Citadel Foundation Paints

It's been at least a couple of years now since GW got rid of their Citadel range of 'foundation' paints. Personally I was always fond of them as I think you give a very nice base layer that you can then do other stuff with. My stocks of most of the ones I've been using have now hit a critical point.

For most things nowadays I have moved over to Coat d'arms paints but I havn't found a good substitute for the foundations. So, inspired by some recent E-bay activity of my good lady, I decided to try there. I found a complete set; but it was in Australia and I'd prefer not to fly stuff half way round the world so I passed on that.

Then I tried Amazon and rather to my surprise was able to pick up a pretty good haul (see above) just from a simple order. They were more expensive (I recall about £4.50 a pot) but worth it at least for me. Should keep me in foundations paints at least for a while yet.

In the meantime if anyone knows where to get some Calthan Brown or Necrite Red or indeed more generally a good replacement for the foundation paints I'd be very grateful.

VBCW: Forces for BIG Chain of Command

Just as I was getting towards the end of my VBCW project a month or two ago, TFL published their (free) BIG Chain of Command supplement. A quick count up and I found rather to my surprise that I was actually within touching distance of having the figures I needed for it. A small order from Peter Pig and here we are so I thought I would show off the various platoon options that I have available. 

Whether I will actually do big CoC is not yet decided but it certainly gives me plenty of options to play with...

The buildings here are my latest acquisition. They were commissioned from HACME.  They are local buildings from my village and I am VERY pleased with them. They are still working on a church for me; I am looking forward to seeing that.

Anglican militia (at Flemdyke House)

BUF militia (at the Six Bells - why do the fascists get the beer?)

Irregular militia with an Anglican flavour (I might have some of the wrong big men!)

Irregular militia with an BUF flavour
(there is also an option for militia unconnected with either)

British regulars at the Old House (only half painted yet)

Here are the regular's missing mortar and ATR teams, a couple of  their leaders and a tripod MG support in the background. 

And finally, my vehicle collection: three trucks, 2 armoured cars (Lanchester & Rolls Royce) and a Vickers Mark VI tank, not forgetting the bicycles. There are also a couple more vehicles still on the painting table.

I also have a couple more, non-standard sections, but I'll keep those under wraps for now, (in some cases because they are unpainted).

All figures are by Peter Pig (15mm). Vehicles are PP, QRF or Zvezda.

Poppies

As it's Remembrance Sunday, I thought that I would post a few pictures of the poppies at the Tower of London which we saw last weekend. As you can see it was pretty busy and although the crowds were very respectful I think that did somewhat detract from the solemnity of it:

(All photos taken with my i-pad)

Later today we will be visiting a 'living history' exhibit in the village. Here's the poster my wife did for it. I am also curious to see who will be playing the last post this morning. My son has done it the last two years but now he is away at university.

A somewhat belated update: And in case anyone was wondering, the 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' event was excellent; very moving and extremely well attended. Fulbourn was the host to one of the first convalescent hospitals and it was mostly (though not entirely) about that with many people taking the parts of wounded soldiers, nurses and other people connected to the hospital. An excellent piece of community theatre. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me, though. Well done to Jenny and all involved.