Visit to Fort Pulaski outside Savannah Georgia

First real vacation in twenty year was visit to Orlando Florida to Universal City.  A stop in Savannah was a travel stop for the night.  My first visit to Fort Pulaski was in 1982. The Air Guard unit I was with had a four days mini red flag.  Where our A7D where in the thick of a bomb competition only to come it second again an F16 unit.   

Well to Fort Pulaski, the first visit the Fort was very well left untouch.  You could see the shell hole in the interior of the Fort.  The one wall still had some gaps in it.  But the impressive part was the shell lodge in the door structure of the wall.   Just an amazing place.  Part of the stop was to show my wife, who is a Civil War buff like me..  The Fort has been restored.  Shell hole in the interior are gone. The powder magazine wall has been rebuilt.  Plus the shell removed for safety reasons??  

Fort Pulaski was the first American Fort to be destroyed by shell fire.  When the commander officer of the Fort contacted General Lee stating that the Union Force where building siege positions.  Lee's reply was not to worry no one can destroy the Fort with shot.  The Union forces proved him wrong.  The rifled cannon destroyed the Fort.  For more information go to this website. Fort Pulaski

Now for the photos:

 Fort Pulaski entrance.

 20 pound Parrot Cannon

 The above photo is the picture where the shell stuck next to the magazine door.

Wisely the Fort Commander surrendered shortly after the shell hit.  The magazine had tons of Black powder in there at the time.

 Cannon Port facing the Savannah river.

 Shell holes in the wall

 Picture of the wall the was destroyed by Union cannon fire. You can see the small gap in the center.

 This show the gap in the Forts wall.

T34s by different manufactures

I have purchased T34s from Battlefront, Forged in Battle and PCS. 

Here is how I rate them:

1) Forged in battle.  Very nice and lots of detail.
2) Battle Front.  Not bad models but lack detail.
3).  PCS.  Not the best but okay.  Plus I have a ton of them.



Forged in Battle T34's
These are early T34 with add on armor

 Battle Front T34

Very early battle front T34

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The PCS T34 I need to find what file I put them in..  Looks like I need to purchase some Forged in battle T34/85'd

BA-64 armor car

I won these little armor cars on Ebay.  Trying to round out my Russians forces.  The plan was to use them with the Battlefront Kursk rules.  But now that I own Bolt Action rules. Plus coming soon Chain of command from two fat lardies.   The problem now which rule set to paly...lol. 

The BA-64s are painted with Tamiya colors.   The base color is XF-58 Olive Green. The highlight is a mixture of XF-58 and XF-4 Yellow green.  Start olive green and add the yellow green until the shade looks right to you.  2 to1 olive green is a good start.  The black lights are my own mix of the Future and a black Acrylic paint.   To make it flow a little best add a little water.

Now for the pictures.

All comments are welcome.

More KV's

These are the early model KV-1 with the early 76mm main gun.   Fun to build. Anton did an excellent review of  the kit.

Here is the linkhttp://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2013/06/two-beauties-from-zvezda-1100-scale-kv.html

The Russian Monster KV-2 with 152mm gun

 Zevzda released these beasts early in July.   The kit is another easy to build model.  It took less than 10 minutes to assemble.  These tanks stuck fear into the German Panzer Corp. Can't imagine  rolling into a Russian village to find this Monster parked at the cross roads in the center of the village.   One picture I recall is of a KV-2 with it turret peppered with 50mm shells stuck in it.  The Germans use these tanks until the end of the end.  One photo showed a KV-2 in defense of a factory in Germany again the US Sherman's.. Wonder what the Sherman tankers thought.  :(


The KV-2 still need some weathering.  Got to find my formula for mud. This tank just begs to cover in mud..

Hope you like them

Finally Picture of PSC M3 half tracks

Okay I finally got off my butt to take pictures of my finished M3's.  These are really nice models that go together quick and easy.

This time I weathered the half tracks.  Polly S mud for the streaking on the side of the vehicle.  After which I spray a very light coat of thinned Tamiya Buff.  The tracks are painted with Tamiya Hull red.   The final coat is Testors flat coat.  There you go the quick an simple story. Hope you like them.

Review of PSC Allied Stuart M5A1 tank

This is another home run for PSC.  Great little tank.  The only problem is there is so many wasted parts in this kit.  Basically you can build one complete Stuart. Then throw the rest of parts in the trash.  But if you can  create a new lower hull you could be in luck.  Could be possible to make  a British  tow vehicle, a Kangaroo, and Recce Stuart.   Another  problem for me was that the assembly instructions are printed inside of the box... Good thing I looked before throwing out the box. Attached the instructions for construction below. Now you will be able to see how to make the different variants.

