Garage Raiding II - Return To The Garage

Picking up from where the last adventure into the garage left off......

So this box was only given a cursory check over last time, so I've had a more detailed look inside now.  More vintage goodness ahead.

The Judge Dredd boardgame was pretty obvious, as was a rather old edition of Command & Conquer PC game.  Pendragon was one of those intreresting RPGs that never really took off as I recall.  Not totally sure where it came from to be in my collection either, don't remember buying it.

Most of my AD&D 2nd edition rulebooks, though I do have the newer versions of the PHB and DMG on a shelf in the house.

 



Well used PHB and DMG, the others not so much.

Third Edition Runequest.  This newer version of RQ didn't really catch on like the original had, didn't seem to have the same gravitas or rich background, whether it was Games Workshops involvement I couldn't tell you.  Wish I knew what had happened to my original box set of it though.

Crasimoff's World PBM (CW) unofficial newsletter.  Now I started my working life as one of GMs for this hand moderated PBM* fantasy rpg, straight out of school.  It was quite a big thing in its time (advertised in White Dwarf and the like), and kept me in beer money for a number of years.  Through the regular 'Crasimeets' (conventions) the GMs all got named after one of the different Gods, I was T'Gellen - God of Fire due to my fiery ginger locks (and nothing to do with playing with matches too much).

Some rather tasty original artwork which a customers' (subsequently to become friend) cousin did based on his characters in CW.

20th Century rulesets

More miscellaneous rules and modules, interesting set of official AD&D Character sheets which I don't think ever actually got used.

MERP modules

AD&D Scenarios and bits

In other miscellaneous bits and bobs there was this shanty hut which I'd managed to spray the interior black, no idea who made it but it's plaster and at least 20 years old (as is most of this stuff).  And a bunch of old lead.

 

plaster shanty hut

Here are some close ups of the old lead



No idea, but love the old skool beermat basing.
Have a feeling I had a few 'Nam figures to go with this photographer chappy.
Think the barbarian came with a job lot of 2nd hand stuff.



 

Front and back views of a Citadel Traveller figure, 15mm I'd guess at and absolutely no idea where, when or why I got him.



A bunch of Car Wars, or Battle Cars, minis.  Now I did play these
 occasionally but obviously never bothered to fully paint anything.

A couple of Roman ballistae,
which I think I bought with the
intention of adding dwarf crews.

Finally part of my dwarven army.  Though if I can't track down any of the others this is actually all of my dwarven army!

Always thought there were more of them than this

The original, and still the best, Bugman's Dwarf Rangers

A nice enamels job on the left (not) and a couple of the
original Citadel LotR hobbits, Merry and Sam I think.

One of my favourite dwarf figures, I remember being quite proud of the paint job when I was younger (a lot younger).



Figures bought from Tabletop Games in the 80s, but I think they were originally Dixon figures.



Always loved the pike-dwarves and wanted to get
more but was a young man of limited means so couldn't
afford at the time.  Shame about the bent one, needs
some very careful attention.

The standard bearer with a tasteful

orcs head adornment.

As I recall the TTG company had a nice range of dwarves which included crossbows and handgunner/arquebus figures as well as the usual axes and swords.  I'm sure I have some of them somewhere. 

If anybody knows if these are still in production I would be interested to hear as I might slip some in under the SWMBO** radar.

This was one of my main pieces as I recall, the mighty cannon from early 80s Citadel, pre-slotta, pre mass war engine availability for all sides.  It came with a vac-form base which was a bit flimsy, so I filled it with plaster to make a more sturdy base which happened to fit nicely on a beermat.  The base is looking pretty tired (and rather dusty) and would no doubt benefit from some new flock and perhaps some static grass (which wasn't about when it was first done).



BOOM!!!!

* PBM - Play By Mail.  In the days before he internet people used the mail services to play games, sending in the orders for their characters and the GMs replied with what happened, and they actually paid for this!!!

**SWMBO Radar - She Who Must Be Obeyed - AKA The Boss, The Missus, 'Er Indoors 

Masked Up & Garage Raiding

Well my progress is at it's usual glacial like pace but I've managed to fit the windscreen of the Dak and then mask all the glasswork ready for priming.  First time I've used a masking liquid, Humbrol Mascol in this case, so no idea if it works or not.  If it doesn't I've got a job and a half ahead of me to clean the windows of paint.

The blutak is something I picked up from a thread on Britmodeller or the Airfix forum.

Storage Hunters PLF

With the bureau now up and running I thought it might be time to raid the garage to see what kits I have squirrelled away from yesteryear, along with the various tins of toy soldiers, sorry I mean military miniatures. 

There's treasurer in them there boxes

And these ones, somewhere.

