20mm Normandy Cromwell platoon

 I bought a pair of Airfix Cromwells on the Bring and buy at the last wargames show I attended, WMMS back in March 2020.  I assembled them over the Cristmas holidays and painted them up recently.  One was built with open hatches and a Matchbox figure used as a commander to provide the platoon command.  The Firefly is a diecast from Clive Dudley.

Command Cromwell.

Other Cromwell.

The pair.  Painted in Russian uniform green, washed in Agrax earthshade and dry brushed in Vallejo Iraqi sand.

The troop.  I shall pick up a Challenger at some point to extend the life of the troop beyond Normandy for Arnhem and the battles for Germany.

The Firefly - this chap has decals for 27th Armoured Brigade, so at some point I might change the decals on the Ready to roll version I completed last year and use this one for the brigade and the other to go with the Cromwells.

I still can't stress enough how great the Airfix Cromwell kit is to assemble.  Compared with lots of others on the market, it wins hands down, if nothing else for the really neat way the tracks are assembled.

As ever, thanks for looking.

On the workbench Jan 2021

Happy New Year!  So, with the Civil Powers taking control of the kitchen table (AKA my workbench), painting ground to a halt over Christmas and into the New Year.  So, with little to entertain on tv these days and lots of long dark days and nights, what better than to assemble some of the kits that reside in the stash, some of them for several years, others more recent.

First up, a real quick build from First2Fight, a PzIIC - very much like assembling one of the smaller Zvezda 15mm kits, but this one in 20mm.  Needs a bit of jazzing up with some stowage.

Then an Italeri Wirbelwind.  Not a bad model to assemble and nicely detailed, but the need to plastic weld some of the gun assembly was fiddly, but not significantly so.  However, the tracks were a bit of a sod as individual track links needed to be glued around the stong curvatures of the sprocket wheels and as connectors between straight sections.  What a palaver, especially as they don't attach to each other in any way other than glue.  Still, quite a nice model once it went together.

Another First2fight, this time an Sdkfz 247 recce/command car.  Axles a little spindly, but builds into a nice sturdy little kit.  Think it will need basing to minimise damage to those thin axles though.

Interesting assembly challenge posed by this Fujimi Ferdinand.  The big issue was making the tracks link up as they are old style rubbery plastic needing to be hot welded, but one track was a good centimeter short, while the other was more like an inch short.  Even draping over a radiator to warm up and then stretching didn't significantly close the gap.  In the end, I used bits of the sprue the tracks came on to melt and add length on the underside of the tracks - as I'm going to base them,  it shouldn't be too visible.

Compared to Fujimi, this Airfix Cromwell was a delight to assemble and the tracks were so straightforward it was untrue.  Any model manufacturers would do well to try and emulate this technique for track assembly.  I need to dig through my spare tank commanders to pop a figure in the hatch.

A universal carrier section from Plastic Soldier Company.  These were from the standard set, with the addition of 2" mortar crewmen from the carrier variants set.  This is where, again, I have been somewhat disappointed by PSC, as they appear to have used a slightly different scaling for the variants box compared to the basic carrier sprue.  This makes crew figures from the variants box appear to be giants, compared with the basic crew (I estimate more like 23 or 24mm high, rather than 20mm), which is really noticeable when comparing the driver and gunner figures with variant crew figures.  Natural variation in height might explain this, but for the fact that the helmets of the variant crews look gigantic compared with the basic vehicle crews.  Unfortunately, the scaling difference also means that parts such as the armoured front of the artillery observation carrier are slightly too large to fit the rest of the standard model and need cutting back to fit.

A second carrier section, one to carry a bren team, the middle a 2" mortar from the variant kit, but with standard kit crew, and the third to carry a PIAT team.

A Vickers MMG carrier - again, compare helmet sizes between front seat crew and rear passengers.

Artillery observation variant.

3" mortar carrier.

Wasp flamethrower.

