World War II Central

GHQ 1/285th Photo Dump

2013-04-07T21:35:00.003-07:00

Hi All,

I was just browsing through my backup hard drive and found several photos that I don't think I've shared on my blog before. It's possible I posted these back in the day on my old "IntoBattle" site but figured it didn't hurt to share again.

These are all 1/285th miniatures by GHQ.

Enjoy!

Tanner

GHQ 1/2400 Naval - Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Skokaku, Zuikaku

2013-04-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

It seems that I've been in painting mood lately and I've finished quite a few things... not least of which is these Imperial Japanese Aircraft Carriers. I created some very detailed decals to make these carriers possible, and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out.

Now, bear with me while I flood you with photos...

How would history have been different if all 6 of these guys had been present at Midway?

Akagi - Nagumo's flagship

Kaga

Soryu

Hiryu

Shokaku

Zuikaku

Very clean and sharp lines on the deck. I went with a clean look, but the decks can easily be weathered after the decals are applied.

Kaga and Akagi - big and tall

Hiryu and Soryu - definitely have a smaller and lower profile

Shokaku and Zuikaku - These guys would see plenty of action even though they missed out at Midway.

Here is a good photo for scale

And to further dwarf these ships, look how small they are in comparison to a bottle of Vallejo paint! This is the Hiryu with an Atlanta class CL alongside for comparison.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these photos. Let me know what you think. Would you buy these decals if I set up shop and made them available?

Tanner

Painting for the GHQ Catalog - A few goodies

2013-04-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi All, I recently finished some painting for the GHQ Catalog and wanted to share a few photos that I took. I'm always excited for the new releases that GHQ puts out each year, the new release list is only a month or two away :)

sIG33B Self Propelled gun... introduced at Stalingrad. I was asking feverishly for this model for the past few years so I was happy to get it this year :)

Another close up...

US T-92 240mm SPG

The other side...

French Jaureguiberry... Pre-Dreadnought... what a funky little ship!

Coin and Pin for scale...

Finnish Infantry and Support - I haven't painted any Infantry in a few years; I just don't really enjoy painting it for some reason. Let me know what you think of these because I have a lot of Soviet and German Infantry to paint and I would like to know what people think of this style (minus the snow).

Thanks for looking!

Sneak Peak - IJN WWII Aircraft Carriers - GHQ 1/2400

2013-03-24T00:00:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to share a sneak peak photo of what I am currently working on... Left to Right: Kaga, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Soryu, Hiryu, Akagi. These are all GHQ 1/2400 Miniatures and make use of my own custom Deck Decals.

I'll be sure to post photos of the finished product... So far I love how they are turning out!

Quick Update: Here's a quick photo of the deck decals I've finished so far

Left to Right: Yorktown (CV-5), Enterprise '42, Hornet, Enterprise '44, Lexington (CV-2), Langley, Shokaku '42, Zuikaku '42, Chitose, Soryu, Hiryu, Kaga, Akagi, Zuikaku '44, Junyo.

Tanner

USN Carriers in 1/2400 - Lex, Yorktown, Big E, and Hornet

2013-02-18T08:44:00.002-08:00

It's always nice to have a day off of work, and today is no exception (Happy President's Day!). I recently finished a set of USN Carriers and would like to share some photos. These were all painted with Vallejo paints applied with an airbrush and the flight decks are custom decals that I produced.

Oh, I've also included an Atlanta Class light cruiser... what a cool ship, just bristling with guns!

Pretty impressive arsenal of power! A compliment of ~350 Aircraft.

Lady Lex - CV-2 Lexington

CV-5 Yorktown

Big E - CV-6 Enterprise

CV-8 Hornet

CL-51 Atlanta (minus the Camo)

The usual "Coin and Pin" photo for scale...

And my "other" usual photo... fake photo pretending to be real :)

Thanks for looking, please let me know what you think.

Tanner

New Years painting - Naval Miniatures

2013-01-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all, it's been awhile since I've posted photos of my painting so I'd like to share a few items that I recently finished. Most of these items were painted for GHQ to include in their catalog. I'm still enjoying 1/2400 painting and I have especially been excited with how well my carrier decks have turned out. Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!

