Desert Forces

Just a few shots of some other desert terrain and my axis forces in 1/300 scale that go with the desert fort I posted about earlier.  I got them out to see what forces I still needed and to add some more buildings.

Some Italian armour loitering in an Arab village.  Buildings are made of balsa offcuts coated in woodflex and painted.  The ruin's walls are made of the offcuts from the polystyrene disc that comes with pizzas you get from Sainsbury's.  It's a sort of poor-man's foam-board (you have to wash it before using).

A Semovente hiding in an oasis.  Classic pool of varnish pretending to be water there.

Something they're still fighting over in Libya.... and I'm not talking about the slices of toilet roll inner.

DAK forces descending through a gully.  All models are 1/300 Heroics and Ros.

Matilda on the March

This Commando book (No. 933) from 1975 has haunted my dreams for years - until I found it on ebay not so long ago.  It was reprinted in 1989 (as No. 2259), apparently with the same cover.  I know, slightly too much information but, well, it is a classic.

It is also still an inspiration for all the various bits of desert terrain and (admittedly) Afrika Korps resources I've built up.  And I also like the cover with the interesting low level light source silhouetting the Germans and highlighting the Matilda (and the grenade).  In the book the dialogue goes "Was ist das?"  as the grenade sails into the Kubelwagen followed by "Gott in Himmel!" and "Argh!" as it goes off.

Desert Fort

Well, I'm back from my sojourn to all parts foreign.  Suffice to say that the 6 day voyage back from St Helena to Cape Town was uneventful save for the incessant pitching of the RMS St Helena in force 7 winds and the fact that our team "The St Helena Flying Club"  nearly won the ship's general knowledge quiz.  Maybe next time.

And after having been without internet access for so long I had I've been trawling through my favourite sites looking to see what you've been up to.  Being a fan of all things Airfix I came across this interesting post at the Don't Throw Bloody Spears at Me! blog.

I had the Airfix Foreign Legion fort when I were a lad and it was nice to see it in action again.  And in homage to it here is my current version of this classic that I made in 1/300  for use with my DAK forces.  Construction materials comprised polystyrene sheets and cardboard all coated in Woodflex.