More Brits and Luftwaffe Assets

I've had a week or more that was busy with family issues that took up much of my time. Still, I did manage to get some pieces done here and there.

I got some armour and some carriers done for the desert. I tried to select a camouflage scheme that will fit multiple theaters. So I opted for a dark sand & very dark brown thinking that this can pretty much cover later desert, Tunisia, Sicily and maybe even early Italy. It's a matter of trying to maximise the usefulness one cammo pattern and to save me needing multiples of multiples of the same models all with different paint schemes.

These Crusaders, I picked up cheap. Little did I realise at the time that two of them were Mk III's and one of them a Mk II. No bother. One day I might get 2 more II's and another III to fix up this problem.

The Luftwaffe got some more hitting power in the shape of a Fw-190 - Again painted for maximum usage over the Mediterranean campaigns.

And this next one is a test - Once again it's something for the Luftwaffe: Early Fallschirmjager for Crete and the Greek/Balkan campaigns. These figures are AB but I'm not sure if they will be the best figures to use for this situation as the AB figures tend to be equipped for latter in the war. At this stage I'm unsure who makes appropriate early 20mm FJ. I'll paint up a few more and see how they come out.

Anyway, this was mainly a test to see if my colour pallet was any good. I'm happy with it. I think the basing will also work pretty good for the Med.

Some of the Bigger Guy's

A quick post. I keep making things so I may as well post them. At least that way they can make their presence felt until they make it onto the gaming table.

So this time around I've got a few things that are a bit bigger and harder hitting than what I've been posting recently. In fact these are the first of their kind that I've made so far (well not since the 1990's anyway).

First up a pair of KV-1's. Not that big in the scope of things but when put up against early German armour, as they should be, these guys can quite easily be the kings of the table!

And because these big fella's were so effective Germany had to come up with something to counter them. So they invented the Panther. These ones are a bit later in the development and they look lethal.

I also made a trip to Eureka today and picked up a bunch of AB Figures. All different kinds of things - German's, Brit's & US. I'll sort them out and get to painting.

Still Reducing the Plastic Hoard

Greetings Folks,
I'm still working on things and getting stuff made. I tend to get on to a subject and blitz it for two or three months at a time. At the moment it's WWII, and I can't see myself losing interest at the moment. Every time I play a game I get inspired to keep going. As far as I can recall it's going to be 28mm Pacific Chain of Command this weekend. Japan v's Australia. I'll be borrowing figures for this one.

But back to my own constructions...

I've made a variety of things over the past few days. Again, it's a bit for everyone (keeps me on my toes).

First a couple of Esci M3 75mm GMC's. One for the Brits and one for the US. This was a really nice & easy kit to make. Two models in the box with enough decals for two US or two British versions. So that leaves a nice bunch of extra decals for other things. But they need some crew which I'll get when I visit Eureka in two days time. I think I might get another set of these.

And, while were at it: The U.S. get a few more toys. A troop of M3 Halftracks from PSC. I have some more coming my way that I found going cheap online. And if necessary I can always sub Brit and US halftracks if I need to make up numbers.

A resin M4 76mm. This is a resin model that I picked up from Uncle Les at CANCON a few years back. It had a pretty rudimentary spray job so I decided to give it a repaint and add some decals.

And a little SdKfz 250/9 painted in dunkelgrau for 1939 - '41 Blitzkrieg era. This is also from Uncle Les. It's a 3D print and I believe it's one of his earliest efforts. It's a nice clean print but it's very lacking in detail. Otherwise, it's a nice little model that'll do the job.

And, I made sure those pesky Russian's didn't get left out this time around. They get this behemoth land-dreadnought - T-35. I added some figures to give it some scale but it didn't work out. The pic doesn't really give a true idea of the size of this thing. Even in 20mm - It's bloody huge.

Oh No! I Forgot Uncle Joe

My last post was titled "Something for Everyone," but I left out the Soviets. So, in order to make amends I've given them a little bit of love over the past couple of days.

I inherited a large amount of Soviet stuff from my friend Jim, who passed away. There's a lot of it and I'm slowly sorting out what's what. I don't have a great deal of knowledge regarding Soviet equipment other than their more common tanks, so this is a bit of a learning curve for me.

I had all ready started painting up Soviet infantry before I received Jim's stuff. I started with Zvezda plastics and then decided to do them using AB figures. But amongst the infantry I inhereted were the figures below (with a couple of AB that I added to the mix). I don't know where they came from so, if you can help me identify them it would be very much appreciated (they're nice figures).

I also did some heavy weapons. One of the anti tank rifles is metal (closest to the front) and looks to be the same as the infantry above. Again, help with identifying them would be of great help.

 These look to be from Plastic Soldier Company and Zvezda.

Much of the stuff from Jim only has very rudimentary paint jobs, so I've decided to spruce them up to do them justice. I've decided to start on some of the earlier stuff because, to me, it's a lot more interesting than the later Soviet equipment. I'm going to label these models as Barbarossa to distinguish them from the later equipment.

