Tinkering with...Warlord Chaffee for Indochina

Another interesting commission, this time a M24 Chaffee as fought at Dien Bien Phu. Not being too familiar with post war Chaffees, this one called for a bit of research. Specific mods I found difficult to trace, but noted the following from contemporary photos:

a) Two Aerial points
b) .50 cal protected stowage position
c) Drivers hood/screen
d) light, ad hoc stowage

In addition, on inspection the Chaffee model was devoid of any lifting points, and the distinctive .50 cal tripod mount was omitted ( standard .50 call pintle supplied), bit disappointing really.

Anyway...

View from above, shows many of the mods, as above but in addition:

a) replaced .50 cal with PSC from spares
b) reconstituted .50 cal tripod mount
c) added .50 cal turret stowage brackets and assembly
d) representative detail on TC hatch

e) opened up side hatch
f) added lifting points
h) added spare 75mm canisters on rear track guard
f) added open vision slots, pet peeve of mine- why are vision slots always depicted closed!!!!!

g) added some rear stowage, conjecture really, added the rear tray but in the stowed up position.
h) added brass/ wire handles, on all but the tie downs, i have to stop somewhere!

i) Tow cables made and added. I was aware that earlier German and Russian practice was to pre-rig tow cables prior to action to facilitate recovery, I think this adds that little bit of context and detail. practice

j) you can see the drivers hood in the stowed position, this will have clear glass when finished, also intend too add to the vision blocks as well.
l) The TC was a mix between a Warlord american tanker with a head swap from the spares bos, modified with tankers headset

Final shot with the TC, Captain Yves Hervouet commanding Escadron de Marche de 1er Regiment de Chasseurs a Cheval. As I understand his mount was "Smolensk", so if anyone knows of any specific details that I've omitted the please shout. 

But be quick this is lined up for paint along side the earlier Russkies ( not related!!!) 

And finally, am still shifting out old stock and un-committed projects, so the following are up on ebay, posted under "tarnished_epaulettes" 

Ebay Sales

 - 1/56 - Warlord : Churchill AVRE, Sdkfx 7/1 Quad, 

           - JTFM Panzer III M/N

        

20mm ZSU - 57 - 2 WIP ( a pig of a build!!!!)

Bit of a change this post, have included quite an extensive Work in Progress Picture board for two resin ZSU-57-2 AA tanks, destined for indo china. I forget the manufacturer, but its a pig!

These two pictures are of the paint to date, this is what I consider my base layer, all the basic airbrushing is complete prior receiving a sealer coat and then the detailing.



As you can see its a multipart build and paint due to the amount of detail required to be painted with the turret. The turret baskets are separate as I have two spent shell piles to out in them which I clearly cant paint in situ.





 These two shots show the build in progress and the complexity of etched brass, converted resin crew and replacement bits and bobs due to fragile resin breaking. Pretty ugly at this stage


What you cant see is the subassembly with the wheels, this was completed separately, and was an absolute pig, the hulls had to be drilled out to accept the turret cage and then a floor reconstituted, The tracks needed heating to conform to the shape and were very troublesome to say the least. What you wont notice was that chassis wall behind the wheels and tracks was coated with a light mud texture at this stage as its easy to apply when separate.



Here we have the test builds to prove the turret cage and superstructure fit together, I hope you note all the brass grab rails, made even more difficult as they curve around the corners of the turret.



All the bits together, you can see the fabricated chassis decks added.

 

Just to prove my point on the grab rails, note also they all need to be the same size!

 

 

Here we have some pics of the pre-shading, initial grey "plastic primer" ( Halfords) undercoat to unify all the materials, and then a black undercoat, this is then work up with greys and whites to make a pre-shade.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully you can see the effect, although not the best photo!



Here's the paint in progress, the yellow bits are Tamiya masking tape to keep the inside nice and white, without overspray. I had intended to use some MIG/AMMO specific rusky paints for this but wasn't happy with the colour so reverted to good old Tamiya mixes.