So, not a bad group of vehicles assembled over the holidays, I'm quite pleased with that little lot.  Should keep me out of trouble for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 German Mediterranean infantry

Following Will's suggestion, I painted up some DAK figures in a mix of DAK colours and more conventional field grey uniforms.  These guys would work for Tunisia, Sicily and southern Italy, as well as the Balkans and Adriatic, and maybe even the southern USSR.

Figures are a mix of Esci, Italeri, Revell, Airfix and Caesar.

First up a 6 man platoon command group.

Field grey jacket and tropical shorts.

Tropical jacket, just grey helmet.

Officer in tropical jacket and grey trousers.

Revell SMG in field grey jacket.

Bendy barrel Caesar rifleman.

First section of 5 rifleman (on left) and 3 man MG34 team.  Mix of tropical and temperate uniform and kit.

Rifle section.

MG34 team.

I quite like the look of the figures, so will finish the platoon and probably add a second, which would use up the last of my spare DAK figures.

As ever, thanks for looking and thanks to Will for the suggestion.

20mm DAK assault engineer platoon

Having rediscovered my stash of unpainted plastic DAK infantry, I decided to do a dedicated platoon of assault engineers.  The platoon comprises three rifle sections, three MG34 teams and a command team of 6 including the CO.  There is also an integral flamethrower team of two men.  I also did another 2 man flamethrower team in case I needed an optional extra weapon, plus a two man mine detector team.

Figures are a mix of Airfix, Esci, Italeri, Caesar and Revell (both DAK and Pioneer sets).

One of the flamethrower teams.

Mine clearance team.

The other flamethrower team.

Command team.

CO with pistol.

Senior NCO.

1st rifle section.

1st MG34 team.

2nd rifle section.

2nd MG34 team.

3rd rifle section.

3rd MG34 team.

I also had one of the Airfix Opel Blitz truck and PAK 40 AT gun sets in the stash, so painted this up for the later campaigns in North Africa.  I need to add some decals to the truck.

I bought a seconds EWM kubelwagen at the Vapnartak show last year and crewed it with AB Miniatures DAK driver and passengers - lovely figures that paint up well.  The kubelwagen took a bit of TLC to repair as it was a miscast, but has come up well, albeit with no frills.

I think I've reached the point where I can't usefully use any more DAK infantry, although I still have enough for another couple of platoons.  I do need to add another British platoon for the desert to bring them up to company strength.  Looks like I'm back on to the Ready2roll resin vehicles I bought at Vapnartak this year, although some WW1 German infantry have sneaked on to the painting table.  For the WW1 Germans, I'm thinking of painting these in a uniform suitable for Palestine for late war troops of the German Asia Corps or possibly for German-equipped Turkish troops of the Yildirim Army Group.

Thanks for looking.

20mm DAK infantry platoon

I enjoyed painting the motorcycle Kradschutzen section so much recently, that I decided to add another DAK platoon to the collection.  These guys are a mixture of Esci/Italeri, Airfix, Revell and Caesar and I painted them up using the colours and techniques in Farnsworth's painting guide.  I really like the washed out colours, which give them a dusty, sun-bleached look.

The whole platoon, a 6 man command rifle section and three rifle sections, each of 5 men with a 3 man MG34 team.

Mainly riflemen.

MG34 teams.

Three of the command team, from Revell, Caesar and Esci/Italeri (L-R).

The other 3 command figures from Revell, Escii/Italeri and Airfix (L-R).

Airfix grenadier.

Revell NCO.

Esci/Italeri officer.

Airfix rifleman with fixed bayonett.

Esci/Italeri grenadier.

Caesar SMG trooper in sun helmet.

Esci/Italeri SMG gunner.

Airfix MG34 gunner.

Airfix rifleman.

Another Airfix rifleman.

Esci/Italeri SMG gunner.

I still have enough figures for three more platoons, so not sure what I will do with these.

As ever, thanks for looking.