Army showcase: 5th Sword of Light

Hoi,

In the continuing series of Army Showcases the next instalment for Classic Battletech my regiment from the Draconis Combine the 5th Sword of Light.

This regiment came about mainly because I had bought the new starter box for Battletech which included some crude plastic battlemechs. Among them was a Dragon; a classic Draconis Combine battlemech. So I knew I had to start a Draco regiment. The choosing of a colour-scheme was quite difficult since I had a red scheme in mind when thinking of the DC but it appeared that most DC regiments have white schemes for their troops... So upon doing some research I settled for the 5th Sword of Light. They were pretty mauled after the 4th Succession War and the ensuing Clan invasion, and so they were the right unit for me to start building it up again.

At present it is made up of a near full company of mechs, just missing one for the Assault Lance, but still lacking in armoured support. The source book for the DC mentions them without such auxiliaries, but I will add them anyway. The first of these is the swiftwind scout car added in this picture.

Light and medium Lances:

Heavy and Assault Lances:

The latest additions to this regiment are this Warhammer (left), Hunchback (right) and the scout car (front) which I like pretty much. They are all splendid metal models. The Warhammer is an Unseen model, the Hunchback is from the new clam shell package "Sword and Dragon" and the Swiftwind is just an old hand lying in my bits box.

That's all for today folks!

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Ghostboy" by Gabriel Rios

Join the Alliance in their fight against the Empire!

Hoi,

As promised earlier here are some more pictures of my Star Wars Alliance fighters.
These models are from Studio Bergstrom's 1"fighter ships range, at present I only have the Alliance fighters in house, so I cannot comment on the Imperial fighters but boy are these nifty little craft!

The detail is enormously fine for such small mini's and still they paint up a treat!

First up, are more shots from the A-wings.The red one is the familiar colour scheme from the movies, the blue one I picked off of the www.

The next series of pictures shows one of my two X-wings. These are great too and much larger then the A-wing just like they would be in "real life".

Did state these craft were mine, just now? Oh well that's a small lie, since I am painting them up for my buddy Mark and his son Enzo. Like me they are huge Star Wars fans and I thought these would be cool for them to have. As I am duly in love with the Studio Bergstrom produce, I will end up buying some of these for myself in the end anyway I guess.

Cheers and may the Force be with you!

Sander

Listening to: "Tron Legacy" by Daft Punk 

Odds and ends

Hoi,

While a steady drizzle is washing away the snow outside I tried to make some pictures of some loose ends lying around here on the workbench.

A while ago I bought some very nice Star Wars star fighters from Studio Bergstrom and have finished the A-Wings. I have also finished painting the X-wings but still have the basing to do.
Due to the bad weather I could not get any better pictures but more will follow soon.

I also finished this Dystopian Wars Mansion on an Amera Plastics hill. It can double as an island or hill with mansion on it.

More stuff will be updated when available.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "The Empire Strikes Back" by John Williams

Far far from Ypres!

Hoi,

Each year I am allowed to organise a school-trip to the Ypres area. IIt's awesome to go there with 100 odd pupils and see how the madness of the Great War sinks in when we visit Tyne Cot cemetery. The Netherlands remained neutral during the conflict and so the history of the Great War is not very well known to the larger audience. The German occupation during the Second World War has made a very big and lasting impact on the Dutch National Conscience and has reduced the First World War to just one of the causes of the Second World War.
That's why we visit it: to make it more known what happened in the Trenches and in the Deserts and other battlegrounds of the Great War. We have a very enthusiastic group of teachers who pull this cart, with me in the fore.

Last Wednesday me and friend and co-worker Jos, went to prepare the visit as we do each year. This time we were able to visit more secluded spots we had not previously visited before. Places we sadly will not visit with the pupils because they are too far out of the practical route but very interesting nevertheless.

First we went to the small hamlet of Zandvoorde (near Zonnebeeke) where local amateur archaeologists have excavated a German Command bunker and made it accessible to the public. It's super and... totally for free!

I've made loads of detail shots in case I want to recreate it in scale one day

The bunker was build by the 27th Armierungs Battaljon.

Next up we went to Wijtschaete we\here another couple of bunkers are situated. According to a book I own about bunkers and pill boxes on the Western Front these have been build as New Zealand HMG nests. The bunkers were not accessible but there was a "small" cemetery located near. It's in the middle of nowhere and therefore we guessed not many visitors would come and pay their respects. As such we went up the field of honour and duly paid our sincerest respect.

Smack in the middle of the Ypres industrial park is the Yorkshire trench and dug out located. These were uncovered when the grounds were prepared for building more industrial stuff but locals called The Diggers, prevented this and restored the dug out and trench system. Sadly the dug-outs are not properly drained, and had filled with water when we attended.

Cheers Sander

 Listening to: "Far far from Wipers" collected songs from the trenches several artists






 

Finding your own pot of gold...

