1st M113 Platoon - Individual Vehicles

Ok - well this post took a little longer to come along than I expected.  Settle in for a story...

A couple of weeks ago I have a completely free, non-humid Saturday afternoon and decided - what the hey - I'll break out my airbrush and put a base coat on all my made, stowed and undercoated M113s.  A simple exercise - despite not using my airbrush for a couple of years!

Earlier - after much investigating - I had bought a bottle of Lifecolour UA 006 Green - which is supposedly the absolute 100% best colour to represent Forest Green - which is the base colour of all my US Vehicles.

I set up my table in the garage, set up the airbraush, collected all teh bits and bobs I need to airbrush (massive logistical exercise everytime I use it - hence not using it for several years) and then went to get the paint.  2 hours later, after searching high and low in my office - no Lifecolour paint.  I could not find it for love nor money.

In the end, desperate to do something, I grabbed a bottle of old GW Catachan Green and headed down to the garage.  This was another colour I had read did a decent job of looking like Forest Green.  years ago, some 15 yr old shop assistant had told me not to use Tamiya airbrush thinner with GW paints - instead use demineralised water.

I spent the next hour or so in a fairly frustrating attempt to airbrush GW paint, thinned with expensive water (you can't drink), onto an increasingly small number of M113.  I then decided to give up, and when cleaning my airbrush with the afore-mentioned Tamiya airbrush thinner, I decided to give the GW paint 1 more go, this time use the Tamiya product to thin it.

Needless to say it then went on like a dream - but I had run out of time, and I was starting to run out of paint... so I sprayed as much as I could in the time remaining, packed up and went inside.

Obviously I found the life colour paint (which appears to be completely different to the GW paint) several days later.

So the base coating was largely done, and I've spent the next two weeks getting to this point.  Only slight weathering has been added - now it's to humid again to spray varnish - so more weathering will be added at some stage.

Platoon Leaders M113A1

Second M113A1

Third M113A1 (My Fav)

Final M113A1

I've tried a couple of new techniques here - with the flesh of the figures and in trying to do some chalk writing on each of the vehicles.  I like how the flesh came out - more work but 100% better than what I normally do.  I'm a little underwhelmed by how the chalk turned out - a lot of hassle, but I don't really like it - so it may disappear when the weather gets better and I can do the final weathering.

All in all I'm still pretty happy with these.

Have fun

Richard

British 105mm L118 Light Field Gun and Crew

Second post of the day... what's happening to me!!!  Crazy times indeed...

Anyway - I've just finished 2 lovely little Airfix 105mm L118 Light Field Guns along with some Elhiem crew and I thought you might like a look see:

Number One Gun

Number Two Gun

Gun Battery

So there you have it.  Pretty happy with that actually.  A nice little unit to support either my Royal Marines, Para's or even some UKMF infantry.

Thanks and have fun

Richard

Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre: 1985 Documentary

In my swanning about on the internet recently looking for stuff about fighting in Norway, I stumbled across this set of 30 odd minutes documentaries from 1985, following a bunch of blokes as they try to become Mountain Leaders in the Royal Marine Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre.  I've watched several already and have found them very enjoyable - and I've even changed how I was painting my Royal Marines as a result - so I thought I would share:















Hope you enjoy!

Richard

 

The beginnings of yet another little side project... Airfix Saracen!

A few years back I bought a stash of Cold War model goodness from a mate of mine - some of it made up and painted - some of it unbuilt kits.  There were a few odds and sods in it that didn't really fit with my plans at the time and they were basically left in a box and largely forgotten about.

Over the last year or so I've had this little idea formenting in my mind, and over the Christmas break I dug out the box and found this old Airfix kit - and for a change of pace I put it together and painted it.

Obviously I fiddled with the lighting or the camera half way through shooting those pics.

Dynamo little kit - goes together like a dream, options to make 3 variants (from memory) and it paints up very nicely.  I wanted it to look old and a bit un-loved so decided to try a bit of "chipping" with make-up sponges to see how it looked and am quite happy with what I achieved.

