Well, this past weekend was a bit different (at least when compared to the last several months). We had a nice storm come through on Saturday; snow and ice. Unfortunately for me I had to go into Madison to work for a few hours. When I left the house things were not too bad (weather-wise), but they went downhill quickly once I got under way. At first nothing more than quickly deteriorating road conditions (but this is kind of expected). The biggest pain was the drivers who did not have their vehicle lights on. At one point I was behind a big rig with no lights and the trailer was covered with a white trap – very hard to see that it was in front of me and what it was doing…

So, we are moving along, slowly, but moving, when we hit a nice patch of ice. The group to pass through before me wasn’t as lucky as I was. In front of me was a multi-car mix-up (big rigs and cars); cars and truck facing every which way. OK, so time to slow down (even more) and stop. Well, the ice patch was slipperier than I thought. I started to slide. After a bit of brake, steer, coast – I was able to slalom through the accident and come out clean on the other side. From there traffic was just really slow. I made it to the office with no further problems (plenty going on around me, but I was “ok-fine”)…

After a couple hours in the office it was time to go home. Roads were maybe a wee bit better, but still bad. My trip home was uneventful. I did see that the accident that I just missed out on was still being cleaned up and that the interstate going south was still closed.

When I got home, I still had another couple of hours clearing our driveway and bringing in more fire wood. Basically Saturday was a wash figure-work wise. I got a little bit done in the evening, but not much.

Sunday was a bit better. I spent a few hours clearing the driveway and such. After that a short break and then it was time for figure work…

My projects for Sunday were centered on some Interwar Period vehicles for the Bloodaxe Miniatures line. Lance sent some of the first pieces that he has been working on. I started by looking at two of the French tanks (Char D2 Medium Tank and the FCM 36 Light Tank). I had planned n getting these into molds over the weekend, but decided that I wanted to do a bit of modification (and clean-up) on the patterns Lance sent. One of the goals is to lighten the castings – less metal means lower cost models. So I put those aside and took out two more models: Sd.Kfx 231 (rad6) and a Field Car (for use when a Kublewagon just isn’t right – a generic field car if you will). There really wasn’t a lot to do cleanup or modification-wise on these (ok, sure I could have done a number of things, but decided they were “ok” with minimal work). So these went into a mold. I should have the first production pieces in a day or two (depending on which night I decide to cast this week).

Now getting back to the tanks; at the end of the day I took out the FCM 36 and looked it over again. From here I took my trusty coarse burr and set up to mill out the hull. Lance casts in lead, so the models are soft and heavy. Lead is not the best metal to mill, but I can do it without too much trouble, so I set to work. After maybe 30 minutes I have a nice, clean and much lighter model. I removed enough metal to drop these to a projected (retail) price of $2.00 to $2.50 each (We shall see how close I am to the mark once I have a few production pieces). This is down from a projected (retail) price of $4.00 to $5.00 each. I expect that I will complete to reworking process by the weekend and if lucky I’ll have some production pieces early next week.

And now, to celebrate our recent snow and ice accumulation a limited time special offer…

Since the theme is snow or winter, we are offering a special 15% discount on the following three Resistant Roosters packs: FI-200 (Finnish Infantry Platoon in winter kit), FI-201 (Finnish HMG Platoon in winter kit) and AM-100 (US Infantry Platoon in greatcoat). This special 15% discount is good now through Friday (7 December 2007).