15mm Universal Carriers (decal swap)

Hi folks,

Catching up on some of the projects on my painting table I've completed but not put away/photographed yet. This small bit of work came about following this post.

After laying out of the whole Highland infantry battalion, I had wanted to sort out Universal Carrier transports for my various infantry HQ units. As I've four infantry companies as well as a planned battalion HQ unit, I decided to repurpose some of the now 'spare' carriers from the FoW v3 organisations to provide company HQ transport. 

Of course, FoW has nothing for battalion HQ units, but given the size of my force I'm planning on having representation for the commander and his 2ic. 

This rework mainly consisted of replacing the existing markings with those of the relevant infantry battalion (in this case, 7th battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 154 Brigade, 51 Highland Division).

 

These vehicles were mainly previously marked up for various attachments from 1/7th battalion of the  Middlesex Regiment (the Divisional support battalion with Vickers MMGs and 4.2" Mortars). I believe that the Vickers MMG platoon HQ and 4.2" Mortar platoon HQ and OP transports were appropriated, as well as a carrier from one of the support platoon units.

This small bit of work means that I've correctly marked out transports for all my company HQ units, as well as transport for my battalion commander (when I get him painted). 

Otherwise, work continues of German half-tracks. 

Battlefield3d - 15mm Valentine Bridgelayer

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I spotted a blog post showing off a 15mm 3d printed Valentine bridge layer and stating that one of the better known 3d model designers (Marco Bergman) had made it available. I contacted Phil at Battlefield3d, who has a license for Marco Bergman's stuff. Phil confirmed he had the model, and added it to his site for me. 

He also sorted the model so that the bridge has a hinge, and can be shown folded or deployed. 

As usual with Battlefield3d's stuff, the print quality and detail is excellent. I had only to remove one or two delicate print supports, but the model was more or less primer ready when I opened the box. No assembly required by me other than to mount the bridge on the tank. 

I'm really pleased to be able to add one of these vehicles to my collections. My plan is to eventually paint this one up as a part of 33 Armoured Brigades HQ unit, possibly along with some Sherman I's. I may even pick up another two at some point, as I believe that three of these tanks formed the bridging section of the Armoured Brigade HQ. 

Whether they will ever see the table is secondary to how cool I think they are!

I also had Battlefield3d print a M4 Sherman from one of the other designers they have a license for, and I'll show off some pictures of that model alongside a Battlefront resin and metal M4 at a later date. 

Initial 15mm Sdkfz 251/1D platoon

Hi folks,

A bit of time has been spent over the last two weeks trying to get my first unit of German half-tracks to a state I was happy with. Unfortunately, this turned out to be more of a chore than I was expecting. I'm still not 100% happy, but seeing them based up tonight they actually look ok. Painting British stuff is a lot easier!

These are older Battlefront 15mm resin kits, with plastic tracks and wheels. 

I've still to add crew to them, which will come much later. Two will have machine gunners and passengers, while the other two will have passengers. 

I've based in my standard style, and added some foliage to the vehicles in the form of seafoam sprigs and leaf scatter. Not hugely keen on how this looks, but it helps break up the camo pattern a little. It also fits in with by SS tank units.  

Decals have been applies as usual, a mix of Skytrex, Doms Decals and PSC. 

Looking at them now, I've forgotten to add my usual dust weathering powder on the wheels and tracks, so will have to sort that. 

I really struggled with these, mainly I think because I went too bold with the camo colours, used the wrong brown, had to work to bring up the yellow more and to make the camo more subtle. My earlier attempts looked much more like the very late war hard edged stripes, rather than the more subtle Normandy camo. Still, the images I used as reference showed that this unit used a lot of brown and green on their vehicles, with only small amounts of base yellow showing. This is very different from the common schemes people use with a yellow base and small splotches of green and brown. I eventually tried multiple times, before resorting to using thinned down yellow and a stippling effect to tone down the camo pattern.

They look much better on bases, and I will use these as templates for the next lot. Thankfully, there isn't a lot of painting on them, if you know what you're doing!