On to Berlin

Late War Russians, T34/85s and ISU152. I believe these little beauties are SHQ, they are all metal, nice and robust gaming pieces. I have added crew, one Milicast and one AB. As always, more "full fat" pictures in my flickr galleries.

Now Sold

SAS Jeeps -

Two 1/56th bespoke conversions of the excellent Warlord Airborne Jeeps, into the SAS configuration for NWE. Lots of work and loads of extra details packed into these little beauties, just persue the pictures in my flickr galleries.

Now Sold

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.

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.

12SS Panzer IV - Mod'd Warlord

 

Panthers and IV's are definitely the most common vehicles I've done over the years and its a challenge keeping each one in some way different from the previous. In this case i decided to modify the recent Warlord Pzr IV. 

It is a really good kit, but like all 1/56th offerings it has room for improvement, so hopefully I've added some value, well for my tastes anyway.

First to go was the schurzen, nice robust moldings designed for gaming and handling. However,  i wanted to bash mine around a bit so utilised spare JTFM plates and made up some rudimentary rails. The attachment points aren't strictly accurate but then I'm not doing a scale model after all. The next item for change was the turret. I felt it sits high so the underside was shaved to create a lower profile and some of the schurzen opened up.

After that, all was fairly standard, spare tracks (JTFM), attachment points and stowage. Some great points about the Warlord IV is the opening hatches and the zimmerit. I decided to try something different this time and instead of having it opened up with 1/2 figure crew hanging out, i wanted to model a more realistic "in-action" composition with the hatches opened up but with just the crews heads showing. In this case the commander is a Warlord head and the crew are Westwind, the commander has some miliput shoulders but the crew didn't need them. I quite like the hull gunner "shouting" pose, maybe he's spotted something the others hadn't?

The rest is just painting and weathering :o). Decals in this case are Archer dry rub transfers and Dom's decals for the 12SS insignia.

I've included a before and after picture to show the changes. As always loads more pictures in my Flickr gallery, and double click these for "full fat" pictures.

Neil

WW1 SPAD Squadron

Totally new subject for me, bit tricky coordinating the airbrushing and assembly but now learnt the lessons for next time. These are 1/72 Revell kits, only additions being the wing cable struts. As always click on the pictures for full fat versions, more detailed pictures up on my flickr gallery

Sdkfz 250 "Neu"





Stable favourite this one, painted in a late war three tone hard edge. Warlord will finally be getting round to it  sans-base soon, the models they have modified so far are a vast improvement, BZ all round.

10 Hussars, A Sqn 3 Troop, 1st Armoured Division, BEF

Nice little commision this one, Michael wanted specific vehicles and luckily for me had far more information on BEF markings than I. The Mk IVc's are original Chieftan Models, now BEF models from Crouchie. I added some minimal stowage, including a greatcoat, but also did some work to represent the aerial frame on the back of the turret, my reference being the Bovington vehicle.  Two of the turrets were drilled and "opened up" to rx the tank commanders, one Crouchies and one from the Warlord range.

The 1st Amd Div, Weight class and AoS are Milicast 1/76 decals. The embarkation code and WD numbers are cut ups from Dom's Decals 1/56 range. The squadron triangles are painted over decals.

Trick with these was to try and under weather, they weren't around long enough for heavy wear and tear.

Not too happy with the pictures on these, subtle details dont stand out to well on PC monitors, you can click on the pictures but the flickr gallery should show them off a bit better.

T34/85 & 76 Section

Last in the Russian batch for a while ( although two IS 2's planned down the line). These are the best (IMO) T34's available, 1/56 from Jeff at JTFM ( no bases hurrah!). I bought additional turrets so in fact there are only three hulls and six turrets. Crew figures are BAM/Warlord which fit nicely in the turret cupolas. Two of these are up for Sale.

As always, click for full size pictures or for more detailed pics and general eye candy peruse my gallery, link to the right  >>>>>

KV1 Veteran

Continuing the Russian theme, this is an AGN 1/56 offering, although my belt sander was applied to the base and some assorted minimal stowage applied. I wanted to do a KV2 as well but there wasn't one in Bob's store room!

As always click on the pics for larger views and many more in my flickr gallery link to the right>>>>>

Early series T34's - Tri Tone Camo

These are Army Group North Early War T34 with, yes, legit three tone camo.

Ref: T-34/76 Camouflage and Markings, Skulski & Filipiuk.

Multi-colour patterns were developed in 1939, including olive green, dark brown & sand. These are based on an illustration of an early series T-34, depicted South West front, summer 1941.

Not much mod'd on these although next time I'd prefer to get my belt sander to the bases.

As always more pics in my flickr, or click on the pictures to examine the details.

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: