French Sea-Wolves (Part III of III)

Rigging, sails and masts torn away the British 100 gunner is hard to move, her only choice is really plough on or face a bow or stern rake (see below):

The lead French ship is at least suffering too (see below):

However she presses on impressively fire another telling broadside (see below):

Covering the second French "Sea-Wolf" to close to the vulnerable stern side of the British ship. Not quite there for a stern rake yet, but yet more rigging hits (see below):

There is still plenty of fight left in the British ship, but with her decreasing amount sail she is slowly becoming a fortified island rather than a ship of the line (see below):

Here we called a close to proceedings. The consensus being that unless British "help" turned up the 100 gunner was a lost cause. She may have taken a Frenchman with her but it seemed almost just a "matter of time".

Two French "ships of the line" versus one British "ship of the line" had swung the odds too much in favour of the French. What was also interesting is that the jump between "third rate" to "second or first rate" ships seems to be less of an increase in killing power than we expected. "Third rates" can stand in line of battle and trade it with their bigger cousins. Especially RN "third rates"!

Coming soon to the "wet wargaming table": Three French versus Two British!

GHQ Panzer IV H's in Battalion Strength

Here we come:

Walking down the street:

Get the funniest looks:

From everyone we meet:

Hey, hey we're the Mark IV's: 

People say we 'panzer' around:

But we're too busy upgrading:

To let incoming get us down ...

OK I'll get my coat but first before I go I should apologize to any dyed in the wool Monkees fan who happens on by (in my defense I too was a childhood follower, along with the Banana Splits). But here you have the above, a heavily reinforced (sixteen as opposed to the normal eleven Pz Mk IV H's) German 1944 Mk IV H Panzer Battalion. I can put my brush down now, an exhausted but happy man. Bonus points to anyone who spotted the GHQ Hanomag 251/1 but Heroics and Ros AA Mobelwagon :)

Note: Remember if you click an image you get a film strip but you can zoom in further by once you are in the filmstrip "right click" and select "view image" to see an even closer shot of each photo :)

1/300 Heroics and Ros versus 1/285 GHQ: One for Mojo

Left Hand Side 1/285 GHQ Pz IV H (circa 1944-45) while the contender on the Right Hand Side is a Heroics and Ros 1/300 Pz IV F2 (circa 1942-1944). Basing and painting techniques pretty much identical, although I was more refined by the time I painted the GHQ model. For the GHQ model I was more consistent in promoting a prominent 'vertical stripe' in the camouflage scheme.

Front-On:

Footnote to the above: Well blow-me after posting the pictures and looking at the GHQ model, in camera close-up (you cannot tell from looking at them with the Mark I eye-ball) is it my imagination or does the GHQ model have a slight "bent barrel"?

Side-On:

From the Rear:

Front-On again:

Another Side-On angle:

Summary:
The GHQ model is a quality beast (and noticeably bigger), but the Heroics and Ros model does the trick on the table-top for a lot less buck. I do fear for the long term survival rate of the GHQ barrels though in the typical club "roughly handled scenario", moving them and putting them away. It is a very nice feeling finishing a GHQ battalion though. I think I can say I have 'modeled' in 1/285 now  :)

( Footnote: Or do I have to put the "Crosses On" in order to say that?)

Labelling the kit?

A perverse post perhaps but I am betwixt and between experimentation. You see I left a deliberate space at the back of each stand in the Heroics & Ross "German 1944 Panzer IV Battalion" to fit in labeling information. Now this is a good trick learned from more experienced friends as you can see at a glance what the stands represent. These same friends choose to field a historically named  "Division" and follow its Order of Battle and use a printed labeling system, printed from MS Word and Excel looking very neat and professional. While waiting for a copy of said templates to arrive I got impatient and popped into my local Hobbycraft and purchased a while "chalk style" marker pen. I penned in a generic unit designation on my painted stands (see below):

It's more Art Deco than Sans Serif and I am musing about its rough and ready appeal versus small but neat type face. Whether is destroys or augments my painting style? I can always paint over the label again with  brown and revert to using a cut-out from a printed sheet (see close-up below).  

Going more generic than historic also seems more flexible, "Pz IV #4" makes as much sense that "Lehr II/130 Pz IV #4" as long as I use either: the same division or different divisions are uniquely discernible with a different labeling look (colour?).  

Your thoughts appreciated :)

GHQ 1/285 Panzer IV H Company - First Look

This little baby is a the size of a large postage stamp sitting in the palm of your hand (based on a 30mm x 30mm stand): 

The "group" photo of five together (see below):

Checking out the different lighting options on the camera, this one "flashed" (must have been from an incoming AT round at dusk):

Another "flash" this time side on (see below):

A close-up group photo, back without the "flash" setting. I think they look quite businesslike (see below):

So end'eth a batch of GHQ madness, trouble is they have SO much detail in something quite crazily small. I am exhausted doing these five! Do I need to put crosses and numbers on them while I have any eyesight left?

