Thursday 24 July 2014

447 - God is in the Details (More W-i-P)

Yay! Uncharacteristically true to my word, I managed to get some more painting done the last couple of nights, and I had fun (for once) painting some details - namely the blue rim round the mugs of the soldier and the NCO enjoying their brews:
Now, I checked for the historical accuracy of this classic kind of enamel mug, and I found such a variety of 'issue' mugs that surely at least a few of the Toms would've had this design. In this case, the officer has a brown mug and the driver (who also has a moustache if you look carefully on image 2) has a dull metal one.

Tea mugs are important.

Interestingly, in taking this pic I noticed that I hadn't painted the stock of the NCO's submachine gun. This is out of habit: all my other SMG-toting NCOs have the brutally metallic Sten gun, but this fellow appears to have been blessed with a Tommy gun. I'll remedy this forthwith.

Oh, and in other news I got another couple of steps complete in the assembly line of my 3rd Platoon for Flames: it'd probably be a reasonable target to set for myself to have completed my whole 11AD force by the end of the summer hols, I should think.

To help in this goal, I've also just purchased a brace of the gloriously simple drab-painted 40mm Bofors S-P Anti-Aircraft vehicles.

I'm likely to have another stab at some 40k modelling/painting again next week...

- Drax.

14 comments:

  1. Research on tea mugs!? Are you mad man?! ^_^

    Lovely attention to detail on those. Yes, do sort out that Tommy, it'll add a littlemore colour to the affair.

    SP Bofors eh? I hope it's a platoon of 4?

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    1. Thanks, Matey!

      I'm afraid I can't find £30 to spend on myself at the mo, so I'm making do with just the two vehicles for now. Besides: how on earth am I ever meant to field even half of this stuff? - my units all seem so damned expensive, points-wise!

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    2. Joys of sticking with Veteran troops mate. If you can make a list with at least 6 platoons, you should be okay though.
      It's our armour that really sticks it to us with points mind.

      (I actually only field two Bofors m'self. Nice throwaway unit for missions with reserves.)

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  2. I know the plucky Tommy was fond of his brew but researching the style of tea mugs - I'm hoping you jest otherwise you can pack yourself off to join those rivet counters over at the historical 1/35 - 1/48 scale armour club.

    What happened to the carrier that goes with this little scene?

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    1. I just LOVE the term 'rivet counters' - that's brought me joy all day: thanks, Muppet!

      No, I'm not that sad - and that's one of the reasons I stay so far away from 28mm historical! Just interested really - that's all.

      The carrier is en route - just being finished up separately.

      Cheers

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  3. Gents,

    I'm with Drax here, I can list the mugs I had on camp as a cub and scout and then as a Tom on exercise and then as a STAB when I'd grown up a bit. I've still got most of them. Along with hard-to-reproduce-in-6mm racing spoon, they're up there, immediately behind a soldier's personal weapon (fnarr fnarr) in importance. A big mug is important, as it often came back with a meal in it instead of a drink, hence the need for a spoon that was physically tied to you, for just such an eventuality. And of course you have to be able to pick out your mug from the all the others in your section. Crucial stuff for maintaining fighting spirit.

    Along with maintaining your own personal weapon.

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    1. Yup.

      I took my old favourite olive-green thermal mug into work a couple of months ago, as I was running late and the lovely Mrs Drax thought (quite rightly) that she ought to pop my porridge into it, that I might enjoy it when I got there. She did; I did.

      My colleagues seemed justifiably impressed by the notion that writing my name and hot drinks order clearly upon my mug (TEA - NO SUGAR) meant that if left temporarily out of my sight it would soon be brought to me filled appropriately with the requisite warming beverage.

      Good memories.

      I'm now wondering about a 15mm racing spoon. Hmmm...

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  4. No biscuits with the tea? Where's the attention to detail?!?!?! :-) Seriously though, that looks great. I love seeing things like that on the table top, really adds some colour and character. Great work. Cheers, Paul :-)

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    1. A good point; well presented. *...thinks...*

      Thank you for the kind words, Paul.

      Am I right in thinking you're down Bournemouth way? I only ask as I'm to-ing and fro-ing along the A35-A31 between Devon and Portsmouth quite often at the mo, and if that's the case, I was wondering if it might be possible to swing by a club night or somesuch? Just a thought...

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    2. Ahhh, unless the A35-A31 includes some sort of mega-tunnel through the centre of the earth to the southern hemisphere, I'm afraid not. I'm in New Zealand! About an hour north of Wellington. Otherwise, that would be a stirling idea! It would be great to meet up with more friends made via the internet, but we are somewhat isolated down here :-(

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    3. Ach! Boy do I feel stupid!

      Yup - I reckon you really are, as you say, just about as far away from here as it's possible to get.

      Mind you, I feel like I may be be more isolated, gaming-wise!

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  5. http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=172&page=1

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    1. Brilliant! Thanks! I love the video clip in particular...although sadly, if you look again at the Para officer model (below) it does look rather unfortunately as if he needs imodium rather than tea...: http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=6227

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  6. Its funny but I see errors in my painting in the photos that I couldn't see by eye. I guess my camera has a higher resolution.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!