Finished: 15mm Sherman DD's

Hi folks,

Another bit of a delay from my last blog post, but work has been continuing on a series of beach landing based projects. This has kept me busy, but working on multiple things at once has meant that I've not actually finished anything yet. 

First to the finish line, after my AVRE's were delayed due to some last minute stowage additions, are the five Sherman DD tanks. 

I've six of these painted already, so these chaps take me to eleven total for the squadron. I've used some birthday money to buy another four, but two are on back order currently. When they all arrive, I should have a full squadron of these. 

They are 15mm Battlefront models, and are M4A1 based Duplex Drive Shermans. Unfortunately, this is the wrong version of Sherman DD's for the Brits/Canadians, who used the M4A4 hull for theirs. However, I'm not keen on the Peter Pig or Skytrex representations of these tanks, so I stuck with the incorrect but nicer sculpted Battlefront model. 

Sticking with the same these as the previous batch, I've gone with a sandy 'beach' base rather than my usual basing technique. I have been tempted to add some grass tufts, but tried this previously and was unhappy with the look. As these are, they match in with Dave's DD tanks. 

Highlighting was done to my current method, which made me go back and update the previously painted tanks to have the same garish style. These look odd close up, but much better at tabletop distances. Decal wise, I've only gone with a star on the turret top. The floatation skirts hide where the markings would normally be on the hulls, and while I have read mention of the Canadian units having unit markings on the gun mantlet, I've not found any pictures supporting this. Plus, leaving those markings off lets the unit represent tanks from different units. 

I do have a couple of tank commanders to paint to fully finish two of the tanks, but the models can be used without for now. 

With the models on order, the current painting plan for this project is looking like this:

And on completion, this will be my fourth painted allied tank squadron... (the others being 24th Polish Lancers, 144RAC and 10th Mounted Rifles). 

 

WiP - 15mm scale 5cm KwK guns

Hi folks,

An unfortunately quiet June for me posting wise. With the warmer weather, weeks holiday and a bit of a loss of motivation, my hobby time was spent organising and building kits. I started assembling the first few Churchills for my future 7RTR squadron, assembling some Sherman V's for my 4th Canadian Armoured Division squadron (from the British Columbia Regiment) and built some Stuart VI's to finish off my Polish 24th Lancer squadron. The only painting I did was to make a start on my Polish Sherman Armoured Recovery Vehicle. 

Churchill building sent me down a rabbit hole of different marks of tank, OoB's and indecision. In the end I bought a box of the Battlefront 'Soviet' Churchills in order to make a few Churchill III*'s. Thankfully, the spare hulls then allowed me to build two more AVRE Churchills, which I will need...

In August, we have a large game planned, C-19 allowing. This means we also need some more beach defences. I have a singe Battlefield in a Box 5cm KwK bunker from Battlefront, but we needed more of those guns for various defensive sites (we are planning a large game covering the landings on Sword Beach, capture of 'Hillman' and relief of Pegasus Bridge). 

The gun looks like this:

Using some spares from my bits box and some extruded styrene, I managed to initially start like this:

This used: spare plastic PSC 6-pdr barrels, a BF metal German tank hatch, some rectangular styrene and some styrene rod. 

With the addition of some plasticard as a gun shield, I got them to this stage:

The actual BF metal model is on the left. 

These bits are now in the painting queue, along with some Battlefront Tobruks, a home made Tobruk and a French tank turret position. Hopefully this should give us 2 more MG positions and 2 mortar pits. 

This time working with the plasticard now has me eyeing up different AVRE options... we will see if I have time. I've also this month bought a box of Battlefront M7 Priests, as arty support for my landing forces. Planned purchases depending on birthday money this month will be another four DD Shermans, to give me a full squadron of those. 

Painting queue currently consists of: 2 x AVRE, 5 x Sherman DD, 3 x Stuarts, 3 x Sherman Fireflies, 1 x Sherman ARV, various beach defences, 1 x LSI(S) and 1 x LCT!

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...