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.

Stricken Convoy - IndoChina - Part 1

Interesting commission this one, seemingly innocuous, but has proved to be one of the most challenging yet......

The basic premise was an ambushed French convoy, in Indo China. Essentially one truck was to be depicted as just having hit a mine and has been brown onto its side.

All the kit work is Milicast, which is lovely scale and accurate stuff, but some bits are very fiddly.

GMC Build

The three upright GMC's needed to have drivers and co drivers, this always means a two stage paint and assemble. Whilst you wont be able to see it, I know each individual figure torso and head is fully painted and detailed in there! Essentially the drivers and cab interior need to be completed, then assembled, then masked and then the main painting could begin. All the figures used were resin from Milicast, again fiddly making them fit but easier to work with than white-metal.

The GMC's have the slightest of resin windscreen frame, which I think can be modelled opened up or closed, I foolishly offered to add "glass" in the form of clear plastic. I will spare you the profanities used in assembling these and making them fit and aavoiding the "super glue" smears. 

The cargo bed frames, were also a royal PITA, I made a template and bent and cut appropriate metal strip and applied each individually. These were a nightmare to line up and get looking equal, I think I just about achieved it.

The Stricken Truck

The disabled truck needed some minor mods. The bonnet/hood was cast so I cut it down and added a sheet foil bonnet, so it looks as if it has been slightly dislodged in the course of the mine explosion. The mudguard was removed and replaced with sheet foil at a "jaunty angle". The Milicast Trucks are not designed to be displayed on their sides so detailing underneath was understandably minimal. Not being intimate with the carriage workings of trucks I added some bits and bobs from the spares box and applied "mud" to cover up and rough detail. Dont email me if i got all the guibbins wrong, it looks fine to me! The tyres I had to work worth as best i could, again these are solid and attached.

The Spilled load

After some thought, I decided to make the stricken truck and load as a complete vignette and have the spilled load attached to the truck bed. This was quite simply achieved by making a "base" blob from green stuff and added the first layer of drums. The next layer was superglued in place for effect, and so on. In the end, the whole ensemble is quite sturdy.

Oh and as you can see, have been playing with the blogger template, and in traditional style can't seem to get back to the original! What do people think, this one allows much more whizzy things to be done with the content, based on selection at the top of the page.

N

German Staff Car - Before and After......

Another desk clear out (to ebay) item.

I picked these two resin models up at Colours two years ago, subsequently forgot about them, finished them about six months ago and then they got unceremoniously shoved in a drawer (Now that my gaming tastes have converted to 15mm). 

I don't recall the manufacturer but these where amongst loads of fantasy and Sci-fi terrain so these seemed a little out of place.  These are clearly 20mm, but can't really be called scale models as the detail is quite niave in places but they make really great terrain "fluff" and the one piece castings are ideal for gaming.

Interestingly, three of us at the same show, bought them independently, all thought they would be extremely usefull, subsequently I have seen quite a few scattered around gaming tables.

I am guessing these are some sort of generic Citroen-type civilian car, which as you can see, I have painted up as a German staff car, before and after an fatal incident, saboteur, assassin, ambush or low flying strafing, who knows....

Anyway up on ebay, one not so careful owner.....

( If anyone knows the manufacturer, can you let me know and i'll give them appropriate credit)

Hellcat

Milicast Hellcat and crew, to be honest forgot i had this one lurking around, now off to ebay to fund Kiddies xmas presents, some more stuff coming up.

25 pdr Crew and Quad Gun Tractor

As posted earlier, not much coming through recently, some issues at home that have diverted my painting time, so here's a post of a September Commision, not previously plastered up on the forums.

The Warlord 25pdr set, is lovely, I have modified the GT with the addition of canvas tilt and frame, traversing wheel brackets and some odds and sods. There was a requirement for removal of crew, so i knocked up a simple base, crew are on "penny" washers.

I have a boatload of German and Allied vehicles in progress, its just a bit slow at the moment.
As always flickr hosts my complete gallery.

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

neil

Slow Week - Unforseen Delays

I had some holiday booked to complete some "almost there" commisions, unfortunately I have had some unforseen issues at home to deal with that has diverted my time this week. Good news is that things are on the mend, so hopefully I will be back up and running [painting] soon.

On another front, my foray into 15mm gaming has officially started. I intend using BFWW2 rules and will start with Normandy, although my heart is in the Ostfront. The BFWW2 forum has some excellent scenarios and OOBs, which allows me to concentrate on painting. I am focussing around Hill 112 scenarios, for starters and as you might expect will aim have the vehicles decaled and painted up for specific units. To that end my first carrier platoon has arrived from skytrex, and i must say i'm impressed. I intend to paint to fund this so will be doing paint-alongs as i go, so expect to see a lot more 15mm coming through next year.

I am also going to experiment with basing my 15mm vehicles, something I never thought I would say but i think will permit lovely little vignettes and ultimately tie in with the Infantry.

Normandy Tetrarch -1/56 - Warlord Games

Tonight a welcome change from Dunkelgelb, British O.D in the guise of a Normandy Tetrarch.
Another popular kit from Warlord, and i'm sure i've painted more than actually saw any action. This one however, has the correct AoS marking (Its amazing what details reveal themselves once you've finished painting). Minor mods on this one, tarps and towing wire, and a commanders bren gun on the side of the turret. The track sections have been moulded in a way that facilitates removing the spaces between the road wheels, which is worthwhile doing. Maybe the next one i'll get to "open up".

Still have 28mm and 20mm stuff up on ebay, check out the link to the top right >>>>>>>

12 SS Panzer IV - 1/56th -

First pictures up out of a large split commission depicting AFVs of the 12SS, specifically for Normandy onwards. This is a JTFM Panzer IV, with a Warlord TC head and various stowage, stock and green stuff.

Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs" - another cutie!

Another of my favs from JTFM. I have completed a couple of these to date, and i'm sure i'll do more.

It would seem the Aufklärungs guys get all the good looking toys, only thing is, I cant decide which I prefer this or the 8-RAD 234/1 or /2! but those pics are for later.

I have taken the weathering stages to the next step on these few commissions, not always apparent from the pictures but the recipients notice! I have slightly modified the basic kit with addition of Jerry can support brackets which are seen on a fair few of the examples. The TC is the Warlord "Herr Grabner" figure which suits the vehicle to a "T". And just for Jeff, the ubiquitous bucket/pail hanging off the rear (my all round favourite bit of stowage, until someone does a bicycle that is.....)

As always click on the pictures for full fat, I think you get a slideshow now with blogger, but if you click on the link in the bottom corner you get the original image. Alternatively, grab a coffee and go to my flickr gallery,  it most be the most comprehensive painbted AFV gallery on the web.

BTW some bits and bobs up on ebay, need some space and its about time I fed the kids.........