Saturday 6 October 2012

On the workbench - WIP

Have been painting up a bunch of US figures for my son recently, so I don't have any newly completed stuff to show you. I do however, have a number of things on the go on the workbench.

First a Ready to Roll US M10 Tank Destroyer for my son's birthday. I have drilled a hole under the turret and super glued a screw into the base of the turret so that the turret will be able to turn around without falling off! Also drilled out the barrel supplied and added some homemade stowage plus a jerrycan. I have been converting a crew from plastic figures.




Next, some more British being painted- trying to fill out two platoons plus a recon section. These figures are from TQD Castings , Wartime Miniatures, and Battlefield/Blitz. The TQD stuff is particularly fine- I cut off the slotta base protrusions, and glued them to some plasticard.




I purchased a couple of Italeri fastbuild Easy Eights (for a bargain price), to help bolster my son's US forces- here's one he assembled which I will be painting:



These are some terrain oddments I have been working on. Experimenting with a bocage section which incorporates roadside ditches, plus some stone wall sections using printed paper for textures:



Finally, a Quad with 25pdr from Italeri/Esci which has been waiting for some time to be finished- it will have an AB crew:


22 comments:

  1. Good work. I'm looking forward to the completion of the M-10. Nicely constructed Sherman too.

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    1. Cheers mate. Those Italeri fastbuilds are a breeze to build.

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  2. Everything here looks really good

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  3. Nice mod on the tank turret - I'm sure your boy will appreciate it.

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    1. Thanks FMB, I'm sure he will- especially if it blows up some German tanks :)

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  4. Jesus, I was kind of proud of my M10 until I saw yours! Amazing work, on everything here!

    Keep working hard, it truly does come through!
    FF

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  5. Nice M10 John, but don't the molded-on bases annoy you (for some reason I just can't come at them) ? And beware the Italeri fast builds for your own armies, they are rather a mixed bunch in terms of quality and accuracy. Some are gems, others duds...

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. G'day Dave. Not too bothered about moulded on bases- but would prefer an option for my own stuff. My son's three Shermans are already on bases so it kind of fits in.
      Only other experience with the fastbuild kits from Italeri was the Sherman M4A3s which seemed ok. Which ones did you feel were particularly dodgy?

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    2. People may have heard me banging on about this elsewhere, but the most disappointing is probably the Panther G. It is a really nice model marred by atrocious running gear (even for a fast build). The track is wrapped right around the drive sprocket and really doesn't look anything like the correct track tension for a Panther. I swapped mine with running gear from some Hat Jagdpanthers, which was quite a bit of work due to the way the Italeri hull has all those locator pins, but they now look quite acceptable. As an alternative I could have scratched some Schurzen to hide them. The other one that is quite a disappointment is the Italeri Jumbo. I think the hull is just a regular M4A3 hull with no extra armour or thickness. Certainly doesn't look very "jumbo". At the other end of the scale I love the jeeps and halftracks.

      Cheers, Dave

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    3. Oops, I just realised it isn't an Easy Eight it is the so called "Jumbo" that I bought- but hey I don't mind, they were really cheap, the shop was closing down and had 50% off.

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    4. Yes mate, sorry about that. The hull can be worked up with some plastic card but maybe your son doesn't mind... ;o)

      Cheers, Dave

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    5. P.S. I meant to compliment your homemade stowage. Is that green stuff "casting" ? It looks really good...

      Cheers, Dave

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    6. Stowage handmade with greenstuff- didn't cast it (no experience with casting). I'm still a bit of a newbie with greenstuff and hope to get better :)

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    7. Maybe casting wasn't the best term; I thought you might have used a press mould of some sort. I am intrigued cos I think they look really good...

      Cheers, Dave

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    8. Nah, no moulds used, just handmade stuff.

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    9. I'm impressed - great job!

      Cheers, Dave

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  6. Replies
    1. Thanks Mr T. I have now painted the M10 & Sherman in Olive Drab- so a bit more progress.

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  7. hi there just to let you know my blog has moved .http://davesramblingstoysandgames.blogspot.co.uk/cheers

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17th Century Characters...mostly

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