, so with next month's Leipzig game in mind I rifled through the appropriate Funcken volumes and discovered that a not wholly dissimilar hat was worn by Austrian Landwehr and Jagers.  Here at Megablitz Towers, 'not wholly dissimilar' can be read as 'pretty much identical', so a plan was made.  The Brunswickers would masquerade as Landwehr while the second box would be bodged into Jager.

Step one.  The hats were a bit high, so were cut down with a suitable sharp knife.  I took this opportunity to shave off the hat insignia too.

Trust me, the blokes on the right look a lot more like Austrian Jager than Brunswickers.

Mardasson Memorial - European Road Trip day Five, part 2

 Unveiled in 1950, the Mardasson Memorial is a tribute from the people of Belgium to those Americans who fell on it's soil.  The edifice is in the shape of a 5-pointed star and is 12 metres high.

 The roof is accessible by means of a spiral staircase.

  The monuments bears the names of all 48 states.

 Quite a view!

 The pillars bear the names and insignia of all of the US divisions which fought in Belgium.

Flaky Frogfoot - part 1

During the two recent Little Cold Wars games I received complaints from WARPACT players about the quality of their air support.  Apparently the MiG-15 /MiG-17 combination was no longer considered cutting edge even in 1979....

Thus it was that I decided to crack open this dodgy old Su-25 kit.  Acquired a few years ago, even before I opened the box the low quality cardboard lowered my expectations.

I needn't have worried.  The parts were reasonably cleanly moulded and fit was generally OK.  Bear in mind, tough, that my benchmark is 1970s Airfix....

Build complete and looking suitable menacing.  The explody bits weren't great so I opted to leave the many weapon pylons empty.

So now I will gently ponder paintwork and decal options.

In the bleak midwinter

No, not a comment on the weather which is currently very pleasant. This ancient Airfix Bf-110 followed the other out of the pile of planes recently. Unlike the desert version this on still has a full set of prop blades. For now. The markings are a bit flaky but I decided to varnish over them anyway.  While the white finish is very plain it is certainly striking.

There are plenty of models still to be recovered from this batch.