Finished: 15mm Recce 6-pdr Platoon (PSC)

Hi folks,

As usual, a bit more of a delay between my last post and this one. The sunny weather, my dabbling with other bits and generally my lack of enthusiasm for these models all led to me taking a little longer than expected on these guys. 

On the plus side, another unit marked off the painting chart!

These guys are 15mm Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Loyd Carriers and 6-pdr anti-tank guns marked up as a platoon from 2nd Debyshire Yeomanry, 51st Highland Division. 

I've used a mix of different stowage options on the Loyd carriers just to individualise them a little. The carriers themselves I had little issue with. They are decent models and I've added them to FoW medium plastic bases which will be magnetised for storage. 

My main issue with these models were the guns and gun crew figures. The guns are light and fiddly, and the joint between the gun and trailer is a definite weak point. It was tricky to get the guns to sit with a more flat trajectory without them appearing to break off every time I looked at them. Similarly, the crew figures - while they look decent painted - have no bases. As such, painting them was an issue as they have barely any surface area connecting them to a surface. I fully expect that I am going to lose crew figures from the bases as there is just no decent way of securing them. 

The details on the crew were also fairly soft, placement of water bottles on the webbing is wrong on half the models and generally they are nowhere near as nice as metal figures (but we all knew that already). For the price, I suppose they are a good buy. They certainly look like they will fit in with the rest of my collection. 

Crew figures for the carriers are very slight, especially compared to the gun crew. 

I've used my standard basing technique, but the lack of bases mean the crew figures have just had to be glued directly onto the basing material. 

All in all, a useful little 4 gun platoon, which takes my total of (deployed) 6-pdrs up to 10! I'll try to get some pic's of these next to my Battlefront and Forged in Battle Loyds now they are all painted and based. 

The painting chart is starting to fill with more green. Part of the delay on these guys has been the work of the crew figures for the armoured cars - which should be done shortly. 

As for other diversions, I was sent some MDF kits to test build. I've been chasing Pendraken for these since before lockdown! Pretty sure Leon was sick of me bugging him about them every few weeks. These are 15mm Redvector kits that Pendraken will hopefully be stocking some time soon. 

British LCI(S) in early configuration (I've converted mine to be a later variety)

A busy table with my conversion to the LCI(S) and a test of how many 60x40mm bases the 15mm LCT can fit (some sanding was required for the bases, unbased tanks will have no issue). 

6MMRPC: Flames of War British 4.2" Heavy Mortars Finished!

Phew!

A rather busy week for me this week, as it was my first week working away. Unfortunately the public transport and having to carry a weeks worth of work clothes stopped me taking any painting with me, so my efforts have been focused on getting something done this week on my two days home.

I have spent jokers and need to make some back! More details on this later.

My efforts this weekend were focused on getting decals on the vehicles and getting the gun bases finished. I consider that the unit is now done*, so I'll be marking it off my painting chart.

Some pics of the vehicles - the Loyd Carriers are from Forged in Battle and the Universal Carriers are from Battlefront (these are actually two of the three I got from Cameron and that were re-purposed). Two aerials mark out the OP Carrier and one the Command squads carrier. These guys carry the markings of 1/7 Middlesex Regiment, who provided the Vickers and 4.2" support for the 51st Highland Division.

I just realised I still need to do some weathering on the decals. I was also short a small allied star, so one of the Loyd Carriers is missing one. As usual these vehicles have the WD numbers on the side as well (not very visible from the pics).

For the guns, I got the bases finished and the crew mounted on them last weekend. Now, I have real issues with the crew figures in these. I used some green stuff to make the mortar bombs the loaders are carrying a bit beefier, as Battlefront have used the same crew from the 3" Mortar for the much bigger 4.2". I also hate (and I mean hate) the pointing guy. I mean, really. If these mortars are close enough that one of the crew has to point out the target, things are going badly. This has really been on my mind this last week. A few months ago I was looking at a out of production pack of these guys on Ebay that had much nicer older sculpts. I decided not to get them and stuck with the models I had. I now regret it.

This has been on my mind and in my normal 'worm in my brain' fashion I ended up burning a joker to buy a pack of the Italian 4.2" platoon. Purely because there are crew figures in it I like. I have no need for 2 platoons of these guys, so this really is a waste of time and paint, but I decided I just would not be happy unless I fixed the problems I have with the crew on these guns. I'm not sure if I will paint up the other platoon or just take the figures out I want and swap them with the guys in this platoon I don't like.

Yes, I have issues. I can't explain how these things annoy me, I find myself thinking about them all the time until the only way I can resolve it is to do the thing I already know is just silly! I try to make my units as varied as possible given the figures and the idea of these mortar crews looking exactly the same as my 3" platoon just annoyed me.

I also tried something new with these models, for the first time adding aerials to the command and FOO team. I quite like how they look and may go back and retrofit my existing squads. Both radio men on these bases are from Peter Pig (I think!). Detail on the infantry has been something I have been thinking about, and I'm wondering whether to actually try and find a way of including the arm sleeve markings - nothing detailed, just a vague idea of the HD patch. I may need a magnifying glass!

*the other purchase was some ships from GZG. I decided to take advantage of their 30th Birthday sale to pick up a few bits... because I obviously don't have enough ships!

Also, 209 posts! Go me!

6MMRPC Update: 4.2" Mortars

My first week back at work this week, and I was full of enthusiasm for painting. Up till I got home on the first day... When I changed into my painting clothes then sat in a stupor looking at my painting desk. This happened every night for the rest of the week!

Saturday, spurred by the GZG sale and need to generate jokers (my name is Jamie and I have a Full Thrust ship addiction) - as well as the fact it looks like I will be unable to take any painting with me while working away during weekdays for the next 4 weeks - I managed to get a shift on with some Flames of War stuff.

In this case, my 4.2" Heavy Mortar platoon + transports.

With the infantry/crew already painted, I just needed to highlight them and give them a matt coat of varnish. The vehicles needed highlighting and decals, then weathering and a final matt coat.

I also had to paint the vehicle and gun bases before putting on the crew. I had hoped to get the gun bases finished today, but I was distracted by a swarm of honey bees in the street outside. There were thousand's of them! A bit of online research later and I found a local beekeeper who I got in contact with. She came out and managed to gather up a lot of the bees, although she didn't think she had the queen. By the time I found the beekeeper and such, most of the swarm had moved on - taking the queen with them, we suspect.

So, progress so far this week:-

4 gun bases with crew, needing the space around the crew figures filled in and then static grass and tufts/flowers. The FOO and Command bases only had resin put on them today as I forgot about them. They will have to wait till next weekend. Front and side pic's for each of the 4 teams.

I will comment on the figures once I have the whole unit done I think, to save repeating myself!

Next up the Loyds Carriers and Universal Carriers for the command and FOO - these have been highlighted and have had the gloss varnish applied prior to decals. I just noticed I am short on the small allied stars. I have an order outstanding with Dom's Decals but can't remember if I ordered these.

Some of these have come out a little dark - I'm not too happy with the highlights, but they look a lot better from gaming distances than close up. Aerials for the radios still need to be applied to the Universal Carriers - as per my standard the command carrier will have one and the FOO carrier will have two (hopefully!).

Along with the crew for the Mortars there were a few other currently unassigned infantry figures finished as well, but they will stay on the lolly sticks until I decide what I am doing with them. I think some of them will end up on individual bases as spares for my Battlegroup Overlord games.

So that's all for this week folks - have to say some other peoples output for the challenge has been putting me to shame. Well done to them all for making such great progress!

Plastic Soldier Company WW2 Armour British Spray Review

With most of my fellow 6 Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge (6MMRPC) having hit their 6 months point last week and finished the challenge (well done everyone!), I am in my final stretch. I started almost a month later so I am aiming to finish at the end of March.

