Dear all,

It is 180 days since the last content post on this blog, and I suppose this post is about 179 days overdue.

I have decided, due to a multitude of 'real life' reasons (not 'issues' - the only 'issue' is a lack of time to maintain this blog), to close this blog down.

Over coming weeks I'll start the shut down process. The blog remain publicly available for a yet to be determined period.

Thanks for all your support over the past 2 plus years. Happy modelling and catch ya in the webbosphere.

Cheers

R~

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F135: The Week (x2) That Was (09/05/2011 - 22/05/2011)

Due to RL commitments I missed last week's summary, so this week I'll be offering a summary of the last fortnight - and a pick of the week for both weeks :)

News Summary

The past fortnight's news archives can be found here: News archive 9-15 May 2011 and here: News archive 16-22 May 2011.
The week 9-15 May saw the release of a new DML figure set as well as Royal Models' latest batch. The reaction to the DML set in on the community forums was as expected, and as usual people forgot that Ron Volstad no longer does figure box-art for DML (remember, this latest box-art was done for Concord, and these figure are based on that artwork). The figure, or in this case figures, of the week goes to Royal Models' "Children Playing".
The week ended 22 May sure was a busy one for Alexander Zelenkov as far as announcements go, with 8 figure sets through both his own Stalingrad Miniatures as well as Krisztián Bódi's The Body. And so this week's pick obviously goes to Alexander, but which figure set? It can only  go to The Body's "Khalkhin-Gol 1939". These will look great with a BT-7 set during the Soviet–Japanese Border Wars.


To the Blogosphere

• eeRJott's Polish cavalry (?). It's still WIP, but worth a look.

In the Community

• Community posts (WIPs)

• Men of the 761st Tank Btn.: Check out the updated thread by Professor P (yes, I know I posted this before, which is why I said "updated" ;) ).
• Verlinden Figures by Benito Silva. The feldgrau isn't too hot, but the camo smock is excellent.
• USMC Guadalcanal: by Andy Evans. Looks to be shaping up to a very nice vignette.

• Community posts (Completed figures and Galleries)

• M4 Sherman and Crew: By Dan Austen. Alpine and Verlinden figures. A pity there aren't more photos though.
• "Oasis": By Joe Lo. 

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F135: The Week That Was (02/05/2011 - 08/05/2011)

News Summary

This week's news archive can be found here: News archive 2-8 May 2011
While I played catch-up with the New World Miniatures news of the set eating GI's and individual releases of figures previously released in sets (i.e. the Kiwi LRDP and Kettenkrad figures), Black Dog released a set of German "Ardennes" figures (let's be honest: these can be used in most late war, winter settings), and MiniSoldiers announced the imminent release of the previously alluded to Soviet Cossacks (drilling/thinning that overcoat sure is going to be fun! Given its prominence I'd think they'd cast it as a separate piece featuring the internal coat details...). My Editor's Pick of the Week, though, goes to the late week announcement by Mantis Miniatures of their Eastern Front German motorcycle crew. We've seen many motorcycle crews, but not many for the icy Eastern Front - especially none wearing that motorcyclist's mask!

In the Community

• Community posts (Completed figures and Galleries)

• Panther Crew: Alpine figures by Stefano Lancioni
• Dark December: A diorama by Volker Bembennek (the WIP can be seen further up the thread)

• Reviews

• A whole bunch of Archer decal reviews by Bill Cross - beware if you read the forum commentary, the user by the name of Brassnautilus is a rival vendor...
• In-Box Review: Archer German Helmet Insignias
• In-Box Review: Archer German SS Uniform Patches
• In-Box Review: Archer German SS Shoulder Boards for Panzer Units
• In-Box Review: Archer German SS Shoulder Boards for Infantry Units
• CMK F35 217 British WWII Officer from India: An In-Box review by Bill Cross.
• Evolution Miniatures EM-35033 American Marines WW2 Pacific Ocean: An In-Box review by Dr Engin Kayral
• Dragon Models 6671 German Halftrack Riders: An In-Box Review by Vinnie Branigan
• Master Box Ltd 3578 France 1944: A Built review by Rick Cooper

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F135: The Week That Was (25/04/2011 - 01/05/2011)

From the Editor's Desk

I've decided to shuffle a few things on this blog around. Let's get right into it. 

1. As of today, 1 May 2011, I'll be posting a weekly summary. Inspired by Dave G's "Wargaming Tradecraft from N++", I'll post a summary of the news featured on F135 as well as a few other (relevant) links I come across during the week. I'm not 100% decided on what I'm going to include or exclude yet, and this will evolve over weeks until I find a format which is easy for me to publish, and more importantly useful to F135 readers.
2. I'll no longer be linking to reviews on an individual basis, in fact the more observant may have noticed I stopped doing that a while back. My original intent was for figure reviews to be searchable, in almost a database-like style. Perhaps I'll still get to that one day; perhaps someone else will. However, for now, I'll cease doing that. That said, we're not going "cold turkey". Links to reviews published during the week will be linked to via the "F135: Week That Was" newsletter.
3. Blog visitors will have noticed the scrolling image on the homepage. This reserves the space for "The Editor's Pick of the Week" feature. Every week I'll be picking my favourite release of the week. I'll try to be objective. And yes, there may even be some weeks when none of the releases impress...

So let's get into it...

News Summary

This week I was still playing catch-up with the news. This week's can be found here: 24 April 2011 - 1 May 2011.
Notably this week we saw the first of a new range of Cossacks from Minisoldiers, a German Cossack with Soviet Cossacks to follow shortly. My choice, The Editor's Pick of the Week though goes to DToys "SS Tank Crew 1944 #1". Only the second WWII Figure release from DToys, based on the box-art this appears to be a nice looking sculpt from G.H. Jung, with Man-Jin Kim applying masterful brush strokes for the box-art.

