GENERAL UPDATE

Doesn't time fly. 
I wonder where they all are now.

If you by chance come across this blog and are now the proud owner of these or any of the other Napoleonics I painted, drop me a comment or message and let me know If you have had any successes with them on the table top or if they just sit on a shelf in your display.

I remember painting these guys not so long back and sold them along with a lot more 1:72 Napoleonic miniatures. Thinking back I recall the pride I had in completing these and getting them as historically correct as possible. But then I sold them on Ebay.

I will be doing some more Napoleonics hopefully shortly but will be in 28mm size, possibly Perry's or Victrix.

Overlord Update
Just ordered 2 armourfast Achilles and three more plinkers (I mean Shermans) along with some 6 pdr anti tank guns with carriers for the British. Will be staring these next week, the Germans require some more half tracks 3 already done ( see below) and a couple of panzer variants as well as some self propelled guns.

Air Power
These will all have air cover in the shape of a spitfire, a typhoon a fockewulf and an Me109


Book Shelf

This month I have been reading CATCH THAT TIGER, which tells the true story of a brilliant young army engineer Major Doug Lidderdale and his squad of REME guys who went into the battlefields of Tunisia in 1943 on the orders of Sir Winston Churchill. Making history they captured a Tiger tank and recovered it all the way back to England.

Tank 131 is now on display at Bovington Tank Museum Dorset
(been there and touched that), it is also the tank that is featured in Fury starring Brad Pitt.

SDK's

Managed to complete the plastic soldier company german half tracks 3 SDKfz - 251 - D's oneof which is a command variant with a Pak37 gun mounted.

WWII GERMAN ANTI TANK ARTILLERY

Well here are the finished artillery pieces a Flak 36/37 88mm from Zvezda and 4 Plastic soldier company kits making 3 Pak 38 50mm guns and 1 Pak 97/38 75mm captured French barrel.

Really enjoy building the Zvezda kits the details are very crisp and the scale and poses of the figures excellent. Already planning a second of these to take on those Fireflies that I built earlier,the other Ronsons have a Tiger to worry about... see below.

Two Pak 38 50mm guns

I have tried to add some working to the models by adding the spent shell casings and ammo crates. 

The bushes are made from grated sponge soaked in PVA and left to dry then painted accordingly

Another Pak 38 50mm on the left 

A Pak 97/38 75mm captured French barrel to the right

Extra loader team based, I also have a number of single figures so that I can add 3 man loader teams to any artillery piece if needed. This is in line with the Battlegroup Overlord ruleset.

Will be needing a couple more Tigers to go with the Zvezda Kit below,
modelled on tank 231 as commanded by Michael Wittman at Villiers Bocage

March will be a busy month on the table but I don't intend to put up many updates of work in progress.

To build:
1 x Flak 88mm

3 more Shermans
British 6 pdr artillery
Achilles tank destroyer

21st Panzer units.

The panzer units are coming along nicely, I must say I am overwhelmed by the ease of paint job that is allowed from using the Vallejo model air range. Although the base armour colour was a couple of light coats of Tamiya dark yellow paint (spray) the actual camouflage is done with Val .041 armour brown and Val .011 armour green. Completed in no time with the air brush. No thinning of the colour is required because they come pre-thinned and flow through the air brush with no difficulty. This has allowed me to obtain the smokey and feathered eding to the stripes that would have proved very difficult to achieve with a standard brush.

The tracks, spare track sections and outer edges of the running wheels as well as the front and spare tyres on the SDK’s received a base coat of  generic black. Then the track sections only were dry brushed with Val .920 German uniform.

Here you can see the various stowage has been painted in their base colours, where possible I have chosen a lighter colour, this helps to add some contrast to the piece and also draws the eye to the detail without losing the item to the camouflage pattern.

Gerry cans Val .823 Luftwaffe cam green or Val .920 German uniform Tarpualine sheets 1 to 1 mix of  Val .914 green ochre and a generic white.

Tarpualine sheets 2 generic light grey

Cases and storage boxes Val .823 Luftwaffe cam green. All tool handles Val .875 beige brown

Tie down straps Val .871 Leather brown or Generic black you could also use Val .846 mahogany.

The stowed backpacks are painted as follows. Val .914 green ochre, bedroll blankets as a generic grey. Any bread baskets or pouches or canisters as your chosen infantry paint guide suggests. Next stages are to gloss coat, decals, wash and weather and a couple of matt top coats to finish.

So what next?

Well I’ve just completed the build and base coat on the Tiger (more on this to follow), and working on the PAK 38s. The officers / command units are completed 2 x 6 man units for the Panzer Grenadiers and 1 x 5 man unit for the Ost Grenadier platoon. A 75mm anti infantry gun has also been completed, along with a heavy mortar position.