Thursday 22 November 2012

I bought an army!

After last weekends disastrous 15mm Napoleonic Battle (aka The revenge of the Dice Gods) I was offered a load of models by fellow Reject, Smiffy. About ten years ago he was into 1/300th wargaming and had put together quite a large collection of mostly Heroics & Ros miniatures. A sizable portion of the collection were for the mid war battles in North Africa and so my interest was definitely piqued. 

The collection includes over 350 vehicles and tanks
I didn't want to rush into buying them so I was initially a little reluctant to say yes on the spur of the moment. But Smiffy could no doubt smell that I was weakening and graciously let me take them home to look through, knowing that if I wanted them I could pay him when we next met. So over the weekend I went through every model identifying the vehicles, listing them by nationality, identifying the years they were deployed in Africa and of course how many of each type there were. It took a long time (and yes I know it was a bit anal) but the end result was that I was more than happy that I was getting a good deal for the money wanted and more importantly I know knew that I could actually use a significant portion of the collection for the period I want to play. 

About half are suitable for North African forces up to 1942 with enough Italian vehicles to make at least one Light Tank Company and the core of several German companies as well. I'll need to buy a few extras to fill in the 'gaps' in the army lists but at least I now have something to work with. A further quarter of the collection would be suitable for US north African forces in late 42-43 although I'm not planning on playing them. I may hang on to these for a while until I make my mind up what to do with them.

The remaining quarter of the collection are only suitable for Late War NW Europe and I will tidy these up and resell them to recoup some of my outlay. Most of the models are unpainted but even the painted ones will need a make-over to bring them up to standard. I'll also need to re-base them as most are mounted on card and I want them on larger bases. I expect this little haul to keep me very busy painting for a long time and of course my modest efforts will be displayed on BLMA as I complete each part. 

19 comments:

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    1. Steady on there fella... I've got some work to do first!

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  2. There's nothing like a big score. Congrats and now these fellows will get to see the light of day again!

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  3. Good luck with all these tiny but wonderful vehicles!

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  4. That's what I like to see.... 'Feck Christmas, I'm buying myself some new toys'!.. That lot should keep you going for a while Lee.

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  5. I looks and sounds like you have got what you want, at least for the moment. I wish you joy and happyness as you plot and plan the North Africa campaign in 1/300th scale.

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  6. !!! An army!!!? That´s one heck of a lot! Will it be used for a 1:1 representation of WWII ? :-D
    Cheers
    paul

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    1. Well I say 'army' but its actually several.

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  7. Looks a nice collection, best keep hold of those Americans as you know period creap come into play

    Ian

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  8. A great scoop! I second the call to retain all for period creep. Those US vehicles could always be Rooskie lend lease jobs too!

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  9. Nice collection and good idea to first check the needed troops! We can learn something from this method of not saying yes on the moment of the shiny offer.

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  10. Sounds good mate. Look forward to see what you do with them.

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  11. You lucky b.. eahm, big lee!
    Great stuff, I envy you ;)

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    1. It's a good haul for sure...and I'm still buying stuff online!

      Just ordered up some Sdkfz 222 Armoured Cars and four 88's from Skytrex. I had ordered some stuff from another retailer but half their stock wasn't available. I got refunded for the stuff they didn't send me but it left some big gaps in my order. So I have spent the refund on some Skytrex stuff. It'll be interesting to see how the models compare against what I already have.

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  12. Score! The only trouble with a buy like this is it inevitably leads to more buying - all those "gaps" you end up identifying.

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  13. Good catch! H&R are a good compromise between GHQ price and other's....bad castings.

    How many Tigers?

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  14. What game are you going to play with these?

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