Lt Gruber's Little Tank Redux

Playing catch up here after several months of slacking on updating the blog; plenty of stuff has been painted, but not much has made it on here! Hopefully now getting a handle on rectifying this...

After the unmitigated disaster that was the Sheridan, I decided to try and calm myself down by building something a bit more straight-forward (and with a far simpler paint scheme...)

On raiding the stash, my eyes lighted on a long-forgotten JB Models Saladin armoured car. Bought yonks ago for about three quid, I'd intended on doing a diorama feauring this, a Saracen APC, a Diamond-T and a civvy motor having a Mexican stand-off at a T-junction somewhere in Wales in the 50s... However, having accepted that that's never ever going to get done, I decided it would make an ideal addition to the 1970s US force in the guise of a Sonderwagen 3 of the Bundesschutzegruppe, and so I set about throwing it together.

The JB kits (now Airfix) are very simple little kits (to the point of crudity in the case of some of the earlier ones, such as this one!) but with a little care and thought, they can be made into pretty convincing little items. I the case of the Saladin, the most obvious omission are the tie-downs surrounding the turret. I fabricated some out of stretched sprue; they're horrendously over scale, but they give the impression nicely. Next up, I drilled out the barrels of the smoke dischargers (madness, but improves the look to no end) and the main armament, and added a canvas sleeve to same. The co-ax .30 was replaced with an S&S piece, and the AA .30 (which is just downright offensive) was similarly skipped and replaced with a Sgts Mess item. Intending to leave the hatched open, I duffed up some basic hatch interiors from stock and more stretched sprue, and with the addition of some stowage from various sources, I was left with this-

A nice coat of what Humbrol had sold me claiming to bronze green soon followed, (nothing like bronze green, but perfect for this scheme!), and it was starting to come together...

Some WWII panzer crewmen in field caps were sourced from Foundry (conveniently also featuring winter parkas on some of the sculpts. Might see about doing another one of these!) Some git came up with the great idea of doing Sumpfmuster in 20mm...

Et viola. One finished BGS Sonderwagen 3. Looks totally out of place in it's bright green paint scheme against the snowbound base, but suitably eye-catching on the table...! The registration plate came out far too large, despite careful measuring. This will probably be replaced at some point, but will be left in place for now.

Cheers
Iain

First of 2015- BRDM-2 Finished!

Happy New Year to all, and best wishes for 2015! So, hopefully Santa brought you all plenty of lead/ plastic/ resin/ figure casting medium of choice, and you get plenty of time to indulge in it...

Over the last week or so I've been able to be fairly busy on the modelling front, and have made some progress on a few fronts.

First up, the BRDM-2 was finally finished off!

Quite pleased with how this has turned out, overall. I know the Guards markings would most likely have been painted out in the event of hostilities, but the version supplied by S-Model omitted the white infil, and as such looked like a sort of "Low-vis" version, suitable for field use, so I kept it in, to avoid the vehicle being a plain green blob....

So that's a total of 1 Russkie vehicle finished, but it's better than nothing!

More to follow shortly.....

Cheers
Iain

Cold War Update…

…the last of the year? Well hopefully not.  However, of late I’ve been trying to batter through some of the last remnants of half done stuff on the workbench.

The Soviet BRDM-2 has progressed a bit, and the weathering doesn’t look too bad, now that the rest of the vehicle has caught up with it a bit. Hopefully should have this finished by the end of the month, and thus allow the Soviets to start 2015 with at least some mobility….

Back in the West, I’ve finished the remaining two US infantrymen

Here they are with the rest of the fireteam

And the whole lot together. I’m quite chuffed with how cohesive they look, despite the two dramatically different kit and uniforms between the infantry and the LRRPs

With that being the end of the available infantry for the time being, I guess it’s time to start on the vehicles…

Cheers,

Iain.

Latest Cold War Progress…

Since the last post I’ve made a start on the two remaining US infantrymen for the 70's project. They’re coming along nicely and hopefully should be finished by next week.

I’ve moved the BRDM-2 on a little bit, too. Unfortunately I may have gone a bit too heavy on the weathering; the paint job would be fine for some chanky old rustbucket from the Balkan conflict, but not quite as suitable for a well maintained machine in its prime, in the service of a Guards Motor Rifle Regiment…

I’ve also just procured something a bit special for the Soviets, but you’ll just need to wait to see what that is….

Cheers

Iain

OK, Some More Communism…

There are still some assorted Soviet items on the workbench just being finished off. These will be reinforcements for my main, temperate Central Front, Soviet force opposing my BAOR.

First up, the Elhiem AT-4/5 ATGM team.

Note, this has subsequently had the bushes added to the base that I forgot to do before photographing it…

Elhiem DShK HMG team

First Soviet vehicle, a BRDM-2 from S-Models. This is the first kit of theirs I’ve built and I must say I’m impressed. Lovely, crisp detail, quick construction, clear instructions, no flash or sink holes/ visible ejector pin marks and even PE parts! Also included is a comprehensive decal sheet allowing for various Warsaw Pact member states to be represented. And what’s more, you get 2 in a box! Two vehicles, with decals and PE parts and of the quality rendered really can’t be beat for about 12 quid. My one minor criticism would be that rather than the inclusion of PE parts (the bulk of which I’ve left off as too delicate for gaming purposes), I’d rather see S-Model reconsider the positioning of some of the moulding gates on some of the finer pieces (MG barrels and the shafts of the pioneer tools in particular) as these are almost impossible to remove or clean up without mangling. However, as noted, this is a minor and not insurmountable gripe.

At present, it’s still at the green stage of painting, and looks a bit scrappy. But hopefully that should change with successive highlights…

With yet more Soviet infantry on the horizon from Elhiem, I’m going to have to come up with an idea for shoehorning some more in, to justify buying all the poses… At the moment Naval Infantry are top of the list; at first they were going to be based the same as these guys for Central Front fun (or even Home Front shenanigans; the recent Elhiem RUC releases would do just dandy for mainland UK police…), but thinking about it logically, they may be better based to match my nascent Norwegian force (all three of ‘em!) to support planned Soviet operations on NATO’s northern flank….but that’s for another day.

Cheers

Iain