Finished: 15mm Panzers

I wasn't expecting to post this until tomorrow, but they're already finished. That was as much of a surprise for me as for you guys and gals.

Panzer IIIs

 Ausf E

Ausf F

 Ausf G

Panzer IVs

Ausf F

Ausf F2/G

Ausf H

I also got some bases made up for all the tanks to go on. That's more for storage and safe transport than for aesthetic reasons:



I'm sure I'll end up adding some other tanks in the future.

Finished: 15mm T34s

Well, apart from decals. I'll probably do those at some point during the week. The new Revolution CR arrived yesterday (the Br will be another week or so), which meant that I was able to get the Klear and matte varnishing done today.

As T34/76:

As T34/85:

These have come out a bit darker than the one I painted a few weeks ago. That's down to a change of paints - I used Russian Green instead of Armour Green for these. I've also left them "cleaner" (less rust and scratching).


Now that I have a good airbrush again, I'll probably work on the Matilda tanks tomorrow, getting at least the green laid down.

I've been doing some prep work over the last couple of days and all the shinies you saw in Thursday's post are done. I've also assembled the M3 Stuart:

The heft of the resin kit is much more satisfying than the plastic of the Warlord version.

Oh, and the plastic 8th Army figures are no longer running/standing/kneeling/laying around like headless chickens:

And that's not all I've been up to. I've got a few other little things on the go, but you'll have to wait to see those!

Thursday Update 15 November

Over the past two days I've received some shinies through the post. Yesterday these came:

Some people will recognise those little black boxes from Perry Miniatures. This is what was in them:

What are they all? British tank crew, Aussie slouch hats and a Blitzkrieg 1/56 scale M3 Stuart. I've checked and it's the same size as the Warlord/Italerei one I made earlier. I bought the heads to see if they'd fit the Warlord plastics, but it doesn't look as though they will.

Today I got this lot from Warlord Games:

That's a mix of stowage, some tank crew, a sprue of Chindit heads (which will fit on the Warlord plastics), some commando decals (bought for the rank insignia) and Army Painter dark and soft tone inks.


Now for what I've been up to since finishing those Kokoda Aussies. On Monday I primed the T34s and the Matildas. Yesterday I got the body colours done on the T34s with the airbrush. Before it died on me - the air valve is kaput. If I had the right tool, I could remove it and replace it with the one from my previous Revolution CR (which had the nozzle thread break off irremovably). Sadly I don't, so I've had to order a replacement; I decided to order a Revolution BR as well to replace my Neo for fine detail work.

Today I hand painted the details and did some washes.

They just need varnishing now, but that will need to wait until my new CR arrives - that should be some time tomorrow.

I've also been assembling the 8th Army plastics:

As you can see, they are headless for now. As the Perry slouch hats don't fit, I might need to get some more of the Chindit heads to get some in slouch hats. The fact that some of them are bearded and have battered hats is fine, as they'll be for the 39th. I'll need to order another pack of 8th army plastics for them. The big problem with the pack is the lack of left arms posed to support weapons - there are only two per sprue, but four weapons that need to be supported. And then there is the Lewis Gun issue - there might be a couple of arms that could hold one, but the guns from Colonel Bill's seem quite slender. I know that Minifigs do some, and Company B - I might have to take a look at those. There are also some for sale on Shapeways, but they are a bit costly.

Oh, and the Panzer IIIs have also been assembled. I won't be able to prime or paint the IIIs and IVs until the T34s are finished.

Wednesday Workbench 17 October

Since my game on Monday I've been keeping myself busy. I've decided to finish off the jungle-green Aussies, and made a start on the first of the remaining batches yesterday. I got all the base layers down and first washes. This morning I started highlighting them. This pic was taken after the flesh had been highlighted:

This afternoon I've continued the highlighting and have done the uniforms, slouch hats, water bottles and boots. This evening I'll be doing the other bits. If I get time I'll do the final washes as well. Tomorrow I'll be doing the Klear coat and matt varnishing.

I'm going to wait until the rest are painted and varnished before I add the basing gunk. Partly that's because I've decided to switch the senior leaders onto 25mm hex bases instead of 30mm ones (so that they'll fit properly into the slots of the foam trays). I'll need to buy some 25mm hex bases this weekend at SELWG show.


Last night, after doing the first washes on the Aussies, I decided to assemble the two 15mm tanks I'd bought at Colours a few weeks ago.

For the Panzer IV I went with the G variant. I have decided to paint the turrets and hulls separately so that the turrets can be rotated.

The PSC kits were quite easy to assemble, but they could do with better instructions as it wasn't obvious where some of the extra bits were meant (toolboxes, etc) to go. I might do a quick prime and paint on these as someone at the club is running a 15mm Eastern Front game of "What A Tanker!" at the club on Monday.