As part of that final push I've been trying to get a couple of full units that are in progress to the point of at least getting to the 'yellow' stage on my painting chart. Varnishing is still not possible due to the weather here and despite having permission to varnish in the spare room, I've held off because having permission from the better half does not always mean it's a good idea...

Today we had a dry clear day - although the wind was a little gusty. Our back garden is a lot smaller than at the cottage, and a bit more sheltered. I took the chance to try out the PSC British Armour spray I picked up a long time ago.

I've held off using the spray as my other models are painted using Vallejo Model Color 70.924 Russian Uniform as the base green. I knew that using the spray would result in a slightly different tone, but today I decided to give it a shot.

I also discovered a macro setting on one of the camera apps on my phone, so thought I would test that out.

The jeep on the right was hand painted using Vallejo Russian Uniform. The left hand jeep is straight off the spraying board. I'm not sure that the pictures show it, but the PSC spray painted jeep has a slightly deeper tone. Definitely slightly darker that the hand painted one. All in all though I'm quite happy with it.

The tin itself seems to contain a good quantity of spray. It went on easily enough (despite the wind!), although I always struggle to stick to the spray range on the bottle. at 12" it didn't seem like any spray was making it to the models. Again, this could have been the weather.

The other thing to note is that the jeep was sprayed straight on to bare metal and resin. The Loyd carriers I sprayed had been primed black first. The spray is labelled as a primer, so I will go over the non primed models with a quick coat of Russian Uniform, to help the colour match and give a little more protection.

The macro setting on the camera seems to work, but does show off my too thick paint. Getting consistency right is something I still have not managed with the Vallejo paints. When I try to water down I end up with a consistency like that of a wash, but when I don't water it down the finish on the paint isn't as smooth as I would like.

Anyway, the PSC spray is a decent match. I'm happy with it and will use it again.

15mm Loyd Carrier Comparison (Battlefront, PSC, Forged in Battle)

On Saturday I was in Teeside at A's parents so went along to the Battleground 2014 show - formerly Smoggycon (my visit being cunningly organised by me to allow me to attend the show while A went to the hairdressers). While there I picked up some models - hence using my other Joker for the 6 Month Miniature Mountain Reduction Painting Competition.

The models in question were the Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Loyd Carrier and 6-pounder plastic box.

Image used without permission, no ownership claimed by me!

While I don't need these models just now, my Recce company list will eventually need 4 of these guns. And I really liked the look of the Loyd Carrier with the canvas hood on!

The models had a little flash on them, but were easy to clean with a craft knife and a small file. The instructions...

...were fairly straight forward but oddly difficult. The step 2. handily says 'Check orientation of Axle' - but gives no indication of what that actually means. The Engine sub-assembly section was also a bit strange as the front and rear sections of the engine are different, but the image has them being the same (the engine cover with the extra detail on it goes to the rear).

The sprues themselves have a lot of detail on them, including some jerry cans, ammo boxes, etc. The crew figures look a decent size for using with Battlefront models, but I have left them on the sprue for now as I will paint them separately  rather than as part of the model.

The model itself scales very well with both the Battlefront and the Forged in Battle Loyd carrier. For the purposes of the pictures I placed the plastic PSC model on the FoW medium base, as the other two models have the bases cast on.

In the pictures the painted model is the Battlefront model.

As the pictures show the plastic kit is a good match. Once I've had some time to put the 6-pounder together I will take some comparison shots of it with the Battlefront model. All in all a very nice kt, fiddly to assemble but it looks great and the detail is impressive. I love the canopy, and it really gives another option to something that can be quite samey when in a large army or collection.

So these will take quite a while to paint up, but I'm glad I got them (even though I felt a little like I was buying them just because there was such a lack of other options - 15mm WW2 models are getting in shorter and shorter supply at shows currently).