Tamiya 1/48 Daimler Scout Car "Harry" (Dieppe)

After having tuned up the Churchills, I wanted to knock off another vehicle for the ongoing Dieppe project, in time for a potential game to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the raid. 

I found the perfect candidate in the form of this 1/48 Daimler Scout Car from Tamiya. According to "Dieppe Through the Lens", a total of seven Daimler S/C MkIIs went ashore in the raid, each towed by a Churchill tank. They were towed with a single steel cable connecting their right front bumper to a hitch on the rear of the tank. The idea was that the tank would tow the Scout Car across the chert beach and the pin connecting the cable would be pulled once the car crossed the seawall. Of course, like most plans at Dieppe, this didn't generally happen - only one Scout Car ("Hector") actually made it over the seawall.

 

I've painted "Harry" here, built pretty much stock out of the box, but with the special Dieppe bumpers added from plasticard. Again, "Through the Lens" came to the rescue with lots of detail shots of the wrecked Scout Cars on the beach.

Insignia was lettered by hand.

Crew is from the Tamiya box as well, and I left them both removeable as it's pretty much certain the Scout Car will be wrecked, no matter what happens in the game. They're just too lightly armoured.

Final shot is a portrait alongside "Bob", a Churchill MkIII. That's my mistake, of course, as Harry was towed in by "Bluebell", another Churchill MkIII. Harry's story on the day was fairly typical - the S/C was crewed by Cpl Butler and Tpr Graham, and bogged down under tow partway up the beach. For about an hour, Bluebell and Harry tried to negotiate the loose chert, but wheelspin only succeeded in digging Harry in deeper. Photos show it buried in the chert up past its axles.

Should be a fun addition to the commemorative game next month!

 

1/50 Churchill MkIII Tanks for the Dieppe Raid

 

These models were posted to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog back in March, but I wanted to post them on our blog here as well. Anyway it's four 1/50 Corgi Churchill MkIII medium tanks, as seen (kind of) on the infamous Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942.

The four vehicles I've done are all Churchills of The Calgary Regiment (Calgary Tanks), aka 14 Canadian Armoured Tank Regiment (14 CATR). I had three of these painted already in a standard British armour green, but for Christmas was given another stock Corgi model by Challenger DaveV, which prompted me to revisit the three I'd already painted...

 

So I got the project underway in earnest, first re-priming all four models with flat black spray, researching the correct colour for the Canadian armour at Dieppe (turns out it was described as "dog sh!t brown" and I used GW Steel Legion Drab to replicate that), and sourcing decals for the tanks. I got these from Peddinghaus, a cottage supplier in Germany that makes a ton of very cool and obscure decals in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.

 

I also figured I may as well do some conversions on the tanks to better replicate their Dieppe configuration (because why not, right?) This involved scratch-building the exhaust pipe extensions that allowed the Churchills to deep-wade without allowing water into the engines. This was characteristic of the Dieppe Churchills and is seen on every photographed example. 

I made the extensions out of thick flexible wire (I think it's maybe soldering wire) bent to shape and superglued to the exhaust pipes of the tank. I then ran thread between the upper ends of the extensions as shown in photographs of the vehicles on the beach. The extensions were then heavily weathered with rust effect wash.

  

Unfortunately none of the Churchills at Dieppe were equipped with track guards for the upper runs, as seen on these Corgi models... sadly I don't think anyone makes appropriate models in 1/48 or 1/50 and taking a grinder to these models to remove the guards wasn't really in the project remit.

I decided to portray the three vehicles of 9 Troop, B Squadron - Bluebell, Blossom, and Buttercup, as well as the troop leader of 6 Troop, Bob (all four were Churchill MkIIIs). The decals from the Peddinghaus set are excellent and have great detail. However they did take a good deal of work to fit, as they are not "pre-cut" and need to be trimmed to size. There's also 15 decals for each vehicle!

I didn't do a ton of weathering on the vehicles as this would be the first time they were in action - just some light water streaking down the vertical panels, and dust along the lower part of the vehicles and suspension.

 

Here's a close-up of the exhaust extensions. Honestly they were a bit of a futz to build but I like the way they turned out - they really give the tanks the "Dieppe look":

I'm actually quite happy with the way these turned out. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe raid and I am looking forward to setting up a game this summer to mark it. We've played Dieppe games a few times before (but not for years) but I think the new Churchills are really going to add to the vibe.

Stay tuned for some more Dieppe armour...

Space Wolf Tactical Support Marines

Do you feel supported? Tactical Support Squad for the VI Legion Astartes.

