It appears that the end of the AHPC has snuck up on me this year - I thought it finished next Saturday, but apparently it ends this weekend. This does mean that my final unit of half-tracks won't be finished in enough time to be counted, but should still feature here in due course.
Thankfully, I had decided to make a quick entry this week, in the form of three limbered 15mm scale Pak40 anti-tank guns from Skytrex. These guns are to be pulled behind the three half-tracks I previously completed for this purpose.
The guns look ok - possibly a bit blocky in places, especially around the area under the gun shield and around the wheels. But for what are basically just markers on the table, they will do!
Skytrex were also good enough to meet my request for all three guns to be limbered, rather than the advertised mix of limbered and deployed.
These marked off another completed element of my project sheet, and should be some useful additions to the collection for our games. I've not applied any camo, so that they can match either my Heer guns or my still to be painted SS guns. Basing is my usual style, to match the other vehicles in my collection.
This is another lead mountain lurker that made it's way to the front of the queue as I tried to finish off my Polish 24th Lancers squadron. I've still the Stuarts to do, but they will be up next I think.
I picked this up from Skytrex a while back (years ago) and it's a decent enough model. Reasonably detailed and not fiddly to put together. As I was painting other Shermans at the time, I got it knocked out fairly quickly. Pretty redundant in game terms now, but a cool model and part of the historic OOB.
Not much to report painting wise, unsurprisingly. I've repaired some chipped paint and replaced a couple of radio aerials which had gotten badly bent through becoming trapped in various turret rings, etc, while working through my boxes of miniatures rebasing. I've discovered a few turrets which are missing magnets, but that it is a job for later. Drilling resin needs to be done outside, and while the weather has been nice, I've had other stuff on.
Two boxes have now been completed, which freed up enough space to allow my Cromwell Squadron to fit into a tray. I also made the decision to put my Crocodiles on a base with their trailers, rather than them being separate. In v3 of Flames of War, the Crocodiles could lose the trailer after firing the flamethrower and become a gun tank, whereas in the current edition the fuel isn't as limited (which seems more realistic). Nothing looks as cool as a tank with a trailer...
This does mean that the Croc's take up a bit more space, but the individual trailers were a nuisance to store due to their shape, so having the model all together is actually better.
15mm Battlefront Churchill Crocodile (resin and metal)
I also updated my engineering vehicles and tanks, which were moved onto the smaller bases. I have changed the selection of tufts, which I'm not hugely keen on, but they look better in the pictures. There were a unit of M10s on the same tray, which have been moved elsewhere as space has become available:
Skytrex 15mm armoured D7 and PCS Churchill with a S&S models AVRE fascine & cradle conversion
I may try and move the SBG bridge AVRE onto a smaller base, but the weight of the resin bridge needs a large base to stop the model tipping.
It wasn't just the allies who got some TLC. This tray went from being full of German vehicles with no room for anything else, to allowing me to fit my burgeoning Sherman DD squadron in. I'm sure they start arguing every time I close the lid.
The process or rebasing is pretty straight forward as I'm only tacking vehicles on large bases - but it is slightly time consuming. It takes time to actually prepare the bases prior to shifting the vehicles on to them. I've also been disassembling the old bases, saving what tufts and such I can, while also re-using the ferrous sheeting on them for the new bases.
Two 9ltr boxes with vehicles are left to tackle. One, with German big cats and a few bits of Allied bits and bobs shouldn't take much work. The other contains my 144RAC squadron, which I am going to be spending more time on. In addition to updating the basing for the Shermans I plan to get all the decals up to scratch and possibly do some more cosmetic work to bring together the whole unit visually. This was my first completed unit, and was collected and painted over a long time, so has more variance than my current units (as I now try to tackle whole units at once to avoid this issue).
Another quick little side project done - crew figures for all the recently completed British armoured cars.
The crew figures as a mix of Skytrex along with some very old and very new Battlefront figures. In line with my other recce models, each vehicle has a single crewman, while command vehicles have two (along with two aerials). This helps mark the command teams during play. Some of the crew are just peeping over the lip of the hatch, while others are sitting higher using radios, etc.
I also added magnetic basing, so these are ready for storage... which I don't have. Primarily because I've filled up what I have either with my 15mm stuff or the 10mm Joshua project. Also because I recently purchased 5 platoons of rather nicely painted British infantry from a friend. Which leaves me one single platoon short of having a full battalion (4 rifle companies of 3 platoons + a support company). The only slight cheat being that some squads are 4 men strong rather than 5. I'll try to get some pictures soon!
I managed to get myself organised and finish off the first couple of models for 2020 and the first entries to this years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I've set myself a bruising target of 1250 points this year, and these guys combined were worth less than 100 (including a bonus!). I better get a shift on!
