Normandy Village Board Project

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

Well, Covid has finally grabbed a foothold in our fortress of a house, putting me out of action for a week. Although really only the first day felt like anything other than a crappy cold-type situation. Anyway, this was a great opportunity to sweep up some odds and ends that have been laying around for years. I had some resin castings that I picked up from eBay plus a Sarissa MDF house or two and a nice Hovels bridge. I decided to make a centre piece for a town with a proper river section sunken down into the board. I had a nice piece of 3mm MDF to mount it all on, and used lots of polystyrene to build up a few layers. Cobble streets were made with modelling clay and my cobble textured roller. There are two more houses to go at one end of the town which are 100% scratch built and not quite completed. I dressed up the MDF houses with new roof tiles, floorboards and chimney pots. A little bit of work goes a long way. Realistically i think this will be the town centre for a much bigger layout (maybe a battle for Caen or something), as i can surround this with more houses, rivers and roads to cover a whole 5 x 8 foot table. Next up will be finishing the last two houses and then can texture the open ground with glue and sand before painting. I have also started making bricks and rubble as I am going to need quite a bit of it to decorate the place, considering all the ruins!!

Boardgame interlude- D-Day at Omaha Beach by Decision Games

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

I needed a break from painting and modelling! So a weekend away in Melbourne was the perfect opportunity to clear away the dining table of modelling debris for the babysitters, and come home to a clean slate (table). So looking into my cupboard of unplayed board games I pulled out this little treasure. Something my brother highly recommended i managed to pick up a copy in Australia which is unusual but cheaper! For the solitaire player, which is very much my thing, i was excited to get the box open and try it out.

I have only played three turns so far of the introductory game and its already testing my brain getting my head around the rules and concepts. But it is fun and as i learn the rules better things are only getting more fun. Its engrossing and perfect for the solo player who wants to try snd survive Omaha beach!! It also inspires me to work on creating my own Normandy beach in 1/72 scale sometime in the future!

CP Models German Infantry Marching in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 6 Comments

Anoher group of German Infantry finished, this time a group of 12 from CP Models. There were 14 of them but two had mishapen face detail, like quasimodo’s sister, so I chopped off their heads. I am waiting for more figures from CP and have some spare heads coming as replacements! Aside from the ugly sisters sculpting and detail and poses from CP are fantastic. Painting them is fun as everything is quite obvious. I tried another different field grey combo with slightly greener pants this time. I am trying hard to get the collars with two small white stripes which seem to be standard on these jackets. I would also like to try some kind of helmet insignia but have not had the confidence yet in my teeny tiny painting skills. Need a tinier brush. Awesome figures and I heaps more to get through all primed and ready to go.

AB Figures WW2 German Infantry

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

My plan for 2023 is to get all my German infantry painted up. There are 150 or so of them knocking around and most are already based and primed ready to go! Most of my British are completed so its about time I have some opposition to actually get a game set up and even played. This group consist of nine infantry including a standing machine gunner, seven rifle men mostly walking and one officer with an MP40. I also snuck in a senior officer from CP models. For my paint job I used paints from a German Uniform Field Grey paint set I recently purchased, with the jackets and pants being interesting different shades. Reading around about German uniforms it seems that there were many different shades throughout the war, so any inaccuracies are totally accurate. Makes it easy to do whatever shades you like. I love the poses and stances of these AB figures, and the detail makes it so much easier to paint. It still takes me days just to paint a few…….and that’s not even doing camo…….

HAT British Vickers MGs in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 8 Comments

After finishing my AB vickers machine guns I figured I should get these older plastic ones from HAT done too. They came in a box of four sets plus some other support weapons. Great value but not on the same level as the AB metal figures as far as detail etc. The plastic on HAT figures is also really soft and weird. Impossible to sand and also cuts strangely. Anyway did the best I could. Based on small circular plywood with some clay and sand. The figures are all identical so I tried to vary the bases with extra bits and pieces and walls and shrubs…… That is enough MGS for my British battalion, just some infantry mortars and I think it could be finally finished…….. oh no hang on I bought something else……

Milicast Models Humber Armoured Car

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 16 Comments

I have been window shopping on Milicast’s web site for ages but never jumped in and bought anything for the usual reasons. One, I already have enough stuff. Two, they are expensive. Three, they do not quite fit into my usual plastic model kit rules. But with a sale incentive (I think they were offering one half price model with every two purchased) and a weakening of will power I caved in and bought a few. My experience of resin kits is not that great. I have found poor moulding with bubbles, fragile bits that snap and pieces tricky, ill-fitting and hard to glue. Not so the case with Milicast so far. The only issue I did have was the front axle being a bit wonky and I had to do some surgery on it to get it straight. We could not have one wheel spinning in midair now could we?

