Laser Cut MDF Buildings by In The Greenwood

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I had been scratch building all my own Normandy village constructions, but felt i needed to try out something professionally made to balance things out. Oh and i have also got kind of tired of foam board, balsa and modelling clay. On my internet travels i stumbled across the In The Greenwood Ebay shop and then their own web site at http://www.inthegreenwoodlaser.co.uk

They do a range of laser cut MDF buildings in HO scale which are excellent value compared to other companies i had a look at. At around $20 Australian per house i thought this was a pretty good deal, so i ordered three of them. Although I think they are aimed more at Railway people, and are not actually French but rather Victorian, i reckoned i could make them fit into my Normandy landscape without too much problem!

As with other HO Scale manufacturers i have investigated i was worried these buildings would come in too small compared to my own creations and also my range of 1/72 scale models and figures. What a happy chappy i was when they came in around 120mm tall including my extra MDF base and fit perfectly with everything else i had made. The kit comes Ikea style in a flat pack box, amazingly packed in. So i got to work building my first one which was the Victorian Pub. I decided to make it as a restaurant instead.

All the pieces are very cleanly cut and i only had trouble with the bay windows at the front, as the holes in the bottom section did not match up with the holes in the top, so i had to do some carving to get it all to fit together. The instructions follow a step by step process which are a little hard to follow as there are no diagrams, but as long as you are not Stevie Wonder wearing boxing gloves you should be OK. The whole kit goes together with a bit of PVA glue. I added an MDF base to keep it all together, and to create a garden area at the back. One great thing is that the roof can be left removable which is perfect for all you wargamers! I did add some supports inside the roof to give it some extra strength.

My Brasserie painted up nicely and i added a sign on the front and a Martini ad on the side wall, both ideas i borrowed from other designs i have seen out there on the internet. Overall these are great little kits and fit nicely into my village, i am looking forward to making the other two kits i purchased. Check out my village photos below and you can see the MDF constructions fitting nicely into my assortment of home made houses

Airfix Willys Jeep and S-Model Willys Jeep in 1/72 scale

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The Willys Jeep is an absolute essential to any Allied army group, and let’s face it they are one of the coolest vehicles of World War Two. I just want to keep on buying and building more and more jeeps! You can never have enough jeeps in my opinion, great for loading up mortars, MG Teams and officers who don’t want to get their boots dirty!

The two models i first got my grubby mitts on were from S-Models. Two kits in a box and good value for what you get. You can build your jeeps with a canvas roof or without and a 50 calibre MG instead. The detail is pretty amazing but that does mean the model is quite a fiddly prospect. On both kits i managed to destroy the shovel before even getting it off the sprue. I also managed to snap at least one axle just during removal. The kit also comes with some photo etched parts which get really tiny. It’s worth the effort but you need to bring your tweezers and patience to get it done. The S-Model jeep is excellent and i would highly recommend getting a few. In picture two the S-Model is on the far right.

I also picked up two Willys Jeeps from Airfix and was just as impressed. Less detailed and simpler to put together, compared to the S-Model kits, the end result was just as good. If you prefer an easier kit with less fragile parts then the Airfix kit is for you. The box includes some extras with a pack howitzer and a trailer, which are an added bonus! The Airfix kit comes with a transparent front windscreen and frame, one of which i managed to destroy in an attempt to mask it off while spray painting. I just left it off the completed jeep and i think it just adds to the battle torn look.

A few extras were added to my vehicles including some stowage from various sources like Value Gear and SHQ. I needed some British crew and drivers and as usual AB Figures have the best jeep riders you can get! A great set includes drivers, officers and various poses for passengers.

Photos below, convoy on the move and some parked poses shots!

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Trumpeter Stug IV in 1/72 scale

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Time to look at another cracking little kit from Trumpeter, who are fast becoming one of my favourite manufacturers. This time it is their Stug IV. Previously i had made the Dragon Models version of this cool tank and have included some photos of both of them together below as a comparison. Cost wise Trumpeter kits are approximately half the price of Dragon kits, but definitely not half the quality. This Stug IV is no exception.

