Fort Vaux....sort of

 A few months ago I began working up another 54mm Great War game.  This involved another visit to Verdun - this time a bit further east, near Fort Vaux.  This meant I'd need a fort.  Big forts were very impressive fashionable things for late 19th century governments to build, but they were very expensive.

I opted to avoid the 'impressive' and 'expensive' elements, and indeed accuracy as I instead hacked about a slab of 2-inch insulation board with a bread knife.  Some of the offcuts were used to make the outer banks of defensive ditches.  Observation cupolas and a gun turret were added from mdf and the ensemble daubed with emulsion paint. It's pretty ghastly but I think it gets the point across.

Our other Verdun adventures include the left bank, Douamont and of course the real thing!

Bastogne Barracks museum

 During the recent trip to the Ardennes, Russell and I visited the Bastogne Barracks AFV collection.  I'd seen this in 2017 (see link here) when it was rather crammed into a single building.  Accommodation and visibility has considerably improved (although the lighting isn't great), with the collection spread between two buildings.  It's well worth a visit!  I'll let the photos tell the story.

Stug III

M-16

M-26

German 20mm AA

"Forward to the West!"  Russell and 'his' JS-3

Valentine

ISU-152

Staghound

Opel 'Funkwagen'.  Not a mobile disco...

Bedford QL

detail of the Sdkfz-7

Berliet recovery truck - still in use around the workshop!

Panzer IV

M-22 Locust

M-4A3E8 Sherman

AMX-VCI and M-75 APCs

The JS-3 again

M-41

Belgian 47mm AT gun

M-16 again

M-41 again

Hetzer

Humber Heavy Utility Car

Lloyd Carrier

Daimler Scout Car

Panzer IV

Sdkfz-7 with 37mm AA gun

M-32 ARV

and a Sherman.

Olympic games? Part 2

With the basic build complete I slapped on a black undercoat.  During this process a surprisingly small number of parts fell off.  Then it was on to the actual paintwork.  I didn't go with the white of the original as I wanted a generic 'big rusty battleship' look.   So far so good then....
 

Olympic games? Part 1

If building dodgy old plastic kits is ever recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee I think readers of this blog could put up a pretty strong team. Though turning up in a cloud of polystyrene cement fumes might cause issues with the drug testing equipment...

Anyway, on to this dodgy old kit.  Purchased from the COW bring & buy a few years ago with no particular plan in mind, it seemed like a useful thing to have in stock.  Inspiration struck a few months ago, meaning I'd have to build the thing.

The original USS Olympia is perhaps best know as the US flagship at Manilla Bay in 1898.  Decommissioned the following year, she returned to service as a training ship in 1902 and subsequently saw service in the Great War.  Perhaps her most poignant voyage was made in 1921 when she carried the remains of the US's unknown soldier home from France.

So much for history.  I have two game ideas which require this model - in neither of which will it be a US warship...  But rusty old battleships all look similar and that meets my consistently low standards.

The build was not without challenges - forgivable in view of it's price and antiquity.  As you can see, a lot of masking tape was used to hold it together while the (copious amounts of) glue dried.  So now it's starting to look like a ship.