Carden Loyd Carrier from Warlord

Evil Overlords seem to have a big budget for transports for their (lazy) minions and correspondingly tiny budgets for firearms- training. When one of them get their priorities right then whatever hero is after said Overlord will be in for a surprise. A short-lived surprise.

Anyway, I bought the Carden-Loyd Carrier from Warlord for a Sealion campaign that never took off, and it’s been in the resin- and tin-mountain since. I thought a slight repurpose in its life would give it a reason to meet the paintbrush, and it was promptly relocated to a suitably evil overlord’s car-park. In the off-chance that we will actually build all those other minis for Seelöwe I painted it in a colour that could pass as proper for a home-guard unit somewhere in southern England.

"And I thought the Komsomolets was cramped"

The integral crew had British helmets and that sealed their fate as they were promptly decapitated and got replacement-heads from the bits box (I think they came from Perry Italians… must be a horror for a British WWII-soldier…). The resulting chaps could still pass for home-guard as their uniforms were painted in a suitable colour for British infantry, which works equally well for minions.

The kit was so-so. The resin body needed quite a lot of work to be presentable while the metal tracks and tow-hook were rather good.

A bit of a disappointment overall but the Overlord is more than pleased.

Zvezda’s Vickers Machine Gun with Crew and another give-away

Another great little 1/72 kit from Zvezda’s Art of Tactic range. When you look on the cover art of the box one thing is immediately obvious, namely that the machine gun looks somewhat strange. Yep, the real thing didn’t have the shield. So if you’re building this kit, just skip that (I used mine for one of my LRDG vehicles).

The cover says it is usable for 1939 to -43, but considering that the crew is wearing gas masks and 1939 pattern entrenching tool I would advise against using it later than 41, if that. Anyway it is perfect for BEF 1940 and Operation Seelöwe.

One thing missing in the kit is the condensation can that was used to preserve cooling water. I scrounged one from a Hät-set of British machine guns.

The soldiers were painted as presented in the painting tutorial.

Don't forget my give-away, open until December 22.

Don't forget The Batman Holiday Giveaway at Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher. Great site, great giveaway

BEF painting tutorial

I have painted a couple of 1/72 British Infantry from Battlefield Miniatures and their Blitz range, using the reference books as inspiration. This is hopefully something that is close enough to the real thing.

I’ve included paints below for more specialised equipment too, just to have everything in one place, and you will see examples of that in future posts.

Paints used:

Uniform, water bottles – Vallejo 921 English Uniform

Helmet, ammo boxes and other equipment – DOA Khaki Green G3

Boots, scabbard – Black

Webbing, pouches, anklets – 881 Yellow Green

Helmet nets – drybrush 819 Iraqui Sand, no wash (note – these were uncommon for BEF in 1940)

Anti-gas cape (rolled on backpack), gas mask bag (on chest) – 887 Brown Violet

Band to rolled anti-gas cape – 819 Iraqui Sand

Wood – 984 Flat Brown

Steel details, weapons – 863 Gunmetal Grey + two washes of Army Painter Dark Tone ink. (note, on these minis I used 863 Oily Steel and Strong Tone wash, but it is not as good)

Machine-gun band – 819 Iraqui Sand

Cartridges – Brass

Text on ammo boxes etc – 948 Golden Yellow

Everything washed with AP Strong Tone ink.

Don't forget the give-away, open until December 22.

Welcome followers

- Christopher Sheets with Dispatches from the Rim and Brass & Blood

- Pat G (who’s been with us a while as a Google+ follower) with blogs Victorian Bo(w)ler, Irr Wb (F) (Irregular Warband Fast) and Steampunk Canada

-Brian Botzan with RayGun Gothic Galaxy

-Edwin King with Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist
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If you have any more blog I haven’t found, then put a link to it in the comments below so I can update the text here.

BEF – A9 and A10 from SHQ

These tanks are the latest addition to my now growing force of BEF vehicles. I bought them years ago, and they got totally wrong colours then. A bath in acetone made short work of the paint (and super glue).
The kits are of descent quality. It's quite a lot of work to get them presentable, and there are some prominent mould missmatches and partly destroyed moulds making for less than perfect detail. 

Painted as my other BEF-vehicles; camouflage Dark Green G4 and Khaki Green G3 from DOA. Tracks Vallejo Panzer Aces 304 drybrushed with Vallejo 865 Oily Steel. Rubber GW Black. Everything washed with a dilute wash of Army Painter Quickshade Dark Tone.

Decals from ‘BEF – set 2 AFVs’ from Dan Taylor, and ‘UK – Tactical Markings UK-4’ from Aleran Miniatures.

A dusting with pigments to make them a bit dirty.

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.

LRDG-crew

At long last I have finished the crew to my Chevy, and also two improvised LRDG-soldiers on foot.

The driver is original as base and has had his right arm switched to one that could hold the steering wheel. The arm I used had short sleeve, so I had to build a new sleeve and also shoulder with green-stuff.

The Boys ATR is metal and from SHQ. The crew-member manning it is also based on the original, but I switched the right arm and the head to suitable pieces from the box of little toy soldiers and shoulder and scarf from green-stuff.

The standing crew-member comes from Revell Scottish Infantry, 8^th Army, and I removed his Thompson machine gun and pinned him to a suitable thin base, and got a figure that had perfect height to man the Vickers.

The wounded man on foot comes from Caesar WWII Underground Resisters. I removed his Sten gun and remodelled his left arm slightly to remove the armband. Also a helmet from the bits-box.

The last man comes from Caesar WWII Partisan in Europe and is straight from the box.

All figures painted with an assortment of sand-colours and browns. Washed with Citadel Devlan Mud.

