A pair of BlitzKreig Miniatures Matilda II (1/56)

As promised, here is the second update of today.

This time it is a pair of Matilda II that I ordered from BlitzKreig Miniatures at the same time as the 'Honey' Stuart that I posted about earlier.

The Honey was purchased on a whim, but these Matilda IIs have a specific purpose for the ongoing Battle of Keren project that I am involved in. Infantry tanks from the 4th Royal Tank Regiment supported the attack on Italian East Africa and these are to be used as part of that project alongside the hundreds of Perry Miniatures Desert Rats that I have planned.

Like the Honey, the Matilda II are from the 1/56 scale range as the 1/48 models will be a rather large along side the Perry Miniatures Desert Rats.

And, if James ever tries this scenario again then I'll certainly have something more 'solid' to counter those pesky Italian light tanks on their own terms!

Just like the Honey, the Matilda II arrived very quickly and well packed from BlitzKreig. There are a few less parts in this kit, the hull and running gear, turret, 2-pdr gun, coaxial machine gun and turret hatch. When assembling I split the hatch in two so that I could stick in some tank commanders.

After cleaving up, sticking together and magnetising the turret and tracks I had applied an all over spray of Army Painter Desert Yellow, with the same adverse effect seen on the Stuart. The Matildas' were then given an over coat of Vallejo US Tan Earth mixed with US Dark Sand - all paint colours are Vallejo from here on. The tracks were painted a mixture of Saddle Brown and Gunmetal Grey, the road wheels, antennae and machine guns were painted Black. After this had dried the whole lot was washed with Sepia Wash

Once the wash had dried and some touching up had been done, I re-applied the base-coats and highlighted up slightly. I then painted in the tactical markings and bridging weight to hopefully depict a pair of Infantry Tanks from 4th Royal Tank Regiment in East Africa 1941, although my Google-foo was weak on this!

The tank was then weathered all over using Tamiya Model Master and the Perry Miniatures tank commanders that I had already painted were stuck in place.

I have added a picture of the vehicle alongside a Perry Miniatures Desert Rat for size comparison.