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.

War-Weary STUG III - 28mm Warlord Games

This is a modified Warlord Games STUG III, a popular choice and a good all rounder. I wanted to depict a vehicle that had seen some campaigning. Several mods carried out most notably:

- Replaced all schurzen and schurzen rails for Plasticard
- MG shield ( serious omission from the kit!)
- Rear stowage rack
- Various Stowage mods
- "liberated" bicycle

Thanks to Brent from Company B for the bike , I believe these come from their Japanese Range, so useful you'll be seeing some on the next Normandy Brit stuff to come through.

 

 

 

As always loads of full fat pictures of this one and some sneaky other commissions up on my flickr:

 

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

 

And a plug for the "subscribe" link to the right ---->>>>

loads of stuff coming through at the moment, most of it at the detailing/final detailing stage so I'll try and keep track with the blog.

 

Warlord's STuG III

Another one off to the Warlord Emporium. As usual with their display vehicles, it is built as it comes, no mods or additions. Another nice and robust kit, consists of Hull, track sections and schurzen plus barrel and odds and sods in metal.  Only minor quibble is there is no MG shield.  All locate positively with each other and make up a nice little kit with very little assembly or cleaning up. I must commend Warlord with all their recent releases, in that, for the track sections, extra locating points have been added so the tracks sit where they should be, to be fair JTFM are very good at this as well, but with some other manufacturers' kits it can be hit and miss putting on the track sections. It also makes a more robust kit, after all these are gaming pieces.

 

I have a section of these coming through (just waiting on clearing some other commissions first though) so I can't wait to start piling on stowage and distressing the schurzen! As an interesting aside I have three AGN Stug III (paint alongs) that have been sidelined for a while, maybe I'll finish them all together?

If anyone is wondering why the hull camouflage style doesn't match the schurzen, its inspiration is taken from the Firefly Collection "Panzers in the Bocage" book, an excellent resource.

I have the Warlord Quad and 25 pdr coming through, with an additional "mod'd" one by me with crew, so watch this space. (Panthers behind that.....)

Finally, is there value in me posting pictures of the kits as they come unassembled? My focus is the finished article but interested in thoughts.

Kitchen Table Update - WIP #2

Time for another update, combining most of my 28mm builds at the moment. I tinker in the evenings on the kitchen table. Currently the shots show,

• BAM Pzr IV , Schwimwagen and Sdkfz 9,
• JTFM Pzr IV, Puma and 234 8-Rads, 251/D's
• Army Group North , Stug III's
• Company B - Adler

All have mods some more than others. Following some comments, i will add that these additions and alterations are not always necesary and not a true reflection on the basic kit. I position my work at showcase standard and continually try and improve, hence all the mods and extras.

• Panzer IVs, not much more done to these, fiddled around with some more stowage and completed the schurzen on the JTFM one. Am toying with some camo nets but cant get it just right.
• Schwimwagen, i love this kit! although theres not to much you can do with a four seater. Added generic stowage, zeltbahn cover ( use of lead foil from posh wine, thanks Julia! ( who still looks at me funny when i ask for it!) and rope drop rope for the motor.
• SDkfz 9, this will be a SCW version so had to disguise some of the late war stowage, hopefully effectively with a "green stuff" discarded jacket.
• 8- RADs - I love these as well. These are just me playing, will be very late war schemes i thing. Metal foil fule can straps added and helmets and their straps
• 251/D - quite a bit of work here and very much WIP. The JTFM is the best 251 available and has lovely interior details. Downside is the assembling, i should really do a two part paint for these but that would double the time and increase the price accordingly. You will see green modellers putty on the body joints, still working on these. Have added internal rod bars for kit stowage and started to add green stuff kit etc. Nice advantage with these is that the rear doors can be cut open with a little bit of work.
• The Stugs are almost there. Interesting point with these, and my work in general, is where do you stop. I could do more, noticably the tools dont have any securing points which is bugging me but will stop on these now.
• Adler, not much added at the moment, added a BAM schwim/kubel driver. This will probably move right with a Horch which has just arrived.
  

Finishing: you'll notice several different finishes, from grey primer, to balck undercoat, to white metal and resin. With modern resins it is important to clean and prime correctly. I use an enamel plastic primer ( hence the grey) and then a black primer undercoat. Some have this already as they were "around" when spraying. These will all receive another primer grey and black undercoat. This will then be touched up with enamel ( Humbrol).

I havent posted pics of all the mods talked about here, however there is now a WIP folder up on my flickr gallery, which has more.

Almost There....

Been a slow start to the new year, although I'm now finally clearing some major backlogs. Finishing this weekend are 15mm FOW, 28mm German 12 SS Normandy and 28mm British Normandy. Pics of the following available in the Photo Album ( link above)

• 15mm Battlefront- Panthers, Stugs, Horch, Kubels, Opel Blitz, Sdkfz 11
• 28mm Bolt Action - Sdkfz 251 ( Engineer, Stummel, Platoon Command), Sdkfz 250 ( destroyed, troop carrier, 20mm), AEC Armoured car, 222 Armoured car.
• 28mm Company B- Kubels
• 28mm Westwind - Wirbelwind