Finished: 15mm M10C, Sherman I's and Churchill Croc

Hi Folks,

Over the last couple of weeks I have been spending my paint and chat time (as it seems most nights I am painting I am also on a hangout...) working on finishing off my Anti-tank M10C battery along with my last Churchill Crocodile - and a couple of Sherman I's.

I managed to more or less finish these guys all off, bar a couple little fixes, over the weekend.

Things still to do include a little bit of soot here and there, a base for the Croc's fuel trailer and the magnetic sheeting for under the bases.

So, first up, my Self-Propelled 17 Pounder 'Achilles' M10C's. These guys are representing the 6th Canadian Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. Specifically vehicles of "B" Troop, 33 Battery, who advanced during the night attack along with 7 Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders during their attack towards Crasmesnil. The troop took no casualties during the night advance, although one of the vehicle commanders apparently shot up some German infantry with a Sten! During the 8th August the Regiment lost 1 Officer Killed, 1 Wounded, 6 'Other Ranks' killed, 12 wounded and 3 Missing.

This regiment was a Corps asset of 2nd Canadian Corps, 1st Canadian Army in Normandy.  This was one of three possible M10 units I could have added - the others being those of the 1st Polish Armoured and 4th Canadian Armoured Divisions. However as they were in action during phase 2 of the Totalise operation, I went with the unit present during the night attack. For those interested, the Canadian Government has made digital copies of a huge number of their countries war diaries free online.

The diary relating to the operation I am covering for this unit is located here. I have to say that it just shows how such records should be treated and makes the UK Governments efforts seem rather miserly and money grubbing.

Interestingly, prior to finding this dairy I had no idea that this unit was involved in the Highland Division part of the attack. Neither, it seems, were many modern authors. The main reference book I have for Totalise (written by a Canadian) makes no mention of these vehicles being present in the assault columns. Another interesting fact from the war diary was the line:-

"7 Aug 1944 - Attack to go in tonight at 2330 hrs. The C.O. moved Tac HQ to CCRA's report centre at MR063678 for period of "push". Welding of turret tops on M10s as protection against mortars and shrapnel completed today." (Emphasis mine!)

I don't have turret tops on these chaps, but I can see it being an option in the future. If anyone has any they are not using (they can be found in the American 4 vehicle box set) I would be interested in hearing from you. Failing that, I may buy some more to build as 3" armed M10's and do some weapon swaps on these guys. Time will tell! Also corrected after these pics were taken were the crew members beret's. For Artillery units these should be Khaki rather than black, and so have been re-painted!!!

I've also discovered that my source giving these units M10C's at this point was incorrect, and that it looks like the unit did not receive these vehicles until late August - so it looks like the 3" armed  armoured roof versions might be on the cards!

I also finished two more Sherman I's for my Squadron of 144RAC, tanks '83' and '84' of #3 Troop. my 14th and 15th Sherman (that I currently own, anyway!).

And finally the last (number 6!) of my Churchill Crocodiles. I still have the trailer to base and I forgot to update some of the decals, but I may just weather them a bit more heavily and forget about that! This Churchill has some of the great stowage from the Battlefront Churchill pack (as do many of these vehicles) but I love the use of the Churchill track links instead of the Sherman ones I had used previously.

And that, more or less, is that!

Post Gunuary!

Hi folks,

So with my artillery wrapped up for now, I have moved on to something that does not involve painting infantry figures! So I moved back to tanks (and technically, self-propelled guns).

First up some work in progress shots of the M10C's. They have been block painted and washed - awaiting highlights, foliage, varnish, decals, basing, etc, etc, etc.

Then we have a Churchill Crocodile - number 6 and the final addition.

And then two Sherman I's.

Still a bit to do on these vehicles, but nice progress aided by the Paint and Chat's I've been attending and hosting. Again, a lot of work still to do - but I'm getting there. Also working on two of the trucks I had which will go towards (surprise surprise) artillery unit transport.

That's all for now! Hopefully not too long before I get finished pics up. The M10C's and Churchill will finish off two units, with the Shermans being 50% of another.

6MMRPC: Finished! Churchill Crocodiles

Hi folks,

A busy weekend away, but I managed to get these models finished on Friday. Only crew figures to add to the 2 troop command vehicles, and that's them! There are still a few needing magnetised, but I'm not counting that as part of the painting process currently.

In the longer term, I am going to pick up one more Churchill Croc to finish off the 2 tank troop. I didn't aim to have 5, only obtaining the extra 2 as replacements for poor castings on 2 of the others (which I have more or less hidden under camo netting) - but since I ended up with almost 2 full troops, I may as well finish them.

More pics of these guys are planned, but above are pics of one of the troop command tanks and another of the troop tanks with it's fuel trailer.

