Bolt Action M7 Priest Self Propelled Gun
As the M7 Priest was one of the kits that didn't make the cut for the tank themed week, I thought I added it to this latest bunch of tank reviews, especially as he fits the Gentleman's War theme.
The M7 Priest SPG and the next tank we will cover (the Hummel) are both made to order kits by Warlord Games - this does not mean they are Mail Order exclusive, it is most likely something that your local gaming store has to order in and it might not come in a boxed set with printed artwork, but a neutral packaging. As I had this kit for a long time (and this review is in draft since 2018), mine came wrapped in bubble wrap with a sticker on it. The RRP of this resin and metal kit is 26,50 to 30 GBP, depending on the variant.
Bolt Action – Sd.Kfz. 222 / 223
Let's tackle the second new plastic kit from the A Gentleman's War box, the Sd.Kfz. 222 / 223. We've covered the Humber AC earlier this week.
There are already a couple of the Sd.Kfz. 2xx vehicles available as multipart plastic kits by Warlord Games, the latest was the Sd.Kfz. 250 Alte combi kit, and others with a base kit like the Hanomag Sd.Kfz. 251 Ausf. D and its variants like the 251/7 Pionierwagen or 251/16 Flammpanzerwagen, which we already covered on this blog.
Bolt Action – Humber Armoured Car Mk II / IV
Along with A Gentleman's War, Warlord Games relelased two new plastic vehicle kits of armoured cars for the British and the Germans, covering a Sd.Kfz. 222/223 and Humber Armoured car, the later we're going to cover today.
This is a new 28mm hard plastic kit by Warlord Games, that formerly only was offered in different variants as a resin kit. The one we're covering today was a pre-release that Warlord Games send to me prior to the official release, thus lacking the boxing, etc. and minor tweaks might be done until the actual release outside the themed starter kit for North Africa.
Event Schedule for 2023
A brief overview of the events that are on my radar for this year.
List will be updated accordingly and focus around DACH and BeNeLux countries, with minor exceptions for special occasions:
Bolt Action – M26 Pershing into T26E4 Super Pershing
It's been a while since our last Bolt Action tank review. The last one we covered on here, was the Sd.Kfz. 250 combi-kit that allowed us to build multiple variants (250/1, 250/9 and 250/11) and currently in progress are the new plastic kits for the Humber AC and Sd.Kfz. 222/223. And while I already showed you the current status of my Pershing(s), I thought it would make sense to show how I got there and what the resin kit by Warlord Games is all about.
So far Warlord Games only offers a resin kit of the M26 Pershing at 33,50 GBP / 40 EUR RRP. I bought this one a while ago - when it was noticeably cheaper in 2016.
Dino’s annual preview 2023
Aha, so it's 2023, anything special coming up this year? Well, I'm turning 42 and as everyone knows, 42 is the answer to all questions! To all questions? At least to one question I have the answer: do I need more minis? No, not 42...
The Great Moderation is a concept that I have been following for several years now, where I limit my budget to 20,- € per month, with the goal to increase my painting output of existing miniatures and to limit the new purchases in my hobby. As it turned out, 240,- € per year is quite a lot if you already have a bunch of miniatures at home and the pile just grows and grows. For this reason, I plan to cut my budget again - ironically, my strategy has also found approval in the forum of the Tabletopwelt and a group project has emerged from it, so to speak, the not so anonymous round of addicted hobbyists, in which if possible no new purchases should be made. However, everyone receives 150, - € annual budget - for slip ups. This seems feasible to me, since I have everything here, within the projects I pursue
But before I move on to tackle one of the leftover projects, I want to paint the new acquisitions from last year first, because there is also a part remaining. In addition, I will set myself a fairly small annual goal in 2023, since my hobby time continues to melt due to my professional commitments.
Kick Off 2023
We've done the sum up of last year already, so let's take a look ahead and see what 2023 has in it for us:
As a starting point, I looked up the 2022 Kick-Off article, to see what was the status quo, and what changed. Biggest improvement - not just spending hobby time by myself. In addition, as I am working as a sales rep, the re-ignition of actual (meaning offline) events was something that I really was looking for, so the lack of those was not hobby exclusive.
So that we could move from
to here
Shows, Conventions and real-life gaming meetups
I'll update the event schedule on here and prepare a post for 2022. So far booked are these;
- January 13th-15th - Tabletop Scenario, Hackenheim GER (visits 2013 and 2015) BOOKED!
- February 18th-19th - Tactica, Hamburg GER (visit 2019) BOOKED!
- April 22nd - Salute, London UK (visits 2012, 2016 and 2018) LIKELY!
- August 4th-6th - Bring out your Lead BOYL 2023, Newark UK (not yet)
- September TBA - Rhein Main Multiversum 2023 (visits 2018, 2019 and 2022) VERY LIKELY!
- October 14th-15th - ScaleModelChallenge - Eindhoven, NL (visit 2015) LIKELY!
Dino’s annual review 2022
It's that time again, a whole year has gone by and I have quite mixed feelings when I look back. From a hobby point of view, all in all, it actually went quite well. I have not reached my goal for the year, but I was and am close.
At the beginning of the year, I managed to paint the two remaining archers from the Corinthian part of my Mortal Gods army quite quickly. In fact, it went so smoothly that I would have loved to paint another troop right away, and I've assembled another group in the meantime.
Corinthian archers
December 2022 review
The final monthly recap, but unlike last year, it will be mostly about the month of december and less about the whole last year.
In 2021, due to the move of the whole studio, the activity had a bit of drop and there were only 77 new posts - much fewer articles published that year compared to the years before (2018 - 140 new posts, 2019's 176 and 2020 - 195 new posts,), but we managed to raise that back about 80% to 135 articles in 2022! Yes, there were further additions to the review section among those posts, roughly 40 new reviews on the blog - marking the barrier of over 300 reviews on this lovely project of mine. But most importantly, I managed to get more structure into my projects and written down ideas and intentions on projects, along with a bit of building and painting, which will be pushed more into focus.
Chaosbunker is non-commercial hobby blog. I am not doing this for money, hence no (paid) advertisement, as this keeps me independend. This is my hobby and I want it to stay that way, because I want to move further into that area of wargaming, that I enjoy and move further away from those parts that I don't. This still means creating content, because I enjoy that, but more of that kind that is fun to produce (I already did a lot in my favor, to mostly only cover products in reviews, that I am certain are of proper quality).
I enjoyed the participation on events this year a lot, and played far too few games and had far too few get togethers for painting etc. with my gaming buddies. I got invited for an Adeptus Titanicus event in february 2023, and I have to get my maniple up and running. Which means the continuation of Legio Astraman Ad Arma! White is an ungrateful colour to paint over black. I tried with multiple thin coats of white, went over to Grey Seer (which did not really work either), but with Corax White, I managed to get a proper base, even in a thinned down variant. So, that's my task of the next days, along with Deathworld Forest and Gun Metal, to cover the base colours.
Had the 3d printer running again, this time for a christmas present for one of my eldest wargaming buddies, Indiyeeha. We started together back in the day, and he is a oldhammer enthusiast as well and when I found these files of the monopose Ork Boy and Gretchin, I printed them at 200% as something special, to place upon a shelf or just funny collectors piece. Once they were printed, I had some really odd errors on them and couldn't really make any sense out of it. Looked fine in Chitubox and Photon Workshop, but I was recommended to load them up in Lychee and about 50 errors came up. Afterwards I looked into the sliced files and I saw the "bleeding" on those layers as well. But beyond that, I am once again amazed what my entry-levele printer is able to produce. No steps, pretty clean finish, almost like injection moulded.