Customising my Citadel Battlemat

I finally got around to customising my Citadel Battlemat on Sunday. It was a hot (but not too hot, just a few degrees centigrade over 30), with plenty of sun and the lightest of breezes…perfect weather for quickly drying things, especially cloth and material.

I had two pots of Citadel’s Dark Green Ink (now sadly now longer being manufactured) which I lightly diluted. I laid the Battlemat out on two plastic dropsheets, put the ink into the reservoir of an old Badger 250 spraygun (the type for airbrushing large stencils, not doing fine cammo paint shemes on tanks) and sprayed the ink on.

Here’s how it looks now:

It dried up nicely. The ink hasn’t hardened the fine fibre surface much, which was great! I was scared it might and thus crack or flake off when it was time to fold up the mat for storage.

My uniform green mat now looks a little more irregular and in my eyes, truer to life.

Now to get a game organised with someone…

Your chance to tell Italeri what kits (type and scale) you would like them to produce in the future!

This is directly copied from Itleri’s website  (http://www.italeri.com/DettaglioNews.aspx?NEWS=00029):

“01/02/2010
We are curious too!

We often wonder (and actually have hot debates about) what new kits we should bring to a trade show, and what modeling enthusiasts would like to see.

We’ll use a direct approach:

we’ll ask you. Here are two questions for everyone:

1) What kits (type and scale) you would like us to produce in the next future?

2)What are your three favorite kits currently in the Italeri catalog?

Send your opinions and replies to: idea@italeri.com.

The ideas we’ll receive will be published in the next issues of this newsletter to share them with other modeling enthusiasts.

Thank you.”

Italeri’s “PaK 40 AT gun with servants” completed in less than a year – yay (and phew)

Undercoating to final protective Dullcote varnishing took less than a year – booyah! It was April 2009 when I started. It was January 31 2010 when I finished. They look better than I thought they may, too! Have a look for yourselves:

Some detail of the anti-tank gun platoon commander and his gun: 

In “Panzerfaust: Armoured fist” I can have a platoon of three 7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40’s attached to an infantry company or I can purchase a platoon of four 7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40’s from a tank hunter battery. That’s why you see four bases of guns. Due to gun size, a crew of four is required. Now, in the Italeri box for this kit (#6096) you get six crew figures, so you are safely covered here. Mixing up the final pose (I only used one crew figure holding binoculars) means I have some sets of spare gunners for other projects.

I’m very happy with the way the camouflaged reversible winter parkas turned out. However, for when I do some Panzergrenadiers, I’ll do the Splinter camouflage pattern a little differently. I think that I have made the green patches/streaks too big on these figures. Have a look:

The Dark Green is the same size as the Dark Brown.

Now have a look at what Richard A. Underwood Militaria advertise. The Dark Green is half to one-third the size of the Dark Brown and are more like stretched hexagons rather than long streaks or long stripes. That is what I have to do for the Panzergrenadiers.

Some quick notes about the scenic effects for the guns that make them look like vignettes or dioramas: I used coarse turf in two colours instead of flock for the thick longer grass. I used Earth Blend flock for the churned-up ground where the crew are working. Woodland Scenics turf and flock are my ‘weapons of choice’.

I used real sticks / twigs found while walking or trout fishing for the logs that each gun is hiding behind.

A quick complaint about the PaK 40 guns themselves – their gun elevation is not 0 degrees or positive degrees – they are all pointing down slightly, their elevation is negative degrees. I suppose you could put some extra stuff under their wheels to raise each gun and get rid of this effect – I didn’t think of it until now – but it would’ve been nice if they had been made properly from the start. Still, for those who haven’t assembled and begun painting yet, you’ve got the chance to take my warning and correct this slight defect.

Kseniya Simonova’s amazing sand drawing

I was sent this via e-mail by a mate.

The text that accompanied it went as follows:
“This Video shows the Winner of 2009’s ” Ukraine ’s Got Talent”,
Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated
sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German
Invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a
strange one, is mesmeric to watch.
The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience
to tears and she won the top prize of about $75,000.
She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands
on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy
scene is obliterated.
It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and
the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova
throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before
the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.
This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is
looking out on the monument from within a house.
In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man
standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying
goodbye.
The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one
in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths
out of a population of 42 million.
An art critic said:
“I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or
paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art,
especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings
some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger
compliment.”"

I personally cannot testify to the veracity of all that text (especially the comment by the art critic) but it is an impressive and extremely important work by Kseniya Simonova.

Since it deals with the Eastern Front (OstFront), naturally I’ve included it here.

The Ukraine was a particularly precious prize to both the Germans and the Russians. Whatever conflict happened there was always going to be bloodier than usual. A grim reminder of why we should always exhaust all avenues of   “jaw-jaw” and leave “war-war” to be the absolute last resort (thanks to Winston Churchill for “jaw-jaw”-”war-war”).

Some thoughts about camouflage before painting up my Panthers

I did some research about what camouflage scheme (if any) I should paint onto my GrossDeutschland Panther tanks. I had seen a photo once of a column of Panthers moving forward on the Eastern Front (OstFront), painted only in DunkelGelb…no green or brown (or both) camouflage paint at all. Very simple – and given that the camouflage green and brown pastes didn’t get as widely distributed in quatity and completeness as on the Western Front (WestFront),  I think probably pretty common.  I was tempted to do all like that. However, since that is what I’m doing for many of my Opel Blitzes, Horch 108s and 251/1’s,  changed my mind, wanted som cammo and undertook a serious hunt to find out if GrossDeutschland’s Panthers had any camouflage scheme/s and what they were. The outcome was simpler than I thought: Panzer Colours III had both a black & white historical photo and a colour illustration of a GrossDeutschland regimental commander’s Panther that had a base coat of DunkelGelb and then a camouflage scheme of Dark Green mottling.  This is what I’ve decided to do for my 7 Revell Panthers.

Considering what is recommended on instruction sheets and commonly seen on the Internet and TV, certainly the more popular Panther camouflage (for modellers) is a scheme in Dark Green and Red-Brown that seems to be common in use and pictorial evidence on the Western Front (WestFront).  You can see a restored Panther in that camouflage scheme, here on YouTube:

While doing all this current research, I stumbled across a source of camouflage schemes (as colour illustrations) seen on actual WWII serving German vehicles that I had forgotten about using for well over a year or so…Dragon Models Limited’s instruction sheets! You can see a good number of these on Henk’s website, Henk of Holland: Plastic Manufacturers – Dragon.  For a great variety of different camouflage schemes, have a look at the scans of the instructions for Kit 7223 – SdKfz. 251/1 Ausf. C (about 1/5 down the page)  and for Kit 7225 – SdKfz. 251/1 Ausf. D  (just two kits later). These are a useful online information source to add to a WWII modeller’s and WWII wargamer’s repertoire/toolbox/collection/favourites/bookmarks.

Painting the crew of Italeri’s “PaK 40 AT gun with servants”, part 2

It is not hard to paint the Italeri  PaK 40 crew as wearing reversible parkas. Even though they haven’t been sculpted to show the full hood like the Caeser miniatures (you can see the hoods on the Caeser figs here and here), you are given enough to work with to model it sufficiently.

There are enough folds on the clothing at the back of the neck that can be enhanced with skillful painting…so just some careful applications of Skull White following the folds does the job and makes it look like the hoods, as you can see here: and in detail here: . Those extra folds become the hoods showing the snow white side on the inside.

Thanos, over at his Miniatures & Terrain blog, is also discussing painting the Italeri PaK 40 guns and in particular, the crew. He’s done his wearing the snow white side out. I think he’s done a pretty good job, too.

Anyway, I’ve based all the guns and crews now, so now it’s undercoating each base now and then it’ll be time for flock and lichen.

***

There are also some Panthers being worked on…I’m getting the preliminary surfaces fully painted so I can put the crewmen into their various hatches without having to repaint too much.

Painting the crew of Italeri’s “PaK 40 AT gun with servants”, part 1

Some time ago I started serious work on Italeri’s “PaK 40 AT gun with servants” kit.

Since that post I had finished painting the four guns in DunkelGelb in Spring and left the crews to the side, as I was also going to do some crews for IG-18 field guns (7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18) at the same time. Well, being a wargamer, I fall victim to regular bouts of “start something else on the side” disease and so decided to get these PaK 40 guns & crews painted, based, flocked and in play before July 2010.

I took off the sprue and removed all flashing from all six crew and then settled on four (as that’s what the Panzerfaust: Armoured Fist rules mandates for a gun of that size). Then I started painting.

Now, please click on this link to see all six crew that you get with the kit.

