Modelzone is back...sort of!

I was in WH Smiths in Kingston today to pick up a printer cartridge when I saw an interesting poster on the outside of the shop.  Having not bought the cartridge there (as they wanted £24.95, compared with Tesco and Sainsbury's £9.99) I looked in the basement and discovered a mini Modelzone.

It looks just like the original (they're probably the original cabinets) and carries a small range of Airfix and Revell (mostly) kits, die-cast cars, some Hornby trains, railway scenics and one of the familiar circular racks of Ospreys.  There were two staff in distinctive ModelZone uniforms but you paid at the normal checkout.

The best news for the Legatus is that they have the full range of Humbrol enamels there.  Hooray!  Now I wonder whether they have done the same in the big WH Smiths in Holborn?  Even better they had some leaflets at the cash desk with a 20% off voucher.  I didn't buy anything, despite being tempted by a Revell Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper (should have bought it - just the thing to do at Christmas!).  If the Old Bat hadn't been around I might have succumbed but she's trying to get me to spend £62,000 on an extension just so Guy can have a bigger room!  Forget it!  Actually, I did buy a copy of the Osprey interwar rules A World Aflame as they do have (small) army lists for Chinese Warlord armies and maybe the casualty rate won't be as high as the Chris Peers rules!.

It's doubtful if the independent Modelzone shops will be revived but Hornby, for one, are delighted to increase their footfall on the high street with the deal.  

I hope it does well!

Resisting Temptation 3

Well, I was contemplating four days of painting when I ran out of white paint on Thursday.  Never mind, I'm sure I would have some spare tins in my paint pile, built up from the time it looked like Humbrol were going bust and I bought ten pots of each of my favourite colours.  (Does anyone else choose their lottery numbers by the numbers of their favourite Humbrol paints?  Probably not.) But no!  None at all!  Disaster!  So off I go to Addlestone Model Centre; the nearest place I can get Humbrol paints.  Now I have been going to Addlestone Model Shop (as it used to be called) for years.  In fact, I have been going there so long that I not only remember the previous building it was in but the one before that.  I probably first went there in about 1970.

I get the impression that it mainly specialises in radio control planes and cars but they have Scalextric and Hornby, Games Workshop and lots of plastic kits including a very good selection of 20mm figures and vehicles including some of the more obscure ones.  They really do manage to pack a lot into quite a small shop.  Now I buy a lot of paints and other model supplies in there but occasionally (well, quite often) I go in there to buy a tube of model filler and end up with a 1/48th Hawker Hurricane, or some such.  I have stopped this on the whole, partly because I can no longer remember which models I have bought.  However, yesterday they had the newly reissued Airfix Dambusters Lancaster in there and I was wavering.  I have never built a Lancaster and I was very impressed when one of my fellow lawyers at college built one in the law library once (he was slightly eccentric).  It just looked so chunky!  My daughter Charlotte has actually been in the cockpit of the one from the Battle of Britain Memorial flight and so she was encouraging me like mad.  But then she is always encouraging me to buy model kits which she wants me to build for her room but I never do as I always feel I should be using hobby time to paint figures.  Still, I thought, I did have four days over Easter.  No, I resisted.  Then I saw the Tamiya 1/48th one.  "It's only £99!" says Charlotte, in little red Devil mode.  "Yes but it's two feet across!  Where will I put it?  Mummy will have a wicket!"  I resist.  Again.

Then I go around the corner and they have a model kit that is so big it won't even go on the shelves.  Forget your 1/350 Tamiya USS Enterprise, that is only 105cm long. This is Trumpeter's 1/200 Bismarck which measures in at 126cm.  That's over four feet!  And it's the Bismarck!  The first model ship I built!  "Daddy it's only £79 more than the Lancaster and you get a lot more kit for your money!" says the little Devil.  No, I am not going to buy it.  It's 1700 pieces for a start.  You would need the sort of focus that is just not my strong point.   I escape unscathed and vow not to buy another model kit until I finish my 1/48 Spitfire Mk1.  

I did buy the Airfix Model World Scale Modelling supplement though, as my model making skills are still stuck in the seventies and it really does have some useful tips in it.  I might have a look at my Spitfire again tomorrow, now I have actually located it under the pile of junk that was in the corner of my room.  I have to say that the standard of finish top plastic model kit makers achieve now is just staggeringly awesome.  I'm an OK figure painter (I would give myself 5/10 - 6/10 on a good day) but the level at which these model makers are working is just way beyond my wildest dreams; I'd be about 2/10 on that scale.  Oh, well.  I just want to have a couple of model planes hanging from my ceiling!