HMS Furious

Finnish BT-42

IJN Chitose

F4U Corsair

F4U Corsair - There's not much contrast with the blue, so here's a shot of the underside to those the excellent GHQ detail.

F4U Corsair

AV-3 Langley - what a cool ship!!!

AV-3 Langley - Another excellent casting from GHQ

Aichi Val - trust me, the color is light grey... it just looks light against the dark ocean background.

Aichi Val

I'm not sure what my "next up" project is, but I'd like to get back to my never-ending Eastern Front projects. Now that GHQ has released the sIG 33B Self Propelled gun, I have a little more motivation to paint my Stalingrad factories :) I'd also like to resume working on carrier deck decals. Stay tuned!

Santa brought me Axis and Allies Europe and Pacific 1940!!!

2012-12-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope the season has been cheerful and you are ready for a great new year. I also hope that Santa has been good to you... while I didn't get any miniatures, books, paints, etc. I did get a good surprise that I'm quite happy with: "Axis and Allies Europe 1940" and "Axis and Allies Pacific 1940". These are essentially the latest versions of the Axis and Allies line of board games - but on steroids.

First off, I spent Christmas up in the mountains. The wife, kids, and I were all happy and surprised to wake up to a White Christmas... a surprise snow storm had blown in the night before and dropped a few inches that we were able to play in.

Living in Arizona, I don't consider myself an expert in heating (furnaces, space heaters, wood stoves) as I've never had much use for it. However, with the temperatures dropping to around 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 C) I had to learn quickly. I think my wife was quite impressed that I was able to get such a hot fire going :)

On account of the cold weather, I had a perfect opportunity to crack open my gifts from Santa. I have to admit that I am pretty impressed with the quality of these board games. All of the represented nations (US, UK, Germany, Franch, Italy, USSR) have their own sculpted miniatures with the exception of France; you can easily tell what the sculpted variants are. The counters, manual, and storage boxes, etc. should hold up just fine over time.

And here is the Pacific board that comes in the Pacific 1940 game. There is lots of space in that big ol' Pacific. China and ANZAC are represented as well.

One of the reasons that Wizard of the Coast (Avalon Hill? Hasbro? Who knows...) created this series was so the two stand-alone games could be combined into a single "Global" game. I have to admit, for a board game it is pretty large! The picture below shows it sitting on my table that is about 6 feet long... I have not played the Global game yet, but I imagine it will be a big undertaking.

I did manage to setup and play the Europe game for a few turns before we had to take it down so we could eat dinner. I definitely recommend that you use a dedicated table so you have time and space to play. The mechanics are pretty simple and easy to grasp and there is enough complexity to allow a lot of diversity in strategy. My kids enjoyed it and my wife has committed to playing another game on New Years Eve (yay!).

Overall these are both pretty cool board games and I'm excited to get a little more use out of them. Thanks Santa :)

Amazon has both the Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 available for free shipping. As of this writing, it seems that several places have sold out of the Europe edition (it's popular I guess). Be sure to look for "Second Edition" as it has some updated rules and playing pieces.

Never before seen! New color archival photos of the Bismarck.

2012-10-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well... these aren't exactly archival photos of the actual Bismarck. But they are color and until today they have never been seen before :) German color photos during the War had a characteristic yellow hue to them, so I thought I'd have a little fun with my miniature photos.

And again in black and white...

Here is the original photo. This is the GHQ 1/2400 Bismarck; this was my first time painting a German warship.

One more, top down.

And lastly, the obligatory coin and push pin photo. No matter how many GHQ miniatures I paint, I'm always amazed at the small size and the detail.

Thanks for looking.

Tanner

GHQ 1/2400 Japanese Carriers - Kaga, Zuikaku, and Hiyo

2012-10-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

It has been far too long since my last real post... sorry about that. I certainly have had miniatures on my brain but things have been incredibly busy at work. I got my first breather this week and I spent some time working on some IJN Carriers.

