Entry for January 10, 2007

I woke up this morning and went out to stare at the detailing work I did on my Hmg teams...the firing section didn't look right to me...so I decided to add some sandbags. Sandbags made using green stuff are extremely easy. The only difficult part is keeping them from getting too large!I added a couple of rows of sand bags to the Hmg teams and they look better. So now a quick trip the art supply store for some more Liquitex resin sand medium and I can start basing my last rifle platoon.

Checking on the two platoons I based previously, with only one exception, the figures were rock solid on the stands (a few drops of cyanoacrylate fixed the single offender). So I feel confident my "new" basing method will be how I will do things in the future.

Actually I added a new twist. In another burst of brilliance (insanity?) I decided to apply the resin sand mix to the figure's base, then "work" it into the stand already coated with that same mix. The figure blended seemlessly with the mix on the stand and more time/frustration was saved. Actually in timing myself, the time is about the same, but the ease of application is a huge bonus (I hate infantry) but I digress.

I based two squads from my last rifle platoon (only one left) and applied the resin sand mix to my previously standed command and bazooka stands (8 of them).

I spent some time listening to Bush's mea culpa and after some yelling at the radio decided they weren't listening to me and went back to my modeling. I had been noticing that a number of pic's of USMC vehicles showed they chains in the tires - like snow chains. I guess using the same principle of giving better traction in the sand. I thought it might be interesting to model chains on my 75mm SPMs. Using a probe (i.e. needle on a stick), some cyanacrylate, some small chain and a magnifying glass I managed to make the basic chain structure on two of the tires. It remains to be seen if I will be happy with them.

I am avoiding putting together the 37mm AT guns (lots of small parts with ambiguous placement)...that and I ordered too many of them (4 packs of what I thought were one gun per pack; turns out they come 3 per pack...so now I have twelve). I am betting no one will allow me to make a "...force adjustment..." and field twelve of the suckers...maybe I will wreck a few and e-Bay the rest.

And that's the way it is, Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Thanks, Walter

Tim, them call him