Kit Build/Review: 1/72 Roden SdKfz 234/4, pt. I.

Despite the Coronavirus lockdown, I’ve hardly done any mini-military stuff for ages. 

I thought being forced to stay home would mean a massive bonanza of model making and figure painting. But no, instead I’ve been either resting, reading, working (from home) or doing household stuff, from the quotidian chores, to building a shed and a greenhouse. 

And as a result, I’ve not had the time or energy to model or paint. I even had a bit of a break from the reading. But now I’m making a conscious effort to get back in the saddle. And in that vein, here’s my first 1/72 kit build and review since, well... poss before Xmas!?

The latest kit to go on the production line is this lovely Roden 1/72 SdKfz 234/4. I do love Roden’s box art! Very colourful and evocative. David Willey of Tank Museum curatorial fame does a great Tank Chat on the German 8-rad’ line of AFVs. I include a link to it here, for reference/interest. 

I started the build out of sequence, with the Pak-40 type gun. It’s a very detailed little sub-construction. Very fiddly and intricate, but great. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the building of the gun. So construction pics start with the running-gear.

The somewhat open cab design of this vehicle also required that I paint the interior. Willey notes in his chat how the Bovington example is painted incorrectly, the vehicle itself only came into series production in the later part of the war, the dunkelgelb as opposed to dunkelgrau era! The interior is also similarly incorrect. I decided to give mine an elfenbein interior, such as was sported by German tanks.

After I’d built the gun, I went back to the ‘proper order of things’, which meant running-gear. And boy is the Roden’s 234 style eight-wheeler assembly complex and fiddly! I think it’s designed such that, in theory, the wheels can be aligned at differing angles, and even, possibly, rotate! But in reality this doesn’t work. Or at least it didn’t for me. This is my second Roden 234. My first was a Puma variant (see the build of that here). And it was the same story, re the wheels. 

My version of an elfenbein interior, blocked in.

Washes and weathering, early stages.

Washes and weathering, pretty much done.

Painting and weathering the interior, and the gun, which I decided to attach (another out of sequence improvisation of my own choosing) was kind of fun, and yet also kind of frustrating. I’ve learned that I’m really bad at the ‘pin-wash’/panel line type stuff.

Anyway, I did the best I could, and after a while, I achieved a result I decided was good enough. I was thinking of putting driver figures into the fore and aft driving seats. But I haven’t. I definitely will on the next 234 with a similarly open fighting compartment. 

Basically finished, assembly wise.

I'll prob' add a few bits of extra stowage. But not much.

At the time of posting, this 234/4 variant is now basically built. But before I paint the exterior, some gaps need filling. And I’ll probably add a little detailing, such as stowage. 

I noticed in many wartime images online that there appear to be rods - barrel-cleaning stuff, perhaps? - on the left side of the vehicle, that are not a feature included in this kit. They should be a fun and easy scratch-build addition!

Part two will be painting and decals. To follow soon, I hope!

FOR SALE: Battle of Waterloo, Revell 1/72 200th Anniversary Set

Well, this a first for me... I'm attempting to sell something via my blog, in addition to other more normal channels.

What I'm selling is a Revell Battle of Waterloo, 1/72 200th Anniversary Set.

Contents: Soft plastics - British Dragoons (complete), Prussian Infantry (Complete), French Guard Grenadiers (several missing). 

Condition: All miniatures are partially under-coated, and the paint is flaking off. 

I was given these in exactly the condition they are in now, by a model making pal. He gave up on them due to failing eyesight. I, on the other hand, have large Nap' white-metal armies in 6mm and 10mm that need painting and basing, so I don't want the distraction of dealing with these. 

I'm hoping any collectors of 20mm Nap' plastics, who might stumble across this post, may perhaps want them? £5 plus postage, or buyer collects.

My apologies for the crappy pics. I had to harvest them from my Gumtree listing for the set, under limited time constraints. I can be reached via this blog. I'd prefer that the buyer collected. But I will post within the UK, if the buyer pays postage.

15mm Napoleonics: AB Napoleon & Staff, pt. III

Boney and Staff, AB Miniatures.

Some years ago I decided that I'd treat myself to certain things by Anthony Barton, from his 15/18mm Napoleonic AB range. As a kid I'd had some of his Battle Honours figures, and loved them.  Even though I'm building my major forces in smaller scales - 6mm and 10mm - I wanted some command bases, and perhaps even some display bases, of 15mm.

