Challenge Submission #13 - A Handful of Special Challenge Targets

 One of the features of this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is the Challenge Quadrant, consisting of three rings of planets surrounding a central star, each planet representing a special theme for the figures to be painted. Here are some of those special figures that I completed in late January and early February.

 The figures of Gandalf the White on foot and mounted on Shadowfax are the older Games Workshop Lord of the Rings castings. I have included Gandalf the Grey in the photos for the 'Before' and 'After' comparison.

A Canadian Churchill tank at Dieppe -Churchill Mk III T68696 'CAT' is a repainted 1/50 Solido diecast model I acquired from a friend. It was originally painted in a desert yellow/olive green striped camouflage pattern for service in Tunisia, but I wanted it to match another Solido Churchill that I had that depicted 'Cheetah' (shown in the background). So the 'tank from Tunisia' was repainted using Vallejo Dark Earth, and then the vehicle name, numbers, etc. painted on freehand.

 A legionary of early Imperial Rome, equipped with lorica segmentata, gladius, and scutum. This is a 28mm plastic figure that came as a sample years ago with an issue of Wargames Illustrated. I was never sure what to do with it, and thought I might use it as a gladiator in our 'local arena'. I'm glad I had it on hand for one of the stops on the Challenge Quadrant.

 A Eurasian Solar Union SAW gunner from Ground Zero Games and a Rebel Commando from West End Games. Both date from the mid to late 1990's. I have painted them up in the colour scheme for the Ral Partha Galactic Grenadiers figures I use as 'Planetary Militia'. In the past I have used both GZG and WEG minis to augment the variety of poses and weapons in my squads.

 

 A 54mm miniature from the Scale Link Ltd. WW1 Grand Guerre range, which depicts a British or Canadian infantryman advancing at the 'Trail Arms' position with fixed bayonet, and his Small Box Respirator worn at the 'Alert' position. He is identified as a member of the 27th Battalion CEF by the blue circle over a blue rectangle on his shoulder. The figure was painted using Vallejo acrylics, followed by some Games Workshop washes. Finally some AK Interactive Spattereffects 'Wet Mud' was applied to areas like knees and elbows. 

  Two 'old school' 25mm Star Wars figures from West End Games depicting Princess Leia Organa as she appeared in 'A New Hope' and 'Return of the Jedi'. Again, these are painted using Vallejo acrylics with GW washes on the faces and hands, and to produce the camouflage pattern on the poncho.

 These special challenges have been very useful in clearing out some of the miniatures that have been lingering in the 'PENDING' box for some time.

Thanks for reading.

Challenge Submission #11 - A Mixed Bag of WW2 Vehicles

I had a hard time focusing during the last week of January, ricocheting around from project to project without seeming to get closer to completion. Eventually things started falling into place, and I ended up with 9 completed vehicles. Some of these have been sitting in my 'IN' box for over a decade, so it felt good to finally get them ready for the gaming table.

First up is a DUKW with a British RASC driver. This was a toy dating from the 1960s that originally belonged to my younger brother. It suffered some 'battle damage' at some point, and my brother was no longer interested in it. I thought I might be able to fix it, and it seemed like the right scale for 28mm gaming. In fact, measuring its length and comparing it to the length of an actual DUKW, it works out to be 1/56. The only 'flaw' is that it only has a single axle in the rear instead of two. I have no idea who manufactured it, but it reads 'NOVELTY' and 'Made in Hong Kong' on the bottom. 

 

The broken pieces near the back and the front right wheel well were filled in using epoxy putty, while the front windshield was fashioned from pieces of clear plastic cut from a CD case. The crates and fuel drums came from a Bandai Maultier kit, and the driver is an old Bolt Action jeep driver that I had in my 'bits box' along with the rolled up tarp. It is now ready to ferry supplies or a squad of commandos across a river or from ship to shore.

 

Next up is a Kübelwagen Type 82/3. This was a mock-up scout car/armoured vehicle with a machine gun-turret atop the cabin. It was apparently built for decoy and training purposes. I bought this from Wargames Foundry decades ago. It came with the Feldgendarm, but I only painted up the 'Kettenhund' as I couldn't decide the colour scheme that would be most appropriate. Eventually I thought Panzer Dunkelgrau would do just as well as any other colour, and now it's finally done.

 

 Third on our list is a Bandai 1/48 SdKfz 3 Maultier that I picked up off Ebay. This was another project where I couldn't decide what colour to paint it, but I finally decided to go with Panzer Dunkelgrau with an Olive Green striped camouflage suitable for the Russian Front. The tarp was painted Tan Earth and given a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade. I then liberally applied Vallejo European Dust wash everywhere. The kit came with a cargo of four petrol drums and two large crates, but since nobody would see them with the tarp in place, I used them for the DUKW.

 

 Next is a 3D printed French Panhard 178 armoured car that was from the same run as the two painted by Fellow Conscript DallasE. I used a different paint scheme that is based on a surviving example in the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, France. I used Vallejo Gunship Green and Chocolate Brown with a sharp black line in between. I left off the fifth wheel, but added a muffler on the right side made from a piece of plastic sucker stick. Sometimes it helps a recce unit to not be heard, as well as not be seen. The decals were all ones that were kicking around in my files, so I didn't have to free hand any roundels. 

