20mm WW2 German Mediterranean infantry platoon

I finished up the platoon of Mediterranean infantry (DAK figures painted in a mix of tropical and temperate uniforms).  New figures are at the front, while the test figures I posted earlier are at the back.  I like the motley look that the mix of uniforms give to the unit.  Apart from southern European action, I think these would work well as units defending Tunisia, as well as troops fighting in the Caucasus.

The whole platoon, three rifle sections of 5 men and three MG34 teams, plus a 6 man command team at the back.

Assorted close-ups of the figures.

I shall do another of these at some point and I am also scouring my unpainted figures for troops in greatcoats so I can add some figures in earthy brown DAK greatcoats - those early mornings in the desert can be chilly, while the mountains of Tunisia can be bitter.

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.

More 20mm WW2 British Paratroopers (lockdown 8)

I wanted to bring my British paratroopers up to company strength for I Ain't Been Shot Mum, so I've been working on additional infantry plus supports.  I couldn't find any suitable airborne vehicle decals, so these were handpainted.  White stars still need to be added.

Below is a pair of Ready2roll jeep tows, along with Airfiz 75mm howitzers.

A Britannia Miniatures/Grubby radio jeep.

An SHQ paratrooper universal carrier.

A pair of Britannia/Grubby 3" mortar teams.

Britannia/Grubby supply canisters.

British paratrooper platoon, mainly Revel figures picked up at WMMS back in early March (seems like years ago now).

PIAT team from the Italeri AT weapons set.

HQ section, Revel figures.

2" mortar team, firer from the Italeri AT box and assistant an old Airfix figure.

Paratrooper section, mainly Revel with some old Airfix.

HQ section from another platoon made up of mainly ESCI figures with some old Airfix.  Italeri 2" mortar firer from the AT weapon set, ESCI PIAT firer and Airfix assistants both Airfix.

Old Airfix CO and radio operator providing an artillery observer team.

PIAT team.

ESCI figures making up another paratrooper infantry section.  Two more similar to these make up another paratrooper platoon.

Britannia/Grubby medic with wounded and dead paratroopers.

Various sniper figures, Britannia/Grubby on the left, Esci centre and right.

A Britannia/Grubby pathfinder team, marking out the landing zone for the first wave of paratroopers.

That wraps up a company of paratroopers.  I can see a need for a couple more 6pdr AT guns and Vickers MGs and some recce jeeps.  There may even be room for the Britannia/Grubby divisional HQ group at some point.

As ever, thanks for looking.

1/200 Revell Apache

I picked this little model up on an impulse buy for £2 in Tesco's.  It's snap together and took about 2 minutes to build, so would make a great little introduction kit for a youngster.  However, I was a bit disappointed in the fit.  All the parts do snap together, but the tail fins plug into a slot at the rear of the model which is formed by the two halves of the fuselage when clipped together.  Unfortunately, when clipping the tail in, mine pushed the fuselage parts apart, more or less exploding the model, so I had to superglue the fuselage halves together and then glue the plug in place to keep the tail fins in place.  Similarly, the underslung gun pod dropped out and had to be glued in place. Overall simple to put together, but glue was needed for mine.

The final version, not a bad rendition of the helicopter in 1:200.

Model and box it comes in.

Thanks for looking.

Revell 1/144 scale Typhoon

I happened to call in to Hobbycraft on August Bank Holiday and impulse purchased this little kit for the princely sum of £2.  On opening the box, I was at first a little disappointed as the parts seemed really flimsy, there was a lot of flash and the parts were connected to the sprue by thick and chunky feeds.  However, the flash was easy to clean up with a craft knife and the chunky sprue connecters were easily filed down.  I found the kit straightforward but fiddly to put together, largely due to my sausage fingers.  In particular, the rockets are really fiddly and required some adept use of a pair of tweezers.

Once assembled (I used Humbrol polycement), I undercoated in Vallejo light grey primer, then painted the underside in light sea grey and the upper surfaces in medium sea grey with a tiny drop of Prussian blue added.  Reflective green cammo patterns were added and the wheels, prop, exhaust manifolds and cockpit bubble canopy painted in NATO black.  Yellow prop tips were added along with white fins on rockets and reflective green rocket bodies.  The cockpit was then painted in azure blue and white.  I added the decals supplied - again fiddly, but no problems - and used a matt varnish to seal paint and decals.  Finally, a gloss varnish for the canopy.

This should provide some much needed air cover for my FoW British companies.

The model with the box it is supplied in.

Looks OK to me!

Another view.

I then had an experiment with the camera settings to see what I could achieve with depth of field.  This picture was taken in manual mode with aperture priority set to F15, which allowed a 1/15th second exposure time, about the slowest shutter speed for hand held work.  The picture has much better depth of field, but the colours are more washed out than the others above, which I took on full auto macro mode.

I do like the extra depth of field though, this should help with photographing my 6mm/1:300 collections for the future, although I'll have to look at the lighting again.

As ever, thanks for looking.

Modelzone booty

I was sad to hear that Modelzone (a U.K. based high street model shop chain) has gone into administration and is being wound up.  However, "it is an ill wind ...." as they say and I have had the opportunity to scour Modelzone shops in Chester, Swansea and Plymouth for bargains being sold off with some reasonable discounts.

In the end, I finished up with two packs of Airfix German paratroopers (I'm going to paint these up as early war for the Low Countries and Crete).  Also got two packs of Revell WW2 British Infantry (hadn't realised these are the original Matchbox figures rereleased by Revell - not sure what I'm going to do with these yet).  Also picked up two boxes of Italeri 100 years war English knights and foot soldiers, enough for a handfull of units).  Then I also picked up a die-cast Challenger tank and an Airfix JSIII tank - the Challenger can support my modern British infantry, while I thought the JSIII tank would make a useful armour addition to an Andreivia militia unit, having been liberated from a museum.  Finally, I got a Modelzone diecast Stuka divebomber to provide some close air support for the paratroopers.

All in all, not a bad haul at a greatly discounted price, and some nice little projects to keep me going through the autumn and winter.  Unfortunately no ACW figures in the sales - these seem to have fallen off the radar at the moment.  Still very sorry to see Modelzone go under as it was my main local source for Woodland Scenics products - looks like it will have to be mail order from now on.  I wish all Modelzone employees good luck in finding new jobs, let's hope someone comes along to fill the vacuum left by the chains demise.

Thanks for looking!