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.
 

Still Alive! - General Status Update

To be honest I've had a bit of a rough time time recently, unforeseen pulls on the personal and work front have severely dented my "painting time". This has meant some slippages in finishing work, so apologies, you know who you are. 

This is probably a good time to highlight the effort involved in my work, crucially I don't paint sequentially as its not time effective, so at any one time I have several diverse pieces on the go. I need to do this:

              a) To keep me engaged;

              b) Allow me to fit particular elements of work around the time available to me;

              c) Its just the chaotic way some "Arty" people work.........

Any problems with either the build, paint or time obviously impacts the completion. Whilst I try and give realistic time frames these can go awry. The techniques used do not follow - step 1 - step 2 - step 3 and "voila". Frequently I redo things, even full repaints if I'm not happy. It goes without saying nothing goes out the door unless I'm 100% happy with, no matter what.

So what am I getting at? well.... essentially, I'm throttling back on new work for the time being, those chaps already in contact don't worry!  As always regulars have priority, so new commissions, by all means still contact me as I am always tempted by something new or different or challenging, or alternatively I can slip the odd piece in with concurrent batches. But it will be rare that I can give quick turnarounds I'm afraid.

Since Christmas the blog has been quiet, I have been pulling some late nights and ruining some prized W&N Series 7's finishing some key projects, most of which are now with, or on their way too, their new owners. I still have a few commissions "sticking" at the moment, but the back of the work is broken so bear with me. My thanks to those regulars who can tolerate my work schedules, I think it always pays off in the end.

I have a backlog of pictures of finished work, so will begin scheduling blog updates, probably two or three a week for the next couple of months, hopefully that will keep most people happy. It is fair to say that their is another step change in quality recently, but then that's for you to decide.

Oh, and the picture, well that's a taster for another update........

Oh, and finally, I always update my flickr galleries, before here, so you never know what you might find there.... 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/troop-of-shewe/sets

Kitchen Table Update# 4 Allied 28mm

Just a teaser today, but you should be able to see some progression between the WIP shots.
First up JTFM Staghound and Warlord Quad (converted), both at the final weathering and detailing stage. Note decals applied and sealed, crew started. The two crew come with the Staghound, I've chopped them down a bit but nice additions. The Quad, has had a canvas roof added, rear superstructure mounting arrangements and rear view mirrors.
(as always click on the pictures for full fat "warts and all" views)

Warlord Churchill, just after decaling, you can also see the effect of washes and oil paint fading. The Quad is the unconverted version, as it comes

 Warlord Churchill, essentially post airbrushing, pretty plain huh!

Converted Quad alongside its standard cousin, you can see the effects of oil paint fading, sneaky Warlord Bren in progress, note no base!.

The next shot shows the painting detailing on the canvas tilts, prior to washes.

This little ensemble is the Warlord 25pdr set. I have mounted the figures on metal washers and fashioned the master bases to facilitate removal. The 25pdr has been slightly modified with the top shield replaced and modelled down.

And also hanging around, 12SS combo, two separate commissions. Heavily mod'd JTFM 251'Ds, mod'd JTFM 234/1, PzrIV and another lovely little Luchs ( with Warlord commander) more of these in later posts.

Kitchen Table Update: Warlord Morris Gun Tractor "Quad"

Have two of these on the bench, so decided to add some detail to the standard Warlord version. Minor additions are the canvas tilt, side mirrors and the frame and attachment points for stowing the 25pdr Gun platform.

Kitchen Table Update #3

Just some quick and dirty Work in Progress shots, stuff i can do in front of the telly, the Pacific dvd being the choice last night, hmmm..... how to do all that vegetation and faded OD.... anyway.
Firstly, rummaging i found this Hetzer, an original Crouchie one so all metal and decided to do some minor mods/ upgrades and convert into the command variant. I have an idea for a special type of camo for this one :o) , more later:

( as always you can click twice on all the pics to expand and actually see what I'm rattling on about)

Next up is another Stug IV (JTFM), minor mods again, some conversion of the BAM TC figure, and after studying pictures for inspiration, and always looked to provide that "value add" have added some strung wire and attachment points used for appending foliage to the superstructure and finally all the usual "ToSh"stuff really:

Another side project this one, a conversion of the BAM Sdkfz 7 into a Flak bed, still WIP but you can see where its going (hopefully!)

Next up, another BAM conversion, this time the ubiquitous scrim netting seen all adorning allied armour in Normandy, this example being a Cromwell. Its not quite finished though, do i do the hull as well?????

The Flak 38 is the Company B one, which is by far one of the best examples in 1/56 i have seen.

And lastly: