BEF – Scout cars, trucks and ugly guns

First batch of 20mm BEF vehicles painted and ready for action.

First two Daimler Scout Cars from Skytrex. Really nice metal kits (They have been re-launched by 20mm Zone/Early War Miniatures with new moulds and all).

Bedford OYD 3 ton Lorries from Frontline (number B16)

Morris Commercial 15cwt Platoon Truck from Frontline (B1) and Bedford 15cwt light truck from Brittania (RVM24)

Finally three 2pdrs. They were ugly when I built them a long time ago, and they are still ugly. But they were my test-cases for the new paints. I have a couple of Zvezda ones that I plan to build shortly. They are much, much nicer.

So, what about paints then? British vehicle colours are a tricky issue, and Mike Starmer did a great job at figuring out the exact shades of the colours used.

DOA is a new company, specialising in WWII paints. They’ve used Mike Starmer's results and has produced a great set of paints for everyone interested in British armour. I bought mine from Trackpads. Highly recommended.

I used Dark Green G4 and Khaki Green G3.

The gas-indication colour patches on the bonnets are Vallejo 923 Japan Uniform WWII.

As if colours were not enough, we have the markings of the vehicles to take into consideration. The soft skins were relatively easy, as I used the excellent ‘BEF 1940 Softskins (1)’ sheet from Dan Taylor Modelworks for most of the decals. Also 'British Arm of Service Markings AD38' from Skytrex Decals and a little bit of free-hand painting.

The scout cars were a mix of ‘UK – BEF 1940 Markings’ from Aleran Miniatures and ‘BEF – set 2 AFVs’ from Dan Taylor and some free-hand painting.

All decals applied on gloss varnished surfaces, and were coated with Vallejo Decal Medium and Decal Fix, and a final coat of Matt Varnish.

The vehicles finally got a dusting with pigments.

Welcome follower Sanguemarcio with the blog Miniature Warfare, a really nice site on wargames, miniatures and terrain – beautiful stuff.

Willys Jeep - a 20 mm comparison

I’ve built two different Jeeps, one Revell/Matchbox in 1/76 scale and one from Skytrex sold as 20 mm.

The Revell one is specified as a CJ-2A on the box, meaning Civilian Jeep, and that one was produced from 1945 according to Wikipedia.

I assume that is a mistake, and classify it as a Willys MB.

Revell vs Skytrex - they do look different…

Let’s look at the dimensions (according to Wikipedia):

The real thing: length 3327mm (I assume that includes the bumper), width 1575 mm

The real thing in 1/76 scale: length 44 mm, width 21 mm

Revell: 41 x 19 (approximately scale 1/82)

Skytrex: 46 x 23 (approximately scale 1/70)

One far to small, and the other one approximately right for 1/72

As to the looks, the Skytrex one does have a strange hood.

Better details on the plastic Revell compared to the metal Skytrex

Finally, a big welcome to two new Followers:

Carl with the blog Hitting on a double 1. This and that on gaming and modelling. Nice!

Mauther with Papermau, a blog on paper models. Good!

Italian attack-bike

The LRDG needs some sort of opposition when they’ll attack airfields later this year. When I saw this 20mm model, “20/123 Motortricycle with troops”, from Skytrex, I knew I had worthy opponents.

Compare this tricycle with what the Space Marines drive around with in 40K... Those guys got power armour, and big-ass guns.

These guys got an unarmoured tricycle with a crummy machine gun. They do have steel helmets, and they must have balls of steel. After painting this and thinking about the guts you need to stand there shooting, not to mention sitting idly by and wait to load the MG (if you're in luck...), well, I will not make any more jokes about the Italian Army. At least not today…

I painted this in the same way I paint my 6mm Italians. It looks okay in the flesh, but a bit crude in close-up. Anyway, it will be nice to have in place when we start playing.

All paints Vallejo unless stated otherwise.

Crew

Uniform – 847 Dark Sand, wash of Citadel Devlan Mud and a wet drybrush of Dark Sand over it.

Bags – 819 iraqui Sand

Water bottle – 836 London Grey

Skin – 955 Flat Flesh

Metal – Citadel Chainmail

Shoes, belt – Humbro 62 Leather

Tricycle

916 Sand Yellow, Citadel Devlan Mud, drybrush with 976 Buff

Tyres 862 Black Grey

Long Range Desert Group 30cwt Ford in 20mm

Another metal-vehicle from Skytrex range of 20mm, or 1/76 scale, vehicles, 20/149 “L.R.D.G. 30cwt Truck + 20mm cannon & crew".

This truck comes armed with a Breda 20mm auto-cannon. It will be the heavy arm of the LRDG-group.

As with the jeep this comes with a driver with integral steering wheel, so we’ll have to wait for the crew until it can be steered. I painted the Ford in the same way as the jeep, that is, with Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow, a wash of Devlan Mud and another coat of Sand Yellow leaving darkness in all crevices.

The stowage was in one piece, and I painted it with a variety of colours, and gave it a coating of Army Painter Strong Tone varnish, followed with a matte varnish. I added a piece of chain, to hide the rather bad fit of the stowage, and also a box on the floor.

A nice little kit, easy to assemble and with reasonable details. It also had three crew-members that are on the painting table now.

Long Range Desert Group Jeep in 20mm

This metal LRDG jeep comes from the Skytrex range of 20mm, or 1/76 scale, vehicles, number 20/146" LRDG jeep with twin Vickers and crew". What I got seems to be the Jeep from that set, and the crew from 20/147, that is the SAS jeep, and also included was a .50 cal machine gun. Not bad at all actually, as I prefer that crew.

So this is the jeep minus crew. As the steering wheel is cast with the driver it is obviously missing from this picture. I painted the jeep with Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow, a wash of Devlan Mud and another coat of Sand Yellow as a wet drybrush.

A really nice little jeep, but…. Well, we’ll see about little, when I compare this to the jeep from the Revell/Matchbox jeep from their LRDG-set. Coming soon to a blog near you...

Hanomags

The German half-track Sd.Kfz. 251 was often called Hanomag, the name of the largest producer of it. I need quite a lot of these for early war, so I essentially need the models A, B and C and the variant /1, the base-model with machine guns.

Armourfast

Armourfast has this all new 251/1 C in 1/72 scale, fastbuild and two to a box. These kits are very simple, wheels and tracks in one piece per side and overall little detail. It is fastbuild, but that can be OK when you’re about to game with them.

Some irritating details:

-The fenders have no decent pegs to make them jack into the correct position, and this is especially noticeable in the front above the front wheel. Be careful to get them in the correct position.

-The crew compartment is very basic, don’t expect driver’s seat or anything like that. The positive aspect of that is the fact that you don’t need a driver, but it will be noticeably empty in front.

-The vision slits needs to be glued in place, but be aware that they are different in front and on the sides! I didn’t do that until the glue had set on my first vehicle.

-Why on earth do they have just a MG 42 in an early half-track? They might at least have had a MG 34 as an option, but no. For these Hanomags I grab the two MG 34:s from the weapons sprue that came with Caesars 150 mm infantry gun, but every vehicle needs two machine guns, so I have to find more. Many more.

-No decals. I get registration numbers and German crosses from Skytrex decals.

Two Hanomags, Revell in the front and Armourfast behind it.

Revell/Matchbox

I have bought four 251/1 B in 1/76 scale from Revell, and they are the same as the old Matchbox-models from my childhood. I built two of them.

A difference in size between 1/72 and 1/76

These are essentially very fine sets if you want to game with them. Decent detailing and not to many fragile pieces. Included is a machine gunner and one soldier jumping off the side of the Hanomag, and, as usual with these old Matchbox sets, a small diorama. I’ll keep the ruins for future projects.

The tracks are made of soft plastics. To get them to sag and look more natural I drill two holes slightly above the wheels on each side, apply the tracks over the ready painted and varnished wheels, and push the tracks down with a pair of pliers while I push brass rods into the holes I drilled before. A drop of super glue and some gun-metal paint on the pins, and we’re finished.

Some irritating details:

-No driver… why on earth is the driver’s seat empty? Oh well, I make a major amputation on a spare soldier and that is fixed.

Crew compartment filled with stuff, or not.

-Wrong machine-guns again. For this model it is even more annoying as several of the versions they have decals for are earlier than the MG42. Where do I find more than ten MG34? 

Conclusion: Both kits will function in a war-game. They have slightly different sizes, they are after all of different scale, but if used in different platoons I think it will be OK.

I have two more Revell kits waiting for glue and paint, and I just bought two model B from Fujimi. The Fujimi kits can be made as either /1 or /10, the platoon-commander version with a 37mm gun. I’ll be back with more information on them.

I found the Fujimi kits at Hobbybokhandlen on Pipersgatan, Kungsholmen, Stockholm. An excellent shop if you’re interested in militaria. They've got model kits, paints, books etc.

Bromma Hobby is the place where I bought the Armourfast kits, and they have stuff from a lot of other brands, such as Caesar, Pegasus, The Plastic Soldier Company and more.

News June 2011: I read that The Plastics Soldier Company will release a kit with early 251/1:s. It’s a must buy for me.

There are not that many producers of these early models, but far more of the later model D.

My goal is to get eight 251/1 and maybe one 251/10, the command-model armed with a 37mm gun.