Airfix Gun Emplacement

This is a post about the famous Airfix Gun Emplacement, or at least what's left of the one I had many years ago.

Actually, there isn't much left at all, just the two bunkers, with the base and match-firing gun long gone.  Furthermore, the octagonal bunker was at some point converted into a pillbox by cutting some rough holes in the sides, but this was never very satisfactory.  Consquently I thought it was time for an upgrade.  And here it is.

For this small project I decided to have the pillbox sitting in a base, which is made of a couple of layers of polystyrene foam.  Once shaped, the base was covered in rough sand, painted in earth tones and textured with flock, adding cloves from the kitchen spice-rack cut down to look like tree stumps.

In addition, I constructed some 'concrete' walls around the entrance, textured to look as though wooden shuttering had been used to form them; a technique I believe the brutalist French architect Corbusier was very fond of, as were the German occupiers.  In my case, this effect was done by gluing wooden coffee stirrers to a thin foam core and then painting them to look like concrete to match the repainted pillbox.

The pillbox actually lifts off so figures can be put inside.  Furthermore, considering the gun emplacment set is not being made any more (at least at the time of writing), I may yet construct my own scratch-built version of the entire model, built around this remaining element.

Affordable Housing

The last wargame we had a few weeks ago was a brief 1/300 scale WW2 encounter on the western front.  Sadly it didn't work out too well and as my phone was full I couldn't take any photos anyway, so there is no AAR.

Back gardens - 1/300 BTR70 for scale

However, one thing that did come out of it was the realisation that we had a lack of suitable 1/300 buildings in our collection, so I've done something about it in that I've spent the last few weeks making some 20th century structures suitable for western Europe.

Of course when I embark on such projects I never do things by half and so my plan was to make a dozen buildings or thereabouts.

My materials of choice are (nearly) always cardboard and the thin polystyrene sheets that come with some brands of supermarket pizza (poor man's foam-board as I call it).  Everything was glued together with Evo-stick wood glue (normal PVA), which, if you make simple structures, can be remarkably sturdy.

For the factory shed roof I had some nice cardboard with narrow corrugations that had come from some sort of fancily bound document in my collection (Historic Scotland's Annual Accounts I think).

Inspiration came from various sources including my PC game of choice ARMA3.  Here is the model I made based on the building shown below.  In my mind's eye it is a perfect match with regard to the original.  What?  No?  Just me then...

I also made a couple of Ardennes style stone farm buildings (based on another WW2 PC game/mod called Darkest Hour).

So overall quite fun to do and, as I painted all the roofs red, a good match for other buildings I'd made previously (see the DBR AAR from a few months ago).

The Other Armourfast Su85

Having completed one of the Su85s, I went and finished off the other.  I thought I'd go further with this one though and add a bit more clutter.

Working it out with a pencil

This included a barrel made from a bit cut off a pencil, with some strips of paper glued round it, and a roll of material made from a a piece of old T-shirt rolled up and tied off with thread.  There is also a piece of spare track on the front.  It's not quite right as T34/Su85 track section but it was the best I had to hand (made from some old Airfix Tiger tracks, cut down a bit).

This Su85 has been depicted a lot more beat up and muddy than than the first one I painted.  I also left the commander's hatch open, until I can find a figure to go in it.  I had wanted to leave the driver's hatch ajar too, but that would have been a bit more fiddly.

Not sure what's up next, although I expect that it will be these KV-1 babies.  Looking forward to these as they seem a bit more detailed and for the first time ever (after being brought up on Airfix and Matchbox tanks), gravity seems to to be having an effect on the tracks in a realistic manner.

After this, it seems I've run out of Soviet tanks to make, although the Pegasus early KV-1/KV-2 combo, plus their T34/85 and even their T26, are beckoning.

Armourfast Su85

Following on from the Armourfast T34/76 models I made and painted earlier this year, here is the Su85 tank destroyer.  I'd actually painted another T34/76 this week as well, but you've seen one of those already.

It is rather a spiffing model with nice details such as separate handrails and four fuel tanks.  I put another one of my bespoke hawsers on this one.

Paint scheme was the usual Tamiya XF-13 J.A.Green with a black wash, followed by some light dry-brush highlighting with buff paint.  Decals came from ebay after I decided that my hand wasn't steady enough to paint the numbers.

