Back from Swabia with Cars, Beers and Torpedo Boats

It was a bit quiet the last week, for multiple reasons. I was a bit under the weather and hope to be at full health soon, and we visited part of my wife's family in Southern Germany for the prolonged weekend (you know, German Unification, David Hasselhoff Memorial Day and so on).

Last weekend Daniel came by, we took a couple of pictures for the upcoming article and played a round of Cruel Seas. Something that I actually did multiple times this week and will cover in a seperate article. Fun, with some room for tweaks, but still very entertaining.

I managed to buy the last actual missing piece for the Oldhammer project, the Imperial Fists shoulder pad for the Chaplain. Took me months to find one, that was actually payable and would ship to Germany. And by actual in this context, I mean item that was actually missing to complete the model and not "yeah, it would be nice to have some close combat Terminators as well". I assume that spoils it as well, what army will follow the Chaos Space Marines. Some loyal Space Marines in yellow, the Sons of Dorn.

Another thing that hold me back on making progress - defective tools. Both of my side cutters for plastic "died". The one with black handles has been in my tool box for ages and did a proper job until the spring broke. A similar problem with the Army Painter side cutter, the spring quit rather early on me and wouldn't snap back making it more or less useless. I did a bit of research, as you could probably simply buy some on ebay, but I wanted something that would last, but wouldn't be as expensive as the pro-tools (I am cutting plastic and not rewiring a whole house), so I gave the Faller ones a chance. I'll keep you updated and use them on the Beastgrave sprues.

While in Stuttgart, we visited the Mercedes Benz Museum. A bit different from what I've expected, as it is less focused on the brand and car models, but combines them with history, like industrialization, first engines, replacement of the horse and such. I expected a bit more evolution of the cars, the journey from the drawing board, through prototypes to the final production car.

Even if you're not into cars, but play world war one or two, some pulp and interwar scenarios, it would be quite interesting, as they have civil and utility vehicles. Along with some famous cars from their brand, like the Pope-mobile or the M-class from Jurassic Parc. Interesting visit, just a bit crowded due to the Cannstatter Wasen.

While going for a walk through Stuttgart, I stopped at the Warhammer Stuttgart store and saw the Warcry Organised Play Kit for the first time, since it was announced on Warhammer Community. I'll try to do a coverage on them, similar to what I did for Kill Team and the 2018 and 2019 seasons of Underworlds.

A bit of a let down was my visit to Heinrich 3000. When I'm in the area of Stuttgart, I sometimes manage to squeeze in a stop at one of the largest drinks cash-and-carries in Germany. But look at those shelves. Bare minimum was on stock. Well, I bought a couple of IPAs, and when I was in the city centre of Stuttgart, I managed to get hold of two cans of Fr. Gruber. Just have to say that the Bierothek has a rather limited range and stock, but makes up for that in crazy high prices...

That's my closing post for this week. I am currently preparing the Beastgrave and further Cruel Seas coverage, so that will be up in the next few days along with new painted miniatures by Daniel.