Another MUTT

Having built the Tamiya MUTT to the point where it needs spray painting, I started on another.  This one is an Academy kit which includes a mortar with crew.

The sprue looks pretty familiar - hardly surprising as it is a copy of the Tamiya 107mm mortar kit I built a while back - see the earlier post.

So on with the build.  And don't some of those parts look familiar?

Turns out the whole damn kit is a copy of the Tamiya version!

Conference of Wargamers 2016 Programme released!

The Programme for COW 2016 has now been confirmed and the 12-page document is available as a pdf download from the 'files' section of the Wargame Developments Yahoo Group.  Paper versions will be posted out today to all confirmed attendees.

 My thanks to all those who have offered sessions and to Russell King for the cover photo.

Minenwerfer

Time now for some Great War era bodging.  I found a sci-fi/steampunk type cannon on eBay and bought a couple hoping they'd be useful for something.  After the customary period of dust-gathering I was looking at a photo of some German minenwerfers.  These seemed to have been built in several different sizes so I figured that bodging such a thing was thus easier if I didn't have to worry what size the resulting model was!
Anyway, much bodging later here is the finished minenwerfer, complete with crew adapted from Armies in Plastic infantry.  I think it looks sort of OK-ish.

Oh, and did I mention that it fires plastic pellets?  Oh yes!

Making a MUTT

Recently I found myself away from home and in need of diversion.  Luckily I had brought along some kits to build.  My first victim was this Tamiya Ford MUTT M-151 with TOW.  You'll perhaps recall that I already have one of these - it can be seen here.

It's a good old kit and having built one a couple of years ago I was optimistic about my abilities to make a reasonable job of it.  Incidentally, if you want to see one built really rather nicely I refer you to Pete's Model World blog.  And yes, these are 1/35 scale Coke cans visible in his photos....

Anyway, back in Tim's Bodge World the build continued apace.  The parts are moulded crisply with next to no flash to remove.

I opted to have the windscreen 'folded' this time with the TOW launcher pointing forward.  It may be a while before the MUTT has to suffer the agonies of paint.

Oh, and apparently MUTT is US Military-speak for Military Utility Tactical Truck.  Not a Jeep then.

Starlux metal figures

During the arms race which preceded 2015's Waterloo game I was trying to address my shortage of French cavalry when I noticed some of these figures on eBay.  Now Starlux is more familiar as a maker of plastic figures so I was surprised to find that this lot are metal and came fully painted. As you can see from the photos - taken while I was adding mdf bases for extra stability - I acquired quite a few.  But then for £3-4 each for mounted figures (and rather less for foot figures) it would have been rude not to. I really ought to take some better photos of them. 

XM-1

Time for more plastic crap now!  The same box of junk which yielded the M939 trucks and dodgy HUMMWVs also contained this pair of M-1 Abrams tanks.  I think these are supposed to represent later versions but in the late 1970s world of Little Cold Wars they will be from the early production batch.  Accordingly thy are finished in overall drab green.  It's not because I couldn't be bothered painting camo....

Dug in

 Seen occupied by French troops in this earlier post, my trench system has now been inspected by the Knuston Pals.  I gather these chaps are planning to take this trench to our planned Somme game in a couple of months.