Bus Bothering!!!

I took apart one of my bus aquisitions, just to see how 'convertable' they are!!
Hmmmmm, bit of work, but hey, I love a challenge

Hispano-Suiza Bus

So I want it a bit like this, so it will need

Of course it will be a bit better than the drawing

Hacksaw required!!

A rebuild of the bonnet area, to make it a bit narrower.

New Grille, and reworked mudguards, some replacement headlights, and new wheels. Add some passengers, and hey presto

You have one of these to add to your transport pool!!!

Well thats the theory, of course in practise it may turn out a trifle different

For My Next Trick-------

I shall be changing one of these

A Nice Shiny Ebob Opel Blitz

Into one of these!!!!

Something more SCW

Not that difficult a conversion, its really just the bonnet and grill, and perhaps the wheels, ohhh yeah the back bit looks a little different too, and then theres the mudguards :-p

Crooked Dice-Headsets Short Review

I'm always on the lookout for useful seperate heads, that I can use to customize my SCW figures.
Perusing the http://www.steve-dean.co.uk/  forum ( a great place if you are a figure painting fan) I saw some new releases from a company called Crooked Dice Miniatures. Heading over to their website, I was fortunate to find they had an offer on their headsets, so I duly ordered some, hoping that they would fit OK.

Empress Headset top centre, I think the others are a good match sizewise

Well, I have to say, I am dead chuffed with them!! The male heads are perfectly sized to fit the Empress Figures that make up the bulk of my collection. The Female heads are especially welcome, as I can now add to my lady militia collection, although I will have to find some suitably smaller framed bodies to put them on, as the female heads are a fair bit smaller, as they should be really.

I may have to resort to some greenstuff for hats etc!!

Although meant for the 1960's and 1970's , I can thoroughly recommend these headsets as the hairstyling is not too radical, and they will easily pass muster for the 1930's.

Castings are clean, and virtually flash free, needing a minimal clean up to remove mould lines etc. a little bit of work will be required to help make the heads fit on the Empress Bodies, but nothing too taxing if you have done this sort of thing before.

Take advantage of their offer, and order a few sets.

http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/minis.html

Desk!!!

Here's whats lurking on the desk at the moment!!

More Militia, and Foreign Legion. Got a couple of finished militia that just need their bases done, and  couple of Legionarios nearing completion.

The Militia crew for the Hispano-Suiza are started, I still have to decide on a colour scheme for the car though

What do you guys think?

House-WIP

I've put on a couple of basecoats, to get an idea of what the new, not so white paint scheme will look like. Roof is basecoated with Vallejo Panzer Aces Light Rust, and the walls have a coat of Crown Dark Cream!! I find that household paints are great for this sort of thing. Just fill yer boots with a selection of sample pots. Stonework next, I 'm thinking along the pinkish grey route for this

New Empress Stuff

Empress have released a couple of models that will prove very useful for all us SCW fans!!

First up Italian Autocarretta OM35

Having the faint look of "milk float" about it!! I like this model, and it has a lot of use from the Abbysinia campaign, through the Spanish Civil War, and into WW2. Used as a gun tow, as well as a supply vehicle

Will look good with a battered, and slightly used paintjob 

(BTW this is a 1/35th example!!)

We also get a very neat Canon de 75mm, I assume its the Modelle 1897 variant, as opposed to the Schnieder one.
 It comes complete with a crew, and some odds n sods to add to the base. Its a fairly generic crew, so the VBCW fans can get some use from it. I will probably swap a few heads to get some with tinhats on. Empress may offer the crew as a seperate pack, and I think this is a good idea, so we get a chance to add them to some other gun models, for a bit of variety.

A Schnieder Version in Spain

Vickers 105mm, but you get the idea of the crew in this one.

A full review when I get enough cash together to buy both the models. Needless to say however, from the photos, I don't think I will be disappointed, they llok like a couple of cracking models.

Additions-More Old Tat!!

A curious selection of articles!!!
There is method in my madness, the furniture will be used to make some hasty street barricades, and carts are always useful.

So, here's the completed wagon, just needs a lick of paint!! Still undecided about the model though, as I think its a little overscale, but I'll complete it, and see.