6MMRPC: Finished! Sherman I's and Firefly

This week at home has allowed me to get the Sherman Tank's I was working on last weekend finished. I'm getting to the point that there isn't much left on my shelf ready to get finished off.

This batch consists of 3 Sherman I's and a Firefly - the troop leaders of 1st, 2nd and 3rd troop. The Firefly is that of the 1st troop.

The 3 Sherman I's are Battlefront resin and metal kits, while the Firefly is a plastic kit (from the Open Fire box). I'm not too sure about the Firefly as the barrel seems to be overly thick and chunky looking.

Stowage comes from Battlefront plastic kits, Skytrex and Peter Pig. Decals are from Doms Decals and I-94. Crew figures are Battlefront and Skytrex.

Next up... another 4 Shermans! Another 2 weeks working away from home, so I will be back to just what I can do at the weekend - and it looks like I have a game next Saturday (hopefully).

Painting Chart so far this challenge:

6MMRPC: Auxiliary vehicles WiP

With so much time spent away from home at the moment I'm trying to pick units I can get finished in a weekend or two. This weekend I decided to go with some of the 'other' Flames of War/Battlegroup Overlord vehicles I had sitting on the shelf. 

These took the form of my Breaching Group's D7 Angledozer and my Armoured Squadron's Sherman ARV mk.1 and Humber Scout Cars (for my 144RAC liaison unit). These vehicles had all already been painted and varnished, so I just had to apply highlights, decals, crew, aerials, weathering, matt varnish and bases.

I managed to get highlights and decals done as well as making a start on the bases. Crew were finished previously and just need adding. I've still to do some weathering, add aerials and final varnish. The bases only need some tufts and flowers, and a tidy up round the edges.

So, the D7:

 

This is a Skytrex model, purchased only a few weeks before Battlefront (BF) released their version... It's a nice model, scales well with my BF figures and looks very beefy. I mentioned why I wanted one of these here - but struggled with the markings. I can find no mention of who that brave Dozer belonged to unit wise, so in the end went with a Dozer from 149th Assault Park Squadron Royal Engineers - one of the Brigade assets of 1st Assualt Brigade Royal Engineers. Which in turn was part of 79th Armoured Division. Mainly I used these decals as my other Breaching Group tanks are all 'Funnies' of 79th Armoured Division.

 

I suspect though, on that dark night, the Dozer was from one of the Highland Divisions Field Park Squadrons R.E.

 

Next up, my conversion of a spare M4A4 Sherman (Sherman V) into a Sherman V Armoured Recovery Vehicle Mark I. The BF model is actually of a very very late type of ARV that only really was issued to Armoured Divisions in 1945 (the Mark II version). So I decided to build my own Mark I version.

 

 

Then we have two Humber Scout Cars. I bought these as the Armoured Regiments of Independent Armoured Brigades (like 33 Armoured Brigade) were supported by a number of these vehicles. These were used as runabouts for senior officers and for liaison work between Squadrons and other units. I liked the idea of including these for Battlegroup games, but also like the idea of including them if/when I ever do my own army list for 144 Royal Armoured Corps. Again these are Skytrex models... And again bought just before BF released their own version. C'est la Guerre!

 

 

The decals for these guys and for the ARV still have to be corrected to show the 174 AoS markings of 144RAC. These are mainly Doms Decals, although the tac markings on the Humbers and the 33 Armoured Brigade symbols are from another manufacturer. Dom's Decals also came through for me with more Allied Stars, HD badges, Infantry Division support AoS markings (I was running short following the 4.2" unit) and 2nd Canadian Corps badges (for my 17 Pounder SP battery). I used the allied stars to finish the last 4.2" Mortar Loyd Carrier - although these also still need weathering and crew!

 

The Humbers still need crew, aerials and possibly Bren MG's on pintle mounts. The Sherman ARV just need aerials and the D7 just needs its single crew member. All need Matt varnish. The bases I left drying pending next weekend...

 

 

In other news my copy of Frostgrave arrived as did my new pack of Italian Campaign 4.2" Mortars with the different crew sculpts. I've had an Auster AOP model in my eBay basket for days now but I'm waiting on finishing something before I take the plunge. I'm also trading my first platoon of Shermans (which were the incorrect Sherman V version rather than my beloved Sherman I's) for packs of unpainted Sherman I's.

 

The madness never ceases!

 

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6MMRPC Update: 4.2" Mortars

My first week back at work this week, and I was full of enthusiasm for painting. Up till I got home on the first day... When I changed into my painting clothes then sat in a stupor looking at my painting desk. This happened every night for the rest of the week!

Saturday, spurred by the GZG sale and need to generate jokers (my name is Jamie and I have a Full Thrust ship addiction) - as well as the fact it looks like I will be unable to take any painting with me while working away during weekdays for the next 4 weeks - I managed to get a shift on with some Flames of War stuff.

