More 28mm Afrika Korps - 88mm Flak from Perry Miniatures

Here's a Flak 88 for the Afrika Korps... as everybody knows, this was the ultimate anti-tank weapon when pressed into that role by the Germans, and they developed some very clever tactics with the 88 in the Western Desert. Obviously a must-have for a DAK table-top force.

So clearly I needed to build and paint one... and there are several available. Rubicon makes one in 1/56, and there are various metal kits about in "28mm" scale as well. I chose the one from Perry Miniatures for several reasons: it was described as a "resin kit" of only six pieces (I still have trauma from the 1/48 Bandai 88), Perry make a metal crew for it, and I needed some other models from them anyway. Done!

However, while I'm happy with the result, the model itself didn't thrill me. First, it's 3D printed (in resin), not a cast resin model. This is OK I guess, but when paying top price for a kit (18 pounds sterling!) I don't want to deal with print lines and such. Second, it's freakin' tiny. And third, did I mention it cost 18 pounds and didn't come with crew?? But to be fair, I think the Rubicon one is comparable in price (about 21 pounds) and comes with carriage parts and an early-war European theatre crew, but there are over 200 parts in the kit, and I've BTDT. 

So I went with Perry, and it worked out OK, after straightening out the warped trails. I'm also patting myself on the back for magnetising the crewman seen above aiming the gun. I used 5mm magnets, one attached to the body of the gun and the other to the seat mount on the crew figure.

Speaking of the crew, they're great - typical Perry stuff. Anatomy and faces are first-rate, but it should be noted that they're fairly slightly built to match the plastic DAK models; these aren't "heroic 28mm" figures by any means. You get 8 of 'em in the pack and a couple shell crates for 8 pounds, which is pretty good if you don't have to have them posted to you.

Here's that gun aimer. You can just see the disc magnet at the left.

And here's some beauty shots of the gun itself. In hindsight I maybe could've used a lighter yellow to paint it but it's weathered and done now. Not one step back!!

As I said earlier, the trails were a little warped and wouldn't straighten with hot water, so I had to screw around a bit with mounting it to the base - basically had to put a spacer in the middle and superglue the pads at the ends of the trails to the base, and clamp them down. It worked in the end, but was a royal pain.

So I guess I would say that if I had to do it over, I'd order the gun from Rubicon, pocket the Rubicon crew, and get the DAK crew from Perry. Two hundred parts is a lot for this model, but you do get the carriage parts - the DAK was known to put these guns into action straight from the carriage, and that would look cool on the table. Anyway, it's done now and that's the main thing, I'm on to the rest of the infantry platoon and a Blitzkrieg Pzkpfw. III, watch for those soon.

New Project - WW2 Western Desert, Perry Afrika Korps

I posted these models on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog about two weeks ago, but also wanted to post them here as kind of a record of my new project - the war in the Western Desert. First up is a 10-man section of Perry Miniatures DAK infantry.

The models are from the Perrys' plastic box, of course. I usually shun multi-part plastic models like a social disease, mainly because of the time and fiddliness in assembling the models. However the Perry stuff is only moderately time-consuming and fiddly... they come with head, torso and legs as one piece, and you stick on arms and weapon (usually as one piece), field gear (also one piece), and headgear. That's it, unless you need to assemble a machine gunner or NCO, then you need to also stick on a tool pouch or MP40 ammo pouches. So not a ton of work, and they're way more cost-effective than metal or even the Warlord/Bolt Action DAK box.

You can pick headgear from three variants - the early sun helmet, the steel helmet, or the iconic "Afrika" peaked soft cap. It's a good idea to trim a bit off the top of the model's head (ouch) before sticking on the cap, just to help it sit down a little lower over the eyes.

Once the dudes are assembled, it's time to paint 'em... I stocked up on shades of khaki for these guys. The trousers are all painted GW Zandri Dust with an Agrax Earthshade wash and re-highlight with Zamesi, and the jackets and caps are a variety of shades, including Vallejo Khaki and Yellow-Green, GW Rakarth Flesh, AK Deck Tan, etc... the webbing and helmets are Zandri Dust and breadbags are GW XV-88. Rifle stocks are GW Mournfang Brown highlighted with Skrag Brown, as are the wool covers on the waterbottles. 

Most of the poses are pretty good. In a few cases I had to do some greenstuff work around the joins between the arms and torso, but most were good.

The one-piece field gear is good too, there's a water bottle, breadbag, gas mask canister, entrenching tool and bayonet all attached. The tropical boots are cool too - I painted them with GW Doombull Brown and Vallejo German Uniform as seen here. The bases are made with a new technique - I glop on the Golden Coarse Pumice Gel as usual, but then sprinkle some fine sand on while it's still wet, to give a bit more sandy texture in fitting with the desert theme. After the models are primed and painted, I finish the bases with Steel Legion Drab/Zandri Dust/Rakarth Flesh. 

With this bunch done I've fully succumbed to temptation to start a new WW2 period. The DAK and Eighth Army will join my 28mm NW Europe British/Canadians, British Commandos, BEF/Home Guard, US paratroopers, US winter infantry, winter Finns, Soviets, German Heer, German Waffen-SS, German Fallschirmjagers, and early-war French in the cabinets. 

