Battle for the Narrow Seas

After my last post which involved painting up some merchantmen for coastal naval battles I thought I would dig out the rest of my models and post a few pictures.  I know others out there will have their own collections and I would welcome being pointed in the right direction to see any photos they may have which will hopefully inspire me.  It is always great to see what people have, how they have painted them, and hear what rules they use.

Now, the miniatures below were not painted by me.  I picked them up from a gaming friend sometime back as he was having a clear out of his wargames kit. They came painted which, as a reluctant painter, was a complete bonus for me.  I may, in the goodness of time, do something with the bases - the black plasticard, while being great for nightime games which was when the majority of action took place, doesnt fit with how I think they should look.  Not everything happened at night so I want bases that will work for both day and night.  A bit of drybrushing with blues and greens should suffice.  

Until now I had never gone through what I have to see what is there as the previous owner game me all of his rules & ship cards with the miniatures.  However, as I have time on my hands, but don't have access to the ship cards, now was a good point to personally identify what is there.  The Heroics & Ross website has some photos available, but old Skytrex website backups on the the Wayback Machine is more complete.  However, this hasn't given me all the information I need which leads me too believe that some of the miniatures came from other sources.

 CF03 HMS GREY GOOSE 

CF05A FAIRMILE "D" MGB
C&N MGB 502 (from the old SDD range)

 5 x CF01 MTB 532 (with gun on front deck) & 

 4 x CF02 MTB 347 (no gun on front deck)

 CF32 - HMS SIR LANCELOT 440 tons Round Table Class Naval Escort Trawler.

CF322 V.P. BOAT (German - Large Trawler escort).

CF31 - HMS LINDISFARNE Isle class trawler

.

 CF341 - T22 'ELBING CLASS'
 

 

CF310 ESCORT CUTTER (Small Trawler)

 CF330 - U39 Type 1x U-Boat

 ? (same length as S26 but slightly different deck layout)

2 x CF302 - S26 GERMAN "E" BOAT

? - 2 x (similar length to the S38 but slightly different bridge/deck layout)

CF304 - S38
 

Both unidentified R Boats from the old SDD range

CF901 - BRITISH 4,000 TON CARGO SHIP

CF902 - GERMAN 5,500 TON CARGO SHIP x 2

CF904 - OIL TANKER 4,500 ton

? -(old SDD range possibly)

The unidentified vessels could possibly be from PT dockyard or other manufacturers, but as yet my internet searches have not come up with anything concrete.  I will provide an update to this post and the ID's of the vessels once I have details for them all.  If anyone can offer any information to help me ID the remaining vessels it would be much appreciated. 

1/600 Coastal Naval - Merchantmen

In the past I have played WW2 naval games in 1/3000 (I think) using big battleships and totally ahistorical fleets, just whatever ships took my fancy to buy and paint.  Yes, I said paint, because I actually did!  I know, what a surprise.  I know the rules - no pics, it didn't happen!!  Sorry, I can't provide evidence as I sold them on to someone else a littlewhile back.  Overall I enjoyed the games but felt that the long range firing that the larger calibre guns on bigger Cruisers and Battleships could do to the much smaller Destroyers, for me, took something away from the game.  I loved it when the smaller ships got up close and were able to open fire with their smaller calibre guns and torpedoes.  This got me looking for something that enabled me to use torpedoes more often which brought me to coastal naval battles using motorboats (MTB's, MGB's etc.) and Schnell boats, what the British called E-Boats.  I found a number of rulesets and picked up some 1/600 models from an old friend who was having a clearout of unused models which was great for me as they came ready painted - big bonus.  Over time I have had the hankering to add to the collection so I picked up some merchantmen along with a small number of Allied & Axis vessels from the Skytrex Coastal Forces Ships range, which are now sold by Heroics & Ros (http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk), quite a while back.  Due to my reluctance to paint they have sat in the pile of shame, until now.  

CF904 - Oil Tanker at the front after some serious filing of the hull
& CF905 - Coastal Collier behind.

