LRDG Chevy in 1/76 from Revell - WIP

Been working on this for a while, and it starts to look fit for fight. I still have to finish the crew-members, add a Boys ATR for the man riding shotgun and a magazine for the Vickers. Also some pigments here and there. But you get the feeling for how it will look.

A big welcome to follower Paul Smith. I couldn’t see if you have a blog of your own. If you have, then write a note below and I’ll put in a link to it.

I’ve passed 40K hits on the blog, and when I reach 50K and/or 100 followers there will be a blog give-away. Lots of stuff waiting for new owners.

FT-17 in 1/76 from Revell/Matchbox

I’m not sure I should call this a reinforcement to the French forces, but anyway, here it is: a FT-17 from Revell’s remake of the classic Matchbox set with a Char B1 bis and a FT-17 and a scenic piece.

An easy build giving a decent enough little tank.

When I had started painting it, I remembered that the Finnish army had some in the Winter War. It was disliked, and most of them were emplaced as bunkers… It would have been fun to paint one up as a Finn, but that will be in the future.

I’m not sure about the paints use, as my oldest son came and painted some Space Marines and in the resulting chaos among my paints I forgot what I used for this one.

Welcome Grigork with The Magalomaniac (Mwaha), en excellent blog about wargaming with lots of nice terrain. Recommended.

Also a big welcome to sgt.steiner with the blog Sgt.Steiner's Wargaming Blog about wargames, both board, miniature and PC. With a nom de guerre like that, how could you not like him!

Char B1 bis in 1/76 from Revell/Matchbox

My French forces just got a substantial reinforcement with these two brutes.

They come from Revell’s remake of the classic Matchbox set with a Char B1 bis and a FT-17 with a scenic piece. A good set with two very different tanks, one puny WWI tank, still in service in 1940, and one monster, one of the really feared French tanks.

No problems assembling the tanks, great fit and clear instructions. The tracks are soft plastic, and with hindsight I would have glues them in place and shortened the track length a bit. Now they are a bit too long, and don’t fit tight.

When it comes to painting French armour I had a feeling that everything goes, but also had a feeling that that was not the case. Some research into Char B1 bis camouflage found a very interesting French site, chars-francais.net, with a lot of info on French tanks. The page on Char B1 camouflage gave some very helpful colour plates, and I based my tanks on one of those plates.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Dark Green: 979 German Camouflage Dark Green drybrushed with 850 Medium Olive

Brown: 984 Flat Brown drybrushed with 818 Red Leather

Exhaust: Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust

Tracks: Gunmetal washed with black and Citadel Devlan Mud

Grille: washed with black.

Decals from Aleran Miniatures, France -40 set for H39 and H35 tanks.

Everything got a couple of coats of matte varnish, and a light dusting of MIG P234 Rubble Dust pigment.

Ready for action.

Welcome follower tomw with his brand new blog Hapless Plastic, about everything modelling in plastic. Well worth a look and it certainly looks promising.

Macchi c.202 “Folgore” in 1/72 from Matchbox

The next project for the gaming group is a participation game with a LRDG attack on an Italian airfield, as I have mentioned before.

I’ve made a couple of LRDG vehicles, and had a couple of more on my to-do list, together with a two Italian planes, ground-crew and assorted buildings.

It was with some hesitation I started with the first of the planes, a vintage kit I picked up at Hobbybokhandeln (a good place to find both good books and the odd models). I haven’t built an airplane since… well probably 35 years ago…

Anyway, this is an easy kit to put together, the only thing that gave me problems was the canopy. The piece didn't fit, and I had to fill in the gap with green stuff. Extra irritating as I had at that time already finished painting everything. Stupid, I should know enough to dry-fit everything…

Paints used (as usual Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Interior: 906 Pale Blue

Sand colour: ArmyPainter spray Desert Yellow

Underside: 989 Sky Grey

Green Camo: 823 Luftwaffe Camouflage Green

Propeller hub and band on body: 883 Silver Grey

Propeller blades and wheels: black

Propeller tips: Citadel Golden Yellow

Exhausts: Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust

I painted all areas to have decals with gloss varnish, and then I used Vallejo Decal Medium under and on all decals when I placed them on the model. When dry I painted Vallejo Decal Fix on all decals.

Everything was then coated with matte varnish.

Soot was simulated with MIG Black Smoke pigment, and the whole aeroplane was given a light dusting of AK North Africa Dust pigment and Vallejo Dark and Light Yellow Ochre pigments.

I don’t have to be embarrassed to place this on the landing strip during the games this autumn. It wasn’t so bad to build and paint a plane actually, I’m rather looking forward to the Airfix Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79 Mk II kit.