From TimG - Goliath!

I picked up this set a few months ago as I had a (vague and as yet unrealised) idea for a game. As the photos suggest, the box contains the makings of three figures and two Goliaths, making it a pretty handsome buy for under £10. 

From TimG - 1/285 Scud TEL

Just finished two of these GHQ monsters.  Most of us will associate Scuds with the 1991 Gulf War but they’ve been around in various forms since the late 1950s. The Soviet designation for the missile is 8K14 and the TEL (transported/erector/launcher) vehicle is a MAZ-543. I recently discovered that MAZ still exists and continues to churn out heavy trucks in Minsk (Belarus).
I appreciate that opportunities to field a system with a range of 700km may be limited, but that’s no reason not to have one. Or two.
And yes, the missile should be the same green as the TEL but where would be the fun in that?

From TimG - BAOR Blowpipe AAGM teams

As part of my current project to finish various Cold War bits I have here are a couple of British Army of the Rhine Blowpipe teams. In my NBC game they represent platoon-size units. The figures are GHQ and were painted last week. The Landrovers are Heroics and Ros models which I  painted in the early 1980s!
Both Landies are 109 LWB Series threes - a standard pickup body on the left and a FFR (fitted for radio) hardtop on the right.

From TimG - 1S12 ‘Long Track’ radar

Bit of a cheek this - a whole post just for one 1/285 scale model!  But it is a big ‘un. The 1S12 (NATO reporting name ‘Long Track’) was the target acquisition radar for the SA-4 Krug AA missile system. But far more importantly it looks pretty damn cool. This is a C in C model and came in five parts. If it looks a bit squint that’s because I dropped the damned thing on the floor during painting. The (acrylic) paint is Humbrol Grass Green over a black undercoat, painted over with a wash of water with a tiny bit of black in it, a drybush of Vallejo light mud and finally a scoosh of matt spray varnish.

From TimG - Soviet Independent Tank Brigade, 1980s

A bit of a change of scale now - and the first 6mm toys I’ve completed for about 8 years!
Having taken new interest in my NATO Brigade Commander (NBC hereafter) game of late, I’ve been revisiting some drawers full of bits and pieces to see if I could assemble any complete units. There was actually more than I thought so I’m currently focussed on the Cold War units. This means that we have French and West German (remember them?) units coming soon, but for now here is a ‘quick win’ in the shape of an Independent Tank Brigade. These models have actually been painted and part based for some years so I only had to finish off the basing and do some touching in of the paint. 
In NBC, most stands represent NATO-style companies so Warpact tank battalions usually merit only two stands. The three tank battalions of the ITB, however, each have five 10-tank companies so I’ve represented them by three stands each. Other Brigade assets are companies of AA, engineers, recce and HQ.  The tanks are T-80U by GHQ, with other models by Heroics & Ros, Scotia, and ISM. The stands are 30x40mm cut from artists mounting board. The little squares  in the rear of the bases are bits of magnetic strip to allow the attachment of strength point markers if the toys are used in my Megablitz game. 

From TimG - German Assault Pioneers

 More lockdown painting to report now, in the form of these WW2 Germans. These beautiful plastic  figures are by TSSD. There are some lovely poses - I especially like the guy running with the flamethrower (don’t try this at home!) whose bare left arm reveals a wristwatch! Unfortunately one of the chaps has already checked out - possibly in protest at my painting. These will go well with the TSSD infantry I finished back in February. 

From TimG - Soviet Hurricane

 Having commenced the build of this ancient Revell Hurricane with no particular plan in mind I eventually decided to follow up my recent La-7 and finish it as a Soviet machine in much the same colour scheme.  I hand painted some shaky stripes on the tail and the decal box provided the rest.  Given that the Hurricane is  - certainly to my eyes - such a distinctive shape it's quite difficult to make it  look 'different'.  I hope you think it's a success.

From TimG - WW2 German gun crew

 I’ve just finished a pair of 3-man WW2 German gun crews - here is one of them at the controls of my 21st Century Toys 88mm gun (a pre-painted model which I bought a couple of years ago). They’re plastic figures by CTS and are a good match for the TSSD infantry figures. 

From TimG - Lavochkin La-7

 When I ran a Little Cold Wars game based on Task Force Smith in Korea a couple of years ago I used  a Lavochkin La-5 as part of the NKPA air support. I happened to mention at the time that it really should have been an La-7 which earned me displays of mock outrage from the players.  Carrying on the joke, a couple of weeks later John presented me with this fine (and presumably very cheap) kit, insisting that it be ready for a re-run of the scenario. It was a simple kit to build and I opted for a colour scheme based on the box art. 

From TimG - 1/32 WW2 Brits

Lowering the alarmingly high standards of paintwork on this blog is this batch of WW2 Brits for North Africa. These chaps are a mix of Airfix, Matchbox and Timpo plastic figures. They’re daubed to my usual ‘toy soldier’ style so it’s best not to look too closely at the photos!

From TimG - Romanian Bf-109E

Searching for 1/72 air support for my 1/32 Romanians, I spotted in a pile of unbuilt plastic this Hobbyboss kit of the Bf-109E-3. I remembered building a brace ofHobbyboss 109G a while back and that they had gone together very nicely. Confident that I had some crumbling Romanian decals, I opened the box for a look. Like the Gustav, it seemed a simple and well-moulded kit. But the best was yet to come as the box also included a set of Romanian markings!

Here is the completed Emil resplendent in Romanian markings and hastily posed ‘in flight’.

TimG in the garage....

 I acquired this mdf kit a couple of years ago and built it over the weekend. I think it’s designed to accompany 28mm toys, so 1/56 scale or thereabouts.  It arrived in my possession without instructions so I blundered my way through assembly. In spite of this it turned out OK and I gave it a basic paint job using emulsion and cheap acrylic paints.
It looks like a lot of old village garages used to - and not just here in the UK. It’s pictured here with a couple of 1/43 scale diecast cars. A side project of mine is an attempt to amass a collection of models of all the cars I’ve owned. At the petrol pumps is a Volvo 850 in more or less the same colour as my 1992 2.0 20V GLT (owned 1998-2000) while lurking inside is a Saab 9-5 standing in for my 2004 Aero (owned 2009-2013).

Terrible twin Tigers by TimG

These 1/48 scale kits came  - with some other bits and pieces - off eBay a few months ago. I’m not sure what make(s) they are, but some of the bits were in a Nitto box. There were actually three  Tigers, all were rather battered. So over the past couple of days I’ve rescued two more or less complete tanks for the pile of bits. Both already had a base coat of dark sand so I added a version in of the rather glamorous ‘ambush’ scheme and applied a minimal selection from the decal box.