Busy Week

Had a bit of spare time last weekend and managed to get quite a bit done after a busy week, the rain is back along with the cold so I banished myself to the study, popping out occassionally to offer help just to keep in with the Memsahib and quite happy to be told no. First up was the Flak 37 from Rubicon I had already built it so it was time to paint it, I had seen one with an unpainted red primed shield and it looked good, but in the end I went for a simple Dunkelgelb base and some green squigles, I add some kill rings and kill markings which came with the model so job done. I also got to work on the crew and they were very easy, civilian dress apart from the Luftwaffe officer in charge, I also gave them all Volksturm armbands. Many of the crews mentioned in the Berlin book are Hitler Youth but you can't get them as figures, not as far as I know anyway.

I also painted up the resin ruined Opel Blitz, not the best resin model I have ever seen but it is a wreck after all. I painted this in the normal three tone late war colours and fished out some truck markings I had lying around. Lastly I moved on the Sarissa European Tram, in Berlin these were filled with rubble and turned into considerable roadblocks, I had intended to build mine as per the instructions but the cardboard sides simply did not fit, I had to cut pieces off to get them on the frame, I checked and double checked, but I could not see where I had went wrong. At this point I liked the look of what I had so I did not affix the roof. I wasn't going to fill the entire model with rubble so merely spread bits of rock, gravel, bricks and the odd shard of MDF until I was satisfied, if I say so myself I liked the effect. I did the same thing on the bases to be used with the tram, truck and 88, I sprayed them all black and then gave them a lighter dusting of grey, again I was very pleased with the outcome, I mentioned before I was unsure whether to go grey or sandstone, but I am very happy with grey.

I have also built and based the Rubicon telegraph poles and lamposts, an easy half hour, they also give you signposts to put on the telegraph poles, German in design, and also a couple of posts for them, but if you do this you will have to make new bases or take one or two from the telegraphs or lights, I already have German signposts so didn't bother with these. I also found it strange they did not do some decals for them considering Rubicon's attention to details.

Oh, and my City Ruins mat arrived, I went for grey and it looks good, some of the rubble is heroic in scale but overall it will do nicely as a base for Berlin or Budapest.

Let me stick the knife in right at the start for the new Netflix TV series 'Barbarians', I watched the trailers and it is based around the disaster in the Teutoberger Forest when three Roman Legions were wiped out. First up was the hiring of the same make up artist from Braveheart whose use of blue facepaint on medieval Scots is legendary, and secondly the use of at least three blonde, screeching, size 6 models who make short work of veteran Roman soldiers. Roman bad, Barbarian good. I am losing myself in the Roman world at the moment and painting to the ever excellent 'I Claudius', this will be at least the third time I have watched the whole series, many of the women in this tale are powerful, intelligent and ambitious without ever donning some ludicrous leather corselet, showing their tonsils and pretending to slice through a lorica segmentata. I can recommend author Ben Kane's Eagle trilogy which covers this and it is excellent.

My city ruins are on the way from Poland and the desk is clear, so all I need is some spray paint and off we go. I am nearing the end of another War and Conquest game between my son (Romano-British) and club member Matt (Western Patrician Romans)so a report on that coming next.