The idea behind this is that with the increasing tensions the British Government has begun activating its Territorial units and has decided that it needs to increase security around some critical infrastructure.  In order to beef up that security, and provide a bit more mobility to UKLF territorial units defending these sites, they have taken a few old "armoured" vehicles out of storage.

This Saracen will be patrolling the perimeter of RAF Fylingdales, a long range radar station on the North York Moors in England, along with some military police and armed police.  Who knows... that base might be the target of a Spetsnaz cell on (or even before) hostilities commence.

This project is actually going somewhere (as in progressing) so more soon

Thanks and take care

Richard

Soviet Naval Infantry Vehicles - Work-in-Progress

First of what I hope will be many posts in 2015... Happy New Year everyone!

I had hoped to have had these vehicles finished for this post, but things have been pretty humid in Sydney lately and so I've had some issues with gloss and matt varnish sprays - so I'm not real happy with the state of these models, so I still consider them a work-in-progress rather than finished.

Anyway - this is where the BTR-60Pbs are up to:

I'm pretty sure I have the flags on backwards!  Oh well... Decals are from various ACE kits.

As a little surprise I also have this:

The PT-76 is a PST Models kit, which initially I found very frustrating (to an ACE Models level)...

... but once I got past the hull issues it was actaully a pretty straight forward build and looks pretty nice in my book.  Just need a few more now and some T-55s!

Once these all have had a decent couple of coats of a "good" matt varnish, I'll weather them and then they'll be finished.

So that's it for now - plenty of more Soviet stuff, plus more to come.

Happy Cold War gaming.

Richard

Photo Review of Liberation Miniatures BTR-60PB

Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on 3 Liberation Miniatures (or RH Models) Soviet BTR-60PBs.

I have pretty much avoided BTRs up to this point as I have plenty of BMPs, and who want to play Category B units (I thought), but after being stung by the Soviet Naval Infantry bug, the need became much greater.  So I succumbed...

...and was amazed at the quality of these little beauties.  These are extremely crisply cast models, with nary an air hole or bubble in sight.  Awesome detail and only 10 peices.  1 resin hull, 8 metal wheels and the turret, which is all 1 peice.

Everything goes together very simply and this is what you end up with:

As you can see - really well cast models - totally in love with these little guys - so much so they've already been sprayed and I hope to have them finished before the new year.

So heartily endorsed!  2 thumbs up!

Have fun

Richard

More massed M113 mob madness

Just a few quick pics updating where this little project has progressed to in the last few days:

These "specialist" vehicles have all had cam nets added.  I had some spare bits from an old ESCI M113, so have added spare track links to all the AFVs and additional wheels to a couple.

All these have had additional stowage added and cam nets.

I plan on using this one as either a standard APC, or if I need a "special" M113 - like an engineers vehicle or something like that.  I like the ladder and can imagine it being "borrowed" as someone thought it might come in handy.

This will be my command track, with a full interior.  It's an ESCI kit with a few bits and peices added on the inside.

This is my not-so-quick, but still dirty (and not 100% complete) conversion of a S&S Models M577 that I got a couple of years back from a mate.  I wasn't happy with the amount of detail on the back or front, part of the generator (and tracks) had been broken, and I wanted to see if I could make it crewed.

So I've added a number of ESCI parts - the rear ramp, the trim vane, headlights, track guards (cut-down) and driver's hatch.  To fit the 1/72 track guard to a 1/76 model, it needed to be cut down - and is still not perfect as you can see in the middle photo at the rear.  I also had to add so plastic card mud guards at the front as this was missing.

It took a while, but I drilled and dug out the drivers position, and have the hatch open, so it can now be crewed.  I need to add back the drivers periscopes.

I filed down the side of the generator and added a thin peice of plastic card, which I drilled a few holes though to represent what it really looks like.

I also added a large cam net to the roof and tent poles to the upper rear, as that's where they were stowed.

The tracks also need to be fixed, and I should add at least 1 jerry can to the rear and maybe some more stowage on the roof.

So whilst it's no where near perfect - it's good enough for me.

That's it

Richard