I didn't make this one as weathered as my T34/76 as they are the 1941 versions so I reckoned that this one hadn't been in the field as long as they had.  I have another Su85 to make and paint (Armourfast kindly put two in a box) and then I can move on to the Pegasus KV-1, or perhaps another project...

Pimp my Tank, or, More Armourfast T34/76

Happy New Year guys.  So this is the Wishful Wargamer's "new year, new you" pledge: to do more wargaming this year.  Therefore, to start the year off as I'll probably continue, let's cut straight to this week's displacement activity, i.e. a couple of 1/72 Armourfast T34/76.

The first one is actually a model I completed previously, which I thought was a bit boring at the time so I've now upgraded it with a bit of clutter.  This clutter inlcudes some fuel tanks, basically made from some 5mm plastic tubing sealed up with filler, that this rather simple model didn't even include in the box (this being the older and discontinued T34/76 Armourfast tooling).

"Totally tubular"

I also added one of my patent hawsers I describe making in a previous post.  I took the opportunity to touch up the paint job a bit and slap on even more weathering, particularly around the exhausts area, inspired generally I have to say by the fantastic work on the Plastic Warriors website.

As well as this old T34/76 (actually there were two of them, No.2 not shown here) I also constructed and painted the 'new tooling' T34/76, which is quite a different and in my opinion a far superior model.  The whole thing is lower and far better proportioned than the previous tooling - and the parts fit together better which helps: when you compare the models the earlier one seems really weird and hgh.  The new one also has better detailing, for example on the engine covers and wheels.  Plus it has fuel tanks.  However, I think I will be able to get away with both types on the battlefield when the time comes, as long as they aren't sitting side by side.

For this model I added an extra fuel tank for some real-world randomness, as well as sticking on a roll of tarpaulin (made from some tissue paper rolled up with woodglue and tied off with thread).  And there's another one of my hawsers.  The crewman is an officer from the Revell Soviet infantry pack, with his map and legs cut off.

Finally, a note on how I painted these.  The base colour for my soviet tanks is Tamiya XF-13 J.A.Green, which goes all over.  I then give the tank a black wash to bring out the detail and add rust marks (I use thinned Revell acrylic 37, reddish brown).  For mud, dust and general weathering I employ a combination of 'flicking' thinned Revell 17, Africa brown with a stiff brush to get a mud splash effect on the front of the tank (mind your wallpaper), and then finish off with extensive dry-brushing using the same pale brown colour.

Not sure what's next but I do have another T34/76 to make plus a couple of Su-85s and KV-1s (Pegasus) which I'm looking forward to.  Once they're done I will be going through the wargames box and refurbishing all the old, clapped out and randomly donated tanks in there (must be a couple of dozen at least).  Plus, I found a tangle of brass picture hanging wire in the toolbox yesterday and of course I'm now wondering if I can make even more hawsers out of that...

Tank Furniture: Hawsers

Well, it's been a hell of a long time since I posted on this blog - athough not for want of thinking about it.  I've been pretty busy at work since before Easter, what with two major projects in Turkey at or close to finale stage requiring frequent trips to Istanbul.  However, considering the recent trouble in Gezi Park and Taksim Square, I've not been over there for the past few weeks (I'm missing my Thursday night tango club at the Taksim Point Hotel, I can tell you).  But I digress.

So, to get back into the swing of things here is something of what I've been working on intermittantly over the past few months, related to those Armourfast tanks that are lying mainly unpainted in a box (they were getting dusty on the workbench they'd been sitting there that long).  The thing is, the Armourfast kits, being simple models, need a bit of kitting out with clutter, so I've been working on that and thought that one of the things you see on real tanks are hawsers.  So here are some I made earlier from string and wire.

The string is actually the decoration from a wedding order of service (not mine) and the loop (at either end) is made from some twisted fuse wire.  After cutting into lengths of 7cm or 8cm, I stiffened the string by giving it a coating of wood glue (PVA) rubbed in with my fingers.  Then I superglued the fusewire loops onto either end of the string.  The join was disguised with a 0.5cm strip of masking tape wound around it a few times.

Once all the glues had dried I undercoated it in black, gave it a heavy dry brush of gun metal and then a thin wash of rust colour.  When I get around to it I will post a picture of them in situ on the tanks themselves, along with some of the other items I've been making.

