1/72 Scale

1/72 Scale Modelling

AB Figures British Infantry on patrol

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 6 Comments

Happy Christmas everyone from down here in sunny Australia. A Boxing Day post while watching the cricket, who could wish for a better day! I am feverishly trying to finish off my company of British infantry so I can replace all my plastic figures, which I am not so keen on, with far better metal ones.

Here are another ten British infantry from my favourite AB Figures. I actually picked these up in an eBay bundle of all sorts of metal figures. It turned out to be a total treasure trove of figures from a lady in the UK who labelled them Anthony Barton figures and I think the naming bypassed all the other modellers like me who would have jumped all over them. The cache also included some Stonewall Figures which i had never heard of, and will be detailed in my next blog or so.

These AB Figures are a squad of ten, including one sterling MG and one Bren gunner, who will be my CO and NCO respectively. They are all in marching, patrolling stances with guns slung over shoulders or carried. As usual with AB the poses are natural and look great, plus the sculpting and detail is second to none. These guys really do paint themselves. The faces are so good that one wash of a red brown over base flesh pretty much looks good enough. Unfortunately my phone camera and photo skills really do not do them justice. Although the faded background does make the photos look like a hazy sunrise patrol. Taking photos of small soldiers really does require extra light and a good camera. Neither of which I have.

I tend to repeat myself a bit, but AB Figures really are the top shelf of wargaming figures, if you did not get any for Christmas, make sure you go out and grab some for a New Year’s present to yourself! Check them out at AB Figures

Battle Of Lingevres Rapid Fire Rules

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 6 Comments

Finally after months of building and painting, and getting distracted by any number of other things, I have managed to get some terrain onto my table ready for a game. I am going to give the Rapid Fire rule set a run and see how it stacks up with all the other rules I have tried. Ultimately I am going to write my own rules with all the good bits from all the rules plus some bits from Squad Leader too. Still a work in progress but one day I will get there!

I picked the first sample battle Lingevres from the Rapid Fire Rule book. I finally finished my big church a couple of months back so that was the main bit of terrain I was missing to fight this little engagement. I expanded the map a little bit to include a ruined side of town. I wanted to try out some of the big piles of rubble I had recently made. I had bought some pre made red bricks from Green Stuff on line, which although were listed as 28mm, work fine. I also read a very simple rubble making tip of hitting a red brick with a hammer until you have the correct size scale bits. Plus i had made some grey and black and white rubbly bits out of modelling clay. Mix all these sources together and i ended up with a big bag of rubble. I was very happy how it came out spread around all my ruins and over my ruined car pieces. Certainly adds some atmosphere to the ruined side of town.

Check it out! I have to finish thirty British infantry and some PIATS this week and then we can get the party started!

Rough stone walls and wheat fields

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

I am on a bit of a terrain kick. I had some very cheap doormats from IKEA, which set me back a whopping $10 per mat. I had just cut them up and spread them around, but the colour still annoyed me. They were still too doormat coloured. So they looked like cut up doormats. I bought some different spray cans from Bunnings, one Golden Yellow and one Sandbark, plus I had some Almond left over. Then experimenting with all three got a wheaty shade that I liked. You really have no excuse to create your own inexpensive wheat fields using cheap doormats. Personally I would rather stick a fork in my eye than go to IKEA, but they do have some good sources of modelling materials.

I also made some new rough rural stone walls to line my country lanes. Super cheap source of small stones from Bunnings at around $4-5 per bag. One bag and its enough rocks for hundreds of metres of wall. I just PVA glued rocks in line on top of each other onto MDF bases. It requires a bit of patience as you need to go away and leave the layers of rocks to dry before adding a new layer. A black spray and then increasingly lighter dry brushing with grey and brown is all you need. I flocked the edges with some grassy green and hey presto. Another very cheap addition to your table. Quick and easy and no need to go spending dollars on rough stones walls. They should be rough and rural!

