Plastic Soldier Company US Infantry at last

I've been waiting ages to get around to starting these, hopefully I'll be able to turn out more before the next distraction.

There are quite a few faults in the figures, like the Y crossbelts on the infantry and the size of the heavy weapons. The proportion of bazookas are quite low so I've had to add in some conversions using Valiant parts.

A Rapid Fire Armoured Infantry Battalion, just missing the 57mm AT gun (I'll probably have to do some more conversions to make the crews for these and reuse my old Airfix 6pdrs for now)

Close up of a couple of converted bazooka

I also added Valiant backpacks to a number of figures to add variety

More US armour

When I returned home after Bovvy the first thing I did was to dump the purchases from the B&B in Dettol to remove the existing paintwork. To my disgust I found that the paint on the Armourfast Sherman 76s turned into a sticky gel and needed sustained effort with white spirit and tissues to remove it. here they are following repainting along with a pair of Armourfast Sherman 105s that I picked up at the same time.

At the back are a couple of Radio Jeeps from Britannia, these still need their crews to be painted.

Overall I prefer the Italeri version to Armourfast.

DAK half tracks

Well not really DAK as most of the Sdkfz 251s will be used for the 10th Panzer in Tunisia. It seems ages since I last posted anything I've finished painting and it's nice to see things coming off the workbench.

The Sdkfz 250/3 is a touch up of the Military Vehicles Rommel's personal half track, which was swapped for a couple of bottles of Cheshire Ale. The other Sdkfz 250 has a SHQ scissors scope added and will be used as an artillery OP vehicle.

Crews still need to be added and these will mostly be from the first edition Airfix Afrika Korps

Bovvy Booty

Despite my best endeavours, I still came away with a small pile of booty
From front to back, mostly picked up from the B&B or Battlegroup South charity stand.

• Military vehicles in detail books for the M3 and Sdkfz 250 half tracks, useful pictures and diagrams for building variants on the standard models
• Left more stowage from Sgts Mess - always useful
• centre a trio of Matchbox sdkfz 251's - the one I am working on seem to have rather fragile tracks so some spares might be needed.
• A sdkfz 250 - will probably be reworked as a DAK OP vehicle
• Right more bits from SHQ tables and chairs and German and US staff - this should allow be to create some extra staff stands
• Second row of assembled vehicles Armourfast M4A3 with 76mm -hopefully these will blend in with my Italeri versions
• A couple of Gaz/Zis trucks - I'm in two minds how to use them, either as Civilian vehicles or as a Winter version.
• Another truck with a Katyusha - A number of scenarios need a couple and I've only got one
• More Armourfast Shermans, this time with 105mm guns - as above hopefully they will match with my Italeri versions
• Finally some Valiant figures, they may be oversized, but they come with a reasonable array of weapons and will be used to modify the Plastic Soldier US infantry, especially as they are short of bazookas.

Pictures from Bovvy 2014

One advantage of being down in Bath was the chance to go to Battlegroup South at Bovington Tank Museum. A great day out for a 20mm enthusiast, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

2014 Half Year review

616 items, that's all, normally I would be at around 800, so the effect of my sustained absence from my painting desk is showing.

But against my original plan how am I doing?

Major Projects (at least 100 figures, month or more in effort)

• Paint at least 3 Rapid Fire US battalions to replace my ageing existing forces. Figures will be Plastic Soldier, but won’t get started until the Heavy Weapons set appears - Heavy Weapons have now been released and I've started assembly but no other progress
• Finish the Jacobites, by adding French and Lowland units - not started
• Axis winter forces – German/Italian/Hungarian - not started, but typically I've been acquiring more suitable figures

Minor Projects

• Reorganise/Rebase my WW2 British, this will include painting a box of Plastic Soldier British to replace a unit I have already sold - done and they had their first major outing at the big game.
• Complete the late French armée d’orient. - done a bit, but need to complete the rest
• War of Spanish Succession – add Austrian Grenadiers and possibly some Saxons. - not done
• Egyptian troops for the Sudan - done, but I'd like to add a few more!

Other activities

• Try and play at least one big battle from the 1814 campaign in France - not done and we are past the anniversary period
• The stash is still far too big; I want to get it down from seven storage boxes to five by the time we move. In line with this, I plan to complete as many plastic kits as possible, there are over 40 there at present so completing these should free up one box at least. - None or possibly negative progress, but I'm pressing on with completing the plastic kits
• No new armies until after we move – will be quite difficult to achieve if plastic figure manufacturers bring out something tempting. - Resisting so far

Progress by period

WW2 377
SYW 104
Colonial 89
Revolution 32
Medieval 11
Napoleonic 3

By type

Infantry 242
Rebasing 139
Vehicle Riders 94
Gunners 48
Tanks/AFVs 31
Vehicles 20
Other bits 16
Artillery guns 13
Commanders 7
Cavalry 4
Horses 1
Equipment 1

On the workbench - July 2014

Back in Bath so progress is still lagging, the one upside is that I can get to Bovington for Battlegroup South on Saturday. My main activity, when I get time is assembling kits. The list doesn't look much different from last month:

• 2 x British Desert Bedford QLD
• 2 x British Desert Bedford QLT
• 3 x German DAK Panzer III plus a Befehlspanzer III (will give me enough armour for the Alam Halfa scenario)
• 3 x German DAK Sdkfz 251/1, a Sdkfz 251/10 and Sdkfz 251/2 so I can represent either a panzer grenadier company at reduced scale or the 10th Panzer in Tunisia - almost completed the assembly, but I need to fix a couple of tracks and find a 37mm for the 251/10
• 1 x Tiger I, an early version by Fujimi that will do nicely for Tunisia
• 2 x German DAK Panzer II