Armourfast T34/76

I'll confess that I don't paint as much as I should and certainly I haven't painted any armour for a very long time.  However, this week I finished a couple of Arnourfast T35/76 that were assembled last summer.  This was mainly an exercise in weathering techniques and to try out a few ideas I'd seen discussed on the internet.

The main colour is acrylic Tamyia "J.A.Green" (XF-13).  Over this I added various rust spots and lines around hinges and other areas I thought might go a bit rusty, for example around the exhausts.  Tracks were painted black and then with a metalic gun metal/steel colour (a humbrol enamel).  I then gave the tracks a thin wash of rust colour, Revell acrylic "Reddish Brown" (37).

The whole model was then given a black wash and dry brushed with acrylic Tamiya "Dark Yellow" (XF-60) to pick out edges and any raised details (XF-60 happens to be the recommended base colour for german tanks).  Numbers were added by hand (might try to find decals next time).  Then came the interesting bit - adding the mud.  For this I used Revell acylic "Dark Earth" (82) thinned down, which was washed over the wheels and mudguards a few times

I then loaded up a stiff brush - one of the cheap nylon ones for children you get from IKEA and, using my thumb, sort of flicked the thinned paint in various places to simulate mud that had been thrown up onto the tank.  I may have overdone this a bit but it was fun.  The last thing was to add some more black wash around the exhausts.

Overall, they have turned out OK although I think that a little more contrast would be good.  Next time I'll make the black wash a bit thicker and add more rust spots - the detail isn't that deep on these models so more contrast between dark wash and lighter highlights will be required.  Also, I will add a bit more detail, hawsers, tarpaulins and whatnot and might even paint on some suitably stirring slogans - I did try it this time but couldn't paint them small enough so that the words would fit.

Panthers in Skirts

Spring must be in the air because I'm feeling the urge to make things again.  I'd actually constructed these Armourfast 1/72 scale Panther Ausf. G a while ago and as they are modelled with side rails I decided to add some side skirts to them (Schürzen).

The plates are basically 15mm by 10mm (approx.) rectangles that I cut from thinnish plasticard just glued on so that they were slightly uneven with variable gaps between them.  Having looked at various photos on-line there seems to be some variation in the number and dimensions of plates that were generally used.  I went with five on each side to match the Hasegawa Panther in the background, which comes with Schürzen fitted as standard.  Similarly the fastening arrangements seemed to differ so I just added some little slips of cut up business card to represent these - it'll be good enough for wargaming, that's my mantra.

Airfix Pontoon Bridge

When I was young I really wanted one of these but for some reason it never happened (50 new pence did seem quite an unobtainable sum in those days).  In the end we made one out of a strip of hardboard with glued on cardboard sides.  The girders were drawn in by hand.

I know, it sounds like the sort of construction materials that Bluebottle from the Goons would come up with.  Still, we had many happy river crossing battles with it but sadly no images exist, other than in my mind's eye.

Anyway, Airfix has re-released it at a very reasonable price and has even kept the same box art.  You have to hand it to Airfix, they really know their products and the type of nostalgics like me who often buy them (and I did, this time around).

More Armourfast

In between laboriously and slowly re-basing various ACW 20mm plastic armies (see previous posts) I've been putting together a few Armourfast kits.  I have to say they are all pretty simple and look good and are certainly more robust than normal model kits.  Here's a selection of unpainted models.

First up.  The Pz IV G

T34 / 76

Sherman M4A3 75mm

Cromwell

Achilles

Good clean fun.  And one of these days I'll get around to painting them.

Hasegawa Panther

Following on from my post about the Armourfast Panther, I thought I'd show you one of my favourite models- the 1:72 scale Hasegawa Panther Ausf.G that I made a few years ago.

I like the colour scheme, which is taken form the box art.  Not the best paint job ever but I still like it.  And here is the Armourfast Panther as a comparison.

A fairly good match, I thought, although the latter seems a bit taller overall.

Armourfast Panther

Been a bit busy recently what with that thing, what's it called? oh yeah, work, and all.  However, I did manage to put together one of the Armourfast models that I'd got a few months ago.  This one in fact.

Which comes in a box like this:

Not bad really although lacking a little in detail and missing the hull machine gun for some reason.  At least you get two in the box.

Wargaming Airborne Operations

I've had a copy of this 1977 Donald Featherstone book for a few years but the last time Geoff was round he expressed an interest in it, and as we've been in WW2 skirmish mode recently, I managed to get a copy for him from ebay (it's his birthday).

