Finished: 15mm Polish Cromwells #2 Troop

Hi folks,

I've been continuing to use what spare time I can get beyond the demands of parenthood to focus on my Polish Cromwell project over the last few weeks. While progress has been a bit slow on getting this particular troop completed, I've also done a small amount of work on troop #4 and a reasonable amount on troop #3.

As I covered in my previous blogs (1, 2 and 3) regarding this project, these are 15mm Plastic Soldier Company Cromwell tanks representing vehicles from No.2 troop, C Squadron, 10 Pulk Strzelcow Konnych, 1st Polish Armoured Division around the 8th August 1944.

I think I've found a solution to my recent photo lighting problem, and it appears to be related to the standard photo app on my Google Pixel 4 phone. I tried a different app, and the pictures came out a lot lighter, suggesting the app is doing something to make my photos much darker. 

In keeping with previous project posts, here is the painting plan with the most recent changes marked:

It's nice to be able to track myself crawling towards completion. I'm finding that the much more limited free time I have is focusing me a bit more. I'm not going to claim that I'm getting more done, by any means, but I feel like I spent a lot less time messing on with things and more time concentrating on using my time efficiently. If only I could do the same thing in my actual work...

I'm also at the stage where I am thinking about what come next. There are a few different things tickling my fancy, but one of the main things will be to revisit a previous project - my 24th Polish Lancers:

I'd previously painted three Stuarts for this list, before realising the Poles used the Stuart VI not the Stuart V's I'd painted. So I gained my first Canadian tanks, and these Poles are still missing their recce section. Revisiting may also be an opportunity to switch to 60x40mm bases on the Sherman tanks, which will free up storage space. Very much an admin job, but one I can achieve fairly quickly. 

Finished: 15mm Polish Cromwell #1 Troop

Hi folks,

Hobby time has been pretty limited of late, with little Alexander requiring a fair amount of time. Not that he does anything but sleep, but most of the time he just complains loudly and frequently if not asleep on me or Amy. My normal hobby time in the evening has taken a hit due to this. 

Still, I am permitted to duck away for an hour here and there in order to keep my hand in (and decompress a little, now that I am also back at work). 

The goal since the start of February was to make some progress on my first Cromwell troop, which paid off this weekend with the finishing touches done. 

These are 15mm Plastic Soldier Company models, painted up as tanks from No.1 troop, C Squadron, 10 Pulk Strzelcow Konnych, 1st Polish Armoured Division. As per the previous tanks, I'm assembling the unit to look as it may have done on 8th August 1944. 

Decals have been applied for the above unit. This caused me a massive headache - at the start of the project I cut out all the decals I would need and had them in a small ziplock back on my desk. I used these decals for the Stuarts back at the end of January. However, the bag has now vanished, and I can't find it anywhere. At this stage, I think in my sleep addled state I binned it by accident. As such, I had to cut out new ones (thankfully I had spares of the relevant unit markings). However, the loss was not good for my mental health as I go into a full obsessive OCD mode. Even now, writing about it, I'm fighting the urge to compulsively search locations I have already checked 5 or 6 times. 

The tanks are mounted on the 60mm by 40mm MDF bases that I plan to move all my large vehicles to. Aerials added using fishing line, with the command vehicle having two. No magnets required for the turrets, due to the PSC design of them having a 'pin' that connects to the hull. 

The tanks were painted using a pretty basic technique. Basecoat Russian Uniform (Vallejo 70.924) green, wash with a black wash (I'm no longer using my magic wash for this, as it stops the drybrush paint adhering very well), drybrush (with Mig Ammo Medium Green drybrush paint) and then tidy with the basecoat on the flat panels. Tools, tracks, etc then painted, washed and highlighted. I'm not spending a lot of time on the tracks now, as I hit them with the Tamiya weathering products after they have been varnished. This weathering powder never looks as good on the photos as it does in the flesh. 

Painting plan progress so far:

The AA platoon is back on the drawing board, as these don't seem to be in stock anywhere at the moment. 

Onto the next troop!

Unknown Teddy

Hi folks,

Just over six weeks into this fatherhood thing now - all is well and the wee man is getting bigger every day. Looking forward to the cholic stage being over!

A week or two after Alexander arrived, we received a rather large (and adorable) teddy in the post, via an ebay seller. Unfortunately there was no name attached to the package, and the only clue to who the sender may be came from the fact the parcel was addressed to my online 'nom de guerre', suggesting it was a blog or Facebook follower.  

A big thank you to whoever sent this, and apologies for not trying to find out sooner - I'm not sure where the time goes at the moment (I seem to spend a lot of it being a pillow for young Alexander to sleep on).