State of the collection 2017 - Part 1 - British/Polish/Canadian Armour

Hi folks,

So, having lived in this house for 9 or 10 months now, I finally got organised and had the old furniture which was filling the garage taken away. As a result, I now have a decent amount of space in the garage... more than enough to get my table up and get some pictures taken!

Normally I try to do a 'state of the collection' review around June time. But I'm sure you can forgive me for breaking from tradition and getting all the toys out!

Now, the issue this time was that even with the extensions put out on the table, I don't think the table is big enough to hold everything at once! I've plans to get some 2' by 5' boards for it, but in the mean time I decided to split my allied collection down into infantry, armour and artillery. This post will cover my armour!

The video I made (complete with a silent patch where the numpty that I am covered the mike with my thumb - giving more weight to the need to buy a decent tripod) can be found here:

But I know some of you won't want to listen to me whitter on (or not, while I cover the mike), so I thought some still images might be welcome.

C Squadron, 144RAC, 33rd Armoured Brigade with additional units from HQ Squadron (and some Churchill Crocs from 141RAC, 31st Tank Brigade)

Engineering and Croc support from 79th Armoured Division and 31st Tank Brigade

A Squadron, 24th Polish Lancers, 1st Polish Armoured Division. 

Supporting battery from 6th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, 2nd Canadian Corps. 

Spares! 

Thanks! Stay tuned for more!

6MMRPC: Finished - D7 Angledozer and Humber Scout Cars

Home again this weekend and today has been spent finish off the models I was working on last week. This should have been a quick hit for me, but while spraying the varnish on all 4 mini's at once, the varnish on the ARV clouded.

I have no idea why. I was spraying all 4 mini's at the same time and the other 3 were fine.

Anyway, in my rush to prevent too much damage I probably caused more. I ended up running the model under the tap before resorting to trying to scrape the worst of the white gunk off - which took off the paint and decals underneath the rear hull section. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. I searching online to see if there was anything I could do other than repaint the whole model and found someone saying that the cloudiness could be removed by painted on varnish from a bottle.

I tried that, and it did clear most of the issues. I had done a lot of damage before getting to that point though, so ended up repainting sections anyway. As such, that model wasn't finished today.

I also spent some time preparing some A4 craft boxes with magnetic sheeting to act as extra storage for my models. Two boxes done and they work pretty well. This included adding the steel paper to the underside of the models I have recently finished so that they can be stored away.

Today also involved a quick visit to the Carluke and Law Wargames club, where I swapped 3 Sherman V's and a Firefly (the first ones I painted) for 3 Sherman I's and a Hybrid Firefly (all brand new in in box). So Challenge wise I am now less some painted models and up some unpainted ones...

Anyway, onto todays finished models. D7 Angledozer:

Humber Scout Cars:

And the WiP ARV:

Box (Boxes, I used velcro to make sure they stack) - with all my FoW stuff painted so far in the challenge.

And I made a start on the next batch - a Troop of Sherman I's with a Sherman Firefly (one on the right hasn't had any highlights applied to the hull yet):

Paint Table Saturday

As usual, not actually on a Saturday. However I spent the day moving these guys forward, and I'm quite chuffed with them. Still got to finish them off with crew figures, basing and a Matt coat of varnish.

Excuse the Yes badge!

First up my two Churchill AVsRE of 5th Assault Squadron, RE (79th Armoured Division). 

Then we have some Daimlers from 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry:

15mm Daimler Armoured Cars 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, 51st Highland Division - with Army Painter varnish and highlights.

Just to compare these now to how they were prior to the Army painter:

 
Then some random trucks... One for my pioneer platoon, the other currently unallocated.

And lastly, not as far along, is my converted Sherman ARV mk.1 from 144 RAC.

Paint Table Saturday - three days late...

Slightly late with this week's attempt at a Paint Table Saturday post! Mainly due to the fact that on Saturday I only had Army Painter (Strong Tone) varnished vehicles staring back at me. No Salute for me, I'm afraid. One day... Trying to convince the better half that there might be a show on in London that weekend...

I managed this evening to get a dry brush with the base Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo Model Colour 70924) over them. I had tried a new type of highlighting (for me) on my Sherman Hybrids and I intend to replicate that on these models. I'll also do a lighter shade of the Russian Uniform as a quick dry brush later as well.