In part this is something I've always thought would be good. But I think I might also have been influenced by having seen such ideas manifested in reality. Doesn't Callan fight wargames with Schneider in the Callan feature film A Magnum for Schneider using Peter Gilder's armies which have larger scale commander figures?

Slightly closer view...

In the end I might wind up with smaller 15mm armies anyway, as a by-product, which'd be good. But at present all I have is a rather motley selection: Napoleon and sundry staff; a load of Guard Lancers (my putative 'display' unit or units); and some non-AB oddments (one mini-battalion each of French and English Peninsular Naps by AW Miniatures). I also have a similarly ragbag assortment of 25/28mm stuff: Boney and staff (again!); a whole load of the Perry's Retreat from Russia series, and sundry random boxes of 28mm Nap plastics, mostly unassembled, never mind painted!

... after basic Milliput basing.

Having been mega-sidetracked now for several years by building 1/72 (mostly German) WWII stuff, and constant reading,  I've been determined to get back into painting minis. I'm getting there in a roundabout way. First I built and painted some Airfix 54mm Nap plastic figs, and then I started painting some 20mm WWII vehicles and figures. But, dang it, I was still avoiding the 6/10mm stuff!

I figured maybe if I finished the Boney and Staff 15mm stuff, all of which was already started, this might help edge me back towards my original goals? All of this has been very slow in happening. But today I finally got to the stage where I felt happy enough to start basing these command group figures. The painting part is, I'd guess, about 90% done.

Bases painted with Vallejo flat earth.

Pictured above is how they're all looking at close of play today: Milliput 'soil' on MDF bases, somewhat texturised, painted in Vallejo 'flat earth'. Tomorrow I'll detail the soil a bit with washes and dry brushing. Then I'll give the whole lot a dull-coat lacquering, before doing some final washes and highlights (on the figures/horses). Then it'll be time for final earth and grass basing, a last layer of lacquering, and they should be done.

Kit Build/Review: 1/72 Forces of Valor King Tiger

I bought this King Tiger kit, by Forces of Valor [sic*], a new brand to me, from the Ely model shop. Partly on account of it being quite cheap, and partly 'cause I want to build a King Tiger and paint it up in the unusual (one known/documented example, I believe?) octopus camo' scheme.

But I also wanted to have it in zimmerit, which the octopus King Tiger isn't. But hell, this is my model, and historical accuracy or authenticity isn't the be all and all. So, goddamnit, I'm going to have a bit of fun with some historical licence, and combine the two things I love in one King Tiger.

All the main bits zimmerit-ed.

The zimm' took bloomin' ages! We have a guest round, and we had a barbecue dinner out in the garden yesterday evening. With all that going on and the intense heat, even though I started on it about 3pm, I didn't finish till about 1.30 am this morning! 

I do my zimmerit using white 'superfine' Milliput, which I spread as thinly as I can. In some places I try to work around detail, preserving the raised profiles of other details if poss'. In other locales - such as the sides of the hull in this instance - I'll remove surface details (tools and cable in this case). 

Once the surfaces are covered in as thin a layer of Milliput as I can manage, I use a very small flathead screwdriver to form every single indentation of the zimmerit individually. It takes aeons, but I like the irregularity. I almost bought some PSC Panthers with zimmerit already on 'em, at the recent Other Partizan, but didn't because; 1) they are to pricey, 2) the zimmerit is just to uniform/regular.

Rubber band tracks, plus... 

... other bits? The commander and two'grommets'.

The running gear sprue.

Running gear assembly is crisp and easy.

Removing some zimmerit to accommodate drive wheel assembly.

The running gear in this kit is very nicely designed and manufactured, being clean and crisp and going together easily and in good solid alignment. One excellent little detail is the way the two drive wheel mounting parts have different sized male/female gubbins. The tracks are some kind of stuff rubber/vinyl typed deal. A bugger to glue, alas. I used superglue, which got me there eventually.

Something I'd never seen before: a vinyl/rubber commander figure, and two grommets, or big fat washers. The latter are part of the turret/gun mount assembly. Without them the gun will just flop and flap around. Being on a different sprue, in a different material, there's a chance you might overlook them.. er, well... I did!

Cleverly designed, with different male/female bits.

Thar she blows!

If I hadn't opted to do my DIY zimm', this'd've been a pretty quick and easy build. With the zimm' and one or two balls-ups, it's wound up being a bit of a marathon. But it's a nice model, and I'd heartily recommend it as a base-kit, for wargamers in particular. Is solid, looks great, and is fun to build.

