ANZAC Support Weapons

More or less finished these, a small addition to my ANZAC collection.

Not as well crafted as the infantry set, as the soft plastic does not hold the lines on the figures, not as crisp, if you know what I mean.

The sculpting is also inferior to the other set but they are still okay; would have been good to see one or two figures in the shirt sleeves but still a gap in the range filled. Back to doing Russian mortars next.

Tales from the Crypt

Reckon most of us could tell/show a few of these...

This bone yard Hetzer has been resurrected with all manner of spares, including a Tiger, Panther and Pz38t, all it needs now is repainting.

I have had a lot of fun over the past few days doing the monster mash with old wrecks.

Here is the latest addition with the other two I already had, a full company.

Here is the half-track, still needs more painting and possibly an MG or other accessories.

Moved the wheels forward a bit as per suggestion. I didn't have any proper wheels, so I used a couple of an old 88mm gun carriage ones, which have spokes but that doesn't bother me; still working on the other one.

The Bone Yard

A visit from Paul the other day produced a couple of donations to the bone yard, one is already in a reasonable state of repair, the other I'm not so sure about.

Paul also gave me some crosses, which I had none of, so some German stuff came out straight away for improvement.

Here are the mortar crews I'm working on, plus some support weapons for my Great War ANZAC collection; so many projects so little time.

Progress

Haven't had a lot of time for my hobbies lately but still managed to knock this up over the last few days.

It is made from spare parts, most of which didn't match, though for gaming that hardly matters.

I've decided it will function as either a courthouse or perhaps a small school. If you want to see some really nice home-made buildings check some of Thanos' work here: http//miniaturesterrainpage.blogspot.com/

Russian MMGs et al

The five recently completed battalions now includes their MMG platoons, thanks to Gerard Davey from Hokitika.

Gerard kindly donated a few Esci machine gunners and here they are.

Each battalion is now tabletop ready, and I am currently making mortar stands to go with the regiments.

This shows a Russian company 1939-41 from the eastern front, it includes its own command and weapons platoons.

This one shows a Russian company from the western front for the same period.

Just mortars and antitank rifles platoons to add.

Panthers

Some other models that I got from Phil.

I tried to copy a paint job that I got off the net but it hasn't come out very well.

I think I'll repaint them over the next holidays. These ones are either Airfix or Matchbox?

The Russell Collection 9

Some of the latest work from Dave...


Further additions to his late war German collection in the form of the newish HaT 251/1.
I've seen a few of these and they appear to be very tidy, made in a user friendly plastic

I think Dave has enough of these to mount a full battalion, nice.

Russian Infantry Finished

Off to the big smoke for a couple of days, but before I go a few of pictures of my recently completed early war Russians.

Still have helmet chin straps to do, but they are reasonably complete.

Mostly Plastic Soldier figures, though there are a few Revell and Esci in the mix also.

Lastly, the portly regimental commander. Once I get some support weapons sorted this unit will be totally complete. I managed three western front battalions and two eastern ones. The eastern units still have their full complement of command stands and supporting arms as they escaped the worst of the purges of the 1930s, a nice bit of historical detail reflected in the OOB for this era.

SU-12

Taking some time off painting Russian infantry for a while, I find such large batches looses its appeal after about three battalions.

Anyway, this is what I decided to do. A Russian SU-12, which dates to the mid 1930s, but saw active service against the Fins, the Japanese and, of course, the Germans.

Under coated on the sprue and constructed over the last few days, interrupted by a stint of jury service, however.

I managed to use almost all of the 114 parts, except the spare deck and other options you can chose from.

A very precisely engineered kit, all the parts matched up well, and there was no flash.

Some minor work to do around the wheels and gun-shield still to finish, decals from the bits box.

Very straight chassis from front to back.

In CD, you get one platoon of these in several of the early war motorised formations, but most commonly motorised infantry, so this will certainly get an appearance at some stage. This one was USD$8; some crew figures would have been a bonus, still I'd give it an 8/10.

Progress

Just a few pictures of the Russian infantry I've been working on, still a long way to go.

Many have been removed from their base to achieve a better height match.

I have five early war battalions on the go at once, minus MMG and mortar platoons which I'll have to add later on down the track as I don't have any of these. Hopefully I'll have them finished by this time next week; nice figures to paint.

Assault Guns

Met a nice chap named Phil the other day, and along with a couple of other things acquired these very good assault guns. I think they are on a Hat chassis, an excellent addition to my collection, with very nice paint jobs too. I might try and find a decal or two for them though.

New Building

Picked this up whilst in the big smoke yesterday, NZD$21.

There are three different layouts you can choose from, I went for the L shape.

Both have a removable roof, and a couple of minor accessories and two extra wall sections.

Thought this was quite a cool feature, combining several to make a large factory or warehouse; useful for many different functions.

The Second KV1

Here is the other KV, same but different.

This one had a couple of coats of thin black wash applied before highlighting.

There seems very little difference between the two, except that the first one has retained a bit more of the Russian Green base colour, and the second is a bit darker around the suspension gear. I really like these kits by Pegasus. They are cheap and go together very well, highly recommended.

KV1

Here is a KV1 that I have been working on.

I have another that I will paint in a slightly different way, probably using a wash or two.

This one has only been highlighted, about four shades I think.

I need a command figure for the second one also, and I plan to compare the two once finished, and settle on the same style for all of my vehicles. This was painted with Velleyeo Russian Green, a very nice paint to work with indeed. Just a little tidying up left to do.

Foreign Legion 1940

Just the usual finishing work to do on these. With a mixture of HaT, Pegasus, Esci and Revell I managed to complete an entire early war battalion.

The Legion had several units involved in the Battle of France, these will end up representing one them sooner or later.

Some of the kepis needed substantial trimming of excess plastic but they look okay.

I have three early war French battalions now but no regimental assets, so I might look to do some of these in the future also.