Painted Cromwells

Here are some painted Hät Armourfast Cromwells that will be brilliant to fight with the Revell British Infantry in the Western Front.

Now that they have been painted, all they need is markings and weathering. Then a varnish and they will be ready to the battle in the bocage.

Painted British Infantry

Here are my painted Revell British Infantry. I intend to use them as my main wargaming British force as they better fit the profile of late-war North-West Europe combat that are not fulfilled by the Esci British Infantry.

These include the need of Stens instead of Thompsons to be the sub-machine gun of choice. Also the bizarre Esci PIAT that has a strange design.

Finally, the mortars in this set can fulfill the need for tactical artillery.

Vietcong Painted Figures

This is a painted set of Esci/Italeri Vietcong. I decided to choose the tan colours instead of the green colours as it would much more easier to make a distinction.

Painted American Vietnam Figures

I have painted the Esci/Italeri American Special Forces for Vietnam.

Of course the main attention seekers are the Rambo themed figures. The set seems much more cliche with this set.

Christmas 2011 and New Years

Happy New Year!

For Christmas I got these kitsets for my forces. They are mostly focussing on the desert side of World War 2.

My obsession with these small, light and thin-armoured British tanks has already been evident with the small cardboard tanks found in earlier photos. This small tank will be good for the North African theater of war.

Panzer III's will fill in the gap in my medium German tank arsenal.
The Crusader Mk. III will be the handy part of the British Desert Group In Africa.
Italian tanks are seemingly strange compared to the conventional arsenals thought of when thinking of equipment during the war. They would be great of the battles in the desert. The Axis army of North Africa actually always had more Italians than Germans so these tanks will help fill in the gap left by the grossly insignificant range representation by manufacturers.

I have got some Vietnam infantry in the works so stay tuned.

Aircraft Stand

One of the most important weapons in the world is the aeroplane. They can destroy armies with impunity from the skies if they are not challenged. That means for my wargames set in World War 2, I needed planes. So I built up for of these bases.

The design is very simple. Just a cardboard base hot glued to a long piece of plastic from kitsets and blu-tack to stick the plane to the plastic. The only problem is balance so certains planes hold up better than others.

This is the near common scene of a British plane strafing a German armoured column.

A YouTube Video: The Duke of Wellington's Army

This is a crazy massive army that is amazing. 25,000 British infantry in the Napoleonic Era. It is amazing and would be impossible to wargame with (of course). Imagine someone doing an entire battle 1:1.

American Revell Infantry

Here is finally troops that are not knock-offs. These Revell American Infantry I think are very good. The mortars and heavy machine guns are very good and well representative. Although these are winter infantry, I didn't paint them in white coats or wearing gloves. The detail is well shown and these will be the mainstay of the American forces in my miniature army.

World War 2 Chinese Infantry (NRA)

Here are my Chinese infantry. These are a mixture of only knock-off infantry. The German Airfix knock-offs represent the ones equipped by the Germans in the 20s, Airfix French to represent the trumpeter and troops using the Adrian helmets. The Airfix Afrika Korps to represent those equipped with German units and using caps. The other knock-offs that are unidentifiable are Japanese painted as Chinese. Those include the a Dadao armed soldier These troops are pretty convincing in a wargame setting.

I do have troops which are not knock-offs but there are so few Chinese sets in 1/72 and the Commandos in the previous post looked more cooler with the green berets than not.

British Commandos

Here are some knock-off 1/72 Airfix British Paratroopers (1/32 scale turned to 1/72) painted as British Commandos. These poses are good and I think these figures should have actually be made by Airfix instead of that awful set released for British Paratroopers with confusing poses like the "stretching guy".

I cut up Weetbix boxes and fold up as smaller boxes to store my troops. It is a pretty efficient way to store infantry.

Recent Projects: Italians, Russians and British Vehicles

Here are some new pictures of some vehicles that I got earlier in the building process.

The Airfix Ilyushin Strumovik has the crew painted but the rest is waiting for several coats of paint.
Here, I have some Armorfast Hät Cromwells that are the mainstay of the late war British army. Also some 2 Airfix Churchills. These tanks will be big boost to the British late war forces.
The Italian M13/40 was the main Italian made tank of the Italian Army. This tank is very cool but was crap in the face of British forces. This tank and the other are good armoured companions to the Italian and German infantry.
This Italeri clip together kit is nice and simple without any lack of detail.
Also I have a desert 4.5/5.5 inch gun to provide the 8th Army artillery cover. The crew are a mixture of knock-off modified Airfix 8th Army and knock-off 1/72 versions of the 1/32 scale Airfix British paratroopers. I decided to use them instead of 25 pounder crew as they look more exciting and cover more aspects.
An Humber armored car that my Dad got and Trade Me completed has been painted and weathered by me. I have needed this reconnaissance for British desert forays against the Afrika Korps.
All these tanks and aircraft will be used later on in wargames along with the newer stuff I brought from Cambridge.