Tag: 1/72 plastics

Fragment 26/1

Last year I started some posting ideas around bits of things which did not really make a post but when combined with others could justify a post in their own right.

After the first two fragments of 2025 things sorted of dried up a bit. Or rather my focus was on specific miniatures or gaming posts.

I am going to have another try this year and ironically the first driver is the same as last years – magazines. And with further irony the second idea mimics fragment 25/2 – books.

However to kick off 2026 fragments I am going to mention painting challenges. These have kind of taken over my painting activities to the extent that three define my painting year.

First up is “paint what you got”. Now this challenge by Dave Stone works for me because it drives me to dig out what I have either half painted or abandoned. It has proved its worth.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/mid-19th-century-wargames/page/2/#:~:text=The%20Painting%20Portrait%2025a%201848%20Bavarians&text=The%20portrait%20approach%20should%20enable,a%20ball%20topped%20pin%20head.

Second is the Analogue Painting Challenge. I took this on at no14 and so I am on year three.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/

This challenge has caused problems in that it got my ideas flowing and instead of reducing the lead mountain I ended up scratch building models during the challenge as the “themes” caught my imagination.

On the positive side I have found a use for those magazine freebies and indulged in my recycled household junk heaps to create spacecraft.

Klim class Intra planetary trader from AHPC15

I also think it propelled me into painting a background for my model displays – retiring the painting pedestal in favour of the painting portrait. In fact I even produced a sci-fi background last year.

Ahpc invariably overruns well into spring so now absorbs about half my painting year!

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/04/26/the-painting-portrait-25k-ahpc15-leftovers/

The third challenge is Dave Stones scenery season which runs over the summer. Or in my case summer into autumn. This has proven a godsend as scenery production was nil and an ever increasing list of kits, models or ideas were tying me up in knots.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/category/scenery/

So three challenges which basically cover the whole year of my painting activities.

Maybe in another fragment I will say something about the impact of these challenges on my painting activities themselves.

wargaming

Paint what you got Challenge Pt2 – Citroen Avant

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 2nd Feb 2026
7 Comments on Paint what you got Challenge Pt2 – Citroen Avant

ACE models seem to have reputation for accuracy and detail. This was my first kit by them.

The kit went together well and I am happy with the result.

Yet the glazing element was not modelled- you got some paper outlines to make your own.

I think because it’s a car and to be honest a small car sold in a standard sized kit box and at a standard price (excepting low cost vintage airfix/hornby) the omission of some glazing or say a driver feels a bit mean. Maybe we are spoiled by airfix in terms of content.

Back to the vehicle I have given it a simple green finish and have yet to decide on transfers/markings.

I made my glazing from some delicatessen hard plastic packaging. Was it German sausage or French charcuterie – I can’t remember!

I scratched the rear window to imply it’s cracked while I added some cardboard wipers to the front screen – again these are a feature of the vehicle yet omitted by the maker.

So another Fauxterre 1930’s vehicle joins the growing car park.

Tags 1/72, 1/72 kits, 1/72 plastics, 20-25mm, miniature figures, miniatures painting, paint what you got challenge, wargames, wargaming

wargaming

Paint what you got 2026

It’s that time of year in the uk when the short days encourage indoor hobbies like wargames and there is no better way to improve your figure painting volumes than by joining a challenge or simply painting with friends online or face to face.

This years “paint what you got” has me trawling the paint queue rather than the metal/plastic mountain.

https://wargamesculptorsblog.blogspot.com/2025/12/paint-what-you-got-20252026.html

So first up are these Danish Guardsmen in their 1848 finery.

By 1849 they had swopped the late napoleonic style red coatees for dark blue tunics following the fashion set by Prussia and Piedmont in the early 1840’s. However they kept their bearskins.

So these figures show the twilight of the “Napoleonic style”.

