Reinforcements Arriving

It's been a busy couple of days for the mail carriers in Kinyonga, though their labor is not yet over.

My full QRF order from Scale Creep Miniatures and my Peter Pig order from Brookhurst Hobbies arrived yesterday, but I was too busy with some real life things to open them until today. Today's mail brought the second order from Peter Pig UK, and the huts and blast markers from PaperTerrain.

With the Peter Pig BTR-152 in hand, I was able to compare the size of the old Maisto M939 diecast trucks I had. They're longer than the BTR-152, but the wheels are about the same size and the height is reasonably compatible, so I think for my purposes they'll work to fill in extra trucks where needed. The M939 is technically too modern for my setting, but I'm going with the "a truck is a truck" rule for now, at least until such time as I can acquire a significant number of proper period trucks for an insignificant amount of money.

Most concerning to me right now amongst the not yet received is the Old Glory figures and vehicles ordered from Warweb. The earliest of them were ordered 19 days ago. They're just barely inside their "allow 2-3 weeks" timeframe, with no notice yet of anything shipping, and no answer to phone or email. This makes me a bit nervous since I've never ordered from them before. I wasn't expecting so long a delay because I thought everything I ordered was listed as in stock; I'm wondering if I overlooked one that wasn't or if their stock count wasn't up to date.

Other than that, I'm waiting on the Old Glory ZSU-23-4 and M40 Jeep w/RCL that I ordered direct from OldGlory15s, the casualty/wrecked/pinned markers from Litko, the barbed wire from SnM Stuff, the Nu-bee Mi-4 Hip from Hattons, the AA guns and rockets from TheSceneUK, and the radio transmitter pylon from Shapeways. Of those, the last 4 are all overseas, so I'm not too worried about the timeframe on them. Litko produces when the order is received, so it always takes a little while for them to ship, but I'm used to them and their communication.

I need the Old Glory orders (both Warweb and OG15s) and the TheSceneUK heavy weapons to be able to start sorting bases and units, especially the technicals since there are 4 pickups and 4 crew-served guns in the Warweb order and an additional 3 guns and a rocket launcher from TheScene. Once I have those, I can sort out which weapons I want mounted on which vehicles. The pickups, Unimogs, Land Rover, BTR-40, and M939s are all candidates for weapon mounts.

Totalling Up the Purchases (updated 9/14/15)

One of the hazards of buying a little here and there is you can quickly buy more than you need or spend more than you wanted. I'm pretty sure I've ended up doing that already with the AK-47 project. I won't really be sure until I have everything in hand so I can sort it out and figure up points, but I was going through to figure up how many things I'd ordered and thought I'd post the list here in a single post at the same time. Counts are number of figures/vehicles/items, not number of packs.

Old Glory
original order from Warweb cancelled

New Old Glory Order
Middle Eastern Regulars - 50 *
Middle Eastern Command - 50 *
African Irregulars - 100 *
African Irregular Command - 50 *
African Pickup Crew with HMG - 4 *
14.5mm ZPU Truck Mount - 4 *
Modern Pickups - 6 *
T-55 - 3 *
BTR-50 APC - 3 *
BTR-60A APC - 3 *
CMP 3 Ton Trucks - 6 *
AEC Armored Car - 3 *

Old Glory 15s/Battle Honors
ZSU-23-4 Shilka - 1 *
Jeep w/106mm RCL - 2 *

QRF
BTR-40A APC/scout vehicle - 1 *
Ferret Mk 1 armored car - 2 *
Saracen APC - 1 *
Landrover LWB w/Wombat RCL - 1 *

 Peter Pig
Seated Drivers - 6 *
ZPU-4 AA gun - 1 *
ZPU-1 AA gun - 2 *
Gaz Jeep - 1 *
AA Crew - 6 *
75mm RCL - 8*
Dictator character - 1*
Religious Leader character - 1*
BTR-152 - 2 *
Toyota High Suspension - 1 *
Unimog Truck - 2 *
Landrover - 1 *
MG Gunners - 3 *

Rebel Minis
Hostages - 12*
News Crew - 2*
Modern Rioters - 21*
Riot Police - 20*
African Military (berets) - 27*
African Militia - 27*
Modern Police - 22*
Modern Civilians - 21*

Khurasan Miniatures
Galactic Dictator - 1*
Modern Western Civilians (rioters) - 10*

Litko
30x30 bases - 200*
30x40 bases - 25*
40x40 bases - 50*
Wrecked vehicle markers (custom, blue) - 10 *
Wrecked vehicle markers (custom, red) - 10 *
Casualty markers (custom, red) - 30 *
Casualty markers (custom, blue) - 30 *
Pinned Markers - 20 (+10 I already had = 30) *