To the Blogosphere

The "To the Blogosphere" section of this newsletter features blog entries (made during the week) which I feel deserve a bit of attention. Readers may find these blog entries, or the models featured therein, posted on community forums. The figures may not always be complete, and they won't always be stand-alone models, often featuring in a diorama.

• Gert-Jan Knol's Harley Rider (Sculpt WIP)
• Jaume Ortiz' Allarmi SS Das Reich Feldgendarme
• "USDiorama"'s "In Danger (1944)" (apparently an old vignette dating back to 2005)

In the Community

The "In the Community" section will, like "To the Blogosphere", feature forum posts relevant to this blog: WIPs, completed figures, etc. In addition to these, for now I'll be lumping reviews, SBSs, events, gallery features, etc all in this section. At a later stage I may split these up, but for now: all here.

• Community posts (WIPs)

• Men of the 761st Tank Btn.: Check out the posts by Professor P on 22 and 29 April for very nice African skin tones. 
• Wolf British Tommy WWII: by Carl Barton (The photos aren't as bad as he makes out)

• Community posts (Completed Figures and Galleries)

• Russian Tank Crew (WWII): Alpine figures by Anar Aytaliev (okay, not posted in the last week, but too good not to mention)
• SS Grenadier LAH Kharkov: Alpine 35064 by Mark Benette (the WIP can be seen earlier in the thread)
• Andy's Well: a vignette by Andy Fettes (the WIP can be seen earlier in the thread - and while you're visiting that site, check out Bob Letterman's latest HUGE diorama)

• Reviews

• Alpine Miniatures' 35101 German Pz Crew Summer Set: an inbox review by yours truly. After a 7 month break from review writing I'm back. Watch this space.
• S.I. Publicaties BV Propaganda Photo Series Vol.VII: German Sniper Rifles: by Vinnie Branigan

A Parthenon shot

If readers feel I've missed something worth sharing, please don't hesitate to drop me an email, or even comment on this post.

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Site Related: Subscribe via Email

Dear reader,

You can now subscribe to F135 via email!

But how, Rudi, how?

Simply enter your email address in the "Subscribe via email" text block located to the right of the screen, and click the "Subscribe" button.

That easy?

Not quite. There's an additional step. You'll receive an email from "FeedBurner Email Subscriptions" in the mailbox of the email address specified. That email will contain a confirmation link which you'll need to click to activate your subscription.

How regularly will I receive updates?

If the email subscription works the way I hope it does, you should receive one email a day and only on days which have post updates.

When will the emails be sent out?

I've scheduled the emails to be sent out between 11pm (23.00) and 1am (01.00) Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT +10.00).

If I don't like the email subscription can I stop it?

Yes, there should be an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each email.

I have more questions which aren't answered above
Please feel free to post your question as a comment to this post, or email me at figureonethreefive@gmail.com

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F135 Turns One Year Old!

Well, whoever thought one year later this little blog would still be around? Yes, that's right: today, 2 January 2011, is the one year anniversary of this little blog called FigureOneThreeFive (or simply F135)! 


And we owe it all to you: the reader. Thank you dear readers, friends, fellow modellers, for supporting this little initiative, for without you, without knowing that this blog was providing some benefit to you, it would really just be a personal list of 1:35 scale figure releases and reviews. A big thank you to the 374 (at time of writing) Facebook friends for putting up with the RSS posts to your News Feed, I hope you've not minded having to click twice to see the news story (if I simply posted the news to FB, this site's traffic would be down ;) ). And an equally big thank you to the Google Followers, both the 40 public followers and the unknown number of anonymous followers. And, last but certainly not least, a big thank you to the random, the occasional and the lurking visitors: you are naturally always welcome.


I've one or two ideas, both structural and content, I'm toying with for the blog, but until I've thought them through fully I'll keep these to myself, after all the blog works well as is. :)


Once again, a very big thank you for your support over the past year.


Happy Modelling!

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Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to all FigureOneThreeFive friends and their families!


Let's not forget the brave servicemen and women around the world, away from their families, during this time. Thank you for your service.


Please enjoy the little bit of seasonal humour to the right :)

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RIP: Dave Harper (1959 - 2010)

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Dave "D'Man" Harper (Hard Corps Models).

Rest In Peace, Dave. You will live on forever in our hearts and memories.

Click here to read the obituary on Bob Letterman's personal website

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Welcome to Figure OneThreeFive

Good evening, and welcome to Figure OneThreeFive.


I have decided to launch this blog style site for the purpose of announcing new military scale miniature figure releases, as well as to provide links to reviews of these figures. This blog will (initially) focus on an area of my personal interest, namely 1/35 scale military figures of the Great War (World War I), the Inter-War Years, and the Second World War (WWII).


Who am I? My name is Rudi Richardson, and I am a former Managing Editor of the Historicus Forma historical figure modelling website. While my modelling and history interests are diverse, my main figure modelling focus lies in Roman and WW2 German subjects (in a completely apolitical way). I have written numerous scale modelling reviews for the Kitmaker Network group of scale modelling sites, as well as a few articles. I am also (at time of writing) in the process of writing reviews for publication on my personal website. 


As I noted above, however, this blog will not host reviews (it will host news), but will link to the relevant subject reviews. I intend to do so in a neutral manner, not judging the quality of the review nor the reviewer nor the publishing website, but rather with the intent of merely providing readers with the links.


If you are a producer of 1/35 scale figures of the period 1914 - 1945, please feel free to email the news of your new releases to me using the email address featured on the left column.


Similarly, if you are website publishing reviews that are relevant to this blog, please feel free to email the link to your reviews to me.


Happy Modelling!


Rudi Richardson

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