I used British grenadiers from Strelets Crimea range. These are 1:72 plastic injection mouldings. The style is squat and bulky – note Strelets figures vary by sculptor.

Generally plastic injection figures look far better painted so don’t be put off by your visiting plastic soldier review. Indeed the reviews are candid but then again Pauls Bods blog https://paulsbods.blogspot.com/2021/03/vikingsaxon-shield-wall.html shows you that even the most unpromising figures can be transformed through a decent paint job. Pauls Bods site has numerous plastic examples of exemplary painting.

Finally strelets are an Ukraine company and continue to produce a vast range of figures and have done so throughout the Russian invasion.

So as we approach yet another unwanted anniversary go buy some Strelets, preferably at your nearest bricks and mortar model shop.

Tags 1/72, 1/72 plastics, 1848 Danish, 1st Schleswig Holstein War, 20-25mm, mid 19th century wargames, miniature figures, miniatures painting, paint what you got challenge, painting figures, painting miniatures, strelets, strelets 1/72, wargames, wargaming, Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe

miniatures painting

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 16

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 16th Dec 2025
4 Comments on Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 16

So AHPC16 is upon us – well the 21st December is storming towards me far too fast.

In previous years – well the last two to be exact – first year I started preparing on the 21st way too late and then last year did prepare one primed unit beforehand but held off having a plan before knowing about the themes which then derailed me with a sci fi bug.

I found I was doing stuff (deciding about theme models or simply digging out figures to clean and prime) but not actually painting colour – much before the January deadline loomed into view!

So this year I started my plan in November!

And I have primed some of the planned pieces.

And I decided to ignore the theme and just see what came along.

And lucky me this years three themed pieces have fallen nicely into place within my plan.

Declining Empire should see some planned 1848 Hungarians appear

Childhood toy memory fortunately gets the wild geese treatment from the 1700’s

And rebels hopefully will see some Covenanters appear before the various deadlines

Alas last years failed star of my show might fail to appear yet again. As its anniversary related this is a constant theme – I started my 28mm stoke field armies in 2015……still not much progress ten years on!

And now I have scenery options nudging their way into my plan.

I was hoping to get some more Fauxterre 1930 kit done.

Then there were the 1848 Hanoverians, 1848 Neapolitans, 1700 French Dragoons, 1848 Roman infantry all crying out to be on the plan – the list goes on and on.

Way too much of course for this painting snail, which having done a plan shows so well. It means the exercise has proved its worth already.

However real life is very very busy right now so I might fail on all fronts!

The optimistic wargamer marches onwards……

1/72 scale figures

Fauxterre 1930: up, up and away

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 3rd Nov 2025
9 Comments on Fauxterre 1930: up, up and away

Fauxterre 1930 remains a work in progress, no gaming for eons and painting units seems endless. This could be because I get distracted!

In this case distraction of the aviation sort occurred at a couple of wargame shows.

The Other Partizan in 2024 fielded a luscious blue biplane. A suitably inter war affair still includes cavalry and tech like biplanes although I think this demo game was Russian Civil War era.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2024/10/15/the-other-partizan-2024/

Then there was Recon 2023 where Height 518 demo game saw the Italians losing again to the Greeks in a 1941 Balkans encounter.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2023/12/11/recon-2023-at-pudsey/

I was gifted an old second hand biplane and eventually it ate my brain and had to be made. And thus triggered me digging out a bricks and mortar store purchase – another biplane.

Of course these models offer little to an empty wargaming battlefield!

This has been my Fauxterre experience – lots of distractions.

Anyway first up lots of make photos

And then came the painting which took a lot longer than I expected. Then the Matt varnish would not Matt. At least both transfers went on a treat.

Plane from 83 squadron of 5th Air Regiment in Brno

Another letov S-16 this time from no. 63 Squadron 2nd Air Regiment in Olomouc – a crack squadron of very experienced pilots.

