Desert Rats reinforcements

What with all the Spanish Civil War fun of late I've rather neglected the 1941 East Africa campaign that I have a deadline on. So, this week I finished off another group of Perry Miniatures Desert Rats and a couple of Blitzkreig Matilda II

The infantry did not take a lot of work to be honest, they have been sat on my windowsill complete apart from needing the bases doing.

The Matilda II were both done from scratch, one of these is for James Morris to go with the MK VIB Light Tank that I did for him the other is for my own collection. They are worked up from a mixture of Vallejo Dark Sand and US Tan Earth to just Dark Sand. They were finished off with a Tamiya Weathering Master, Rust on the exhausts, Dark Sand and Light Sand on the bodywork. The headlights are completed with my standard NMM technique.

The photos are a bit shoddy, but if you want to see these in the flesh, pop over and say hello at our upcoming demo games at Cannon on the 30th March, Salue on the 12th April, Partizan on 1st June or Crisis on 1st November, we'll be happy to talk to you.

Troop of Mk VIB Light Tanks

I've already posted the MkVIB that I did for James, I also have done another troop of 1/56 BlitzKreig MkVI Lights for myself, this time in Caunter effect.

The colours used were a basecaot of 50:50 Vallejo Dark Sand & US Tan Earth, Basalt Grey and Light Sea Grey. I then painted the interiors Stone Grey. The tracks and exhaust were painted with a mix of Saddle Brown and Gunmetal Grey. The whole thing was then washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash and then the basecoats and highlights re-applied.

Once dry I weathered using Tamiya Model Master and added Perry Miniatures crews.

The antennae are bristles from a plastic broom. The names are entirely made up.

Light Tank Mk VIB for James

As part of our ongoing East Africa project James asked me to paint him up a Light Tank Mk VIB  mine would be in Caunter ( see other article ) but James wanted his in plain old sand coloured.

These are lovely 1/56 scale models from BlitzKreig Miniatures.

The basecoat is a mix of Vallejo US Tan Earth and Dark Sand. The tracks and exhaust were painted with a mix of Saddle Brown and Gunmetal Grey. The whole thing was then washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash and then the basecoats and highlights re-applied.

Once dry I weathered using Tamiya Model Master.

Holiday Cottage Painting update day 7

The final day of our Cornish Cottage vacation, no painting at all this morning as I had a lie in and stayed in bed until 08:15!

Victoria soon turfed me out though as we had a booking at Fifteen Cornwall for breakfast at 09:30. We were there in plenty of time and were seated at our table at 09:15. We had a fabulous breakfast watching the tide crashing in at Watergate Bay.

We had a drive into Newquay and then along the coastal road back to Padstow, picking up some Cornish Pasties on the way for our tea.

I realised that I had not posted a picture of my holiday workbench, so here it is a bunch of paints in a 4L Really Useful in the window bottom, an upturned Really Useful lid with a cutting mat as my painting pallet, my daylight lamp and Samsung Tab 3 for reference and playing 6 Music throughout the day.

Eagle eyed readers will notice Carcassone and Guillotine too, for the record I just won the Holiday Carcassone tournament, but Victoria thrashed me at Guillotine.

On to the painting update for today, Firstly a Mk VI Light that I have done for James Morris for our East Africa campaign games.

I have also done three of my own, in Caounter this time. I completely re-painted the light grey as the last lot looked too blue.

I have also been painting Nationalists for James Woodward today, firstly a pair of medium mortars.

And a section of six Legionaires:

Neither of these two groups have photographed that well though and the figures are packed up for the journey home so I'll not get a chance to re-do the photos.

Well, this is the end of the last holiday painting updates. No doubt more pictures though when I get the tanks crewed. weathered and aerialed and the bases done on my Moroccans.

Holiday Cottage Painting update day 6

Today was very much a do-nothing day, we had no plans at all and intended to spend most of the day in the cottage.

This was quite a coup as this morning I managed to finish off the highlights on those last eleven Moroccan Regulares.

That is all those done so far, here are the entire 48 figures, I just need to do a bit of finishing off, including doing the flag and the bases and then they are ready for their first game.

We went for lunch at a local pub and when we got back I cracked on with some of the other stuff to do.

Firstly I repainted the light grey and gave a sepia wash on those two Mk VI seen earlier in the week. I also sepia washed the other two Mk VI lights.

For my own SCW collection I have a Nationalist light mortar, an army officer and three Guardia Civil that I did the base-coats and a sepia wash on.

I also made a very tentative start on my Panzer I, just some Panzer Grey for starters.

For James I did the base-coat and sepia was on a couple of Nationalist 60mm mortars and a Guardia Civil officer...

... along with a dozen La Legion also for James.

My Regulares are now wrapped in tissue ready for the journey home where they will be finished off. I hope to get at least the Mk VI tanks completed tomorrow and maybe a few of James' La Legion.

Holiday Cottage Painting update day 3

Day two was an early start again, up at 06:45 I made myself a cuppa and set down to doing the highlights on those four Moroccans that had had a sepia wash.

Before Victoria had stirred I had also done the base-coat and wash on another four of the Moroccans.

After breakfast we went to the Eden Project and managed to get out of the rain for a few hours - and into a rain forest!

 After a rather lovely lunch at the Eden Project it was back home and those four Moroccans that had been washed this morning were highlighted:

And as part of the production line, another four were base-coated and washed.

I did a little more work on those two Mk VI lights, you'll see a commander stuck in one of them

I made a good start on the base-coat of the other two. One of these is being painted for James and he did not want Caunter.

I also gave a base-coat and wash to three objective markers / jump-off points.

I don't think I'll get much more done tonight, Victoria and I plan a few games of Carcasonne.

Also, interesting to compare with what I was doing this day last year: http://scrivsland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/holiday-painting-update-day-two.html

And the year before: http://scrivsland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/napoleons-6th-hussars.html

Holiday Cottage Painting update day 2

Pawton Barn

Victoria and I arrived in Cornwall yesterday afternoon and found our location, the lovely Pawton Barn, the past couple of years we have stayed at The Swallows in St. Merryn but that is no longer available.

After we got unpacked and explorer the locale I set up my painting tackle on the dining table and set to to make a start on my painting and soon had a couple of BlitzKreig Miniatures Mk VIB Light tanks and eight Empress Spanish Civil War Moroccans base-coated. The Moroccans were also given a coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash.

This morning I was up bright and early - well before Victoria and managed to get the highlights done on four of the Moroccans. After breakfast I gave the Mk VI tanks a sepia was and made a start on the highlights on the second group of four Moroccans.

We went out for a day of sight seeing, first we drove to Constantine Bay and then walked through to Trevoyan Bay and back the long way. We then popped into Padstow for a mooch rounds and a bag of chips from Rick Steins take away. Despite all the foreboding the weather today was fantastic!

Trevoyan Bay 

When we got back I did the highlights on those four Moroccans, base-coated and washed another four and made a start on the highlights on the Mk VI tanks.