The simple nature of the tank design, with no turret, means the kit is also quite simple. The most complicated and time consuming part is putting the wheels and running gear together and attaching them to the lower hull. The upper hull and armament are pretty straight forward but still have plenty of detail. The tracks i gave a good stretch before painting them and attaching them after the tank was completed and painted. Everything fitted together very nicely and the kit was smooth and painless to make. Just how i like it. To add some interest i put on a heap of boxes and other kit on the back of the tank. I have seen various photos of Stugs carrying all sorts of stowage, so i used some extras i had from Value Gear. If you haven’t tried out some of their stowage packs i can highly recommend them!

I finished the whole thing off with a dark green camouflage scheme to match my other Stug IV. Pictures follow, some individual shots of the Trumpeter kit and also some with his Dragon counterpart. They make a good team!

Roden Opel Blitz

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The backbone of the German army’s transport and logistics was the Opel Blitz. For 20mm plastic modellers and wargamers i don’t think we have a lot of choice out there for variations of this super popular truck. I tried the fast build kits from Pegasus, which are good, but lack much detail, and have yet to try the offerings from Italeri or Fujimi. So i turned to my first encounter with a plastic kit from Roden. The box art is great, so i had to include a photo of that to start with! Its also a big box with one big grey sprue and a couple of small ones.

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This kit was really fun to put together. It all starts with a tiny engine you have to build complete with fan and radiator. Unfortunately this part is all covered up by the cab when assembled, but cool to build nonetheless. The chassis, engine, axles and wheels all go together, followed by the cab and the rear. You can build versions with a covered back, as pictured on the front of the box, or a version with an open roof. I opted for the open version as i am planning to fill it up with some SS troops from AB figures hitching a ride. I did paint a couple of drivers, again from AB, who are happily sitting in the cab.

The level of detail on the outside of the truck is just excellent with wing mirrors, headlights, pioneer tools etc. Roden also give you clear plastic for windows if you want to use them. I managed  to balls up my cab placement too far back on the chassis and had to mess around a bit to fix it up. Based on MDF, textured and flocked as usual. This was a really nice kit to build and much better than other Opel Blitz models i have made so far in this scale. Check out my photos (with a new camera phone which is much better than my old one it seems).

 

SAS With The Maquis

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For a bit of a change for Colonel Mustard this week I was given the opportunity to review some military history books by Pen & Sword Publishing in the UK. I picked out a very interesting title about an SAS unit fighting behind enemy lines in France in 1944.

Ian Wellsted writes an excellent first hand account of his activities with the SAS, in conjunction with the Maquis, or French resistance, in enemy occupied France. The narrative is quite riveting from the moment Ian and his few men are dropped into the French countryside, all the way to their repatriation to England by American forces a few months later.

Their adventures include many successes and failures along the way including blowing up railway lines, destroying bridges, ambushing enemy forces and various other missions. The spirit and bravery of all the men involved is certainly captured by Mr Wellsted, both SAS troops and French fighters alike. With limited resources, quite often just a broken down old car, maybe a few men and a bren gun, the results they achieved were amazing. Although it feels like a great adventure you never lose sight of the fact that this was a war and that people were dying around them. Danger and death are never far away, but this doesn’t stop these brave men from continuing their missions to disrupt German logistics.

It’s a great, absorbing story. British Jeeps charge around the French countryside, avoiding enemy units, teaming up with French civilians, aided by frequent resupply drops of equipment, then planning and executing operations (with varying degrees of success). Anyone interested in true acts of bravery under very difficult conditions should read this, so i can wholly recommend checking it out.

