Ploddin On

I had Al from 20th Century Wargames around for a couple of hours last night. We had a think tank on our upcoming Battle for Calais event and discussed a few ideas concerning the Tables of Equipment needed. Good to catch up with the bootneck and hear some new ideas and swear words. We still have a little work to complete, but nothing that is not achievable. Carrying on, I have been busy with some Royal Naval Party Sailors above. Airfix LCM crew and added rifles.
Matchbox Krupp Protez and PAK 36.

Matchbox Panzer III's. These will be all in early war schemes.

30th BDE BEF 1940 Pt1 HQ GP

Finally coming to the end of this journey as I start to assemble and complete my Units into CD3 stands. We start with the HQ Group which consists of, a Command stand, Radio stand , a car and a light truck.

Command stand, with Officer from Matchbox's Monty's Caravan set, and a Airfix soldier from the Bren Gun Carrier set. A couple of drums made into a table and a map complete the stand.
Radio stand, both Airfix soldiers.

Morris car, now dirtied up and looking much better.

Light truck, Airfix Morris. I decided on making it a Radio truck/Light truck hybrid, so it can be used for more than one purpose.

Airfix Morris Command Light Truck

I was going through the Table of Organisation that Al and I were using for the Calais Battle and I noted that the British Battle Group Headquarters Had a light truck attached to it.
I decided to repaint an old Bofors Gun Tractor I had painted in mid war colours. Still it looked a little bland, so I got out my 1970's Military Modeling collection and find a 1940 scheme that some BEF vehicles were painted in.

Being a HQ vehicle I added a Ariel from the Half brush.

Looking rough and ready this will fit the vacancy nicely.

Airfix Scout Carrier 1940 Finish

Touch up painting complete, and some decals added. I grabbed some spares from the Airfix/JB Models Vickers Light Tank kit as it was a early war model.
Still it looks awfully clean, but for the Calais battle I suppose they were unloaded off the ship and straight into action, so I will not bother too much about it.

Nice and simple conversion, I am surprised that Airfix has not released a conversion kit itself.

Airfix Scout Carrier 1940 Pt3

Being a Parade Night not much progress tonight, I did however Get a bass coat down and a top coat dry.
I will try to finish the detail painting tomorrow, and if all goes well, the decaling should be complete as well. Model on!

Odds & Sods

I had a bit of time last night while waiting for the Scout Carrier to dry, so I took the opportunity (after taking the hint from Al) to have a muck around with some bits and pieces I had laying on the table. Above is a communications stand, with a sawed off Airfix Command post figure and a spare driver for the Bren Gun Carrier kit. While they are emplaced in a sandbagged dugout I was really just trying to mix up the look of them.
With these Airfix 8th Army Bren Gunner and Bofors Gun spotter figures, I cut them at the waist to create a Anti Aircraft Machine Gun stand. A nice waste of 30 minutes.

Airfix Scout Carrier 1940 Pt2

After the running gear is set I continued on with dressing it up. Ammo lockers from the Airfix Bofors Gun Tractor were cut in half and stacked in one bay, hiding some holes in the deck.
Two crew were added from the actual kit, the driver is a standing figure who I cut down to fit.

Rear deck showing Matchbox locker and Fujimi tarp and ammo tin. I also added a old seat to hid the gap at the end of the central cover. I do not intend this to be a seat! Onwards to the painting!

Airfix Scout Carrier 1940

Continuing with the BEF 1940 theme, I have been reading how successful the British used the Carrier in operations while in France. It was out of all proportion how well they Carriers performed especially in the counter attack role. Time and time again they were used to break up German attacks and save the day. Considering what they supposed to be used for, I was very impressed and as I had a spare Airfix Bren Gun Carrier floating around I decided to build one for my epic upcoming battle with Al.
First up I did not want to build the standard late war Carrier as the Airfix kit is, although they used a version similar to the boxy Airfix Carrier in France, I thought it would be nice to construct a earlier Scout Carrier as above. With a sloping side plate on one side and the other side being basically a open space I decided that this was the one for me. Simple and straight forward, just the way I like it.

Stage one changes to the build were the side plate was cut with a model knife at a angle roughly to the same degree as the many photo's I had been gathering on the BEF.

On the other face I just left enough side plate to cover the crew compartment.

I then added a spare locker type box to cover the open side deck, as the photo's imply, along with a Vickers MMG from a Matchbox set.

Note that the instructions that were supplied in this kit of mine are confusing in the aspect on how the tracks and wheel assemblies are placed. The diagram is right some of the time and wrong at others, use actual photo's to get it right.

Even More Napoleonics...From Dave

I knew there were some more shots out there...
Again I do not know the maker, but they look too stumpy to be ESCI, Revell or Italeri.

Nice basing once again.

Cheers Dave.

More Napoleonics...From Dave

I have just been having a sort out on the laptop and I came across these pic's that Dave sent before I went overseas.
I never had a chance to post them, so will do so now.

French I believe, but I cannot remember the makers, perhaps some Nap nut can help?

Still while not really a fan of this period I quite like the effort and time taken in painting them.

Nice clean shots too, cheers Dave. Mmmm I am sure there was another set of these out there...

Wheels for Ruperts Fin

I come across some spare decals for the staff car last night. So as these rather poor photo's show I took the opportunity to apply them.
A little of the blue from the original paint is still to be found on the model, but I can justify this in saying car taken in from civilian trade, and basically emergency painted.

Right onto the next project...

Wheels for Ruperts 2

Hurrah! Fine weather! Time to upgrade my Morris Staff Car for my 1940 BEF Army. First up I used Bluetac to cover over the windows and lights. I find Bluetac very good for masking.
I then used a auto primer to spray the entire car flat black.

Next I removed the chassis as I did not want the wheels painted in the next stage. Using some more Bluetac I masked in some disruptive pattern strips.

Up next, I sprayed a dark khaki and left it to dry in the sun for an hour or so.

After drying I removed the Bluetac. Most happy with the result as it looks the part. Time for a scrounge in the decals box...

Wednesday's Website

Today's website is Modelstories at http://modelstories.free.fr/ . First up it's French so some of you may need to translate the pages. I have been following this site for a few years now and always find something of interest on it.

Highlights include a monthly web magazine of new releases and builds. Programmes for releases, an archive of past builds and reviews. Also of interest are gaffles and mistakes made by manufacturers. Enjoy!

Wheels for Ruperts

I picked this up over in the UK. Oxford Morris E Saloon. I will paint it up for use for for a command element for my 1940 BEF .
seems a shame to paint it, but my Ruber'ts need wheels!

BEF Airfix Morris CDSW 30 cwt

Finally nailed these two trucks down from the Bofors gun kit. As explained before I roughly converted these into GS bodied vehicles in order to use it for more than a tractor on the game table.
Some minor work still needs to be completed, such as number plates, but these can wait for now.

I used a piece of wire for a canopy frame and added a Bren gun for AA defence as I had seen some photo's with this rig.

With the other truck I left the cabin canopy on, keeping it simple.

I must say I am glad to get these two trucks off the table at last.