Normandy

Esci Pz.Kpfw.V Panther in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

One more Panther! This will be it. I now have seven Panthers which is enough for any battle. Four from PSC, Zvezda, Dragon and now a vintage Esci kit.

I have been having a lot of fun buying up these old Esci kits on eBay. They really hold up well even after all these years. I think I like the smell of old cardboard and instructions with brown edges. This one had an illustration of using a lit cigarette to help melt a bit of sprue for an aerial. Fantastic suggestion back when cigarettes were good for you.

In comparison the other Panthers I have built in this scale, it measures up well. It is a nice chunky model, like the Plastic Soldier Company ones, only with much better detail. I also prefer it to the Dragon Panther which is too refined and looks a bit boring. So it was a winner all round. I did not use the crewman as he was rubbish, and may pop a nice AB figures German officer in the hatch. I was very happy with the end result, but the building of this model kit was definitely a challenge. Two words. Vinyl tracks. I am sort of seeing them as a positive now, like a badge of courage, I have to conquer the shitty vinyl tracks. In this case I managed to snap the front sprockets, but trusty drill and wire to the rescue I fixed them up better than ever. Probably two gallons of super glue were used in the making of this cat.

A very weird design issue with this kit was the lack of hull above the running gear. Esci have left off a whole area where you can just see into the hull of the tank. Very odd. So that needed fixing with some thin plastic card. The tow cables were tricky to fit and needed more super glue and patience. I made an aerial out of washing up brush as usual, rather than taking up smoking again and stretching sprue with my Benson and Hedges.

I gave up modelling when I started smoking in the 1980’s, but then luckily modelling has been the addictive habit I have taken up again in the 2010’s. Gave up smoking a long time ago. Probably a good swap from a health perspective.

I used a red brown base followed by dark sand and three colour camo. I made sure I under cooked the chipping and went easy on the dust and dirt. Learning from previous over cooking. The original decals were brown and crispy like barbequed pork so I used some nice new ones. Happy Easter everyone!

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Dragon Sd.Kfz. 171 Panther Ausf.D Late Production

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 11 Comments

Another big German tank finished. This time a Panther. So far my Panther brigades are made up of Plastic Soldier Company vehicles and one from Zvezda. Dragon kits are always a special treat, they are great to put together. I always keep one eye on the Dragon USA web site as they often have special deals with kits going as cheap as USD 8-10. That is a great saving over anywhere else. It is very rare that Dragon kits come up on eBay for resale, and if they do they are quite often priced higher than buying from the source. So where is the value in that?

The moulding and detail on this kit is of the usual high standard I would expect from Dragon kits. The running gear is very clever as it is moulded in rows making sure each level of wheels is straight. It also saves on time but does not reduce the realism. The tracks are the nice soft type that fit very easily and can be glued to produce sag on the top of the wheels. Oh what a relief after fighting for days with a face full of superglue wrestling with those old Esci tracks! The detail is very delicate and a different level to the Plastic Soldier Company models. The only addition I made was the plastic aerial on the back. The side skirts are optional and are nice and thin. In hindsight I wish I had made some damage to one of them like on the box art. Next time.

My paint job started out well. A nice covering of sandy dunkelb, followed by camo green and red brown patches with my brush. Then I over sprayed with my Tamiya dark yellow to fade everything out. Unfortunately I am still experimenting with my weathering. So I think this time I overdid it with the chipping and lost some of the impact. As always its a learning experience, so next time I will take it easy with my sponge. I used decals supplied with the kit from the two options you get.

This is a great kit. Much better than some of Dragon’s other “fast build” type offerings I have built. I think to hide some of my average painting I will add some extra foliage branches and stuff like that. In case you are wondering I had to take photos on a bit of white paper as my table is all packed away for renovations. I think I need a stronger light source for my photos! Next I have a vintage Esci Panther, oh no back to the horrible tracks of death……….

AB Figures British Infantry PIAT Teams

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 4 Comments

I am continuing to finish my British Company, it’s taking a while, but I am slowly getting there. I have another two squads half finished and another one primed. Also a bunch of commanders, HMGs and observers. My painting speed is so slow I may be done by Christmas. These guys are the anti tank PIAT teams from AB Figures. They are attached at platoon level so I needed three of them. They only come in one pose from AB so I have done three teams the same. They will rarely appear together so I was not too concerned. Maybe I will boost their numbers with an alternative supplier to have more options of figures. As always I love AB figures and they are great fun to paint up. MDF bases and a few tufties and we are ready to stalk some panzers……..

