AHPC Entry - Moar Trucks!

Hi folks,

I'd like to be able to tell you I finished with the whole truck thing... sadly, this is not the case. However - barring one entry to the AHPC for next week, I am done with trucks for now.

Last week I managed to finish off the remaining artillery unit vehicles I had been working on, with another batch of mini dioramas.

For my Polish Sextons, I have two vehicles. A 'working party' has been detailed to change a tyre. One of them is proceeding with the job while his mates bunk off to try and find a local to trade some cigarettes for some 'vino' or 'oh effs'.

The full set up, everything painted since January for this unit:

Then we have the vehicles for my medium battery, the 79th (The Scottish Horse) Medium Regiment , Royal Artillery. I've not quite finished these totally, as no one makes the correct decals. Currently waiting on some printer ink and decal paper to arrive in order to try and make my own. Wish me luck!

The theme for these bases was 'moving day'. Whether the unit is arriving and unpacking, or unpacking before departure, I'll leave up to you - but I wanted to try and show that even through periods of the campaign were quite static, there was always some movement going on. The typical army 'hurry up and wait'.

For there I have the two trucks with some chaps carrying bits. We have a box and wire reel being carried on one base, while on the other the figure getting directions is carrying a backpack in his left hand. Maybe these are the signals guys getting ready to 'wire in' the command post.

Meanwhile, as a suitable replacement for a truck, I have used a large staff car (actually, a 4WD Heavy Utility vehicle) - after all, a Medium Regiments CO can't be getting shuttled around in a 15cwt truck, can he? An officer and sentry watch the goings on (the 'wait' part of the 'hurry up and wait').

And again, the full unit painted since January. 

The full unit with the guns I painted last Gunuary:

Speaking of Gunuary - I have not forgotten about it! It just seems to have stretched on a little bit. However, with the publishing of my challenge entry next week, I'll call it quits. It's been quite productive (as has the challenge in general, I have achieved my goal of 500 points) and I will repeat next year. I didn't get everything I wanted to do done - there are still 8 Quads and 6 Morris AA Tractors to paint. To be fair, the guns were all painted in the correct month, it was all the support gubbins that overshot!

But it's time to move onto something else, and the 10mm ACW project needs some progress made.

Anyone know how to paint Confederates?

AHPC 3rd Entry - Gunuary still lives!

Hi folks,

This week I've been chipping away at my remaining Gunuary projects, with two elements coming to fruition in a short time. As I type, I'm waiting for a coat of varnish to dry in order to try and get an entry in for tomorrows 'themed' round entry.

For Thursday, I managed to finish off the command, staff and OP teams I required as part of the Gunuary goal of filling out all the missing teams in my various artillery units. As such, I finished off different teams for a few different units:

2 Pulk Artylerii Motorwej, 1st Polish Armoured Brigade:

1 x Staff team
2 x Command teams
1 x Jeep

79th Medium Regiment (The Scottish Horse), 4 AGRA - I'm missing decals for this unit at the moment, so the AOS markings on the vehicles are not correct currently, and there is no formation badge):

1 x Staff team
3 x Command teams
2 x OP teams
1 x Jeep
2 x OP Universal Carriers

128th Field Regiment, 51st Highland Division:

1 x Jeep
1 x OP Universal Carrier

I've grouped the units by type for the pics, rather than by unit. One thing I really need to do is get some sort of unit marking system for my bases, so I know which teams go with which units. Not such a big deal at the moment, but with my attempts to paint unit patches onto the soldiers arms, it will become relevant.

Staff teams (the one with the motorbike is for the 79th Medium Regiment):

OP teams:

Command teams:

Jeeps:

UC OP Carriers:

So this little lot bagged be 96 points. I'm pretty happy with them, barring the fact some of the faces are rubbish and some of the sculpted faces are poor (a couple of miscasts). Decals need to be fixed for the Medium Regiment vehicles and some of the aerial holes on models needs a little work to close them up a bit (the drill bit was slightly too large). I've also got some of the detail on the back of the jeeps to fix! Funny the things you notice looking at the pics!

Anyway, I'll check if the varnish is dry on the next lot, and plow on!

AHPC7: 1st Painting Challenge Entry

Hi folks,

So this year, as I mentioned previously, I decided to enter the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I've gotten off to a slow start, what with moving the week of the Challenge starting. I didn't really pick up a brush again until the start of the New Year. My first aim was to get an entry into the 1st 'challenge' Bonus round. As this was 'Armour' I was able to fit it in with my 'Gunuary' focus. You can find my entry here.

My first entry was therefore four Sexton Mk. II Self Propelled Guns. These vehicles belong to 2 Pulk Artylerii Motorowej (2nd Polish Motorised Artillery Regiment) of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. They are to join my 24th Polish Lancers (and other planned Polish lists, including the Cromwells). 

The Sexton was a development brought about by the inability to fit a 25 Pdr gun into a M7 Priest. Using the Priests 105mm gun was causing supply problems, as the British and Commonwealth forces did not use this type of ammunition in any other weapon system - whereas the 25 Pdr was used in all of the 'Field' Artillery Regiments. 

With the M7 Priest unable to be converted, work was undertaken in Canada by the Canadian Army Engineering Design Branch, to create a vehicle similar to the M7. This was done by converting the hull of the Ram tank (which had been developed but was not used in a active combat role itself). This design proved to be successful, with two versions being produced - the Mk1 (based on a Ram hull) and the Mk II (based on a Canadian built Sherman hull - the Grizzly). A total of 2,150 of these vehicles were produced for the British and other Commonwealth armies. The name Sexton was chosen to continue the religious theme of the Priests these vehicles were based on (and previous SPG's such as the Deacon). The Sexton continued in operational use until 1956!

As usual, these vehicles have the relevant unit markings on them - with the exception of the gun battery specific markings (normally blue boxes with one quarter red, the quarter changing depending on the guns number within the battery, along with a letter and number combo). Bridge Classification on these SPGs are 27, and the AoS decal is a red over blue box with a white 76. On the front right is the Polish 1st Armoured 'winged hussar' symbol, while on the rear is the AoS box, the winged hussar symbol and the white oblong with 'PL' in black lettering. All decals came from Doms Decals. I also applied a small allied circle to the lover front hull, as there was no decent flat surface to put them on to be visible from above. 

On the sides of the hull are a medium sized white star, along with the WD numbers (starting with the letter S for a self propelled gun). 

The crew were painted separately and glued into place once the vehicle was completed. The FoW website actually has images with 4 crew in the vehicle, one of which is sitting on the gunners chair. However the article mentions that there were added by the painter and are not part of the kit - which is a shame!

Stowage was added as normal, being a mix of Battlefront, Peter Pig and Skytrex. 

I've already completed the OP tank for this unit, so just the (soon to be made obsolete in V4) command and staff teams to do. 

I also have some small fixes to do - adding some darker static grass to the rear of the base to show the tracks passage, and adding some spent shell casings as well. These will come later once I'm on track with the rest of Gunuary and the AHPC. 

Next up, the limbered 17 Pdrs and then the 5.5" guns - which are more or less done but need crew painting.