 

The fifth item is a group of four M5 Half-tracks to provide some additional armoured lift capability to my 2nd Canadian Division. I am not sure if these were used in any of the infantry divisions, so I may have to mark them up for the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. The models are either Corgi or Solido 1/50 vehicles that all came in different colours and configurations. One was an ambulance version that had a tarp on it, and the back door was cut out. The tarp was tossed in the 'bits box' while the missing door was replaced using thin plastic card. Everything was painted a uniform colour and then 'muddied up'. The verdict is still out on what stars should be added and where, but the vehicles are now ready to take to the field and move a platoon of infantry in relative safety on the battle field.

 

 The last vehicle of this post is a Warlord Games 1/56 resin and metal M10 Achilles mounting a 17 pounder. While this is a newer acquisition compared to some of the other vehicles, it sat on the shelf for a while before being assembled. When it arrived, the tracks were warped and didn't form a clean fit with the chassis. A bath in some boiling water and some careful pressure in the right places straightened things out to an acceptable degree and things proceeded readily from there. Two of the crew in the turret are part of the resin casting while the third crewman is in metal. All came with separate heads which can provide some variety if you want to field more than one. The tarps were added from my 'bits box'. 

The only two Canadian units that used 17pdr M-10s were the 4th Anti-Tank Regiment RCA of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division; and the 7th Anti-Tank Regiment RCA of the 1st Canadian Corps Artillery. Both Regiments would have had two batteries of towed 17pdrs and two SP batteries with 17pdr M-10s

 

 As I said in the title, it is definitely a mixed bag of vehicles, but they are now all done.Thanks for reading.

 

Challenge Submission #5 - За Родину (For the Homeland) WW2 Soviet Armour

Since I had painted up a large force of German armoured vehicles in an earlier submission, Stalin was starting to look at the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with growing suspicion. It was now time to increase the Red Army's tank arm. Ready for this week's report are the following: a BA-20 armoured car, a trio of BT-7 fast tanks, a KV-1, and a Lend-Lease M10 Wolverine.

First up is a BA-20 armoured car, which is a 1/48 scale plastic kit from Ace Models out of Kyiv. I did another model by this company in my first submission as part of my early war Polish Army reinforcements. I found these kits to be finely detailed, but a bit fiddly to put together. Instead of the body being a one- or two-piece molding, it consisted of separate eight pieces. After assembly, the vehicle was primed black with a rattle can, and given a base coat of Russian Green. This was followed by some drybrushing along raised surfaces and edges with Vallejo Olive Green. After the decals were applied, it got a wash of Vallejo European Dust.

 

Up next is a platoon of three 1/56 scale BA-7 fast tanks from Warlord Games. The Soviets produced over 5700 of these between 1935 and 1940, and in 1941 it was the main cavalry tank of the Soviet army. However some 2000 were lost during the first 12 months on the Eastern Front.  These are resin castings with metal gun barrels and turret hatches. The castings were very clean, and came as just two pieces - the body of the tank, including all the tracks and road wheels, and the turret. The kits all included a metal tank commander of which I used one. They also included flame and smoke markers consisting of a wooden base and some coloured wool in white, black, and orange-red to glue on. They were painted in a similar manner to the BA-20 armoured car.

 

 Now we have the "Russischer Koloss" or "Russian Colossus", the mighty KV-1 heavy tank. The Soviets produced over 5,000 of these between 1939 and 1943, with about 500 in service at the start of Operation Barbarossa. This is another 1/48 scale model, this time from Hobby Boss. When first looking at the kit, especially with all the separate track pieces, I was a bit intimidated. However it went together very smoothly, and had a lot of interesting details such as etched brass parts, and fine twisted copper wire for the tow cables. The painting technique I used was the same as with the previous vehicles. I used one of the three options for decals provided by the kit, specifically that of the 12th Guards Armoured Regiment, 1st Moscow Mechanized Division, August 1942.

 

Lastly I did a Lend-Lease M10 Wolverine, which is a repainted 1/50 scale Solido diecast model that I was given by fellow Conscript DaveV. I already had a 1/56 scale resin model of the M10 Achilles with a 17-pounder from Warlord Games, and the size disparity was too great for me to ever field the two models on the table together. The solution was to send the Solido M10 to the Eastern Front. Approximately 52 M10s were supplied to the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease. They were used to form two self-propelled artillery regiments. The first was the 1223rd Self-propelled Artillery Regiment of the 29th Tank Corps, part of the 5th Guards Tank Army. This unit served on the 3rd Belorussian Front in 1944, taking part in summer campaigns in Belorussia, the Baltic, and East Prussia. The 1239th Self-propelled Artillery Regiment was part of the 16th Tank Corps, 2nd Tank Army. It fought in Belorussia and Poland in 1944.

