Italeri 1/48 Puma 234/2

In my previous post some of you may have noticed that some armoured re-enforcements have arrived for my Bolt Action Germans.

I love plastic, and I am completely unashamed by that fact. Paint doesn't chip, thing don't break off at a moments notice and I never end up super-gluing my fingers together. The fact that it is cheaper is an incidental bonus, not the driving force. Given my love for plastic I can easily deal with the scale inconsistencies between my 1:48 'Military Modelling' armour, and my 1:56 (28mm) 'Wargaming' infantry and transports

I have a Tamiya Panzer III ausf L that I brought many years ago, and doubt I will use much in Bolt Action games given that we normally play Normandy and beyond. I also recently tracked down a Flak-Panzer Wirbelwind, the German equivalent of the American M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage AKA the "Kraut-mower".

With the anti-infantry Wirbelwind filling my tank slot I had to find a suitable anti-tank option from the other slots, and this caught my eye;

 

When I saw the Price tag, only £12, I was concerned that someone had made a mistake with the scale. Tamiya kits in this scale, with their diecast lower hulls, normally retail for around £20-£30, but the scale was right.

So I thought there 'must' be something wrong with the model. Everything seems fine...

Well those steering rods are very flimsy. Does that count as a fault?

It even has seat for the turret crew.

They also went to the effort to provide a full gun breach, and sculpted the weld marks on the Interior of the turret!

The turret mount comes off, just in case I want to make a slot-on 234/3 stummel conversion.

 

Admittedly, if I wanted to convert the model to a 234/4 with PaK 40 I would have to cut away some of the hull above the rear facing driver's position, but that seems a small price to pay.

The Good

Cheap

Excellent detail - even has weld markings on the plate joins

Interior detail

Lots of conversion opportunities

Did I mention how cheap it is?

The Bad

Nothing much to say here, if you want to be picky; 

It is a 'Military Modelling' kit, so expect lots of fiddly details. Best to just leave them in the box like I have.

Apparently there are supposed to be some gun cleaning rods which are not included in this model.

In other news; my phone clearly serves as a better camera than my old camera, and I seem to be slipping into a once a fortnight routine for blogging.

~ Bob

Bolt Action Terrain (Part 1)

 This board is part of my commitment  to helping Poole Gaming Society get started up. Sadly the Insurance has not come through on time so we have been forced to push back the start day from the 7th of May all the way to Tuesday the 21st of May. On the plus side this gives me time to actually finish the boards.

You may notice that the quality of the photos has dropped. The camera I was using went to Cuba for two weeks (without me) and came back broken. My old camera serves, and may be slightly better than the one on my mobile, but it is difficult to tell.

So here is the initial phase, the hexes I had laser cut as a prototype for an eventual retail version; a modular hex wargaming board. On to this is glued a layer of foam board which was roughly drawn the initial layout

With scratch built hedges, some static grass and textured paint it is starting to take shape.

Currently 48" deep by 40" wide, this edge has been left 'ragged' so I can double the width of the board once I build more tiles.

 Each of the hedge lined road tiles have a gap on either side so they do not completely block movement.

The road should be big enough for a Bolt Action Tiger, but as I do not own one yet it is difficult to check. 

 Some of the hedges completely obscure infantry, while other hedges allow the heads to peek over the top. 

This building only needs a coat of paint and a roof. I plan to have the roof hinge open on the centre line with one side firmly glued down.
 

The other building only has a basement at the moment, additional levels will be added over the next few weeks.

One of the main purposes of my hex design was to get some three dimensionality into my gaming.

Rivers, trenches and basements are normally below ground level, not sitting atop the grass!


~ Bob