Hoi,

Well you can: find your own pot of gold that is! In the webstore of Warlord Games. There in the Non-historical section they have this very nice Leprechaun, called Marty McGuinness. I have a friend and co-worker who's terribly fond of Ireland, has worked for Guinness while studying in Dublin and who's family name translates into Brewers in English so what better present to give him, for his birthday then this mini? Oh I guess a huge collection of speciality beers would be better but there's no fun in there for me now is there?

So without further ado here are some pictures of my version of Marty McBrewers!

The figure itself is pretty nicely detailed, there's even a small shamrock on his coat. Yet this complicates painting a lot since you'll need at least 3 different shades of green: coat, pants and shamrock. For his hair and beard I chose orange, because I wanted a spot-colour to contrast with all the green. The pot of gold is attached to the figure itself but to make the base more interesting I added a small beer-stein and a barrel of ale.

In short: a very nice little model deserving your painting attention if ever you fancy something non-historical!


Cheers Sander

Army Showcase: The Northwind Highlanders

Hoi,

For 2013 I would like to do more Army Showcases. Since I have recently photographed most of my, still unfinished, Classic Battletech armies I thought I'd put them up.

So here's my Northwind Highlanders Unit. I have not specified which particular regiment, let alone what company, they are supposed to represent. I just needed a general mercenary unit to use in scenario's in which my regular units cannot take part. Since everyone else plays either the Wolfs Dragoons or Kell Hounds I thought I'd go with these. Also promoted due to the very nice novels depicting this elite merc unit.

Army Overview:

As you can see I have 3 lances of 4 mechs each, that makes up a full company. They are supported by some armour, artillery and a stand of battle armoured infantry.

Heavy Lance:

Left to right: Chimera, Black Hawk Ku, Battlemaster and Black Watch.

Assault lance:

Left to right: Mauler, Highlander IIC, Highlander and Archer IIC

Light/ medium lance:

Left to right: Griffin IIc, Bushwacker, Raven and Raptor

This army is pretty much finished except for some more stands of infantry, for which I lack the hex bases at present.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Sing Loud, Sing Proud" by the Dropkick Murphys

Happy 2013!

Hoi,

Happy New Year to you all!

As one year has gone and another has come, time for retro- and introspective thoughts has come as well. As always I try to steer well away from new years resolutions and this year is not different! Yes I probably should loose some weight and yes I should get more exercise etc etc etc. But as everyone knows I lack the discipline to keep to those resolutions, so why make them anyway?

Hobby-wise I'd like to stand back and take a closer look on 2012. First off, as every year, I think I've painted less figures then I wished but more then I thought I would. I did some commissions, which always puts me in a tight space since I would rather paint my own figures but also like to help friends out, and if it pays a nice sum; oh well...

Have I finished any projects last years? No not really. I nearly finished some: the 7YW Austrian army is coming along fine. With only two or three regiments of foot still to go it's pretty much done. Most of my Star Wars Imperial Fleet for Space Dreadnought is finished, excepting some Tie Fighters so that's cool. I have finished the 60th Rifles for the Salamanca diorama which is pretty much all I finished for that big project last year so that'll be a big To-Do for 2013. My KoB army for Dystopian Wars is pretty much finished save the Dreadnought. So yeah quite some things done up really nice.

A separate project altogether are my Classic Battletech armies. They are coming along just great. I pretty much finished the 1st Aragon Borderers save one mech. Same is true for the Jade Falcons, for which I still have two based mechs awaiting paint. The 5th Sword of Light needs some more armoured units and probably a mech or two. The Northwind Highlanders are pretty much done, yeah! This leaves a lot of mechs from the starter game plastic boxed set, these mechs are not really good miniatures as such but are decent gap-fillers and army builders so I will either use them to fill out the 10th Lyran Guards or start a new faction for the hell of it. I'd like to do an insane colour scheme for a change, maybe entirely purple or some Solaris stable for fighting in the arena's.More on CBT later.

This then leaves the To-Do list for 2013:

- well obviously I have to finish the afore mentioned projects.
- next up is the finishing of my Dark Angels Army. I have no idea whether I'm ever gonna use them in a game but they're too nice not to finish.
- I still have some Goblins for Warhammer Fantasy lying around which would be nice finished.
- Some small projects like a set of Pirates for both LotHS and Freebooters Fate are in the works as well.
- of course there's always Salamanca: I will probably start the groundwork or landscaping this Summer Holiday for real and try to paint up some stuff along the way.
- A long list of other historical armies is waiting for attention besides all this mainly Napoleonics and WW1 stuff.

So you see there's enough to keep me busy this year and I see no reasons why I wouldn't put regular posts up here to keep you all informed.
Old Year's Day is usually one of my more productive days in the year since we do not celebrate it as such. Yet this year was the first Old Year's Eve that Arthur has experienced consciously so we had more of a celebration then usual.

Therefore today's crop is less then I'd like. Some battlemechs I've finished:

 For the Draconis Combine 5th Sword of Light a Warhammer (left) a Hunchback (right) and a Swiftwind scoutcar in (front)

 Close up of the Warhammer:

 For the Federated Suns First Aragon Borderers:

A Valkyrie (left) and Locust (right)

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Black Ice"by ACDC