I started the month off by revamping my hobby area. About a year ago I purchased two 74″ butcher block work tops from Ikea. I grabbed a set of drawers too and eventually was able to order the legs for the tables after being unable to do so for about four months. Something about inventory and not being able to ship items if they don’t have a stock built up in the store. Anyhow I decided it was time to push ahead. On December 2nd I enlisted my old man to give me a hand with assembling the desk.

I am pretty pleased with how the desk came together. It is sturdy and has ample space for me to clutter with half done projects. Over the next few weeks I set up my airbrush booth again, added accent lights, and changed my overhead lights to daylight LED work lights.

The next big step is a new hobby light. I was inspired to make a retractable set up by eBay Miniatures Rescue. I really like the idea of being able to move the light up and down for different tasks. It is a huge bonus it won’t take up any room on my desk top. I may eventually add a camera mount to make chronicling my activities easier. I haven’t ordered any of the parts but I have it planned out. More on that next month.

I was gifted a full set of Hobby Zone hobby desk organizers for my desk. I recently took inventory and found I had over 250 paints so I needed an attractive and accessible way to organize them. I received them at Family Christmas on the 28th of December so they will be a project for January. I am very excited to get them built as I have been eying them for well over two years.

Lastly, I figured it was a good time to also glean out some of the stuff I knew I wasn’t using. I usually hold onto things for too long in the hope our group find interested in one of the many squirreled away projects. Evan has finally worked me down and to be honest it feels good to sort and organize. Hopefully I can rehome them in the near future.

Soviets Reinforcements

I moved the ever-present painting queue forward with some Soviet hardware.

The Zis-3 is a truly versatile gun. In Bolt Action it acts as a medium anti-tank gun with a +5 penetration or a light howitzer with a 2” HE. For 80 points at regular experience it is almost an automatic take for the artillery slot.

In Chain of Command the 76mm Zis-3 is a list 4 support choice. Usable from 1939 to 1945 it sports seven AP dice and five HE dice again showing off its versatility. Ivan will be happy with the addition to the armory.

The humble anti-tank rifle was a prolific piece of kit for the Soviet armed forces. It is a cheap order dice in Bolt Action that can harass soft skins and light vehicles. It also makes a good “poor man’s sniper team” with its +2 penetration value. With the option to take three for the one anti-tank slot I see painting more of these guys in my future.

In Chain of Command it is a list 2 beast. Used from 1939 to 1945 it is a cheap and useful filler for any Soviet force. Three AP dice and one HE dice make it a threat to most things.

15mm Fury

15mm wargaming has always been a thing for me. I started wargaming by purchasing a box of resin and metal Battle Front T-34/76 1942s. I have always liked the scale and had a decent collection until I sold 95% of it in 2020. With the group getting into Battle Group we have decided 15mm is the scale du jour. Pardon my french but f***. I am kicking myself for selling off my collection.

Recently Teddy showed me some Afrika Korps 90th Light Division he had squirreled away and Anthony picked up some British Crusaders. I also had a conversation with Ben from Wargames Creative about Battle Group. He mentioned off hand that you could play North Africa with just vehicles if you wanted. While we aren’t skimping on the infantry, vehicle only forces seemed like a good way to jump into the game quickly. Thus the decision was made to rush into the deserts of 1941. It is a well known fact I like weird vehicles so I naturally went with the Italians for their charming M13/40s. I bought the Tobruk Starter set as it was such a good value for the money.

In addition to the starter I picked up some Bersagliari and Italian Fucilari, an 8th Army Rifle Platoon, and a DAK panzer grenadier platoon. The only big player left for me to get is the Americans. And that will happen, most likely with the Battle Front Kesserine Starter set. $55 USD for 21 tanks and 3 anti-tank guns is a ridiculous value.

Then fate intervened. I saw a sale at one of Evan’s friendly local games stores Golden Rhino Games. They were running a year end sale. 80% off Flames of War. F***. Evan prowled over and secured a sizable German and American force for me for $57 out the door. I should have a nice German panzer grenadier and an American armored rifle force. I also pulled painted German Grenadier and Soviet Rifle platoons out of storage. Whoo! Full tilt like a Peterbilt.

Luckily Drew is also working on a British and German force for Western Europe. So I will be busy getting ready to meet his forces next year. This is a good exampled of how we are all bad influences on each other.

Tiny Planes

I primed my first batch of early Eastern Front 1/300 planes. I needed to source 1/8” dowels from a hobby store to use as painting sticks. So once that was done I got to work. The first batch is four Soviet SB-103s, four Mig-3s, four I-16s, four German BF109Es, and four Dorner Do-17s.

Evan and I also stumbled onto a paint sale at Game Kastle. We were able to score Gen 3 AK Interactive Air paints for $1.60 a piece instead of the usual $4.00. I didn’t have any appropriate plane colors so I ended up with 72 new paints. I spent some time this month cataloging them in my brush rage app, adding mixing balls, and placing color samples on the caps.

Odds and Ends

I finally finished building my Ardennes King Tiger. As of writing I am doing some clean up and Green Stuff work on it. I am working on an article review of the kit. But lets just say it was intense.

I also finished prepping and primed my early war Panzer IV D. It will see service with my Blitzkrieg/ Barbarossa Germans. It is from Rubicon Models. I did a run down on the kit here in April. Progress is slow sometimes.

Iron Dice

As a quick Iron Dice update. We have our studio lighting sorted out and we recorded our Episode 0. As expected there were hiccups but we are happy with the first effort as a group. We also ordered some custom Chessex dice for prize support and the like.

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Initially I felt like I didn’t achieve much this month but after writing it all down I see that December was pretty productive after all. Hopefully I can focus down and the momentum continues in the new year.