Footnote: 
I aqcuired the GHQ models as a gift from someone who had dabbled at WWII micro-armour at my local  club and then moved off into 15mm WWII instead. The GHQ models thus came painted and partly painted hence the lack of a brown strip at the back to write the unit designation on. Also as you can see by the pictures the 1/285 scale is just slightly bigger and thus fills the 30mm x 30mm (Spearhead) base more, making it difficult to fit one on. Hence each Pz IV H carries a little mystery as to "who" it really is. (Did someone at the back say re-base? ... Shoot that man, woman or child!)     

Painting Tray (continued) 1/300 and 28mm Renaissance

There's nowhere to hide "Four Horsemen" (+ Charles V Holy Roman Emperor), the paint is going to catch up with you (see below) no matter what you do: 

Except the GHQ Panzer IV H's jumped the queue and took a coat of Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow for the team (see below). The level of detail again is quite frightening for the small scale (1/285). Again I started and finished the phase in "battalion" production mode.

Flesh, flesh (see below)! The "Four Horsemen" are officially started. OK, quite a tame start but from small seeds come great trees!

Next: Painting Tray 20mm distraction diverts my attention from the "Four Horsemen".

The 1/300 Panzer IV Hoard Revisited

Take II: Heroics and Ross Panzer IV F2's laid out in a Spearhead/BGC battalion formation (there is an engineering half-track and AA PzIV lurking in there somewhere too). The Panzer IV's are getting an Anita's Acrylic Metallic Black undercoat over which the Tamiya XF-60 Sand Yellow base coat is being laid. 

A GHQ Panzer IVH battalion(+) equivalent formation. Barrels now straight (or as straight as I can make them) with a Tamiya XF-1 Matt Black undercoat applied to the barrels over the original Panzer Grey (yes, wrong period paint chosen by the original owner, but it's all getting redone anyhow).

The whole painting tray (including my 28mm Renaissance Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, again avoiding the paint). The thing about 1/300 or 1/285 scale is that there are lots of them that need to be painted at the same time! The factory style painting operation commences. (Note: The fifth horseman below, is not an additional member the troublesome foursome [Famine, War, Pestilence and Death], but the Holy Roman Emperor himself  Charles V [from Redoubt Enterprises], chosen as a suitable Renaissance commander for my Impetus Army)

Note: I am working from the left hand side of the table over the the right hand side :)

Painting Tray Update: 1/300 WWII and 28mm Renaissance

A 1/300 Heroics and Ross Panzer IV F2 (see below), donated to me from a very  good friend at the Hartlepool wargames club. This was part of an exchange of 10mm Pendraken ECW miniatures one way and a profuse quantity of assorted 1/300 Heroics & Ross and GHQ 1/285 models the other way. I am just left wondering how to paint these mini little beasts, so here are my first stabs (see below). 

It is a pity that my Blackberry camera does not seem up to taking photographs of things very small, losing the fine focus needed.

I was trying to go for that late war three tone camouflage look using Tamiya paints and left over odds and ends from my drying up Games Workshop pots. I discovered no point trying to micro-manage every brush stroke. Inks and washes may be the way forward.

Overall I m not convinced with my first attempt (even though I have not yet flocked the base which makes a huge difference). I cannot afford to take too long on each model but at the same time want to have a little highlighting and character if possible. I am not convinced that dry-brushing alone is the answer, inks and washes, hmm, successive layers? Model wise I am not far off the OrBat of a 1944 Panzer Division (Spearhead) so that is quite a lot of stands to do (100+) so I do need a mini-factory production process, rather tan an artisan approach.

Behold my painting tray  organised chaos (see above). Two 1/300 Panzer IV battalions, one H&R (Left Hand Side) the other (Right Hand Side) GHQ. Yes I know the 1944 Panzer Division OrBat has one Pz IV battalion and one Panther battalion, so effectively I have a 'spare' Pz IV battalion, which is nice. Lurking in the background are my "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (28mm Renaissance fro Redoubt Enterprises). These will constitute a much needed Impetus Mounted Crossbow (CL) unit in my renaissance army. However they have been lurking around my painting tray for some time now successfully avoiding any contact with the paint brush. The goal is to get them painted in time for my next game of Impetus!

One slightly negative comment to make about the 1/285 GHQ models is the darned bendy barrels they have. They are finely scales, so fine in fact that the slightest touch of the gun barrel means that it twists and out have to come the tweezers. I sent several hours straightening those sixteen GHQ Panzer IVH's and they are still not quick right. I can see that handling and storing them will be a pain!