Airfix Time for the LVT

 Having just realised that it's been quite a while since I posted anything on my site, here's some shots of (gasps!) an Airfix kit build (!!) and some other WW2 bits and pieces. 

Yes, a classic Airfix kit picked up at the IPMS Avon show a couple of months ago which I bought and built for a bit of Chain of Command action with the USMC/Japanese island hopping campaign which I've just started playing with a clubmate. 

After a mildly taxing build (I suspect I'm better at building kits than when I was in my teens, but this is a pretty old kit, quite fiddly and also needed a bit of filling... which I'm blaming on the kit rather than my skills!), a spray with Army Painter Army Green, and a heavy dip with Army Painter Soft Tone finished with some drybrushing, this is the result:

Even the stapled together rubber tracks aren’t as obvious as they were last time I think I made this kit back when I was a teenager.!

I was particularly pleased with the Microsol/Microset finished transfers which have ended up with no visible transfer edging at all. 

Here's a shot of the LVT with some 20mm infantry from Plastic Soldier Comany, on "1p" multi-bases from Warbases.

I also bought (on eBay) a sort of tank-like LVT. This is a die-cast pre-paint model which was actually cheaper than the Airfix kit - and didn't need building!  

I again hit this with the Army Painter and then matt varnished it to finish. 

Finally, this is also a die-cast Stuart, resprayed with Army Painter green again, and with some bits-box transfers including the "SQUIRREL" name from the Victrix 1/144th scale Sherman tank set. 

Of course, as soon as it got on table the Airfix kit got shot at once, and then my opponent rolled enough hits to force it to fall back off table immediately! 

  

The only upside was that the Chain of Command rules are so (ahem) randomly organised that we weren't able to find the section that explained what happens in that situation, so I managed to get away without rolling a morale test for losing it!

Chain of Command 20mm Yanks

 Having languished in a drawer for many years since being bought and painted on a whim way back in 2013 with no real plan as to how they might be used, I've recently liberated a load of 20mm mostly-PSC WW2 Americans from deep storage and used them in some initial forays into Chain of Command.

The first couple of games quickly taught me that my single-based figures really needed to be deployed in teams, and also that I definately needed to make sure I had enough Garand teams (of 3), scout teams (of 2) and support weapons (5-6 guys). 

With a load of 3mm rare earth magnets already in hand, and the figures based on new 1p pieces, Warbases ended up getting a decent little order from me for their "1p" small group bases. With a few metal 20mm figures and a gun added from SHQ, the end result are these teams.

The 6pdr/57mm gun is also on a penny so it can be taken out of the tray, and the tray can be used for other weapons teams.

Some of the PSC HMG teams are too close to put each man on a separate penny, so a couple of the teams have 4 slots, and 3 guys on one slot. By the time the team is reduced to 2 guys it's dead anyway so it doesn't matter than much that they can't all be taken out individually. 

Likewise with this mortar team, where the mortar is attached to one of the team

And the same with this HMG - 5 people, one of whom has the gun. 

This is a 4-slot, 5 man team base

Bazooka team with PSC Sherman

The officer is from a Matchbox 1/76th range of GIs. Great little figure for a leader.

Black Ops

Just back from a couple of games of Osprey's new-ish Black Ops modern skirmish rules... and I'm pleased to report that they appear to work !

They are set in the same era as Force on Force, but are a lot more beer & pretzels, whilst still maintaining a bit of tactical depth and that real pace that is needed to make a modern skirmish game feel "real"

Here are photos from our games using mostly Elheim modern US figures.

The squad ready themselves to move out

A cautious advance past a stalled technical

Taking cover behind the HUMMVEE whilst the news crew interview a pedestrian

Peering over a concrete barrier

Possibly not the safest place to hide....

Move first, form, a firing line and open up...

Taking cover behind a storage tank

USMC advance cautiously along the street

Matchbox-scale Toyota acts as cover

 The LAW hit the LPG cannister, so we made up a quick rule to allow me to use this flame thing!

Black Ops is available on Amazon.co.uk and also Amazon.com for not that much really.

The matt varnished Shermans & Churchills

As promised in the previous post, the finished articles are here:  Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Shermans, 15mm Churchills, and Battlefront Bren Carriers all painted in Halfords cammo green.

