Matchbox Phantom FG1/FGR2

Carrying on with my attempts at aircraft, it was time to knock off another old favourite and complete this old Matchbox Phantom I started over 2 years ago.  As always with me and planes, it comes down to the painting - starting with trying to get the right colours.  I think this Phantom has about 4 different spray coats as I attempted to find the right colour.

Anyway - here she is in the livery of 23 Squadron whilst based out on the Falkland Islands:

All-in-all I'm quite pleased with out she came out.  For whatever reason I'm a bit disappointed with the way the canopies look.  I guess the light blue on the light grey doesn't look the same against some of the darker colours, but I can live with it.

Anyway - thanks for looking and welcome to the blog for 2017.

Richard

BAOR Objective - Work-in-Progress Part 3

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy 2017!  This will be my last post for 2016, another year gone by.

Today is another short W-I-P post, with the first part of this miscast Cromwell Models FV432 shown back here and the second part here.  No super progress on the vehicle as you can see here:

I tried to add tracks to the front and back of the FV432 to show how they have rolled off, but I was not happy with the look so attempted to chop them off again... (you can see some remnants on the back wheel)

So I added a base:

The base is definitely still a W-I-P.  It's nowhere near as yellow as the picture shows and hopefully I'll finish it before the new year, but we'll see.  As usual some other things have floated to the top of the pile.

So that's it for 2016.  Another year I am glad to see over - I have my fingers crossed for next year.

Take care

Richard

Bundeswehr TOW Team

I can't really remember the genesis of this particular idea, but at some point I decided I needed a man-pack TOW ATGM Team for my West Germans.  I guess I could see a couple of occasions when I might need one - A: Fallschirmjager dismount their TOW from a Kraka for some reason and B: a Jaguar II crew decide to dismount their TOW system from the Jaguar for some reason.

What that reason might be...  not sure, but it could happen so best be prepared.

This is the team:

The TOW system is by Dragon and came from one of their HMMWV kits.  All the crew are from Elhiem, with the kneeling chaps coming from a Milan team and the standing chap working the launcher being a conversion of a standard infantryman with a G3 assault rifle at port-arms.  I accidently loped his left hand off and had to re-scuplt it with green stuff.

So that's the team.

Thanks

Richard

Crewing some Bundeswehr Vehicles

In my ongoing effort to "finish" things I've gone back and added some necessary crew to a few vehicles - starting with an S&S Models Iltis:

The figure in the back an Elhiem MG3 gunner, as well as the Elhiem driver.  I've added some stowage in the back and then covered it in a cam net.  Kind of a waste of stowage!

Next up is an S&S Models M113G Panzermorser:

Here I simply added a single standing Bundeswehr mortar crewman from Elhiem.  There is really only room for one anyway.

Finally my conversion of an Italeri M106, into a M113G Panzermorser got two crew added:

This time I was able to add two Elhiem Bundeswehr mortar crewmen - one standing and one kneeling.  As I had complete access to the interior of the M113, the kneeling chap was able to fit inside - and looks pretty good!

That's it for this week - more on Monday

Richard

Cromwell Models FV433 Abbot

Sorry - I was meant to post these last week but we had an unplanned water feature in our lounge room (i.e. two leaking showers) so I've had to rearrange my life for a month or so as we get two new bathrooms.  Hence my delay in posting.  But enough of the excuses and onto the models!

So here are a couple of finished (without crew) Cromwell FV433 Abbot Self-Propelled-Guns:

Once again what you'd expect from Cromwell - beautiful models, loads of detail, little effort to put together.  Can't ask for much more than that.

Thanks

Richard

Cromwell CVR(T) Spartan

Time for another quick update from my "Back to the BAOR" mini-project.  Today I'll be showing you a Cromwell Models CVR(T) Spartan I found in the bring 'n buy at Cancon last year.  Less than a year from buy to build - almost a record for me!

As you would think from Cromwell, this is a beautiful model - all hatches with the ability to be open or closed, lovely detail, no bubbles - all-in-all, pretty much a prefect model.

I hope I can do it some justice:

So that's the model completed.  I still have to crew it - so I'll be getting some crew figures from Friendship Models I think - and it will at some stage need to be dirtied up - but that's for another day.

Thanks

Richard

S&S Models FV438

Recently I showed you some W-I-P shots of some new BAOR combat vehicles.  Today I'll focus on a couple of S&S Models FV438s.  As far as I'm aware, these are the only FV438 variants available in 20mm.

As I said in the W-I-P post, I did some conversion work on these, mainly to get rid of the wading screens, and added a fair amount of camo netting to try and get the BAOR in combat look.  I also had to replace a couple of parts (because I lost them!).

So here are the finished beasties:

For some reason I managed to turn off 1 light when I took the second photo...

Anyway - that's them.  I'm rather chuffed to finally have these available in my orbat and very impressed with Shaun from S&S Models for making them.  Now I have to see what they can get up to in a game!

Thanks

Richard

New Airfix Harrier GR.3

I've just finished taking a bunch of photos so I thought I would post a few now rather than wait until tomorrow.

So ages and ages ago when I first started this blog I posted up first one and then another  old Airfix Harrier GR.3s - on the ground.  I knew one day I'd need a flying one for some air support, and now I've finally finished it.

