(Peter Pig’s new morale boosting accordion and balalaika men … )
OK, OK … I should be finishing those Landsknechts and that DBA project … but last week was a bad week so I rebelled and chipped away at some WW2 projects …
I had yet to paint up the new PP dancing Ivans but they will fill a ‘welfare stand’ gap in my Rifle Divisions (more below) and when I saw that Sink the Bismark might be going OOP, I bought a couple of sets for my ongoing Big Ship Battle project … (so I needed to try the old Airfix kits out). So here goes …
Dancing Russians …
Enough said … what a pleasing little set … Some pundits have asked what can you do with them? Well each of my Rifle Divisions has a ‘welfare stand’ or ‘aid station’ (the name is subject to revision but the function is to bolster demoralised troops): of the three, one has an ambulance, one has a field kitchen but I was unsure what to use for the third.
Sorted … it can now be cheered up by Commissars with accordions!
I think they turned out OK … They are painted in the simple style that matches their comrades in the line rather than for the showcase. The balalaika player comes with a helmet on which looked odd to me so I replaced the head with a Cossack cap .. the accordion player is straight out of the bag (as is the dancer with folded arms – I just kicked his leg up a bit) …
For variety I grafted the hand waving German mechanic torso onto the dancing legs to make the Ivan with his hands in the air (for I figure I think looks just the part) … This is a nice set but gives loads of scope for modification …
Sink the Bismark
This set was a reissue of a bundle of 1970s 1:1200 so looks like a nostalgic trip down memory lane – but turns out to be hard work like all 1970s kits … the parts don’t fit, the plastic is warped, the instructions are wrong … the usual stuff that felt like modelling to the naive teenager …
Anyway, I have persevered … and here is one of the Tribal Class destroyers plus a some planes …
(Airfix Tribal Class destroyer, a couple of Irregular Stukas and a Walrus from the Suffolk)
I think the aeroplanes at this scale are just about viable as individual models, so, seeing a role for the float planes/flying boats I tried making up and painting the Walrus as from the kit …
It’s a pretty crude model but will perform its game function well enough …
My plan with the Big Ship Battle project was to retain the abstract/toy-like characteristics of the cheap ships I has acquired but it isn’t so easy once you get the paints out. So I’m now floundering towards an acceptable compromise between modelling and abstraction … Here’s a go at HMS Suffolk …
(Airfix 1:1200 HMS Suffolk)
… and I tried out ‘the dip’ approach on the deck of HMS Hood.
(a few simple stages in the painting of HMS Hood)
I think that makes for a reasonable compromise … I guess the Hood took an evening to paint, which I can sort of live with as there aren’t too many big ships to paint – and the look is adequate for wargaming …
(Airfix 1:1200 HMS Hood)
I need to cut some more of those acrylic bases …
More of this project anon …
Meanwhile the vodka flows and the Russians celebrate the success of their Motherland into the night …
P.B.Eye-Candy 