By Your Command

Sunday night was always a bummer when you're a kid. But for a while at least we had Battlestar Galactica to take the sting off. I always used to watch it before dinner and talk about it with my friends in school come Monday. I found that Studio Bergstrom had some great BSG miniatures so I ordered some about a year ago. With my usual glacial pace, it took about 4 months I think until I finished them, although the castings are sublime and real easy to paint. Here is a Cylon Basestar from the original series with some Raiders. I chose 1" starfighters as I can use them both as squadron tokens and starfighter games). The Basestar is excellent but needed quite a bit of glue. It's hefty too. I went for a light gray color with red lights on the landing bays and light blue trim. I could have done a better job with Raiders, but I'll live with those.

Hopefully I'll have some more Basestars and Battlestars (with associated fighters) on my bench before spring is out. Until then, these will have to do for my playtesting for Song of Voids and Stars. That's all for now from warm and sunny Athens.

Pike Completed.

Say what you want about Airfix, they sure build them simple. Only took a total of 4 hours of work and my JS-3 is complete. Trumpeter and Roden may have newer and more detailed models, but you can't beat this old warhorse when it comes to simplicity. I decided to go for a simple Russian Tank Green scheme. I've used everything from Humbrol 30 to 117 (116 and 90 included) in the past but I used 117 in this case. Mix of brown and black wash, drybrushing, dustying with British Dark Earth and voila, she's ready. Did some work on the crew and added some simple red stars from the spares box. If you have spare 122mm barrels, by all means get one. Cheap, fast and easy. Makes for a perfect date.

That's all for now from Athens, where winter just doesn't want to give up.

Stress Relief

Apparently painting the Persians is a bit too much stress for me these days. Considering it takes about 90 minutes to finish one figure (and that this particular base has 10 figures on it) this is understandable. I visited my usual haunt in downtown Athens to see the new Airfix stuff that's available. I picked up a box of the new Airfix Brits (not too bad, but could have been better) and a JS-3. An old mold but an interesting subject.

The kit was put together in less time than it takes me to paint one Persian. I changed the barrel (perhaps the only weak point of the kit) from a spare 122mm gun from the Italeri ISU-152. The machinegun came from the Matchbox T-34. Not entirely accurate, but looks better than the kit one. I also added a crew member from the Orion set. Some more corrections were made and so far, the only thing missing is the retaining straps on the spare fuel tanks. I'll add these tomorrow from some Tamiya tape and the "Pike" will be ready to hit the paintshop. Hopefully it will be ready by Monday.

This has been a pleasant break so far. After all, this is supposed to be fun and not work. That's all for now from the Greek Geek household.

This is Sparta!

My first unit of Spartans for Basic Impetus is completed. I went for the 8cm frontage and 10 figures per base for the phalanx part of the army. All the figures are Zvezda Spartans, but I think I will add some of their older Ancient Greeks on the following bases.

I've also completed my first company of early WWII Germans (who will doubtless see action in later war battlefields as well). After the glorious colors of the Spartans and the kilts of the Highlanders, these seem kinda boring, but at least they are easier to paint. All are Italeri (ex-Esci) and Revell.
And for something more vibrant, here are the first of my Immortals. The Spartans have to have someone to fight (although Thebans will eventually be added to the list). I think after the German battalion and Immortals are completed, I'll do some vehicles just for a change of pace.
That's all from chilly (for once) Athens. Oh, I almost forgot. Blogger has been acting up and I can't post on other people's blogs, or even my own for that matter. Am I the only one with this problem?