From the top row, I’m using #1 and #3 from the left. On the bottom row, I’ve chosen to paint up three of #1, all four of #2 and one of #3 from the left.

If you look closely, you’ll see that they are all warmly dressed. Bottom row #1 is in greatcoat and top row #3 has a balaclava or some sort of woollens around his neck. That means that I have to paint them as if all are in snow or a cold climate.

The crew whom aren’t in greatcoats are wearing a parka or jacket of some sort. Since I’ve already done troops in the reversible ‘mouse” suits, I wanted these later -war soldiers to have cammo. I decided to go and look at re-enactor suppliers and also my history books. Richard A. Underwood Militaria has this. Epic Militaria has this, which is great, but then there is also this. My book seemed to indicate that often it was the latter of Epic Militaria’s cammo smocks that were worn…ones without hoods.

You can’t see it clearly back on at Plastic Soldier Review, but these figures have smocks or parkas with hoods and also with distinctive drawstrings. So, it seems I’ll be painting my Splinter Camouflage uniforms with white drawstrings, as this best fits the Winter clothing Italeri has dressed these chaps in. Even though those winter outfits were reversible to snow white, I’m having all-cammo-out, because I can. Hah!

It’s nice that one two of the figures have greatcoats. Variety is a grand thing. Sadly, the picture I have in a book which I think Italeri has based this kit on doesn’t feature anyone in greatcoats…they are all in the reversible parkas, some with matching leggings and some not. All have reversed their clothing so the snow white side is on the outside. All wear the 1943 field Cap too (Einheitsfeldmütze).

***

Paul has concluded (for now) his Opel Blitz review and he has selected the leading product for wargamers to assemble, paint and use. Read his decision here.

Opel Blitz kit commentary over at “Plastic Warriors 1/76 & 1/72 Plastic Soldiers and Armour”

My online colleague Paul over at his blog Plastic Warriors: 1/76 & 1/72 Plastic Soldiers and Armour has really been working hard to let us know about 1/72 scale and 1/76 scale Opel Blitz kits for modelling and wargaming. Hats off and glasses raised to Paul for this!

His post today, Airfix vs Pegasus Truck Comparison, is a thorough examination of the Opel Blitz kits made by those two well-known manufacturers.

Pegasus German Trucks Attachments features a period photo of an Opel Blitz with most of its rear tarpaulin rolled up, soldiers on the back  and driving somewhere with a warm climate…may be a good reference tool or piece of inspiration for your serious modellers to make a neat little diorama.

Pegasus German Army Trucks Construction is exactly that, with photos and commentary.

There are some more posts prior to and in between these, but I’m really interested in what he’s writing. Maybe I’ll send him a Roden Opel Blitz (since I’ve got a few yet unassembled) to see what his opinions of it are?

The other completed Horch 108 20mm AA vehicle

Back in April you saw my first completed MAC Distribution 1:72 Horch 108/Kfz. 70, kit number 72057.

Well, here’s the second one, completed thanks to people who are CNC experts: . This time I chose Dark Angels Green, to represent access to better camouflage paint paste and, rather than painting the camouflage as stripes or slashes, I chose to do spots or splodges, which was a fairly common quick (or lazy) camouflage pattern.

My copy of “Encyclopaedia of German tanks of World War II” by Chamberlain & Doyle list this vehicle as being ‘2cm FlaK30 oder 38 (Sf) auf schwere geländegängiger Einheits PKW’.

Here is what MAC say.

It would seem, then, that it’s designation  should be Kfz. 81.

More with bamboo skewers – a whole wargaming terrain project, in fact!

I took an incredible gamble that the “bridge” in the Fujimi /176 Diorama Accessory #38 might work for a quickly assembled timber bridge used for light & medium vehicles right across the Eastern Front – and lost. It’s a timber bridge for individual people only, not vehicles.

While sweeping away the cut-up pieces of bamboo skewers used to get ‘purr-fect’ Panther track sag (yes, I know, puns are very much welcomed here), I suddenly realised that I could use bamboo skewers and thin slices of 1mm sheet styrene to make a wooden/log bridge! So, I’ll do it while waiting for rivers to cure.

***

Speaking of the Panthers, I’ve finished the Doug Chaltry technique, so last parts of assembly can begin, as well as some preliminary painting.

The lead command Panther will have two crew out of hatches too. That’s going to be interesting.