50K hits! Yep, reached it in record time, so a give-away is coming. I just have to have a bit more time to prepare. 

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.

LRDG-jeep in 1/76 by Revell

The Revell (old Matchbox) set ”L.R.D.G. 30cwt Chevrolet & Jeep CJ-2A” has been on my painting table the last year. I’ve been fiddling with it now and then, adding some stowage, painting a crew-member etc.

The Jeep has been nearly finished for a long time, and I made a rush the other day. Here it is, with original crew and weapons from the kit. I have added stowage from my bits box, some plastic, some metal.

It is a very nice little kit, fully recommended if you’re into LRDG.

Welcome follower Shaun. Blogger doesn’t show if he has a blog of his own. Make a comment below if you do, Shaun, and I’ll add it in the post.

British Infantry in 1/72 from Zvezda

I have built some models from Zvezda’s Art of Tactic series before, and on the whole I’ve been satisfied. When they announced that they were releasing early-war British troops I ordered a couple of packs of this and that, sprinkled with a couple of German packs also. 

So, here is the first of the Brits and my thoughts on them.

The pack contains five figures, one officer and four troops, and a choice of either one base for the lot of them (used in the Art of Tactic game) or individual (rather small but high) bases. Also included is a stats card used in the game, but I have no use for that, and instructions on building the figures.

As all have respirators and the early type of one-piece spade, they are easily identified as early war, and would hardly be seen in this outfit after 1940 or -41, and certainly not in -45, as the text on the box implies.

The troopers are multipart, made up of between 3 and 4 parts each, and the officer is in one piece. They could theoretically snap together without glue, but gluing with ordinary polystyrene-glue is preferred. The fit is good to excellent, and I only needed to greenstuff the left arm of the walking men to hide a thin crack. I advise you to snip off a bit of the pegs as they are a bit too long to get a perfect fit, and you’ll have to do that before assembly, or you’re stuck there having to cut off the whole peg losing the guidance and strength of the peg in question.

One weak point that I found was the rifle butt of the running man, it breaks off rather easily, being as small as it is, and that tiny little piece of plastics is easily lost in the clutter of your painting desk... I have cleverly hid that in the pictures, but will substitute the missing piece with a similar piece from another kit.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted):
Undercoat: white with a black wash

Uniform: 921 English Uniform

Anklets: 821 German Camo Beige

Helmet: 894 Russian Uniform WWII

Boots and scabbard: Black

Webbing, pouches and gasmask bag: 819 Iraqui Sand

Water bottle: 875 Beige Brown

Rolled anti-gas cape on top of backpack: 886 Green Grey

Spade-handle: 310 Old Wood

Rifle Stock: 843 Cork Brown

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud (RIP)

I based the troopers and their individual bases on washers and the officer on a rectangular base from Renedra. In our gaming group we have, as I’ve mentioned before, a local basing convention where officers are based on rectangular bases with a number of figures on it denoting the level of the officer/big man. In this case we have a level one big man.

A size-comparison of a trooper from Zvezda compared to late-war Esci/Italeri.

All in all, I think this is an excellent set of well detailed early-war figures. A bit on the expensive side for five plastic figures, but recommended all the same. You’ll be hard pressed to find anything BEF of this quality.

You can find reviews on more Zvezda models here.

Hät WWII British Mortars in 1/72

I’m in WWII-mode at the moment, and grabbed a box from the plastics mountain. This one is British mortars from Hät, and it consists of 4 sprues, with eight men and a 3” mortar on each sprue. Rather soft plastic, detailing is a bit crude, especially the faces, and with very little gear on the figures. But they do the job.

These guys will be used in our IABSM (I ain’t been shot mum from Too Fat Lardies – great company!) games, and will be based to work with that.

What is need in the game are two-man teams for the 2” mortar and five-man teams for the 3”.

A two-man 2” mortar team

3” mortar with three men out of the five needed.

I will probably base my further 3” mortars on bases with two crew members and three crew on individual bases. I’ll have to scrounge extra crew from other sources. 

In IABSM the leaders (big men) are rated level one to four, depending on how good they are. My friend Laffe at Figurfanatikern (he writes in English, very god reading!) had the excellent idea of showing the respective level of leaders with the number of figures on the base. A puny level 1 corporal would be represented by one figure, but a heroic platoon leader of level 4 would have four figures on the base, representing himself and runners, radiomen and whatever.

Time to do something about that idea with the final men from the sprue..

A level 3 British Big Man with his trusty biographer and radioman.

Paints used (Vallejo):

Uniform – 921 English Uniform

Anklets – 821 German Camouflage Beige

Helmets and hardware – 894 Russian Uniform WWII

Boots – black

Webbing and pouches – 819 Iraqui Sand

Water Bottle – 875 Beige Brown

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud

Welcome new follower Encourage One Another with the blog of the same name.

LRDG-crew

I've paintet the crew for the LRDG truck and jeep. Rather clunky figures, but they look OK from half a meter away, i.e., normal viewing distance during play.

The truck needs a dusting of pigments, but that will have to wait until the weather is a bit warmer, so I can spray-paint a fixative outdoors.

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...

British QF 2 pdr from Britannia and Hinchcliffe

I’ve got two guns from Britannia (£2) and two from Hinchcliffe (£5).

Brittania – more details, but at the same time more clumsy, just check the shield.

Two versions from Hinchcliffe, shooting and towed – more slender but worse in detail.

Due to the fact that the crew removed the wheels when before shooting, you will need two variants, one shooting and one wheeled. Advantage to Hinchcliffe that have both variants.
I’ll just have to paint them… when I have figured out which paints to use.

Oh, by the way, QF stands for Quick Fire.