25 pdr Crew and Quad Gun Tractor

As posted earlier, not much coming through recently, some issues at home that have diverted my painting time, so here's a post of a September Commision, not previously plastered up on the forums.

The Warlord 25pdr set, is lovely, I have modified the GT with the addition of canvas tilt and frame, traversing wheel brackets and some odds and sods. There was a requirement for removal of crew, so i knocked up a simple base, crew are on "penny" washers.

I have a boatload of German and Allied vehicles in progress, its just a bit slow at the moment.
As always flickr hosts my complete gallery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/troop-of-shewe/sets/

neil

Normandy Tetrarch -1/56 - Warlord Games

Tonight a welcome change from Dunkelgelb, British O.D in the guise of a Normandy Tetrarch.
Another popular kit from Warlord, and i'm sure i've painted more than actually saw any action. This one however, has the correct AoS marking (Its amazing what details reveal themselves once you've finished painting). Minor mods on this one, tarps and towing wire, and a commanders bren gun on the side of the turret. The track sections have been moulded in a way that facilitates removing the spaces between the road wheels, which is worthwhile doing. Maybe the next one i'll get to "open up".

Still have 28mm and 20mm stuff up on ebay, check out the link to the top right >>>>>>>

Warlord Bren Gun Carriers - without bases

Lovely remodelling job from Warlord, these really do look the part now, painted with MTP camo, Guards Armoured, Normandy. They come with moulded in driver torso, seperate heads and two bren's, one for the AA mount and one "up front".  All decals on these two are Dom's Decals, if you can make them out under the dust!

Warlord Churchill - Normandy Stalwart

I really like the Churchill visually, probably my favorite Allied vehicle. As a painting canvas the straight surfaces and lines are great to show a variation of tonal finishes. Anyway, you've had the WIP shots, now here's the finished article.  Painted as it comes, no mods (as per Warlord display criteria).  Nice solid kit with no fiddly bits, just the Mg's, barrel and TC hatches to add on. The pictures show two different lighting settings, am not convinced which is best.  I've spent some additional time distressing the paint finish, not the "en vogue" gamers huge over scale scratches (its depicted as Normandy, so not in theatre long enough for that Ostfront  vibe!) but rather tone changes and fading combined with dust. Most pictures and movie reels show a heavy layer of dust, i am working up to this as i feel its difficult to pull off convincingly in 1/56th without it looking like a newbies bad hair day with MIG pigments (which incidentally guys, aren't the panacea everyone thinks they are!).

The TC is a Warlord figure but is not included in the kit (one of my stock dummies). Hopefully we'll see a Crocodile soon as well.  I now have a raft of new Warlord Hun opposition awaiting a start date, so Normandy fans will be pleased over the next couple of months.

The techniques are subtle so warrant a full screen, please double click for "warts and all" or alternatively visit my flickr for maximum viewing pleasure.

Kitchen Table Update# 4 Allied 28mm

Just a teaser today, but you should be able to see some progression between the WIP shots.
First up JTFM Staghound and Warlord Quad (converted), both at the final weathering and detailing stage. Note decals applied and sealed, crew started. The two crew come with the Staghound, I've chopped them down a bit but nice additions. The Quad, has had a canvas roof added, rear superstructure mounting arrangements and rear view mirrors.
(as always click on the pictures for full fat "warts and all" views)

Warlord Churchill, just after decaling, you can also see the effect of washes and oil paint fading. The Quad is the unconverted version, as it comes

 Warlord Churchill, essentially post airbrushing, pretty plain huh!

Converted Quad alongside its standard cousin, you can see the effects of oil paint fading, sneaky Warlord Bren in progress, note no base!.

The next shot shows the painting detailing on the canvas tilts, prior to washes.

This little ensemble is the Warlord 25pdr set. I have mounted the figures on metal washers and fashioned the master bases to facilitate removal. The 25pdr has been slightly modified with the top shield replaced and modelled down.

And also hanging around, 12SS combo, two separate commissions. Heavily mod'd JTFM 251'Ds, mod'd JTFM 234/1, PzrIV and another lovely little Luchs ( with Warlord commander) more of these in later posts.

SAS Jeeps -

Two 1/56th bespoke conversions of the excellent Warlord Airborne Jeeps, into the SAS configuration for NWE. Lots of work and loads of extra details packed into these little beauties, just persue the pictures in my flickr galleries.

Now Sold

Warlord's STuG III

Another one off to the Warlord Emporium. As usual with their display vehicles, it is built as it comes, no mods or additions. Another nice and robust kit, consists of Hull, track sections and schurzen plus barrel and odds and sods in metal.  Only minor quibble is there is no MG shield.  All locate positively with each other and make up a nice little kit with very little assembly or cleaning up. I must commend Warlord with all their recent releases, in that, for the track sections, extra locating points have been added so the tracks sit where they should be, to be fair JTFM are very good at this as well, but with some other manufacturers' kits it can be hit and miss putting on the track sections. It also makes a more robust kit, after all these are gaming pieces.