This really has nailed that "bronze-green" effect I was hoping for!

PSC US infantryman based on a penny for scale.

Not quite sure what's gone awry with the varnishing on this flank of the tank, it's not as obvious in real life as on this photo.

The top decks look great to me - the "puddled" Army Painter varnish on the one in the foreground's read deck is something I'm quite happy about actually - maybe it could have been brushed out a little though?

And the Churchills... again a great result IMO

I am toying with the idea of a final drybrush, but the details already "pop" so much I'm not sure if that would be too much..?

The colour that's been achieved is pretty much perfect IMO

The early version turret AVRE. Several of the transfers have ended up showing their edges, which is annoying as this normally doesn't happen with my "two layers of clear gloss" technique - maybe my gloss poly needs replacing - or maybe they were just old transfers?

For essentially a one-piece casting these track assemblies are fantastic - well done PSC!

The drybrushing really picks out the stowage boxes too.

Morer slightly odd effects on the big blank flanks of the Shermans here - but again, not as bad in the real world, and in some ways quite good to have it so irregular (ish). The driver's face has done really well here.

 With a PSC infantryman in the foreground

The Battlefront bren carriers.

A final close-up of a rather smug chap - probably waiting for his cup of tea! Make sure you saw the first post too in this two-part series.

Using Halfords Matt Cammo Spray on WW2 vehicles

Halfords is a well known (if you are in the UK) cycle/car accessories retailer, and I am a signed-up and committed user of their range of spray paints for both white and black undercoat.

Recently they have offered a 3-tone range of "cammo" paints, including a khaki which was used as a base coat for these fellows, and also a Dark Green. The Dark Green looks pretty ideal for that difficult-to-achieve WW2 Allied AFV colour, so having some 15mm PCS Churchills, 20mm Plastic Soldier Company Shermans and a handful of Battlefront carriers to paint, I thought I'd give it a go.

Here are the Churchills - these are really well detailed kits, that go together very well and also give you options for a variety of vehicles, including cast and welded turrets and a couple of AVRE options. The Bren carriers are in the background. The spray provides a deep and very matt green finish, but as there is no matching paint pot, you have to be very thorough with getting good coverage.

These are the three PSC Shermans - I sprayed the tracks (which come separately ) with Army Painter Leather brown, which I also use as a base colour for the PSC US Infantry, which are having some heavy weapon crew added to them at the moment (in the background). The heavy weapon teams share the odd/inaccurate Y-shaped braces of the infantry..

The Sherman models are really well thought out for wargamers (as opposed to modellers) needs. They go together really easily (apart from some small gaps where the tracks join at front and back) and feel very robust - someone has thought about these as bits of kit which will get a lot of handling, and designed them accordingly. 

The "shiny" patches are where I have put a patch of gloss varnish as a base coat on which to add waterslide transfers at a later stage - adding a gloss base coat under each transfer and then sealing it in with a further gloss coat before the final matt coat really does wonders for removing the outline/edge of the transfer on he finished model.

Here they are again, this time with Allied stars on them. I think I may have gone overboard with the stars, having them on turrets and hulls, but it adds a little more life to these models anyway.

Here are the Churchills, with some fairly serious drybrushing going on. They have transfers from the Battlefront Allied Armour sticker set. The unit insignia are probably not appropriate for Churchills, but beggars can't be choosers. They will fight with my PBI PSC British Infantry

Very few of them ended up with space on the turret for one of these formation markings.

The carriers, with the little Battlefront blokes peering out.

Churchills again, showing the great detail on the rear decks.  For such simple models to make they come out really well.

I then gave the whole lot a liberal washing with Army Painter Dark tone (the strongest one). I think this will tone down a lot once I get round to doing a matt coat, but right now I am wondering if I will need to do another set of drybrushing.

The carriers - again with probably inappropriate unit markings!

Front view of the Churchills.

And the Shermans. I'm quite optimistic that the mix of base colour and Army Painter will end up as that sort of bronze green that WW2 vehicles seem to have in the real world.

About a week later I managed to Dullcote them and add the finished pictures to this site - see them in this post.