I have dragged out my incomplete 25pdr kit with Quad Tractor and decided to finally finish it off. This a kit from Italeri which was originally produced by Esci, it's not bad but some bits could be left off for wargames purposes- like some of the fiddly bits underneath the Quad. I am not using the figures supplied with the kit which were designed for North Africa, having shorts on. For crew figures I will be using AB, I am placing four crew with the gun and three as a "loader team" with the limber (Battlegroup Rules allow you to expend extra points for a loader team to give improvements to fire rates I think). So, the three elements will be based up separately- gun, limber & Quad.
I have also been chopping and gluing some figures to go on a couple of commando bases. I have used resin beret heads from Dan Taylor Modelworks.
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| Plastic conversion of Caesar British with Dan Taylor Resin beret head- looks like a good match. |
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| Plastic conversion has Caesar Miniatures body, resin head and right arm from an Italeri British Para- the spare ammo box is taken from an Airfix British figure. |
I have also nearly finished my first Universal Carrier with crew, just need to do the base and weathering- I'll show it to you when I've finished.
You're a clever lad! Very nice indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished articles.
ReplyDeleteThanks Guvner!
DeleteI would like to resist buying more kits and see if I can dwindle down my stash of unbuilt stuff- at least I'm making a start with the artillery set.
I hope you'll like the PSC Carrier when I post it....one down and three more to go...
I quite like the ESCI kit myself, but prefer to leave the muzzle brakes off. It is probably not unrealistic to use the 'North Africa' crew for other theatres as well, as I understand that serving guns was pretty hot work. Gunners would tend to strip down a bit during the warmer seasons, at least.
ReplyDeleteTrue about the stripping down, not sure if they had shorts in Normandy, at least I can't think of any pictures I've seen. Perhaps I will find a use for the Esci figures in another role- maybe I could swap their legs for some other plastics in my spares box?
DeleteMost impressive work John, I really like the Quad and gun set. Putty the gunners shorts into trousers and you are set.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. I'll stick with the AB figures for this gun but may consider some greenstuff on the Esci lads for some other purpose- perhaps unloading supplies from a truck or something?
DeleteThose look great....I am excited to see the finished products. In case you are interested, I've been putting together stuff for Battlegroup Kursk myself over at my blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://blitzbattles.blogspot.com/
Cheers!
Thanks Gareson- your blog looks cool, am now following.
DeleteI've pre-ordered Battlegroup Overlord (I own BGK),as my favourite theatre of operations is Normandy. We were playing Kampfgruppe Normandy before Battlegroup rules came out.
These are looking great mate. Can't wait to see them finished up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben. I have been working on them over the last few days- slow progress like most of my stuff, but I'll get there in the end.
DeleteNice. The quad and 25lber is such an iconic piece of Brit/Commonwealth kit. I found one in a park at Dunbar, Scotland. SWMBO gave me 'the look' when I got all excited about it!
ReplyDeleteThe AB crew look good, and I'm liking the commando conversions.
Cheers EG, at some stage I'll pick myself up another of these kits from Italeri- I have some more AB chaps for another crew.
DeleteI have made progress with them this week, but not sure if I'll be ready for posting this weekend.