ALC306 Bottle White Primer & Microfiller

ALC309 Bottle Black Primer & Microfiller

Never resting on his laurels (or whatever else he might call them), Tony Hipp, inventor of Alclad II, does it yet again. As I have stated in several “how to” articles on this product, I couldn’t stress enough the subject of surface preparation prior to applying the metal finishes. If any sanding scratches were present, they would require a base coat of a primer with filling capabilities, then sanding and polishing so that in the case of the “high shine colors”, a gloss black primer could be applied, followed by whatever finish coat was desired. These new offerings cut down on the workload substantially, in that these primers may be applied, sanded and polished to the desired sheen and followed by any of the Alclad II metal finish coats, thus eliminating one or two full steps and drying time.

As a painter of military miniatures I welcome any new book on uniforms. Since my field of interest is the Napoleonic Era, this book by Casemate was most welcome. When John Noack offered it, I jumped at the chance to review it. I was not aware that it was written by the most renowned expert on the uniforms and history of the Napoleonic Era.

When I fist started painting figures of the Napoleonic period, I was taken by the beautiful prints by Lucien Rousselot. At that time they were very expensive and I could only afford a few. Now Casemate has chosen to print all of his works in one book. To someone like me, it was like finding the Holy Grail.

The book in s very large format (11.75” x 8.25”) hardcover book printed on beautiful glossy paper stock. It even has place markers.

This book is broken down into many sections showing the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery Staff, Marines, Imperial Guard, Aux Corps and many more.

First Impressions

This review product arrived in the mail wrapped in cardboard and amply reinforced duct tape. Upon opening the mailing package I found a heavy-duty, injection-molded black plastic, 11 ¾” by 15 5/8” long, enclosed in a clear plastic bag wrapper. A small sprue of clear plastic parts was also enclosed. The aircraft carrier deck is molded as an inverted tray, and is quite sturdy.

The engraving for the deck planks and elevator were clean and crisp, but might be considered too pronounced for an airplane model. For the bean counters, there are 190 tie downs. The welded seams are almost too finely rendered, with only a small portion that appears to have “faded”. There are four rectangular depressions that I assume receive the clear parts. On the underside of the tray was a date: 2001.

This is a very nice slick covered magazine, but if you want to read it, you better know Japanese. It contains a lot of visual information for the modeler. All the pictures are clear and high resolution, even the multitude of advertisements. This issue deals mainly with aircraft with some auto, armor and ship articles.

This edition’s articles are:

I’m not a war gamer, but I’ve been curious about it for a few years now so I jumped to the opportunity to review a war gaming book.

Fields of Glory is a series of war gaming books oriented to the ancient and medieval ages. This current book is the first of the series expanding into the renaissance era and as such is the rulebook.

The book has a historical introduction to the military doctrine of the renaissance era including pros and cons of different military formations of the time (tercios, keils, cavalry, etc).

Then the book moves into what is needed in order to be able to play, before diving into details of troops, battle groups and in general, the rules of the game, including movement rules and combat phases like impact, maneuvering, shooting and melee. Each rule is demonstrated with examples, which makes understanding and learning of the rule much simple.