Land Rover 101 Hard Top

I actually finished this BW Models (I think) vehicle a few weeks ago, but had always planned to weather it and put some stowage in the roof rack - but as it appeared unlikely that I would get around to actually doing that - I decided to take some photos and just get on with it!




So here they are:

Anyway - this is the last of the vehicles I have, that were needed to complete my 3 Commando Brigade build.  Now I just have a few miniatures to paint and that project is done.




Thanks




Richard

Land Rover 101 FC - Painting Guide Pics

Over the last few days I've been painting some Airfix and BW Models (I think) Land Rover 101 FC models for my Royal Marines (and whomever else might need them).  This is the Airfix kit box so you'll recognise it if you stumble over it in a shop (or your stash!):

Sadly this excellent little kit seems to be rare as hen's teeth and the one I recently found on ebay was asking for a ridiculous price.  This is extra sad because I could easily live with a couple more of these little guys.  So if see one going cheap - buy it!

You will recall that this is where I was up to a few weeks back:

Well - to be honest it remained where they were up to until last weekend...

So I did some digging and came up with so photos to help me paint them - sourced through Google Images of course.  Here they are.

This is what I consider to be the classic image of the 101 FC and how I wanted at least one of them to look.

A number of photos showed the canvas soft top also painted - so I guess the other one will look like this.

And here's a couple of photos of the hard top radio van variant - which is a pretty slick looking vehicle.

So - next up - the completed models - starting with the two soft tops.

Thanks for your patience

Richard

Straight into it... Arctic Front project start

So just to keep myself pushed in the right direction - I went out into the garage and picked out four helicopters that will go to the fron to the queue.

The Sea King/Commando's need very little work - I just need to get rid of the IFOR markings and extend the tiger stripes in their place.  The Wessex and Ka-25 look like they will need complete make-overs.

I also have a few 1-tonne Land Rovers to get finished:

And of course a couple of Scorpions to add to my completed Scimitars

So a bit of work to get on with - and that's excluding the figures...

Onwards and upwards

Richard

AT 105 Saxon

Just to keep you all on your toes, and to violently display my lack of ability to stay on target, I thought I'd post up something completely new for a change.

I'm sure I've discussed this before, but I tend to start collecting a particular force by getting a full platoon's worth of infantry.  I try to make sure I have a few command figures, a few figures that will work as FOs etc and some support weapons.  To the platoon I try to add a matching platoon of appropriate APCs, such as this platoon of FV432s.

For most infantry, one set of figures can be used for at least a couple of different vehicle types.  Standard Soviet motor rifle infantry can be mounted in almost any type pf BTR or BMP.  Bundeswehr troops can be mounted in Marders, M113s, Fuchs, trucks or can even step in as helicopter borne paratroopers.

Same goes for my British infantry armed with the FN FAL.  So far I can only mount them in the FV432 as all my Warrior MCV's have SA80 armed troops.  Time to fix that.

Enter the AT 105 Saxon APC - which you can read more about here if you so choose.  Whilst not what I would call a front-line APC, it certainly had its role and would certainly have been seen in the rear areas of the BAOR and possibly in other parts of the theatre, where ever British troops were being reinforced.

I now have a platoon of Saxons - 3 older BW Models kits and 1 Cromwell Models kit.  I had started one ages ago and a couple of weekends back when I was hankering to finish something, I decided to well... finish it.  As a bit of a tester.

So here it is:

This version is slightly different to the other three - the stowgae box arrangement and the variety of tools etc seem to point to it not being a standard troop carrier - but I'm not sure which variant it is.  However, in the meantime it will stand in as standard Saxon - until of course I get more...

So I'm pretty happy with how that one came out.  Will start work on the remaining three some time soon.

Hopefully next up - another completely random posting!

Thanks

Richard

Bofors 40mm L70

Just before B.W. Models went out of business I got a few kits from him just in case no-one picked up his line.  Fortunatley it looks like Brian at The Hobbyden in Ireland has bought the majority of the moulds and is slowly going through them and releasing them - including this model - which you can see right here!

Anyway - I wanted some West German territorial ADA for the last big game so rush built this gun.  As I wanted it to look emplaced I built it without the wheels.  Looking back now I made a couple of simple mistakes - particularly the sighting apparatus which at some stage (when I have gunners) I will fix - but this is what it looks like right now:

To "complete" it I think it desperately needs a couple of gunners sitting on the seats next to the gun and a couple of guys holding clips of ammunition.  BW thoughtfully provided a couple of clips, but no gunners or loaders.  I think at some stage I'll have to convert some West German figures to make it look better.

We'll see...

Anyway - that's it for now

Thanks

Richard

BAOR Brigade HQ

So - here is the final pics of my BAOR Brigade HQ with a newly painted B.W. Models Land Rover parked outside a Pola Brickworks.

Variant 1

And Variant 2 - with an added Cromwell Models Sultan

So there it is.  Not 100% sure how I'll end up using it in a game - but glad it's finished and is a reasonable representation of what I was trying to achieve.

Thanks

Richard

B.W. Models FV620 Avis Stalwart

OK - so I decided to post this one up straight away rather than wait...  What can I say?

Anyway - my final entry to the Task 3 build was what I now beleive to be a B.W. Models Stalwart.  Previously I had stated it was a MMS model - but I now beleive that to be wrong.  That's what you get for buying second-hand models I guess - but hey, I'm definitely not complaining.

Here's a link to some info on the FV 620 Avis Stalwart on wikipedia

The only thing I really had to do to fix up this model was to pin each of the wheels.  From there it was simply straight onto painting.

Here's the final pics of my Stalwart:

Finally - heres some videos of Stalwarts in action

That's all for now - have fun...

Richard