20mm British Vehicles

I can't remember where I heard about 'Any Scale Models' but once I looked at their website I had to put in an order.  The resulting package has sat in its box for some time and only recently seen the light of day.  Part of that order was some British Vehicles in 20mm which I will mention here.  

First off were some trucks listed as Bedford MWD 15 Cwt.  These come in 4 resin pieces and a metal bumper/nudge bar which comes fitted to the front bumper but not held in place - this just needs a dab or 2 of super glue to secure it.  The four pieces, as seen in the picture, are cab, rear cargo area, rear load (now identified as fuel tanks & steps to go under the cab & rear body) & canopy.  It seems a little odd having the cab and rear cargo area separate, but this is probably down to how they are moulded and as I have no idea what this involves I will leave it there.  The rear cargo area has bench seats down both sides which, with the canopy or rear load, gives you three options when making the model.  It would look great with a few seated figures in place, but if that doesn't take your fancy the rear load could be put in to look like it is carrying stores or ammunition to the front line but ultimately it would look good with just the canopy in place.  I intend to leave them without the canopy glued in place so that I can change how they are used depending on how I want them to look.  My aim is to glue some plastic card on the bottom of the canopy that fits inside the rear cargo area so that it can be put in place and (hopefully) stay there, but to also paint the cargo load or put in a sabot with seated figures.  This way I can chop and change at my whim.  The first part of this process is to get the trucks made and painted then, at some point in the not too distant future, I will get the cargo loads & canopies done.  Futher down the line will be the sabots - if I get round to it.  

Edit 9th Apr 2020: Got a message from 'Stevi' informing me that what I thought was a 'load' for the rear cargo area was in fact fuel tanks and steps that went under the cab & body to provide a solid fit when gluing the parts together.  On looking at the website and one of the vehicles the message was 100% correct.  Many thanks Stevi.  I will try to fit this in place for the vehicles I have already put together but sanding this area flat now that the two pieces are glued might be a bit too much, but will make sure I fit it for the 4 remaining vehicles I havent started yet.

 Here are 3 of the trucks in their constituent parts ready for filing, gluing & priming.

Initial filing, gluing and priming complete.   

Next up are 2 Humber Heavy Utility cars which I got to use as Staff Cars.  These, as with the 15 Cwt trucks, come with the cab/bonnet and rear as separate pieces.  When putting these together there was a small, but noticable, overlap on both sides of the rear end when married up with the cab/bonnet.  I initially thought this could be sanded down, but quickly realised I was removing detail which would be difficult to put back.  That said, the overlap is minimal and most gamers probably won't mind this.  Having primed them there is a bit of a noticeable gap over the roof which I may fill before moving on with the painting.  However, I may ignore this and just get on with painting them.

Last up for this post are a couple of Humber Staff Cars with cut down top.  Again, they come in two pieces, front seats/bonnet and rear/cargo.  These are nice little models with lots of crates, boxes, tarps etc. in the rear.  I will admit to making a bit of a booboo with these as I bought them to use in Normandy etc. without realising they were intended for North Africa (NA).  As things stand I don't game NA much, but I may paint them up for this theatre anyway to add to my small, but growing, collection.  Although, I still feel the need to use them in NWE so may paint them green.  Hmmmm.  Decisions, decisions.  Keep an eye on the blog to see which way the wind blows.......

These are nice models but there are some minor issues to note.  There are some noticable air bubbles in the models, but nothing that a little filler, and time, wont sort out.  It is not easy to get the front & rear halves of the cars to fit together nicely as both sides are flat, there are no male or female joints to make joining them easier, which may account for the overlap noted above and this is more noticeable in the open topped car.  The cargo loads are all identical with all of the crates on one side, so it have been nice to make couple of variations to give a little variation. On 2 of the cars the rear wheel arch was damaged and, as this is quite thin, almost impossible to repair.  However, you could put this down to field damage through use!?  These are not criticisms as such, as resin is fragile, moulds deteriorate over time & post can be hard on delicate parts of a model.  

