What! More Marders?

Yes, it's true - a couple more Marders for my mate - who I've now made 7 for with this lot and I still have 2 more to go...

Not much more to tell you so I'll jump straight into the pics - pretty low quality as I was in a rush...

So there you go.  1 Platoon Commander's track and one standard track with Milan

Thanks

Richard

The Berlin Project - Infantry and Urban Bases - Part 1

So things are starting to get a little more serious with my Berlin project as most of the elements are now coming together.  I have all the East German figures (from Elhiem) and I decided to do a specific British Infantry Platoon plus supports - again - all Elhiem - just for a change!  I still need a couple of British figures to complete it - but I have enough to start working.

I also decided that I wanted all the figures to have specific urban bases - and the easiest to do were urban ruin bases.  All support weapons would be on 40mm round "diorama" bases.

Here's some examples of the infantry:

3 Brits on the left and 3 East Germans on the right.  More way off in the background.

Here's how my 40mm bases are looking at the moment:

Front

And back.  From left to right - a 2 man GMPG (bipod) position - a paved area for a mortar team - a 2 man GPMG (tripod) position.  It would have made more sense with the figures on them, but then you wouldn't see everything...  I also added the mortar to the central base:

I was trolling through every last British Elhiem figure I had to find a use for them in this list, as I was coming up short in some areas, and I found I had a spare artillery man holding a 105mm round, that I thought with a bit of effort could be holding a mortar round.  I cut out the 105mm round and "sculpted" a 81mm mortar round out of plastic rod.  The round needs to be trimmed down a bit in this pic:

The new mortar round is a bit short for the pose - but I guess here I'm leaning to the near enough is good enough camp.  Here he is with the round glued in place:

All the figures have now been sprayed black (so it means I have to paint the urban base - not such good planning) and I'm now going to do a test team before I get stuck into them.

Thanks

Richard

Matador Models - FV432/20 (Fox Turret) Build and Review

OK - so I was very chuffed recently to get this little goodie as one of my final purchases to round out my Berlin Brigade.  It's a Matador Models FV432/20 (Fox Turret) and it comes like this:

Opening the box reveals a couple of plastic baggies:

Which opened up reveal the following:

As you can see some pretty crisp molding here and options to have every hatch open - which is very good in my book.  Flipping the hull and tracks over you can see there is still a little work to be done:

So I cleaned it all up and the parts looked like this:

So now were we on to assembly.  I'd like to say it all went together smoothly, but I'd be lying.  I don't know if it was my superglue or the kind of resin used by Matador Models, but for some reason things just wouldn't stick together - at least not in the short term.  After some hair pulling, a lot of crying and a little cursing it started to go my way and this is the end result:

I think you end up with a pretty smashing model of a FV432/20.  There are a couple of negatives.  First up - no plans whatsoever.  When you pay 23 quid for a model I feel there should at least be a decent drawing of what it should look like from a couple of different angles.  At least...

One is the other difficulty I previously mentioned, which turned a half hour job into a several hour job.  The third is the metal RARDEN 30mm gun barrel.  You get two options - one standard, one with a cover.  I went with the standard gun and compared to the rest of the kit, I looks a little naff.  If I had a spare Scimitar or Warrior RARDEN barrel - I'd definitely use them.

My only other concern was the smoke dischargers.  They look great, but I'm pretty sure I've placed them in the wrong spot...  I'll have a think about removing them and placing them slightly differently, but due to the glue issues I'm not sure I'm up to it.

Finally, I thought a comparison shot might be worthwhile:

From left to right we have an S&S FV438 Swingfire, Cromwell Models FV434, Matador Fv432/20 and a Britannia FV432 APC.  As you can see they all fit together very nicely.

So one day if I'm very lucky this new Matador model might just end up looking something like this!

Thanks

Richard

Fabbri BTR-60PB

Next up on the Soviet vehicles list is the Fabbri BTR-60PB.

As you can see it's not the greatest BTR-60 when it comes to crisp detail, and I'll need to paint it (eventually), but if you are looking for a good cheap way to expand your BTR-60s these are pretty hard to go past.  I have 3 now and perhaps one more on the way...  Sucker that I am...

Thanks

Richard

Fabbri BM-21 Grad MRL

Keeping to the Multiple Rocket Launcher theme here are the photos of the Fabbri BM-21 Grad MRL.

This one will require a little more work to fit in with the rest of my Soviet stuff (which is just plain old green) and I'll need to get rid of the Russian flag.  Can't have my Soviets driving around sporting Russian flags can I!

Still it's a nice solid model - unfortunately you can't pivot the launcher - but I think it looks pretty good.

Thanks

Richard

Fabbri BM-27 Uragan MRL

I've recently acquired some vehicles from the Russian Fabbri company, which for something different this weeks I thought I could go through with you and show some pics so you could get an idea as to whether or not they are worth it.

I decided to start off with the Fabbri BM-27 Uragan Multiple Rocket Launcher:

This is a pretty good diecast model and will take very little effort to get onto the table - or perhaps in reality sit off the table to remind me I have some Artillery support there.  A bit of a wash, some dry-brushing and some weathering product on the wheels and it will be good to go.  So I'm pretty happy with that one.

Thanks

Richard