You can find this and many other titles at www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

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More Panther Tanks from The Plastic Soldier Company

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I built and painted the other two Panther tanks i had in my warehouse from The Plastic Soldier Company. Great little models, they go together in around 15 minutes. Nice detail and very solid kits. This time i used one of the commander figures they supply and he came up really well. I did some light pink braiding on his uniform which adds a bit of colour. I tried out some new camouflage schemes, one a straight olive green and the other a three colour scheme. Camouflage schemes for reference are abundant on the net, and i usually find a nice one as a starting point. Once you get painting its pretty easy to continue the pattern across the whole vehicle. I used some decals from my spares plus some Sergeants Mess spare track and spare wheel just to add some variety.

Photos of the two cats below! Only a quick blog as i have written about these guys before.

Ruined Buildings Part 3

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So finally after all that construction it’s on to the paint job! Everything was painted a black acrylic as a base coat or primer. That gives the whole thing a good starting point and makes sure all the shadows are emphasized. I painted the undamaged rendered walls first, one a sand colour and one a pale blue. The insides were all painted a dark grey as more than likely they would have burnt in the fires/explosions that must have occurred. Previously i have used wrapping paper with a very small pattern on it as wallpaper. You could easily find a pattern on line and then print it out to a small scale to use as wallpaper for some of the internal walls.

The rubble and debris was also painted dark grey and then dry brushed with lighter shades to a very light grey. The exposed brick was painted a mix of bright red and a terracotta red. I also painted random bits of debris with the same red as many bricks would have fallen around the house. To illustrate the mortar i used a fine brush and a light grey to draw thin lines in between the detail on the exposed brick. The bits of wood on the floor, the roof beams and the internal floors were all painted a dark brown. I left plenty of black on the roof beams to suggest the charred nature of the remains. All the window lintels and shutters were painted white, and needed a couple of coats to get them right. I just used a black biro to draw on the shutters, much easier than a paint brush.

The roof tiles were painted grey and then randomly painted with lighter greys to mix them up a bit. I left plenty of black areas near to blast holes. Finally i lightly brushed black around all the damaged bits to show the extra effects of smoke. To add that extra bit of detail i found some cool French signs on the internet, printed them out and stuck them on the buildings with a lot of PVA glue so they look painted on. A bit of green flock on the base and hey presto the finished ruins.

See my photos below including some British units just nosing around in the smoky ruins! Over and out Colonel Mustard.

 

 

Ruined Buildings Part 2

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I have continued working on my ruined buildings, and have decided to split the process into three blogs as otherwise it would be a bit heavy on the pictures. However, I did want to detail each part of the construction, so here goes!

To create the piles of debris inside and outside the ruins i first glued lumps of modelling clay at positions on the base next to the walls. I did this both on the interior and exterior in a random way, still leaving decent areas of the interior floor bare. I then covered these raised areas in PVA glue and sprinkled a decent amount of dirt/gravel from my front pathway on top. The stuff out the front of our house is perfect for producing random debris. You can see the construction taking shape below.

Next up i need to add a texture or render effect on the walls to get rid of the smooth finish of the foam board. I do this by mixing a fine sand (pinched from the play ground around the corner) with a paint thickening medium i found in my art box. You could do the same with sand and PVA glue mixed up. I then paint a liberal layer of the stuff onto all the exposed walls, making sure to stay away from the exposed brickwork and the window frames, and let it dry. This makes an excellent texture to paint on the outside of the houses.

To add a bit more character i needed to make more rubble and debris for around the place. The rubble i made with more modelling clay by rolling out a large flat piece to about 1-2mm thick and when it was half dry cut it into small cubes. I made a big pile of bricks and rubble this way. I also chopped up bits of balsa wood into broken beams and bits of roof. This extra debris was then glued on top of the original piles, and new small piles were also added just using the new rubble.

The whole building was then painted with black acrylic. Be careful not to use a cheap spray paint on foamboard as it can dissolve the inner foam part, and therefore would destroy all your hard work carving the brickwork. Last but not least i made a framework for the roof sections out of balsa wood and roof tiles out of more modelling clay. The damaged removable first floor sections were also made with balsa wood. I just drew floorboards onto the balsa wood using a biro which creates a decent paintable effect. So now all the bits are made all that is if left is to paint and construct. We will see the end result in Part 3!

