More 20mm WW2 Crusaders

 Lots of things stacked up on the painting table.  Unfortunately, real work and the loss of my painting mojo through getting bogged down in trying to shift a load of WW1 German infantry has resulted in a bit of a hiatus on the painting front.  Gradually building back up again, so got these three Crusaders finished - they only needed decals and matt varnish, so were relatively quick to wrap up.

I went for these in plain stone grey washed in Agrax Earthshade.  All are Armorfast Crusader II kits with a PSC commander.

The command tank.  Hatches needed to be cut with a craft knife to open them up.  Stowage is from various Sgts Mess packs.

Nice propaganda pic of the troop.  Should have Jerry quaking in his boots.

Lots more on the go, with NW Europe Shermans and various German panzergrenadier platoons.

As ever, thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 Crusaders and tank crew

I have had several assembled Armorfast Crusader II tanks in the ready to paint stash for some time, so decided to give them some TLC and get them ready for the tabletop.  For the commanders vehicle, I had to score along the hatch closure with a craft knife to separate the two halves of the hatch and I used an old PSC commander, probably from a Sherman kit.

They are painted in a relatively late desert scheme of Iraqi sand with black-grey wavy hull and turret  bases, washed in Agrax Earthshade and dry-brushed Iraqi sand.  Decals are Skytrex and I-94.

Command vehicle - commander sensibly keeping low in the turret.

And a view of the rear deck.

The troop (squadron for Rapid-Fire).

Then I worked up a few figures from the Orion set British WW2 tank crew in summer dress.  First up a resupply base, with a trooper passing a shell, another opening a 6pdr ammo case and a third trooper carrying a jerrycan of fuel.

British tank crew are depicted in light shirt and shorts, so I went with Iraqi sand washed with Agrax Earthshade, belts and holsters in khaki, desert boots in black.

Dismounted tank crew, one sensibly running for his life, the other two trading shots, probably not a good idea, but nice figures.

So, I still have another three Crusaders to paint up, plus some Valentines.  I think the next batch of Crusaders will need lots of stowage.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 German supply carts, Feldgendarmerie and 75mm IG (lockdown 9)

Languishing at the bottom of the stash for the last couple of years has been a pair of Britannia WW2 German supply wagons.  So, in the spirit of reducing the lead stash, I decided to take out one of it's foundations and get these wagons on the table.

First up, a battalion supply wagon.  Straightforward to assemble, once I'd worked out how it went together.  Quite nice and clean casting, except for the spare wheel hanging from the back of the cart, which took sorting out with some paste.

Spare wheel came up ok once I'd filled the gaps in the spokes.

Quite nice, at some point it would be good to add some chains and swingletrees to the back of the horses to attach to the cart, along with a set of reins.

This is the Britannia platoon supply wagon.  Again, quite a nice casting, except for a bubble in the folded tarp behind the carter.

I also had a Zvezda 75mm infantry gun in the same stash, so assembled it and painted it up as additional support for my early war German force.

Finally, for now, I was given a bunch of painted WW2 Russian infantry by Will at the club, along with some German pioneers and this little group of unpainted Armorfast Feldgendarmerie and motor cycle.  I did these in the dark brown raincoat, to differentiate them from the Britannia figures I posted on earlier.

The motorcycle is a nice model, perhaps with too long a wheelbase, but looks the part.

Not a particularly glamorous assortment of figures, but the supply carts will come in useful in replenishing my late war armour and the Feldgendarmerie in stiffening up the will to resist.

Thanks for looking.

20mm US M10

I picked up this old Armourfast kit from a club member and gave it a little freshen up.  Being an Armourfast kit, there were no crew and the fighting compartment lacked any detail of the gun breach.  I crafted a breach from some leftover sprue and converted three crew members from the Hat WW2 US tank riders set, cutting away their weapons and trying to leave them open handed.

I only added a couple of Allied stars, one air recognition on the turret top and one on the rear of the vehicle.  I figured these were meant to fire from ambush/concealed positions, so the last thing the crews would want would be big white stars on the front or side armour.

I think the rear deck needs some stowage for that lived-in look, so I need to dig out some tarps, boxes, haversacks and fuel cans to make it more homely.

The Hat crew look the part.  The soft plastic of the Hat figures made them ideal to carve and cut, with care, and they fit well into the compartment.

This photo shows the rudimentary breach that I added - it won't pass detailed examination but is fine on the tabletop.

I've got quite a few more US vehicles ready to go, so will hopefully be adding some new photographs soon, although I have several projects on the go, so much depends which I manage to make progress on first.


Thanks for looking.