Today I've had my best day's painting today for months, if not years.  The family were out and I started at nine and finished at about five thirty.  It was helped a lot by the good light today.  I got on really well with my latest Darkest Africa unit (it will be finished tomorrow!), I did a bit more on some of the Foundry Argonauts and I have based and undercoated some Romans.  Speaking of which, I bought some Aventine Romans for the Marcomannic War and while looking at the selection of shield transfers by Little Big Men Studios I noticed that they had a shield for Legio II Augusta.  Grr!  If only they did those for the Warlord plastics I might overcome my distaste for their dwarfiness and actually build some units to take on my Ancient Britains.  I wanted Leg II as that was the unit commanded by Vespasian as featured in the early  (and best - I never felt the books were as good after they left Britain) Simon Scarrow novels.  On the off chance, I dropped an email to Steve at LBMS.  Would the Aventine transfers work on the Warlord shields?  He came straight back and said that they would be far too big but would I like him to re-scale them to fit?  A brief e-mail exchange followed and less than 24 hour later I had eight packs of EIR Legio II August transfers for my Warlord plastics - the only ones in the world!  Well, probably not by now as no doubt he will put them up for sale shortly.  This really was exceptional service from someone who has transformed the look of wargames figures more than anyone else.  Except now I am starting to build two Roman armies at the same time!

Anyway, tomorrow, as Scarlett O'Hara said, is another day and hopefully a day with as much painting in it!.

Back from Bogota...and workbench

The view from my hotel room in Bogota

Well, I'm back from my trip to Bogota which was pretty exhausting given I think it took me longer to get to and from there than I actually stayed there.  I'd also forgotten that the city is at 2800m altitude, which made walking around urban regeneration sites quite tiring.  The Radisson Royal hotel had a nice bedroom and an OK restaurant but the bar was rubbish.  In fact all they did was push a drinks trolley into the lobby lounge in the evening.  Decidedly lacking in atmosphere.  Next time I go (and this is looking likely) I think I will stay at the Marriott again.  

Typical decor in the Hotel Zaza

As I booked so late I had to overnight in Houston on my way over so stayed at the trendy Hotel Zaza again. My particular friend S from Vancouver managed to get over too, so that perked up what could have been a dull eighteen hours.  Even better she came on to Colombia as well so we could catch up on news.  She spent much of the time (other than jewellery shopping) trying to persuade me that I should paint sixteenth century conquistadors, given they were so active in Colombia, looking for Eldorado!  I think I have quite enough on at present!

I was pretty jet-lagged the whole trip so actually didn't have a vodka Martini!  I mainly stuck to beer, which in Bogota was the ubiquitous Club Colombia.  This was a perfectly acceptable American-style lager with, perhaps, a bit more character than US equivalents.  It evaporated remarkably rapidly, however...must be the altitude.

In Houston we had a nice Oregon Pinot Noir with dinner. Erath was very satiny and smooth with an intriguing mixture of slightly smoky sage and plum tastes.  Anyway it went very well with our Texas steaks!

On the way back I had a four hour stopover in Houston airport and as soon as I arrived I found out that my plane was going to be an hour late.  S had a six hour wait before her flight back to Vancouver.  So a long lunch was called for! The choice of places for lunch in the airport, however, is not good at George Bush International.  The Sports Bar (death by tortillas), Ruby's diner (death by burger) or a seafood restaurant (death by salmonella).  Given neither S or I thought it was sensible to have seafood before a ten hour flight we went for Ruby's where, we have to say, the burgers were rather good.

Better still, beer of the month was Sam Adams Octoberfest, a nice red beer, which was actually not at all bad in a caramel sort of way.  The only way to remain in the restaurant for any length of time was to keep ordering more beer.  Next trip (next week) is to Serbia, which I haven't been to before

27th Jaeger's commander, Luitenant-colonel WJ Grunebosch, under way

I've managed a bit more painting this week but am currently working on 32 figures at once (24 Prussian line and 8 Dutch Jaegers) which, given that they are all Napoleonics makes for slow going.  I reckon each figure needs about forty separate stages and I am only getting one or two applications (e.g. two shades of a colour) done per session.  I was looking for a Dutch mounted officer for the 27th Jaegers and was about to order one from Perry Miniatures when I had a look at some of my file boxes full of "in progress" figures.  I had already got one and had even cleaned him up so just needed to base him.

The big question is, although it is still some time off, what unit do I paint after I have finished these?  The obvious thought is to do a unit of French infantry and I have based enough Perry plastics and metals for a 36 man French battalion but don't think I can face any more of these yet.  I have around twelve A4 file boxes full of "in progress" figures.  To qualify for this status they have to be based at least.  Some are well on the way so maybe I just need to look at some which have  a reasonable amount of paint on to go next.  I would like to paint a whole unit again, though, so I need to do an inventory of what I have.