Truth be told, I stole the two laser-guided bombs from one of the old Harrier's (previously stolen from a Buccaneer kit) and stuck them on this Harrier - just for something a bit 'cool'.  The only downside of the kit, from memory, is the only offensive armament is a couple of AIM-9L sidewinder AAM.  I needed something to give it a more CAS feeling!

So here it is:

The last photo is a little dodgy - I was trying to show the ordnance.

Anyway - that's another job done.  Now I just need to finish that RAF Phantom and one day add a Tornado and a Hawk to my asset list.

Thanks for looking

Richard

New Faller VDV Objective - Part 1

Another Part 1...


Just a quick update this morning.  Back in August (here) I showed off an International Hobby Corp small airfield terminal - which when built was drastically underscale and much more useful in 15mm than it could be in 20mm.  Fortunately it only cost $15 so I was happy to give it away to a mate who is collecting a lot of 15mm Cold War kit.


So I remained on the look out for a better scale (at least a larger) airfield set up.  Eventually I stumbled across the Faller 130580 Premium Model or  Sport Airfield - on ebay.  It was pretty expensive - just outside what I would consider a reasonable purchase.


Then the other day I discovered that my local hobby store (not game store) was having a little pre-Christmas sale and all Faller stuff was 20% off.  And it just so happened that they had 2 of these sets.  So for a somewhat more decent price, I picked up one.


And here it is on my office floor:

It comes with a large control tower, a hangar, a diecast Cessna, a truck towing a folded up glider, a couple of other gliders, all the crap in the hangar, cyclone fencing, bins, pallets - all sorts of good stuff.


It's pretty big - so it may take a while to clear some space on my work bench - before it takes a while for me to make it!


I hope to show you more pics soon.


Thanks


Richard

Back to the BAOR - Work-in-Progress - Part 2

Quick update with a couple more photos.  Firstly a look at the FV438s with their cam netting:

And then a couple of steps later.  All vehicles have been sprayed black, then had blu-tac stripes added and sprayed with Battlefront Firefly Green spray.  The blu-tac was then removed and the vehicles black lined.

From here I'll be working on each of the vehicles somewhat individually (or at least a couple at a time).  I'll be focussing on the FV438s first to finish them in time for a game.

Thanks for looking

Richard

Back to the BAOR - Work-In-Progress - Part 1

I've got a few days off - so I thought I'd try and knock over a few different bits and peices I've had half started for a while now - or I just decided to push them to the front of the queue.
Here's a quick view of the start of this little Work-In-Progress.  First up - a miscast Cromwell FV432:

I've added the missing hatches and cleaned of some of the miscast track pieces.  This will serve as either an objective or just a bit of battlefield clutter.

Second - a couple of Cromwell FV433 Abbot Self-propelled Guns:

I did one with all hatches open and the other all closed - for the hell of it really...

Third - a Cromwell Spartan APC:

I have to admit I saw a picture a bit like this in the new Team Yankee - Iron Maiden book.  Now I have no idea whether or not You would have fired a Blowpipe/Javelin from inside a Spartan - but I thought it looked kind of cool - and it gave me a good excuse to model a Spartan with the roof hatches open.  I put the Elhiem Blowpipe/Javelin figure on a sabot - so I'll probably make another more "standard" infantry sabot as well.

Finally I have a pair of FV438 Swingfire Guided Missile Vehicle from S&S Models:

I've done a little work on these - the most difficult being removing the DD tank type screen that goes around the vehicle.  I beleive they were all removed anyway - and I didn't like the impact on the shape/vision of the standard FV432 hull the screen gives it on the S&S Model.

I think it looks heaps better removed, and anyway - I'm going to cover a fair amount of it up with a cam net.

That's it for Part 1 - Part 2 coming soon.

Thanks for looking

Richard

Airfix 105mm Light Guns - In Towed Configuration

I wasn't planning on posting this today - rather I was going to post some W-I-P shots of a new mini-project - but I thought better of it and decided to post up one of the "final" components of my Royal Marine Commandos in Norway project.


I have no real idea why I wanted to do this particular part of the project - I guess because I could do it, and a small part of my thinks it's kind of cool.  How sad does that make me!


I've previously shown in a couple of posts the Airfix 105mm L118 Light Field Guns in their firing position with Elhiem crew and then together with the Airfix 1 Tonne FC Truck GS Body tow


Anyway - here is what I'm talking about:

This is obviously the gun in its towed position.


I have done this before with WW2 games where I have a towed variant and a deployed variant of the same gun.  Normally only anti-tank guns as in most of my games the artillery sets up right on the rear table edge.  As it comes onto the table I use the tow (and the towed gun) until I get to the point where I want to deploy the gun.  Then I simply remove the towed gun and replace it with the deployed gun and crew.


Works for me anyway...


So - there it is.  The last ground component for my Royal Marines (which also has other uses for some of the light troops reinforcing BAOR or Denmark)


Thanks for looking


Richard

Elhiem Miniatures - Soviet HQ

This week I've finished some more Soviet miniatures by Elhiem Figures - this time his two Soviet HQ packs - CWR09n and CWR10n.


Nothing special about the paint job - just a quick one to get them to the point of being able to be used.  All are very similar except the Soviet Military Policeman - whom I have shown by himself previously.


Anyway - here they are.  CWR09n

A really nice set that I have a couple of plans for using in some special games.


Now CWR10n

More useful figures.  I'd love a couple of different MPs to make a small 4 man team of them...  I can dream!


So that's it for these guys.  I should have another post later this week.


Have fun


Richard