On another note we are having renovations done soon so my blogging time may be severely limited. It will slow down my painting even more……….erghhhhhh

Hasegawa M3 Stuart Light Tank

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

Boxart M3 Stuart Mk.I 31103 Hasegawa

 

Another great little kit from Hasegawa in Japan. They are pretty old kits I think but Hasegawa models are always really fun to put together. I have yet to find one that I did not enjoy. I have two later Stuarts from S-Model almost finished to make up a trio of light tanks. So even though I think this older model was mainly used by US forces I have added him into by British just because I felt like it and found him on eBay for a bargain price from someone.

The kit comes in the usual grey softish plastic and is a nice easy build. Usual average rubber type tracks, once they are painted and based they are decent enough. I switched out the awful crew man for an excellent AB figure. You can model hatches open so that’s a good thing. I also added an aerial I think in the right spot, well it looks like a base for an antenna. The turret MG I changed for a much better one from a Trumpeter kit spare, and I added some Cullen hedgerow cutters onto the front as they fitted so nicely. I am not sure cutters were ever placed on the front of these tanks but it looks to me as if they should have been.

A nice olive drab paint job, British decals and some dirt and dust finishes him off ready for a patrol in the bocage. Although armed with a pop gun and paper thin armour not sure what use he is going to be if things get hot……..

“Objective Falaise” by George Bernage

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falaise

Another excellent publication from my friends at Pen and Sword. I have read a couple of books before by Mr Bernage and they are always very interesting.

“Objective Falaise” is jam packed with maps, photos and first hand stories from a couple of Allied offensives after the Normandy invasion. They revolve around the attempt by the Allies to surround the Germans near Caen in the Falaise Pocket. As an avid wargamer the book gives plenty of scope to adapt many of the stories and situations into a scenario for the table top. For someone interested in World War Two military history its also a very well written and invaluable resource for an important post D-Day confrontation.

The maps and photos are particularly good, some of them copies of original combat maps, from larger scale maps of the terrain down to more small scale maps with individual tanks marked. The photos also show some “then and now” type comparisons. Also very cool photos of actual wrecks in situ and even bits of tanks that a farmer salvaged and kept on his farm.

My favourite part of the book is the story behind the demise of the famous Tiger Tank commander Michael Wittman. It gives a full run down of his last fight and images and maps of how the situation unfolded. Excellent stuff. This part will definitely be used by me in a table top scenario some time in the future.

My only real criticism, which is common for this kind of book, is the lack of one main map with a step by step chronological guide that links all the text and stories together. Without this type of easy to follow reference I did get a bit lost in the story and how each day progressed. Too many small maps that were hard to read in relation to the overall tactics and movement. So I did get a bit lost from a geographic perspective. Overall its a good read and very useful and interesting for historians and wargamers alike.

 

 

 

 

Stonewall Figures Combat Miniatures WW2 British Infantry 20mm

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 3 Comments

Continuing on with painting up my British Infantry company for battles in Normandy here are a group of eighteen figures I recently finished. They were part of an amazing eBay purchase I made from a lady in the UK which had included a bunch of AB figures plus some unidentified British soldiers. After hunting around on the net for a while I figured out that they were from Stonewall Figures Combat Miniatures range in 20mm.

Stonewall Figures – British

They are much chunkier than AB and CP models and have a little less detail. While the detail is not as refined they are still really nice figures. The faces are full of personality and the poses are all really natural. The detail is very clear which makes these guys very easy to paint, and I had a blast painting this group. There are some really different poses, including squaddies carrying stuff, one with a benson and hedges stuffed in his gob, and another bloke waving his hands around shouting “Cor blimey guvnor!” I have plenty of rifles plus some SMGs and officers.

They mix in very well with all my other metal figures from AB, CP and SHQ. I think in the remaining eBay stash i have some heavy weapons and even a stretcher bearing group. Also a while stack of German Panzergrenadiers who are in the painting queue with a million others. Anyway if you need some extra squaddies to bulk up your forces I would definitely check them out. Here they are in one big group and then smaller bunch of 4 -5 men.

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!