Derby Show and latest happenings.

Once again, Derby lived up to my expectations and I had a great time, made even better by meeting up with a young man, (as he was when I last saw him some 30 odd years ago), who uses the WD3 Forum name of Essex Boy -no prizes for guessing where he is from- and another who uses the pseudonym of Count Belisarius on the same forum. Luckily I had already got most of what I wanted so the brace of Guinness' went down a treat with the good company.

There were, as usual, an eclectic mix of games on show, some pictures of which I have put in a photobucket album folder labelled Derby 2011 under Subedai's albums -can't seem to get the link thingy to work at the moment.

Purchases:
2 x 15mm Zvezda Zis 5 lorries, 1 x BT 5 and 1 x PZ III Ausf G. Nice little snap together kits. £10 for the 4. Bargain, (pictures below). The only problem with Zvezda is thay don't have any decals with them (didn't know this until I got home), so I'll have to see if I can get any at Wargamer in December.
1 x bag of Irregular Miniatures house making bits.
1 x Pack of Forged in Battle 15mm Russian Maxim MG Teams, 81mm Mortar Teams and SMG platoon. Lovely little figures and very reasonably priced. So for the sum total of £20 I have all my WWII Skirmish Russians. Cooking on Gas! (Buildings and vehicles are coming along apace, just got to get the infantry done.)
2 x bags of 25mm round bases from Warbases.
A few pots of Vallejo paints for the Russians.

That was about it. Got lots of ideas for buildings terrain bits etc. Courtesy of a gentleman, AngelBarracks I have started thinking about 6mm SciFi Skirmish and was hoping to get some B&P's at Derby but couldn't find any purveyors of the 6mm variety so that's gone on hold at the moment -not that I haven't got enough to paint!

Now for the pics of those vehicles I mentioned above.

BT 5
This little number goes together very easily and paints up well.



Zis Lorries
These are a little trickier than the BT 5 but look okay when done. The only gripe is that the engine cowling is a one piece casting and has to be bent to fit. Now, try as I might I couldn't get it to fit properly on either model so the covers are a bit skewiff but it's hardly noticeable. With the cover being a separate component, I decided to make one of each.





A shot of both lorries.



Pz III Ausf G.
Apart from the cupola not fitting properly I had no problems with this little model at all. Went together easily and paints up nicely as well.



A comparison shot of the two tanks.


Now a comparison between the Zvezda lorry and a partially painted one from FoW. Even with the double base on the FoW lorry, I think you'd agree there is nothing in it.