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Post by loyalist on Feb 22, 2016 3:11:49 GMT
John's going to ship by Royal Mail in the future so you may not have the breakage problems I did. I've started repairing the 15 damaged pieces by ca gluing them together and then to 1.5mm styrene bases, all of which have to be trimmed to shape. The material for the repairs cost nearly half the value of the damaged items and it will take me about 5 hours to complete the repairs. Then I have to mount the 14 undamaged pieces on stryene so the heights will all match.
The front wall of the 20mm Trench ATG position that comes with the set (and separately) looks too low for the Coil guns and Heavy Field guns, being designed for low profile ATGs. I think I'll convert those pieces to concrete bunkers for the turrets Pz3 will be producing.
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Post by madmorgan on Feb 22, 2016 12:47:05 GMT
I got the 15mm trench set (new to the game) and was delighted with the details. Will get the 20mm soon I hope. Be sure and go through the list carefully, you might want to add a piece or two to round out your vision of the system. When I ordered I noted for example that there were no MG positions in the list. Of coarse their list of the trench system is descriptive, but I found using the stock numbers easier to see what I was getting & needed. The trench system is (1) TR-01, (2) TR-02, (1) TR-03, (1) TR-4, (2) TR-05, (1) TR-08. You might want some TR-07s (45 degree angles), TR-10 (mg pits), and TR-11 (heavy artillery position). I particularly liked the mg position as it also 'capped' the line, like an end piece with a purpose. Just saying.
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Post by loyalist on Feb 22, 2016 21:32:11 GMT
I considered geting the HMG pits but after John provided their dimensions realized three HMG teams couldn't fit in one of them and they'd be too far apart for unit cohesion if put in separate pits.
There's a similar problem with the trench artillery positions which are 120mm (almost 5") wide, so the guns will be further than 2" apart unless the trench units are shortened by 10mm at each end. It's tough, brittle resin so I would not want to try that. They are OK for heavy guns that can be deployed separately like the Coil and Anti-tripod guns.
I'm going to have to make my own positions for the heavy field artillery and copy them in resin (or buy the AD version).
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Post by madmorgan on Feb 23, 2016 11:46:04 GMT
Hmmm excellent points. I suppose you could 'breakup' a squad or battery into individual, one element units for the frontline trenches as artillery was normally deployed much further back IRL. These 'frontline or trenchline' artillery would usually be put in trench turrets but for a more hasty emplacement could be part of the trench line. The cost for these guns and hmgs would not be at the slightly discounted amount for a full 3 gun unit. For this purpose - the HMG squad, normally 40pts, would cost 15pts per HMG emplacement. The FA and HFB battery, normally 80pt and 160pts would come in at 30pts per FA and 60pts per HFB gun/howitzer. I'd probably use the more 'rugged' looking pieces from Old Glory for these guns, to reflect their frontline deployment, but the AD crews with their gasmasks. The French 75mm and 155mm pieces work fine for the USA and the Brits 13pdr and 60pder for the BEF. This way you could buy 2 guns and place them in the trenchline or use 2 of the 8 hmgs you get from the pack, leaving two full 3 mg squads for manuever units. Again, I usually base in 20x20mm square, so easy to fit in the pits. Have you seen a source for the AD versions to buy?!? The German 100mm and the British 18pdr would work okay for AT gun types. I do wish Old Glory would do a WW1 Russian line of figures, guns, tanks, and cavalry. Good points indeed.
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Post by hardlec on Mar 1, 2016 18:22:21 GMT
Loyalist, make sure future shipments are insured. If you have an EAP you should check on legal action.
One of the reasons I like Scott's paper models is they are very robust in transit.
Some convenience stores will sell you a box of wood stir sticks for much less than the craft store.
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Post by loyalist on Mar 1, 2016 19:16:36 GMT
The shipment was insured by the shipper (Ironclad Miniatures) but to my knowledge he has yet to be paid anything by UPS in the UK. I emailed him photos of everything that was smashed 2 weeks ago and was expecting to hear from him last week.
The Canadian UPS claims inspector I was told to expect never showed up (my office is 5 minutes from the UPS depot), never made contact, and calls to the call center achieved nothing. A driver, not a claims inspector, arrived at my office to collect the damaged items. He had no idea why he was collecting them, where they were going, and was not told to obtain any info about the cost of the items or what they were so I did not give them to him. He said, "I'm only a driver." but refused to give me the number of his supervisor or anyone at the local depot. "All calls have to go through the call center.", but they're just people answering phones who can't answer specific questions.
