DAK Project - Panzers continued

Both of my desert panzers are starting to take shape. After an undercoat of black and a solid coat of Tallarn Sand, I decided to go for a lighter shade than the usual Panzer sandy brown, using a liberal drybrushing of Ushabti Bone, and a diluted inking to bring out all the bodywork details. Not pictured, I have also gone over the tracks in a light grey and gone over the petrol /water tanks with Tallarn Sand to highlight them.

The next step will be to use darker browns and a pale green for the remainder of the stowage items, and ink the tracks a weathered brown.

8th Army infantry

I've recently acquired some Allied infantry from a local model shop and I like sorting the individual troops out into squads I want to see on the wargaming table.

The squads are made up of Revell Australian and British 8th Army infantry. Each line represents a section that will be mounted on my standard 100mm x 50mm bases. The Australian Vickers machine gun teams may be mounted on a smaller base, I haven't quite decided yet. Looking forward to seeing these lads take on Rommel's Afrika Korps!

DAK Project - Panzers

These mark the beginning of my Deutsche Afrika Korps army. I've been meaning to start desert WW2 armies for a while, and whilst my BEF British are not complete, I took the plunge anyway.

I have started with two Plastic Soldier Company models, a Panzer III Ausf G and a Panzer IV Ausf F2 "Special".

The former was the workhorse of the early war German tank force. A medium tank that combined decent protection and a respectable 50mm gun, the Panzer III could hold its own against most Allied tanks. It's primacy was challenged by the appearance of the upgunned Crusader III and the Lee / Grant tank, both giving the Allies some respectable firepower.

The Panzer IV Ausf F2 "Special" is a late version of a tank that took over from its older brother. It has a long barrelled 75mm high velocity main gun, and good armour protection, able to match Allied medium tanks of the late war period. This model has no "Schurtzen" side skirts as these would have been impractical in desert conditions.

I've customised both with a variety of stowage and items on the back of the turrets. Why so many jerry cans? Well, they weren't used exclusively for fuel - in desert conditions it's easy to run out of precious water.

In terms of paint scheme I'm going to try my own desert scheme or combining a Tallarn Sand undercoat with an off-white drybrush. Combined with inking I hope by the time they're finished, Rommell would be proud to have them.

Churchill Mk 1

This is my own conversion of a Plastic Soldier Company Churchill tank. I have retrofitted it with a spare 2 pounder from the A9 Cruiser sprue and the awesome looking 3 inch howitzer in the hull is a sawn down 6 pounder. I have cut away the big mudguards to expose the tracks, giving this Churchill a very WW1 appearance. I have painted it with my usual scheme for early war dark green tanks, and as part of my collection represents the disaster of Dieppe where some of the early Churchills went into ill-fated action for the first time. It wouldn't be until the deployment of King Force, using Mark III Churchills, when the tank finally showed itself as the ultimate evolution of the Infantry tank concept.

Battlestar Galactica - finished!

Finally finished the Revell Battlestar Galactica model I got for Christmas. Many shades, drybrushes, diluted ink washes and various varnishes later, I'm really happy with the result. This model depicts the Galactica as she goes into action alongside the larger Battlestar Pegasus against the pursuing Cylon fleet in Season 2. The Battlestars engage their Cylon counterparts whilst their fighter escorts head for the vulnerable Resurrection Ship. Her main batteries are pointed forward and outwards to bombard a Cylon Base Star, and she's already taken various missile hits on her 'head' and flight pods. Gotta love "the Bucket"! So say we all!

Battlestar Galactica - project nearly completed!

So I've decided to get the Galactica assembled before I give it the final diluted dark wash. I have added the decals which come off the paper quite easily, having varnished the surfaces before and after application, so hopefully they should stay on for the duration. I have attached the lower and upper halves of the main hull, and with liberal application of elastic bands, this beast of a model is starting to come together.

Battlestar Galactica project update

So here's a couple of up to date photos of the Galactica model. I've got Administarium Grey on all raised surfaces, ribs and armour plates, and after cleaning up the darker areas, I soaked the majority of the model in an undiluted Nuln Oil black ink wash to create that dirty, lived in look. It also shows up all of the lines dividing the armour plating. I also added the only real splash of colour on the ship, using a matt red on the landing pod entrances, the distinctive "nose" and the underside. I'm much happier using GWs Evil Sunz Scarlet for the red detailing rather than risk an error or two with the Revell decals provided.

My next job is to break up the plating and surfaces with Dawnstone, and start assembling and attaching the four engines. Gotta make sure the FTL drive is operational!