Tinkering with... T34 ARV part II

Well, who would have thought, this ginger stepchild of a build has quite won my affectations! I am really liking how this one is developing, and its the right amount of detail I can accommodate over the COVID lunchtimes at home. I will lighten up on the warlord sculpt, it is designed as a gaming model and is fine as such, so my criticisms are from a modelling and accuracy point of view. It’s a case of, “well, if it were me  I wouldn’t have started from here “ response!

Anyways, suitable disguised it’s looking much better, although still not finished but it’s certainly  getting there; so what have I done...

a) crew x3, warlord chap hidden in the hull and the two visible crew are Rubicon with arms sourced from spares, milliput-ed and fettled a bit to imply an interaction, clearly indicating positioning to tow hopefully. This is key to a good model as far as I’m concerned, and I see my stuff as models used for gaming.
B) rear deck detailing, scribed the missing engine cover details, added hinges and a rear access hatch obtained from a Rubicon rear end. Added various missing rivets and so forth.
C) stowage, still a work in progress, gearing up for the tarp work.
D) tow cables, crucial for this build! Made from stranded wire.
E) turret plate detailing, scribed armour plate lines , various ingress and  egress points, totally missing from the warlord hull! Going for a mid production ‘42 Factory 183 hull so no crew handles, straight armour joint and offset  circular rear hatch.

Now needs a cleanup, extra stowage and tarpaulins and it’s off to the paint box!

Tinkering with M7 Priest Kangaroo #3

Finally! Had some time today whilst waiting for a lacquer coat to dry. Finished up the kangaroos and crews, this set certainly wins the prize as the worst estimate of work and time required! Anyways, happy with them now, will reprime tomorrow ready for base coating with the SBG Churchill...

Russkies finishing tomorrow!

Tinkering with... Matilda(s)

Still waiting on parts so two in the queue stepped up..
 I thought these were going to be quite easy, the warlord Matilda seemed to have all the options for both  BEF and soviet use, but as usual needed detailing...

The pics are a little dark due to the pre undercoat I apply, but you should be able to see the detailing.

BEF :
A) drilled out track guards front and back
B) filled and sanded front and textured cast turret
C) added rear view mirror,  tow points and manufactured some tow cables and links
D) added the missing shell ejector hatch
E) fabricated the folding antenna mount
F) added the turret stowage brackets
G) detailed the side lamps

And the Lend lease
A) most of the above, and...
B) track stowage frames
C) resighted aerial point for no 19 wireless
D) modifies cupola for the low profile version

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 Franken- Wirbelwind

Some quick "almost there" workbench shots... this is a bit of a Frankenstein and has been delayed way too long, in fact so long that two alternatives are available... anyway. JTFM panzer IV hull, Company B Wirbelwind turret, kit bashed company b/ rubicon flak 38 and dremelled bolt action crew! 

Thankfully there is no need to take this route anymore, I’d recommend the Rubicon or Warlord models as a much easier option. The Company B turret is a bit "old school", but had the advantage of being first to market but needs a lot of work to get to acceptable ( for me at least)