And since these dudes were painted I've finished another "unit" - a Perry 88mm Flak gun with eight crew. Blog post to come soon on that. Plus some tanks arrived from Blitzkrieg yesterday, as well as a couple of 6-pounder guns from Bolt Action today, so I'm set for painting for awhile yet.

Heia Safari!

Franco-Prussian War - 28mm French Artillery

28mm French 4-pounder guns & crew for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Metal models and miniatures from Perry.

After a nice long run of "Star Wars Legion", my brushes depart suddenly to return to a more familiar historical setting - the Franco-Prussian War. These are 28mm metal guns and figures from Perry Miniatures' new line for the Franco-Prussian War. These are 4-pounder rifled muzzle-loading artillery pieces, the mainstay of the French artillery during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

"Fire on those Prussians!"

It was great to see that artillery pieces and crews have been among the early releases for the Perry's new 28mm Franco-Prussian War figure range. Proper guns and crews from 1870 are otherwise lacking - even in the relatively complete Wargames Foundry range (also sculpted by the Perrys) does not have proper 4-pound rifled guns for the French side. So when these appeared as new releases from Perry Miniatures earlier this fall, I ordered a pair of guns right away. 

Spoked wheels are always terrible to work with - and these were particularly awful. Check out the tags that needed trimming...

Painting artillery is always a drag - the spoked wheels are generally a nightmare to work with, and these were no exception. While I won't pretend these guns were fun to build and paint, they are nonetheless a very welcome addition to my 28mm collection.

I do like the sculpt of the fellow pulling the lanyard...nice and dramatic....

While the guns were a pain in the ass, the French crew were fun to paint up - in general, the French uniforms for this period are just lovely, and I really like working on them.    

Ready for action on the table top, at some unknown time in the future...

The French artillery performed badly during the Franco-Prussian War, but even with whatever negative modifiers and other issues they might be saddled with, a French player will still want to at least try to use their guns on the advancing Prussians. These two pieces, together with the previously painted mitrailleuse can combine to represent the artillery complement of a French infantry division on the tabletop. I also still have the 12-pounder reserve gun, so the French artillery for my 28mm Franco-Prussian War is now in pretty good shape! 

That's all for now - regular "Star Wars Legion" service will resume shortly, I expect. 

28mm Prussian Infantry for 1870 - Perry Plastics

Back to the Franco-Prussian War! 28mm Plastic figures from Perry Miniatures. Flag from GMB.

Hello again! Funny how when you stop posting on the blog, it is really easy to...stay not posting...isn't there some smart saying out there about a how a blogger at rest remains at rest? I have all the usual excuses...late August weather was just so lovely, I even managed to get a visit to Winnipeg in, being busy with work etc. etc. And then the NFL finally got going again...you know...all sorts of excuses...but through it all, I have been doing some painting, and I'm glad to share it now that I have finally made some progress worth sharing! Here is a unit of Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These 28mm figures are plastics from the new FPW range being released by the prolific Perry Twins.

The main unit figures are assembled from the "marching" frames, while the skirmishers are assembled from a "firing" pose frame.

If you are keen on a period, it is always great news when the Perry Twins take an interest - and this case, it is somewhat interesting because one of the only reasonably complete 28mm ranges for the Franco-Prussian War is found with Wargames Foundry, and it was sculpted by...the Perry Twins. So I guess they are "re-entering" this period now, all of these years later!

Another view from the front of the unit.

These plastic multi-part figures were one of the first figure sets released for the new range. Those who know me will know I am quite the grouch when it comes to historical plastic figures. But I must say, these are quite nice. There is a choice of poses (firing or marching, with the mix depending on the box you select), an assortment of heads allowing a range of options (can be regulars or Landwehr), and even different variants of picklehaube - so the little details are all covered. Thus, while I continue to believe that there are no plastic figures which would not be better off as metal figures, I will say these are brilliant - if you like this period, buy these figures.

Another view of the command group - officer, colour-bearer, drummer and trumpeter - the flag is from GMB.

View from the back, showing the rolled greatcoats, and fascine knife. On close examination you'll see how much trouble I had painting the frigging "swallows nests" on the shoulders of the musicians.

Assembly is pretty straightforward - just watch the fascine knife (hanging on the left hip), as that is a pretty tiny little bit, and will disappear easily into any flooring if you don't glue it just right...

WIP of an early test figure.

Another view of the test figure.

Do I have any quibbles? Well, plastic bayonets seems like a terrible idea...but I don't have any better suggestions either...so let's just hope for the best :)

My newly-reinforced Prussians await the call to battle from their assembly grounds on the living room map table...

It has been over a year, at least, since I have added a 28mm unit to my Franco-Prussian War collection - and boy, was I rusty! It was slow going at first, and I found that I was often distracted by my squirrel-brained desire to either paint even more 30k stuff, or just paint something else entirely (watch future posts for more on that)...so these fellows took a little longer to finish than I might have liked. But they are now finished - 24 figures all together, based for Black-Powder type rules, using the same basing system I adopted when I first started this project in late 2017 - 20 of the figures are grouped together to represent the bulk of the unit, and four are based individually, placed on the table to represent deployed/detached skirmish companies.

