Review Bolt Action Priest SPG

The 105 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M7 was nicknamed Priest by the British Army because of the pulpit-like structure for the auxiliary machine gun.

The Warlord Games model comes in three beautifully shaped resin pieces, the hull and each track. There was very slight distortion of the tracks which were adequately straightened when they were superglued to the hull. Flash was absolutely minimal.

The guns, pulpit and a few other bits and pieces were metal: again flash was minimal and it all fitted together easily.

The model comes with three American crew: a loader, a commander leaning on the pulpit and a man with a walky-talky - that's showing my age!

As I wanted to use the SPG in my British Army I replaced the head of the loader, and the upper torso of the commander using a British armoured commander model.

The only issue I had is that the release-agent on the resin parts is rather fierce and I should have cleaned the model more thoroughly before undercoating.

In the Pacific, the Priest was preferred to the Sherman by US Marines as a direct fire bunker-buster because of the greater explosive power of the 105mm gun. The Japanese lacked effective anti-armour weapons, making such a tactic viable with such a lightly armoured vehicle.

A great model: highly recommended.

IHMN, West Wind's Professor Erazmas

Professor Erasmus of the Occult Research Section of the British Museum confronts a London Fremlins beer cart suspected of smuggling dangerous narcotics into the East End.

Erasmus is a West Wind Model from their amazing Empire of the Dead range.

The base is a resin steampunk base that I have had for a while.

Fremlins was a brewary in Maidstone in Kent. The site is now a shopping arcade that has reatined the famous Fremlins Arch .

Secret Nazi Airbase Captured

A friend who is both a Bolt Action Player and an aeroplane modeller sent me this recently. A phone shot from one of his games.

Spectrum Is Green - 7TV

Or in this case, Spectrum is Red, Yellow, Green and Blue.

The advent of the excellent Mk II version of 7TV has made me paint up some of the Crooked Dice models that Ihad part finished.

And who can resist Captain Scarlet?

Alessio Cavatore

Alessio Cavatore at Salute, 2016, demonstrating some of the new products of his company, River Horse.

Cavatore is one of my favourite wargame designers. He has an astonishing talent for designing fast-flowing, fun games such as Bolt Action and Kings of War.

IHMN - Ironclad Miniatures Sanwar Review

I bought a couple of packs of Sanwar from Ironclad Miniatures at the Crystal Palace show but one and have just got around to painting them.

From their VSF range, the models are vaguely Star wars sand people but equally do very well for In Her Majesty's Name steampunk cults as well as VSF. they are armed with blunderbusses and jezails, long-barrelled muskets. I also bought a great three-barrelled cannon and crew.

I chose to paint them as cultists with suitably blood red robes.

Great models: recommended.

Diamond Geezers - "Shut It!"

"We're the Sweeny and we avan't 'ad our lunch."

Couldn't resist buying and painting these wonderful Killer B models a while back but have absolutely no use for them as I use 20mm for my modern stuff.

Ah well.

Gardens of Kent

The photo is high res. Click on it.

The Name's Bond, James Bond

Great miniature from Crooked Dice.