The new edition of the Horus Heresy is here! And yet I can't share my pointless editorial thoughts about it on this blog...well, they are not fully organized yet. Regular life has kept me away from the hobby and from my brushes for much of the past few weeks. Also, I have just been too lazy when it comes to posting things...that would include this post, which includes figures that were actually finished in mid June, but I never got around to posting. Better late than never, right? In that spirit, here is a Legion Tactical Support Squad, wearing Mark III armour in the colour of the VI Legion Astartes, the "Space Wolves". These are multi-part plastic kits from GW, with resin weapons, embossed shoulder bits and decals from Forge World.

I struggle with the seams/mold lines on the backpacks, but still overall love the Mark III power armour.

This squad is equipped with Volkite Calivers, one of the exotic weapon options available to the Legion Space Marines in GW's Horus Heresy setting. In the lore of the books, these scary energy weapons are described as the original main weapons of the Space Marines as they are organized at the dawn of the Great Crusade. But the calivers are soon replaced by the more universally known bolt guns because even the Martian Mechanicum could not manufacture enough Volkite weapons to equip all of the Space Marines an the Legions is the Great Crusade grew and expanded into to war across the galaxy. 

Ready to "support" the Imperium...

In the game, the calivers are not great in terms of mobility, but they do hit pretty hard, and have a decent range. A squad like this will want to get into a good firing position, and start laying waste to whatever is in the way of their colleagues. The special rule "deflagrate" really helps them dish out abuse, and the new reaction aspects in the updated edition seem to have the potential to increase their impact on the game. 

Will some Mark VI colleagues arrive soon to join them? Stay tuned...

As always, I love the proto-medieval look of the Mark III power armour. That said, the new box set has arrived, and I am going nuts for it. I hope to have some new "beakie" marines to share on the blog shortly, travel allowing. Some mad hobbying on the new Horus Heresy stuff set is underway - here is a preview:

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are able to enjoy your summer! 

Blitzkrieg Miniatures 1/48 Stuart Honey

Despite all appearances to the contrary, efforts continue on the Western Desert project. The British infantry platoon is about 2/3 done at this point, one rifleman having been lost in an unfortunate encounter with my Dyson "Animal" vacuum cleaner (NOTE: Perry Miniatures plastic models will always come off second-best against a Dyson). But I've gotten this Stuart Honey finished at least.

 

The model is from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, in correct 1/48 scale. As with the other Blitzkrieg models I've encountered, there's a minimum of assembly required. Tracks and hull are one piece, turret and guns make up the other components. Assembly takes literally seconds. Another thing I like about these models is that there's often stowage molded right in.

One thing with resin, though, is that you never get decals with the kits. In this case, I just used the "MKI eyeball" and freehanded the markings. Turned out OK, likely because I pick mostly "1s" and "7s" for my serial numbers. There is sometimes a method to my madness.

The 7th Armoured Division jerboa ("desert rat") insignia was a different matter. I hope it's somewhat recognizable there on the fender. The Caunter camouflage was too tempting not to try. Base colour is AK Light Earth and the upper blue is GW Celestra Grey with the tiniest ort of Thunderhawk Blue added to it. 

Of course the model was then washed with Agrax Earthshade (please GW never mess with Agrax Earthshade!!) and re-highlighted, then chips were added with a sponge. Done!

I love painting these Western Desert vehicles as you can kind of go to town on the weathering. Any photos you see of these tanks, they're beaten up to within an inch of their lives, but you know that for all the abuse their exteriors get, the crews were hyper-vigilant about mechanical maintenance and repairs. After all, this was their home in the trackless desert and if your home breaks down, you're screwed.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post that infantry platoon next.

Traitor Militia Malcador Tank

 I picked up a Malcador Tank off ebay last month thinking I got a good deal. It was in rough shape, but I figured I could whip it back into shape. Unfortunately, when the model came it had all the hallmarks of "foreign" resin. If I had wanted a recast, I'd have just bought one. I was going to go back to the seller, but upon a sober second look at the listing, there was no mention anywhere of "Forge," "World" or any combination of the two. I should have known better, but I let my excitement get the better of me. "Well played sir! I'll just go f*** myself over here, while you count my money!" 

I decided to make the best of it and figured a well weathered tank would look suitable in the Horus' traitor militia. It's not like Horus is earmarking the best equipment for these guys.

The model is equipped with a battle cannon and 3 autocannons. The autocannons are from Mortian Tanks.

That's it for the Traitor Militia. I'll try to post a whole army post this week.

Thanks for visiting.

Some Thousand Sons Reinforcements - Part 2, Tactical Squad

XV Legion Marines in Mark III power armour. Plastic figures from GW.

Another post featuring reinforcements for the XV Legion Astarters, the "Thousand Sons". These Marines are clad in Mark III plate, multi-part plastic figures from GW. Nothing that special about 10 more Astartes carrying bolters, but the method used to paint these guys was a little different for me.

