FV432 Progress Part 3

Thanks for all the kind words thus far - the end is almost in sight for at least some of these FV432s.

Things did not happen quite as "shortly" as I expected in my last post, largely as I had anticipated doing the spray coats over the weekend.  I seemed to have forgotten you actually need spray paint for that to occur.  A teeny hole in my cunning plan.

So on Monday I popped down to my LGS and picked up a can of Army Painter Black Primer and a can of Plastic Soldier Company British Armour spray.

Not terribly exciting pics - but there they are anyway...

24 hrs later - on went the blu-tac stripes:

And then the base colour spray coat:

This is what they look like now - with the blu-tac peeled off.  You may have also noticed a couple of S & S Strikers also made it into the photo. 

I had hoped to get all my FV432s done in February, but time is against me so I decided to limit the work to these 8 plus the Strikers. 

Next up - blacklining...

Thanks again

Richard

FV432 Progress part 2

Progress continues - and all the Britannia FV432s are now ready for painting.

Here what they look like right now - prior to undercoating...

Another update shortly.

Thanks

Richard

FV432 progress

Today I thought I quickly post up some photos of the progress I've been making with my FV432s.  Best news is that my Peak Engineering Turrets arrived on Friday (6 days from the UK!) so I was very chuffed and decided to crack on with the FV432s over the weekend.

First up I had to finish off the driver's hatches that I was working on in the last WIP post.  Probably not the best example, as it needs a little green stuff work - but here is the finished conversion:

I also had to grind down the main roof hatch to form a space for the Peak turret to fit.  I ended up using a mouse sander to carefully take of most of the hatch and after some more sanding and filing was left with this:

As you can see - a bit of the detail on the roof side and rear was lost but most of that will be covered up with stowage.  Poles here for example.

Of course the S & S models Peak turret base was much smaller than the resin circle I had left over from the sanding (forgot to take a pic here).  So after some creful work it looked like this:

And this

Next step was to work on some green stuff tarps.  I'm pretty hopeless with greenstuff - but this is how they turned out:

As you can see I've added fascines to some of them.  In the future it will help identify oneof the platoons.

Here's another example with the Peak turret:

And another one:

I'm very happy with the Peak Engineering turret.  Sure it took a bit of work - but it is lovely and really makes the model.

Next up I have to carefully go over each model and start filing in all of the air holes - and there are plenty of those.

Have fun

Richard

FV432 Reference and Inspiration Pictures

The FV432 month continues and the models are making some progress - the only things lacking are my Peak Engineering turrets (which will hopefully arrive next week) and me taking photos...  That's enough said about that.

Anyway, as part of this project I trawled through a few websites etc to find some good reference and inspiration photos, so I thought I could share some of them here.  None of this is done with the permission of those that own the photos - so I do beg their forgiveness/indulgence - however these are all on open or public forums or found elsewhere on the net and I will try to name those I know with their work.

My first and best stop when looking for great reference and inspiration photos was Andy's superb blog Cold Wargamer.  Andy has first hand knowledge in this area and is also a very skillful modeller.  Using his models as a guide - you really can't go wrong.  Here are some examples from his site:

Note the excellent scratch built Peak Engineering turret.

Andy's site gives you a detailed how-to to achieve this look and also some W-I-P photos like:

Another cool scratch built job here - a NOD for an artillery FO.

Finally Andy has some excellent "real-life" photos.  Some I've seen elsewhere and some I've never seen before.  Heres a selection I thought really useful:

I love that last photo - really shows the fascine well.

Elsewhere on The Guild I found some good photos of models.  First up one done by the renowned painter Piers Brand:

Here's a couple more I found - sorry, I 'm not sure who the modeller is here:

Finally - here's a few photos I found wandering around the net:

Obviously there are tons of great models and great photos out there on the net - so I hope I can get a suitably lived in look happening for my FV432s.

Thanks - and thanks again to all those out there that have helped my project by showing their inspiring pics.

Richard

February is FV432 month!

True madness has struck and I am now the proud owner of 16 FV432s and 1 FV434.  Together they look a bit like this:

 and this

Now the majority of them are Britannia Miniatures, quite a few of which I recently got through Wartime Miniatures here in Oz.  Mathew very nicely ordered them in for me - at a very reasonable price.  Two of the unpainted FV432's are simply quite beautiful Cromwell Models, as is the painted FV434.  Finally 1 of the FV432s - the smaller 1 right up the back, comes from an unknown brand - I picked it up at the Cancon Bring 'n Buy. 

