Thursday 25 April 2013

Revell LKW 7t. mil gl (6x6 Truck)

its a large name, for a large vehicle. This kit was sent to me by Michael in return for some fine WW2 models. There is also a Leopard 2 A6 waiting to be put together, my favourite tank. this is a great addition to the vehicle fleet. and really useful also, this truck can be used by the Oronegrean army, the rebels or as the licence plates suggest the UN Germans stationed in Oronegro. I added my own crew, conversions of some old Esci nato ground crew. they are pretty generic. one is listening to his headphones or has ear muffs on, either one. The trucks camouflage was done by hand it was made harder by the fact I am colour blind. The green I thought was the same as that on the box was totally different. oh well. really useful for games also and scenarios. anyway here it is.

this is my best attempt at doing camouflage and a different base.

I never knew Richard Hammond was a member of the German army????

there was some problems with getting the parts to fit together, mainly because the glue destroyed the pegs which secure the joints

very, very dusty

not the best base colour wise but it was hard to think what would be right.

the "man hole cover" is left un-camouflaged, this is just a preference thing really, makes it look separate to the cab... of course it might be painted also.
well there we go. I am pretty tired right now, still stuff to do before I can sleep. I hope your all having a good time wherever you are and whatever time it is.  and I have a new follower :-D Greetings to fogsoldiers from fogs soldiers welcome to the blog.

And may I also take a moment to Remember the soldiers of the Australian, New Zealand Army Corps, the ANZAC's let us never forget their sacrifice! As a person from Britain it seems even more special as in the first world war and to some extent in the second these brave men did not fight for the freedom of their nation but rather for that of the mother country, for Britain. This sacrifice must never be forgotten not by the people of Australia and New Zealand alone but by those in Europe, Africa and Asia whose freedom was won by these brave lads from far away lands.

lest we forget.

Friday 19 April 2013

A walk in the Hunua ranges and...

... some parliamentary fun. Well hello to you all what a week it has been, both here in New Zealand and around the world! First up My Heart goes out to those in the States, to those in Boston and to those in the town near Waco Texas where the Fertilizer plant explosion has occurred. But Let me tell you of a rainbow, in this week of darkness. and yes it is a rainbow! But First let us look at what I did last weekend.

last weekend the family and I decided to go for a walk in the Hunua ranges, they are not far from here in distance but they feel a world away in reality. the difference in amazing! we were not walking for very long but still here are some very pretty pictures of the landscape not perhaps at our doorstep but certainly in our neighbourhood.
Hunua falls themselves, looking quite small due to the draught

my sister out on the rock in the middle of a creek further along the trail.

past the steam and heading up into the hills

incredible that this place is so close to where I live yet it seems like a totally different country

very pretty, a small water fall not far from the big one
majestic Kauri trees they used to be common and huge
some very powerful water down there,looking down from the place where we turned around after walking for an hour.

Tree ferns or Ponga in Maori (I think thats how its spelt)

a fancy photo, through the ferns

coming back across the crossing, very pretty.

crossing back across the stream
looking down steam at the crossing.


is that a Gollum in the stream??? another sighting of the many mythical creatures which makes this country the home of fantasy movie production
A good Motto! perhaps one we should all have.
 And Now for the Parliamentary fun! this is the rainbow, almost literally! Gay Marriage and Gay Rights are something that in the 21st century people are fighting for, like workers rights, human rights and women's rights in the 20th century the 21st century will be defined by how we react to this issue. Now this Clip I am going to show you is no ordinary clip from the NZ parliament its a clip that shows how great our system is (not how great the government is/isn't), basically this speech is one that has set this system of government apart from the others...
 Well whatever your views on this I think we all must agree that we need more politicians who are willing to put a bit of humour into politics, its a nice distraction from the annoying things they usually do. Anyway the bill has passed which is why there is most definitely a rainbow to this week, love it or loath it this is a step forwards for equality in his country. I am straight but still I am very proud of this moment because I do have friends who are gay and I am glad that they are now entitled to the same rights I am.

have a nice weekend everyone! Its the holidays here now! YAY! so 2 weeks off for me to make the kits I was sent by my Dutch friend and hopeful to make that T-90 when it arrives. and once more I tell you that my heart goes out to those in Boston and Texas and to all others out there who have suffered during what has been a very eventful week.

have a good safe time everyone.


