Accidental Terrain

I've been making a bit of terrain. This happened by accident. I went to the hardware store (Bunnings for those Australian readers) to get some cork tiles to make some Stalingrad type ruins and walked past an outdoor door mat on a shelf. It was brown and had really prominent ridges. 

So, I bought it for $8.00 and took it home. I cut it into pieces, did a bit of dry-brushing in a lighter shade of brown, dabbed on some pva glue and added some flock. within a bout 30 minutes I had a bunch of cultivated fields. They're a bit too neat but adding some fences and hedges etc, on the table with them will fix that.

I cut some small and some large. I figure they could look good as part of of one of those large Soviet farms. I need to find a nice 1940's 20mm Russian tractor to place in the middle to give them some character.

I was looking through some tubs of stuff for something that I can't recall. In one of the tubs I found some fences that I made. They were half painted and almost finished. I have no idea what I was making them for but they looked good. They're made out of balsa wood and they're pretty sturdy. Anyway, I flocked the bases and they're ready to go.

I don't no idea what scale I made these for but they seem like they'll work for either 20mm or 28mm. They would probably work for 15mm too.

I've also been rebasing lots of WWII figures. Last night I finished my Western Desert Force (or you can call them 8th Army). Hopefully, one day soon they'll go up against my Afrika Korps. I really need some Italians to do better North African games but it's hard to find good 20mm Italians.

And here's their nemesis... The DAK

All of the British are AB Figures and the DAK are a mix of AB and, I think, Simon's Soldiers (but I'm not 100% certain on that). All metal and their storage box is getting heavy!

Keep Down or You Might Get Shot in the Foxhole

Yes, keep your head down because the mosquitoes are vicious this time of the year

And that's because during the past couple of days I finished off some aircraft and some entrenchments for the Western Desert (WWII).

I'm not very good at making aircraft and it's been quite a few years since I made one. As it is, with Battlegroup players' get the chance to use direct air support and, in my opinion a model aircraft looks much better than a token. So I made a couple. Not the best but good enough for my needs.

To be honest, if I could get my hands on a few 1/100 diecast aircraft, I think they's fit much better in a game.

And here are some entrenchments/foxholes. I made these things a while back out of SuperSculpey. I was thinking of making molds and casting them in resin. I wasn't in any hurry so I took my time and I eventuallu got the materials and cast some.

They're not the best casts (it's been a long time since I last did any casting) but they look okay for a battlefield - A little beaten up and rough. I painted them for the desert but they could also do for Sicily or Italy by placing a little bit of lichen on them.

AB Figures for scale:

I also made some barbed wire:

Waltzing Matilda II's and Other Stuff

I've been busy. Making terrain and painting models. It never seems to end.

This time it's some Matilda II tanks and a little Vickers tankette for my fledgling British 8th Army. I got these models from Early War Miniatures and whilst they look nice, I really did not enjoy painting them. As you see them this is their second paint job. The first didn't take.

These models are resin cast and they had too much release agent (maybe this is due to the models being quite detailed). As a result the first paint job started rubbing off just from handling them. I initially used my regular Vallejo primer and it didn't want to work. So, another soapy wash and I used a spray auto-primer. This seems to have worked.

Having to do the Caunter camo a second time didn't endear me to these models. The first time around I used a light grey-green but for the second effort I decided to go with the traditional (although supposedly wrong) light blue.

I also used Plastic Soldier decals. I bought the 7th Armoured Div set and they are shite.
1: They are too big. Not 1/72, 20mm.
2: They tear apart very easily. Same problem with the German ones too.
I won't get any more of these in the future.

I painted the red & white identification stripe things.
The crew are AB.

And I also did a 40mm AA gun. This is a Zvezda kit. A very nice model but it's very clean and perfect. It's hard to make it look like it's seen some action. The Loyd carrier is one of two PSC models that I got in a swap.

But not only that...

A bunch of German stuff. A troop of PSC Panzer IVH's. Very nice models. Easy to make and they pained up nicely. I actually finished these a few days back and they were in my last post of the terrain mat.

And last, but not least: A Pz IV F1 to give some heavy firepower to my DAK and a panzer grenadier command vehicle with a 37mm. This half track is one of the diecast Sd.Kfz 250 radio cars that I scuffed up and posted earlier in the year. But I decided to add the gun and give it a proper dirty desert paint job.

(I just noticed I haven't painted the tank's tracks. Oops!)

Little 8th Army

I've been getting my British 8th Army together for some Western Desert action in the near future.

I started with a box of Esci 1/72 and a box of Revell 1/72 plastic figures. The Revell figures turned out to be the old Matchbox 1/76 figures and they are tiny and poorly moulded. So that was a wast of money.

The Esci figures looked nice and I painted up a platoon:

But then I went to Little Wars Melbourne where Eureka & AB Miniatures did something reprehensible and nasty. They brought out these beautiful 20mm 8th Army figures:

I only bought one infantry section, a platoon HQ section, mortar section and a Vicars HMG section. Now it looks like I'm going to have to buy more infantry sections. The swines!!!

Not really. These figures look fantastic and the range covers just about everything we wargamers will need. The only thing I don't like about them is my own painting. I added a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade and I think that ruined the paint work a bit. The next lot that I get (and I must get more of these now - For, it is written!) will get a watered down wash.

I also made up a box of Plastic Soldier Company M3 "Honeys" and put some paint on them. They came up okay. One of the commanders is from the AB late British range. I'll have to get some more AB commanders for future models.

These models below are resin recasts. I got them because I'm having trouble getting actual models for much of the early war British stuff. They sort of look okay but I don't like them much and I doubt that I'll get any more in the future. However, I still have a few other recast things that I got at LW and I'll make them up soon. As it is, we have a big, big model show happening in Melbourne this coming weekend and I'll see what stuff I rustle up there. I really want a few Matilda II's.

The commander in the Dingo Scout Car is the "Monty" figure from the Revell/Matchbox figure set. I can foresee these figures being used for conversions and suchlike. Currently I'm thinking that they might make some good dead markers.