Blimey!!!! They are doneeeeeee!!!!

Okay,

if you have followed this blog you know I had started a 15mm WW2 British North Western Europe project sometime ago. I stopped posting the progress because I was lazy... but I did not stop working on it.

End result:

Three infantry platoon, one MG platoon in carriers, one Carrier platoon (only two sections plus comman), one AT platoon with 6pdrs, one Motor platoon, assorted engineers, a 25pdrs section, a whole load of AFVs...

I also removed the QRF Churchills (now replaced by PSC ones) and the QRF Achilles, now with two plastic BF ones proudly taking its place. Of course I can add more... but to be quite honest, I am satisfied with painting battledress...

The 'funny' thing is that this horde of troops has more or less never been planned. I was expecting myself to limit myself ot US troops for the NWE campaign. But then I received some leftovers from a friend (I painted his British troops) and started to add small bits... usually in plastic. Actually almost the whole force is plastic!!! Plastic fantastic (I like to build plastic vehicles, they paint better than lead or resin, they are much lighter for storage). Now let's go into details.

A squadron of comet from the 11th Armoured Division, FOW plastic. Two Squadron command tanks, two troops of three Comet each. I know it is a marginal WW2 tank as employment goes, but...

1) I like it
2) It was used.
3) I want my 1945 version of the force to have a specific character.

Mixed picture, you can see one of the PSC infantry platoon on FOW rural bases, and the artillery units. Two FOW lead 25pdrs (quite old, I think I forgot about them, but they ended up quite well), on PSC quad, one PSC OP Carrier, one PSC Sherman V as OP. And load of tanks... you can see the PSC Churchills, the Comet and the line up of Shermans.

Lovely PSC Churchill AVRE with its petard mortar, and the PSC AT platoon; guns and Loyd carriers. Behind the ATs, the FOW plastic motor platoon.

Center stage for the Carrier unit. The Carriers are a mix of FOW (old the initial leftovers!) and PSC.  Infantry are a mix of FOW and PSC.  Behind them Joe Vandeleur command unit, and 2 FOW resin M5 Stuarts.

The Motor platoon again, the Churchills (three gun tanks one CS), the two Achilles and Shermans!

 
Tank photo shot.

FOW plastic infantry in close up.

For a project started with leftovers from a friend's commission (let's be honest, one Matador truck, two carriers, 10-15 infantrymen, two Fireflys...) it has gained traction, mainly due to the attractiveness of plastic.

The Sherman line, two FOW resins in the foreground, the rest are PSC, 75mm or Fireflys.

One last tribute to my madness!! Now I only need to bring them on the table!

Achtung, Aufklarungs!

Back to tanks... no to armoured vehicles, it is not a tank, it has no turret, and it is not even completely tracked. But I am sure the CNN or the RAI, or even some of my colleagues would call it a tank nevertheless...

So today we have a 1/56 (28mm) Rubicon Models SDKFZ 250/1 Neu.  The 250/1 was one of the ubiquitous halftrack designed and produced by the Third Reich to cover an infinity of roles. Halftracks are a cool (nice to look at in model form) and seducing concept (cheaper than full tracked, better than wheeled vehicles off road) that... never lived to their promise. Basically because the bulk of halftrack ended up being based on civilian truck chassis and engines they often were largely under-powered, and the off road maneuverability was not that improved. Okay, better than civilian truck in mud, but not that good. It was a concept largely discarded after the end of the war.  The 250 was a sort of smaller cousin to the 251. The 250 was based on the Sdfkz 10 light artillery tractor. It was developed in 1939 to answer a request from the army for a light APC to carry an half squad, usually in reconnaissance units. The same army's request involved two other similar vehicles, all based on the 10 chassis, an ammunition carrier and a forward observer vehicle.  The 250 was quickly designed and production started in 1940. Around 7,500 Sdkfz 250 of various mark were produced until the end of the war. It was not a successful vehicles, despite the numbers. The interior was cramped, and its off road ability was limited, more limited than the larger 251. It was also expensive to produce so a new armored superstructure was introduced in 1943, the Neu version I have built, with the more boxy shape. You can see some 'alte' models in 15mm in previous posts. Alte and Neu soldiered on on almost every front Germany fought, despite their shortcomings. They were adapted to countless roles too. Usually the APCs, the /1 version, were found in reconnaissance units, yet some panzergrenadier abteilungen replaced their 251 with them (on 2 250 per each 251 basis, due to the smaller transport capacity). 

Despite its limitation in real life, it is an iconic model, and indispensable asset in reconnaissance (aufklarung) units, and a nice looking little vehicle. 

I bought the kit  from Will at PSC in person sometime ago, built last year and painted quite recently. Yes sometime I have a disconnection between building 28mm kits and painting them. Building an painting queues are separate things here. Do not ask why... just assume there are deep reasons for it (there are!).  Done with the ramblings, back to the kit. As a matter of information Rubicon has both the alte and neu base versions, and accessory bos to produce several variants. At the moment you can buy:

250 alte box (/1 and Sdkfz 253 forward observer vehicle)

250 neu box (with crew, the crew fits in the alte too)

250/11 (anti-tank rifle) conversion for the Alte kit

240/9 (20mm gun in turret) for alte or neu

250/7 (mortar) conversion for alte or neu

250/3 (radio, Rommel's Greif to make it clear!) for alte or neu

Quite an impressive array!

