The lack of posts is partly down to "real life" (e.g. Work!), but also an apathetic malaise that has drained what little enthusiasm I could muster. The "greyest" August may have had something to do with it, and when the Sun finally appeared it was too hot!
I had intended to do some painting but when it came to it just couldn't summon any enthusiasm. Instead, I ended up doing some cleaning up of figures and some modelling.
Spencer Smiths awaiting a black undercoat. This is the "Electoral Army"; the Soldier King version of the Reichsarmee. It is made up of the Electoral states, less Banst.
Banst has an elector who in the "imagineering" process came out as a military innovator modelled on Saxe's ideas, who seems to dislike everyone, but is happy to hire out himself and his army as mercenaries. He is not a fan of the Estavian Empire, so will be done separately. The fact that his entire army will require conversion is purely coincidental (classical style helmets necessitating LI headswaps or carving Napoleonic dragoon and lancer helmets).
The army will comprise the states of Cleve, Naervaron, Bern and Cotlas and dressed mostly in blue (Cleve in grey with blue facings). This and the Imperial ( "White") army represent a departure from the game as these are unrepresented. Eventually, all the states including Waldow, Sinistria and Dupanen will be represented.
I also did an Imperial artillery battery and some more Fimo personalities.
After this, I turned to Arab - Israeli modelling, this time Egyptians.
Some "bodged" AT artillery tractors and a truck from scrap parts (the tissue tilt cover is still being worked on).
Next up some ZSU 57-2 AA SPG utilising former East German turrets (there are many makers, Espewe, MAB, VEB, Permot and Plasticart who did plastic and diecast GDR 1:87 vehicles) which came in a box of bits from Germany IIRC, mated to Roco T-54 /55 hulls. I actually modified the tracks by removing one wheel and repositioning another to resemble the real vehicle. Aside from that the guns drooped alarmingly so needed some corrective work.
I also realised that I either didn't have enough (or am unable to locate the models I do have) T-34/85s for both Egypt and Syria. Now the Roco model is a very crude representation, but as the rest of the army is made up of crude Roco T-54s, Roskopf / Eko BTR-152s and BTR-50s which are all underscale to differing degrees (Roskopf around 1/90 and early Rocos were anything from 1:89 to 1:100) it seems fitting to stick with the Roco T-34.
Most of my 1:87 has been acquired very cheaply; alas prices have increased significantly with the demise of Herpa (the last owners) and there were no cheap T-34s around. There were some nice Zylmex diecasts in the USA which were cheap enough, but postage and duties made them prohibitive. The running gear would also need replacement. I could have gone for 3D printed versions, but in the end "bodged" the three you can see towards the rear using spare T-44 turrets merged with T34/76 turrets to get something close to Roco, a version of which in in grey and green, resurrected from available bits. They didn't turn out too bad IMHO. The challenge with the earlier Roco is to produce something from a bit of a sow's ear, but if you manage it, it's very satisfying!
