Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Airfix Russian infantery 1/32 scale review


The Airfix russian infantery are not new figures.  They were molded years ago.  Considering that I just bought a set and I haven't found a lot of reviews on them, I decided to go forward with my own.

Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale






Exact Scale

1/35


Molding

Clean molding, nothing to say. 


Type of plastic

Hard plastic. 


Color

Dark brown


Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale

Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale










Pose



Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale


Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale
Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale

Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale
Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale


Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale





Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale



Airfix russian infantery 1/32 scale

Cost

10.99 US $ (2015)


Pros

A lot of fire power 
Cool officer pose
Perfect “Russian” brown color
Low cost 


Cons

Brittle figure for wargaming

Conclusion


Good addition to Petite Infanterie Russian line-up.  We only could wish that the original soft plastic version still exists

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Operation Barbarossa at 1/32 (episode 1)



We were looking for a short wargame which could be played in few hours and we came up with the episode 1 of Operation Barbarossa.


The plot is as follow:  a German motorized column is going forward a few weeks after the original attack.  The column will face entrenched Russians along the road.  The Russians troops have been ordered to defend a strategic stone bridge at all cost.



The strategic stone bridge












 A 76 mm F22 garding the road








The German column










Tuesday, July 14, 2015

A classic stone building at 1/32



Buildings are a cool thing to have when you do war gaming at 1/32.

It’s especially true when you use Nerf gun to emulate artillery bombardment.  If you built your building in such a way that it could be destructible, you ended up with a lot of fun.

This being said, I wanted this time to build something that has the classic look of a stone building.


To do so, I use foam blocks.  It was the first time I use those blocks I bought at the dollar store.

classic stone building at 1/32


I can say that they are very handy.  Once painted, they emulate well stone/concrete construction.


I let you see by yourself.




classic stone building at 1/32





classic stone building at 1/32


classic stone building at 1/32




classic stone building at 1/32



What about a historical picture of the stone building?  

classic stone building at 1/32

Let's get back to color!

classic stone building at 1/32


That's the result after being hit by a number of big caliber shells


classic stone building at 1/32

classic stone building at 1/32

classic stone building at 1/32




Wednesday, May 20, 2015

A Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale

A short project to equip the Petite Infanterie german army with a rocket launcher.: the Nebelwerfer 42.

Let’s look at what Wikipedia has to say about the Nebelwerfer 42

“The 21 cm NbW 42 was a five-barreled multiple rocket launcher mounted on the towed carriage derived from that of the 3.7 cm PaK 36 anti-tank gun. A pivoting stabilizer was added to the front of the carriage to steady the launcher when firing.
The 21 cm Wurfgranate (thrower-shell) 42 rockets were spin-stabilized, electrically-fired and only had high-explosive warheads. The rocket nozzle assembly contained 22 orifices evenly spaced around the rim of the nozzle with the orifices set an angle of 16° from the axis of the rocket to give the rocket clockwise rotation.[4] The rockets had a prominent exhaust trail that kicked up a substantial amount of dust and debris, so the crew had to seek shelter before firing. This meant that they were easily located and had to displace quickly to avoid counter-battery fire. The rockets were fired one at a time, in a timed ripple, but the launcher had no capability to fire single rockets.[5] The rockets could be fitted with either impact or delay fuses as necessary. Liner rails could be fitted to allow the launcher to use 15 cm Wurfgranate 41 rockets with their HEsmoke and poison gas warheads.”


What about the miniature Nebelwerfer 42?


Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale




Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale




Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale


Yes I know, I cheated…those troops are Italian.  I haven’t any german at hand when I took the picture.



Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale




Nebelwerfer at 1/32 scale

I haven’t found the right « rocket emulator ».  

I bought the disk gun when Target closed in Canada.  The feed always jammed.
What I need his a nerf gun with multiple shots.  I am still looking around.


What about seeing the Nebelwerfer in real?






That, all folks!  Your comments are always welcome.  

Sunday, March 22, 2015

How to make your own mini barbed wire

Basic idea behind the mini barbed wire

Mini barbed wire is always an interesting accessory in any war gaming theater.

We can find many very good tutorials on how to make mini barbed wire on the web.  Unfortunately, most of them use actual wire to build the miniature mini barbed wire.  It looks more realistic in a diorama but it does have a down side.  I tried that technique and I ended up having my mini barbed wire all entangled the second time I used it.   

What I propose is an easy way of building a mini barbed wire network.  It’s very fast to do and very fast to deploy on the field.  Considering that I use pickets to hold everything in place, some can argue that those mini barbed wire are more a “WWI” type.  I cannot disagree with them! 

Material required to make the mini barbed wire

To be able to build our mini barbed wire, we will need the following material:

-          -  Plastic netting like the one use to package vegetables at the grocery store
-         -   Grey and silver paints
-          -  Press wood board or Styrofoam board
-          -  Bamboo skewer
-          -  Hot clue


Mini barbed wire




The useful tools for the work are:


Glue gun
- Pair of scissor
- Cutter
- Paint brush
Mini barbed wire



Assembly technique of the mini barbed wire

Step one:  prepare the mini barbed wire itself

Any plastic netting can be used.  Ideally, choose the elastic ones.  There are some which are “not elastic” and they will not give the barbed wire look.

Mini barbed wire




Mini barbed wire
That type of netting is not suitable to do barbwire 
Mini barbed wire
This is the type to choose



The plastic netting could be difficult to unfold.    The best is to cut open the net and then use an iron to straight it.  To avoid to have melted plastic on your iron, put the temperature at the lowest and place your plastic net between two sheets of waxed paper.  Just iron it like any piece of clothing.


Mini barbed wire



Step two: paint the mini barbed wire

To get the steel color of the mini barbed wire, we must paint the netting with a silver paint.  Don’t worry if there is some uncolored parts, it will add to the realism of your mini barbed wire.


Step three: prepare the pickets which hold the mini barbed wire

Barbed wire is not a fence.   Your mini barbed wire should not stand like it.  It can loosely hold in place.  Ideally, poles holding the barbed wire should be thin as possible.  Personally, I use mini bamboo skewer.  Those are a little bit out of scale but it gives a better stability to your wire.   The base in which the pole is fixed can be either foam board or wood board.  I prefer the latter because the weight of the materiel avoids the mini barbed wire to type over.


Mini barbed wire




Step four: assemble the mini barbed wire

We are almost there.  We have everything at hand to install our mini barbed wire in the field.


Mini barbed wire


The very last thing to do and the most enjoyable one is to use these mini barbed wire in action.


Mini barbed wire

Mini barbed wire

Mini barbed wire

Mini barbed wire

Your comments are always welcome.