With the kit more or less completely assembled, you can see where I've removed parts of the mudguards. With just a small missing segment near the front on the  left, and a larger central section on the right. I also added some battle damage, in the form of two shell penetrations, and some dings on the left 'fender'.

King Tiger, sho' has a big butt!

Here's the larger gap on the right side.

Still need to zimmy up the machine gun bulge.

At this point I added one or two tools, to replace those I'd removed before adding zimmerit to the hull. I chose not to use all the spare track on the turret, as I didn't want to cover up all the zimm', or for that matter, the camo'  (when I get round to it). And then it was undercoat time. I noted only afterwards that I still need to zimm the mg!

Basic build and undercoat done.

Note added tools.

What a handsome beast!

Lean? Hmmm... not sure. Mean? Most definitely.

A nice ground level view.

Next step? Paint the beast.

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* American spelling, I'm guessing. But then they have '501st SS Schwere Paner Abteilung'! So maybe it is just a typo?

Misc: More Basing - 1/72 SS Cavalry

I bought these aeons ago, and painted them not long after. They've been sitting around gathering dust for ages ever since. Having just based the big Nappies, I felt in the right mood to finish these off. I'm not fussing over them either, just doing a basic functional job, to get them ready for tabletop use.

Show Report: Partizan, 2019.

I went to this year's Partizan with my pal Paul. As usual books are a primary draw. This year I knew I didn't really want to buy any model kits, as I've already accumulated so many. Nor any (or perhaps many is better?) wargames figures, as I have my fairly vast Napoleonic armies already. They just need painting and basing. Just!? Such a small word, such a large task...

I did think about buying scenery and basing stuff. But I still don't know how I'll be going about all that. So nothing doing there either. Most of the traders are in larger scales than those I'm currently into, and there weren't as many selling WWII 20mm stuff as there sometimes are. But it was in this latter category that I did wind up making a few small purchases.

One thing I ought to note is that I didn't take any means of photographing anything, so I can't, as I normally would, illustrate this with the eye-candy of the better looking games (compare this with my previous visit/report, to Partizan, 2017). As ever, it was fun to wander around marvelling at all the creativity and work people have put into some pretty stunning tables. That said, I wasn't quite as blown away as I have been on some other occasions. Indeed, I'd say - and no offence intended - that this year most of the games were simply at the better end of 'run of the mill'.

WWII German Panzer crew purchases.

I'm a bit old fashioned as well, when it comes to what interests me most, which is WWII (quite well represented, mostly in larger scales), and Napoleonics (less well represented than I'd like). My favourite Napoleonics game, in terms of beautiful figures and well realised scenery, depicted action in my least favourite of Napoleonic theatres, in what appeared to be North Africa, so probably Egypt (I didn't check what the battle was; could've been the 'Holy Land'!?).

Perhaps one of the best looking games was a WWI trench warfare jobbie. That looked amazing. There was a pretty steaming verdant tropical game as well. I'm less keen on the myriad obscurer eras, and even less so the fantasy or sci-fi stuff, including steampunk, which seems to merge those two previously separate genres. I can admire the creativity and imagination involved, but it just doesn't connect to the 'real history' buzz that is possibly the chief dynamo of my interest in all things mini-military.

Starting the clean-up prep at home, inc. removing bases from Orions.

In the end I did buy a few 20mm figures, pictured above, as I need crews for various vehicles. The Caesar German Panzer crews I bought (dark grey) are wearing winter gear, but many of them might well pass in other theatres/climates, once painted. They're made from a nice harder plastic, very much like that used for a set of Preiser figures I acquired some while ago. The Orions (in an unusual brick red!) - which I first saw as expensive resin products - are made from that horrible soft bendy plastic that so many 1/72 figures are available as. Hard to clean up, and tricky to paint.

What I love about the Caesar and Orion figures is the realism of pose and uniform rendering. Many of the standard 'for kids' style plastic toy soldiers I grew up wth, from makers like Airfix and Revell, etc, favoured 'action' poses that are both unrealistic in themselves, and then doubly so in how they are constrained by the moulding processes. These more recent makers seem to take the trouble to create figures in naturalistic poses such as you see in wartime photographs, making them infinitely better and more usable.

Some of Adler's 20mm Jeep crew, from Adler's own publicity images.

Also very well posed and sculpted, I bought my first Adler 20mm WWII figures; German tankers and US Jeep drivers/passengers. I'm looking forward to painting all of these figures and populating some of my vehicles. The Adler German tankers are actually DAK. But I'll be using them for Europe, from Italy and Russia, where their apparel should fit anyway, to the Western Front, where I'll be using a little licence.