Saturday 6 April 2013

PMC's, Frogmen and the Cavalry

well hello everyone have I got a strange and fantastic line up for you all today! I have done an 8km walk/jog from my local black sand beach to our town... the annual Sand to Mud fun run, I wore a large backpack which was more cumbersome than heavy but I did it all to help raise funds for some friends school trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. lucky buggers, I am one year to old to go, sounds really fun anyway on with the figs!

First up some PMC's love them or hate them (depend on whose side their one usually) these guys are a reality in warfare and as such are in Oronegro also. a real mix here, some can also be rebels or special forces depending on the situation. A nice mix of Caesar figures, all except one are from the old special forces set with the one on the centre left being from their old WW2 resistance set.

All together! all these photo's are taken on my new table which is for wargaming and a workbench... my work room is the garage and I have to share it but its a start.

nice little scene. perhaps thats the clients car they are protecting

they here something out front

this guy has come out a bit dark in the photo but still that bandanna stands out

can you spot the badge? yes it is easy, but what do you think... I might make this a normal feature on some PMC's

 Now we come to the Frogmen! these men wear a highly experimental camouflage which tries to emulate the colour or the waters surface at night, it has greens and blues and whites which can either simulate moonlight or torchlight on the waters surface. I hope you like these guys. Again these are Caesar figs from their old special forces set (I will get the new one... I will find a use for the archer) it is annoying that their in only one swimming man when their are four on land, but hey I guess that in a game the single man would represent the fact they are hard to see underwater.

all of the frogmen, nice guys, Elhiem makes some as well though I don't think I'll get those

nice view of the camouflage
 Now the age of the cavalry man may be long dead but I think that even today a man on a horse can still be a threat, especially in urban warfare. this figure is a combination of a Hat allied cavalryman, a Caesar special forces officer and the Horse is from the Zvezda Macedonian cavalry set. sadly in the pictures the figure was not the focus of the image, rather the grain in the table but oh well. an interesting addition to the Oronegro story.

horse is an odd colour but I am afraid that's just the way things turned out

will he be useful? I don't know but a horse is still fast and if it kicks you body armour might not help

BTW if you were wondering what place I came in the sand to mud, even walking I managed to get 494th and it only took me 1 hour 10 minutes so not bad really. I hope you all have a good day, wherever you are and whatever you are planning to do.

T-90A dissaster solved... or great customer service

HURRAY great news I got an email back from Model Collect, they are going to send me a replacement! This is the best news I could have hopped for!
lets hope that  have no problems with the next one.

SO be careful with water temperature! but don't worry they are good people :-D
you can see this is a scary tank

that is all!

Friday 5 April 2013

T-90A Dissaster... though mostly my fault

well I lack experience but even so nothing like this has not happened to me before, and certainly I am sure that it cannot be totally my fault...
from this angle all seems mostly fine
Well what happened... warping and deforming on a grand scale. . :-( OK I think that perhaps the water I washed the kit in was to hot but the water must not have been much hotter than the water I used to clean my other kits, and they had no deforming, none what so ever. I am not put off Model Collect but I am going to be more cautious in future.
but on closer inspection things start to  go wrong
I do take responsibility for the water and I do know that this is mostly my fault, but even though that is the case, this is the same process I have used before with no problems, so perhaps I can ask to buy a replacement at a reduced price. Though even this might be a hard ask. I have never faced a situation like this and I am totally confused.