 There are many more variants of the M5.    Check out this link.
M3_Stuart

Now for the images.

Review of PSC M5 half tracks

Have been sitting on this review a little to long.  The only changes between this version of the Half track is a International half track body.  Which has rounded ends with the different style of front fenders.  The troops are British position like the US troops.   The plan is to turn these Half tracks in IDF vehicle.  For the Yom Kipper conflict. Now for the images.

 These are again great models.   Recommend you buy them..

Just stuff

Time fly's by. It has been over a month since my last post. Car fixes and other commits have kept me away from the blog.   Just need to take pictures of the items I finished in the past month.  
 
  Have been on this IDF vs Arabs kick as of late.  I bought items from quality cast which I wasn't to impressed with.  For 15mm their on the small side I believe.  Brookhurst had a 20% off sale on Peter Pig.  So I bought some IDF Centurions and IDF troops.  The different in size between the Peter Pig and Quality Cast are huge.    Years ago I purchased some 20mm IDF from the Foundry. The miniatures are nice.  But no longer available sadly. 

Now today I found a new company the makes some great 20mm figures.  The company it  Under Fire Miniature out of the U.K.  http://www.underfireminiatures.com/index.htm   Check out the images below.

                                                               Zanla Troops

                                                       1983 IDF Troops

                                                     Selous Scout

The company takes paypal.  More later.

Rock the Casbah

 My good friend Anton posted on his blog the PLO vs IDF in Beirut ,  The rules we used where from the  "Too Fat Lardies" .   Rich Uncle Pat was the game master.  The terrain, the miniature and all the markers are his.  With great care he created a great scenario.  We had a great time.  The game started around noon and ended at 2300 hours.  All the player lost track of time.  That is what everyone wishes for in a battle.  No disagreements and the game master rulings where fair.  

The only thing was the Killer dozer. The vehicle had to have been created by Satan. It almost twenty roll of RPG rockets from my squads.  Only to laugh mockingly  at my troops. The Killer dozer kept whispering at me saying " Is that all you got"   Heck Harry Potter would not of had a chance against this evil vehicle.

Needless to say all had a great time...  Hat's off to Rich Uncle Pat for the outstanding game.  But I want another shot at the Killer Dozer.

Here is a link to the game on Anton's Blog. Enjoy

A fight in Lebanon


A picture of the Killer Dozer  taking a shot.

Wargaming Lebonan 1983 and the Beast

Last Saturday  Rich Uncle Pat put on a game using Rock the Casbah by Two Fat Lardies.  Anton and I where the PLO.  And three other gentlemen where the IDF.  I hope that Anton will be posting the pictures of the marathon game.  We started at 1300 hrs and end at 2320 hrs with only a pizza break. The battle didn't go good for the PLO.  We did manage to knock-out a Merkava.  But this was after about 10 round of RPG's .  But there was the Beast a Balaton D9 Dozer that would not die.  Anton and must of fired 50 RPGS on.  Lost several squads of PLO in the process to trying to knock.  The killer dozer had a pal in the form of M163.  This APC never run out of ammo.  For vehicle that only carries a 1000rds it destroy more squads and snipers than any vehicle of IDF squad. Needless to say it turned out to be a Bad day for PLO

Today I found this picture on Missing Lynxs..   A 1/72 Balaton Dozer, the vehicle is a  piece of art. 
Enjoy;
The Beast

On another note. My M5 have been shipped by the War Store for my IDF halftrack project. The M3 are finished. Just need to take pictures.

Found another Blog that has Arab Israeli Wars info

A few months back I found a blog "Natholeon's Empires".  Nate was fielding a version of  FOW for the Arab Israeli Wars.  His blog is real good.  While reviewing is later go around with the AIW Nat  mentioned another site. Broke Low another great Blog.  More Arab and Israeli armor and his updates on his variant of FOW AIW.

Check out his site.
Broke Low

I think you will like it.

M3 Infantry troops painted

It been a while but I finally got them painted.  Used the guide on the M3 box for painting the troops.  The only color I didn't use was for the jackets.  That color came of the of the Life Colour set for US Infantry uniform (UA419). 
.

 Once painted the next step was to washed the troops with Vallejo Wash Sepia.  This I found for me is the best wash for miniatures.

I bought mine at Michigan Toy Soldier.  You can also buy it from the Warstore.  The troops are still on the sprue.  Found this is to be the easy way to paint them. 

All that is needed now to finish up the M3 and M3A1 half tracks.  Should be posting pictures soon. let me know what you think...