Sunday 22 December 2013

Now I know tanks are not everyones cup of tea but....

I must admit they are rather lovely. I'm certainly no tank expert, indeed I know very little about them beyond general military interest over the years, but I'm looking for a sort of generic battle tank to replace the plastic one's in Memoir 44. I must say that there is little wrong in the models supplied in box game, they are surprisingly well detailed tanks in 10mm scale. But I want to bring this all down to one scale - 15mm, and to be able to play on the game board  if I wish to. Bearing in mind of course that this could all go pear shaped at any time I have finally come to the conclusion that board games are the way to go for me. That said I know I will always enjoy handling model soldiers so my New Year plan is to simply enjoy replacing the blocks for various C&C games with single figures, I may never use them, who knows, but I'd like to be able to display them. I want to do C&C Napoleonics and Ancients following Memoir 44.

Hardys Ale - the official opening.
I realised recently that I had not mentioned what happened when I opened the 30 year old Hardy Ale some time back. I had paper and pen for tasting notes as requested by Steve the Wargamer, carefully removed the seal and the cap and prepared to enjoy the moment ..... I poured it carefully and slowly and it filled the entire kitchen with the most foul smell I have ever endured! Even my teenage daughter upstairs in her room shouted down " Dad, what is that stink?" I poured it down the sink and fell about laughing, it took ages to wear off.



Here's my little tank (with fond memories of Allo Allo), for a first timer it's not too bad? I think the Magic wash really worked as a quick way of weathering it down a bit. Undercoated black by hand and then it took about 1 hour to complete. I have 7 more to do through Jan!

15mm Sherman Tank from peter Pig. £7.00. Much cheaper to buy plastic, but I like the heft of this model. I'll probably add a base.







2 comments:

  1. Even before you mentioned it I was going to suggest Sherman as a suggestion for a generic tank.. :o) Pz IV or III for the Germans....??? B.t.w. do try plastic, you can fill the hulls with lead 'split pea' fishing weights to get heft... Ps. Thanks for the tasting notes on the Hardy's, I had a horrible suspicion the stuff would never last 30 years! I look forward to opening mine...!

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  2. "Tanks for the Memoirs" - Great American Songbook ;o))

    Merry Chistmas, Lee. Very sorry about the sour beer - good laugh though - a valuable life lesson for us all. My mum once gave me a commemorative Beatles picture disc - 25th anniversary re-issue of Love Me Do, I think - because it would be worth a fortune one day, so I must keep it safe etc. After about 20 years I decided to cash in my fortune and sell it on eBay. I got about £3 for it - everyone else's mum must have given them one too…

    Ach, well.

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