Its been a week since my last confession...

Sorry for the recent silence folks; its the usual combination of work, illness and general lack of time which has resulted in my absence from the Blogosphere over the last week. I've had a major Audit at work and that has required some heavy duty preparation. And of course on audit day itself - when I need to be on top form - I was struggling with a stinker of a head-cold. Combine all this with the usual pre Christmas activities such as shopping, parties etc and I've not found the time to write anything. However I have been painting and even finished a few items, but until now hadn't got round to photographing them to share here.

I've started putting together some British 8th Army to face off against the Axis forces in North Africa and have started with an Infantry Tank Company.

8th Army Infantry Tank Company

So far I have the core of the company including A HQ troop of Matilda II tanks, One Troop of Matilda II's and three more of Valentine II's. I also have an Infantry Platoon consisting of a command MG/Rifle Team, a Light Mortar Team, an Anti-Tank Rifle Team and six Rifle/MG Teams.

Infantry Rifle/MG Teams

I'll be adding a second infantry platoon at a later date along with an Artillery Troop of 25 Pounders which I am working on now.

I'm still looking for a suitable desert game surface or battle mat to play on. I've seen several products online but they are either incredibly expensive or out of stock! Any suggestions? 

Bad Customer Service & Late Deliveries

Poor Customer Service comes in many forms not just rude or obstructive sales staff. In this age of  Internet Shopping its things like late deliveries, lack of communications, mistakes in orders, unhelpful websites, and poor stock control that are probably the most common examples of Bad Customer Service that are encountered by most shoppers. And I've encountered them all in the last few months.

Regular readers will know that I have entered into a new scale recently, complimenting my 15mm WWII collection with 6mm figures and vehicles. My acquisition of a large collection of models from a fellow member of Posties Rejects has boosted my output of painted figures and without it I would probably still be sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Why? Because clearly not all retailers work to the same standards, especially where customer service is concerned.

Since I first decided to go the 6mm route in mid October, I have placed three different orders and so far none of them have fulfilled my expectations. Half the items I ordered from one retailer were out of stock, despite being shown as in-stock when I placed the order. I eventually received half my order (and a refund for the missing stuff) nearly five weeks after purchasing them. A second order with a different retailer is still outstanding over four weeks after placing it. Despite emailing them I have had no communications confirming an ETA for the delivery or explaining the delay. And a third order - this time placed direct from a manufacturer - is also overdue and now in its fifth week.

Maybe I have been a bit spoiled with the more mainstream (?) 15mm market where I could easily expect to place an order on the Monday and have my goods within the week. I have also grown accustomed to purchasing items that are listed as in-stock and those items actually being in-stock and then delivered as anticipated. So far neither situation seems to apply when buying 6mm figures and vehicles and I'm rather disappointed. This of course raises the question, is this a common experience for other micro scale wargamer's out there, or am I just unlucky?

Desert Panzer III J's

Following on from my yesterdays post here's another platoon of German tanks that I finished off over the weekend. These Panzer III J's will no doubt see a lot of service.

I'm still waiting for some more German vehicles which are on order so before I get stuck into those I will be changing sides. I have checked through the models I do have and have enough to build the core of a British Infantry Tank Company so I'll be getting on with that shortly. I also have plans for a Heavy tank Company at a later date but that will require a few more purchases to fill the gaps in my available models. 

Western Desert Panzer IV F²'s

More 1:300th scale tanks are rolling off the production line, this time two under strength German Panzer IV F² platoons. These are from the collection I recently bought and as you can see there are some small differences between the models. They were all identified as Panzer IV F²'s so I can only assume they are from different manufacturers. The differences are not too startling but do stand out when sitting side by side , so I have split them into two small platoons.