These pictures show the base coat applied, I reinforced the pre-shade with some post shade lighter mixes. The weathering process considerably darkens the initial colours, so a lot of the contrast will be lost, hopefully giving a realistic finish. So often modulation techniques are overdone resulting in a lovely technical artistic interpretation, fine as they can be, I've not seem much cubist art in my reference pictures. These are for the table top so they need to be shaded and weathering in context

 

I sneaked in a up-mod'd S&S models 15mm MT55, which you may have seen in previous posts. I used this as the guinea pig for the green tones as this will be sealed and then a top coat of middle east desert yellow will be applied, heavily chipped I think......

 

 

 

The Stricken Convoy - IndoChina - Part 2 - Complete.

All the work is now complete, here is the finished ensemble. Whilst a tricky and time consuming build, I'm more than happy with the results. All the upright GMC's have both drivers and co-drivers and i've tried to animate the jeep crew as if the mining of the truck had gione off behind, in convoy, Hence one chap leaning to the rear and the other on the walkie talkie.

All kits and figures are 20mm from Milicast, with minor and not so minor mods by me. As always more links in my flickr galleries, link accessed to the right.

Stricken Convoy - IndoChina - Part 1

Interesting commission this one, seemingly innocuous, but has proved to be one of the most challenging yet......

The basic premise was an ambushed French convoy, in Indo China. Essentially one truck was to be depicted as just having hit a mine and has been brown onto its side.

All the kit work is Milicast, which is lovely scale and accurate stuff, but some bits are very fiddly.

GMC Build

The three upright GMC's needed to have drivers and co drivers, this always means a two stage paint and assemble. Whilst you wont be able to see it, I know each individual figure torso and head is fully painted and detailed in there! Essentially the drivers and cab interior need to be completed, then assembled, then masked and then the main painting could begin. All the figures used were resin from Milicast, again fiddly making them fit but easier to work with than white-metal.

The GMC's have the slightest of resin windscreen frame, which I think can be modelled opened up or closed, I foolishly offered to add "glass" in the form of clear plastic. I will spare you the profanities used in assembling these and making them fit and aavoiding the "super glue" smears. 

The cargo bed frames, were also a royal PITA, I made a template and bent and cut appropriate metal strip and applied each individually. These were a nightmare to line up and get looking equal, I think I just about achieved it.

The Stricken Truck

The disabled truck needed some minor mods. The bonnet/hood was cast so I cut it down and added a sheet foil bonnet, so it looks as if it has been slightly dislodged in the course of the mine explosion. The mudguard was removed and replaced with sheet foil at a "jaunty angle". The Milicast Trucks are not designed to be displayed on their sides so detailing underneath was understandably minimal. Not being intimate with the carriage workings of trucks I added some bits and bobs from the spares box and applied "mud" to cover up and rough detail. Dont email me if i got all the guibbins wrong, it looks fine to me! The tyres I had to work worth as best i could, again these are solid and attached.

The Spilled load

After some thought, I decided to make the stricken truck and load as a complete vignette and have the spilled load attached to the truck bed. This was quite simply achieved by making a "base" blob from green stuff and added the first layer of drums. The next layer was superglued in place for effect, and so on. In the end, the whole ensemble is quite sturdy.

Oh and as you can see, have been playing with the blogger template, and in traditional style can't seem to get back to the original! What do people think, this one allows much more whizzy things to be done with the content, based on selection at the top of the page.

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French in Indochina

I always like a change, 12SS for Normandy does get repetitive :o). So when this commission came in i jumped at it. American kit in Indochina as used by the French. Tim wanted to represent the armoured element of GM 100 in the central Vietnam Highlands, circa 1954.

Kits and figures are Milicast, very minor mods by me, lovely little ensemble, if i say so myself. As usual extensive pictures in my flickr galleries ( link at the top of the page)