Kaga. I'm happy with how things turned out except I wish I had done the deck slightly darker... something I'll fix the next time I paint a Kaga :)

Zuikaku and Hiyo. Not bad for my first deck camo I guess, although there are some things I would change here as well.

Tiny, tiny, tiny...

Comments and feedback are appreciated :)

Tanner

GHQ 1/2400 Akagi and Lexington

2012-08-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hi All! I just wanted to post a few pictures of some recently completed 1/2400 miniatures: the IJN Akagi and the USS Lexington (CV-2). Overall, I enjoyed painting these... although the Akagi deck markings were a major PITA. I sure wish there was a company that produced ready-made deck decals (especially white stripes!). I ended up creating my own decals on my inkjet printer and they turned out ok... it just took a lot of trial and error.

These are currently for sale on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/wwiicentral/m.html

At any rate, here are the photos:

GHQ 1/2400 Kirishima and Arizona

2012-06-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my first chance in quite awhile to get some painting done and post new pictures. Continuing with my recent surge of interest in the Pacific Theater, I have painted up some GHQ 1/2400 Naval miniatures. The detail on these are excellent (of course, it's GHQ) although they were a little fiddly to put together... I wanted to jump out the window while putting the Akagi together. At any rate, here are a few photos:

Above: Kirishima

Above: USS Arizona

I even managed to finish painting a platoon of T-34's! Due to back problems, I'm not able to sit and paint as long as I used to... as a result these T-34's are painted using my new "fast" style painting method. Essentially I leave out some of the details and weathering so the process is faster :)

And on request... a photo to show scale.

Hope you enjoy, feedback appreciated.

Tanner

Movie Review: Letters from Iwo Jima

2012-06-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

I'm not really a qualified movie critic, so this isn't so much a review as it is my personal opinions. I recall the original release of "Letters from Iwo Jima"... not because it was nominated for some Academy Awards, but because there was a lot of controversy around it's content. I'm not much for controversy, so I watched it with an open mind and I won't address any of those points of dispute (it's not my place).

I thought Letters from Iwo Jima was an excellent movie and I really enjoyed it. I think it's strongest point was the humanity that it brought to the Japanese armed forces in World War II. Don't get me wrong, there was still a lot of things that occurred that were in-humane... but you really grasp the fact that the Japanese soldiers had hopes, dreams, families, fears, etc. In numerous ways, they were just like their enemies. Many of them had no say in the decision to fight.

The movie really made me reflect on that human aspect and wonder why wars begin in the first place. Studying World War II, it's easy to get caught up in all the weapons and killing and that aspect takes on a distant and unrealistic quality. When you watch a movie like this, you really remember that it was awful and the real cost in the end.

If any of you have forgotten this movie was around (like me) and have never watched it, I highly recommend it. I haven't seen "Flags of Our Fathers" yet because it's not available on Netflix (where I watched "Letters") and it's not available on Amazon streaming. Anyone have feedback on "Flags"? Is it just as good?

The Soundtrack is highly recommended as well... somber yet powerful. It helps set the tone for the movie for sure. Check it out below.

To Hell and Back...

2012-06-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had an experience that wasn't really World War II or Miniatures related... but because I'm so obsessed with World War II History, that's all that was going through my mind. I had a Kidney Stone.

Maybe I'm just being a baby, or perhaps I have low tolerance for pain... but this kidney stone was the absolute worst pain I have ever had. It was so incredibly painful I was delusional and on the edge of consciousness. As I was laying in an emergency room hospital bed, I was begging the nurse to give me something for the pain. Her response was "Try to relax, we'll get you some Morphine."

Now... I've never had Morphine before, but immediately scenes of Saving Private Ryan started flashing through my head. In a delusional state of mind, I started thinking about wounded servicemen during WWII and pondering if the Morphine injections they received really worked as fast as the movies portrayed.

I did not receive a syrette injection like those in World War II (pictured above); they gave me mine through an i.v. drip. But, it IMMEDIATELY relaxed me the moment it went in. It took about 5-10 minutes to take full effect; and after the addition of another painkiller (can't recall it's name) I was comfortable and almost pain free.