A couple of BA - 10's

And a little troop of T-26's

And then there's these T34's... They're a bit different form the rest as they've been really well done with lots of stowage and weathering added. The only thing I did with these was the tracks which had been left unpainted. I'm not sure what brand they are but I suspect they might be Revell or maybe Matchbox. Whatever they are... they look nice (I might add some Cyrillic slogan decals).

There's actually two troops of three but I only have one troop ready to go at the moment.

A Little Bit For Everyone

I've been doing a whole bunch of stuff. Little bits and pieces to just to get things made (or finished).
I've also been making various pieces of terrain but I'll post those separately at a later date.

First: The Brits get a Churchill AVRE. I bought two boxes of PSC Churchill's. Four models and only three tanks to a troop left me with one extra. So here's some engineer support for when it's needed.

I got the putty out and added a tarpaulin and sandbags for some detail as well as some other little odd bits I had sitting around doing nothing.

Second: Germany gets some armour and recce for the Blitzkrieg era ('39 - '41). Armourfast Pz III's and an SdKfz 222 form... I don't know where (but I do know Who - Thank you Sean).

Third - The US get a jeep. Not much, I know, but at least they get something to keep them happy.

And, as an extra bonus: The Brits also get some air power in the shape of a Hawker Typhoon. This little chap is going to be welcome by some and feared by others.

U.S. Heavy Weapons

I made some more heavy weapons for my GI's as well as an engineer squad.

Two bases of 81mm mortars and two of 60mm mortars. All the figures are AB miniatures. Plastic Italeri will be doing stand in duty for any additional crew required.

I also had another 0.30 cal MG, so I did that at the same time.

Some Armour for the Med

I've had some old Airfix Churchill's sitting around for quite a while and I really wanted to get some British armour made up for the Mediterranean. So I decided to make them.

And I gave up after the first one.

But then I found that War & Peace Games were selling their PSC kits off wth very good discounts (I fear they're going to stop stocking PSC 20mm so they're selling it off). However, I digress... They were selling cheap so I bought up. And one of the kits I bought were PSC Churchill's. Fantastic models. Easy to make, they look great and the kit has 4 variants.

So, first up I made a troop of Churchill IV's and painted them up for the Mediterranean Theater. And here they are:

 I also have a 4th vehicle which I made as an AVRE for some bunker busting capability in Northern Europe. I post it here after I give it a coat of paint.

I also finished off another armoured car that's been sitting on my bench for some time. It's definitely a Rolls Royce but I'm not sure if it's a Mk II or a Mk III. What ever it is. It's been assigned to the 7th Armoured Regt. The commander is PSC from one of the Churchill sprues.

I have no idea where it came from. It's resin and very nicely detailed - as opposed to the Morris CS9 that I posted recently which was a very basic & rough thing.

Thinking about it, I have a feeling it might have come from Early War Miniatures - But I'm not sure at all. It's very nice.

Ol' Smokey & His Pals

I've been busy doing quite a few different a few things for my WWII wargaming.

Today I finished off a bunch of markers for smoke, brew-up/burning markers and a couple of barrage spotter round markers.

Dirty oily burning markers

 White Smoke Markers (should these be coloured smoke?)

I wasn't sure how to make smoke markers. What I didn't want was a bunch of large markers that meant I would have to find some way to store them. So I opted to make some 3" discs with a suitable earthen look to them. On top of these I can place some synthetic kapok (from a crappy cushion that cost me $4). This arrangement packs into a smallish, flat box pretty easily and gives me 6 decent 3" smoke markers with minimal effort.

Yes, I know, I could just use a wad of stuffing and that would work fine. But some people are pedantic and will gladly dispute the 3" smoke footprint. The disc simply negates that possibility before it can begin.

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But I've done so much more...
I also finished off my AB Figures, U.S. Infantry platoon - Sort of.

The platoon above is perfect for Chain of Command, but for Battlegroup I need to add a few more bodies to the command section. I also made some support options for them:

A FOO & A pair of Bazooka Teams.

 0.50 cal and a pair of 0.30 cal's.

I'll need a few more crew figures to bring these squads up to strength. What I'll probably do is use the plastic Italeri figures I already have to flesh out their numbers. They have to be good for something after all!

This platoon can also be made to represent an Armoured Infantry Platoon by taking the 0.30 cal's and adding them to the mix. I also need to add a 60mm mortar to fill it out (I'll have one finished tonight).

So there we are. I really do like the look of the AB figures. I didn't mind the Itateri but they were difficult to find and these AB do look so much better and all the options are easy to get. Plastics are pretty restrictive because the options that are in the box are all you can get. But, they'll make good fillers and crew.

And, in a pinch, an extra section or two!

8th Army & Places for Them to Hide

I've got a few things finished recently. I'm actually going pretty fast with a lot of it.

The first thing I finished was an armoured car - A Morris CS9, as far as I can tell (it's a pretty rough resin kit) with a figure from AB. I also made some Plastic Soldier Company 6pdrs made up. Nice kits with crew and Lloyd Carriers. I don't know why, but I didn't have instructions but they were easy enough to put together. I painted them up for Tunisia/Mediterranean.

And at the NWA Open Day, yesterday I picked up these nice little hasty defences. Pre-painted resin from I know not where. I just gave them a bit of a dry brush to bring out a bit of detail and they're ready to go.