ESCI / Revell British 8th Army

Okay, unlike most WW2 fanatics, I've never been a fan of the North African desert battles, preferring the British/German duels around Caen. (Must be a lingering affect of my WW1 Western Front fascination.) 

But after seeing a documentary on El Alamein and another on Italy's attempt to take North Africa and Germany's intervention, I decided to dust off my 8th Army figures. Now I'm eyeing Armourfast's new Crusader tank and upcoming Valentine. It never ends! 

I originally bought these to paint as the Indian 14th Army in Impahl-Kohima. Oh well, I still have Matchbox and Airfix Australians to go. You may notice Revell's 'Scottish figures' from this set are missing. They will be painted as D-Day British Commandos.

Emhar World War 1 British

Poor commander's a goner poking his head up like that.

Note the HaT Australian in the tin hat. He's making his second appearance.

I made one wire holder for the barbed wire—just in front of the Australian. It was a fiddly affair attempting the pigtail curl with two pliers. One's enough!

Two shots of basically the same view. Note another HaT Australian in the center.

Some of the figures — officer with map and gunner with the Vickers were painted years ago. I hadn't upgraded them yet and hence the lack of a good view of the Vickers. I spent more time putting together the base—vowed I wouldn't spend time on the display, just the figures, but WW1 figures demand a trench and I wouldn't allow myself to do a slapdash job on the trench. Of course, I still need to make duckboards and have a few Airfix figures I want to sprinkle in for good effect. 

Between this and the Falklands post, I'm spending more time on the base. I still have WW1 French and Germans to go. Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time making trenches!

Matchbox NATO Paratroopers

Not quite the most accurate portrayal of the famous photo but considering the rarity of these figures and those remaining (the mortars are lost as are some others) I'm afraid to convert the radio man to a proper yomping pose. 

The men are painted in a mix of airborne (red berets) and Royal Marines (green berets.) I believe the Union Jack in the famous photo was affixed to the antennae after news of the Argentine surrender, so it's anachronistic to have the troops still fighting, but it's makes for a good show.

These are the best figures Matchbox produced, the faces perfect, the poses very natural. British camo is hard to paint, okay, I find all camo hard to paint. It has an arcing sweep pattern that's hand to achieve over folds and webbing. There's a few ESCI NATO British troops thrown in to fill these out.

This is also my first attempt at snow. Being the cheapskate, I tried powdered laundry detergent. (Bad idea) the drywall mix (too gray) powered sugar (ate it instead) and finally, settled on baking soda. I think it would be easier to do a full on Russian front snow. I don't know. Trying to mimic the wind-swept dustings and melted snow of the Falkland was hard. You never feel like it looks right. Kind of like camo pattern. You just work it till you're tired of it. I had to scrape the base a couple times and start over.

The rocks are chuncks of pink foam insulation covered with a thin coat of drywall mud then washed in layers of diluted black paint. I'm pleased with they way they turned out, while I was making them I kept thinking "I'm hack! Pink foam and baking powder!"

HäT Tank Riders — British

Here's the first of four tank rider sets from HäT.

First of all, these tank riders are not just for tanks. Seated figures are very useful to fill up and give life to half-tracks, jeeps, lorries, armoured cars, sitting on crates, barrels, waiting to move out and so on.

This set has two kneeling figures—an officer and section leader. The infantry has been painted as part of the 43rd wessex. You may notice a blue (square) with a yellow dab in the middle. The officer has been painted as an RAF link officer (cab control? can't recall what these guys were called) attached to armoured divisions whose job was to call in air strikes as needed. The head is a swap, the original figure wears a beret which RAF the RAF did not wear at this time.

Speaking of heads, one complaint is the sprue attaches to the crown of the helmet on some figures. If cut to short, the helmet will be sporting an odd cylinder rising from it while an over cut will lop off the top. It would have been better to have attachment at the bottom of the feet.

The riders are very nice with a lot of detail. With most British figures on the market, it seems the kit and webbing always suffers. In this case, the entrenching tool and canteen is nicely sculpted with it skeleton holder rather chunky (in a good way) to take paint easily.

I feel for the sculptor. Due to the poses, there is some excess plastic between the rifle butts and the hip, and in some cases, the canteen doesn't turn the corner and the space between the canteen and buttock fills in. These figures could probably benefit from separate packs like HäT's Napoleonic Prussians and some of the Zvezda sets.

On minor point, most of the men are sitting as if on chairs. This arrangement works better on the angular Cromwell than the slope found on Shermans. Gluing the figures on (or to each other) would be the best solution for stability but I prefer to freedom to position as will. Just don't bump the table.

Overall, nice figures, poses and detail. Another job well done!

Traffic Jam

Thought I'd post some pix of a quick diorama/setup. Nearing mid-June, I think of the Normandy offensives by the British Army. Inspired by Operation Epsom and the traffic jam at Cheux, here's some ArmourFast Shermans and a converted Hasagawa Half-Track (M3 to M5) of the 11th Armoured. In the background are Bren Carriers and AGRA Matadors trying to move forward. Soldier are AB Figures. Most have shoulder flashes of the 3rd Infantry Division.

HaT Penisular British

Images of HaT's new Peninsular British. These are really nice figures. The body motion, poses are nice. Also for painters, the sculptinig in sharp and buttons, straps etc. are raised enough to take paint easily and not disappear under the layers (especially with the Delta Creamcoat acrylic paint I use.) I hope all of HaT's new offerings -- Prussians and new Seven Years War line—are of this quality. Lots of marching poses (not shown), firing and advancing. Wargamers should be pleased with the selection of poses. Highly recommended set.

The British Are Coming!

I picked up some IMEX Revolutionary War figures a few years ago and there they sat. I bought whatever my fancy was given to. The problem is I had these notions I was going to build giant armies, dioramas. In this case, it was to be Cowpens. After a month, I realized that was never going to happen.

A few weeks ago I was going through my soldiers to get rid of stuff. At that point I decided to paint (approx) one of each pose, get rid of the rest. The result is a small vignette. Free of creating giant battles, I have been on a painting spree. The base (5 1/2" x 12") is not intended as a diorama, but simply a display board with grass.

The stone wall is Tidy Cat kitty litter.