Since I had some Russian Uniform Green left (I seem to be really bad and putting too much paint on my palette) I also gave the Sherman mk.1 ARV a rough base coat.

This is also my 101st post - please check out my Competition in post #100!

PSC M5 Half Tracks

Loyd Carriers and 6 pdr A/T guns

De-frocked Priests and M5 Ambulance on the left

Side view of M5 Ambulance conversion and De-frocked Priest

Side view of Sherman ARV mk.1 and another shot of the A/T guns

Closeup of Sherman ARV mk.1

Just a quick comment on the Sherman Armoured Recovery Vehicle and why I wanted to convert one. The ARV's are not too much use in Flames of War. However, in Battlegroup Overlord, they have a much wider range of abilities. Some examples: They can attempt to repair destroyed vehicles (6 on a D6, max of 2 attempts) or repair immobilised vehicles (4+ on D6). Recovery vehicles can also tow destroyed vehicles from the table, allowing you to recover some of your lost morale points.

The reason I wanted to convert a mk.1 is that the model Battlefront do for FoW is just plain wrong! I understand it's not as interesting a model as the mk.2, but I think it deserves the attention!

Paint Table Saturday 2

I got a little more enthused again this week to move my painting forward. The four halftracks from my last Paint Table Saturday blog are awaiting an Army Painter Quicktone coat, but as that's pretty strong smelling I'm holding off for a nice (or at least a dry) day to do them outside.

So, here's the total of this weeks work so far:

From left to right we have two Loyds Carriers, my M5 Ambulance conversion and two De-frocked Priests (also known as Kangeroo's). At the front we have two 6 pounder Anti-Tank guns. All the models are 15mm and all but the halftrack in the middle (which is a Plastic Soldier Company model) are from battlefront.

These models are getting there, but still need a few finishing touches and then a touch up using the base Russian Uniform green color.

The reason behind this motley collection is that these models represent stragglers for units that are otherwise painted and complete. The De-frocked Priests give me the last two I need to make my whole infantry company mechanised. The guns and the Loyds Carriers make up the last two guns for my infantry anti-tank platoon.

Alongside these, I have primed my Sherman ARV mk.I:

Which is awaiting a decision from me on some more detail work - I feel certain bits of it look a tad rough. Like around the spare track on the hull sides - I keep wondering if I should try some small bits of plasticard to actually make boxes around them. Or just accept that the model is 15mm and only has to look okay at 'tabletop ranges'.

Opinions, as ever, welcome!

Sherman ARV mk.1 (Part 1)

From one little project to another!

Part of the Armoured Squadron OOB is a Sherman Armoured Recovery Vehicle (ARV). I purchased one recently from Battlefront to round out my Squadron Command Troop. One of these:

Image care of http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1545 - used without permission.

However... After buying this model I discovered by accident that it is wrong. The model represents a Sherman ARV mk.II - Which doesn't seem to have been produced in large numbers and which wasn't really used until the very end of 1944 - start of 1945.

The far more common ARV in British units was the Sherman ARM mk. I - as seen here:

Pic from wiki - used without permission

This was basically a turretless Sherman V with a front mounted jib for things like changing engines and gun mantlets. The removal of the turret lightened the vehicle and increased it's power to weight ratio. As it was not a 'front line' tank, it did not seem to have any of the extra 'applique' armor plates on the hull.

So here's the work of the last few days:

Jib arms, shovel and winch piece

Bits! Tank tracks, jerry cans, spare wheels, etc.

Base tank is a plastic (Open Fire!) Sherman with the armor plates on the hull removed. The white stuff is the filler used to plug the holes these terrible plastic kits seem to leave. Rear details come from plastic boxes from the old Open Fire StuG kits and a spare bit of laser cut wood. 

Adding the details! Front details with the rear hull detailed as well. This included some very fiddly 'wire' in the form of some string round the top of the hull.

Other side - with the top armor plate and hatch added. I'm not sure about the row of jerry cans on the back at this side. Opinions welcome!

So that's it so far. Not sure how I feel about this one - I think it will look better painted, but it might still need some work to tidy bits of it up!