this part has suffered the worst... I have tried my best to correct the problems but the problems go beyond bending, the plastic itself has got weaker in some places

heat can do this but it was
 now there is far more damage that this because all the spures also bent... once again this has never happened to me before. I have no chance of righting these wrongs because when I do, even by heating up the plastic again the plastic starts to come apart!
this is the most bizarre of the damage, I have managed to straighten out the tracks as much as possible but no joy. I know that tracks must be washed with care but again no problems in the past
Well I have no clue what to do, but this is a slight warning if you get this kit watch out for the water temperature. I am going to try and sort this out myself but still some support/advice for what to do in future would be really appreciated.

well I hope you all have a better time than I have, Well perhaps the sand to mud charity run will take my mind off it, that's tomorrow I hope that I can give you some good news then.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

A trip to the Museum, and some news

OK guys well for all of you who don't know I live pretty close to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and one of its former capitals. Due to both Easter weekend and schools taking a day off on Tuesday we decided that on Tuesday to go up to the Auckland war Memorial Museum, which is general museum with a large section devoted to conflicts in which New Zealanders have given their lives.

To kick things off I'll show you the pictures I took on my phone... they are crap and I would have prefered to have used my actual camera but oh well.
The old front of the Museum. New Zealand lost 1.64% of its population in WW1 a higher loss per head of population than most other countries in WW1!

we all know the lines. but this is one of the most beautiful ways to display them don't you think?
 Now we go inside to the Museum... and one of the first things we find is a model! YAY! I forgot what it was about, trust my luck to forget that, but I think (a real guess) that this diorama shows a Maori Pa from Auckland... I may be very wrong but it is only a guess
sorry the glass made these photo's terrible


 unfortunately taking these photos though glass has made them look bad.
my apologies


 Now onto the war stuff... the rest of the museum is great but up on the third level you can find out about the conflicts in which New Zealand fought. Now let me me support little New Zealand here, so often when we look at WW1 and WW2 we forget about poor New Zealand.... BUT Even more so for the Korean war and the Vietnam war! New Zealand is either not remembered because she is small and overlooked or Australia takes every scenario where the ANZAC's  fought and then saying that any crucial moment in the fighting was carried out by Australians... some even claim they lost more per-population in WW1 than New Zealand which is also a false claim. It makes me very upset as this denies almost the men who gave their lives their right to the honour they deserve. Please let us now always remember the little guys from the other nations who take part in wars. if it was not for the New Zealanders... the second battle of El Alamien could have been very different, for it was they and who made that all important charge.

TO start the war section I shall show you something that should at once be recognisable! the V1, the worlds first cruise missile. aparently during near the end of the war one of these hit (near?) the village my dad grew up in destroying part of it (I think so anyway)

ignore the crappy base... this cannon is very special! it fought at the battle of Waterloo!
 Now here is a fact I bet only a few of you knew... the best pilot of the battle of Britain was a New Zealander! yes that is right, the proudest moment for my country, and yet the best pilot was not even from my country.
a spitfire... renovated. I do believe its meant to represent the Kiwi's plane

They also have a Japanese Zero, but I didn't get to see that

this scene represents the New Zealanders fighting at Monte Cassino. they fought hard here, its one of the few battles where you will always here about them

Trial by Fire! the story of the New Zealanders in Crete. a famous battle for all the Kiwi soldiers their but also for the famous Maori Battalion, who earned the deep respect off all the other allied soldiers, for their bravery and skill

a little naval scene here a 20mm Oerlikon Anti-Aircraft gun, Originally from Switzerland but used by pretty much everyone in WW2. It's still used by many countries today even though its design comes from 1914
 Well that is it from the Museum, I hope you like it. oh and I have some cool news the T-90A arrived today so perhaps I shall paint it up over the weekend or during the upcoming holidays :-D but for now Have a good day/night and I leave you with a pretty picture I took yeasterday morning.
there we are. have a nice time everyone.