Did I tell you I had two S16’s……

Just the one plane in Spanish civil war markings for the German legion

So my Fauxterre forces have some bombers and fighters to go with a floatplane spotter. Progress of sorts!

Tags 1/72, 1/72 plastics, 20-25mm, aircraft, Czech forces, Fauxterre, Fauxterre 1930, miniature figures, miniatures painting, operation high street, Recon, Spanish civil war, the other partizan

miniatures painting wargaming

Operation High Street part III

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 6th Oct 2025
4 Comments on Operation High Street part III

Back in 2021 I accidentally picked up a lucky find in a charity bookshop. It was a hard copy book in their vintage section so it was priced up.

The book by Charles Grant Senior had a garish 1970’s cover you could not miss….

Operation Highstreet

Simply to find such a rare beast in a bricks and mortar setting made me buy it. I mean I had no interest in anything beyond my recently set limit of 1870 (up from 1735 due to discovering the wargame delights of 1848).

I bought it, I read it, I was energised! Suddenly I had this idea to start a small side project with limited objectives.

Buy from real shops – bricks and mortar

Use the book idea

Limit the forces to those in the book

Use Fauxterre

Fauxterre has become my catch all imaginations world for gaming ahistorical forces and situations. Although it is really fantasy that term implies dragons and otherworldly ideas. So Fauxterre 1930 was born – one of several realms……

Mythical Realms

In this case instead of Red v Black I would have Ochre (Vossakia v Azorians) Brown. Ok so the Vossakians look a lot like Russians and the Azorians have more the a passing resemblance to early war US troops.

Charles Grant used readily available models and figures in 1/72 and 1/87 and also used hannomags for both sides.

The theme with ahistorical imaginations gaming is you can mix it up.

Despite deciding to follow the book process I did not want the book period of late WW2. Instead I wanted prewar – biplanes, poor tank development and hardly any blitzkreig etc. ok so monoplanes and tank modernisation would figure alongside motorised units. In other words a bit of everything.

And then I created two projects after rushing to buy the figures in my local shop which I liked. Yes the plastic soldier company Russians were suitable for 1930’s use and so were the US soldiers (1942 m1 helmets though) but for some reason I had a split personality moment and opted for them to be later prewar!! While some other shop bought figures became early prewar: This was solely due to wanting some Adrian helmets in the period. Of course in TORCH 1942 you get Adrian helmets up against M1’s but that’s yet another story.

Confused? Yep the problem with making it up is being consistent with your invention……….no chance!

Back to Fauxterre 1930. I quickly got plain infantry for both sides painted then read about the PSC US support troops scale problems – this typical dip in the project track simply derailed the whole thing!

It’s just one of those things. Since then the project has acquired a lot more equipment (all in the paint queue) and other figures (all in the paint queue) and even some aircraft – yet more distraction.

Finally though, I have managed to heave some figures over the line.

Back to the Russians again, I do like the sculpts (except the flat guy who seems to be reaching between two walls…..)

Anyway first up we get some machine gunners

Then we have some mortars light and medium?

Then we get a couple of anti tank rifles

And finally a couple of 37mm anti tank guns.

In the foreground gun said squeezed sculpt is almost facing camera – ok he looks alright after all……..just real shoulder ache.

Not sure when the next completion might appear though. Either way these chaps will join the infantry who have already had some escapades

Fauxterre 1930+ The Observer

Painting Pedestal 23X: Tacfos* – the game – episode 3

Don’t hold your breath when it comes to Fauxterre 1930….

Tags 1/72, 1/72 plastics, 20-25mm, Charles Grant, Fauxterre 1930, miniature figures, miniatures painting, painting figures, painting miniatures, the plastic soldier company, wargames, wargaming, world war two, WW2

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 19th Jul 2025
11 Comments on Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Crikey what’s going on?

Like most wargamers I guess when you stop and reflect upon your hobby, your traits often pop up.