I picked up the jiffy bag with the models in and had a good look through them all too remind me what was there.  With all of the boats and ships, there was a good mix, but only 1 of each type - I think I just wanted to see what was available and get an idea of how easy or difficult they were going to be to put together.   The MTB's, MGB's and S-Boots were put to one side for a later date and I decided that the merchantmen were going to be my next project on my desk.

 CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer, in bag, waiting to be built
& CF906 - 1500 ton Collier behind

From smallest to largest the ships are:

• CF905 - Coastal Collier (4 pieces)
• CF906 - 1500 ton Collier (4 pieces)
• CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer (6 pieces)
• CF904 - Oil Tanker (15 pieces)

All four ships waiting for basing & some paint. 

All of the models have minimal pieces, with 15 being the maximum including the hull, but most were half a dozen or less which was great as they would be relatively quick to build.  The loose pieces were all well moulded with minimal flash or mould lines but the hulls were something different altogether.  There were some quite deep mould lines or steps along the hulls which took quite a bit of filing to remove and in some places some filling, in fact on one ship, the Oil Tanker, I had to file that much off that I totally removed the moulded anchor as well due to the 'step' going right through this area. Not too much of an issue overall as the anchor was painted back on, just a bit of a pain due to the amount of filing needed.  

After cutting suitably sized bases from sheets of plasticard, they were spray undercoated in black.  Bases were 25mm wide for the 2 smaller ships & 30mm for the larger 2 - the base length was based on the measured length of the ships hull plus 10mm which gives just about enough space around the model to paint in some sea and the wake for a vessel under way. 

CF907 - 3000 ton Tramp Steamer based & undercoated

I painted the first three relatively quickly, in one evening session, and I can actually say that I enjoyed doing it.  My idea of how they would look was pretty much how they came out.  I think this is one of my painting kryptonites, in that I always think that what I paint won't look anything like I envision it or anywhere near as good.  Painting these has given me a bit of a confidence boost and made me want to get on with something else.

 CF905 - 800 ton Collier

 CF907 - Tramp Steamer

 CF904 - Oil Tanker

After finishing the Oil Tanker, Tramp Steamer and small Collier I had hoped to get the last merchantman painted reasonably quickly, but my get up and go got up and went for a few days.  It took me nearly a week to pick up a brush again and finish off the last of this small group of ships.

The 800 ton Collier was painted a mid-dark grey with the superstructure and hatches blue-grey.  This came out a bit 'bright' for my liking so it was toned down with a heavy grey dry-brush over the hull.  The other 3 were heavily dry-brushed with different grey tones and just had smaller details painted in, such as the ships boats & life rafts.  In some places I have also used an Army Painter Strong Tone wash. 

The bases were first dry-brushed Prussian Blue, then gunship green (although the green doesnt show too well in the pictures) before I dappled in the bow wave and dry-brushed the stern wake with off-white.  I have seen some ships that had textured bases where the wake had been built up with ready made plaster before painting which looked really effective & may try this at a later date.  For now, I think the wakes I have painted on look pretty good.

At some point in the next few days I will take some photos of the other painted ships I have and use these for my next blog entry.

20mm WW2 German Transport

I intended painting these up to take part in the monthly group build for March on the Battlegroup Facebook page. Unfortunately my painting mojo didn't kick in early enough for me to get them finished in time but here they are now.  There are a pair of Pegasus Hobbies 'German Army Trucks' and an RSO from the Plastic Soldier Company.  The canopies of all 3 vehicles have not been fixed in place so that I have options for how I use them.

The Trucks were undercoated with Vallejo Grey primer from the can, with the chassis & cab interior kept separate from the cab body & rear cargo area.  At this point I gave everything a spray coat of AK DunkelGelb (AK1023) and once this was dry I painted the bench seat a leatherlike brown and gave the interior a quick wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.  The tyres were painted dark grey, the two halves were glued together and then I gave the whole vehicle an Army Painter Soft Tone wash. 

