Tinkering with... Warlords Panzer II

Continuing on a theme, with another cold winter night prohibiting me using the airbrush in the shed I thought I'd finish off some Panzer II's I had started a while back. These are now from Warlord but the masters were previously BEF/Chieftain/ ex-Ian Crouch, to be fair I these are decent masters but not up to the current standard seen with Warlord, I was a bit non-plussed with them, hence their enforced deferment whilst I considered my options. The Panzer II is a fairly plane vehicle and generally not heavily stowed so I had my work cut out in order to make these bespoke.

Anyway List of Mods;

1) Standard clean, fill and sand
2) now standard thinning down of track guards
3) added representative Aerial points and aerials
4) small variety of stowage
5) Rear air identification flag from foil
6) Individual wire handles for the tool clamps
7) Engine plate handle
8) Opened up and added visors ( turret and hull)
9) New hatch made for commander version
10) Clamps for spare roadwheel
11) Front tow hooks added, glaring omission this one I'm afraid
12) addition of rear smoke dischargers ( sorry, couldn't find any chain fine enough for the caps)
13) added the holes on the exhaust muffler
14) Additional Spade
15) Addition of Jerry Cans and frame

 

I also added a Warlord Kubel (with the addition of Company B crew set and minor mods, note I've fabricated a separate windscreen with clear plastic insert for the glass) and two Black Tree Designs outriders, these have been pinned to "The Kings Armourer" cobble bases.

 

These are now in the priming and base coating process. Two fine coats of Halfords Plastic primer, not really needed for Warlord Resin, but essential for any of the American resins. If you use the grey version it gives you the advantage of being able to see any imperfections and chance to rectify.  This is then left for 24hrs in warm room ( i.e not my shed) to cure, then two fine coats of Halfords Matt Black and again 24 hrs to cure. As the last part in the process, I then touch up with Humbrol enamel Matt Black using a brush and yes another 24 hours..... Of course after the primer stage you could go straight in with one of the many coloured base coats now available.

 

[commission work]

Tinkering with.... Warlords sdkfz 7/1

Been waiting on this one for a while, and now finally got my hands on one as a commission.
This is basically a straight build with up detailing, nothing fancy really so areas of note are:

1) realignment of front drive spocket, slightly raised rather than in line with road wheels
2) addition of crew weapon racks on the mudguards.
3) up detailing of cab, map, handbrake, gear levers, binos etc
4) addition of ammunition boxes
5) foil zeltbhan
6) rear foot rests/ stirrups
7) width indicators on mudguards
8) spent shell cases

I have an Army Group North (AGN) ammunition trailer which I will most likely add ( now added!)

Tinkering with..... Sdkfz 250/5 part 2

Managed a bit more with this little one, main details are:
- crew bases removed
- crew figures assembled
- replacement of fixing brackets with wire
- aerial box, actual aerial mounts to come
- rear door handles
- canvas support over compartment.

This is just about ready for priming, quite pleased how this has came along.

Tinkering with....Sdkfz 250 neu to 250/5 conversion

Another diversion project. After seeing warlords recent German forward observers set I wondered if I could make them fit in the diminutive 250. Always up for a challenge I assembled both sets and got to work.



The inside of the 250 would require the radio racks, which could be converted using the lump of resin that's already with the model, to be honest I'm not sure what its representing anyhow. The inside conversion would contain seats and a frame work for the scissor scopes, amongst lots of other crew stowage and odds and ends. Whilst I had assessed I could get all three figures crammed in the back it wouldn't leave much room for fine details, or at least the work would be negatory. I needed to remove the bench and detail the radio sets, the only real way to do this was by removed the rear plate. This was first drilled and then taken out with a scalpel, the interior was then opened out.












I had a run on basic conversion work which included:
- removal of mudguard, always wanted to do this on one as its seen so often!

- thinning remaining mudguard
- opening up drivers vision slot
- detailing radio set
- added radio box
- added stirrup points

I need to fully remove the figure bases, which I will do tomorrow with the sander. Thereafter I will prime to reveal any further imperfections or additional detailing required.

So here's the final shots from this session, all three ( of the five) crew happy in their new transport, although I'm sure they would want some heads......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen Table Update : Tinkering with the Pzr IV

Too cold to go out to the shed last night so i looked for something to do to kill some time without actually painting and getting too much gear out.  My eyes settled on a Panzer IV awaiting a January paint slot.....

The kit is fine as it comes, not too fond of how the track sections are moulded but to be fair if you add the supplied schurzen the point is mute. Most of the mods detailed below negate all Warlords efforts to make a durable and quick build gaming piece, which they have achieved 100%.

Anyway, I waited to tinker, so first up was lowering the turret, I prefer mine to sit lower, so about 1.5mm was taken off the underside of the turret and corresponding turret schurzen plates. Whilst I'm there I also cleared out the recesses between the turret sides and the plates and opened up one side of the crew access doors

The next step was to thin down the track guards and remove the rear and front end pieces. The thinning down makes them a bit more realistic in scale, the bits removed, I feel, make the vehicle look used. I will add the removed rear section back on and depict it raised later in the day.

The major work was in replacing the lower hull schurzen plates. For this I recreated the plates and rails in plasticard and utilised the rail hangars as supplied. I was inclined to replace the hangars as well but it was getting late.

 

Wellington wasn't much help, and seemed singularly unimpressed.....

Looking at the IV now there is not really too much more that can be done, I replaced the turret crew hatch holds with wire and added some wheel hangers on the rear. I was going to drill out the rear stowage box, but as I said it was getting late. So thats about it prior to prep'ing for painting. I might be able to play around with the crew figures but that really depends on what the customer wants.
 

M10 Achilles Guards Armoured 21st ATR

Had a run on Tank Destroys recently, so this is the first of many, although I expect a good few are on the Warlord Games site already. This is the M10 17pdr Achilles from Warlord, comes with two headless crew moulded in the turret, a commander figure in metal and a choice of heads for all three. This one is made and painted as it comes (I'm not allowed to tinker too much with display stuff). Decals are a mixture of Archer Rub down, Company B, Fighting 48's and Dom's decals, although Warlord now have an extensive selection available which I will be trying out when some O.D paint drys...

For those that like the/my tinkered approach I will have some A* Eye Candy coming up in December.

As always, this one and hundreds of other examples of my work can be seen in my flickr galleries, link to the right >>>>>

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