In my case I am more process than creative perhaps more risk averse as well. So that’s the wargaming general who gets his logistics sorted before attacking – and maybe never attacks as a result 😂 queue heap of unpainted figures and of course scenery.

You could of course burrow into all this personality assessment-briggs myers style. Anyway this is a long intro to justify this!

So instead of carefully planning my scenery making I just dug out any thing I could find and started building – note, no painting.

Of course one item is self coloured so it’s done! Dating from the days of the USSR and the DDR it shows there is nothing new under the sun – even back then modellers fed up with the painting step were catered for.

Three years ago I made a tower one summer after discovering Dave Stone’s challenge. Last year it prompted me to trawl my bridges and defences pile to excellent effect. Heck I have even managed to game them!

This year the reaction to July’s starting gun has been a frenzy of building – in fact anything I could find. And especially those “I will make this when I have time to do it justice”.

So I have

An italeri church

An italeri railway station

A warbases church

Two warbases cowboy town buildings

A vero (1980’s) 1/87 scale model railway church ready coloured

A blotz starter pack for 20mm Bronze Age fortress.

No idea when some paint will get sploshed on them……

Thanks Dave 😉

Tags 1/72 plastics, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, Table Top Battles, wargames, Wargames buildings, Wargames scenery, wargaming

wargaming

Le siège de Rome 537

La production de figurines, malgré les progrès immenses de l’impression 3D, est étrangement en déclin. Cela s’explique évidemment aussi par la guerre…
Le siège de Rome 537

If you need an english version it’s not too much to foto the five text sections which are conveniently sized and then select scan and translate options in your smart phone.

Also Chariobaude has an excellent WordPress blog which I discovered way back in 2017 covering fantastic painting of late Roman miniatures.

Tags 1/72 plastics, and, bastille day, miniatures painting, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 8th Jul 2025
2 Comments on Season of Scenery Challenge

Fortunately John over at “just needs varnish” reminded me that Dave Stone’s challenge started at the beginning of July.

Last year I had a very fruitful time in fact my challenge ran into the end of September! It did not do my figure painting any favours though.

Yet I had so much scenery waiting to be done it proved to be a rich vein.

Well this particular ore vein is still rich.

Loads of possible scenery opportunities accumulating 😆

So far that is two churches and a railway station finally out of their boxes and just about built.

Painting may be a stumbling block – I get quite hesitant about colours. Cold north or warm south…..

* Could be I have drawn loads of early pacers who then fade away……..

I wonder what else will come from the pit of scenery?

Tags 1/72, 1/72 plastics, mid 19th century wargames, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming, Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe

wargaming

One Hour Wargames and 2 more Sneedens

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 3rd Jul 2025
4 Comments on One Hour Wargames and 2 more Sneedens

The thing about one hour wargames is it’s genuinely “pick up” attraction. If you want to throw dice, move figures and get that war game with a purpose feeling for minimal preparation, then I find it’s a winner.

Yes, the mechanisms are abstract but you have to compromise somewhere and Neil Thomas rules generally offer that blend of compromises I like.

These battles were prompted by my reading atlas of the civil war and discovering Robert Sneeden – a Union Cartographer. https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/06/05/a-game-wow/

In the first game the Royalists held the hill with some rookie blues and grays in action

The royalists divide their forces to hold both enemy objectives

The royalists include this new blue unit

Rebel forces enter the fray

Rebel victory

The rebel attack on the town is overwhelming

The rebel cavalry destroy the royalist right wing infantry

So the second battle ends in Royalist defeat. It’s all square and all to play for…..

The royalists needed to escape through the town and up the great road……

The royalists choose the remote river crossings on their left wing to make progress

The royalists are peppered by the rebel skirmishers

And so victory to the rebels in the action and also the short campaign.

Today of course saw the end of 3 days of fighting at Gettysburg – the great Union victory which along with the capture of Vicksburg saw the war finally turn against the Confederate Southern States.