Finished: Cruel Seas British Armed Trawler

Hi folks,

I've continued work on clearing the contents of the painting shelf. The most recently completed model, from my Cruel Seas British fleet box, has sat there since December last year and has taken me a while to get going with it. 

Completion was further delayed due to work on transcribing some paper DnD maps into an electronic format. This week I put a bit more effort in to get it 'done'. 

This is a converted fishing trawler, taken into Royal Navy service and used in a variety of roles, including ASW patrols and mine clearing. 

I've added some crew from the Cruel Seas British crew set. I also upgraded the weapons to something more like those seen on period ships. A fore mounted 3" artillery gun, and a twin Oerlikon in the rear. It also has depth charges. The standard loadout for these ships in Cruel Seas would be 2 x 3-pdr guns, along with a range of machine guns and an HMG turret (which has no representation on the model).

I've painted mine in a rather neater Royal Navy scheme than those commonly seen in other collections, mainly because my limited research didn't show these to be the rusted tubs everyone seems to think they were. Most pictures show them to be well kept and in clean grey, which is what I've done. Not sure the Royal Navy would tolerate any vessel being a rust bucket - any more than the army would have rusty tanks... 

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 Scratch Build - Finished

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures of my WiP 15mm scale LCT, for use in Flames of War and other such games. Since then, I've been busy painting, and then repainting, the built model. However, this week I've got it to the point that I am happy for now, aside from getting some crew figures sorted.

Unfortunately, I had been so keen to get this painted, that I jumped in with both feet and didn't check colours or references. This resulted in me having a complete paint job, which was wrong:

Reference to some D-Day images, and then the shipmakers models for the LCT's, shows that the colour was basically white with a dark blue camo pattern on D-Day. So I repainted the dark grey a lighter grey - but then decided it was still too dark, so went with off white, which seemed to do it. The camo colour is 2/3rds Dark Bluegrey Pale and 1/3rd Prussian Blue (roughly). Upper hull surfaces are London Grey, while the hold is Luftwaffe Uniform. I just used a selection of reds for the markings, and light browns and khaki for the lifeboats.

Weathering was done using stone grey, beige brown (for rust) and a very light grey wash.

So here she is, in all her glory:

I'll be replicating the paint scheme for the smaller craft I have and will be keeping an eye out for some more smaller craft to pick up in the future.

As for making more... well, when I finished this one I had the urge to try an LCI... but with enough deep breaths the madness subsided. For now. I think I am still going to pursue some other options, so who knows!