These boxes haven't been properly checked since we moved house over 10 years ago (apart from to squirrel things away so the boss didn't see them), which was probably reflected in how hard they were to get at in the garage.  There was even kits stuffed in a drawer with bits and pieces of a car maintenance nature.

So I got this Airfix Fort Sahara off of that there eBay quite a number of years ago and hidden away it went, to be built one day when I got round to it and had the space and facilities.  I think I fancied doing it with ruined gates (the hinges are broken on one side anyway) and a LRDG team hold up inside fighting of DAK or Italians.  One day....

First box opened and I'm greeted with issue 500 of 2000AD (and a selection of other comics and gaming mags) and the Tolkien Bestiary, with Harnmaster and a few modules lurking beneath it.

Peel away the first layer and we find some plastic goodness, along with CarWars Deluxe and Marvel Superheroes.  All Airfix stuff, the control tower, a Beaufighter and a Me109, all useful for my desert airfield ideas.  The Beaufighter will be interesting as I also have the new tooling version from Airfix sat in  Bureau central.  Sounds like there could be a side by side build series of articles to me.

Old skool

Third and fourth layers reveal more of my roleplaying past, early editions of CoC, Rolemaster, Twilight2000 (from the days when it still felt like it could happen) and 2nd Edition Warhammer, I think.  Wonder what ever happened to my 1st edition box set?  Plenty of scenario/modules under these and the old cardboard dungeon floor plans.  Ahhh the good old days, the smell of nostalgia, or is it just mould?

Some of this stuff might actually be worth something!!!  You never know.


Casually shoved on a shelf underneath an old sports bag and some other garage detritus is this little beauty, I think this set was under £10 and has great potential for tarting up as a train from pretty much anywhere - the Eastern Front, the Western Front, North Africa or even the Far East, I'm sure you could even use it for North America as intended.

Choo chooooooooo

Mind the spiders!

Tucked away behind this was some serious squirreling, 3 copters from the UK version of Helicopter magazine.  Think I binned the mags but the models are all 1/72 and ready out of the box if necessary.  We have a Chinook, a Lynx and a Blackhawk.

chopper, chopper, chopper.

Final box of the evening was a bit squidged but I knew at lest one of its contents.  A made up, if slightly damaged, 1/72 Dakota.  The wing is now off it and an engine cowl is somewhere amongst the packing, but as this was always intended to be painted up as a crashed plane for a 'Rescue the General' type scenario it didn't matter and only cost a few quid off the bay.  Funny it seems smaller than the one I'm currently building. 

Good job it's going to be a crashed version

Nice surprise in the box though, another couple of choppers.  A Huey UH-1D gunship and a Wessex I think.  These were bargains as I recall, I think the first issue was something like £2.99, the second issue maybe £4.99 and after that £7.99 which for the Chinook was a pretty good deal.

So the final box I had time for I didn't fully empty it, looks to mainly have rulebooks in.  AD&D 2nd Ed, Runequest, obviously Judge Dredd rpg, some 80s vinyl, a box of dwarves and some other bits and bobs and rules. 

So that the haul so far, if you can call stuff you already own and have done for years a haul!  More updates when I get chance to return to the garage and tackle the main shelf, which I know has some of the boss's stuff on as well (childhood lego, still with the boxes and instructions - and she calls me a hoarder!!!)

Birthday Bits

Well another year older and closer to death (as somebody once sang), but a few goodies for the painting bureau received as part of the birthday package (even if I did have to write them down for the boss, and even buy the kits for my boys to give me). 



Birthday goodies

So we have a couple of Airfix 25pdr and Quad kits for my North Africa ambitions.  Which, with hindsight (such a wonderful thing), I might have been better going for the Italeri kit having now read some of the write ups and made a start on these kits.
Along with the kits there is a set of 3 UniPin pens 0.1mm fine line pens (red, blue and black) and a W&N Series 7 Miniature size 000.

In Other News

The Dak is slowly but surely coming on with the huge filling job completed and sanded off.  I know that when the undercoat is applied there will be areas which look a little rough, but this is going to be a wargaming piece primarily and not a exact miniature presentation fit to grace the pages of a magazine so I'm not going to go back and refill all the little bits and bobs, then sand again and prime again.  Life really is too short.  If it's good from a couple of feet then that'll do.  Now to mask it all up ready for a spray.

All sanded down and the engraving redone, hopefully it wont look to bad once sprayed up.

No progress getting the Tomahawk or Spit on the field at the moment, I need to get to a descent hobby/model shop to get some spray mattcoat which will hopefully take the sheen of them both.  For now they gather dust.

At least the gathering dust gives a matt finish

I've already made a start on the first of the Morris Quad tractors and it seems a far more tricky kit than I was perhaps expecting, mainly due to the actual body of the thing coming in several spate pieces which need some fairly precise gluing.

I think that's the easy bit done!!!