So I have a few to fix, stow and paint.  I also have 4 S&S Peak Engineering Turrets on order, and hopefully they will arrive before the end of February.

First task was to remove the massive chunk of resin from under the Cromwell 432's tracks.  A tedious and boring job - hence no pics.

Next task was to deal with the second of two things I don't really like about the Britannia 432's.  The first is the air bubbles, but I'll save those for later.  All Britannia 432's are meant to have the driver and his hatch look like this:

A good looking chap with a nice 1980's moustache.  I actually prefer metal hatches and half figures, that allow you to either have the hatch closed or open.

Some of my 432's came like this:

The chap's head has been broken off!  In the past I've fixed this by simply pining on another head.  But I wanted to try something different this time.  A little work later and it looked like this:

A bit more (well a lot more) and it looks like this:

Not perfect I know, but good enough for someone with my limited skills.  I jusy now need to add a new plastic card hatch and my refurbed driver's position will be complete.

That's all for now

Richard

Review - Elhiem Figures NBC Soviets

As part of a large figure/vehicle purchase from a mate of mine a year or so ago I also managed to snag some of Elhiem Figures NBC Soviets.  I never really needed them so they just sat their in one of my boxes... as things tend too.

Then last year I finally managed to make this:

which you can read more about here.
So if I had a NBC Recce vehicle, I needed a few chaps to jump out and scout about in an NBC environment.  So I got painting...

Very quick and simple paint jobs.  I understand that Soviet NBC outfits came in a variety of colours (not camouflaged though) but all had a slimy, rubberised kind of look or sheen.  I went for a lighter colour, and gave them a "Dip" which even when dull-coated, still had a nice sheen.  So I was pretty happy with them - so much so I ordered a couple more from Matt, so I could get the soldier with the NBC sampler kit.  I'll get around to him later when I remember what colour I used in the first place!

Anyway - where are the lads with their ride:

And here they are in situ:

That's all for now

Richard

Zvezda Soviet Motorised Infantry - A Review

I thought it was about time I reviewed something again - and this time something a little different.  For about a year now Zvezda have been previewing and releasing new Hot War figures, vehicles and aircraft.  In typical Zvezda fashion (which to me at least, is somewhat confusing - but I'm sure it works for them), the figures are in 1/72, the vehicles are in 1/100 and the aircraft - read helicopters only I think at the moment - are in 1/44.

Not a great deal of help in you work in 20mm, but at least the figures are the right scale.  All those 15mm gamers out there are pretty chuffed with at least some of the vehicles as well.

So far, figures-wise, Zvezda have only released Soviet Motorised Infantry and US Mechanised Infantry.  I had a good look at both on line and decided that the US troops so far did not suit my needs.  I actually thought they were a bit all over the place in terms of the weapons provided - too much was missing, like no SAW to be of much use for me at this point in time.

The soviets were better in my opinion.  The weapons were much more representative and better "balanced" for a squad.  Their only difference to what I already have was they all have body armour.  Not a problem - this helps differentiate them and in my mind, makes them perfect for my engineer squad.

So anyway - here is the box art:

And here are my painted chaps:

As you can see I only painted 1 NCO, 1 RPK and 1 RPG as you only need 1 in each squad.

Next up I have some comparison photos.  First are standing figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Now walking/running figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

Officers/NCOs:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

RPGs/Pzf 44

From left to right: Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Finally some "Action" shots:

So - my overall impression is that these are very nice figures.  Compared with some Zvezda stuff that I have literally been reduced to tears whilst trying to stick together, these fit fairly simply.  They took paint and "dip" easily as well.  The figures look natural, anatomically right and come with a good selection of excellent looking weapons.  Price - very cheap - I think I got these for about 3 quid each plus postage.  Sadly I have not seen these in Australia.

My only negative would be that although you get 5 figures in a pack, if you are trying to put together a squad, you will need at least 2 packs, and some of those figures (NCO, RPG & RPK) won't be able to be used twice.  Not really much of a negative really.

Best of all, there are some really nice sets coming out like a US Dragon missile box, which I'm very much looking forward to.  Come on Zvezda - bring 'em on!

Richard