1st Armourfast M10 Tank Destroyer

This is my first of two M10 Tank Destroyers for my WW2 late war Americans, made by Armourfast. With its open turret, formidable 76mm gun and distinctive sloped hull sides, it is one of my favourite military vehicles in terms of appearance. Sadly the exposed crew compartment and substitution of speed for armour, in line with American tank destroyer doctrine, rendered the M10 a flawed design.

I followed a YouTube painting tutorial intended for a larger scale 1/56 model but found it really useful.

The link can be found below:

https://youtu.be/KUu-TX7EYOw

The main colours used were GW Deathworld Forest Green for the main body, GW Dawnstone for the tracks, and GW Steel Legion Drab for the mud weathering. The body and tracks were further weathered with GW Nuln Oil and GW Agrax Earthshade Inks respectively.

I used some spare furniture and accessories to create the impression of a busy fighting vehicle loaded with supplies. The two crew members in the turret come from Italeri US infantry set 6120, chopped a little on the bases to fit inside.

I have loads of WW2 armoured fighting vehicles in my collection in need of repainting and customising. By chipping away at one or two tanks at a time, I'm not overwhelmed, and really enjoy the individual revamps.

My next WW2 tank rolling off the hobby table will be my second King Tiger, from Pegasus Hobbies.

A productive weekend...

Life has once again proven hectic so I thought I'd take 10 minutes to get a blog entry done. The first chilled weekend I've had in a month gave me some time to finish off a few projects that have populated my model trays for a little while.

The horsemen are the last of my English Civil War units - a Royalist Cavalry squadron and a Parliamentarian Reiters squadron. The colours are kept simple - red Cavaliers and muted yellow Roundheads.

Hopefully I can try out the One Hour Wargames rules with these lads in the coming months. 

The vehicles are a couple of M1 Abrams for my US Team Yankee forces - one of them is from an earlier post but the one on the right is a new repaint. I managed to get 4 Revell M1s, already assembled, off of ebay at a reasonable price, and one of these now stands ready to stem the Soviet tide.

The middle tank is a M10 Tank Destroyer which will be part of my future US 1944 wargaming army. I followed a painting tutorial I found on YouTube and I'm really happy with the end result. It's certainly worthy of a separate blog post when I get the time!

What's next? I've got another T-55 assembled, and I'm considering painting some Soviet infantry to accompany it onto the battlefield. Onwards, to victory!

Martian Assault Tripods

I stumbled across a 15mm tabletop game a year ago called All Quiet on the Martian Front, and whilst I'm not a collector of 1/100 scale models, I loved the style and concept of a follow up to the HG Wells novel.

Whilst the shift in focus away from the burning shires of England to the vast centre of America was a little corny, the alien invaders took to their immense war machines and the consequent plastic kits looked amazing. Even though they were in a smaller scale than I collected, the Assault Tripods still tower over a 1/72 infantryman and are more than a match for the average tank.

Initially I tried to paint the tripods in various colours as a homage to Daleks, but I have recently reverted to a more uniform GW Boltgun Metal, with shining red eyes courtesy of GW "Blood for the Blood God" paint.

The leader Tripod has normal claws and tentacles. It's two companions each wield a black smoke launcher and a Green Tesla cannon respectively (the latter of my own conversion). As for rules for these gangly giants, I am considering inventing a One Hour Wargames rule set, and for simplicity keeping their weaponry and close combat abilities the same across all models. Facing off against them at the moment would be my Early World War 2 BEF contingent. When I finally get a house of my own (with enough space) the humans will be bolstered by my Great War British forces as well!

Trialling a different painting technique - block painting on ECW Cavalry

Whilst I've still got plenty to do on my Team Yankee / modern forces, I'm also very eager to finish my English Civil War units so I can test out the One Hour Wargames rules. On paper this looks to be one of the more dynamic rulesets and will probably require the least tweaking... provided I can set up the battlefield properly!

To finish my English Civil War armies, I have to finish painting a few mounted units  and these can be a challenge if you're not in the right frame of mind. The horses aren't just two colours for the coat and the hair - you need to achieve some disciplined detailed work on the saddle  furniture and especially those blasted reins! Sorry cavalrymen, I love you really!

I thought I would try a new painting technique on a couple of units to see how it went. I chose my Parliamentarian general (a 1/72 attempt at Cromwell, accompanied by a standard bearer) and second unit of cavalry. To start with, I did an undercoat of GW Ushabti Bone which was then covered in a diluted soak of GW Seraphim Sepia. This provided a glimpse of the detailed areas requiring specific colours. I then tackled each colour for every figure one at a time, applying the paint only to the area that needed it. This meant there was no main coat followed by successive "layers" of detail. However, this technique soon lost its appeal as colours inevitably encroached on one another. Nonetheless I have managed to sort them out and get them ready for the tabletop. The lads are ready for basing as I write this, so photos of the finished units will follow in due course. Below are some photos of the technique in progress. I may well try the technique again with my larger and more detailed Zvezda figures and see if it creates a better result.

Team Yankee APC and Recon vehicles repaint finished

Sadly I haven't been keeping the blog up to date recently, I actually finished these over a week ago!

The Soviet units, a small BMD-2 and two BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, are painted to match my T-55s, a simple scheme with limited weathering, inspired by the artwork of the Team Yankee rulebook.

The US units are two M113s for transporting my mechanised infantry, and a Sheridan light tank. I toned down the initial camouflage scheme as it was too busy. I'm much happier with the black and off white sections of the paintwork having stripped it back a little. One of the most common problems for model painters is not to go over the top with a new method or colour scheme!

Here are the photos:

WIP Soviet repaints and M113 / Sheridan MERDC camouflage repaints

Just a couple of photos of vehicles I'm working on this weekend.

The two BMP-1s and BMD-2 are made by S-model and are great kits, solid tracks and tons of surface details. I made these back in 2015 at a time when I had just discovered Games Workshop inks, and consequently inked my vehicles to death!

I have redecorated with the usual Tamiya camo green base coat followed by a generous application of Athonian Camoshade ink to give definition. The next stage for these guys will be some drybrushing around the tracks and possibly some decals.

The M113s in the photos are Easy Model die cast pieces and I'm getting on well with the redecoration. The Sheridan, however, is another story - the camouflage is now too busy and needs toning down before I do anything else.

Reinforcements have arrived...

After a busy Easter weekend followed by a weekend up in York, and with work / daily life activities in between I haven't had a lot of time to update my blog.

The main event to report concerns my Team Yankee collection, which has been significantly bolstered by a visit to the original bunker in Kent. There I was able to pick up the following for my Allied / NATO army:

2x M113A2 Easy Model APCs that I managed to get at an agreeable price on amazon. These are in the photo below but repainting them with MERDC camouflage has already begun. These two will transport my mechanised infantry into battle and provide limited fire support from their .50cal machine guns.

1x previously assembled Sheridan tank. This and its yet to be assembled partner form my reconnaissance vehicles for the Allies. I was debating keeping the darker Vietnam style colour scheme but have since opted for more MERDC because I have really enjoyed painting MERDC previously on my M1 and M60.

Another addition is a small AA unit, in a smaller scale (1/87 I think). The M42 Duster was used in Vietnam and would have been phased out long before the Team Yankee era, but as I don't have the funds for the Italeri M163 Vulcan, it will have to fill the gap. It's one of my few 'Counts As' vehicles. As this Duster is from my Vietnam collection, I will not be repainting it.

Also in the photo below is my first mechanised infantry squad, with a Dragon AT missile launcher at the ready! 

The Soviets also have reinforcements but these will be covered in another post.