I have the deepest and most sincere gratitude for those men and women who have been wounded or died in the defense of our freedoms and liberties. I also applaud those war-time medics who had to deal with the unenviable task of attending to those in pain. While my kidney stone can never compare to what they experienced... I now have a much greater appreciation for their sacrifices.

15mm Plastic Solder Company Platoons Finished!

2012-06-08T22:57:00.002-07:00

I've finally finished 2 15mm platoons - both intended to represent Kursk or there about. Here are some photos...

Always use a booth and mask when airbrushing!

2012-05-19T12:28:00.001-07:00

I was just cleaning up my painting room a bit and realized that I needed to change the filter on my airbrush booth. I use a small portable booth that isn't as powerful as some of the others I've tried in the past but it's been great for storage. Considering it's slightly under powered, I also use a nice respirator mask that filters out things like spray paint vapors. Almost all of the paints that I use are labeled as "non-toxic" but the filter below is a great example of why you should always protect your breathing when you airbrush; even if you're using Acrylic paints that you might think are innocuous.

Here's a close up... the first thing my wife said when I showed her the used filter was "imagine that stuff collecting in your lungs". Airbrush booths can be a little pricey (even my cheap portable one was over $100); but in my opinion they are more than worth the price. At the very least, you should always be sure you're using a respirator.

Just a few hobby thoughts... happy painting.

Tanner

The Plastic Solder Company 15mm Panther - I love it!

2012-05-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to paint many miniatures from The Plastic Solder Company (PSC), but if you've read any of my previous posts with their miniatures you'll know that I am a fan. They are accurate, they provide different variants on the sprue, and they are cheaper than Battlefront 15mm miniatures (why pay more for an inferior product?)

This past month I picked up several new 15mm boxes from PSC - Panzer III, IV, Panthers, Sdkfz 251's, StuG, and infantry. They are all great kits in my opinion, but I particularly like the Panther so I thought I'd share a few photos. DISCLAIMER: I wanted to try the clean and "fresh off the line for the Kursk Offensive" style of painting so there are no chips, scrapes, or mud on these tanks.

Yep, 15mm (1/100)... the stowage on the back are a few spare pieces from the sprues and some tissue paper. I love the effectiveness and ease of non-toxic plastic cement!

The details are sharp and accurate; the tracks went together perfectly. There were almost no mould lines (except on the 75mm barrel) this is such a wonderful thing to me as I hate cutting, sanding, and filing down the resin and white metal on other manufacturers vehicles.

For a perfect, smooth, and silky primer coat I sprayed Vallejo's Dunkelgelb Acrylic-Polyurethane "Surface Primer" through my airbrush.

I applied a basecoat of Vallejo Middlestone (882); since the primer coat was close in color I was able to get by with minimal spray. I then applied a couple of increasing highlights by adding white to the basecoat. This was then sealed with Testors Glosscote and a mixture of Vallejo Black and Brown wash was applied to the cracks, seams, rivets, and hatches.

Lastly, I painted the tools, stowage, and tracks; the turret numerals are Dom's Decals 15mm. Everything was sealed with a couple of layers of Testors Dullcote. It was nice not to worry about the usual chips and mud and I really like the resulting look. I'm working on the final two vehicles and when I'm finished I should have a nice platoon of Panther D's.

Let me know what you think... Like? Don't Like?

Tanner

Zvezda 1/144 Aircraft - IL-2 Sturmovik

2012-04-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted anything worthwhile... life has been plenty busy. A couple of weeks ago, I celebrated the day of my birth and picked up a couple of new toys as a little gift to myself: Zvezda 1/144 Aircraft and Plastic Soldier Company Panzers.

I want to take a few minutes and share some photos of the Zvezda IL-2 Sturmovik and some photos. To sum it up, I think they are a good buy and worthwhile... although not perfect.

Each box comes with an aircraft sprue and a cheap little stand. The aircraft parts fit together fine and are actually quite easy to assemble. They are solid and should hold up fine to the rigors of miniature wargaming. I have only two complaints:

1. The propellers are flimsy and I opted for clipping them off
2. Mould lines run right down the top of the fuselage and are dang near impossible to remove cleanly. I'm going to do my best to integrate them into the paint scheme rather than remove them.

