In Maginot We Trust Part 4

Today's offering is a couple of cars I picked up last weekend plus a reminder of how le DLM is looking. I got the cars at a flea market which is held in Birmingham's Custard Factory every three months. It was nice day out and also the last sunny day until today.

The first car was a black and silver Rolls Royce. It's nice and big as befits the commander of a French armoured division. Rubbed down, washed and painted. Weathered and based as per normal.

The second car started as a strangely coloured Model T. Same production process as the RR. This time I added a couple of figures because this car belongs to the CO of a French infantry division. He is accompanied by that cutting edge of communications technology: a bugler.

Château Generalship goes mobile

A vos ordres, mon General!

La Division jusqu'à  présent.

UATH!

Making Matilda Mobile

Following her stunning victory in the recent election Infantry Tank MkII Matilda has gone into production at the ToyTown Motors Factory. The box contains a straight-forward booklet. A nice touch is the full colour schemes for either The Western Desert or Australian versions. The tank bits come in a sealed plastic bag. It contains four sprues of tank parts with only minimal flash. The instruction sheet is well detailed with no surprises. Flash was minimal. This toy is destined to be an armoured battalion (infantry support) for the BEF rather than the desert, New Guinea or Soviet Russia.

Box Art & Kit Bits

Turret and LH running gear being assembled

Running gear, side-walls and upper hull

Tracks being glued and clamped into place

Assembled and ready for paint

Raw paint job

Paint job tidied up

Based and weathered

UATH!

In Maginot We Trust Part 3

I've been very slow lately on the painting & modelling front. This is due to doing a lot of vegetable growing, preparing beds & planting out. I've also constructed a flower garden in tubs and pots for my flat roof: most pleasant to sit out there with a G&T now that The Sun has got his hat on. Even the cat has started speaking to me again.

I've also been doing a lot of swing-dancing. Last weekend has left a very healthy impression upon me in that I worked a lot, learnt a lot & improved a lot. So much so my Wednesday night teachers, who were unable to attend JATW, commented on how much my dancing had changed since they last saw me: i.e. in just seven days! Swing-dancing remains the best fun ever.

Today I have finished the two R-35 (S-Models) tank battalions of le DLM. They'll form the 'Heavies' of the DLM whilst the FT-17s will be the 'Lights'. Next will be the HQ, staff, divisional artillery, A/T & AA. All of which will still be happening in slow time. TBH I can feel the pull of FLW again; I'm  not at all surprised; I did say my wargaming interests go in cycles. So, the Matilda II will be built and painted at the same time as my Big Bag of 54mm Bits gets taken out and rooted through.

Here's some pictures of the R-35 toys in their uncaptured livery:

On A Road....

........Somewhere......

.......In France.

UATH!

Artillery...

....is a bit like drummers. They sometimes forget when to come in but when they do it's Ian Paice As Thunder God (Why didn't you pick: Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Ginger Baker, Cozy Powell, Mick Avory, Topper Headon or John Bonham? Easy, they're in other artillery units). 

Which brings me rather neatly to today's offering. An addition to the 1940ish PzDiv in the form of a toy 105mm leFH 18 to represent the divisional artillery regiment. The tractor/LOG unit is one of those Krupp-Protzes I got cheap a while back. This division is going to be well supplied with them in various roles.

HOT NEWS! This just in: scored a Revell SdKfz 7 which will serve as the 105mm gun's prime mover and LOG vehicle!

The toys are Zvezda's 105mm Haubitze & Matchbox's Krupp Protze truck. All painted, based and flocked by me.

BOOM!

BANG-A-BANG!

A Simple Conversion

Last week ModelZone in Brum were having a clear out sale. Vastly reduced prices and a 3-for-2 offer. So I bought 6x 1/76 Matchbox Krupp-Protze, complete with Door-Knockers. £36 worth of toys for £7: bargainsome! So, having Sov'ed myself to exhaustion I'm now working on the Fritzes.

I have lots of German infantry already painted up so it's the vehicles I shall concentrate upon. In this case one of the Krupps is being turned into a mobile AA platform with a Zvezda 20mm AA cannon. The build is as per the box instructions with the addition of a platform over the seats for the gun to rest on.

Here's a thrilling progress pic:

I also went to BrumTown for some bits and bobs which included these toy vehicles. Both destined to serve in the Gitlerite armies.

TTFN!

SitRepRed

I've done a lot of dancing this week: three classes as of last night. To be honest I think I may be over doing it a little bit. My left Achilles tendon is a bit sore and it kept me awake all last night. I also had an argumentative follower to dance with last night. The maxim in swing-dance, as in any kind of partner dance, could have been coined by Stalin himself: FOLLOW THE LEADER. Don't stop dead in the middle of a move because it didn't follow the pattern you think it should. Follow the leader.

Anyway, talking of Stalin one's thoughts turn automatically to my ongoing Megablitz project. Which, as Tim Gow hinted at, is taking on a life of its own. My initial plan was to have two Soviet Rifle Corps, one Soviet Tank Corps and one Soviet Artillery Division. I think it will be bigger than that. And then there's the Germans. At least I'm  the leader...........

Here's some pictures of the latest toys to roll off the production line:

Revell's M16. Built straight from the box as an AA Regiment for one of the tank corps. A fairly straightforward kit. No single track link nonsense here. Undercoated in black; painted with Vallejo Russian Olive Green; weathered with Revell Earth Brown & Vallejo Dark Sand. The red stars are 20mm Hinchcliffe I got from ebay. The cover over the cab is a piece of brown paper envelope cut to fit and then painted with a mix of Vallejo Russian Uniform and white glue. The whole piece was then washed with GW Dervlan Mud. I use cork tiles to base my toys. I found the tiles placed outside a neighbour's house for disposal. I decided their future lay in other directions besides landfill. The base is painted earth brown; the toy glued on with it's magnetic square. Once dry I paint white glue on the base and shuffle the toy in my flock box. Spray of matt varnish and done.

1/76 Fujimi T-34/85. Built straight from the box as a Soviet tank brigade. Painted and based exactly the same as the M16. The tracks were a right bugger to get on. In the end I used lots of glue and cocktail sticks to wedge them in place. I tend to leave off stuff like headlights, aerials, AA HMGs and the like. They're fiddly and pointless given that I want these toys to play Megablitz and Crossfire with. Not exhibit them. Some may disagree and that's completely fine; I'm not changing.

Finally some pictures of the queue for the workbench:

Su-85 Tank Destroyer Regiment and Matchbox LOG truck with tilt frame in place.

Hanomags & Tank Destroyers

I've got some Italian stuff too............