It is a really nice little model with plenty of details, including interior details that will pretty much be invisible. It comes with a driver and two crews. I confess the crew is the reason why I opted for the Neu rather than the alte. I am planning to get at least one /9 but it will be an alte, I cannot really stand the 250/9 neu's look! The building was pretty much straightforward with very good instructions. I did not paint the interior before, despite what the instructions suggest. Why? If I cannot paint it when it is done... 99% no one will see it anyway, I am lazy!

For the final livery (and the uniforms of the crew) I ended up with a late war scheme and SS camo, it will be part of an SS force (I know I hate these guys, but the camo is cool to paint, and they are useful for several scenarios) based on the KG Knittel during the battle of the Bulge. An appropriate opponent for my winter/fall US troops. 

It has the usual base of dunkelgelb (my own recipe: base of vallejo middlestone, wash with dark brown, then drybrush of iraqi sand) and splinter stripes in brown, in this case vallejo chocolate brown.  I apply the camo before the wash and the drybrush. One of the Rubicon heads had been replaced by a warlord helmeted one, I wanted both crew in helmet. Decals are Rubicon and included in the box.

Roma, Aeterna, Victrix!!!

Okay,

I am leaving tanks for at least one post... and diving back in ancient wargaming. The title post is supposed to be an hint... no I am not talking about Ben Hur in its 2016 version (but the Roman march is quite nice), but I am talking of Victrix Early Imperial Romans. In my last excursion to the money blackhole that is Salute (in my case 2017) I bought a bag of Marching Legionaries. Just after Xmas I took advantage of the free postage sale from Victrix to grab some Auxiliaries. 22.95£ per bag, 25 legionaries, 24 auxiliaries. Plenty of options (more on that later), excellent detail. Also Victrix sells you shields. So far so good.

Okay, the hawkeyed among the readers will already have spotted something... there are only 47 figures... 25+24 must be 49... well because I have organized the legionaries in two units of 12, one legionnaire has been given as a gift, and he is now in Japan. Another auxilia will join him, why? Well beside the obivious (making a gift!), it is because I will add the 4 figures command set  from Aventine to my second auxilia unit, and the other auxilia have become a skirmish group of Germanic auxilia with wolfskin as in Trajan column. I am planning to mainly use the troops with the ancient version of Lion Rampant with half-size units (I am lazy, I am a cheapskate, I do not want ot buy and paint too much) so 3 figures per skirmish unit are okay. The other rules I plan to use are Broken Legions (with some modifications to army lists) so the numbers fit.

Another group shot of my force. The two legionary vexillatio in the center, the Auxilia on the wings. They are based singly, but I have movenent trays from warbases for them...

The Skirmishers. Victrix auxilia bag gives you plenty of options, including the wolfskins. Now, I could have simply built them as standard auxilia, but it is a shame to not try the wolfskins. IIT is a problem with too much options. You end up discarding a lot. The Legionaries could be built as regular troops or Praetorians.  Again you end up discarding stuff. Okay they are cheap compared ot metal, and the options are part of the appeal of plastic, but too many options could push the price up and leave you with a mass of spares you do not really need. I have eyed Victrix elephant, but I realized I will pay for so many options I will never use (too many different crews, but you end up using only one set...). Sometime there could be too much of a good thing.

The legions' block. Not a great shot, I need to improve my skills...

I dislike, usually, flash effect on colours, but in this case they turned out all right, and the definition is much better.

The German skirmishers.

The detail on the skins is really good.

Well, until I get the command set and some mounted auxilia from Aventine, I am done. Even considering the additions, it is an almost complete project! Yeaaaah!!!

I hope you enjoy them.

Abrams!!!

Okay,  a new post. Recently I grabbed the new Tamiya 1/48 M1A2 Abrams for my 28mm modern US troops. It was on the shelf of my local hobby store, so it was one of those rare impulse buy. Of course being a Tamiya model it is a quite safe impulse buy.

 To make a long story short, it was a nice build and an impressive model. Much more detailed than the former Imprint, now Empress, M1A2. Of course you expect this from a collector model. There are a lot of nice detail, like the anti-slipping surface on the hull and turret ,the APU in the turret bustle rack, and the opportunity to position the shutter of the range finder open or closed.  Interestingly enough Tamiya gives you decals for the periscope windows, CITW visor, and the laser range finder. I decided to simply paint them my usual way.

Even more interestingly, while building it I found plenty of closed holes on the sideskirts and the turret sides making me thinking they are planning a TUSK version too... 

Anyway too much writing... too little images...

 You can see the rear mounted APU.

 Side by side with the Empress.

 Nice thing, while there are two points of scale difference, they look compatible together.