Panzer-Lehr-Division's 316th Funklenk Panzer Company

Bit of a diversion, these two. I had two Tiger B (King Tiger - Porsche Turreted) pre-paints, not entirely sure of their origins, but clearly 1/76th, I wasnt really happy with them, so I decided to repaint to align with some excellent photo references I had found on the web whilst researching a another Tiger B commision,  The Porsche turretted Tigers saw limited use (and action) in with the  Panzer- Lehr, 316th Funklenk Panzer Company. There is now photographic evidence of most of their individual fates.

As you can see I painted tanks "10" and "11" as per the excellent illustrations on the following site:

http://libellule.heavy.jp/site/vehicules/tigerII-FKL.html

and in line with the pictures at:

http://www.tiif.de/thread.php?threadid=50&sid=63dc6b2e35d92395ccf9dfa6fdecfbca

I've had my fun with these two now, so open to offers, before they go to the "reserves" drawer, or ebay......

As always loads of full fat pictures on my Flickr.

Panther A, Southern Germany, January 1945,

Great subject this one, legitimate use of judicious weathering! The concept was taken from an a picture of an unknown Panther, January '45, Southern Germany. The Panther ( albeit a G in the picture) had obviously seen a rough winter, with a hastily and now wearing whitewash pattern applied over what looks like a three tone, or possible ambush scheme. The whitewash looks as if it was applied with a broom, so hopefully I've pulled off the effect here. As I'm always asked when whitewash is involved, yes, the hairspray technique was used, amongst others.....

This is Warlord Games display one, so hopefully it'll be out as Salute, unfortunately I wont be this year, maybe 2013 for a demo come-back who knows.

As always, lots more "full fat" warts and all picture in my flickr gallery, link to the right

( if you haven't bookmarked it yet!)

"PanzerKnacker" - HS129 & JU87

A change is as good as a rest, albeit only a slight change. Here we have some 15mm ( 1/200th) Aircraft models from Armaments in Miniatures (AIM). Great service from David, over the pond, and lovely miniatures. Some clean up is required but nothing out of the ordinary. Two Ju 87s and one HS129. With the Stukas I recessed an earth magnet on each to accept a flight stand, you can just make out the outline under the fuselage. With the HS129, I had both the 37mm and 75mm weapon pods so, again, I recessed earth magnets so the cannons can be swapped out.

Unfortunately, they suffered from silvering on the decals, despite the usual precautions. Couple of things I'd do different and improve on next time, but an enjoyable change from armour modelling.

So much so that I ordered a flight of Typhoons, which will look the bees knees when complete.

As always many more pics on my Flickr:

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

 

 HS 129 with 75mm weapon pod in place (above), and (below) shows the location plugs for both assemblies, and you can just make out the earth magnet. The final picture shows the 37mm pod fitted.

Sherman Platoon - Normandy

20mm Iterali Kits with AB crew figures. These have taken a while to come through, reasonably fiddly builds with quite a lot time spent working on getting the stowage to look right and stowed believably. The weathering is a combination of techniques that I have been experimenting with to reflect that faded and dusty look rather than the "en vogue" intense chipping, getting the right  context really sets an AFV collection off. I am really happy with these although next time I will probably swap out the .50 calls for metal ones. Aerials omitted due to the rigours of postage.

As always loads of full fat ( and more) pictures in my flickr galleries.

Troop of Shewe Galleries

Oh and as a blatant plug for you 20mm fans, I have started to shift my older 20mm gaming figures on to ebay, currently up there is a 20mm FAA German Platoon.

20mm German FAA Platoon on Ebay

Sdkfz 251/10 - Schützenpanzerwagen (3.7 cm PaK).

Midweek Update, 1/56th goodness from Warlord, no mods, no frills, exactly as it comes, well with some paint.....  Warlord have recently upgraded the track sections for their 251's which are really quiet nice, it seems everyone is updating their masters, which is great for us.

and a teaser a nice Normandy 20mm ensemble coming up Saturday, probably some of the best i've done.....

Shewe Galleries

Sturmgeschütz IV

Stable favourite this one, JTFM's 1/56th Stug IV with a few modifications.  The kit comes with separate schurzen plates and rails, however I've re-fabricated the plates with plasticard but utilised the rails. the track guards have been sliced and thinned and deployed open.

As commonly seen, the rear decks on these were quite heavily used for stowage, so I've added various tarpaulins, a field modified stowage box and some ammunition boxes, all kept in place with a Heer Zeltbahn from metal foil. The commander is battlehonours, if i recall correctly, with some greenstuff and wire headphones.

As always, click on the individual pictures for the warts and all view, and more extensive pictures in my gallery:

Troop of Shewe's Galleries

Hetzer - Befehlswagen 38(t) - Disc Camouflage

This is the original all metal Crouchie variant, not entirely sure who has the molds these days. This has been updetailed to add various hatches, handles and the additional aerial points for the command version. The last picture in the series shows the work in progress shot, the commander is Battlehonours. The paint scheme on this one is the disc type ambush, so was my "tester" for some other larger paints which i'll show soon, not too hard to guess though.

Sturmtiger - Sturmmörserwagen 606/4 mit 38 cm RW 61

House clearance German style! This is Warlords 1/56th Monster, no mod's as it comes. I've gone for a subtle late war three-tone with lots of brick dust, although I have another coming through with a more complex scheme. As always more pictures in my flickr - link to the right.

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

The Stricken Convoy - IndoChina - Part 2 - Complete.

All the work is now complete, here is the finished ensemble. Whilst a tricky and time consuming build, I'm more than happy with the results. All the upright GMC's have both drivers and co-drivers and i've tried to animate the jeep crew as if the mining of the truck had gione off behind, in convoy, Hence one chap leaning to the rear and the other on the walkie talkie.

All kits and figures are 20mm from Milicast, with minor and not so minor mods by me. As always more links in my flickr galleries, link accessed to the right.