Friday, January 6, 2023

Musée de l’Air et espace

  I had a chance to visit with one of my Australian mates several museums in Paris over the last week. One museum that I had never visited before is the musee de l’air. All in all a fabulous museum and well worth the time. We spent five hours there. The shop is great although a little pricey and all books are in French. 

Some great displays of balloons, WW1, mid war, ww2, Cold War and modern aircraft and helicopters. Enjoy the pics guys.

As followers would know a big fan of ww1 aircraft and a number of rare aircraft there! Really impressed with the layout, but as usual hard to photograph IMHO. 























The best display by far was for ww2 was the Régiment de Chasse Normandie-Niémen, flying Yak3,5 and 9. The squadron, which served on the Eastern Front of the European theatre of World War II with the 1st Air Army, is notable as one of only three units from Western Allied countries to see combat on the Eastern Front during the war and was the only Western Allied unit which fought with Soviet forces until the end of the war in Europe.


Yak3 of the Normandie Niemen squadron

Tail of the Yak 3


Roundel Normandie Niemen 

Ww2 Hall

A nice number of aircraft in the hall the majority serving in the French armee d’Air or flown by French pilots. Only the one German aircraft there, would loved to have seen a French bomber but not to be….






Cold War beauties 

Lots of Cold War French, German, Warpac and Swedish aircraft on display 































Thursday, January 5, 2023

Woden The Allfather

 

 Woden The Allfather 

As Impetus requires a camp and after seeing some Woden idols on the Lead Adventure Forum I decided to put something together for the Analogue Painting Challenge.  Perfect for my Germanic warriors all of the miniatures are from the foundry range. The Woden idol is made from wire and green stuff. 







 
Cheers 
MattW

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Christmas Haul 2022

 A big seasons greetings to you on New Year’s Eve. I thought I would pop up my Christmas gifts this year and a few projects will be completed during the year with the purchases. We are having the first four months off this year to catch up on renovations and I should catch up on some painting so expect quite a few updates over the next few months.

First up with my haul is my warlord games 28mm Caesarian Roman’s so I can complete the legion,  Perry 28mm Austrian heavy cavalry for the heavy cavalry brigade, two 1/72 Fokker triplanes for my planned Jasta 11,  a GR1 harrier for my old war Brit’s and JU52 to support my fallschirmjager.




20mm US airborne  regiment for Normandy from Simon’s Soldiers, plus a few Brit Airborne bits. 



Books, a wide mix, one set of rules from my mate Carlo Pagano, looking forward to these and my French Foreign Legion desert games, a few WW2, especially looking forward to Greg’s Jungle cavalry, Australian Commando book, plus the new Harry Sidebottom, “the mad emperor” , and a bunch of medieval reading for winter!







Have a very Happy New Year! 

Cheers

Matt




Tuesday, November 29, 2022

13th Analogue Painting challenge - cunning plans

 

The annual Winter Analogue Painting Challenge is almost upon us again. This year I am trying to complete 800 points as my painting target.

Points are awarded painting figures, artillery, vehicles, ships and terrain. As usual I will be concentrating on historical 20mm and 28mm miniatures with a few pieces thrown in for amusement. 

Scores are awarded thus

20mm
Foot 4 points
Mounted and guns 8 points
Vehicles 15points

28mm 
Foot figure 5 points
Mounted or artillery 10 points
Vehicle 20 points

Cunning Plans

My plan is to complete a number of projects, as I tend to squirrel and swap and change a bit to prevent boredom I have gone for a broad approach across several projects.

1. My plan this year is 1000 points in total, I plan to complete a few personal projects (British Airborne & Volkssturm) plus add armies for our wargames holiday business relating to local battles and sieges. 

  • 18mm AB Napoleonic French
  • 28mm ancient Greeks 
  • 28mm ancient Germans
  • 20mm American airborne, artillery, jeeps etc plus three Waco gliders 70+odd figures + 3 fighters for air support 
  • 20mm Ww2 British Para - additions to my British para brigade, a supply section and drop area, complete three specific 1/72 horsa gliders for operation Tonga, plus my Hamilcar and tank, plus some jeeps and trailers transports. 
  • 20mm Volkssturm fall of Berlin 3 battalions, artillery and bits. 70 odd figs plus artillery and AA bits 
  • 20mm panzer Lehr - 70 odd figures plus half tracks, panzers etc for Normandy. 
  • 20mm Cold War Warpac and Nato vehicles, plus VDV infantry regiment 100 figures  + 20-30 odd vehicles and 5 aircraft. 
  • Terrain :- paint my growing pile of 28mm ancient, medieval and 20mm ww2 3d printed buildings 
  • A few 28mm Napoleonic odds and sods Prussians, Austrians and French infantry and cavalry  60-180 figs planned and undercoated.
  • Random 20mm kit, ww2 Dutch, Belgian, Allied and German bits ( I have a lot of built aircraft that need paint….) 
I will also try to do a few pieces for the side adventures, mostly at a whim and if it involves aircraft (which I love building), naval or space ships.

Hopefully get as much as I can completed in the 90 day period permitted. 

Cheers
Matt