Craters and the Palace of Knossos

    Craters are nice terrain scenery pieces for the battlefield. I found the term on google and it is a bowl-shaped depression produced by the impact of an explosion. So, I made my own bowl-shaped depression pieces, seven of them!

The seven craters

   I started with the MDF bases, where I did some cuts in a net pattern in order to stick the modelling clay and the acrylic putty on them easily.

With the modelling clay I made the craters' shape

On the big craters I added some DOW pieces 

   And after that the process was as follows: apply acrylic putty, add some sand and little stones, paint them all black, paint them with Vallejo "Flat earth", wash and finally highlight them with "US tan earth".

One of the big craters with two "Black Death" sailors 

One of the medium craters

And the two small ones.

   Two days ago, the famous singer Mick Jagger uploaded on FB some photos and asked "Somewhere on the Med...but where?" I didn't reply but I know where he was. He was here, on Crete and specifically in the Palace of Knossos.

In front of the "Queen's Megaron"

On the same spot my wife, me and a friendly couple.

In front of "Prince of lilies"

My wife and me, not in such a dramatic pose as the above!

   That's all for today! Stay tuned for more!

Some more trees and the ancient olive tree of Vouves

    Trees are never enough! This period of the year, it is easy to find and buy some lovely little trees in shops that sell Christmas decoration products. I bought three sets of trees, short, medium and tall. Each of them had a bright black conical base. I replaced those with 40mm flat bases for the short and the medium trees and 60mm flat bases for the tall ones.

The pine trees

   They are fourteen trees in total, five short, five medium and four tall.

The 40mm and 60mm flat bases

   On the four bases of the tall pine trees, I glued the bottlenecks of empty Vallejo paints in order to support the trees.

   Then, I made the tree trunks with modelling clay and covered the bases with acrylic putty.

   Some little rocks and sand, and the bases were ready to be painted.

The five short pine trees

The five medium pine trees

And the four tall pine trees

   I placed a Soviet soldier next to the trees to see the size of each set of trees.

The short,

the medium

and the tall ones.

   Speaking of trees, there is a famous tree here in Crete, the ancient olive tree of Vouves.

If you have an eagle eye, you can see the legs of my wife next to the ancient olive tree.

My wife and a good friend of ours.

   Have a nice month!

   That's all for today! Stay tuned for more!

8th Army Anti-Tank Rifle and Light Mortar Teams for Bolt Action

    In order to have some variety I used almost all the available options to field my soldiers of the anti-tank rifle and the light mortar teams as British, Sikhs, Scottish and New zealanders.

The Boys anti-tank rifle teams

The light mortar teams

British and Sikhs

Scottish and British

New Zealanders

Scottish

Sikhs

   That's all  for today! Stay tuned for more!

11th Sikh Regiment for Bolt Action

   The 11th Sikh regiment was an infantry regiment, which served in the Western Desert campaign during WW2. The Warlord Games 8th Army infantry box includes six Sikh heads per sprue. This gives a nice opportunity to build a Sikh squad for Bolt Action.

   I wanted to have an engineer squad for my British Army of the Western Desert campaign, so I decided to make ten Sikh soldiers as engineers. 

   

The engineer squad

   I gave pickaxes to a couple of them and US Rangers M1928 Haversacks to other six. I also added shovels to the British backpacks of the rest three.

   I gave a flamethrower to the tenth Sikh soldier. The weapon is made of various spare parts. Although it looks like a fantasy weapon, I am more or less happy with the result. Anyone who sees it, understands that it is a flamethrower!

The flamethrower

Sikhs with the US Rangers M1928 haversacks

Sikhs with the British backpacks with shovels

   A light mortar team of two Sikh soldiers.

   And finally, a Boys anti-tank rifle team of two Sikh soldiers.

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!