Somua S-35 in 20mm by Frontline

Two resin Somua S-35 tanks by Frontline ready for the France 1940 front. I painted one of them a couple of years ago, and the other in the same colour-scheme just now.

The models are in two pieces, hull and turret, and very basic. The running gear especially is rather vague on the details. On the plus side – they are rather cheap.

Painting French tanks are always fun, as everything goes. I have some French magazines with lots of photos and also some assorted books on French armour as inspiration.

Colours used (Vallejo)

Base – Tan Yellow 912

Camo – Yellow Olive 892

Camo – Beige Brown 875

Lines – Burnt Umber 941

Tracks – Gunmetal metal

Wash with Citadel Devlan Mud

Pigments

Decals from Aleran Miniatures, the France 1940 set FR-2 (for H35 and H39).

Book review – January and February 2013

I’ll try a more condensed sort of books reviews for a while. Everything relating to history and modelling I’ve read each month, with a couple of words on each book. Hopefully to whet your appetite.

Much WWI in early 2013, some brand new titles and some oldies.

Images of War  Blitzkrieg in the West, Ian Baxter, Pen & Sword, 2010, around 140 pages. Lots of interesting photos, but sadly some facts wrong in the text. 4 out of 5.

Erwin Rommel, Karl-Gunnar Hoffman, Osprey, 2004, around 125 pages. Rather badly written and no analyses to speak of. Rather bad actually. I rate it a weak 2 out of 5.

Flames of Calais – A soldiers battle 1940, Airey Neave, Pen & Sword, penned in 1972, around 220 pages. Thomas pointed me to this book a long time ago, and I finally got around to reading it. It is written by a veteran of the battle of Calais in 1940, and a really good read. Especially good as the gaming group is playing some of games from the Too Fat Lardies’ scenario-book The Defence of Calais. You’ll find accounts of some of the battles in that book here, from a guy that was there. He is even a Big Man in some of the scenarios. I rate it a 4 out of 5.

Italian Medium Tanks 1939-45, Osprey New Vanguard no 195, 2012, 48 pages. It’s an Osprey… Interesting about the topic, relatively well written, and some good photos. 3 out of 5, just as you expect from an average Osprey.

Chuchill vol. 1, Leszek Moczulski, AJ-Press, 2008, around 175 pages. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Churchill tank, with loads of photos and drawings. Great book. A rating of4 out of 5

Images of War – Special Forces Vehicles, 1940 to the present day, Pat Ware, Pen & Sword, 2012, 144 pages. Loads of photos and info on special forces vehicles, just as it says. I would have liked more SAS/LRDG, but that’s me. Rating 3 of 5.

Images of War – British Tanks, the Second World War, Pat Ware, Pen & Sword, 2012, 144 pages. I have this thing for British AFV:s, and I got my fix here. Very nice book about the topic, with great pics. Also American tanks in British service. Rating 4 of 5

Italian Navy & Air Force Elite Units & Special Forces 1940-45, Piero Crociani and Pier Paolo Battistelli, Osprey Elite 191, 2013, 64 pages. A good summary of Italian elite units, both before armistice and after. Good compliment to the other books on the italian armed forces I have. Rating 4 out of 5.

Hooray, an airbrush for me!

A couple of weeks ago the folks at my job asked me what I wanted as a birthday present. When you have your 50^th birthday the company chucks in a bundle of money, and there’s a collection amongst the co-workers.

I was asked a couple of weeks ago what I wanted. Maybe a vase, a wrist watch or candelabra… uck…

So what did I really want… After some thought the answer was easy: an airbrush.

I have never used one before, so I needed a decent beginners model, and have no idea what is right. So I took a lunch walk to Hobbybokhandeln. Needless to say they were glad to help. I discussed with Marko at the shop, and told him that a confused young lady would probably come and ask about a birthday present J

This Friday was the big day at work. Reception with coffee, cake, speech and a small and rather heavy packet.

Here it is!

And this is what is in the box

Now this is just super. This is something I have wanted since I was 10, but never gotten my hands on. This is the best present!

I also got a gift certificate to use at Hobbybokhandeln, and that will more than cover the paints I need. Also the promise of a short introduction on airbrushes in the shop.

A trip to Clas Ohlsson, every hobbyists’ dream-shop, will get me a compressor. More on that later.

No one at work really knows about my miniatures, so I took the chance to show them at the reception. A photo of Elori Ebonscythe, one of my favourite models, magnified on to an A4 sheet. Lots and ooohs and aaahs. Then the look on their faces when I picked up the little miniature from my breast pocket. That was so fun!

I got the highest praise from one of my colleagues

“Hey, you’re a real nerd. I like that!”

Yep, that’s me.

The Miniatures Man 2 years and 50

A couple of weeks ago The Miniatures Man-site celebrated its second birthday, and I was fully occupied with other stuff at the time. But life is back in old rut now, and it is time to celebrate.