All in all, I like what Any Scale Models has to offer and feel that the observations above are not anything that the majority of wargamers can't rectify easily.  I have more of their models to make, and will be buying more from them in the future, all of which I intend to post on here.

SHQ 20mm WW2 British

I have had these SHQ figures on my 'painting table' for over 18 months in various stages of completion.  There are 2 with flamethrowers, two with wire cutters & det cord (?) and one with a pole charge (?), plus a number carrying large crates which I intend to use as Engineers.  Not 100% sure that my description of the figures with the wire cuttes & det cord plus pole charge is correct but that is what they look like to me.  I could also do with a number of mine detector figures but haven't got any, yet.

With the C-19 virus running rampant and being under 'quarantine' I felt it was time to get them finished.  As they stand they are 90% done - only varnish & tufts/flock to do which should happen in the next few days. 

 

Left to right...

Soldier walking with large crate, soldier with sten gun running with ammo crate, soldier with wire cutters & det cord, soldier walking with satchel charge (?), soldier with flame thrower.

 

Left to right....

 Soldier carrying cable drum, soldier carrying large crate, soldier running with pole charge, soldier running with Lee Enfield at port arms, soldier carrying Lee Enfield ready to fire.

 

Left to right...

Soldier with large crate, soldier with flame thrower, soldier with wire cutters & cable, Officer looking at watch, another soldier with large crate.

 

Left to right...

Soldier running with ammo crate, Soldier with Bren gun at the ready, soldier walking with Lee Enfield, soldier walking with satchel charge (?), NCO (?) pointing, walking carrying sten. 

SHQ figures are decent, but weapons can be a little fragile for wargaming purposes.  They are reasonably proportioned but not my favourite manufacturer, for that I go to FAA, AB and, more recently, Adler.  These figures were part of a large collection I picked up some time ago when a friend of a friend got out of the scale/period and I'm only now getting round to painting them.  Whether they stay in my collection is yet to be seen, but for now they are going to fill a gap in my collection.

Later today (hopefully) they will get a coat of gloss, then matt varnish, before I add tufts & flock to finish them off.  Photo's of completion will follow...

Corona Lockdown - the resurrection of this Blog!

It has been a while since I posted on here and really my blogging has been pretty much non-existant since creating the blog a number of years back.  With the Covid-19 virus running riot around the world and many countries imposing some form of population lock-down or quarantine it is a good time to resurrect this and try to make a go of it.  I don't intend to post too regularly, probably no more than once a week during the quarantine and maybe twice a month once we return to normality, whenever that may be.  It will log my efforts to build and paint figures/models for wargaming. Many of the models will be for units within games I play and others will be built just because I like it/them and can.

My next few blogs may come a bit thick and fast as I have been busy over recent days making buildings, multi-part plastic figures and some models ready for painting but things will slow down to the frequencies mentioned above reasonably quickly. 

28mm, 4Ground Diner & House (1178 Woodbury Rise) for Zombie gaming. 

I won't go on too much but the diner is great, with lots of internal detail.  As many will already know 4Ground kits come ready painted so it is just a case of building for it to be ready to use on the gaming table.  The fact that they are ready painted is a big plus in my eyes but it does come at a price, literally.  Buildings are put together with external & internal walls, a double skin if you will, allowing lots of details to be shown which goes way above any unpainted MDF buildings out there unless you have the time and want to add this yourself.  The diner comes with full kitchen, including cooker controls, chip frying baskets & frying pans along with tables and bench seats.  The build was relatively simple and straight forward.  The only part that caused any problem was the ends of the roof where they bend down - getting the PVA to stick involved holding them in place or using relatively loose elastic bands so that the bend didn't become too or over pronounced.

 

  

I am going to add some detailing before I call this finished but for now it is ready for the table.  The kit comes with posters for the walls which I will add shortly and I intend to make the inside a bit dirty & grimy to look like it has been empty for a while.  I might also add a few blood splatters for effect - not 100% sure yet.  