First up a 15mm diorama I painted for Dave's collection (as my entry fee for this years challenge). Dave will have to complete the 'X marks the spot' challenge to qualify... I wanted to stick to my strengths and paint something WW2 related, so in the end went for an American command/signals post.
The truck, trailer and jeeps are all from Skytrex, while the infantry figures and passengers are all Battlefront metals. The base is a 'coaster' sized and shaped 2mm MDF base - the same as what I used for my Aid Post back in 2017.
I also submitted a couple of tanks I had painted for Martin - 15mm Plastic Soldier Company Fireflys to be precise. These were a donation to Martin's British armour collection following his purchase of the 'Hit the Beach' box. I decided to build and paint them for him as a thank you.
Very plain, limited decals, no bases and no weathering. I'll let Martin add what he likes to match these in with what he's doing.
Now, I just need to get on with the 10mm stuff on my desk...
Another vehicle entry for the AHPC challenge! Only a single model for this last week, as prep for the game last Sunday and updating the 6 Pdr platoon (plus the NAAFI Truck) took up a lot of my time.
The NAAFI truck came 4th in the public voting for the 'Sport' round of the AHPC, so thanks to all who voted!
Anyway, for your perusal, a second D7 Bulldozer for my army:
This is the second of these vehicles, both of which as 15mm models from Skytrex. Long time blog readers might remember I finished one a few years ago (July 2015). I referenced back at the time I purchased the first model that a Bulldozer had been mentioned in 144RAC's war diary for Operation Totalize:
"Major Lovibond had gone on a good way towards the objective, accompanied only by a very gallant bulldozer who had been told to follow the tank in front and was faithfully carrying out his orders."
At the time, I believed that this Bulldozer would have been from 79th Armoured Division (149th Assault Park Squadron Royal Engineers, to be precise, part of 1st Assault Brigade) and as my RE Breaching Group required a Bulldozer, I decalled it up as such.
Subsequent reading and research seems to indicate that the D7's in the column may have actually come from (in part) the Royal Engineers 239 Field Park Company, part of 51st Highland Division. However, while I have a definite mention of two such Bulldozers being in the 144RAC Column, I don't think that the 51st HD had enough D7's to allocate this many per British column (they would have needed 6, assuming each column was the same - it seems that the Field Park Squadron's only had 3, according to the TOE I have seen).
Anyway, despite no current information confirming my guess, I decided I should have a HD marked D7. I like the model and it's already found a use on the table, helping construct a crossing point of the railway embankment in the last game. It also gives me the two I need for my column.
I added some stowage to the rear area, marked up with the usual recognition stars and edge highlighted with a light dusting of weathering powders. I also had dug out my original model for comparison, and realised just how much lighted my current painting style is. As a result, the old model also got some highlighting:
Nice big simple kit to put together, easy enough to paint! This model netted me 10 points for the challenge.
In August last year, before my big move and my discovery of the Paint and Chats, I had done a video and some pics and a video of my British 15mm Flames of War collection.
With all the painting I've done in the last 8 months, I've had a lot of comments made about the size of the collection now, and requests to see the whole lot again. It's taken a while (the joys of living in someone elses house) but I've had a few days to myself and managed to lay the whole lot out.
I've made a video of this layout, with me droning on a little bit.
But I also took a load of pics, as I know not everyone likes YouTube videos and the quality can be a bit poor (especially with me holding the camera!).
So, here is what I had done up till August last year - this is A Coy, 7th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 51st Highland Division and 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, 33rd Independent Armoured Brigade in early August (7th and 8th) 1944 - plus associated support units.
And here is a similar layout for everything done up till June 2016:
And panoramic:
I think I may have a problem... much more of this and I will need a bigger table!
Everything here I have detailed individually as I have completed it, but I have taken a load of close up shots as well (apologies for the lighting):
In addition to this little lot, I also did a similar layout and film for my painted German collection. These guys are for 89. Infanterie Division on 7th and 8th of August, 1944.
And pics (again, sorry for quality - some are blurry or dark):
In addition, over the last year, I have painted several Full Thrust ships and a load of 3mm armoured vehicles.
So where do I go from here? I've a lot of plans for my 15mm Flames of War project. Specifically expanding my forces to be able to represent other units and nations that took part in the Totalize battle. This includes units I already have models for or are actively purchasing models for:
Polish Armoured
Polish Armoured Recce
Canadian Recce
Polish Mechanised Infantry
SS Armoured
SS Heavy Armoured
a second HD Infantry Company
British Recce
And units planned/considered but with no purchases being currently made:
Canadian Armoured
Luftwaffe AA
Polish Infantry
Canadian Infantry
SS Infantry
SS Recce?
This is going to be a mammoth long term project, and involves army list and scenario writing as well as modelling and painting all these forces. Any and all help is appreciated! I'll be posting some blog articles in the future, as well as army lists based on this particular battle. At the same time... I'm going to need a lot more models! Donations or good deals are welcome!
