6MMRPC: Finished - D7 Angledozer and Humber Scout Cars

Home again this weekend and today has been spent finish off the models I was working on last week. This should have been a quick hit for me, but while spraying the varnish on all 4 mini's at once, the varnish on the ARV clouded.

I have no idea why. I was spraying all 4 mini's at the same time and the other 3 were fine.

Anyway, in my rush to prevent too much damage I probably caused more. I ended up running the model under the tap before resorting to trying to scrape the worst of the white gunk off - which took off the paint and decals underneath the rear hull section. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. I searching online to see if there was anything I could do other than repaint the whole model and found someone saying that the cloudiness could be removed by painted on varnish from a bottle.

I tried that, and it did clear most of the issues. I had done a lot of damage before getting to that point though, so ended up repainting sections anyway. As such, that model wasn't finished today.

I also spent some time preparing some A4 craft boxes with magnetic sheeting to act as extra storage for my models. Two boxes done and they work pretty well. This included adding the steel paper to the underside of the models I have recently finished so that they can be stored away.

Today also involved a quick visit to the Carluke and Law Wargames club, where I swapped 3 Sherman V's and a Firefly (the first ones I painted) for 3 Sherman I's and a Hybrid Firefly (all brand new in in box). So Challenge wise I am now less some painted models and up some unpainted ones...

Anyway, onto todays finished models. D7 Angledozer:

Humber Scout Cars:

And the WiP ARV:

Box (Boxes, I used velcro to make sure they stack) - with all my FoW stuff painted so far in the challenge.

And I made a start on the next batch - a Troop of Sherman I's with a Sherman Firefly (one on the right hasn't had any highlights applied to the hull yet):

Skytrex Purchases

As part of my 51st Highland Division force for Operation Totalise I've been putting together a 'Breaching Group' from the D-Day Flames of War book. The Breaching Group represents the support of the 79th Armoured Divisions 'Funnies'. As such I've got a couple of Sherman Crab Flail tanks, some Churchill AVsRE (still to be painted) and the final missing piece of the puzzle was a D7 Armoured Bulldozer.

The Bulldozer was an important part of this for me, as the 144RAC's history of the Operation specifically mentions the presence of one.

"Major Lovibond had gone on a good way towards the objective, accompanied only by a very gallant bulldozer who had been told to follow the tank in front and was faithfully carrying out his orders."

Unfortunately while Battlefront have included the option for taking a Bulldozer in the unit, the only model they have produced for one is in the Engineer Support Platoon (UBX37) - which is an American box set and retails for about £17.99 - the other contents of which are useless to me. 

Thankfully Skytrex produce a model of a D7 Armoured Bulldozer in British service:

This models not properly cleaned or anything - I've just put the parts in roughly the right places. It's a nice beefy model. I'm looking forward to getting it cleaned up and ready to paint... once I've caught up with everything else!

I also ordered a pack of Skytrex's Humber Scout Cars. These are vehicles that are not included in the D-day books, but I know that the armoured regiments in the Independent Armoured Brigades had 11 of these for use in their laison unit. These were used for running messages between the squadrons in the regiment and other units. Quite a few of the pictures of 144RAC include some of the Humber Scout Cars, so I figured I would pick up a couple. They would also be useful for playing Battlegroup Overlord. 

Lastly, I managed to get the decals I needed for the halftrack (British Red Cross markings) and another pack of their wooden crates for vehicle stowage. Of all the stowage options I picked up previously the crates are the ones I used the quickest. 

 
Now if only someone would do a bloody 15mm British dispatch rider!!!