Back to my roots

I have been playing a ton of Flames of war over the last 6 months and feel like I have been on Flames of war overdrive. I have decided to take a little time and once again put my Flames of war on the back shelf for awhile while I work on another project.

I got started with this type of hobby 25 years ago when I was given my first plastic model airplane. As I recall it was an old hawker hurricane kit most likely revell or monogram though I really don't remember for sure. I built many WWII aircraft and a handful of armor kits over the years. This weekend I picked up one of my all time favorite 1/48th scale kits. I dont know where its going to go when its done but I will find a place for it. For now here are some photos I took of the subject I will be modeling a couple of summers ago.

While I have a habit of starting projects and taking forever to finish (if I ever do) this one will have to be different, the amount of space this kit will take up during building will force me to finish it in a timely manner if I want to get anything else done. So  look forward to this one.

Customised turn counter

I was in one of the local game stores recently looking to pick up a magazine, I should have known better than to go to a game store with such aspirations of a small purchase. While looking over the Flames of war section I noticed a rack of turn counters behind me, there was an evil evil sign on this rack, "Free turn counter with any miniatures purchase".  Of course the word "free" messed with my head, I mean what do I need a turn counter for? I already have one and I don't need two. Of course I began looking over the flames of war models again, Whats this a box of SU-100's with the option to build them as SU-85M's, crap I have been running my regular SU-85's as the up armored 85M's. so with a magazine, a box of tank destroyers and a turn counter in hand I make my way to the counter. Somehow I don't think getting a "free" turn counter with a $60 box of models I wasn't planning on buying is all that free. I really need to stay out of the hobby stores.

not so free turn counter

So now what to do with this thing, its a nice turn counter but do I really need another boring turn counter with a shop logo on it? No I don't think I do. So I dig through my excess minis and find this guy.

Soviet PTRD Anti tank rifle.

I like these figures but I cant sell myself on using them on a late war battlefield. So here is a perfect time to use one.

Taking the turn counter out of its package I take the pointer part off and put the base aside for now as I wont be doing anything to it.

the counter is magnetic and comes in two parts making this an easy job.

 At this point I forgot to take any more pictures but then you really don't need to see what I did from here as its just like painting and basing any single figure.

I scored the top of the turn counter with my hobby knife just like I would do with any base and applied my painted figure and basing materials. I did paint the gunner up in a summer amoeba pattern camouflage as an excuse to do something different.

Here is the final result of my "free" turn counter.

One final note, I realize that the bipod for the rifle is up much too far however having it like this makes the entire figure much more stable and the rifle is less likely to bend when turning the counter.