Project: Stalingrad board Ideas

For some time, Brother Handro and I have wanted to build a Stalingrad board....but Stalingrad has buildings, and roads, and rubble, and trains....and is generally...difficult.

Here are a selection of my key thoughts and my first steps with this process!

First off is the iconic fountain.

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This iconic fountain from Stalingrad has been nicely replicated in 28mm by Puppets war, and can be found here. I already have this, and so of course will be using it for this project.

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Next is the trains/train yard. I love the look of this train below:

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I helpfully heard of some cheap plastic, battery powered train sets for sale in a local bargain store and went out to buy two of these sets. They are pretty basic but have some details. I think with some damage, some heavy weathering and a nice big star on the front they will do nicely!

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Finally I need an idea for the layout. For this I will be looking through top down images of Stalingrad to find some ideas and inspiration.

Im hoping to make a 4x4 or 4x6 board for this project, modularity might be sacrificed for the greater good, but 4 2'x2' boards could work too! Watch this space!

Der H

Review: Konflikt '47 Soviet Heavy Infantry

Today I'll take a quick look at the Soviet Heavy infantry. I almost bought the taster set of these guys, but once I saw the full set on sale I had to get a box!

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The ten man box is enough for 2x 5 man squads or 1x 10 man squad. At 140pts for 5 these guys arent cheap to field, but with 5 special rules and the dual weapon pack with AT rifle or SMG modes make them very useful!

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A nice set with 5 pairs of poses and a multitude of arms to attached means there is some flexibility with poses. There are 4 models (2 pairs) with static left arms - suitable to add custom assault weapons I guess - and the rest are paired dual weapon packs.

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The detail on the weapon packs and the bodies themselves is very clean, and the rivets are going to make drybrushing and detailing much easier. I love the rust effect used on Warlords' own paint scheme -> watch this space!

Der H

Thought for the Day: "Ни шагу назад!"

Project: Der H's Shermans!

Behold, there is life in this blog yet!

After a few tough weeks we have had a flurry of activity with enough content to last a month....ish!

Anyway. Some time ago Brother Handro and I bought the Tank War starter set from Warlord Games. A fine set it was, so fine it sat untouched for an age. But no longer!

A nice tidy sprue!

A nice tidy sprue!

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I tried to make each one individual in its own way. The MMGs face different directions, the damage is different, and the central tank (to be used as my command tank in Tank War) has sand bag extra armour (albeit light!).

Im keen on adding camoflage to them also, similar to that seen here:

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Perhaps this last one is closer to the level of cover my command tank has!

What do you think of the work guys? These have been primed since the pictures above and hopefully I can get some paint on them this year.

Der H

Unboxing: Konflikt '47 Pz IV-X

No post today, but we do have a new video showing our unboxing of the Pz IV-X from Warlord Games!

https://www.thehobbybutterflies.com Description: The Hobby Butterflies un-box the Pz IV-X from Warlord's Konflikt 47 range. See a review and images over on our blog. Credits: Music: (When I get low I get high (Ella Fitzgerald) revamped by DJ Ecklectic Mick is licensed under a Creative Commons License.)

...and since we filmed it, Brother Handro even built it!

He even humoured me and posed a Pz V/IV...

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Hope you enjoy the video!

Der H

Thought for the day: "Place your trust in the Emperor's steel"

Review: Konflikt '47 Soviet Terrror Squad

Another review for you guys, and yet more from my recent purchases from Warlord Games!

This time we have the Soviet Terror Squad.

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This set gives 5 metal models - the appropriate size for a unit, funnily enough!

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Nice sculpts already! some good poses and nicely dynamic, even if three of them are shouting at the sky....probably raining again...

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They come with a nice set of knives and assault rifles/SMGs. The knives do actually look sharp - something even GW struggles with (Brother Handro: "Good old butter knives").

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A nice kit, and a steal when on sale - I'll get these guys built this week and added to the shelves of grey!

The story for these guys is that they have a form of anti-freeze in their veins and are immune to both cold and fire. They're also fanatics and fast on table top, so for 65 pts you're getting A LOT of fun!

Der H

Thought for the day: "The keenest blade is righteous hatred."

Project: Der H's September pledge - Terrain

I seem to remember pledging to finish some terrain....oh wait I totally did that!

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This represents the snow on all of my Battle of the Bulge terrain, and means that my terrain half of the pledge is nearly done! I still have to complete the buildings that go on two of these tiles, but with a white felt board and these pieces we can finally start the defence of Bastogne!

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The snow is the good old bicarb/PVA/White paint mixture and went on super well!
What do you guys think?

Der H

Thought for the day: "I'm glad I'm not in Bastogne"

Review: Konflikt '47 T-34-ZP

Ah the joys of digital camera focusing....

...we did have a lovely 10 minute video unboxing of the T-34-ZP....but unless you're used to very poor eyesight, it wasn't much use...Pictures instead! (I might upload it anyway...just for shiggles...

Many of you will also have caved in recently and bought goodies from Warlord Games to "top up" your armies - we certainly did. I for one used the opportunity to buy some Konflikt '47 Soviets. I was super excited about these at release and, to be honest, never got around to buying anything! Over the next week you'll see reviews of the various kits here and on Youtube, but today I will go through the T-34-ZP.

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Comes pretty standard with the T-34-85 base plastic tank from Warlord Games. Transfer sheet included of course!

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ZP turret as two parts; main resin block and the metal hatch - a nice detail to have it separate but I glued mine down so it may as well have been once piece resin!

The detail on the turret is remarkable. Very crisp, the hosing especially, and clear sharp edges.

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My main issue is the size. I noted that there are two available - the ZP turret for the T-34 and the ZP turret for the KV. The attachment on top of these two kits are different so I appreciate that this would be needed, but the size is identical I presume. The ZP turret does seem a little oversized for the T-34 hull but, as seen below, works well for the KV.

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I set about trying to fix this as soon as I was able. I have two options, the first I have done already, the second I will try another time. The underside of the turret is a little complex to describe in words (I'll let the blurry version of me explain on the video!) but essentially the outer ring is slightly too big. With the cunning (and careful) use of a file i have been able to bevel the ring to fit the hole in the KV, like so...

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Plan B will be, in due course, to make a filler panel for the KV turret ring opening and have this drop in place if i wish to use the ZP turret on the larger tank - watch this space!

Der H

Thought for the day: "The end justifies the means"