Dusty little jeep and friends

There have been some bad news regarding our planned LRDG game. The convention we were supposed to be playing at will probably be cancelled. While there are other conventions in our general area they are all too early in time, so our planning is all off. We will probably be hosting a game at one of them, but it will not be the LRDG game. So there's a bit of conundrum for us: firstly we all have invested some time, and not a little amount of money buying stuff for the game. In my case I have bought a Caproni bomber model as well as some italian figures and a staff vehicle from SHQ. Secondly, we have to figure out (pardon the pun) a suitable scenario and prepare the forces needen, in a short time. Therefore we have to do something eastern front since we have a lot of suitable terrain and large german and soviet forces. However our gimmick is to play a battle from 70 years ago, so this year we have to do something that happened in 1942. Most of our stuff will still be usable so there will be a minimum of investment in new stuff. Although those long-barreled Panzer F2 do look very tempting... yes, a platoon of those will do. Just a small one though...

All this mean that my motivation for working on the LRDG project has been quite low. I still plan to finish it and we will probably playing a small game on our own, but it's more work than fun now, sadly. Since I sort of ran out of steam I haven't finished allt the vehicles, but I thought I would show what I have done so far.

The harsh contrasts of the chipping has been muted by MIG Pigments.

Desert desserts.

Dang, I have been ill, some kind of flu. Not the regular influenza though, where you get to stay home from work but can still paint lots of figures and watch all those war movies that SWMBO doesn't like, but man flu. The kind that leaves you whishing you were dead, too knackered to even think straight. But as Nietsche said: That which doesn't kill you hurts like hell.

Anyway, I've recovered somewhat and was able to finish building my LRDG radio truck today.

The main parts assembled.

After I had glued the bed of the truck, the driving seat and the back of the driver's cabin to the chassis I noticed that the chassis was ever so slightly bent. It made the truck look like it had a "swank", but the glue had already hardened. That's the downside with resin kits, you have to use superglue and some things are not fixable after glueing.

The work continues. Phew, there are a gazillion parts.

The bottom of the truck. Lots parts here too.

The kit itself was very good, but the instructions were quite horrible. There were no numbers on the parts and you had to guess from the very simple drawing what some of the parts were. I made a lot of mistakes, like gluing what was probably supposed to be the radio antenna under the truck, thinking it was supposed to be the drive shaft. In the instructions the drive shaft was only a thin line, while the parts for the drive shaft had details on them which was why I thought they were for something else.

The finished truck with crew from SHQ pack DG2.

Nevertheless, the kit was fun to build and I think the result is quite good. The bent frame doesn't show up as much in the finished model with all the kit on. Overall the details were good, the only parts I found lacking were the Lewis guns, which really could have benefited from some better detailing. I ordered some crew from SHQ and they fit quite nicely.

Notice the varied gear of the crew: hats, pullovers, shorts, long trousers, berets, etc.

The only problem is the standing chap who is apparently firing a Browning. I'm not sure if I will fit a Browning or maybe a Vickers for him to use, or if I'm going to use him for another vehicle. I didn't want to put too many weapons on the truck as their positions will be decided by what crew figures I use in the end. As I mentioned earlier I plan to get the Matchbox/Revell LRDG set and maybe a jeep or another truck from SHQ and perhaps be able to switch around some of the figures and equipment between the different vehicles.

But who will manage the radio?

SHQ Pack DG1, LRDG Roadwatch

I also ordered some italians and another pack of LRDG to check out. I'm not sure how many dismounted figures we need for the game but I wanted to have a look at them anyway. I must say they look awefully nice, and I will probably order a pack of each code in the future.

Wee Friends "WWII Axis North Africa" -- really?

Earlier I ordered a pack of WWII axis north africa figures from Wee Friends. They had alternative heads so could be built as either germans or italians, wearing generic gear and clothing. However, I noticed one that looked decidedly british, so I will be using him for LRDG instead. 

All in all a successful project, now I just have to figure out how to paint the truck...  oh dear.

Christmas comes early part 2

I går åkte jag till posten för att hämta ut vad jag trodde var juklappar till barnen, men det visade sig vara en resinmodell jag beställde för en dryg vecka sedan. Det är en Ford-lastbil till Long Range Desert Group från rumänska Wespe Models.

The Macguffin.

Asken innehöll en rulle bubbelplast och en hopvikt ritning.

I rullen bubbelplast fanns tre ziplock-påsar med delar.

En testprovning av chassit och en smakprov på den fina kvalitén på gjutningen.

Det bådar gott inför framtiden. Wespe Models har många ovanliga modeller och det verkar inte som att någon av delarna saknas eller har gått sönder. Jag köpte modellen på deras eBay-shop och de skickade den några dagar efter att jag betalat och det tog en knapp vecka för paketet att komma fram. Utmärkt service!