Finished: 15mm Recce 6-pdr Platoon (PSC)

Hi folks,

As usual, a bit more of a delay between my last post and this one. The sunny weather, my dabbling with other bits and generally my lack of enthusiasm for these models all led to me taking a little longer than expected on these guys. 

On the plus side, another unit marked off the painting chart!

These guys are 15mm Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Loyd Carriers and 6-pdr anti-tank guns marked up as a platoon from 2nd Debyshire Yeomanry, 51st Highland Division. 

I've used a mix of different stowage options on the Loyd carriers just to individualise them a little. The carriers themselves I had little issue with. They are decent models and I've added them to FoW medium plastic bases which will be magnetised for storage. 

My main issue with these models were the guns and gun crew figures. The guns are light and fiddly, and the joint between the gun and trailer is a definite weak point. It was tricky to get the guns to sit with a more flat trajectory without them appearing to break off every time I looked at them. Similarly, the crew figures - while they look decent painted - have no bases. As such, painting them was an issue as they have barely any surface area connecting them to a surface. I fully expect that I am going to lose crew figures from the bases as there is just no decent way of securing them. 

The details on the crew were also fairly soft, placement of water bottles on the webbing is wrong on half the models and generally they are nowhere near as nice as metal figures (but we all knew that already). For the price, I suppose they are a good buy. They certainly look like they will fit in with the rest of my collection. 

Crew figures for the carriers are very slight, especially compared to the gun crew. 

I've used my standard basing technique, but the lack of bases mean the crew figures have just had to be glued directly onto the basing material. 

All in all, a useful little 4 gun platoon, which takes my total of (deployed) 6-pdrs up to 10! I'll try to get some pic's of these next to my Battlefront and Forged in Battle Loyds now they are all painted and based. 

The painting chart is starting to fill with more green. Part of the delay on these guys has been the work of the crew figures for the armoured cars - which should be done shortly. 

As for other diversions, I was sent some MDF kits to test build. I've been chasing Pendraken for these since before lockdown! Pretty sure Leon was sick of me bugging him about them every few weeks. These are 15mm Redvector kits that Pendraken will hopefully be stocking some time soon. 

British LCI(S) in early configuration (I've converted mine to be a later variety)

A busy table with my conversion to the LCI(S) and a test of how many 60x40mm bases the 15mm LCT can fit (some sanding was required for the bases, unbased tanks will have no issue). 

Finished!: 6mm Recon and 15mm LCA's

Hi folks,

I have fully intended to try and post more regularly this year, as I've found myself using my Facebook page for more 'work in progress' type posts. Still, I have managed to break my duck a bit with the AHPC, getting a themed round entry in the form of some hastily painted 6mm Modern Brits for Team Yankee, as well as this week getting 6 Battlefront 15mm LCA's done.

LCA's post (with some historic info) can be found there:

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/01/from-jamesm-15mm-scale-battlefront-lca.html

Basically, I've painted six craft which are numbered for craft used on Juno (the Canadian) beach.

15mm scratch built LCT with 15mm Battlefront LCA's

Pretty pleased with these - the ramp position came about as I wasn't sure whether to do them raised or lowered, and Garry stated I should do them half way, representing them lowering on the way in or on the beach. Great suggesting from Garry, which proves that even a stopped watch is right twice a day ;)

The 6mm figures were painted in a hurry, and are not my best work:

Currently I am working on a Gunuary project - six limbered 6 Pdr A/T guns, modelled to be towed behind my UC Carriers. I've also got a 'wrecker' truck converted by yours truly, which will form the basis of a small REME Light Aid Detachment - just need a jeep and a spare 3 tonne truck to complete this little unit (the jeep and truck might go on a diorama base similar to my Regiment Aid Post).

I've also been converting some 15mm AA and Artillery figures into Royal Navy crew for my large landing craft, green stuffing anti flash hoods and gloves onto them to hide the uniform's being wrong... More on those soon, as hopefully they won't take long to paint.

That't it for now!

15mm LCT Scratchbuild

Hi folks,

Very slow on the blogging front of late, mainly due to lack of any painting or other work. However, last week I decided to re-focus my lack of painting mojo at the moment and do something constructive with my time.

Since I've managed to get Dave D and Martin into the whole Normandy FoW thing, Dave in his usual style jumped in with both feet and broadened the scope... He picked up some DD Shermans and some landing craft for his Yanks, and has been doing some coastal defences as well. Doing the landings is always something that's interested me, but was something of a future project - possible tied in with my distant idea to do the Rhine crossing (Operation Plunder). However, Dave's enthusiasm was infectious, and while on holidays I thought how cool it would be to do a 'proper' landing battle - not just with dribs and drabs of stuff, but have the whole thing be properly busy. There was also an idea for possibly doing a convention game at some point. I thought a big landing craft would look properly cool, but no one seems to make 15mm scale LST's (Landing Ship, Tanks).

Having seen the work the Mark has done over at House of Hengist, I spoke to him about scratch building a LST and he gave me some pointers. Last Saturday I took myself to Hobbycraft in Teeside Park with a bare bones idea, and came back with an expensive load of balsa wood.

As of today, this is what I've gotten done:

Now, let me say that this is a bit of a 'gaming token' as far as LST's are concerned. It's no specific mark or model, more a composite of a couple of different designs adapted to fit my based tanks and vehicles designed to look like an LST. So while I've tried to keep it to an LST style, it's not going to win any awards for accuracy when it comes to model boat building. I did the sizes by eye and the rough shape from looking at pictures online. I know that might offend some people, but to highlight this is the first scratch build I've ever done, and the first model I've ever built using wood and plasticard!

To give an idea of scale, here it is with a Battlefront LCA (Landing Craft, Assault) in the hold:

And here it is with a selection of my tanks:

So it's a big model! About 15" long and 5" wide. I started with some hand drawn plans:

Which, with some building experience, I would alter slightly before trying again! I then cut out the base and built up the shapes I needed:

Before using some wood filler to cover up my poor woodworking skills:

Once this was sanded down, I started on the detailing:

Which eventually lead me to the idea of doing the railings... we'll see how long these survive for!

And finally, with a bit more filler to smooth out some of the rougher areas, we have today's model ready for a coat of PVA and some spray paint:

I used all sorts of bits from my bits box to add some details, such at the ladders and such. I had nothing to try and represent the 20mm guns with, so I picked some of my larger plastic .50's, added a German half track gun shield and build up with plasticard. Various other spares went into the model, including tank exhausts, pioneer bridges, Cromwell deep wading exhausts and panther rear hull sections. The railing is pins and beading wire, the smoke stack is a cork wrapped in plasticard. The mast is various gun barrels...

At the moment, I don't know that I'm going to do much more modelling wise. A coat of watered down PVA needs applying to harden up the wood and prevent the paint being sucked in. I also want to look at converting a couple of crew figures, but I will see how I do with that!