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!

11/11/16

Hi folks,

Regular followers of this blog will be keenly aware (and no doubt bored by) my slight obsession with the Sherman Tank. That fixation is linked mainly to my often mentioned family connection to 144th Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps - something that on this day in particular is in the forefront of my thoughts.

My collection very much started as my own memorial to my Grandfather - and this year I managed to 'finish' (where finish means collect all the models for) C Squadron, 144 RAC (with some HQ Squadron attachments).

I've still work to do. These models and the connection they represent are important to me, and as such I don't think they will ever be good enough. I have magnets to add to turrets, paint jobs to update and basing to fix, turret decals to update and base markings to add.

But as much pride as I can take in my modelling and painting efforts so far... And pride is the correct word for this and for me, as I have spent a lot of time and effort and thought on this personal memorial. I am acutely aware that for those men who lived fought and died in the tanks that these models represent, what they went through was anything but a game. Whether they gave their everything, or returned home a little - or a lot -  different than when they left it. We owe those men, and all the men and women who have put their lives and sanity on the line for us innumerable times over the years, a huge debt.

I see a lot of comments about 'wearing my poppy with pride'. I find that to be quite unwholesome. I don't wear mine with pride. I wear it with sadness, with thanks and with a huge amount of respect for the sacrifices made. Pride is the wrong word. A friend made a comment a while ago that rang very true to me - there is a fine line between commemoration and triumphalism. 

Those who sacrificed deserve to be commemorated. I'm thankful for their sacrifice - I am not proud of their need to sacrifice. Especially when it comes to the senseless slaughter of WW1 or those (many) wars fought for Imperialism and the benefit of someones pocket. Those who try to hijack and corrupt the sentiment for their own ends should be ashamed, and should be shunned. 

So my thoughts today, with respect, with thanks and with a great deal of sadness, are for those men who fought beside my Grandfather and who did not return. And for that man, and many many other men and women, who have returned home and who's families and friends may not have recognised the person who returned. For the years of nightmares and the damage done physically and mentally. For those poor families who lost someone 'Missing, presumed killed'.

Finished!: 1st troop of 24th Polish Lancers

Hi folks,

Not much more of an update than the one I posted on Friday! I managed to finish all of my Shermans for my first troop of A Squadron, the 24th Polish Lancer Regiment, 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, 1st Polish Armoured Division...

Just some pictures, which hopefully show off my approach with these guys. I've tried to keep the stowage fairly tidy and uniform, as well as the use of track links on the front of the tank (other than the single tank with sandbags).

These are all 'rescued' open fire plastic Sherman V's, with a bit of TLC applied to hide gaps in the hulls, etc.

Oddly enough, while in Edinburgh at the weekend I came across this chap:

This Statue in Edinburgh of a Polish soldier and Wojtec the bear commemorates the Scottish connection with the Free Polish forces and Polish people. The inscription, touchingly, reads:

"In memory of the

Polish men and women 

who fought 

'For Your Freedom 

and Ours'"

15mm Stowage Comparison - Peter Pig, Battlefront, Skytrex

Hi folks,

I thought I should take the time to actually do a little comparison of the various 15mm stowage suppliers I use. I've posted pictures of the parts individually in the past, but thought it might be useful to see the parts together.

These models come from three separate suppliers, and only refer to western allied kits (although some of the parts are pretty interchangeable)

The model makers I am comparing are:

Peter Pig - specifically their Sherman Stowage Basic Pack's

Skytrex - specifically their  CD SP1 General Stowage Pack and CD SP12 Sherman Tracks & Road Wheels Pack

Battlefront -  Specifically US Stowage US670

Starting with Battlefront's offerings, this pack is billed as US stowage but would be suitable for any Western Allied vehicles. It includes some bedding rolls, Sherman road wheels, Jerry cans, track links and both a US and Tommy helmet and a few boxes. the pack contains 6 strips of each of the two types. From my perspective, the offerings from Battlefront are good and add some great variety. However, the casting isn't great and will need a lot of cleaning up in some cases. I paid £6.47 on ebay for this pack.

Next up, Peter Pig. The Peter Pig packs are a lot smaller and fairly limited in scope, containing 3 large cloth rolls, 3 strips of Sherman tracks, 2 Sherman road wheels and 2 strips of connected boxes. These packs cost £3 each. They require fairly little prep to use, not needing much in the way of cleaning up.

Then we have Skytrex. The Skytrex packs are larger than the other offerings, but a bit costlier and p+p is also quite steep. However, they do contain a lot of different bits. There is a pack of stowage that only includes the canvas rolls, jerry cans and boxes, and leaves out the 'camo net' style rolls. My experience of the Skytrex models is that they require fairly little in the way of cleaning up. 

Both of these packs cost £10, although there are smaller, cheaper, packs available. P+P is about £5 within the UK.

So how do these various offerings compare?

Peter Pig (left) with Battlefront (right)

Mix of all makes

Battlefront on left, Skytrex on the right.

Rear view of the various tracks. Peter Pig on the left with their flat backing, Battlefront at the top and the other offerings are Skytrex.

Front view of the various Sherman tracks.

Small Skytrex barrels and Jerry Cans on the left, beside Battlefront versions.

Battlefront offerings in the centre, surrounded by Skytrex and with a few Peter Pig Sherman road wheels in the center.

Skytrex Jerry Cans and Crates beside the Battlefront offerings.

As you can see, size wise they are all fairly interchangeable with minimal drift in scales. The Skytrex and Battlefront versions give you some decent variations while also providing the bulk you need to detail a lot of different vehicles. The Peter Pig offering is pretty limited in numbers - useful if you are only doing one or two tanks, but you need quite a few packs to do a lot of vehicles and there is not much variation with only the Sherman tracks and road wheels alongside the 3 connected boxes and the large canvas roll.

There are some other options, which I do use from time to time. One is to use greenstuff/miliput to make your own. Doing canvas style rolls is fairly easy and can be done with a little practice. Another is to use small strips of material, tinfoil, etc.

I also carefully strip any stowage on plastic sprues, such as the plastic Open Fire Shermans and StuGs, plastic half tracks, etc. I do try to be careful with mixing these in when I am detailing my models, as I don't want every vehicle being identical (or looking like every other Sherman out there!).

Another version which isn't on the market yet is the Plastic Soldier Company stowage sprue. PSC are working on a British 15mm Stowage kit, similar in scope to the German one. No news as to when this will be released, but they did reply to an email from me recently stating that one was in the pipeline. Another new addition is 'Flames of War Bling' which is an Ebay store selling 3d printed bits and bobs for FoW. They include crates, barrels and tools.

So there you go, a very quick and dirty comparison between all the various stowage options I use on my Flames of War vehicles. If you know of a producer I haven't mentioned, please let me know in comments! I hope you found this blog entry useful! Apologies for the lighting in the photographs.

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: