Tanktober is here!

Well, it just happens to be October 1st, and it just happens that I have painted a tank. So Tanktober it is!

The tank in question partway painted, a Rubicon Panzer IV.

I was really surprised on how easy it was to get this one painted. I think the good details helped a lot. If you are interested you can read my full review of this kit here where I compare it with Warlord Games' Panzer IV kit. Basically, in the picture above all I have done is sprayed it Desert Yellow (with an Army Painter rattle can), washed it all over with my Future/Devlan Mud mix, painted the tracks and other metal parts gunmetal and the rubber tires dark grey. While nowhere near finished in my eyes it does look the part and could be used on the gaming table without anyone lifting an eyebrow.

How to paint vehicles the Viking way

This one's for Anne, who asked how I had painted my little Kübelwagen.

The vehicle in question

Well, unfortunately I didn't take many WIP shots while I was painting it, but I will try and explain using photos of other vehicles I have painted the same way. So, where to begin? First of all, painting vehicles is nothing like painting figures. Although in theory you could employ the same techniques you can't use them the same way.

The wheels and tracks of the Afrika Korps

I almost called this blogg post "Dune buggies". Anyway here are the Afrika Korps vehicles I did for the convention this easter.

My platoon commander and his second in command.

 If you missed the infantry just go to the previous post or click here.

A captured Bren Gun carrier in gerrman service.

More pictures after the break.

The Might of the Afrika Korps

I have finally got around taking pictures of my Deutsche Afrika Korps force I painted for the easter convention.

Platoon commander, 50mm mortar team, AT rifle team and the platoon sergeant.

To be honest they are not 100% completely finished; when taking the pictures I noticed some stuff I forgot to paint here and there, and the bases really needs a unifying drybrush to tie them together. I have used textured paint from Tamiya and Vallejo and they differ slightly in shade despite both of them being called desert sand. The vehicles could use a dusting with pigments and perhaps a few decals, but by and large I'm calling them table ready. (A proven fact since they have been used on a gaming table!)

The rest of the figures behind the break.

DAK Hanomag WIP

I couldn't resist picking up a Warlord Games Hanomag at Gothcon last month. This is a plastic kit of the famous german halftrack, Sd.Kfz 251 (the funny little letters just mean special motor vehicle) ausf. C (the third version which was used roughly between 1941 and 1944). It features a riveted hull which was later changed to being welded which makes it more suitable for the earlier period. This is perfect for using with my DAK which currently lacks any transports.

The shape is accurate enough, but the details are a bit crude.

G-Day!

G as in Gothcon that is, the largest roleplay-, war- and miniature games convention in Sweden. Scandinavian Lardies (as we have dubbed our little TFL fan group) will be there, demoing Chain of Command... the last month has been a furious painting and modelling ordeal to get everything finished, which is why I haven't updated for a while.

I won't write much, since I'm leaving for the train in half an hour, so I will simply post some WIP pictures instead.

Trying to fit stuff into my K&R satchel.

DAK, finished!

More DAK finished!

Brits and jump off points waiting to be varnished.

A well. Could come in handy in the desert. WIP DAK in the background.

An ex-camel.

British hero with looted MP40 and scoped Lee Enfield. Anyone who knows his name?

The vehicles fit! Hooray! 

The obligaotry Panzer Bucket.

Captured Bren gun carrier. One previous owner.

 Watch this space for the after-convention report in about a week.

Blogging is not painting

Ooops, nearly two weeks without an update. Well I've been busy, painting and visiting Stockholm for a work course, among other things.

The great Henry Hyde has some tips about blogging in his Battlegames magazine, which says you should update often and be brief. Well I'm just the opposite, I don't update if I don't feel I have something to say or show. And when I do, I can't keep it short. Anyway, lots of WIP stuff, but nothing finished, or rather, I have no photos of finished stuff, because that involves me getting the camera out, setting up the light booth, etc.

But I have a couple of things to show you. First work is progressing on the kubelwagen and captured carrier I wrote about earlier. They are about 90% done including crew, just small niggling stuff like details, some stowage and weather. No pictures though, except for this one.

Perry 28mm kübelwagen with Tamiya 1/48 scale jerry can.

You see, I decided I needed some extra stowage on my vehicles, and perhaps a couple of fuel drums and what not to make some Jump Off points with. (Jump Off points are sort of deployment markers for Chain of Command, marking points on the board where you can deploy your troops.) So I picked up a Tamiya Jerry Can Set in 1/48 from my local friendly hobby shop.

I went in to buy a Jerry Can set, nothing more. And look what followed me home.

I also, somehow, managed to pick up an armoured car, oh dear. I have no idea how that happened. It seems that the British forces will have a numerical superiority at the convention though, so the armoured car will come in handy.

Even the sun has its spots

To supplement my Perry plastic Afrika Korps, I decided to buy a couple of their metal packs. At £7 for six figures they are not exactly cheap, and three packs cost as much as a box of their plastic figures. But I decided it was worth it, to get some different poses not possible to build from the box, and also because I really like the Perry twins' sculpts. In my experience metals are always better than plastic if all other things (like sculptor) being equal.

Perry Miniatures. Excellent sculpts, not so good casts.

I was in for a surprise though. The surface of the figures was quite uneven, with pits and even tiny holes were the metal hadn't filled the mold completely. Several rifles and one smg barrel were unformed, there were a lot of flash between legs on some figures, and the equipment on the back of some figures had big lumps of metal underneath. The figures are not unusable, but the quality is definitely not up to scratch. Either the Perry metals are extremely popular and have already worn out their moulds, or their caster is not up to scratch. A shame really.