The tanks are decalled up as Churchill Crocodiles from 141 RAC, 31st Tank Brigade. I've gone quite light on squadron markings due to lack of space on the turrets and being a little unclear as to what the markings should be. I could find very few pictures that clearly showed the tactical markings. As I understand it, as the junior regiment of 31st Tank Brigade these markings were in blue, which shows up poorly on period black and white pictures.

Although this regiment ended up working as part of 79th Armoured Division, administratively it remained as part of the 31st Tank Brigade until late 44/early 45, hence the lack of any 79th AD markings.

6MMRPC: Crocs, trailers and Wasp's update

Hi folks,

So the end of the first week living with Amy's parents, and so far everyone is still alive...

But in all seriousness, everything has been fine, new job is going well and I have a little man cave set up with my PC and painting table. While we have been busy this week - and I have some sort of throat bug - I did manage to keep the momentum going painting wise and keep chipping away at the lead mountain.

I focused on a smaller number of vehicles, really because of time limitations but also due to a dip in motivation. As i said at the start of the week I wanted to keep going as to stop could be dangerous in the long term. But at the same time I do feel a bit of a slowdown is in order.

Still, this week I worked on highlighting 3 of my Churchill Crocs, 3 fuel trailers and 3 Wasp carriers.

I'm not sure that these pic's will do the figures any favours as they still have no matt coat on them so are a little shiny. Just to show varnished vs highlighted, here's a another couple of shots:

Varnished and unhighlighted tank is on the left.

And some individual shots of the 3 Crocs:

 The highlight consisted of 50/50 Russian Uniform WW2 and Khaki and is applied to all raised areas. Some panels that would catch the light also painted. I then dry brushed the whole vehicle Russian Uniform WW2 as well, which brings up the base colour and blends the highlights a little. The metal is highlighted with a lighter shade of grey than it was painted - I've almost entirely stopped using metallic paints. I dry brushed the camo netting Reflective Green then added small patches of Flat Earth, Khaki and English Uniform. I also dry brushed some black paint around the flame thrower nozzle and hull below it.

The Wasp's received much the same treatment:

As did the fuel trailers:

So these guys just all need some patches of gloss prior to decals. And then I hit a snag. No one makes decals for 141 RAC in 15mm. The only decals I could get close are Battlefronts own late war decals, which have markings for another regiment in 31st Tank Brigade. I (eventually) managed to track down a UK retailer that had these in stock, and ordered a pack. I'll just have to alter them slightly to change a number on the AoS from a 2 to a 3, but that should be no big deal. It appears in Normandy 141 RAC were the only Crocodile unit operating and they were not officially made part of 79th Armoured Division until September-October 1944. Up until that point they were still (at least theoretically) part of 31 Tank Brigade - so should still have these markings.

Also on order (or received this week) has been:

- packs of Stowage from Peter Pig, Skytrex and for the first time, Battlefront - just to add some variety.

- leaves and 'branches' from Antenocitis Workshop, which I will review when I try them out.

- I made use of a Hobbycraft voucher I got from my colleagues in Glasgow when I left in order to buy 2 more of the plastic tubs I have been using for army storage (I prefer these to the file storage boxes I have), 4 bags of woollen stuff (review to follow, it seems to be the same thing that Battlefront use for their destroyed vehicle markers) in Red, Orange and 2 Black. A magnifying glass with a daylight bulb - because it may make painting infantry easier... And a packet of drill bits for my dremel tool - although a lot of them are too small to fit it so will be used in my hand drill.

I've held off spending money on figures as I am also upgrading my PC a little. And I'm pretty sure I have no Jokers left for now!

So aims for next week will be to get the gloss on these models above for decals, decals on the Wasps and start highlights on the remaining 2 Croc's, M10C and 3 Universal Carriers.

Back on the Wagon...

Hi folks,

All moved and ensconced in my new (temporary) painting room. Today (Monday) was my first day at the new office, and a fuel spill and lorry fire on one of the main roads in the area saw my travel time home go from 20 minutes to over 2 hours. Just like being back working in Glasgow!

*Sigh*

When I got home I really didn't want to do any painting. But I knew that was a dangerous path to go down... I just knew if I didn't do something it would be weeks before I picked a paintbrush up again. So I forced myself to get organised and do a little line highlighting.

Not great photos, I know. I also managed to get a fuel trailer and a Wasp done with the lightened Russian Uniform.

Still greys and other colours to highlight, base to do, etc. I'll see how the highlights work in the light of day tomorrow and decide if I need to do more or go lighter.