The AK comes out quite light, what I might consider to be more along the lines of something that the Afrika Korps might have used in North Africa but the wash toned it down somewhat giving me a yellow I am happy with for mid/late war use.  Once this had all been drybrushed with a light tone it gave me something I am pretty happy with for the vehicle itself.  The canopies were just given a dark tone wash and dry brush of light grey - job done.  At this point I was toying with trying some chipping and took a look at a few Youtube turorials with gave me the basics.  I used a dark brown (Vallejo 70.822, SS Camouflage Black Brown) with a bit of foam to dab on chips mainly in areas that might see some heavy wear but also across the rest of the vehicle.  I tried not to get too heavy handed and, for a first attempt, don't think I have done a bad job.  The chipping could have been enhanced with some light lines under some of the larger chipped areas, but my sausage fingers were not up to the task - I tried but found I was a bit heavy handed, so gave up.  I will give it another go next time I paint vehicles.

 

The RSO was started some time back with a sprayed light grey undercoat and then a brushed on watered down coat of Vallejo Dunkelgelb - the canopy was also painted a dark grey (not sure which shade).  I wasn't too happy with the colour at this point so it was put to one side until I decided to have another go at it the other day.  Once I dragged it back out, it was given a quick spray of Army Painter Late War German Dunkelgelb, which I was much happier with, then a wash with Mid Tone and drybrush with something I mixed up from my paint collection as the paints I have were either too dark or too light to my eyes.

The tracks were painted a mid grey (Vallejo Med Sea Grey I think), which in hindsight should have been darker, then washed with a rust wash and drybrushed with the same mid grey they had initially been coated in.   Not bad, but could do better next time.  The canopy had previously been painted a dark grey - not quite as dark as German grey as I found out when I tried to use it to correct some heavy handed dry brushing which then showed up a lot darker than the rest.  Lesson learnt, to keep a record of what paints have been used for a model so that I can use it at a later date, or paint the model in one hit so that I don't need to remember what has been used.

At  this point the vehicle could have gone on the table, but as I was trying my hand at chipping on the 2 Trucks above I got busy on the RSO too.  I was a bit lighter with the chips on this vehicle which I think worked well.  The windscreen & other windows had been painted Vallejo London Grey but I wanted to try another first for me, to transition a lighter grey over the London grey, from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top, using a glazing technique on a wet palette.  While the transitions were not as seamless as they possibly could have been they worked and gave a nice effect of more light reflecting off of the top of the glass.  Unfortunately the pictures don't show this too welll.  I also did 2 diagonal stripes on the 2 windscreens and 1 on each of the door windows to show a bit of glare.

The one problem I had with this was that I found the grey was too light a colour on the white papeer of the wet palette and it was difficult to see it once it had been diluted down to a glaze. 

Once finished, all of the vehicles look pretty good to my eyes and I hope to get them onto the gaming table sometime soon.  I have used 2 techniques for the first time, chipping & glazing, both with reasonable success giving me confidence to try them again.  

As my last 4 posts have all been 20mm I am going to go in a different direction for the next one, just not sure what yet.

SHQ 20mm WW2 British (part 2)

It has taken a little longer than anticipated to finish off the figures - I'm just not getting my painting mojo going - they are now varnished and flocked.  All in all, I am pretty happy with how they have turned out but think I need to have a look at what to do when painting faces.  This is something I have difficultly with as I don't have the fine brush skills (yet) or the patience.  I'll have to search through Youtube for a half decent tutorial that I can get some pointers from. 

Varnishing these figures was a chance for me to test out AK products for the very first time, in this case Gloss (AK1012) and Matt (AK1013) spray varnish rattle cans.  Whilst spraying the figures I was a bit heavy handed with the gloss as I think some of the detail isn't now as clear as it was prior.  This also resulted in needing to make a couple of passes with the matt spray too, potentially further masking detail.  After the Matt coat was dry I felt there was still quite a bit of a sheen, almost like a Satin coat, on the figures which the Matt should have done away with.  After a bit of thought this could be down to 1 of 2 things...

1. Using too much/too heavy a coat of Gloss,
2. Not allowing the Gloss to dry fully - I left it an hour or so before spraying the Matt over the top.

