Finished: 15mm Crusader AA, 4CAD

Hi folks,

As I'm avoiding doing big 'projects' (painting whole companies) for my WW2 Normandy collection I've been picking through bits and bobs outstanding from otherwise completed or planned units. This has led to a load of 20mm Crusader AA tanks making it out of the lead mountain and onto the painting shelf. 

This pair are 15mm scale plastic models from Battlefront. I've decalled them up as being from HQ squadron, 28th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Regiment), 4th Canadian Armoured Division. 

Usual basing applied, there was no easy mounting point for aerials so I've left them for now. I also applied my standard weathering. 

Finished?!: 15mm M5 Halftracks - again

Hi folks,

Another outcome from my recent reshuffle of transport vehicles for the 17-pdrs was a re-working of the previous halftracks into a new unit. 

I have two planned units which would use M5 halftracks as transport vehicles. After a bit of a think I decided to re-do the 5 halftracks as part of The Lake Superior Regiment (of 4th Canadian Armoured Division). 

These 5 vehicles include four plastic PSC models and one resin and metal BF kit. In the images, you can tell which is which by the crew members - the Battlefront kit has pairs of soldiers. 

Previously, they looked like this:

The Battlefront model, in it's initial scheme of a Pioneer vehicle

The PSC models, in their initial A/T regiment markings

So these have now been re-based and given some weathering to decals and hull. I've added some tactical markings in green, and the appropriate divisional and AoS markings. A full company of these would have 12 halftracks and some command vehicles (possible M3 scout cars). 

It shouldn't take much to finish off the unit... but a project for another day. 

Finished: 15mm Canadian Ram OP tank

Hi folks,

Busy times of late, leaving little time for painting. I did, however, manage to finish off a couple of units which had been work in progress after Christmas. 

First up is a Ram OP tank for my planned future Sexton battery from 23rd Field Regiment (Self Propelled), Royal Canadian Artillery. Intrigued by a period photograph of one of these vehicles waiting on the start of Operation Totalize, a few years ago (2017!) I set in motion a plan to have a suitable turret made by Butlers Printed Models. You can find the earlier blog article about this here. 

Suffice to say, this project has gone untouched for a while, as I focussed on other units. 

With the AHPC challenge coming up in December, and knowing that I might be a bit stuck for time over the first few months of the year, I decided to bump this model up the painting queue and had it prepped to work on along with the Polish Cromwells. 

Just to show the reference picture I was using:

I do have a further image, taken at around the same time and showing the same vehicle from a different angle (it's the 3rd vehicle in the column). While I can't spot any unit marking on the Shermans, there is a geometric diamond shape on the side hull of the lead tank, which would make it part of an HQ squadron. The Stowage and attempts at added armour indicate that this is not a picture taken in the UK:

This model consists of the hull of a Battlefront Ram Kangeroo, which was modified via green stuff to change it from the early mk.1 hull with the mini turret, to the later solid mk.II hull. Onto this, the BPM turret was mounted. I also added stowage and some bits of plastic offcuts to build some shape under the camo netting on the rear deck. The camo netting is a 1/72 scale product that I think works well at 15mm. The print quality of the turret is not great, so I added some additional stowage to the hull, and the camo netting thankfully covered up some of the rougher bits (print lines). 

I tried to paint the camo netting to show the strips of brown/khaki and green cloth interwoven through it. Aerials were added using fishing line. Decals were also added, marking this tank out as an OP vehicle from the above mentioned unit. I have 4 Canadian Sextons to go with this at some point, but not any time soon. The turret and hull were also magnetised. 

This tank, along with some Stuart Vs and Sherman DDs painted a while back, are currently my only Canadian armour for Normandy, but I have plans/models for more... here is the painting plan for the list including the Ram tank. 

Progress and Xmas Loot

Hi Folks - and Merry Christmas from me and mine to you and yours!

This last week or so I've gotten started on my first entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 8 (AHPC8), but progress has been slow. In all honesty I've just struggled to find the motivation to paint German gun crew. I have made some progress, but I think the pile of prepped models has actually put a damper on my motivation. I finally decided to go back to basics, pick one unit at a time and get them done, rather than staring at the whole lot and fretting!

Yesterday I really lucked out on gifts, getting everything that was on the list I had provided Amy with earlier in the year. Again, books were the main focus as they are easier to pick up and less chance of things not arriving by the big day. But I did get some models...

I'm really pleased with all of these. The Normandy stuff should keep me going for a while, and there looks to be some really great info in them. Especially the info on the Canadians! Combined with a really really interesting online find on Christmas Eve, where I found a .PDF of a post war Canadian Army report into Totalise that is chock full of some really great info, I feel like I've got some great new perspectives on the battle to read through.

Stripes is also a really interesting book, with lots of great options for Team Yankee... I can see me expanding my 3mm Americans based on some of the stuff that's there.