The line advances, with skirmish groups deployed out front...

It has been great to revisit 1870 on the painting table, and I'm sure it won't be long until I'm back at it again...the new Perry Range looks like it will be lovely, and there are already a number of new figures for it that I can't wait to add to my collection. Watch for more as we head for another winter here in Canada. That's all for now - thanks for reading!    

1:48 Marder III and Perry Miniatures Crew

Well, say what you want about the pandemic, but all of this isolation has certainly been conducive to getting some painting done. This seems especially true when it comes to odd little projects or models that don't take up much time, but for which there hasn't seem to have been any time...

One such project is painting crew for open-topped AFVs. I only have a few of these in my collections but it always irritates me to put them out on the table with no crew. So when I ordered the British and US tank crews from the Perrys I took the opportunity to order a German crew for this vehicle too.

This, friends, is a New Millenium diecast 1:48 Panzerjaeger 38(t) mit 7.5cm PaK40/3 Ausf M (Marder III) - Sdkfz 138. It came pretty much just as seen and cost about $15, ten years ago. The only things I've done on the model were to wash it with good ol' Agrax Earthshade and touch up the exhaust and muffler. That's it.

The crew are from Perry Miniatures - their pack #GWW7 - Marder crew. The models are really intended for North Africa, but I've painted them for NW Europe or Eastern Front duty. There are six models in the pack but the two not shown are really North African-specific in appearance. Fortunately these four are in shirtsleeves, so I've painted them with grey shirts and field-grey wool trousers.

These guys look great crewing the Marder III.

View from the rear of the vehicle.

Here's the two fellows from the crew compartment. The officer at right wears Afrikakorps-issue high desert boots, but they aren't visible when he's in the vehicle.

Marder III is very well painted and detailed right out of the box. As noted, it just needed a wash of Agrax to tone down the colours and punch up the panel lines. The vehicle bears insignia of the 12. SS Panzergrenadierdivision "HJ" so I've given some of the crew sleeve eagles on their service shirts.

Fairly detailed interior but really only room for two figures.

The Marder III as it will go into tabletop action.

Job done... looking forward to seeing this model out on the table for battle soon, but who knows when that might be...

So until next time - stay healthy friends!

More Tankers: Perry Miniatures British and US Tank Crews

I'd previously posted photos of Perry Miniatures' lovely British and US tank crews, but I'd only finished the half-figures for the hatches. However the brothers Perry even thoughtfully provide two dismounted crew figures in each pack. I painted those the other day and present them here.

Here are the two GIs - one armed with an M3 "Grease Gun" and the other carrying a jerrycan and .45. The Grease Gunner wears the ubiquitous tanker jacket that was so popular among GIs, while the other tanker wears wool-lined winter combat overalls and wool shirt.

Two British tankers are pictured in front of their Sherman (with Canadian "Fort Garry Horse" markings) that recently got updated as well. The model and its troop-mate are from Solido and were originally equipped with a chunky 105mm main gun. However I recently ordered 75mm turned-brass barrels from RB Models to replace them. The barrels were cheap and fitting them was pretty easy, using a Dremel to cut off the old barrel and drill out a mount for the new one. I think they look much better now.

I painted the tankers with tan/drab shirts and wool battledress trousers. They'll fit in pretty much anywhere. Again, these Perry tankers are highly recommended if you need some crew for your WW2 AFVs.

Perry Miniatures WW2 US and British Tank Crews

There's a bit of a story behind these models (the crewmen I mean). As readers will know, Conscript Greg B. is currently neck-deep in WW2 Winter Germans he's painting for the Analogue Challenge. As I'd love to see those models out in a game, I thought I'd revisit my WW2 Americans to see if I could tune some up to face them.

On my "American shelf" sit three Tamiya Shermans obtained years ago as assembled models. One has its hatches buttoned but the other two are open on top, but I've never had any US crews for them. Obviously this would need to be remedied immediately.
 

I commenced a search for 28mm US tank crewmen and came up with a few options. The best of these appeared to be Perry Miniatures' offerings, with four half-figures and two full ones for 7.50GBP (they also offered Brit crew which I picked up as well).

The models are well done, as you would expect from the Perrys. They might be a skosh on the small side for 28mm models, but fit well in the 1/48 Tamiya turret hatches.

Here's the other two American crewmen.

... and the five half-figures in the British crew set. They look like they're set for the desert but should fit (for the most part) in Italy and NW Europe as well.

The issue was how to mount them in the turrets! I happened to have some thin ferrous metal bases handy so I superglued these onto the inside roof of the turret under the hatches. I then trimmed down the half-figures to the appropriate height and superglued 5mm magnets to their bottoms. Hey presto - swappable crewmen. Plus, they stick down nicely onto thick washers for storage!

Two newly-crewed Shermans ready to face the Germans!