For the moment I will keep an open mind with regard to the AK spray can varnishes.  A lot of people sing the manufacturers praises so there is obviously something in them and I realise the 'issue' may have been of my own making.

To get rid of the Satin sheen I  brushed on a coat of Vallejo Matt varnish (70.520) which has dulled them down nicely and got them to where I think they should be.  Quite a few tufts were added which I picked up from Great Escape Games at 'Attack' in Devizes and I will be picking up more at the next Devizes show.  I used 3 different types of tufts on the bases which I feel adds too the overall effect of the figure. 
 

 

These figures, as mentioned in a previous entry, are going to be used and Engineers.  They will make up 2 Companies for Rapid Fire (8 figs per Coy) and a couple of Engineer Platoons (2 figs) with flame throwers to be attached to assaulting Battalions, or all of the can be used as a larger force for any other set of rules.  I will pick up a couple of figures with mine detectors in the not too distant future which will free up the rifle men to be used in an Infantry force. 

20mm British Vehicles

I can't remember where I heard about 'Any Scale Models' but once I looked at their website I had to put in an order.  The resulting package has sat in its box for some time and only recently seen the light of day.  Part of that order was some British Vehicles in 20mm which I will mention here.  

First off were some trucks listed as Bedford MWD 15 Cwt.  These come in 4 resin pieces and a metal bumper/nudge bar which comes fitted to the front bumper but not held in place - this just needs a dab or 2 of super glue to secure it.  The four pieces, as seen in the picture, are cab, rear cargo area, rear load (now identified as fuel tanks & steps to go under the cab & rear body) & canopy.  It seems a little odd having the cab and rear cargo area separate, but this is probably down to how they are moulded and as I have no idea what this involves I will leave it there.  The rear cargo area has bench seats down both sides which, with the canopy or rear load, gives you three options when making the model.  It would look great with a few seated figures in place, but if that doesn't take your fancy the rear load could be put in to look like it is carrying stores or ammunition to the front line but ultimately it would look good with just the canopy in place.  I intend to leave them without the canopy glued in place so that I can change how they are used depending on how I want them to look.  My aim is to glue some plastic card on the bottom of the canopy that fits inside the rear cargo area so that it can be put in place and (hopefully) stay there, but to also paint the cargo load or put in a sabot with seated figures.  This way I can chop and change at my whim.  The first part of this process is to get the trucks made and painted then, at some point in the not too distant future, I will get the cargo loads & canopies done.  Futher down the line will be the sabots - if I get round to it.  

Edit 9th Apr 2020: Got a message from 'Stevi' informing me that what I thought was a 'load' for the rear cargo area was in fact fuel tanks and steps that went under the cab & body to provide a solid fit when gluing the parts together.  On looking at the website and one of the vehicles the message was 100% correct.  Many thanks Stevi.  I will try to fit this in place for the vehicles I have already put together but sanding this area flat now that the two pieces are glued might be a bit too much, but will make sure I fit it for the 4 remaining vehicles I havent started yet.

 Here are 3 of the trucks in their constituent parts ready for filing, gluing & priming.

Initial filing, gluing and priming complete.   

Next up are 2 Humber Heavy Utility cars which I got to use as Staff Cars.  These, as with the 15 Cwt trucks, come with the cab/bonnet and rear as separate pieces.  When putting these together there was a small, but noticable, overlap on both sides of the rear end when married up with the cab/bonnet.  I initially thought this could be sanded down, but quickly realised I was removing detail which would be difficult to put back.  That said, the overlap is minimal and most gamers probably won't mind this.  Having primed them there is a bit of a noticeable gap over the roof which I may fill before moving on with the painting.  However, I may ignore this and just get on with painting them.

Last up for this post are a couple of Humber Staff Cars with cut down top.  Again, they come in two pieces, front seats/bonnet and rear/cargo.  These are nice little models with lots of crates, boxes, tarps etc. in the rear.  I will admit to making a bit of a booboo with these as I bought them to use in Normandy etc. without realising they were intended for North Africa (NA).  As things stand I don't game NA much, but I may paint them up for this theatre anyway to add to my small, but growing, collection.  Although, I still feel the need to use them in NWE so may paint them green.  Hmmmm.  Decisions, decisions.  Keep an eye on the blog to see which way the wind blows.......

