Tram #2

Some wet work this morning....wood filler, dirt, coffee grinds, ballast and pva, with some odds and sods. Have slightly narrowed the base and added cobbles and a lamppost so we can determine front or back.
 This needs to set for a day or so and then I will probably do a primer coat to see where we are and then add detailing, am anticipating sandbags somewhere....

Removable roof works quite well...

Russky Studebaker....

Needed a bit of a diversion, so tried a mod based on a photograph, not an exact copy but it shows the same essence.

The source pic is from Ostfront Panzers, last year of war, kozitsyn vyacheslav publishing. The truck is the base Rubicon Studebaker, most mods being scribing wood grain and weathering prior to paint. I will add a full set of brass tarpaulin supports, have added metal winch wire and have a jolly chap driver nit in shot. The figures are Rubicon and I think I’ve captured the dynamics between them, so am quite happy. These will be permanently fixed.

On to Berlin!

Urban terrain......

Couple of mentions for this one, very much a work in progress.
Base tram is the war bases 1/56 mdf, sealed with Halfords primer and then assembled. Actually isn’t too bad as it comes, will up detail but not too much, refuse to google specific tram types... l’ll  just have to live with it.

Am after a makeshift barricade so this will be partially filled with rubble and sandbags with the usual paraphernalia strewn around. Roof is removable so I suppose you could put some figures in there but designed for painting access really. The mounds are only the substrate to get positioning, need to add cobbles and then top rubble coat...

Am thinking on making the base irregular on this one so it can slip on any terrain, but will see how it goes.... “butterfly” piece for me, just ‘cos I wanted to, so will need a home once complete...

Open to ideas on this one...

Tinkering with.. M7 Priest “Kangaroo” #2

Busy weekend, finished some of my best work, both painting and conversions, all boxed and away tomorrow, pics mid week....

Been working on some LVT’s and these... been shelved for a while but now the heavy lift work is done and it’s just the detailing and crew sabots to sort out. The blurb about the conversion is on a previous post, so this is just a mid process update....

Want to pack infantry in there, so have some more metal coming in the post, these will be removable as per my usual style.

tinkering with... cobbles!

Something have wanted to try for a while. Most of you will have seen the gun crew bases I do with removable crew bases, so decided to push the envelope and try with an urban 88mm.  I made the usual base up from war bases , applied the ployfilla substrate and then attempted magic sculpt rolled over the top! Big disaster, putty wouldn’t adhere doh!
The cobbles are defined using the putty rollers from green stuff world, bought two a while ago 15mm and 28mm, first chance to use in anger.

So rescued the epoxy and rerolled on the desk, with loads of talc!

Pre placing of crew just for fun! The Barn door is the Heer 46 one, unfortunately the barrel is so over scale I will have to replace, be fine if I was using Orcs or something!

Next step to transfer and  glue to the base when dry. Then it’s a case of a bit of fettling  to recover the recessed and make the positive base blanks for the crew.

Crew in place, not looking too bad

Ta da! Crew pinned on 20mm rounds for casualty removal, now for the spares box for the usual gun paraphernalia ! 

This needs to sit for a bit, have some T34’s and a Churchill SBG calling, although it’s now paved the way for my tram barricade....

Tinkering with Warlord Stug #2

More updetailing, whilst not representing a specific vehicle it is inspired by an eastern front stug with T34 track and concrete armour. The customer wanted the 105mm, so have made room from some forward observers on the rear deck. Figures are all warlord from various packs, slightly modified to fit the context.

Tinkering with... Warlord Stug

Not a bad kit, but common to most gaming plastics the tracks are rather naive where the track sections join. As the stug will have schurzen, thought I could repurpose the top runs....

As usual, kits are filled with polyfilla to add heft, and home made mud mixture applied prior to paint.

Working on both sides at once, pin and glue

Make slight cuts in the track to enable the plastic to bend

This will only work with schurzen models as you sacrifice some of the top runs

Clamping in place

You can see the early bending prior to fixing

“All Aboard” some trial fits for final context,  detailing story later in the week