Necromunda is the first GW game I've gotten in a long time. When I saw it was coming out I just had to jump on board (which is pretty uncommon for me). I've great memories of this game from my teenage years. The contents of the box look great, and I'll have a think about how I build the figures before I do anything with them... but it does mean I need to think about new scenery!

Over the weekend, I also took the opportunity to prime my prepped German guns. Gunuary doesn't properly start until the 1st of January, but I'm jumping in early as I've so much to do.

A can of Plastic Soldier Company 'Late War German Dunkelgelb' went quite a long way on these, and forms a decent primer coat on all the guns. I'll probably do another light coat of middlestone or green ochre over these before detailing, washing and highlights. I also have to prep quite a lot of bases!

Right now, I'm focusing on the crew and guns for a 3.7cm AA battery. The figures are from the Battlefront SS set, but I am painting them in my attempt at Luftwaffe ground uniforms for a battery of III Flak Corps guns.

Hopefully everyone else got what they wanted for Christmas and had a great day!

Happy new year when it comes!

Something you don't see every day! (15mm Ram II tank)

Hi folks,

As part of my Totalise Project there are things I come across that are historically accurate but missing from model ranges (or decal ranges). One of those things were Canadian Ram II tanks.

These were created by the Canadians and shipped over to the UK in large numbers. However, it was viewed as obsolete by 1944 so was used mainly for training. From Wiki:

"A prototype Ram was completed in June 1941, and general production of the Ram I began in November of the same year. The Ram I and early Ram IIs were fitted with side doors in the hull and an auxiliary machine gun turret in the front. The former weakened the hull and complicated production, and the doors and the machine gun turret were discarded in later modifications. By February 1942, production had switched to the Ram II model with a 6-pounder gun and continued until July 1943. In March 1942 a decision had been made to change production over to the automotively-similar M4A1 Sherman tank for all British and Canadian units. Ram production continued due to delay in starting the new M4 production lines and a reluctance to let the plant lie idle.^[3] By July 1943 1,948 vehicles, plus 84 artillery observation post (OP) vehicles, had been completed.

The official Canadian history of the war compares the Ram to the Ross rifle as examples of unsuccessful Canadian weapon designs. It states that given the Sherman's superiority, in retrospect it would probably have been better for the United States to produce more tanks, and for Canada to have focused on manufacturing more transport vehicles such as the successful Canadian Military Pattern truck designs. The Sexton self-propelled gun based on the Ram chassis, however, was very successful.

As built, the Ram was never used in combat as a tank, but was used for crew training in Great Britain up to mid 1944. The observation post vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carrier, gun tractor, and munitions carrier versions of the Ram saw considerable active service in North West Europe. These tanks were mainly rebuilt by Canadian Army workshops in the United Kingdom. Conversions of Ram tanks with the Wasp II flamethrower gear were used by the 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade in the Netherlands in 1945."

It is the artillery OP and Artillery Tow version which interested me. I've had an interest in getting some of these for my planned Canadian forces for a while. Last year, prior to embarking on this 'all nations' Totalise Project, I had bought 3 packs of Ram Kangeroos, in order to do a later war version of my Highlanders. However, the planned use of these vehicles had changed with the change in focus onto Totalise, with 4 of them being used as 17 Pounder Tows for my Canadians, and 2 of them getting turrets to act as OP tanks.

Ram OP tank in Normandy - the full version of this picture shows 2 Canadian 4th Armoured Division Shermans behind, 

But as I had the hulls, where could I get the turrets?

I searched about, and found someone who had scratch built turrets. They looked great, but I didn't think I could replicate what they had done - and didn't want to spend a lot of time working on something I would end up unhappy with. I checked Shapeways, where the full tank is available to buy at 1/100ths scale, but for £25 each. A lot of month to spend on 2 tanks! No one, it seems, made turrets for this tank.

Eventually, months later, I approached Butlers Printed Models with a query about them designing and building a turret for me. Peter was very very helpful, and for a small fee - well, smaller than the cost of two tanks off Shapeways - Peter agreed to do the design work, send me a prototype and get some turrets done!

Less than two weeks later:

Ram II Turret in 15mm, for use in Flames of War

The Butlers Printed Models turret on the Battlefront Kangeroo hull.

Now it is 3D printed, so there is a little roughness to the turret, but not a huge amount compared to other 3D printed then cast models I have worked with in the past. Very little clean up was required. The turret fits perfectly on the Battlefront Kangeroo hull, although some of the turret ring details have to be removed (mainly the mounting for the .50cal). I think with a coat of paint on these guys they will be a fantastic addition to my army. Peter also modelled the Early, Late and Close Support versions of the turret - mines is the Late version.

The best bit is that the model I 'commissioned' is available for purchase on the Butlers Printed Model webstore - here!

Hopefully, I've have these painted 'soon'!