An utter waste of time and effort, perhaps by design? I stopped using UPS many years ago. I've never had problems with Fed Ex, USPS or Royal Mail. (Canada Post managed to lose two large boxes containing nearly $300 of AQotMF items at Christmas - I finally got a refund from the online store last week.)
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Post by madmorgan on Mar 2, 2016 12:09:10 GMT
Man, what a mess that is. I feel your pain! hardlec is right, the paperterrain mg nests are great for a quick add to any battlefield, especially for a 'popup' ambush position. They look great for general use, weight next to nothing and transport easily. And they are cheap! 24 nests for $10, can't go wrong.
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Post by novista on Mar 9, 2016 20:27:07 GMT
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Post by loyalist on Mar 30, 2016 19:12:50 GMT
After nearly 3 weeks John reports there's been no response from UPS in the UK to his request for compensation for my smashed trench models, which he'd insured. John's following up on it again this week. My current order from Ironclad Miniatures (more 28mm Faraday Electric Guns for conversions and 20mm HMG emplacements) is being shipped by Royal Mail.
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Post by easyred2 on Apr 20, 2016 14:25:15 GMT
attached are two examples of what I've done for terrain. I used a coffee container ( the type you get in those motel rooms...they are perfect for a casemate as you can see. The other item are my heavy art pits. the spacing of the guns is the required distance between the artillery pieces by rules. also I added "girdles to one of the guns wheels. If you check out artillery for WW1, it was quite common to keep those beasts from sinking in the ground. too bad it wasn't a detail that AQ could have done originally Lastly, I bought a flatcar for use as an ad hoc gun platform. In the last scenario, the flat car had no guns mounted and had the armor guns suddenly appear as a hidden unit...hey Martians have no idea what a railcar should normally look like! So they ignored it to their peril...but it only lasted for a turn. I used the parts left over with thw AQ tanks. Obviously this is not the painted version but shows what I used. The flat car is a "Civil War" car....I wanted something clunky and a bit mor turn of century.
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Post by boxholder on Apr 20, 2016 17:45:17 GMT
Good job, easyred2!
Useful stuff is "hiding" all over the place. Pick things up, look at them from different angles, envision what might be there. It is dazzling what a little paint can do.
That is one seriously armed railway gun car. Nice use of leftover bits.
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Post by sputnik on Apr 20, 2016 18:03:29 GMT
The other item are my heavy art pits. the spacing of the guns is the required distance between the artillery pieces by rules. also I added "girdles to one of the guns wheels. If you check out artillery for WW1, it was quite common to keep those beasts from sinking in the ground. too bad it wasn't a detail that AQ could have done originally
Very nice, I like the HA gun pits, I only just recently bought the HA guns so these are a perfect idea for them.
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Post by madmorgan on Apr 21, 2016 9:37:49 GMT
Great ideas and pics btw. I'm intrigued by the 'coffee container' and would like to know where you got those nice flatcars for HO (?) trains - they really look nice and short as well - usually I can only find very 'long' flatcars, the kind you'd mount a 12" on.
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Post by boxholder on Apr 21, 2016 10:58:46 GMT
The "coffee container" is a single use holder for a drip coffeemaker that many hotels have in the rooms.
You can order Civil War / Old West era HO railcars from Walther's. I think they are Bachmann or Atlas brand HO cars. Hobby shops don't always carry this era stuff. Walthers is one of the largest model railway suppliers in the US. Their catalog is like a sugar rush for modelers. You will find a tremendous amount of structures, landscaping, etc, etc,etc. If they don't have it, you probably don't need it. PS- I am not shilling for Walthers, just lots of good experiences.
A visit to a store that carries old, used HO trains may also pay off. Some hobby shops have used items. Flea markets do, too, sometimes. You might also look at European prototype freight cars. They are shorter and usually 2-axle 4-wheel cars, instead of US 4-axle 8-wheel cars.
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Post by madmorgan on Apr 21, 2016 16:45:21 GMT
yeap been ordering from Walters for years - great place - I think its listed in the 'Suppliers' tab. TY for the ref to European cars btw, I didn't know that. Was doing HO trains back at age 12 with my dad. We used to fight battles with a homemade set of rules on our 4x8' layout with Airfix miniatures (unpainted), using the 'narrow edge' of the tables for our ends. We each had a train at our tables edge with extra barrels of 'private stock' in case we needed to retreat. Very fond memories of those days.
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