SnM Stuff
Barbed Wire - 10 meters *

Paper Terrain
15mm Grass Huts - 15 *
Blast markers - 25 *

Nu-Bee
Mi-4 Hip model kit *

Finger and Toe Models
15mm ShantyTown shacks - as many as I feel like printing and assembling*
15mm ShantyTown Shops - as many as I feel like printing and assembling*

The Scene UK
Quad linked 50 cal machine gun - 1 *
Twin linked Gatling gun - 1 *
ML001 (vehicle rocket launcher) - 1 *
Twin linked auto cannon - 1 *

Shapeways
 Transmitter  Pylon - 1 *


Besides all of this, I may or may not use some diecast vehicles I have on hand for the project, once I see what the sizes of the 15mm vehicles are compared to my diecasts.

* - indicates I've already received it. Everything else is waiting to arrive.

More AK-47 Tinkering

Finger and Toe Models (yes, that's really their name) makes a set of paper buildings in 15mm called Shanty Town, and an expansion with shops, that I picked up in PDF form from RPGNow.com. Friday I decided to print one set out on cardstock, and Saturday I cut out a single shack and folded it to see how much difficulty there was to it. Folding all the slender tabs down turned out to be more of a nuisance than cutting it out, but I managed it. I haven't yet dug up where I put my glue to try gluing it into a finished product, but as long as that part works well, I think I'm going to be reasonably pleased with them.

I also pulled out a Maisto M939, of which I have several I got cheap off Ebay a few years back, and stuck the gun shield and gun from a Roco 105mm howitzer in the cargo bed. At the moment, it's simply wedged in, not glued. The 939 is technically too late a model truck for my needs, but it'll do in a pinch. I'm waiting until the first of the actual 1/100 models arrive to see how they compare in size and decide whether I'll use the diecast with them or not.

I also put in an order for one set each of 15mm Grass Huts  and Blast Markers from PaperTerrain.com, who are currently having a sale. I'm curious to see if they'll work well for me.

Income and outgo

Still have all the items for sale/trade listed three posts down. May add to the list soon.

In the meantime, I'm expecting probably by the end of the week or possibly next week to have a small addition to my Roco forces, namely a platoon of 5 Panthers and a single Sdkfz 7 half-track. This will be my first actual German half-track, where right now all my half-tracks are diecast US ones from various toy companies. Hot Wheels, mostly, with a smattering of Zee Toys and Johnny Lightning.

With the arrival of the Rocos, I shall have all the vehicles necessary to recreate the first battle in Operation Warboard. This has been an objective that's been in my mind for a few weeks now, to assemble troops and vehicles and try out the battle as an IABSM scenario. I may use British troops instead of American as I already have some Brits being based up. I'm also debating whether to use the number of platoons listed in OW, or go with squads, as the platoons in Operation Warboard have roughly a squad worth of figures in them, so going with squads would be closer to the actual figure count involved. Plus, the scenario calls for 3 trucks, each carrying a "platoon", and I'm thinking the carrying capacity for a truck is probably about one squad in IABSM.

WW2 Vehicle Park

Following in the footsteps of some others on the 1/87 Military Models Yahoo group, I decided to line up all my WW2 vehicles for a group photo. On the left side, you can see various artillery pieces, a couple of Paul Heiser models that are still in progress (the white items), a stray Roco Marder I, a Tiger II and Panther from a Roco knockoff company that need new track units, and some odds and ends of spare parts. More comments after the photo. Click on the photo for a larger view.

As you can see (and has been mentioned on this blog), my vehicles are a mixture of true 1/87 vehicles from Roco, Boley, Eko, and others, plus a mix of die-cast and plastic vehicles that happen to be in generally the right size. The topmost trucks are all modern M998 trucks from Maisto, but I use them quite happily in my WW2 forces of all sides. If I eventually get enough Roco trucks of the correct nationality and era, I may phase them out, but for now they suit me fine. Similary, the third row down shows a mixed bag of diecast US half-tracks from at least three manufacturers, most of them the sort with AA guns. These are also happily used as troop transports of all sides as needed, until such time as proper replacements can arrive. Given that the Roco/Heiser halftracks tend to sell from $12-30 each, this will be a while.
I still don't know who makes the undersized cheap plastic panzers near the front. These too may eventually be replaced when I can afford the proper 1/87 vehicles. The very front row has several jeeps, a number of which are missing parts (which is their state when I bought them). It also has the probably gem of the Roco part of my collection, a lone Churchill.