Perry Miniatures DAK Kübelwagen Review and WIP

I decided to shape up and actually start painting some stuff for this years convention game, so I turned my attention to Perry Miniatures' Kubelwagen in recce role. For those who didn't know, the Kübelwagen was the German equivalent of the Jeep and also the first Volkswagen model.

The little kübel and it's crew.

The kübelwagen was used on all fronts both as personnel transport and as a reconnaissance vehicle. It could go as fast as 80 km/h and had good cross country performance even though it didn't have four-wheel drive. Some 50.000 were built during the war, and even an amphibious version called Schwimmwagen was made.

You can see the rough texture and flash on this picture.

The model looks the part, capturing the particular shape of the kübel. The model is mostly a one piece resin affair, only the windshield and folded roof are separate metal parts. Also included are three crew which is nice, and some stowage along with two jerry cans, a tropical helmet, a mauser rifle and an MP40 to further customise it. (All these items are separate though) The crew are all individual sculpts in lifelike and realistic poses, but I feel the stowage could be more thought out. We get some weapons and two helmets, yet all the crew are wearing their helmets. A couple of water bottles and gasmask cases would have been better.

"Hans, I vant to go zat vay!"

I feel that the model would have benefited having more separate metal parts, the wheels and shovel for example could gain a lot by being separate. Now the details of those are a bit bland and the shovel is misshapen and I fear the handle is going to break off any time. The headlights and notek light are also parts that could have been better detailed if they were separate items. The cast is relatively good but with some flash and a bit of a rough texture here and there.

"I'll race you to Tobruk!"

It looks a bit on the small side, but on the other hand the kübel was a small vehicle, so I think it's ok scalewise. It's always hard with vehicles for 28mm figures because they are bulkier than regular people. The two gerry cans though look a tad bit overscale, I suspect that they simply copied some 1:48 bits. If you compare it to the Warlord kübelwagen the Perry model is slightly more expensive (£15.50 vs £14.00) but as you only get a driver with the Warlord model I think the Perry one is a better buy.

I'm a bit hesitant about how to rate this one. I like the sculpt and the fact that you get three crew figures is a plus. On the other hand I feel that the quality of the sculpt is let down a bit by the cast, both the metal and resin were not top quality really. I was surprised by this because Perry Miniatures WW2 range is quite recent, so the molds should still be ok.

I give Perry Miniatures' Kübelwagen 3 out of 5 stars.

Big, Bigger, STOMPA!!!

I haven't really started on a good foot with my hobby projects this year. I should be painting and assembling a lot of CoC stuff, but I haven't. And it's all this guy's fault:

When the going get's tough, the tough get stomped!

Yep, that's a Stompa. I bought it right after christmas and have been assembling and modifying it to my heart's desire. I decided to magnetize a lot of parts both to make it easier to store, but also to be able to paint the different parts separately. So I've been a bit busy lately.

First catch of the year - Black Scorpion Miniatures Review

Nine days into the new year the mailman delivered my first catch of the year; a box of goodies from Black Scorpion Miniatures.

Ooooh, pressies! Well, I did pay for them but I can hardly remember that so it's almost like a present!

Black Scorpion make quality resin miniatures in the popular "Heroic 30mm" scale, which means they are around 32-33 millimeters in height as are most other manufacturers' figures nowadays. Their ranges include pirates, fantasy pirates, fantasy football amongst others. They also have a bunch of special figures included Winston Churchill and a duck with a Machine gun...

 I ordered a bunch of packs from their Tombstone range, which features Wild West style figures. There's no "fantasy" element in this range, but the subjects can be a bit tropey. (I'm no expert on the period though.)

Predictions for 2015

I won't make any promises or plans for 2015, but I will try to make some predictions.

Let me gaze into my crystal ball...

• I will paint at least one squad each for Perry's Desert Rats and Deutches Afrika Korps, and probably a support weapon or vehicle too, before Easter. Because otherwise we're screwed for our GothCon Chain of Command game. I already have one squad of each painted and I'm counting on Thomas to paint a squad of each too. Hopefully I will manage some more. (I also predict that I will then suffer from desert burn-out and not paint any more desert-y stuff until after the summer.)

Eh... quite.

• I predict I will be doing lots of terrain. Mainly because I have lots of built but unpainted terrain stuff that needs finishing.

• I predict that I will be painting some 20mm americans and germans for playing the 29 Let's Go! campaign for Chain of Command. Most of the stuff is already bought so I think this will be a good "break" project painting in between all that desert stuff.

A complete campaign for the prize of a pint! Go buy it now!

• I predict I will try to play some Shadows of Brimstone and may even paint a couple of figures for it. I have ordered more Wild West figures from Black Scorpion to be used as extra characters, but I predict that I have ordered too many, and yet not the exact figures I needed and therefore loose interest.

• I also have late war British and German platoons in 28mm to paint. I predict that I will paint some of them and a tank or two. I will probably buy some more stuff just because I am weak willed. Especially if more lovely plastic tanks are released.

Every wargamer knows you just can't have too many tanks.

• Speaking of weak willed I went out and bought a Stompa for my 40K  orks. My prediction is that I will convert or build a lot of ork figures but paint very few of them. The Stompa however is impossible to resist and it will get a lick of paint and be used in a game during 2015.

I have already started building it. The thing's a beast of a kit!

• I will also say "No more Kickstarters" and then promptly be seduced by one coming along with nice figures. I will try to not go all bonkers though and only put in small sensible pledges. (As if that will ever happen!)

• I wrote 46 blog posts last year. Not quite on my target of one post a week. I predict my blogging will be a bit random and about as frequent as it was last year.

I also predict that all my predictions will prove wrong... one way or another. Happy gaming!

2014 round-up

So now comes the dreaded moment where I try to sum up the year gone... but first a look in the rear view mirror. What did I think I would be concentrating on a year ago, and how did it go?

Painting tally 2014

• 20mm WW2 figures: 35
• 20mm buildings: 3
• 28mm S/F figures: 18
• 28mm vehicles: 2
• 28mm Fantasy figures: 5
• 28mm WW2 figures: 45
• 36mm Boardgame figures: 7
• X-wing ships: 3

If we look on the number of produced stuff it isn't THAT impressive, but compared to my usual output it's quite good. I seem to have shifted back to 28mm figures though. Originally I started playing WW2 in 20mm because it was cheaper and faster to paint, but during 2014 I have rediscovered the joy of painting larger figures. This of course means everything takes forever to paint, and yet I managed to paint 18 orks and a big Dreadnought for 40k, as well as 45 WW2 figures and an armoured car in 28mm (more on that below).