Village Cobbled Streets

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 6 Comments

I made some new cobbled streets for my Normandy village. Using MDF as the base cut into 8cm x approx. 30cm pieces, I coated each one with a layer of modelling clay. Getting this as flat as possible was a mission, I think a regular rolling pin is the best idea. Then I used an excellent new purchase from Green Stuff World

This is a heavy plastic rolling pin with a cobbled texture on the outside. So all you do is roll it firmly along the modelling clay surface and it leaves a cool imprint of a cobbled street. It was so quick and easy compared to my previous method of individually carving cobblestones with my engraving tool. The pattern comes out very nicely as you can see from the detail in my photos. These rolling pins are not expensive, and I also picked up one for brickwork, which I will use on my next houses.

I wanted to add some bomb damage craters too, mainly to cover up areas where the cobbles were not so great. Circles of modelling clay glued on did the job here. Then I would dig out the hole in the road and cover it all with some fine sand and dirt. Undercoat and plenty of grey paint, plus some drybrush highlights and lots of dirty weathering powders finished it all off!

Check out the Puma armoured car cautiously picking his way through the destruction.

 

Revell Sturmgeshutz IV in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 7 Comments

OK so this kit usually gets an absolute pounding on line whenever I read a review of it. I built it and quite enjoyed building it. It comes out as quite a nice wargaming model. The only really strange thing about it is the massive muzzle brake. It looks like a person with a really massive nose. So a bit weird. Some people criticize the lack of detail on the tracks, but these link and length tracks went together really well. The side armour is quite thick, but nothing that really upset me, and if you were really picky you could switch them for some other ones.

All the hatches you can leave open for crew. So I will be adding some AB figures crew for this guy when I get the time. Here are some photos with all my other Stugs too. I think that will be enough Stugs for my Germans now. Such cool little tanks!

 

 

Dragon Models Sd.Kfz.142 Stug III Ausf B in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 2 Comments

Another Stug for my collection from Dragon Models. This time I managed to buy from Dragon Models USA for some super duper bargain price. Keep a look out for their specials as sometimes they do have really good ones. Even with the pricey freight USA to Australia its worth it.

The kit is really simple as Dragon are now releasing these small scale kits with running gear and tracks in single sections. So each side of the tracks include the lower wheels and upper return rollers and fit over the sprocket and drive wheel. This reduces the parts drastically but I still have trouble fitting the tracks and managed to snap off one of the wheels. Lucky I now have a fantastic pin vice and mini drill bits. So a new metal axle was added to the back wheels far stronger than the original plastic one. So fitting the tracks after that was a breeze. I just use some thicker wire superglued into the wheel and then into the lower hull at the right spot. You just need to drill corresponding holes where the wire fits. Anyway a great investment go get a pin vice, I think I paid about $15 for mine. What a life saver!!!

The rest of the kit was very straight forward. The Stug is a simple looking tank and so a simple model. All the hatches are moulded shut on this one and the hull details also mostly moulded on. So a great kit for someone who wants a fast easy build, but if you want a challenge I think Trumpeter make lots of Stug versions that are more interesting.

I tried a green and brown camo scheme just kind of blotchy patchy random. I did go back afterwards and respray with dark yellow to fade out my painting, a technique which seems to work well. A new aerial was added using my washing up brush aerials and a whole heap of stowage to the back to make things a bit more exciting. I also built a Revell Stug at the same time, so he is up next. The last photo shows all my Stugs, one Trumpeter kit and now three from Dragon. They are cool little tanks.

Modelling Waffen SS Figures by Osprey Publishing

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 1 Comment

I picked up this excellent book from the Book Depository for less than $20. I am currently working on stack of figures for my German forces from CP Models and AB Figures and needed some more inspiration for my camouflage uniforms.

Although aimed at the 1/35 scale figure modeler there is still a lot to like for the smaller scale hobbyist like me. And probably you too if you are reading this. The author details three or four different German SS figures and his process of building, converting, adding and finally painting. What he does with converting some of the figures and the detailing them with extras of his own is quite amazing. There are definitely tips and tricks to be learnt for the 1/72 scale figure modeler and painter from this book.

I was most interested in his guides for painting camouflage schemes. He does a great Oak Leaf, Plane Tree, Pea Dot and Italian camo on various 1/35 scale figures. It gives you an excellent guide to what colours to use and what patterns to apply. I will be trying this out on my pile of little guys soon when I get the chance. This book is a nice quick read but definitely worth adding to your library, especially if you are keen to keep perfecting those camo schemes.