These are nice models but there are some minor issues to note.  There are some noticable air bubbles in the models, but nothing that a little filler, and time, wont sort out.  It is not easy to get the front & rear halves of the cars to fit together nicely as both sides are flat, there are no male or female joints to make joining them easier, which may account for the overlap noted above and this is more noticeable in the open topped car.  The cargo loads are all identical with all of the crates on one side, so it have been nice to make couple of variations to give a little variation. On 2 of the cars the rear wheel arch was damaged and, as this is quite thin, almost impossible to repair.  However, you could put this down to field damage through use!?  These are not criticisms as such, as resin is fragile, moulds deteriorate over time & post can be hard on delicate parts of a model.  

All in all, I like what Any Scale Models has to offer and feel that the observations above are not anything that the majority of wargamers can't rectify easily.  I have more of their models to make, and will be buying more from them in the future, all of which I intend to post on here.

SHQ 20mm WW2 British

I have had these SHQ figures on my 'painting table' for over 18 months in various stages of completion.  There are 2 with flamethrowers, two with wire cutters & det cord (?) and one with a pole charge (?), plus a number carrying large crates which I intend to use as Engineers.  Not 100% sure that my description of the figures with the wire cuttes & det cord plus pole charge is correct but that is what they look like to me.  I could also do with a number of mine detector figures but haven't got any, yet.

With the C-19 virus running rampant and being under 'quarantine' I felt it was time to get them finished.  As they stand they are 90% done - only varnish & tufts/flock to do which should happen in the next few days. 

 

Left to right...

Soldier walking with large crate, soldier with sten gun running with ammo crate, soldier with wire cutters & det cord, soldier walking with satchel charge (?), soldier with flame thrower.

 

Left to right....

 Soldier carrying cable drum, soldier carrying large crate, soldier running with pole charge, soldier running with Lee Enfield at port arms, soldier carrying Lee Enfield ready to fire.

 

Left to right...

Soldier with large crate, soldier with flame thrower, soldier with wire cutters & cable, Officer looking at watch, another soldier with large crate.

 

Left to right...

Soldier running with ammo crate, Soldier with Bren gun at the ready, soldier walking with Lee Enfield, soldier walking with satchel charge (?), NCO (?) pointing, walking carrying sten. 

SHQ figures are decent, but weapons can be a little fragile for wargaming purposes.  They are reasonably proportioned but not my favourite manufacturer, for that I go to FAA, AB and, more recently, Adler.  These figures were part of a large collection I picked up some time ago when a friend of a friend got out of the scale/period and I'm only now getting round to painting them.  Whether they stay in my collection is yet to be seen, but for now they are going to fill a gap in my collection.

Later today (hopefully) they will get a coat of gloss, then matt varnish, before I add tufts & flock to finish them off.  Photo's of completion will follow...

Corona Lockdown - the resurrection of this Blog!

It has been a while since I posted on here and really my blogging has been pretty much non-existant since creating the blog a number of years back.  With the Covid-19 virus running riot around the world and many countries imposing some form of population lock-down or quarantine it is a good time to resurrect this and try to make a go of it.  I don't intend to post too regularly, probably no more than once a week during the quarantine and maybe twice a month once we return to normality, whenever that may be.  It will log my efforts to build and paint figures/models for wargaming. Many of the models will be for units within games I play and others will be built just because I like it/them and can.

My next few blogs may come a bit thick and fast as I have been busy over recent days making buildings, multi-part plastic figures and some models ready for painting but things will slow down to the frequencies mentioned above reasonably quickly. 

28mm, 4Ground Diner & House (1178 Woodbury Rise) for Zombie gaming. 

