Cromwells

 

Here's a troop of 1:100 (15mm) Cromwells, the standard British-made medium tank of the British army after D-Day (though they were outnumbered in British service by the American-made M4 Sherman). By the time they went into active service, they'd had their original 6 pounders reamed out to take the same 75mm shell as the M4, which gave it considerably inferior anti-tank performance but a much better infantry support weapon.

These models were printed some time ago in PLA+ on my Ender 3 FDM printer. The design is from the excellent Mr. Bergman again, and about all I've done to it is add some nubbins around the edges of the tracks to suggest some link detail.

Compared with tanks like the Panther, Tiger II or T-34, the Cromwell looks quite archaic with its boxy shape and prominent rivets, but I think that's why I like it so much.

Long-Term Error

 

I have just realised, after all these years, that I've been painting the 7th Armoured "Desert Rat" jerboa insignia wrong. I've been painting it with its tail curled up around its back, not under its feet.

Fortunately, in 1:100 (15mm) it looks pretty much like a red squiggle inside a white circle, and nobody is very likely to notice unless they look at it through a magnifying glass, but I'll know my secret shame.

The photo is of a PSC 15mm M3 Stuart.

Onitama (again)

 

When I made my original Onitama set, I came to realise that I could have made it considerably more compact if I just used the storage box as the game board.

I 3d printed a small set, suitably sized for travelling, but I designed the box for that before I learned that lesson. So I made a new box/game board for those pieces out of a rimu off-cut. The 3d-printed game pieces have steel washers glued to their bases to give them a bit of weight and a lower centre of gravity.

The box-board is basically just two solid blocks of rimu hinged together, with a cavity carved out of one of them to store the playing pieces and cards.

The dimensions of this one, closed up, are 118x90x45 mm. It'll slip easily into a satchel or jacket pocket.

Comets

 

I wanted to paint some Comets in the peace-time Deep Bronze Green livery that the British painted their tanks and things when not actually being shot at. I did them partly to distinguish them visually from the Cromwells, but mostly because I just wanted to.

I found a couple of bronze green Comets, freshly painted for the 1945 Berlin victory parade, in amongst the Armoured Acorn stuff. There was no top-down view, so I couldn't see if the star was painted on the engine deck or turret top, but I've assumed that since air recognition was no longer an issue it probably would not have been.

These two were printed some time ago in PLA+ on my Ender 3 from a slightly modified Bergman model.

The Tortuous Hell of Social Interaction

 

I absolutely detest being put in the position of having to interact with NPCs when I'm playing in a TTRPG. I'd say that I'm not wholly unintelligent, and I'm capable of the occasional flash of wit in real life, but require me to come up with something to say to an NPC to convince them to go along with the wishes of the party, and my brain just disappears.

I know that some people just absolutely love this sort of thing, and more power to them, but I find it actively unpleasant, and it destroys any enjoyment I may be having in the game at that moment. It may be lame of me, but when it comes to this sort of thing I'd much rather just rely on whatever social skills (or lack thereof) are written down on my character sheet and roll some dice.

When it becomes really irritating to me though is when the games master just ignores the character's supposed abilities. If I have a character with a high charisma, or a whole bunch of levels in skills like persuasion or intimidation or just plain outright fibbing, I expect to be able to get some benefit from those stats. Otherwise, why have them at all?

Centaur Mk.IV

 

This is a 15mm (1:100 scale) Centaur Mk.IV with the 95mm howitzer. I've painted it in the brown SCC2 colour scheme, simply because I hadn't done that before and wanted to try it out. It was superseded by SCC15 Olive Drab, but there were plenty of vehicles still in SCC2 alongside the new colour after D-Day.

I did the targeting graduations around the turret rim with a croquil mapping pen and some acrylic ink. They're not very precise, but they do get the idea across in an impressionistic manner.

The turret has developed quite a bit of post-cure cracking, so it looks like I didn't wash out the interior as well as I could have. In retrospect, I probably should have just printed it solid, and if I have to replace it I will do that.