Really pleased with the metallic, candy red - all thanks to the "Rattle Can" approach.

As I have mentioned on different occasions over the past year, I have been keen to achieve a metallic red look for the armour of the Thousand Sons, without resorting to the logistical headaches involved with an airbrush. Previous experiments had involved use of GW's "Contrast" paints - with OK results, but with a clear limitation in that "Contrast" paints do not work well on vehicles. Any painting approach that works on the infantry but not on the vehicles will be a limiting one. So I had my eyes out for something new...

Sergeant sporting a Thunder Hammer and plasma pistol. And a few extra mystical symbols...

And another approach duly appeared! Medders' Miniatures has done several YouTube tutorials with what he calls the "Rattle Can Series" - ways of painting Space Marines models that do not involve airbrushes, but rely instead on the selection of a good spray can to achieve a base coat on the armour. I found his tutorial on the Thousand Sons to be inspiring, and so I gave it a shot! 

The armour panels were finished with a coat of satin varnish...although, still pretty glossy...

This squad is the result! I will saw that messing around with oil washes, while kinda fun, is also a much slower process than it seems in the video. For my part, using GW's "Nuln Oil" is just fine, is much quicker and less hassle. Involving oil paints required the use of multiple coats of varnish, and this impacted the detail on these plastic figures, particularly on the face plates of some of the models, where the surface detail is a bit thin.

But overall, I really do like the look of this metallic red - in this case, achieved by spraying a Tamiya Red over a matte white base coat. I am looking forward to trying this painting approach on a vehicle very soon - that will be the real test!  

An officer - AND a psyker!

Tactical squads are pretty basic in 30k (at least, I assume they still are - will be a few days before I finally get the chance to check out the new edition of the Horus Heresy rules) but they are good building blocks for a standard force, and in the case of the Thousand Sons, you can also makes these guys psykers, so they can be flinging spooky powers as well as bolt gun shells as their enemies. Plus, who knows, they probably are secret members of a cabal...right?

Thanks for reading - stay tuned for more 30k content!

Some Thousand Sons Reinforcements - Part 1, Contemptor Dreadnought

"Your library fines are overdue" - Thousand Sons' Contemptor Dreadnought - multipart resin kit from Forge World.

Well, about a year (give or take) after some fuzzy photos first leaked online, a new edition of the Horus Heresy rules is about to be released. I wish I was connected enough to have somehow scored some preview miniatures myself (being online, as a fan you feel like somehow literally everyone else got some), I have channelled my excitement instead toward chipping away at my already-existing pile of 30k stuff to paint. Here we have a Contemptor Dreadnought painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes - the "Thousand Sons". This is a multi-part resin kit from GW's Forge World studios.

I love "volkite" weapons! What fun to equip one on a Contemptor Dreadnought!

My Thousand Sons collection started small (don't they all?) - based around the figures and units that came with the excellent box game "The Burning of Prospero". Over the years, I have been inspired to try and build this small cadre into a force that can play in a standard game of 30k. I have also sought out various means whereby I could try and achieve a metallic-looking red for the Thousand Sons' armour without resorting to the headaches of an airbrush. 

Chainfists do seem a touch uncivilized, but just because this guy enjoys books doesn't mean he can't also enjoy carnage.

I have played around with various approaches that involve GW's relatively new line of "Contrast" paints, and IMO the results have been OK - in fact, I think that approach can look really sharp with practice. The problem arises with vehicles - "Contrast" paints have many uses, but in general look like crap on vehicles (or anything where there are larger, flat panels). This model, in my opinion, shows some of those limitations - the red is metallic enough, but a touch blotchy in places (despite my best, careful efforts) as "Contrast" paints just don't know what to do with flat surfaces.

Low-emission power plant...

Even with the challenges of using the "Contrast" paints, it was still a fun bit of kit to work on. I enjoy the pseudo-Egyptian glyphs, icons and symbols used by the Thousand Sons - it's not just that they revere knowing, but they specifically revere knowing more than you do. The weapons are fun too - heavy volkite weaponry, and a crazy chain-fist. This guy won't burn books, but he will burn you, and everyone around you...finishing this model significant increases the combat power of my small-but-growing Thousand Sons force. It's big enough now that I might even call is a "cabal"!

The leadership of my own Prosperine "cabal" taking shape...

And being part of the Thousand Sons legion, you can also make the "pilot" a psyker - so not only is this thing blasting the bodies of its enemies, but also their minds! And, as we know, there are never any downsides to using psyker powers in the Warhammer 30k setting - everything always works out fine, with 100% safety, with no negative after-effects.

Stay tuned for some more Thousand Sons reinforcements, and more about the elusive search for the no-airbrush-but-still-cool-metallic-red...until then, thanks for reading!