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Ruined Buildings Part 1

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I wanted to make some more ruined and battle damaged buildings for my table top, and thought i would document the process with the help of Colonel Mustard.

First up i drew up some rough plans and designs. There are plenty of places to get inspiration, the internet being the most obvious. I settled on making a house that has its centre completely blown out and a half flattened, heavily damaged cottage. I use 40mm per storey as my basic measurement (although in my drawings i did change to 35mm but then changed my mind back). Doors are 15mm x 30mm tall and windows 20mm square. I sketch out the basic plan and measurements as you can see below.

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For the base i use a 15mm border around the bottom of the building. In this case i only put a border around the front and back as i wanted to be able to place the ruins adjacent to each other with no gap to form a ruined terrace. My next step is to cut bases out of 3mm MDF, making sure you calculate the correct width and length of your building plus any border required. I then draw my building design onto 5mm foamboard. Most houses end up as four pieces as they are no more complicated than a box. I guess this is why i object to paying through the nose for purchased buildings as they are little more than an MDF or plastic or resin box that is decorated! I can do that for less than $30 per house.

Once you have accurately drawn your building cut it out carefully using a sharp knife. Try and keep the knife perpendicular so you cut straight through the foam and don’t leave any wonky angles. Cut out all the window and door frames too.

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I then cut away some of the card covering on the foamboard where the building render has been damaged. You can draw guidelines around some of the damaged walls and then cut through the card outer layer. Slide your knife under the card layer and peel if off carefully. Then with a ballpoint pen draw on exposed brickwork. When you press on the foam core it creates a texture which looks really good. Then its glue your box together on the base  with PVA glue and leave to dry.

Then its a question of cutting out 20mm x 5mm sections of balsa wood and gluing them into the windows as frames. i also add 20mm x 5mm balsa wood as window mantels and lintels. Above the doors i also put a 15mm x 5mm lintel. On the inside walls i add balsa wood beams halfway up the building, which indicate where the floor would have been, or if you do put some floor in they can act as supports.

At this stage our ruins look like this. In my next post we will do the building texture, rubble and debris, the roof and finally painting!

 

Metcalfe Models Manor House HO/OO Scale

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My terrain projects continued this week with a new building for the battlefield. In my quest for good sources of houses i thought i would try out one of the cardboard models from the English company Metcalfe Models. They are slightly cheaper than plastic and resin kits out there, but still way more expensive than scratch building your own. I think this guy cost me around 10 pounds plus postage. Most resin and MDF buildings out there cost from 12 pounds up to 20, so the cardboard option is not much of a saving anyway.

There is also a bit of a problem with scale. Listed as HO/OO scale, mainly for those railway people out there, this comes in a bit more like 1/76 or smaller. Other companies like Najewitz. Hovels and Charlie Foxtrot produce buildings that match better with 20mm or 1/72 scale models. If i am building my own houses i tend to use a measurement of 40mm per floor (or the height of two people). These Metcalfe kits tend to be more like 30mm per floor and therefore do look a little small. So my home made two storey plus a roof houses would be 120mm high plus chimney stacks. This Manor House comes in around 110mm inc chimney stacks, so you can see how the size difference would be noticeable.

Anyway scale aside the kit is really fun and easy to put together. All the bits are well labelled and construction can be complete in an hour or two. Initially the result looks very much like a cardboard model, which should be no surprise, but with some basing on MDF and some brown dry brushing and streaking and messing around, you can rough him up a bit. So i was very happy with the end result. But i think due to the small scale size of this range i will not be buying any more. I am better off to continue to build my own houses from foam board, MDF, balsa and modelling clay.

Check out a few photos with a Panzer 3 and a SS private, gives you an idea of scale.