Let’s check the two years

Hits: close to 28 000 in total (6500 after the first year)

Followers: 63 (32)

Articles: 181 (92)

Most popular articles all time:

Storing your minis the IKEA way

PzKpfw IV F1 in 20mm by Airfix, Hasegawa and Plastic Soldier Company

German infantry guns, WWII – my fist blog post!

Long Range Desert Group 30cwt Ford in 20mm

German Medical Personnel in 1/72 by Zvezda

Most viewers from US, followed by UK, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Spain, Australia, Canada, France and Italy – essentially unchanged from the first year.

A good year, with steadily climbing view-rates and more and more people finding the site. I still feel it’s fun to do this, but I will probably change some concepts a bit. For one thing - probably shorter book-reviews, but on more of the miniatures-related and history books I read.

Another jubilee happened last week, namely the Miniatures Man himself turned 50.

I fled the country, with its snow and ice, to a warmer place in the sun. Had a nice trip with the family, looked at the local Canarian flora and fauna and had a great, if miniatures-free, time.

Now it’s time du remove the dust from the neglected painting table and get some modelling done.

The Miniatures Man protecting himself from the sun on his 50^th birthday.

Welcome follower number 64, Lost Legion Miniatures with a blog with the same name. A nice blog about this and that in modelling. 

German motorcycles with sidecars, a 1/72 comparison

A short comparison between the different sidecar combinations I have

- Zvezda BMW R12

- Hät/Armourcast BMW R75

- Revell BMW from the SdKfz 11 set I think

 

Hät vs Zvezda

As you can see the Hät model is crude, huge and the figures are rather…apelike….

Zvezda vs Revell

The Revell model is smaller and less details than Zvezda.

The winner: Zvezda! No real competition here.

There is an Italeri-set that would be interesting as a comparison, but it’s not very high up on my to-buy list at the moment.

Weekend of fun

Last weekend gaming pals Thomas and Icke visited for an afternoon of terrain-building. The idea was to continue our brainstorm about what we needed for our LRDG-project, decide how to make it and then produce (some of) it.

I started the day before by taking out all terrain-making stuff I had lying about. Strangely enough it was a lot...

The hoard of terrain making stuff.

A box of flock, sand, clump foliage and static grass, plastic card and –rods/-pipes and –girders, balsa and wood in all shapes and forms, lots of branches and dried heather, plastic plants, a mould for cliff faces I had totally forgotten, four different clays, foam-core, plastic kits, textured paints, glues and odds and ends. I covered my table tennis table...

Thomas brought some more plastic girders, tree armatures and this and that.

After a short conference we started building.

Fences

Even in the desert there are some hardy trees. Icke got green fingers...

What would you do without a fuel dump? Really, we have an idea here... but maybe this approach isn’t the most time-efficient.

Camouflaged parking space for a plane... minus netting

Another sort of fence for western front

A totally failed attempt at a clump of high grasses.

We half-finished a lot of terrain, had some very good ideas and made some mistakes we (hopefully) learned from. We also had a nice chat about everything WWII, drank a lot of coffee and coke, ate potato crisps/chips and made a lot of plans. As a bonus two of my kids helped with this and that, and were quite happy about it. All in all a very nice afternoon.

We’ll try to do a follow up with better planning in the future, as this was very ad-hoc, meaning few of the gaming-gang could show up on such very short notice.

When I finish the respective pieces you’ll get a more in depth how-to post on each item (well, maybe not the clump of grasses)

German BMW R12 in 1/72 from Zvezda

Another very nice kit from Zvezdas’ Art of Tactic series.

The motorcycle is in four pieces and six parts for the sidecar. Nice and well detailed, but I had to hide a very visible gap with tarps (from Reiver Castings).

Forgot to finish the BMW logo. Done now and not a complete success. It is sooooo small.

I strongly suggest that you paint the motorcycle and the sidecar as separate pieces. Trust me, it’s fiddly to paint the assembled model…

The driver comes in four pieces, and I found that the gaps where his arms connect to his body needed some green-stuff. The passenger is also 4 pieces, and comes integral with his MG.

Forget about painting the logo on this side when the kit is assembled...

The number plates were written with a Staedtler pigment liner 0.05 pen. I've had the pen for ages, but this was the first time I've tried it, and the result is okay I think. I need some practise though. 

As you can see it is a well detailed kit, and I’m very happy with it, but there are some things that could have been better.

Sidecar – the way the upper part of the carriage connects to the rest is less than ideal. Also the way the MG is attached to the sidecar is rather crude.

The wheels are… well…okay I guess. But they could have been better.

The chest of the figures are rather lacking detail. Can’t really figure out why. Seems to be a rather common with the Art of Tactic figures unfortunately.

They don’t wear goggles. Probably a bad idea in real life.

Coming up, a comparison of this model and the Hät/Armourfast set of motorcycles with sidecars.

Welcome follower Dan with his blog Gunners Wargaming where you will find 15mm to 1/35, ancients to WWII to fantasy to SF. A bit of this and that. Check it out.