Distracted....moi!

Of course I haven't been distracted.   Well not much anyway, in fact I'm confident that I can claim it isn't a case of me getting distracted but instead I'm just clearing some unpainted lead from the pile of shame.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  The distraction, oh yes , that.  It's the part painted World War Two stuff.  Well it's low hanging fruit isn't it.  Get it cleared and it is a good start to the years targets isn't it?  A platoon of Fallschirmjager some armour and support vehicles has now crossed the painting table, been based and is ready to go.

About a decade ago I read an entertaining book by a chap called Andy Johnson called 'Seelowe Nord' covering a what if version of Operation Sealion, itself very much a what if scenario of course, in which the landings happen on the Yorkshire coast between Scarborough and Filey.  I lived in East Yorkshire at the time and the places being described were all very local to me so of course it triggered a bout of the old "ohhh shiney complex".  The idea of armoured combat over my local geography was too good to pass up and off went an order to Heroics and Ros with follow up fill ins from GHQ Micro Armor and Irregular Miniatures  I got a fair amount painted before other things distracted me and so the balance has languished in a box for a decade or so.  In a fit of sudden enthusiasm (see not distracted at all really, enthusiasm that's the ticket) I sorted through the stuff and got down to finishing off some vehicles and figures.

The might of the Wehrmacht!  Well perhaps not.

The British stuff has already been posted so I haven't pictured that again.  This batch are the Nasty Nazis.  Fallschirmjager with blue labels consisting of three rifle sections each of an LMG base and two rifle bases, plus platoon HQ and some support weapons attached from company level.  Two bases of 50mm mortars for the Panzer Grenadier platoon and a platoon of mighty Panzer IIs.  Recon provided by the four Armoured Cars.  The rest are part of the train for the SIG33 and StugIII batteries I already had.

I came up for air yesterday and realised that I have now completed 34 infantry figures, 22 assorted vehicles and eight assorted other bits, and it's only half past January.  Next stop East Yorkshire.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

 So it's 2026 and we are off to the races already.  But most importantly I hope everyone who reads this has a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.  If you are not reading this, well.......

Now to business I have completed some of the part painted GHQ armour today and the 2026 lead pile spreadsheet is updated for the first time.  Note to self perhaps I should get out more.

Looking ahead I have the main part of the next two 17th Century posts completed. I just need to add some numerical stuff and list the sources I used.  These will cover German and Holy Roman Empire forces in the Thirty Years War.  After that I'm not sure what the themes for the year will be.  Hopefully more games so more game reports.  I still have a lot of stuff to paint and base and a few things to catalogue, these are Wild West and Sci-Fi figures mainly.  So you can expect some mind numbingly boring posts of the "wot I done lately" theme.

I will be trying to get these completed this month (the two left most rows are already done)

Interestingly (or perhaps not) the half tracks (M3s I think) in the photo are the oldest castings I own (of any genre or scale) as they must have been bought back in the mid 1970's.  Trust me it shows in the sculpting and casting quality.  I suspect they are early H&R or possibly Skytrex.  They seem huge against the H&R German Kfz70 trucks so I checked the dimensions via Wikipedia.  The M3/M5/M9 half tracks were bigger than the Kfz70 by around four feet in length.  However the casting is over scale by about 10 - 12% length wise although, oddly,  the width isn't far off being correct.  I'm not sure if I should keep them as museum pieces or bin them.  I'll have a go at tarting them up and see where to go from there.

The ten I have completed are early war British Cruiser tanks A9 and A10.

British Cruiser tanks 1930's designs which soldiered on until 1941-2

The A9 and A10 pictured above were very similar.  The A9 having the two MG turrets over the driver's position while the A10 did away with those as they were found to be shot traps.

This image popped up on Face Book as 12 years ago!  The original H&R order

You might recognise some of the vehicles in the above photo as being in the earlier part painted shot!  Worse than that some are still bare metal in the lead pile.  Yes dear reader, I really am that lackadaisical about painting projects.  Lets see how many I can clear in 2026 eh?  No taking bets at the back there.  Alright put down for a fiver on not all of them!