The aircraft stand is useless in my opinion except for maybe a temporary stand. I plan to replace them with a "Flames of War approved" type flight stand (if anyone knows a good source for these stands please let me know). The best part about these aircraft is I got them for $3.49 each (nice!).

The aircraft seem to hold paint just fine as you can see. The photo shows a "Work in Progress" model so please don't snicker at the glossy finish :) It will be weathered and matte finished soon. The box does come with decals but I used some from I-94 as the included decal quality was just average.

Here's the underbelly... you can see the mould line running lengthwise down the fuselage if you look closely. I also picked up some Ju-87's at the same time and they are of similar quality (pictures to come). In summary, I think these are a good option for Flames of War Aircraft, especially at $3.49 a-piece. The quality is so-so but personally I would choose these over Battlefront made aircraft.

Finished photos to come...

Why so quiet on the Central Front?

2012-02-19T11:17:00.001-08:00

The answer... a cabin in the woods. I admit that I've neglected my blog for a couple of months and I apologize to all those who have asked questions or posted comments and gotten no response. The cause of the neglect can be seen below:

Aside from the nightmare of paper work that is involved with a home purchase, this place has been vacant for a little while and needs some work and maintenance. Please bear with me and I hope to be back to painting models/miniatures in the near future.

On a somewhat related note, I'm selling off some of my painted (and unpainted) miniatures to help fund some of the said maintenance. If you're interested, you can find my recently complete 1/285th Russian Village for sale on eBay here.

Please wish me luck on the mountain adventure... I'm not a "cold" person so I'm gonna need it.

Thanks!
Tanner

Based buildings for the Eastern Front

2011-11-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

It's been slow going for me lately, but I wanted to post a few photos of my Russian village pieces on bases. They aren't much to look at but I'm pretty happy with the dirt, grass, and foliage colors... something I've struggled with for the past couple of years.

Here is a small Soviet farm complex... I plan to complete an orchard and some crop rows to make up a small collectivized farm.

...A small cottage...

Russian Orthodox Church, based with a rough stone wall. I wanted a little more detail on the base (like trees, etc.) but decided to keep it plain to allow infantry bases and vehicles to take refuge without too much to get in the way.

Not much else going on for now... I hope to find more time to paint in the coming months...

GHQ 1/285 Russian Orthodox Church and KV-2 Tanks

2011-10-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

The Eastern Front has always been my preferred area of World War II study... the grand battles of encirclement, the vast peasant steppes, the rubble strewn cities, and the total and complete defeat of the Nazis. The Eastern Front of World War II was a vivid and brutal battleground of epic proportions.

I've been experimenting with undercoats, ground covering, trees, etc. for probably 2 years trying to recreate a good general representation of the Ostfront landscape in miniature... to my disappointment much of it hasn't looked quite right (if anyone has a good suggestion on a COLOR photo book of this area of the world, I am all ears!). At any rate, I've decided to focus for now on the buildings and vehicles of the time and perhaps the terrain will fall into place.

Here are a few photos of some Russian/Ukrainian buildings that I just finished and wanted to share. I know the onion domes on the Orthodox church are a bit bright, but I actually followed a color photo and I think it turned out pretty close!

A tack and coin added for scale reference... these guys are tiny! I love the detail! If you've looked at some of my other photos, chances are you've seen a few KV-2's in other scales. The KV-2 is such a cool chunky-looking tank; even though it made little impact and broke down more often than not.

Here is a mix of GHQ and CinC buildings (mostly GHQ). The thatched roof on the large log cabin is very nicely cast... it's a shame that GHQ didn't do a better job on the roof's of the other Russian buildings. Hopefully with some nice dirt roads and some extra details, I'll get this looking like a nice Russian village.

A closeup of the KV-2; it's hard to see but this actually has a Soviet slogan on the side of the turret ("For Stalin!" or "For Motherland!"... can't remember which). The graffiti is dwarfed by the massive size of the turret, it might look better on a T-34. These decals came out of a new I-94 Enterprises 6mm Soviet decal set. The center of the panels and turret were highlighted/faded with my airbrush.