I went to Bath today and when I visited a couple of years ago I bemoaned the loss of Bonapartes model soldier shop and the shrinking Games Workshop.  More bad news on this visit as this nasty orange shop front is all that is left of Bath Model Centre.

I always used to go in here to get paint and modelling supplies, at least, but, after 66 years, spiralling rates and loss of customers partly due to extensive building works nearby have done for it.  Shame.

Dark Sphere

I had a spare half hour yesterday between meetings (well, afternoon tea with a lovely Russian girl and drinks with a friend) yesterday and remembered reading on TMP the other day about a shop near Waterloo station that sold figures. I travel in and out of Waterloo most days but hadn't realised this shop was there.  Well, that is not quite correct, as I had passed it on the other side of the road some months ago but assumed it was a video game shop.  

Going inside yesterday I saw that, in fact, it is mostly figures, plus some board and trading card games.  At the rear of the shop is a room devoted to Games Workshop stuff which they sell at 20% discount.  At the front of the store is a very large Flames of War section, some fantasy figures (Uncharted Seas I noticed) and scenics.  They also had Warlord Games and Victrix plastics as well as the complete range of Wargames Factory plastics.  No Perry plastics, though.  All of these carry a 10% discount.  

I bought the Wargames Factory Skeleton Warriors for my Argonauts projects and also succumbed to some Victrix 1807-1812 French.   The latter come in a box of sixty figures and are perfect for the Peninsula (oh dear!) but they are huge!  They are 30mm foot to eye so I hope the other figures in the range are similarly sized.  Very tall Prussians might be acceptable but French?

The only other thing about the Victrix figures, and I have noticed it too with the new Fireforge Teutonic Knights, is that they cram the sprues so tightly into the boxes it is very hard to get them out without damaging them and almost impossible to put them back in again once you have taken them out to have a look at.

The Wargames Factory skeletons are the most delicate looking plastics I have ever seen, to the extent that most people say they are actually too delicate to game with.  However, they look just right for Harryhausenesque skeletons so we will have to see.

Given I have never painted more than a few from any box of plastics I have ever bought (except Lord of the Rings) I really need to get some painted before I visit this shop again!

New Wargames Shop in Brighton

During the First World War Brighton Pavillion was used as a hospital for Indian troops

I notice from TMP that a new Wargames shop, Wargames Heaven, is opening in Brighton on 22nd August. http://www.wargamesheaven.co.uk/

On a good day (i.e. not on a sunny summer weekend day -very little chance of one of those at present) I can drive to Brighton in just over an hour. I used to go down there a lot with my mother who likes visiting the town but haven't been for ages. There were several reasons I was happy to go there. Firstly, there are some excellent second-hand bookshops there. Secondly there is an excellent (if rather expensive) militaria shop in The Lanes called The Lanes Armoury. http://www.thelanesarmoury.co.uk/ The third reason was a shop called The Gentle Gallery which was in Steyning, just the other side of the Downs. We would come back from Brighton via Steyning and she could have a cup of tea in one of the very good tea shops they have there and I could look at what was quite a big selection of historical and GW figures that, oddly, this art shop stocked. I always find that it is more enjoyable buying figures in person than on the internet! Sadly, The Gentle Gallery closed last year so I haven't made the trip to Brighton for some time. This will all change now, I suspect!

A couple of days ago my little boy said he wanted to go to Brighton to visit the Lego shop so I will try to get down there on Sunday 23rd! Looking at their website they seem to have a lot of Foundry pirates in stock and my daughter, who has occasionally played a game of Lord of the Rings with us, is currently very into pirates and is showing interest in Legends of the High Seas!

Ian Allan Bookshop Waterloo

I read today on TMP about a bookshop right next to Waterloo Station that stocks wargames figures. Well, I got along there his afternoon and whilst it is mainly a railway bookshop it has a few packs of Great War Miniatures and others, some 1/35 stuff and quite a good military book section. I bought about five packs of GWM, some Crusader pirates and two books on the Zulu War I didn't have. So £54 gone and I still caught my train, as it is literally less than five minutes from my station. Bad news! The very helpful ladies said that they could order me anything in, which would save the postage.

Ian Allan
45/46 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7RG - click here for map
Tel: 020 7401 2100
Fax: 020 7401 2887

e-mail: waterloo@ianallanpublishing.co.uk
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri 9am to 5.30pm, Sats 9am to 5pm,
Suns & Bank Holidays Closed

Coincidentally, Ian Allan himself lived about 100 yards from where I did when I was younger. His nephew was in my class at junior school. He was quite a well known character in my village, Laleham-on-Thames: famously he had lost a leg as a youngster and had an artificial one, which was a fact of great interest to my schoolmates! His publishing house HQ was at the end of the railway line in Shepperton where I caught my train to senior school every day.