Flames of War British Motorcycle Platoon

A quick update of the motorcycle platoon, my first Battlefront miniatures purchase – a hasty one too as I thought naively that I could use them as reccy in Market Garden. So my intention now is to sneak these early war models in my company as transport for my pioneer platoon.

I’m not overly impressed with the quality of the models, they look like the master was lost a long time ago and these have been cast from nth generation seconds. The metal is very soft and disregarding the inevitable flash that I can cope with, the overall finish gives the impression that the different halves of the molds were misaligned. I am however assured that they will look alright once on the table top, maybe it is just me coming from 28mm into a smaller scale..

Anyway, to improve their look on the battlefield I have added some features to their bases. Taking the wire tree idea from the Opal Blitz objective marker and hopefully achieving a look of large bush on the bases to give the models a bit of height and break them up a bit when they move together as a unit. I have also made some fence out of mounting board off cuts and a sign post to go along side the narrow cobbled road laid on 2 of the bases.

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Inns of Court WIP

The Inns of Court WW2 as they stood last week waiting for reinforcements:

Waiting for assembly:

11th Armoured Division Organisation

Hunting around for some help on which decals to use and where for when I am at the later stages of modelling the Inns of Court Regiment in operation Market Garden.

Some nice high resolution images at The Desert Rats Association from June 2006:

Image from Desertrats.org – Lots more can be found at this great resource!

Below is an organisation chart from Rust and the City, an active blog from over the pond in Canada! There is also a section on his Flames of War 15mm 11th Armoured Division company with beautifully painted miniatures and tutorials to match.

Similar to the above chart, Kerynne.com have a more interactive organisational chart with links to miniatures representing individual companies. Enough here to keep me going and motivated for a while!

Inns of Court World War 2 Company

And so it begins, the arrival, sorting and cutting and scraping of mould lines.

 

For now the Matador tractors will provide transport for the lorried rifle platoons that will support the armoured car platoons. Once the Royal Artillery companies arrive they will then tow the Medium guns onto the field.

I decided to cut out the windows of the Matador’s which I regretted after having to then do it again on the next mode; rather time consuming, but I’m pleased with the result. To take it to the next level I may even attempt fitting windows. I have added 5g lead weights to each truck to give them a bit of substance when handling the model.

I find the Flames of War/Battlefront bases slightly harder to pick up and don’t like the beveled edges. The infantry models from Plastic Soldier Company don’t come with bases and I loath to throw any more money at battlefront’s overpriced miniatures considering their quality – more on that another time. Cutting some bases out of mounting board was a great idea from a friend, and should do the job nicely!

Opal Blitz objective marker

Quite happy with this, from an idea in the afternoon to finished model in the (late) evening!

Construction was so quick that there is only 1 WIP photo and the finished product. First time for erecting a tree from scratch too. The most time consuming part of this was actually drilling out the Opal Blitz truck windows.

Mounted on a 50x60mm base to meet the Battlefront/Flames of War requirements.

Troop of Shewe: Warlord’s Daimler ==> Sawn-off Daimler

via Troop of Shewe: The Historical Painting Service.: Tinkering with…. Warlord’s Daimler ==> Sawn-off Daimler – update.

Panzer G

Work in progress – (faster than progress on other stuff)

Brushes review: Winsor Newton series 7 vs Rosemary and Co

Need help deciding on the best brush for a Christmas treat..?

Winsor & Newton series 7 brushes are often considered the best brushes for miniature painting. Do they live up to their reputation? Check this Winsor & Newton series 7 and Rosemary & Co. brushes review to see how they compare to Rosemary brushes.

via Brushes review: Winsor Newton series 7 vs Rosemary and Co.

Boudi WIP

One of the Hasslefree miniatures – WIP and attempting some freehand

Skaven Warlock Engineer

Had a lot of fun time limiting myself to painting this old Skaven model, total paint time was about 8 hours! I must have bought this model a long time ago when I was younger as its no longer in production and had a dirty half hearted attempt at starting the cloak as red, which I have continued. Today I managed to pick up some new basing material from the local model shop which you can see below near his paws.

I am really tempted to attempt to put some OSL on this model.. will see if the mood takes me in the new few days..

Please vote for this mini on CMON: http://www.coolminiornot.com/369625