Churchill I OKE conversion.

This model lay in a box for about 10 months. This Churchill I was bought to start a long term army-building process. The armylist that I had in mind can be found here. At the moment I am thinking about changing this list.
I ordered only 1 Churchill I because I wanted to use it as an experiment to see if I could convert it into a Churchill I OKE. I am not very good at converting stuff.
When I opened the blister I already faced the first problem, the blister was missing a hatch. A quick email to Battlefront and the problem was solved. Weeks later (I had to move away from this project because of work and other things) I noticed the biggest problem, the tracks. When I took a closer look they where bend and warped and the front of both tracks had holes in them. Badly cast. At that moment I decided to throw all parts in a box and stack it away.
That was until a few day's ago when I saw the nicely converted Churchill I OKE tanks done by Ben at his blog Breakthrough Assault
This gave me the idea to see if I could convert my Churchill even with such badly cast tracks. First I did the easy part glue the separate pieces into the turret. After that the hard work started by trying to get the tracks as straight as possible. After many hours of slogging I managed to get them a little less bend and warped. It had to do. Next I drilled a little hole in the left track almost at the front. How to convert a Churchill I to a Churchill I OKE can be found on the Battlefront website or in the Dieppe PDF briefing.
Next was to glue the tracks and hull together. With lots of glue and a few clamps I managed to do this. Now all that was left to do was to built the fuel tank, fuel pipe and flame-thrower.
The fuel tank is made out of thin cardboard (yes really), wooden sticks, plastic from a blister and Green Stuff. The fuel pipe and flame-thrower are made copper-wire. When I am going to convert the next Churchill I to a Churchill I OKE I will show with pictures what I did. But because this is a long term project it can take a while. You may always ask questions.

The end result

Top view. You can see the holes in the tracks filled with Green Stuff.

Right side view.

Left side view.

Painting will be done when I have all 3 of the converted Churchill I OKE and the other tanks and infantry.

Thanks for looking.

Home-made Devastating Bombardment Template.

As I recently painted a Rocket Battery, RCA it now also means that I need a Devastating Bombardment Template. When I looked at the Battlefront webstore I was a bit shocked by the price of this template. €30,00 for a template that I probably won't use that much. Also at the moment I can't afford this amount money.
As I need this Devastating Bombardment Template coming Saturday at a tourney I had to come up with an alternative. So I decided to make one my self. The intention was to make one out of plywood but because I am overloaded with work this week I never could get one finished in time if I would use plywood. Thus I choose sturdy cardboard as an alternative because it is easy to cut and is much faster to work with. Later on I can use the cardboard one as a template when I am making one out of plywood.
I started to colect all the needed materials. Cardboard, sharp hobbyknife, ruler, pencil (not on picture), tape (wich I forgot to use), something to cut along to get nice straight lines, I used a trip of iron, something to use as stands (pictured are poles from the BF aircraft but later I decided to replace these with not used rivets because the aircraft poles weren't tall enough). And set to work.

Materials collected

Because the corners of the cardboard were at a nice 90 degree and all side were perfectly straight it meant that I only had to cut 2 sides to get a perfect 30cm x 30cm square of cardboard. Note: on the pictures it not always looks as a square but that is because of the angle the pictures are taken.

30cm x 30cm square of cardboard

Next thing to do, drawing lines. Starting with drawing lines from corner to corner to get a big cross to determine the centre of the template. Beside these lines I draw 2 extra lines 1cm (later I changed that to 1.5cm) apart from the middle lines. Using the small bombardment template I draw the square in the middle. Now I knew which parts I have to remove. From the corners of the drawn square I went 7cm up and draw a line to indicate where I want the poles to be placed.

Drawn lines and more lines

Cutting out 4 triangles. This is done to get a better view under the template making it easier to place the template on the centre of the team / model. With a needle which I pressed through the cardboard I marked the positions of the poles and the centre of the template. Now were the markings are I drilled a hole by hand at the right size. Here is were I forgot to use the tape. Intention was to stick tape on both side were I had to drill so the cardboard wouldn't fray to much.

Template with cut-out triangles

Then suddenly we have something that looks like a Devastating Bombardment Template. With the rivets that I now use as poles the hight of the template from bottom to table is 4.5cm.

Home-made Devastating Bombardment Template with the new poles

Home-made Devastating Bombardment Template with poles in places

Thanks for looking.

Tank Destroyer Platoon, M18 Hellcats.

This platoon took me 5 Years to paint. I started painting the first models at the beginning of 2008. But when I realized that I, at that moment, couldn't use the platoon for my army I set the platoon aside. Three models painted. The first Scoutcar was painted somewhere between the middle of these 5 years. With the release of the NUTS armybook I finally had a reason to finish this platoon. Bought an extra Hellcat to get a platoon of 4 and Scoutcar and set to work. Only difficultly was to paint it in the same (ugly) style as I painted the first models 5 years ago. I think I succeeded in that pretty close. The last painted Hellcat is the second on the left and the last painted Scout car is the one on the left.

M18 Hellcat

Tank Destroyer Platoon

Tank Destroyer platoon (top view)

Security Section

Tank Destroyer section

Thanks for looking.

Rocket Battery, RCA.

Finally a new platoon painted. This time it is for my Canadian Company. It was about time.
The Rocket Battery, RCA.
In Flames of War this battery contains a Command team, Observer team and 2 or 4 Land Mattress. Because I bought 2 blisters to get 4 Land Mattress I also got 2 Command teams and 2 Observer teams. This means that I can take the following options. One Battery with 2 or 4 Land Mattress or Two Battery's with 2 Land Mattress each. That's why you will see in most pictures of my painted battery 2 Command teams and 2 Observer teams.
More about the Land Mattress can be read in this PDF: Land Mattress
The picture below is used as reference for the colour of the warheads.

Rocket warheads

Crew loading a Land Mattress

Complete Rocket Battery, RCA (front view).

Complete Rocket Battery, RCA (top view).