I won't go on too much but the diner is great, with lots of internal detail.  As many will already know 4Ground kits come ready painted so it is just a case of building for it to be ready to use on the gaming table.  The fact that they are ready painted is a big plus in my eyes but it does come at a price, literally.  Buildings are put together with external & internal walls, a double skin if you will, allowing lots of details to be shown which goes way above any unpainted MDF buildings out there unless you have the time and want to add this yourself.  The diner comes with full kitchen, including cooker controls, chip frying baskets & frying pans along with tables and bench seats.  The build was relatively simple and straight forward.  The only part that caused any problem was the ends of the roof where they bend down - getting the PVA to stick involved holding them in place or using relatively loose elastic bands so that the bend didn't become too or over pronounced.

 

  

I am going to add some detailing before I call this finished but for now it is ready for the table.  The kit comes with posters for the walls which I will add shortly and I intend to make the inside a bit dirty & grimy to look like it has been empty for a while.  I might also add a few blood splatters for effect - not 100% sure yet.  

The house was another kit with lots of detail, the same double skin build but not internal details i.e. tables, chairs or beds, like the diner however, there are plenty of options out there to add furniture inside to make it lived in or look like it was recently vacated.  This isn't a criticism and is how the majority of their buildings come.  The build wasn't quite as easy as the previous one but some of that was down to me not dry fitting before gluing parts into place.  I have made a number of 4Ground models before and like them a lot especially as they don't need painting!

 

At some point I will get some furniture for inside - TV, sofa, table, chairs, bed etc.  who knows.  The garage will probably end up with some shelving, clutter and a car, maybe even a bicycle if I can find one in 28mm.   

First Painting post - but its not my work!

I am an infrequent painter as I am my own biggest critic.  What I see from other gamers is the standard I want now, without the trials & tribulations of trying out different techniques & developing my own preferred style of painting.  I understand that this takes time but in my mind I want that now.  Yes, I know that is a childish view but that is something that hasn't changed over the years.  However, with my son now just turning 8 he has shown an interest in painting so I intend to change & make it a learning journey with him.  He has a love of tanks and what 8 year old boy doesn't.  We have made a few which I have spray-painted for him but these have been fairly basic and he now wants to paint his own.  I normally buy Armourfast tanks for him as they are quick to build with minimal parts which he can easily assemble in a short session.  Also, as they are relatively cheap with two tanks to a box it doesn't matter if any mistakes are made and we have to start again with another model.  The Armourfast range is fairly extensive giving us a good selection of tanks to choose from.  They aren't something I would use in my games as I find them a little large compared to other manufacturers and do not fit with what I already have.

The pictures here are his first attempts at painting models.  I had undercoated them white & then base coated them German dunkel-gelb to get him started and left the rest up to him.  He took some inspiration from pictures I found on the internet for the stripey Jagd-Panther and came up with the other one himself.   The tracks still need painting which we will do next time we paint together.  All in all, for a first attempt, I think he did a pretty good job. 

The Man Cave takes shape

I have a room down in the cellar of our home in Germany.  Since moving here in the summer there have been a number of other tasks which have taken priority, & problems with the floor in one room which we needed to get sorted, but over the winter I found/made the time to begin work on what is to become my haven from soaps and reality programmes that the DCOS/LHG chooses to watch.  The room is a good size & has another room leading from it which will be used to store all of my goodies.  I have fitted an L-shaped work surface by re-purposing an old kitchen work-top, & put up some shelves along one wall.  Along with the shelves there is one full height cupboard and a smaller one to hold my projects, whether in progress or waiting to be started - of whch there are quite a few!  

My airbrush & an extractor sit on one end of the work bench with my painting area beside that.  There are 2 chairs in the room to provide myself & my 8 year old son somewhere to make & paint whatever takes our fancy.


A cable has been ran inside from our satellite dish to provide me a feed for a TV which also give me the opportunity to play DVD's while hiding in the sanctuary.  An X-Box 360 is there to provide the ability to play these DVD's & 'kill stuff' while I shoot up the world on a game or 3.

I hope to get some additional power sockets installed & improve the lighting at some point in the not too distant future.  But as the house does not belong to us we have to get permission which may take time if we get it at all. 

The back room has sufficient shelving in place to store all of my wargaming figures & models along with my stash of un-made models.  I intend to put a table in here to give me somewhere to game with my son.