 

I have a section of these coming through (just waiting on clearing some other commissions first though) so I can't wait to start piling on stowage and distressing the schurzen! As an interesting aside I have three AGN Stug III (paint alongs) that have been sidelined for a while, maybe I'll finish them all together?

If anyone is wondering why the hull camouflage style doesn't match the schurzen, its inspiration is taken from the Firefly Collection "Panzers in the Bocage" book, an excellent resource.

I have the Warlord Quad and 25 pdr coming through, with an additional "mod'd" one by me with crew, so watch this space. (Panthers behind that.....)

Finally, is there value in me posting pictures of the kits as they come unassembled? My focus is the finished article but interested in thoughts.

12SS Panzer IV - Mod'd Warlord

 

Panthers and IV's are definitely the most common vehicles I've done over the years and its a challenge keeping each one in some way different from the previous. In this case i decided to modify the recent Warlord Pzr IV. 

It is a really good kit, but like all 1/56th offerings it has room for improvement, so hopefully I've added some value, well for my tastes anyway.

First to go was the schurzen, nice robust moldings designed for gaming and handling. However,  i wanted to bash mine around a bit so utilised spare JTFM plates and made up some rudimentary rails. The attachment points aren't strictly accurate but then I'm not doing a scale model after all. The next item for change was the turret. I felt it sits high so the underside was shaved to create a lower profile and some of the schurzen opened up.

After that, all was fairly standard, spare tracks (JTFM), attachment points and stowage. Some great points about the Warlord IV is the opening hatches and the zimmerit. I decided to try something different this time and instead of having it opened up with 1/2 figure crew hanging out, i wanted to model a more realistic "in-action" composition with the hatches opened up but with just the crews heads showing. In this case the commander is a Warlord head and the crew are Westwind, the commander has some miliput shoulders but the crew didn't need them. I quite like the hull gunner "shouting" pose, maybe he's spotted something the others hadn't?

The rest is just painting and weathering :o). Decals in this case are Archer dry rub transfers and Dom's decals for the 12SS insignia.

I've included a before and after picture to show the changes. As always loads more pictures in my Flickr gallery, and double click these for "full fat" pictures.

Neil

Sdkfz 250 "Neu"





Stable favourite this one, painted in a late war three tone hard edge. Warlord will finally be getting round to it  sans-base soon, the models they have modified so far are a vast improvement, BZ all round.

Bolt Action Sdkfz 222

A re-release from Warlord Games, this time without the base. I much prefer this no base approach and look forward to some more old favorites becoming so unencumbered! The 222 is a lovely little kit, here made with no mods at all, grenade screens modelled shut as requested. I do note however the Herr Grabner figure fits just nicely in the turret if you open them up, maybe a little project for the future.

Kitchen Table Update - WIP #2

Time for another update, combining most of my 28mm builds at the moment. I tinker in the evenings on the kitchen table. Currently the shots show,

• BAM Pzr IV , Schwimwagen and Sdkfz 9,
• JTFM Pzr IV, Puma and 234 8-Rads, 251/D's
• Army Group North , Stug III's
• Company B - Adler

All have mods some more than others. Following some comments, i will add that these additions and alterations are not always necesary and not a true reflection on the basic kit. I position my work at showcase standard and continually try and improve, hence all the mods and extras.

• Panzer IVs, not much more done to these, fiddled around with some more stowage and completed the schurzen on the JTFM one. Am toying with some camo nets but cant get it just right.
• Schwimwagen, i love this kit! although theres not to much you can do with a four seater. Added generic stowage, zeltbahn cover ( use of lead foil from posh wine, thanks Julia! ( who still looks at me funny when i ask for it!) and rope drop rope for the motor.
• SDkfz 9, this will be a SCW version so had to disguise some of the late war stowage, hopefully effectively with a "green stuff" discarded jacket.
• 8- RADs - I love these as well. These are just me playing, will be very late war schemes i thing. Metal foil fule can straps added and helmets and their straps
• 251/D - quite a bit of work here and very much WIP. The JTFM is the best 251 available and has lovely interior details. Downside is the assembling, i should really do a two part paint for these but that would double the time and increase the price accordingly. You will see green modellers putty on the body joints, still working on these. Have added internal rod bars for kit stowage and started to add green stuff kit etc. Nice advantage with these is that the rear doors can be cut open with a little bit of work.
• The Stugs are almost there. Interesting point with these, and my work in general, is where do you stop. I could do more, noticably the tools dont have any securing points which is bugging me but will stop on these now.
• Adler, not much added at the moment, added a BAM schwim/kubel driver. This will probably move right with a Horch which has just arrived.
  

Finishing: you'll notice several different finishes, from grey primer, to balck undercoat, to white metal and resin. With modern resins it is important to clean and prime correctly. I use an enamel plastic primer ( hence the grey) and then a black primer undercoat. Some have this already as they were "around" when spraying. These will all receive another primer grey and black undercoat. This will then be touched up with enamel ( Humbrol).

I havent posted pics of all the mods talked about here, however there is now a WIP folder up on my flickr gallery, which has more.