I have been up to my neck building more German armour and have not managed to finish anything so posts have been a bit scarce this month! A Stug III and a Stug IV should be at the finishing line soon!

Image result for osprey modelling waffen SS

Armourfast Hanomag Halftracks in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

I finished up a couple more halftracks from Armourfast. These come two in a box and are really reasonably priced. But they do lack detail, especially in the one piece track and wheel area. But if you want some good value vehicles to bulk up the numbers then look no further. They go together in minutes and you can always dress them up with extras and crew.

So that’s what I did with these two. I had a spare Pak 36 gun from somewhere which I added to the top of one vehicle (I think it was a Plastic Soldier Company spare I had). This was teamed up with some Zvezda crew men from their 88mm gun kit. On reflection I would change the position of the crew as it looks a bit like they are doing a loading conga in the back of the half track. For the other vehicle I used my favourite AB figures for the crew, including a machine gunner and a couple of seated guys. Spent way too long doing the camo schemes again but it’s a fun past time.

I tried something new with my camouflage on the half tracks by first painting the green pattern in dark green with a brush, but then giving them a fine respray with my dunkelb spray can. It fades the camo quite nicely. Since I refuse to think about an airbrush this is as far as I will go without breaking my own strict modelling rules of engagement!

 

Ready To Roll German Vehicles in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 4 Comments

I wanted to buy some more alternative German vehicles that I could not find in plastic model kit form anywhere. One of the companies who make a few of these rarer vehicles is the Rapid Fire Ready to Roll Vehicles you can find here Rapid Fire. These were two Hotchkiss German SPGS, one 75mm and one 105mm. Also a halftrack with a Pak 40 75mm gun. Rapid Fire is a ruleset I have, but have not yet tried out yet. Their website is a great source for all sorts of things and worth a look.

Their vehicles come in resin and metal, with the tank barrels usually being in metal. They are pretty inexpensive and have a decent range of British, German and American vehicles. I haven’t seen so many other resin castings to compare them to, but i was pretty happy with the detail. They come on bases already moulded. All i had to do was file down a view bits here and there and then superglue the barrels onto the main chassis. Hey presto the vehicle is finished.

The open top SPGs and halftrack were crying out for some AB figures crew and so I happily obliged with a few guys in camp and black jackets. It took me about two weeks to finish off painting all the camp on the crew men due to the camo pattern i did on all their pants. Then of course, once they are in place in their vehicles you cannot see so much of all my painstaking spotty came schemes……… Plenty of photos below!

MACO sWS Amoured Cab Variant Half-Track in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 4 Comments

Sadly this model kit maker, I think from Germany, has stopped producing these kits anymore. So you’re only chance of picking one up is on eBay or some similar shop somewhere. I was lucky enough to grab four different MACO kits on eBay a while ago. There are really cool half tracks and some excellent anti aircraft vehicles too.

So I was itching to build one of these and picked out the sWS cargo halftrack to begin. My first observation is that it is a massive vehicle. I think a good metre or longer than the 251 series half tracks. The kit parts are amazing, delicate and detailed. The tracks are link and length and are probably the best tracks I have found so far in a small scale kit. I tend to glue the single links together and create a curve slowly before attempting to add them to the sprocket wheel. This worked well with this kit. The tracks are so nice and thin they bend easily to the running gear. Inside the cabin there is also a good amount of detail, and you could add your own driver or crew member if you wanted to. The roof hatch can also be modelled open. I left mine closed and didn’t add any crew. This is a fab little kit. I cannot wait to try out the other ones I have in my stash. Painting was just the usual dunkelb followed by a brown wash over gloss varnish. The tracks were base coated in german dark grey and then rusted with powders. I did quite a lot of sponge chipping and wearing using black, raw umber and red oxide. I may have slightly over done this part so my cargo half track does look like he has transported a lot of cargo. The only decals to add were number plates on the front and back. To finish it all off i added plenty of earth and sand powders.

All I can say if you can find a MACO kit anywhere you should buy at least one just to check them out. I hope maybe someone will pick up production again as they really are top notch.