Peaky Blinders - The official Guide

 As I mentioned at the end of my first post about Flat Caps and Truncheons, I have never watched Peaky Blinders. I was in my local The Works (other discount book sellers are available) a couple of weeks ago and saw this on sale.

It has a number of colour photographs of the cast, set and vehicles, which I thought would be useful reference as well as descriptions of the production.

Flat Caps and Truncheons

 Flat Caps and Truncheon is a two player starter set for The Chicago Way game from Greate Escape Games. The Chicago Way is set in Prohibition era Chicago, this set transports the action to Interwar Birmingham, inspired by the BBC series Peaky Blinders.

The game comes in a large box.

The box contains fifteen 28mm scale white metal figures and fifteen standard Renedra 25mm round bases (I used Wargames Atlantic 25mm dual use bases for the figures so I cound have a flat blend in with the puddle bases on the figures).

There are seven Peaky Blinders figures including one with a Lewis Gun and another withh a WW1 German submachine gun.

There are seven City of Birmingham police, three with rifles, two with pistols, one with a truncheon and a plain clothes one with a pistol.

There is also a Molly Suffolk character.

There are the required cards, both generic The Chicago Way and Flat Caps and Truncheon specific ones, plus a set of markers. There is also a character card for Molly Suffolk.

There is a standard The Chicago Way rule book, and a three leaf fold out sheet with three scenarios and the stats for the police and criminals.

I was rather disappointed with the latter, I had hoped for more details on the set up (I have never watched Peaky Blinders).

Flat Caps and Truncheons - The Police

 At Colours I bought Flat Caps and Truncheons, a Chicago Way starter set.

There are seven police officers, six in uniform and one plain clothes.

The sergeant.

Three police officers with bolt action rifles.

Two police officers with revolvers and one with a truncheon.

Group shot.

Empress FT tank scale comparison

 I built one of the Empress FT tanks back in 2017 (and a Carden Loyd Carrier). The tank is not currently on the Empress site. I think it is 1/55 scale.

Though there is a scale photograph with the unfinished mode, there is not one of the finished model.

It is a really diminutive tank (and the garden Loyd is even smaller).

Mark Copplestone (I am surprised I have so few models tagged as sculpted by him) has been working on a range of Neo-Retro Wargaming and Pseudo-Nostalgia figures scaled at about 30mm.

They are fictional InterWar period figures with a distinct "toy soldier" look to them.

Here is a scale photograph of a 30mm lipped base propped up against the FT tank.

US T1E2 Light Tank

The US Light Tank prototype T1E2 was one of a series of Light Tanks built in the late 'twenties and early 'thirties.

The T1E2 was the third prototype model and had the engine in the front with the turret and the crew compartment at the rear. The turret was armed initially with a short 37mm gun and a coax 0.30" Browning, but was later armed with a long barrel 37mm Browning semi-automatic gun.

The Empress kit comprises a resin hull and turret, and white metal track units and gun barrel.

I managed to irreversibly bend the barrel, so decided to make my own out of brass rod.

 The track units do not have proper fixing points, so I drilled a couple of depressions into the hull and the track unit so the epoxy resin would have a better grip.

The gun barrel, recuperator and coax machine gun were made from 1.5mm diameter brass rod.

A  set of ammunition boxes from the Rubicon Allied Stowage Set was cut in half and fixed to the rear mudguards.

 Once assembled, the tank was given an undercoat of Citadel Chaos Black spray, followed by Humbrol 155 Olive Drab spray. The tracks were painted with a wet blended mix of Vallejo black, Vallejo Black Grey, and Army Painter Chaotic Red.

This was dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green dry brush paint. The track etc was retouched with a similar mix.

 The decals were from the Italeri 28mm scale M3 Stuart kit. I am not convinced about the US flag.

A comparison with the Carden Loyd MG carrier.

It now needs some weathering.

I did have a zoom in on the flag:

That is a fifty star flag, someone did not do their research.

Panzer I Ausf B with Breda 20mm auto cannon finished... part 5

So, the Panzer I Ausf B is now more or less finished.

Okay, there is still some work to do on the wheels.

The crew has evidently stolen a fire bucket (a Rubicon Models bucket from one of the stowage).

William Killian faces down the Panzer.

Panzer I Ausf B with Breda 20mm auto cannon continued... part 4

I have found the remaining white metal parts, though only the headlight was needed. I have added the two posts on the glacis for the first of the soft stowage.

A tarpaulin has been added to the glacis. A Rubicon Allied Stowage set crate has been placed behind the fire extinguisher.

The fixing of the bucket has been bulked up to indicate the loop. Not sure what is in the bucket. Note the bubble on the mudguard.

Another view of the new tarpaulin. An additional peg has been added to the front track guard.

A greenstuff tarpaulin has now been added to the right track guard. The tarpaulin is additionally secured to the front right tow hook.

One short and one long Rubicon Allied Stowage crate have been added to the engine deck.

A tarpaulin has been draped over part of the two crate. A small amount of greenstuff was used to fill the gap between the crates. The gap between the aerial and the hull mount has been bridged with greenstuff.

A view of the tarpaulin.

Next stop, spray painting.

Panzer I Ausf B with Breda 20mm auto cannon continued...

So, it has been a while.

Well, I have managed to mislay the exhaust. So I have made one from some brass rod and some plastic tube. I have added it below, and the rack of jerry cans.

The other missing feature is the aerial trough. I added it from Evergreen 2.5mm H section. The aerial itself is a piece of bent brass rod. Unfortunately it has come up short, so will need to be fixed with some greenstuff.  The Jerry cans have had an additional rack base added from 2.5mm Evergreen strip.

A tow cable was added from brass wire. A hole was drilled in glacis and the wire was added, then additional fixing points were added by drilling groups of two holes and then pushing a loop through. A Rubicon tow cable loop was glued over the end.

A squad of Warlord Blitzkrieg Germans support the Panzer IB.