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Monday 28 March 2011

[NEWS] Brigade Models preview Salute releases!


The industrious chaps at Brigade Models have released preview pictures of a new faction to their range of Land Ironclads and two new Seaplane Squadron packs for their Aeronef range.

Austrian Land Ironclads


The Land Ironclad release see’s the Austrians introduced to the Land Ironclad range with what seems to be a fully fleshed out range of Land Ironclads and contraptions.


Austrian Beweglicher Artilleriewagen  

Austrian Chemische Giftzufuhr

The two new Seaplane Squadrons are released for the Austrians and the Italians with both faction receiving Seaplane fighters and Seaplane bombers.

Austro-Hungarian Seaplane Squadron

Italian Seaplane Squadron

Thursday 24 March 2011

[Review] Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Mark V Tank.


 Welcome back,
                                today’s update is another product review, one that I’ve been meaning to post for months now, namely a review of Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Mark V Tank that I used as a base for my British landship.

Pendraken Miniatures only really appeared on my scope a few months ago, just before Christmas when I was looking at various options for some Martians for my current project. Although I didn’t find anything that I thought might be suitable for the Martians I was however intrigued and after a brief look around the site and their massive range of miniatures I decided that there might be other products that I could use.

Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Mark V* Male Tank


First up is the website, the website is really user friendly and all the various ranges are clearly laid out on the left hand side of the page by period, clicking on each range brings up all the various factions or nations for it in the centre of the page. Once you have clicked on the faction you are taken to the miniatures themselves. Here however the experience is a little less smooth, the miniature ranges seem to be arranged by the date that they were released, this is fine but most of the miniatures lack any sort of picture and although all the miniatures are well described it still means searching through a full page of products and with infantry, cavalry, artillery and armour all mixed in together it could be really easy to miss what you were looking for. 

The pictures that Pendraken have added to their webstore are on the whole pretty average but adding a touch of wash would sort most of them out. It is not all bad news however, Pendraken do have a rather active Flickr page with many of their products featured on there, the vast majority of these pictures are far superior to what’s on the webstore but there is a certain amount of trawling involved.

Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Mark V* Male Tank with Baccus 6mm Colonial's for scale.

Once my order was placed I received a confirmation e-mail to let me know what I had ordered and a further e-mail to let me know that my order had been dispatched, it did take about a fortnight from ordering to my product arriving but I did place my order just before the New Year at what I must assume was a very busy time (combine that with all the postal disruption pre-Christmas and I think Pendraken did extremely well).  My products arrived fairly well wrapped and without any serious breakages, though I would have liked a little extra protection for the small and potentially fragile sponsons.

The Mark V* Male tanks that I ordered were priced at £4.00 (this has since risen to £4.25 an unwanted but more than acceptable rise with the rising cost of metal and the increased rate of VAT figured in) which I believe is a very reasonable price once the size and the weight of the vehicles is figured in. The casting on a whole was incredibly good with only a couple of small area’s needing any cleaning work, one area of concern however was the thin guns, one of which inevitably snapped off, not a massive issue and one that was easily rectified. On a whole the models were incredibly easy to clean and work with and once I’d converted them they were really easy to paint.
A converted Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Mark V* Male Tank

In summation I wouldn’t hesitate to order from Pendraken Miniatures again but I would be much more likely to order from them if they added some of their lovely pictures from their Flickr page to their webstore.

Ease of Ordering:  6/10

Quality of Service:  8/10

Quality of Product:   9/10

Packaging & Delivery:  8/10

Value for Money:  9/10

Thursday 17 March 2011

[Finished] 2nd Battalion York & Lanc's & my 1st landship


Welcome back,
                           Well it’s been a long time in the making but I’ve finally got another update ready and this time there are even pictures to prove that there has been progress (I must apologise for all the picture free posts recently but without a reliable computer it has been difficult to get them sorted). 

I’ve made progress on three new units, first of all I began by continuing with the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire and Lancashire regiment, this unit has frustrated me since I started it before Christmas, the Baccus marching strips were a lot more work than I originally thought and left me severely de-motivated, however they are finally finished and are looking decidedly splendid.

The 2nd Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment flank the HMLS Defence
The 2nd Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment flank the HMLS Defence

Four companies from the 2nd Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment escort the HMLS Defence
 
 The second unit that I began was the first of my Landship’s, based upon a Pendraken 10mm Mk V Tank it turned out even better than I imagined, the size of the model fits quite nicely with my Baccus and looks quite convincing (in my eyes at least) as a Landship.  I was in two minds about the colour scheme, I was initially drawn to a predominately white scheme that I’d seen on some 28mm VSF tanks but I’m not really that confident painting white and so I considered painting them in the same scheme as my British aeronef’s but I felt there was too few areas that I’d be able to paint buff, that just left me the scheme that I finally settled upon, not too much white, a little brass and a little colour.

HMLS Defence
HMLS Defence

HMLS Defence

Ad-hoc British Brigade supported by the landship HMLS Defence and naval brigades from HMS Atropos & HMS Panther

The third unit that I have made progress on is the 17th Lancers, no pictures of these at the moment as all I’ve done is paint the horses, I do hope to have them done within a couple of weeks though.
Haarken

Saturday 12 March 2011

[NEWS] Brigade Models Releases.


Having teased us for months, Brigade Models have finally released the French faction for their Land Ironclads range. The new range currently consists of five Land Ironclads and two contraptions.

The range of French Land Ironclads can be found HERE and the full range of Land Ironclads can be found HERE.


Detendu Class Ironclad
Immuablement Ironclad Class Ironclad

Char St Maxim Class Contraption