Painting this vehicle was pretty much as per the rest of the vehicles in this post. The only change was the addition of a gun crew, which was needed due to the open-topped turret. The three crewmen were converted from some spare Soviet tank crew that were left over from a Bandai T34 kit plus two sets of 'seated legs' left over from some unused Panzer crews. I also added a .50 cal machine gun from my bits box.  In the end, I had to trim a little off the bottom of their legs so that they would all fit in the turret. I am pretty pleased with the way they all came together.

 

Thanks for reading.

Second World War Canadians

With many of the Conscripts involved in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, there have not been many posts on our blog page lately, so here is another one of my ‘Armies in Review’ posts. When I started doing Bolt Action my first army of choice was a Canadian force, and as I had been a member of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada in my younger days, I wanted to paint up my infantry units marked for the 2^nd Canadian Division, and all the supporting units marked for those that actually supported the Camerons in Northwest Europe in 1944-45. At the moment I can currently field two 38 man infantry platoons, a company headquarters, a 6pdr anti-tank gun, 3 Vickers medium machine guns, 2 medium mortars, a carrier platoon of four Universal carriers, a few 25pdr field guns, a forward observation officer, a reconnaissance troop of scout and armoured cars, a troop of Sherman tanks, and a pair of Ram Kangaroo armoured personnel carriers.

The full force on parade.

Vickers machine gun teams, mortar teams, and 6pdr anti-tank gun

The machine gun teams are a mix of manufacturers being (from left to right) old school Bolt Action, Crusader Miniatures, and Westwind Miniatures. The team 'on the move' is also by Westwind. The 6pdr anti-tank gun and the mortar teams are by Battle Honors.

Carrier platoon to rapidly move the support weapons

The two carriers on the left are metal models by Battle Honors, with crews and extra stowage by Bolt Action. The two carriers on the right are resin casting by Bolt Action, as are the crews. The dimensions for the Battle Honors carriers are a bit off, primarily in that the part of the vehicle in front of the driver is too short. They end up being wider than the Bolt Action castings, but the same length.

Ram Kangaroo armoured personnel carriers

The Ram Kangaroos are conversions using the chassis from a 1/50 scale Solido Grant tank and a resin kit from Quarter Kit. I had purchased the Grants as something to use with my Soviets, but once I had enough T34/76 tanks, they got repurposed. The conversion kit went together very nicely, but I think they are no longer available.

Company headquarters, with supporting artillery in behind

All the figures are from the Westwind range, with the jeep being a repainted 1/50 scale Corgi diecast model with a crew from Bolt Action that was specifically marketed to go with the Corgi jeeps. At some point I have to do a conversion on the officer to replace his forage cap with a proper Highland Balmoral.

First platoon of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada

The platoon consists of a headquarters, a PIAT team, a light mortar team, and three 10 man sections, all wearing the blue divisional patch of the 2nd Canadian Division. The infantry sections are a mix of Westwind Miniatures and Crusader Miniatures. The Westwind figures are closer to true 25mm size, and I really love the animation in the sculpts. Each section consists of a section commander with a Sten gun, a Bren gun team and seven riflemen. The officer, NCO, and radio team of the platoon headquarters are Westwind castings, and the PIAT and Mortar teams are from Crusader.

Second platoon with the same composition as the first

A reconnaissance troop of two scout cars and two armoured cars

The reconnaissance regiment of the 2nd Canadian Division was the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars). The Daimler 'Dingo' scout cars and the Daimler armoured cars are repainted Dinky Toy diecast models that I picked up cheaply from eBay. All had seen a lot of wear and tear, and much of the original paint had worn off, which was the main reason why I got them for the minimum bid. I didn't mind about the paint as I planned to repaint them anyway.

A troop of Sherman tanks 

The 2nd Canadiain Division regularly received armoured support from the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. Since this gave me another opportunity to represent a home town unit on the gaming table, these Shermans are marked as 'C' Squadron Fort Garry Horse. They are all Solido 1/50 diecast models. Two were originally the version of the Sherman with the 105mm howitzer. On one of these I replaced the howitzer barrel with an appropriate 76mm barrel, while the other was converted to a Sherman 'Firefly' with a 17pdr anti-tank gun using a resin kit from Quarter Kit. All have extra track sections welded to their hulls to beef up their armour, as well as plenty of gear stowed on the rear deck. The extra track and stowage are resin casting.

25pdr field gun, transport, and a forward observation officer

One of the artillery units that was part of the 2nd Canadian Division was the 4th Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery. All the vehicles sport the proper tactical signs for that unit. The field gun, limbers, and crew are Battle Honors casting, while the Quad Field Artillery Tractors are again Dinky Toy diecast models acquired off of eBay and repainted. 

Me (on the right) in a Universal carrier

The above photo was taken in front of the Manitoba Legislative Building during the 100th Anniversary parade of the formation of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada in 2010. The vehicle bears the correct tactical signs for the Camerons. Thanks for reading. I wish everyone all the best in 2022, and good luck to all the Conscripts who are involved in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.