In this case, my 4.2" Heavy Mortar platoon + transports.

With the infantry/crew already painted, I just needed to highlight them and give them a matt coat of varnish. The vehicles needed highlighting and decals, then weathering and a final matt coat.

I also had to paint the vehicle and gun bases before putting on the crew. I had hoped to get the gun bases finished today, but I was distracted by a swarm of honey bees in the street outside. There were thousand's of them! A bit of online research later and I found a local beekeeper who I got in contact with. She came out and managed to gather up a lot of the bees, although she didn't think she had the queen. By the time I found the beekeeper and such, most of the swarm had moved on - taking the queen with them, we suspect.

So, progress so far this week:-

4 gun bases with crew, needing the space around the crew figures filled in and then static grass and tufts/flowers. The FOO and Command bases only had resin put on them today as I forgot about them. They will have to wait till next weekend. Front and side pic's for each of the 4 teams.

I will comment on the figures once I have the whole unit done I think, to save repeating myself!

Next up the Loyds Carriers and Universal Carriers for the command and FOO - these have been highlighted and have had the gloss varnish applied prior to decals. I just noticed I am short on the small allied stars. I have an order outstanding with Dom's Decals but can't remember if I ordered these.

Some of these have come out a little dark - I'm not too happy with the highlights, but they look a lot better from gaming distances than close up. Aerials for the radios still need to be applied to the Universal Carriers - as per my standard the command carrier will have one and the FOO carrier will have two (hopefully!).

Along with the crew for the Mortars there were a few other currently unassigned infantry figures finished as well, but they will stay on the lolly sticks until I decide what I am doing with them. I think some of them will end up on individual bases as spares for my Battlegroup Overlord games.

So that's all for this week folks - have to say some other peoples output for the challenge has been putting me to shame. Well done to them all for making such great progress!

M5 Halftrack Ambulance - PSC conversion - Finished!

I managed to get a few pics up last night of my finished halftracks that will be the tractor units for my 17 Pounder platoon. Alongside these I managed to finish off my halftrack ambulance (seen above). This is really a unit for Battlegroup Overlord rather than anything to do with Flames of War. It's one of several units I have planned. At the moment those plans include a ambulance jeep, a lorry loaded with supplies and a MP jeep.

Ok, so some details. The kit itself was from The Plastic Soldier Company and was one model from a pack of five M5 Halftracks. I already had a M5 halftrack from Battlefront which had been part of my Pioneer platoon - prior to the 'Overlord' book changing the platoon HQ vehicle to a truck. As this model was painted I decided to decal it as one of the halftracks of 61st Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, add it to the plastic Halftracks and convert one of them to an ambulance. Mainly as they were all unpainted.

Details of how I converted this model can be found here. Just to bore everyone again:

I removed the MG cupola and used some standard plasticard to build up the shape I needed for the canvas top. I figured this would be easier to build up the green stuff on. As you can see, the shapes are all pretty simple. The only bit that caused me an issue at this point was the front section - but a bit of time and shaping with a craft knife got me both the shape I needed and the little slices required to prop it up.

Then on to the green stuff:

This was just layered up. I rolled the mixed green stuff into sausages, laid them along from side to side, layering where the canvas was higher and just used a modelling tool to shape it. I tried to make it look 'canvassy' but not too sure that worked very well. Still, from a distance it looks fine!

The model then went through various stages of painting - Black primer, Base coat with Vallejo Model Color Russian Uniform (70924), Black for the tracks and wheels then Model Color Black Grey (70.862) highlighted by Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber (306). Model Color Mahogany Brown (70.846) for the tools highlighted by Model Color Beige Brown (70.875). The canvas I had gone for reflective green, but I think through drybrushing etc it ended up back at more the Russian Uniform color. Very hard to tell from what few period pics I could find what the tarp should have been painted.

Decal wise the British Red Crosses are from Skytrex (CD DEC26) along with my usual selection from Doms Decals. for the WD number (the number along the side of the front hull) I decided to go with a 'A' number. Mainly as I had ran out of 'Z' numbers which is normally what a halftrack is classified as. 'A', of course, stands for Ambulance.

The AoS markings I searched high and low for. Eventually I figured out that as a Ambulance of 154th Field Ambulance (the 154 Brigades ambulance unit) the AoS seems like is should be a white '77' on a black square.

I used one of my Doms Decals black '64' AoS decals (for the Divisions support battalion's MMG and 4.2" units) and just painted black over the 64 and reapplied the 77 in white.

I was a bit unsure about where to put the red cross markings but in the end went for a mix of the various markings I had seen during my research.

So that's it, one ambulance ready to support my PBI!

This model was also the first one I went for the flowers on as well, and I think they look brill. All in all really pleased with how it turned out.