Achtung Panzer #2 - Panzerkampwagen III

I try to keep a look out for good prices on books featuring the PzKfw III. I was on Amazon when it made a couple of suggestions which included this book from Japan. I know about it but it had worked its way into the back of my mind. I did a little research and found prices running anywhere from $20 to just over a $100. I picked this one up on eBay for $20 although shipping was $11. That still placed it as the best current value for this one.

It is long out of print but if you are a modeler its a must have. While other books I own contain the same information this one is really concentrates the detail into a smaller, easier to handle format and it has enough to make it a very useful tool at the work bench including some terrific interior photos. I highly recommend it if you can find it at a reasonable price.

Some interior B&W photos that I don't recall seeing before, always a nice bonus

Some interior shots in color

Diagrams showing different details. There certainly are books that do some of this better but this one is easy to handle and keep at the work bench.

Even more details, a modeler's dream! It is in Japanese and English and the English translation is pretty good.

Pulp Figures by Bob Murch

I have been considering ordering some of these figures for a long time, lot's of good things have been said about them. I spotted one figure in pack PHP-2 Rugged Heroes (Its says new so I'm thinking these are new sculpts replacing older ones) that I might be able to use to represent Col Hogan in a diorama I'm planning. To go along with it I picked up PHP-19 Dangerous Dames 2. I'm just blown away, the mold lines are light and shouldn't cause any prep problems and the sculpts are great. These might be inspiration enough to finally get the paints out again and start getting some miniatures painted!

I'm thinking with a little modification I can use the guy on the left for Col Hogan from Hogan's Heroes. I love the dog!

Five very dangerous ladies with guns and knives. Again I particularly like the ship captain on the left.

Apollo 11 - 45th Anniversary

While I know that there are certain people out there that don't believe we went to the moon I am not one of them. I remember getting to stay up late and watch TV as the Eagle (the moon lander) came to rest on surface of the moon July 20, 1969. My Uncle was part of the crew at Cape Canaveral that launched Apollo 11 on its historic trip to the moon.

Today I have a video sequence shot by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Apollo 11 landing site. Its getting pretty hard to ignore the evidence now!

NASA Probe Sees Apollo 11 Moon Landing Site from Space (Video)

This is the famous photograph. Every human alive but one is in this picture. The only one missing is Michael Collins the astronaut behind the camera, piloting the command module

Renovations Underway

A couple of months ago we did the big spring cleaning in the house. I have lived here for 20 years now and its amazing how much stuff and junk (I also pulled out old carpet and stripped all kinds of things in preparation for what was to come) just accumulates. That cleaning filled two 30 yard dumpsters. This past week I started on the serious renovations starting with the now empty front bedroom. This was my youngest son's bedroom from the day we moved into the house (although both boys shared it for a long time when they were younger). With #2 son out of the house and, mostly, on his own I figured this was the place to start. 

The carpets were pulled in the initial cleanup and we went over the floor again to make sure that there were no staples left behind (I don't recommend the bare foot approach but it can be quite effective in finding sharp objects.). Carpet tack strips were pulled up and the old baseboards were removed and will be replaced with new ones. Since we were down to bare subfloor at this point painting really only required us to tape off the window and the closet door. The regular door has seen better days and will be replaced when everything else is finished.

Painted by spraying on new white primer followed by spraying on the first coat of paint. I didn't really get the coverage I wanted with that so we rolled another coat of the paint on. I think it looks great! Then we moved on to the floor putting down and underlayment followed by laminate floor planking (Tavern Oak). I'm basically down to the tricky stuff that has to be cut at this point but I'm very pleased with the result so far. I'm not looking forward to working in the closet though!

A few pictures of the progress from last week.

Looking in from the hallway. Every spot where you see underlayment needs to have planks cut and fitted now. The easy part is finished.

A step inside the room looking towards the NW corner. This is probably the truest looking for colors.

From the SW corner looking back towards the front window (the house faces north).

A slightly better look at the floor.

Looking back towards the door and the hallway. The closet door is still taped off from painting.

ReaperCon 2016 Horror Themed Diorama

Okay, its time to start getting to work on my primary entry for ReaperCon this year. The convention was moved to October this year, primarily because of lack of space in the Denton area and the demands on the limited amount of space that there is. The new venue is going to be quite the challenge as its basically 30,000 square feet of empty space with pillars in it. I'm sure the crew at Reaper will be able to pull it off though.

The theme for this year is horror and I have had a number of ideas spinning through my head but I think I have settled on one involving these miniatures:

I'd like to get this miniature into an elevated position to indicate that the artificial gravity is shot.

I"m probably going to switch out some of these tentacles into something a bit more menacing.

The minions! Definitely need a blue and yellow color scheme for these guys.

The current plan will utilize a cut away look into a pulp style rocket ship complete with a space background and lights. We will see how far I actually get with that. I have a good idea of a minimum amount of work to pull it off and what the maximum effort would be. Time will till, October is coming fast!