The instructions do leave a bit of room for error, they could definitely improve them with clearer pictures and arrows etc. I had to supplement the instructions with other internet research so avoiding major screw ups. A couple of little bits had snapped in transit but nothing my DIY skills could not overcome. I added a plastic aerial to the turret but nothing more on the detail front. An olive drab paint job as usual with an ink wash and a dose of European earth weathering powder. You need to add your own decals as none are supplied. I picked out an AB crew figure who sits nicely in the larger open hatch. If you look closely you can see the excellent Company B decals on his arm. These are 28mm decals that they can downsize to 20mm and save me from struggling to paint anything so tiny!! Based on 3mm MDF to save his axles from damage. I compared this kit to my Hasegawa Humbers and there is no comparison. These Milicast models are far superior in detail and proportions, and I am looking forward to building the next one.

Plastic Soldier Company Chevrolet Truck in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 9 Comments

Another cool truck this time from The Plastic Soldier Company. I bought just one sprue of this little truck as they had some sale on over there in the UK. Very simple one sprue of soft grey plastic. Nice chunky detail as always from these guys. It is a super quick build, although I did pre paint the two crew that come supplied before constructing the cabin. A few additions also add value to the vehicle. I found a pair of spare wing mirrors in my bits box that were added, you have to have wing mirrors for effective combat driving don’t you? I also added clear plastic windows as things do not quite look right without a working windscreen. You do not get decals with any of these PSC kits so I raided my well stocked decals folder for some random bits and pieces. Oh yes and I really did not like the handling of the canvas rear cover, it looked way too unnatural at the back. So I chopped out the back section and replaced it with a rolled up bit of foil and string to represent a canvas roll down door thing. Much better.

Paint scheme i did an overall olive drab for the cab and chassis, and a khaki for the canvas back. Then did a mickey mouse black camo scheme over the top. He is a groovy little truck. Lined up next to him are the Airfix bedford and Tilly from one of their diorama boxes.

AB Figures British Vickers MGs in 1/72 Scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 7 Comments

Nearly finished all my British troops for Normandy, just finishing up some support weapons and then should be able to field a battalion or full company depending what system I use. This is AB figures British vickers MG teams, you get two MGs and gunners plus three loaders and a sighting seated figure. I already used the sighting figure some other time. So i had a spare MG and gunner from another bunch of metal figures no idea who. This made up three MG teams. Not much to say about AB figures apart from they are the best! Painted in my usual British uniform plus tiny arm decals from Company B. Based on hardwood bases covered in clay and sand. Lots of tufts and grass finishing them off. I have four infantry mortar teams to go and that is it for the British! Finally!

AB Figures British Sniper

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 4 Comments

A quick post of a prone British sniper from AB figures. He has some scrim camo covering his helmet and rifle and has found an excellent firing position in some shrubby vegetation. Mounted on 2mm wooden base I added plenty of cover for him to wait patiently in! Have some more AB machine gunners nearly done just taking me ages to finish anything………

Vespid Models Jagdpanther in 1/72 Scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 13 Comments

My second build from Vespid, the first one being the most excellent A34 Comet, and another cracking little kit. Not the cheapest (i think $25 ish), but well worth the dollars. Lots of cool detail, PE parts, options for different versions, nice decals, nothing to really fault it. These newer kits just go together easily. I left the hatches open (on the Trumpeter and Zvezda kits you cannot), and added two excellent AB tank commanders. Also added my own plastic aerial.

Painting I sort of copied the box art with a brown and dark green splotchy camo over usual dark yellow. Some brown washes and plenty of european earth powder. I also added some muddy texture under the hull above the tracks. Tracks were done quite rusty with highlights using a pencil for the metallic effect.
Overall lots of fun and well recommended. Now I have four finished Jagdpanthers that is more than enough …… he said never………