As I now find that I need a few extra British figures I choose to buy another box of plastic figures instead of metals. Too bad, because Perry's metal British have long trousers instead of shorts and I wanted some variety but I do not dare to order them now.

Hugh Jarce, sculpted by Richard Ansell for TooFatLardies

Speaking of long trousers I recently found the Hugh Jarce figure that Richard Clarke commissioned for those who pre-ordered IABSM 3rd edition. He was buried in my lead pile under a bunch of Bushido miniatures. I originally planned to use him with my early war British, but now he gets to lead my desert forces instead. Armed with a drum magazine Tommy gun he's ready to bag the hun.

Bit of a disappointment and bit of a delightful surprise.

I'm slowly working my way through my backlog, but I can't resist adding to the lead and plastic pile now and then. As I needed some more riflemen for my DAK I ordered a bunch of Perry metal figures to accompany the plastics I already have. However, the order were processing for two weeks and only just got sent; in this internet age of instant gratification I naturally lost patience and bought something from my friendly local hobby shop to keep me occupied.

I decided to plonk out on a set of Italeri 1:56 German infantry. You can never have enough germans, right?

Perry Miniatures DAK Kübelwagen Review and WIP

I decided to shape up and actually start painting some stuff for this years convention game, so I turned my attention to Perry Miniatures' Kubelwagen in recce role. For those who didn't know, the Kübelwagen was the German equivalent of the Jeep and also the first Volkswagen model.

The little kübel and it's crew.

The kübelwagen was used on all fronts both as personnel transport and as a reconnaissance vehicle. It could go as fast as 80 km/h and had good cross country performance even though it didn't have four-wheel drive. Some 50.000 were built during the war, and even an amphibious version called Schwimmwagen was made.

You can see the rough texture and flash on this picture.

The model looks the part, capturing the particular shape of the kübel. The model is mostly a one piece resin affair, only the windshield and folded roof are separate metal parts. Also included are three crew which is nice, and some stowage along with two jerry cans, a tropical helmet, a mauser rifle and an MP40 to further customise it. (All these items are separate though) The crew are all individual sculpts in lifelike and realistic poses, but I feel the stowage could be more thought out. We get some weapons and two helmets, yet all the crew are wearing their helmets. A couple of water bottles and gasmask cases would have been better.

"Hans, I vant to go zat vay!"

I feel that the model would have benefited having more separate metal parts, the wheels and shovel for example could gain a lot by being separate. Now the details of those are a bit bland and the shovel is misshapen and I fear the handle is going to break off any time. The headlights and notek light are also parts that could have been better detailed if they were separate items. The cast is relatively good but with some flash and a bit of a rough texture here and there.

"I'll race you to Tobruk!"

It looks a bit on the small side, but on the other hand the kübel was a small vehicle, so I think it's ok scalewise. It's always hard with vehicles for 28mm figures because they are bulkier than regular people. The two gerry cans though look a tad bit overscale, I suspect that they simply copied some 1:48 bits. If you compare it to the Warlord kübelwagen the Perry model is slightly more expensive (£15.50 vs £14.00) but as you only get a driver with the Warlord model I think the Perry one is a better buy.

I'm a bit hesitant about how to rate this one. I like the sculpt and the fact that you get three crew figures is a plus. On the other hand I feel that the quality of the sculpt is let down a bit by the cast, both the metal and resin were not top quality really. I was surprised by this because Perry Miniatures WW2 range is quite recent, so the molds should still be ok.

I give Perry Miniatures' Kübelwagen 3 out of 5 stars.

Last ditch of 2014 painting part 1 -- Deutsches Afrikakorps

So, these final trembling days of 2014 one should reminisce, spend some time with your loved ones and maybe think of the coming year. Not me. Now's the final chance to get some painting done to try and better the painting tally somewhat. More specifically I'm trying to finish all those nearly completed figures that been lying untouched for some time. It turned out to be a bigger task than I thought, but here's finally some german Africa Corps.

"Drive Tommy into the Nile! Schnell, schnell!"

More pictures after the break.

A little bit of this and that

Just some WIP shots of things I'm working on right now... I'm all over the place it seems!

Started on the first section of Crusader late war British.

Three finished. Was a while since I painted eyes...

 

Basecoated and did some colour modulation on the SdKfz 222 in front of the telly.

Additional bits from the Tamiya kit. Just decals, chipping, pigments and painting the commander left to do!

I also started painting Nurgle plaguebearers. Love these figures!

And that's that as they say.

The scale conundrum

No this isn't a previously undiscovered Sherlock Holmes novel, it's just the matter of which scale our small figures are? I will ramble a bit, do some math and then reach a surprising discovery in the end.

This whole scale creep issue is annoying, but the whole thing is muddled because when we talk about our beloved wargames miniatures we are talking about  a size, not a scale. (I will assume you do know how to calculate scale, if not then read this first.) As a metric person I can't understand why stuff aren't in easy scales like 1:100, 1:50 and so on. The blame lies partly with the imperial measurements. Dare you read on, fellow gamers? I promise there are some shots of miniatures after the break.

Perry Miniatures D.A.K. progress

About a month ago I showed you some WIP shots of my Afrika Korps figures from Perry Miniatures. Today I'm proud to show the first finished figures.

The first of my mighty Afrika Korps, a half squad and their platoon commander.

I haven't been working on them for a while really, because the 20mm US paras for the upcoming convention are taking precedence. Yet I keep returning to the DAK figures to get some variation. More pictures after the break.