Tanketty-Tank

Last August I had a dreadful wargaming/model soldier experience. I had engaged in an agreement for someone to produce some figures. It was fully funded and the figures (are) were awesome.

Then an unexpected change of fortune – and my family were left without a financial safety net. The only decision I could take was to let the other party down. I am deeply ashamed at that, even though it was the only course of action I could take.

The experience has left me quite shocked and discomforted and my partner in the venture did not deserve this (neither did I to be fair) and I have been through quite a bit of soul searching as to whether my hobby of more than 35 years was actually giving me anything any more.

I only picked up a paint brush again in April 2016.

With great irony, it was to paint some of those ubiquitous multi part plastic figures which I hate with a passion and World War Two, which I am not sure is a viable area for gaming, being both impossible ‘model’ as a tabletop experience and having two morally compromised opponents which need to be included in any game (three, I suppose, if you include the Russians) I wonder if anyone else struggles with the morality of it all?

Anyhow.

Late war British –

I did a 30 infantry on single bases. but didn’t take photographs as they are quite dull. and some larger bases as below

Mortar

Vickers MMG

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Forward Artillery observer

Forward Air Controller

and yes he is in an allotment! there are cabbages and some onions in there which gave me an idea for an element on this base

Command stand

 

Notice the trooper holding ‘tea’. And the two Huns. I imagined the British officer holding them at gun point as having no concern at all about the rules of war.

There is an abandoned German lmg position on there as well.

Basing is from all sorts of sources  with etched brass trees.

And two Tanks

Churchill Croc

 

AND finally a Sherman Firefly

The burlap cammo was done using a gauze bandage soaked in old tea and coffee grounds to colour it. Then in a mixture of water, acrylic flow improver and white glue to give it a little bit of stiffness – don’t skip this step. it makes the modelling bit so much easier. then cut this into scale size strips portions (whats the biggest piece a crew of 28mm tankies could handle sort of approach). and fix strategically around the tank.

The cloth strips are, well…cloth strips. Its called bias binding and its available from all good haberdashers. I used three colours brown, green and a beige. Its fragile stuff and once again the old water /flow improver /glue mixture is brought into play to give it some stiffness and stop it disintegrating. This is the cut into tiny tiny strips and glued one at a time onto the netting. Start at the bottom and make clumps of same coloured binding leaving small gaps between clumps.work your way around the tank. When you have a ‘row’ paint the clumps of strips in the old glue mixture. Then using the colour of the binding as a guide paint the clumps. (I used chocolate brown, Russian uniform, and English uniform)

Then repeat for another ‘row’ once its all on. I gave a wash of burnt umbar oil paint and then (does the process never end?) painted a variety of differences in colour on individual strips. Finally I made some twiggy- foamy things to act as foliage and glued on here and there.

One problem that never occurred to me when I started though. Underneath all the netting and stuff I had carefully made quite a bit of track armour especially on the Firefly which is now covered over. When the model is in you hand , you can see it and you can see the detail behind the netting, but the extra detail is sort of lost in photographs.

I guess that all means I am back.

I am doing some more Berg Light Horse as a commission. and after that who knows?

In a few days I will post some pics of Jerries that just happened to be painted at the same time as the Brits.

 

Toodle-Pip