I also received my hobby drill that I had ordered. £15 from Ebuyer and I got all this:

I've already tested it out - the largest size drill bit is the perfect size for the magnets I have - a small mount of work and one of my Sherman Fireflys now has a magnetised turret! I'm aiming to work my way through my whole collection of resin tanks over the next few weeks. No hurry though as it is slightly mess and noisy.

I'm going to try and keep the momentum up painting wise, as if I let it slide it will be too easy to not do anything. A little and often will keep things just ticking over. The trick seems to be to just do something - even slow progress is still progress!

Hopefully an easier journey home tomorrow night and I'll feel less rushed for time. My aim is to get at least another 2 Churchills highlighted.

6MMRPC: Moar green tanks! Huzzah!

Hi folks,

With packing activity progressing I've been hurrying to get up to date with my modelling so I can get things varnished and then all my modelling stuff packed away. Don't get me wrong - packing takes precedence. But there is only so much you can do in a day! I think Amy understands that what I'm working on just now is my way of transitioning through the move - I feel like being able to pick up right where I've left off will help make things a lot easier for me.

This weekend I have been working on getting the three M3A1's, two Crusader AA and single M10C up to a point that they can be varnished. I'd have loved to get all 4 M10C's painted, but without enough stowage they are going to have to wait. These are all Battlefront models.

I also touched up paint on the three Wasp's I had worked on previously. I hadn't put any stowage on them and there were a few other bits I wanted to fix.

As part of the painting process I sorted out the bases, getting the acrylic resin on them, trimming them down and then magnetising them.

Here's the whole lots with the bases on:

I have to say, the Crocs look bloody good with the bases on them (although I know they won't be everyone's cup of tea). For the fuel trailers I just glued them onto the bases at the correct angle for them to line up with the tanks. They are not attached, so can be freely removed.

Some closer shots of the other tanks - as per usual these are WiP and just have the main colours blocked in before they get a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone varnish applied. So there are no highlights or anything on these models.

The M3A1 was a development of the M3 Light Tank. Normally referred to the Stuart in British service (after the standard British naming convention - most Lend Lease American tanks were given the names of American Civil War generals (Grant, Lee, Stuart, Sherman)) the standard M3 was also known as 'Honey'. Apparently as crews described them as 'running like a real honey'.

The M3A1's official name in the British Army was the Stuart III. It varied from the Stuart I (Honey) by having a new turret with turret basket and no cupola. Gun vertical stabiliser were installed and the sponson machine guns were removed. The turret is more rounded and less angular than the one used in the M3 and the removal of the commanders cupola on the turret roof means that there is a different hatch layout than the earlier version.

M3A1 of 144RAC somewhere in Normandy

A rather nice 1:72 Diorama of the picture above. From here - diorama by orionv

In British service, the Stuart V's tended to be given to the Armoured Divisions, while the Stuart III's were still in use by the Independent Armoured Brigades.

Armed with a 37mm gun and three .30cal machine guns, it was pretty lightly armed and armoured for 1944. In fact, I think the Americans considered them to be obsolete.

Next up, the Crusader AA tanks.

These tanks are Crusader III, AA Mk II's. Armed with twin 20mm Oerlikon cannons. Prior to D-Day there was real concern about the Luftwaffe's response to the invasion and integral AA defence for units was seen as critical. The AA tanks came about from obsolete Crusader tanks being re-armed with the 20mm cannons. These were normally issued at a rate of 6 per Armoured regiment (normally to the HQ squadron). They saw little to no use in their intended role and there are various stories about how they were used in action - mainly being used as 'escort' tanks for unarmoured elements or as backup for the Regiments Light tanks. In June 1944 33 Armoured Brigade had 20 of these tanks on strength (6 per Regiment with 2 at Brigade HQ). By December 1944 there were none of these vehicles listed as being on strength of 33 Armoured Brigade, as they were removed from service and the crews used as replacements for losses in the Regiments.

There should be a tubular framework around the top of the turrets, but it's too fiddly for me even to try at this scale. 

Lastly, my single M10C.

Not much stowage on this, as I was running out. The netting looks pretty good, but the plan is to try and add to this with some foliage. If I can get some that looks realistic!

This is an American M10 Tank Destroyer armed with the British 17 Pounder Anti Tank gun. Normally called an Achilles, during WW2 it was called a 17pdr M10 or 17pdr SP M10. Lightly armoured but with one of the best anti tank guns the western allies used, these vehicles are not truly tanks - although they look like them! These are strictly speaking self propelled anti tank guns and were used by Royal Artillery (and Royal Canadian Artillery) anti tank units. Mines will be from 6th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, RCA. These were the corps A/T regiment of 2nd Canadian Corps.

So with these guys based, I'm hoping to get them varnished tomorrow. This will give them a day or so to dry then everything can be packed away!

Thanks for reading!