Plastic Warrior show 2023

 Yesterday I had a jolly day out at the PW show in Twickenham, West London.  It seemed well attended and some brisk trading was observed.  I sold a bit and bought a bit less - the difference being more than enough to cover my petrol costs.  It was nice to see so many old and newer friends - to name but a few, Jack, Paul, Brian, Anthony, Mike L, Mike C, Graham, Steve, Diego…..well you get the idea.

Here are most of my purchases.  The Basevich WW1 German cavalry were  - for plastic figures - fantastically expensive (£25 for a box of four mounted figures) but are very lovely. 

Replicants always has a new set or two for the show. This year it was two sets of medieval peasants - always useful!  

I was rather taken with this unsmiling Del Prado Red Army officer. 

Great War British officer by Tradition. 

Probably my favourite figure of the show - Great War British sentry.  Skewered on his bayonet is a chemically treated gas indicator.  Though it looks to me like cheese on toast!  

Bogged down?

 I need some marshes for a game. The terrain will be my Hexon tiles - the hexes are 10cm across. I therefore decided to paint a couple of 8cm mdf circular bases, painting small blue pools with two coats of gloss varnish. The rest of the bases were flocked to match the Hexon. 

To get more value from them I decided to paint the other sides too, as small lakes. 

I think they’re quite successful. 

Carrying on

I’m a big fan of the old diecast Lone Star Bren Carriers.  Some time ago I picked up a few with an assortment of crew figures and recently I decided to sort a couple out as a present (lucky them!) for my 54mm WW2 Sovs.  I gave them a rough coat of green paint - just enough to cover all the bare metal areas. The running gear can be much improved by painting it all black and then picking out the wheels and suspension units in the same green.  A bit of gunmetal on the tracks completed the painting.  The crew figures are hard plastic and look more USA than USSR, but as usual a bit of paint makes all the difference.  DP machine guns were added, along with Soviet markings - a combination of decals and paint.  A coat of gloss varnish finished them off.  

Plant a tree in 2023!

 I’ve been vaguely intending to rebase some trees for a while now.  I have a few individually based and could do with more.  To that end I dug out a box of multi-based trees and separated them.  My box of random mdf bases was raided for suitable 20x20mm squares. All were drilled and a tree threaded into each square, with a dab of PVA to keep them in place.  The following day I painted one base at a time then immediately thrust it into my box of flock.  When they’re dry I’ll brush off the surplus flock and er, that’s it.

As to the trees.  The nicer ones were bought at a show in the 1990s for something like £0.40 each.  And if you think that’s a bargain, the ‘Christmas’ style fir trees were bought in a model shop in Scotland in the 1980s for £0.05 each!  What great value terrain!