The house was another kit with lots of detail, the same double skin build but not internal details i.e. tables, chairs or beds, like the diner however, there are plenty of options out there to add furniture inside to make it lived in or look like it was recently vacated.  This isn't a criticism and is how the majority of their buildings come.  The build wasn't quite as easy as the previous one but some of that was down to me not dry fitting before gluing parts into place.  I have made a number of 4Ground models before and like them a lot especially as they don't need painting!

 

At some point I will get some furniture for inside - TV, sofa, table, chairs, bed etc.  who knows.  The garage will probably end up with some shelving, clutter and a car, maybe even a bicycle if I can find one in 28mm.   

First Painting post - but its not my work!

I am an infrequent painter as I am my own biggest critic.  What I see from other gamers is the standard I want now, without the trials & tribulations of trying out different techniques & developing my own preferred style of painting.  I understand that this takes time but in my mind I want that now.  Yes, I know that is a childish view but that is something that hasn't changed over the years.  However, with my son now just turning 8 he has shown an interest in painting so I intend to change & make it a learning journey with him.  He has a love of tanks and what 8 year old boy doesn't.  We have made a few which I have spray-painted for him but these have been fairly basic and he now wants to paint his own.  I normally buy Armourfast tanks for him as they are quick to build with minimal parts which he can easily assemble in a short session.  Also, as they are relatively cheap with two tanks to a box it doesn't matter if any mistakes are made and we have to start again with another model.  The Armourfast range is fairly extensive giving us a good selection of tanks to choose from.  They aren't something I would use in my games as I find them a little large compared to other manufacturers and do not fit with what I already have.

The pictures here are his first attempts at painting models.  I had undercoated them white & then base coated them German dunkel-gelb to get him started and left the rest up to him.  He took some inspiration from pictures I found on the internet for the stripey Jagd-Panther and came up with the other one himself.   The tracks still need painting which we will do next time we paint together.  All in all, for a first attempt, I think he did a pretty good job. 

The Man Cave takes shape

I have a room down in the cellar of our home in Germany.  Since moving here in the summer there have been a number of other tasks which have taken priority, & problems with the floor in one room which we needed to get sorted, but over the winter I found/made the time to begin work on what is to become my haven from soaps and reality programmes that the DCOS/LHG chooses to watch.  The room is a good size & has another room leading from it which will be used to store all of my goodies.  I have fitted an L-shaped work surface by re-purposing an old kitchen work-top, & put up some shelves along one wall.  Along with the shelves there is one full height cupboard and a smaller one to hold my projects, whether in progress or waiting to be started - of whch there are quite a few!  

My airbrush & an extractor sit on one end of the work bench with my painting area beside that.  There are 2 chairs in the room to provide myself & my 8 year old son somewhere to make & paint whatever takes our fancy.


A cable has been ran inside from our satellite dish to provide me a feed for a TV which also give me the opportunity to play DVD's while hiding in the sanctuary.  An X-Box 360 is there to provide the ability to play these DVD's & 'kill stuff' while I shoot up the world on a game or 3.

I hope to get some additional power sockets installed & improve the lighting at some point in the not too distant future.  But as the house does not belong to us we have to get permission which may take time if we get it at all. 

The back room has sufficient shelving in place to store all of my wargaming figures & models along with my stash of un-made models.  I intend to put a table in here to give me somewhere to game with my son.

Getting Started

It has been nearly 2 years since I created an account on Blogger, but until today the only thing I did was create my profile.  Hopefully this will change and I will keep up with things.  My intention is to post a few photo's of ongoing games at my Local Games Club, of which I will say more later, as well as use this medium to show a gamer working his way through the obligatory lead mountain that we all build up as I paint them.  Painting figures is something I try not to do, as I have a couple of friends who are more than happy to paint for me.  However, it is about time I put my own hands to work.

Only time will tell if I will stick with 'blogging', but my intention is to try to post at least weekly even if it is only a few lines.