It's been awhile since I've painted and posted anything, I hope you enjoyed the update!

Shelby Foote's "The Civil War: A Narrative"

2011-09-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

I realize that the theme of World War II is "Central" to my blog; but several months back I got an itching to read a thorough account of the American Civil War. I've always wanted to read Shelby Foote's 3 volume narrative of The Civil War; but being daunted by it's 3000 pages, I've always deferred.

Enter Audible.com... Audible has been my commuting staple for the past year or so and suddenly 3000 pages didn't seem so daunting. I just finished the last book (Volume 3) and all told, it was probably 150 hours of listening. I paid $14.95 for each volume and it was well worth the price. The narrator was excellent and the collection kept my keen interest from start to finish.

I have to admit that I never knew the American Civil War was so enthralling and diverse. From the Ironclad naval battles to the long-odds cavalry raids of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Shelby Foote does a great job at bringing out the personalities of the great Civil War leaders and figures of the time. I've heard that being a Southerner himself, Foote tends to slant towards the Confederacy; but in my opinion this was not the case; I believe it was a fair and accurate account. This was a nation defining struggle of immense proportions and I learned a great deal about it from these books.

The only drawback that I feel I've encountered over the past few months listening, is that I now have a nagging desire to paint some American Civil War miniatures and replicate The Army of the Potomac and The Army of Northern Virginia on an epic scale. I might have to change the name of my blog to "ACW and WWII Central" :)

GHQ 1/285 6mm Desert Vehicles

2011-09-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

I continue to be "mothballed" and unable to do any painting at the moment, so I wanted to keep the theme of sharing my old work going. These photos are from a large North Africa project that I painted a few years ago; it included Italian, DAK, and UK forces. I've posted a few photos of this project, but here are several more. Enjoy.

Old Flames of War Miniatures Photos

2011-08-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Still not much time to paint anything new, and someone on my previous post asked me to post "more" of my old photos; so here you go. This time 15mm Flames of War Miniatures by Battlefront...

Wittmann and his staff in 007.

A dirty Soviet KV-2; I love these big beasts!

Winter Tiger I's.

Exaggerated chipping on command unit of Panzer IVH's.

Platoon of German Tiger II's. These were featured in Battlefront's "Art of War II" magazine.

German captured KV-2, winter white-washed.

Sdkfz 184 Elefant's.

More Miniatures photos from years past.

2011-08-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

August always seems to be a busy month and this year is no exception. I regret that I haven't done any painting for a few weeks so rather than silence I figured I would post some of my photos from years past. Don't worry though, I got a new airbrush this week that I'm itching to try out... so hopefully I'll have some new posts soon.

15mm Shermans - Miniatures by Battlefront

Me-109 in 1/285th - Miniatures by C in C

1/285th Me-109's in flight somewhere over the Ukraine.

1/285th British Daimler armored cars - Miniatures by GHQ, building Unknown.

1/285th Soviet Armor - Post World War II. Miniatures by GHQ.

Last but not least, 1/285th Tunisian Tiger somewhere outside of Tunisia :) Miniatures by GHQ.

Oh no! Here we go again!

2011-08-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

I swore I was done with GHQ (It's a long story)... but I got one of those darn "Summer Sale" post cards in the mail this weekend and then stumbled upon some of my painting from a previous life. I'm still amazed at how much detail can be packed into those little dime sized miniatures (1/285th scale). If you haven't seen GHQ miniatures before, I encourage you to at least take a look at them and admire their detail. Their website isn't quite up to today's standards and some of the pictures on the site are poor quality, but I assure you the miniatures are little works of art, even in their raw pewter state.

At any rate, in a moment of weakness this weekend I splurged and bought a couple packs (ok, ok, I actually bought several packs). I'm going to try putting together a SMALL and LIMITED Eastern Front Scenario and paint up a few units. In the mean time, here are a few pictures of GHQ miniatures I painted a year or two ago. Enjoy!