More Panthers

 I've managed to finish off some more Forged in Battle Panthers, another platoon of 4 in fact. This brings me up to 10 finished of the 14 I have.

Coal Staith

Just a small update here. I have a few things in the works (more Panthers & some IL-2 Sturmoviks, for example), however they have been dragging on, and I have got distracted with other things (boarding a friend's loft, for example). With that in mind, I have managed to complete something simple however, this coal staith for the model railway. 

This is a Skytrex one piece resin kit, and well cast. The coal has been painted with black gloss primer to get the sheen. While real coal can be quite matt, a lot of model train coal on the locos is shiny so I've gone with this to match at the moment.

FV432s redux

Todays update is 5 FV432 Armoured Personnel Carriers. These are for my Cold War British. These are from Battlefront's kit. They went together easily, but I understand are a little underscale for height.

These are intended as transport for my British mechanisied platoon (Also BF, currently still in the blister).

Big Panther

 Today's post is another Panther tank. But a bigger Panther tank! This is a 1:76 Matchbox Panther that I bought about 20 years ago and have finally built and painted. 

 It's not a great kit, it is limited in detail, the rubber tracks don't fit well (you might be able to make out where they have had to be cut, otherwise they snap the sprocket wheels off) and the transfers backing silver a lot (again you might be able to see this on the turret). I do like the scenic base however, and the model looks ok once finished.

All in all for a beginner kit I started putting together as a teenager, it's fine. I do find it amusing that most 15mm models these days have more detail however, despite being smaller!

 

Carriers and Bridges

So today update is has got me 10 more models painted for this year.

First up, we have 9 Universal Carriers for my Desert British. These are the new plastic Battlefront kit, and have gone together really well. I've very pleased with these, like most of the new Battlefront plastics they are of high quality and easy to build.

I've assembled two sets as basic carriers as I think I'm more likely to use them, and one set with the Boys AT rifle (which unfortunately compete with both armoured car choices, which I feel are both better).

Meanwhile I have also painted this Skytrex Assault Bridge as scenary. It was pretty easy to paint, with a limited palatte and coming as a single cast white metal item. It was also sharp and well cast with limited flash.

Gravel Wagon

So today's update is something for the railway. It started life as a cheap second hand pickup from a local railway show and looked like this.

This is a Hornby Railroad wagon (R1085), which often comes as part of their train sets. It's a bit basic, as well as being overly plastically and a bit too vivid yellow for my taste.

I spent an evening adding some contrast paint, black, brown wash and picking out some replacement boards. Contrast and wash were used for the bulk of the painting as I wanted to preserve the printed text on the orginal wagon, and yellow overpaints easily. I also added a gravel load (spare ballast) to the wagon using a piece of spare packing foam as a base.

It now looks like this, a significant improvement!

Panthers

This month, I've completed some german Panther tanks. These are Forged in Battle Minatures, and I've painted a HQ of 2 and a platoon of 4 Panthers. I have another 8 of these to paint at some point, but I've struggled to motivate to paint these, so I've moved on to painting something else for now.