654 - More Scenery Bits and Bobs

Yup - I've been making more scenery for a friend, so here are a couple of snapshots: 

15mm 4-Ground desert dwellings. They are clever kits and look smashing, but they're fiddly. The one third in was bit very well engineered, sadly.

More 15mm 4-Ground - a beautiful kit with amazing latticework in the windows: three floors plus attic.

 And then there are these bad-boys (Sarissa; Antares): I showed the mine-vent-thingy on the left before; the triangular structure on the right is just the central hub of a new complex I'm building. You'll see it in a future post when it's all done, but last night I actually tried out Antares itself, so I snapped these pics.

Again, another post will follow about the Antares game.

Hope all's well,

- D.

652 - Recent Scenery Builds

Hullo All,

I just thought I'd share some of the scenery kits I've put together recently for a friend. Blogger is being weird, so in no particular order...:

Add caption

Gates of Antares stuff - Sarissa. Grey rattle can.
The pic above is the finished article, less the
acrylic gems/windows which I've left off for now.

4-Ground 15mm desert dwelling.
Surprisingly badly engineered kit.

Sarissa ghost town abandoned warehouse.
Here I've trialled a 4-colour approach, with
bare MDF, hand-painted roofing and
rattlecan internal/external wall siding.

Sarissa artillery bunker. Great design, but
designed for the inside layers to be flexible cardboard.
Instead, they were inflexible MDF,
so it took quite some fitting!

I built the 3 similar small, hexagonal
bunkers from the same Sariassa range
at the same time. They did indeed have
cardboard inside, and they were superb!

A third 4-Ground 'shotgun house'.
Beautiful kits.

4-ground 15mm hotel complex. Wow.
This kit is HUGE (like, 11x8" spread!)
and was a genuine joy to assemble!

Here you can see the warehouse WiP,
with the different internal and external
rattlecan colours...before the roof was painted.

There's plenty more to come yet...not least because my painting desk lamp died, so I can't do any painting at the mo! 

- Drax

645 - Aaargh! Too...Damned...Busy!

Work is absolutely batshit-busy at the moment, so here's some pics of just *some* of the hobby stuff I've been up to of late...

...I promise that some proper write-ups will follow soon...honest!

Fly Casual,

- Drax.

633 - Drax's Painting Charts - Now Available in Print!

Hullo All,

Great news! I've had an article published in the latest edition of 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy' magazine! 

WSS 95 - I'm there, baby!

Long-term readers will be aware of the way in which I track the progress of my modelling and painting: the fabled Draxian Paint Chart [there's usually a link on the right sidebar], which uses simple colour-coding on a basic Excel spreadsheet.

It's a self-explanatory system, but rather pleasingly I've been able to share it with the wider wargaming world through my article - here's a link to the entirely excellent magazine [link here] ...and here are the rest of my painting charts, as they stand in March 2018:

My Main Guys!

Their Late-War Foes (and the key again)

The Early-War Germans (late-1940/Sealion theme)

My Rock Apes, for Italy/NW Europe

And of course, my (recently expanded) Desert Rats

...and in 15mm, the discovery of Battlegroup has led me to revisit and start to slightly expand my old Flames of War models - also 4KSLI:

It should be noted that I do also have a small15mm Bolt Action reinforced platoon, with the troops on separate (fivepence) bases, but they've not got their own chart yet.

Until next time, then...

- Chris

627 - 4-Ground Buildings in 15mm and 28mm

Hullo, All,

This is not a review, per se, but I recently got the chance to put together some 4-Ground stuff for a friend, and I just thought I'd share its prettiness.

The kits are incredibly well designed and flawlessly cut in every case: just an absolute joy to experience!

I'll let the photos do the talking, really, but this is what it boils down to: (1) the kits are absolutely brilliant; (2) some of the instructions could be a tiny bit clearer. That is all.

15mm Buildings:

These buildings both have two terraced
premises with three floors each (incl.
the attic), all of which can take troops.

Gorgeous.

...and then the other lovely building...

Rather impressively, this kit (but
not t'other) comes with posters
and signage in German and French.
Genius.

15mm Fences and Walls (~1.5m of each):

These are gorgeous.
Fragile, yet surprisingly sturdy.

These are really solid...and even
have chunks which can be removed!

28mm 'Chicago Way' Shotgun House:

This was astonishingly good fun to put together...and a lot bigger than I had anticipated.

I had the M3 Lee nearby. For scale.

This kit has five or six different
colours, and goes together like
a dream.

'Shotgun Houses' were notable
for their all in-line doorways.

Even Mrs Drax appreciated this model - I reckon it was her Chicago South-Side heritage.

So there you go. Just brilliant.

- Drax.