Chausseurs a Cheval of the Guard, by Rousselot.

Book wise, I bought a large and very nice hardback called Napoleon's Elite Cavalry, which celebrates the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, 1804-1815, as depicted in the paintings of Lucien Rousselot, with an accompanying text in English by Edward Ryan. I also got Military Uniforms in Colour, an old Blandford title written and illustrated by Preben Kannik, which is a book I used to get out of my village library as a kid. A real hit of nostalgia!

Ah, the memories this evokes!

Although I'm not currently reading as much as I once was on the subject, I'm still deeply into the Russia 1812 campaign, and hoping to start making inroads into painting my mountains of 6mm and 10mm figures for these campaigns. And in relation to this I still seek out books on the subject. On this occasion I bought With Napoleon In Russia, 1812, by Lt. Vossler, a Würtemberger. (I have so many books on Russia 1812 I'm a little worried I might already have it!)

As mentioned above, usually I'd have my iPhone or iPad on me, and take a bunch of pics. But this time I had neither, as both are suffering with recharging issues. On the one hand I wasn't as impressed with the games this year as in some previous years, but on the other, a show report with no pictures of the many games seems like a failure on my part! Never mind. I enjoyed the show and came home with some fab swag.

Chausseurs a Cheval of the Guard...

the kind of stuff that got me so excited about this era...

I mean, come on... talk about martial splendour epitomised!

Perusing the Rousselot paintings once home in the evening - and I only managed the Chausseurs a Cheval before exhaustion did for me - I realised that this purchase alone made the whole trip worthwhile!

1/72: Offensive Miniatures, WWII German cyclists, Part 1

An image from the Offensive Miniatures website.

At long last... having had to recently rearrange our lounge, for the umpteenth time, I'm getting back into making and painting my minis! This was why I recently built myself a paint rack, to make space for actually moving my several wargaming projects forward. 

Things kind of stalled. At least on the making and painting fronts. For ages! My first project now is to assemble and paint, and, incidentally, I guess, review my only figure purchase from my most recent Salute. And that is this set of WWII German cyclists, by Offensive Miniatures.

The painted examples looked superb, on the Offensive Miniatures stand, at Salute. I also like a lot of the Defenders of The Reich set. I was rather shocked at the very steep price. I paid £22, making these eight 20mm figures, and their gear, £2.75 each. That is, in my view, way too expensive. But I threw caution to the wind, as they were my only figure purchase of the show.

All eight assembled. [1]

Before I move on to documenting painting, I'll do a quick review if the figures themselves. Obviously I like them. In fact I love them. So how come they don't get a higher rating? Well, for one thing, they're overpriced, in my view (mind you, so are most metal figs these days). And secondly, a number of parts on my castings are less than perfectly cast. I note that even on the company website some of the bike frames haven't cast entirely successfully. And most noticeable of all, my pointing man figure is sans pointing finger! 

Also, as nice as these are, there are some fitting/assembly and pose issues. Getting my riders onto their bikes, and then adding the handlebars so they fitted both onto the bikes and into the riders hands, was pretty tricky and time consuming. And it involved bending stuff. Mostly handlebars, but even bikes and sometimes even hands/arms. I also filed a few hands out, and drilled some of the handlebar mounting holes, to try and get stuff seated and aligned better.

Compare how OM pose this particular figure...

Finding a decent superglue that actually works for this sort of glue up has also been a pain. In the end I'm using a rather pricey Gorilla brand gel type.

In terms of the poses, they are mostly very nice. Offensive figures are a bit on the stocky side. But then so are most 20mm white metal minis. The two open mouthed figures are my least favourite, in terms of looking natural and realistic. Six of the figures are riding their bikes, whilst one stands to the side of his, and another lies prone, on one elbow, field glasses in his right hand. It's nice that each bike is festooned with a different array of clobber, from blankets and boxes to sundry weapons and other gear.

with how I've opted to do it. [2]

I opted to pose my standing guy differently to how they show him on the OM website. They have him holding the bike lengthwise, by one handlebar and the seat. I decided I wanted mine as if 'pushing off', before mounting the bike. So he's holding the handlebars with both hands - which involved angling the front wheel, etc. (as did the bike laying on the floor for the recce fig) - which involved much jiggery-pokery!

Today I undercoated them in grey, and started blocking in base colours.

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NOTES:

[1] I'll probably only use a few of the many panzerfaust supplied with these guys. The rest will go in the spares box, for use elsewhere.

[2] I prefer the drama of my solution!