Intermittent Transmissions

Hello,

As mentioned a good few weeks ago, I've been moving house.  There's still a few things to sort out (such as a general lack of interwebs...) but, importantly, I do have the painting table set up!

It's a bit more cluttered now.

It's basically the table from my old place and is a get-you-by until I can get a better one that I've been planning done, but it will do for now.

So, painting table - check.  Miniatures to paint?  Check.

I put the last bunch of 6mm Cold War stuff to the side to concentrate on something far more interesting, a whole stinking pile of 15mm Early War British Tanks!

Quality of Qunatity - British style

<Tumbleweed>

No, seriously, Look at them!  They are awesome.  Well, the gun's awesome.  Except it can't fire HE.  But they are mobile.  Well, when they don't break down.

Actually, they aren't that awesome.  But it does at least allow me to keep plodding towards my goal of a 3RTR themed FoW army in each theater of conflict that they served in covered by Flames.

3RTR was part of 1st Armoured Division but was not part of the first wave of the BEF sent to the France.  Instead, after the BEF was cut off in Belgium, 3RTR was sent to reinforce Calais.  They arrived with the usual eclectic mix of British A9, A10 and A13 cruisers plus MkVI Light tanks (all B versions with .50 armament), all of which are present in the Blitzkrieg book and British Armoured Regiment box.

Assembly was pretty easy, with the exception of one of the A10 Cruisers which had been packaged with a Souma's right track!  I assembled the tanks without external stowage, which didn't really appear until the Desert battles.  The command tanks all have the commander unbuttoned and I plan to add aerials to all of the tanks too.  The CO tank is going to get a bit more attention, with the Driver hatch also being unbuttoned which will require some drilling and the addition of a scratch built open driver's hatch.  This shouldn't be any different to the unbuttoned Sherman that has appeared previously.

As far as I can tell, 3RTR used the same camo schemes as all other cruiser tanks.  This thread over at the Battlefront website has some interesting discussion on the nature of British camo.  I'm opting for base coating with US Armour spray coat (basically Brown Violet) then overpainting with Russian Uniform camo, or possibly even masking and spraying over with British Armour spray to get the same effect.  Whilst the camo colour SHOULD cover most the tank, Phil Yate's research whilst doing his armour suggests that crews generally left road wheels and complex, hard to reach areas in the Brown Violet colour so its easier to start with this as a base.  Sounds sensible.

I'll also be making use of Armoured Acorn's guides for BEF.

Updates may still be intermittent but I'll try and get back on schedule shortly.  Just need some internet!

Cue Interlude

Hello!

This week has been quiet on the painting front for a variety of reasons, namely:
1.  The flat is almost finished and I hope to be moving soon.  I've spent the week helping dad do some of the minor tasks that had to be completed ahead of the big day (hopefully the Saturday after next)
2.  The varnish issue with the Lynx sapped my enthusiasm somewhat
3.  The sudden tiff between Maelstrom Games and Battlefront proved a somewhat interesting distraction.

Thankfully I had somewhat anticipated this and have been keeping some photos back to do a bit of a space filler.  As most of you are aware I write the occasional review for my friend Soya over at Mighty Miniatures and so I've got a backlog of photos of painted 6mm at the moment.

This week, lets take a look at the Skytrex  FV432 and H&R Abbot SPG.

Research

Research was through a combination of sources already mentioned on the other projects and also an excellent resource website called FV432.co.uk!  This site deals with all members of the FV432 family including the Abbot (which uses the same or variants of the transmission, engine and suspension of the FV432).  I found enough photos on the site to give me an idea of pertinent features such as the exhaust, NBC packs and position of external markings.  Google image searches filled in most of the other blanks.

Painting

Thanks to the wonder that is standardized paint schemes, the FV432 and Abbots colour scheme were as per the Chieftains covered earlier in the year.  The main differences were in the position of markings such as bridge, registration and formation lights.

All of which, of course, got obliterated the minute I put the final weathering on.  But I know they're there.  Buried under a coat of US Field Drab.

Anyway, photos.

FV432

FV433 Abbot SPG

There you go.  A short but sweet update this week.

With Move Day delayed by a week I may get back onto the infantry next week.  After that it'll be the aircraft and 6mm is done (at least for the time being).

maelstrom's fire sale has left me with a new 15mm project to contend with.  More on that and some point!

See you next week.