Month: December 2017

Fences and Rubble Piles

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 2 Comments

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone! I finished off a couple of terrain bits in between stuffing my face with Christmas goodies. No models in my stocking or models in stockings for that matter. But still expecting some more goodies to show up from various model shops across the globe independent of Father Christmas’s delivery schedule!

Anyway i had some rubble piles and cars from Loic Neveu in France that i had left aside for ages and decided to paint them up. They came out very nicely and fit next to my ruined buildings for extra effect. I have a couple more to finish. I had bought a manor house from Loic too but it is more like 15mm scale and it didn’t fit in with my buildings. If anyone wants the building i bought for 15mm games drop me a note and i will send it to you or at least show you a picture first.

Also there is some fencing i bought from Hovels in the UK. Super cheap at 75p a section and they came out really nicely. At that price i really cant be bothered to make my own which will be no better. Based on MDF and flocked etc. It does make me feel lazy but sometimes buying terrain is just a nice, speedy alternative!

Esci White M3 Scout Car in 1/72 Scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 3 Comments

One of my favourite, if not top of the charts, World War Two vehicles is the White Scout Car. So my quest to find one in plastic kit form in 1/72 scale was an important one. In the whole world there is not one company now that makes this vehicle in plastic kit form. Esci, now Italeri, no longer make this kit, even though i think they do still have pictures of it on their web site. So my quest turned to the internet as usual. Thank you eBay for the seller of this old kit for only about five pounds. I would have paid more for sure as it really seemed to be the only available kit in the known world. So i was a happy chappy when this turned up on my doorstep. I think this kit must have been years old judging by the box, but inside everything was still sealed in its plastic bag. Only the decals were unusable, but that didn’t matter as they were French and Russian anyway.

My Scout Car was going to be Allied/British. The kit build was great, a pleasure to make, all parts fitted nicely and i had no issues. The only thing wrong with this model was the rear axle sits too far forward resulting in the wheels not being central within the wheel arches. This annoyed me enough that i had to cut the rear axle and suspension off the chassis and move it maybe half a millimetre to align the wheels centrally. That was the only problem i found. The kits comes with two machine guns on the back, a 0.50 and 0.30 calibre, one on each side, and some stowage. I added a bit more from my supplies and also added a British driver from AB figures. The decals came from spares. I always base my wheeled vehicles, no one likes a broken axle. The finished scout car was given the usual olive drab treatment with a dark brown wash, highlights, and then some weathering powders. I might add some other crew or commander at some point, we shall see.

I do have a couple of metal and resin versions of the M3, which i may make as a comparison. And the chances of finding another plastic M3 kit are about as good as England winning a game in the Ashes……….

British Centaur AA tank from Britannia Miniatures

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 1 Comment

My own self written rules of engagement are that I have to stick to making plastic models of any vehicles for my WW2 armies. However, if there is some unusual vehicle required for a unit that is not available in a plastic kit form, I do have an allowance (Clause 8c) that allows me to buy resin or metal vehicles. I guess this would stretch to die cast as well, although I have not found a need for that yet. To be honest I just like making model kits as opposed to having the vehicle already constructed (or in only 3 pieces).

So on this occasion I needed an Anti Aircraft tank or the Centaur AA. I think its based on a Cromwell chassis but with twin AA guns in the turret. This one comes from Britannia Miniatures in the UK, you can buy from https://www.grubbytanks.com

Andy at Grubby has a huge range of troops and vehicles, including a lot in the “hard to find in plastic model kits” bracket that I am after. I also picked up a Sherman ARV recovery vehicle who will be built soon enough, and a Dorchester HQ truck which looks like fun. This Centaur comes in only a few parts, with a hull, turret, two sets of tracks and wheels, AA guns and hull MG. So armed with some superglue it doesn’t take long to put together. I did take a little while cleaning up the resin hull (the tracks and guns are metal), and next time I will spend a little longer doing clean up. The detail is good and it actually made a nice change to be painting quickly rather than building for hours first. I did add an aerial and one bit of stowage (a box) plus I used various decals. Paint job was a simple olive drab, like always, plus a dark brown wash and plenty of dusty powders for rust and dirt. Worth checking out Britannia for their massive range of stuff, I am sure I will go back for more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarissa Precision Ruined Houses

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 2 Comments

In my mission to speed up my village building and supplement my very slow scratch building process, i could not resist buying some more MDF kits. This time from Sarissa at http://www.sarissa-precision.com

I have seen lots of pictures and reviews of the Sarissa French Chateau in 20mm and 28mm scale and I was unable to resist the lure of  purchase. So I figured I better make it worthwhile by buying a couple of their 20mm ruined houses at the same time. The Chateau build is for another time, as I decided to get cracking on the ruins first. The kits come flat packed in two sheets of 3mm MDF with a further sheet of window and door fittings in card. At less than $15 Australian a pop they are pretty good value. The best thing is Sarissa does the postage from the UK to Australia at two pounds fifty which is amazing. Definitely makes me want to buy more!

The parts pop out of their sheets easily and consist of a floor or two, walls and roof sections. The roof sections have a triangular support that gives the structure some strength. So all you need is some PVA glue and bobs your uncle. Once you have the structure made you can add the windows and shutters, door frames and doors. You do need to think ahead about what you are going to paint before you finish building as it might be tricky to paint some bits after full construction.

Now i really like these kits but did need to add some of my own bits and pieces just to get them up to speed. Firstly its very obvious where the MDF corners are, so i used my gyprock plaster to give my buildings a texture, before i added the details. This covered up the joins and created a more interesting surface. I also could not quite understand the chimney construction, maybe i did it wrong, so i also had to add some MDF to line everything up. The chimney pots i cut off and replaced with some excellent metal ones i had bought from a model shop, which i think was a good improvement. I also added my own cardboard roof tiles onto the roof remains which give more texture to the roof than the original flat MDF. I also added textured bricks carved into the plaster along the bottom of the walls and also bits of rubble and debris inside the damaged walls. It was a lot of fun to customize these little buildings, but i think they would come out nicely whether you choose to do this or not.

Painting took me a while and i just used basic acrylics. I added a couple of French signs to the sides and then added some black and brown chalk dust to the damaged bits to give the finished result a burnt out look. I am looking forward to building the Chateau now after these two. If  you need some quick and easy buildings with a lot of scope to customize then go and check out Sarissa. You can see below how well they fit in with one of my home made buildings – the blue two storey house with a big blown in the middle of it…..