It's another one of those classics with lots of exciting pictures of barely or even unpainted plastic figures, paratroop drops using bits of tissue paper tipped out of a box and brilliant cardboard cutout gliders (that really glide!).  Such a contrast from today's slick presentation and requirements for this season's models and rule supplements (I digress).

Also, if you notice, every word of the book's title on the dust cover has a hyphen in it, which is quirky, to say the least.

Anyway, using the ideas in this book we have very successfully re-fought the D-Day landings and Operation Market Garden (And Crete?  I can't remember).  I even have a model of the Arnhem bridge in 1/72 scale somewhere...

...which looks remarkably like the one featured on pages 146-150 of the book.

Wait a minute.  Three posts in a row about books?  What's going on here?!

Dom Bütgenbach

I was over at Geoff's house for a WW2 skirmish game last weekend. The idea was to use some free rules called "WW2 Skirmish (Platoon Commander)" (I think) but I didn't get very far with them on the bus because I'm a bit pedantic when it comes to rules and expect to be able to understand most of them on first reading.

Anyway, the upshot of this was that in the end we just decided to use Rapid Fire, which we normally modify for tank battles by using the good old Airfix AT rules (not that they were required in this game)

The scenario was supposed to be Dom Bütgenbach, adapted from one of the many useful WW2 scenarios provided on the Fire and Fury/Battlefront website.  However, due to limited time (and space) Geoff decided that we would only fight out the central bridge-crossing section of the action (see map above made with MappingBoard) using about three platoons of infantry each, although the Germans would also get a lone PzIV.  The table looked like this.  As you can see, it's Geoff's kitchen table with scenery on it.  Simple but effective.

Basically the scenario was that on 20 December 1944 Kampfgruppe Kühlmann of the 12th SS Panzer Division would try to push elements of the US 1st Division out of the aforementioned village.  However, with the scenario now only having one way to get into the village I could see that the SS (my forces) would be lucky to succeed.

As expected, things did not start well as within the first move I was taking casualties from a mortar somewhere in the village. However, I usually don't hang about when I'm attacking and like to push forward manfully.  So, here is my PzIV pushing forward manfully.

It's by Raventhorpe I think.  Anyway, I kept up my advance returning fire when I could and quickly got one of my platoons onto the bridge, whilst managing to silence the not very well concealed (but nicely scratch built) 6pdr with some accurate mortar fire of my own.

Supported by the PzIV which was firing HE at everything and missing, my aim was to rush the trench on the right.  However, before I could do that a suicidal flamethrower guy popped up and roasted a few of my men on the bridge.  Nice.

Here's the same move from the reverse angle.  You can see that the place is well defended.

Following that rather warm welcome things started to go a little better as I managed to grenade the trench on the right and get my troops into it in short order.

Sadly this minor success was short lived as they were cut down almost to a man by the HMG on the hill and also by some deadly accurate mortar fire.

Despite taking heavy loses I realised that the defenders were also suffering and only needed a few more casualties before they had to take a morale test.  So I pushed on, throwing my last troops across the bridge.

However, despite destroying the US HMG with mortar fire and whittling down the defenders the last moves were a disaster.  The defenders managed to immobilise the panzer with a bazooka round and again I lost more men.  At that point we both had to take morale tests and although the defenders' passed theirs, my troops had had too much and were forced to retreat.

Overall, it was nice little skirmish and I am not surprised that the SS attack was beaten off.  Frontal assaults across narrow bridges against well defended villages do not often carry, although I have had my successes in the past.  Next time I'll discover a ford that Geoff doesn't know about so that I can outflank him.

German figures are Revell and US troops are mainly Esci (the HMG is Revell).

Desert Forces

Just a few shots of some other desert terrain and my axis forces in 1/300 scale that go with the desert fort I posted about earlier.  I got them out to see what forces I still needed and to add some more buildings.

Some Italian armour loitering in an Arab village.  Buildings are made of balsa offcuts coated in woodflex and painted.  The ruin's walls are made of the offcuts from the polystyrene disc that comes with pizzas you get from Sainsbury's.  It's a sort of poor-man's foam-board (you have to wash it before using).

A Semovente hiding in an oasis.  Classic pool of varnish pretending to be water there.

Something they're still fighting over in Libya.... and I'm not talking about the slices of toilet roll inner.

DAK forces descending through a gully.  All models are 1/300 Heroics and Ros.