Egyptian T-62s and BTR-60s, Israeli M48 Chaparral for the Yom Kippur War

Popping in a quick post here with some more work done on the YKW project. First up are three Battlefront T-62s. These are great looking tanks, not much extra work required on them, I just filled in the mounting holes for the snorkel at the back of the turret with greenstuff.

I took inspiration for the three-colour camo pattern from AK's excellent book, "Middle East Wars - Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948-1973" by the unlikely duo of Pere Valls and "Zachary Sex". As someone with an unusual name, I feel for that dude, I really do.

Anyway I painted the tank with Tallarn Sand over Morgrot Hide, Skrag Brown over Doombull Brown, and Death World Forest over Castellan Green, washed with Agrax and re-highlighted Tallarn. Looks OK I reckon.

These three will join nine Khurasan T-55s... speaking of which...

Here's one on the left. Notice that the Khurasan model is about 10% smaller than the Battlefront tank. I know the hull of the T-62 was "a few centimetres longer and wider" than that of the T-55 but this is a bit much. Oh well.

Next up is some motorized transport for the Egyptians - BTR-60s.

Again, Battlefront models. These are really good kits. I stuck some spare fuel cans on 'em but otherwise left them built from the box.

Love the commanders included with these.

I used the technical pen to add some tactical numbers to the hulls.

Last up is a "speculative" vehicle. After painting a bunch of Israeli and Egyptian jets it is only prudent to paint some anti-aircraft defence. I have Shilkas coming for the Egyptians (and the SA-2 SAM of course) but that left the IDF to consider. I've read that they captured Shilkas from the Egyptians during the 1973 war, but can't find any pictures of them in action. What else did they have? 

Well, I understand that the IDF did get some of the new M48 Chaparral anti-aircraft missile platforms and they were used in the 1973 war, one apparently shooting down a MiG-17. Good enough for me.

This is a 3D-printed model from "3D Battlefield Miniatures" - he also sold me the T-62 sprues. It's a really nice crisp resin print but came with one of the missile tailsections broken off. No problem, I just cut off the nose and that was a missile that had already been fired off. The missile rack was even pre-magnetized, which was nice! It's painted in Grey-Green washed with Agrax, like my other IDF vehicles.

The model didn't come with crew though, so I pinched a couple of crew figures from the Battlefront Israeli/Iranian (!) TOW jeeps I have on the painting table. Of course I built the jeeps with Israeli crew, but one 15mm crewman is very much like another, so I did a quick head swap on the Iranians with a couple of US WW2 halftrack passengers left over from my PSC project. Hey presto, crew dudes for the M48. The only thing is... the driver is hanging onto a steering wheel, but the Chaparral was controlled with levers. As you can well imagine, I'm not particularly bothered.

Til next time... youm sa'id and shalom!

 
 

Three Million Pageviews!

Well there's a milestone I guess... three million pageviews for the blog. It's been a pretty good run since we started back in December 2008. In fact looking back at the posts from the old days is good fun, what with Spacekrieg, old battle reports, new insane projects that became long-term obsessions, and of course our intermittent dunking on Games Workshop (I cannot believe that our "145" post from 2012 is still near the top of the "most viewed posts of all time" list, I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the number of comments it generated)

The best part is that 2,121 posts, 7,548 comments, and 394 followers later, we're still having fun with this blogging thing. You keep reading and we'll keep writing! And if you have a favourite post or memory from the blog, I invite you to post it in the comments!

Cheers,

Dallas  

ps I hope you like the image above... I thought it was apropos considering the recent passing of the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne... RIP

Forged in Battle 8th Army 6-pounder AT Guns

Another update for the Western Desert! Having seen models from Battlefront, Plastic Soldier Company and Peter Pig, I'm taking a first crack at some 15mm castings from Forged in Battle.

As Flames of War people will know, Battlefront's retail operations are a bit of a mess. There's lots of unavailable product, with no plans to bring it back into production (according to my email from BF themselves) and unfortunately this includes lots of Western Desert stuff. So this prompted me to find an alternative supplier, which led me to Forged in Battle from the UK. The models look great on their website and I duly put in a large order of Akrika Korps and 8th Army infantry and AT guns. There's a bit of a story behind what arrived but I'll leave it till it's resolved to lay it all out here. Suffice to say that they have promised to sort it out.  

Anyway I've started in on the models with the 8th Army 6-pounders, you get two in a pack for 15 pounds. It looked from the pics on the site that I got sent different crew - my pack had nine crew models (one bonus I guess) but I didn't get the SD-capped officer at all. In any case these are fine.

I like the shirtless chaps, really gives you the desert vibe.

The castings are "OK" but show quite a bit of flash around the wheels and some lumpiness and lack of crisp detail on the inside of the gun shields. Didn't bother me too much.

The models were painted mainly with AK Light Earth, washed with Agrax Earthshade and re-done with LE. I just left the webbing alone and it contrasts OK with the Light Earth uniform. Socks are Steel Legion Drab. The gun was done LE, washed and re-highlighted. For the groundwork I mixed some SLD into a blob of basing acrylic texture gel and this worked well, as I had glued the crew down and just worked the gel in around the bases. The groundwork was then drybrushed up with AK Khaki and Rakarth Flesh.

Here's the British force so far.

I have to say that the FiB AT guns aren't ideal for Flames of War as they don't fit on the Battlefront bases! They're about a quarter-inch too wide and there's no way to narrow the stance as the gun trails are cast solid. 

Anyway I have plenty of 2mm plasticard so I made some new bases and I think they're fine.

So that's my first foray into Forged in Battle. I enjoyed painting the models, the crew especially were superbly done, really nice detail. Not sure why the crew in the pictures were not supplied with my models but they were ok nonetheless.  The guns look a bit tired as noted with some detail lacking but were generally good. It would’ve been good if the models fit on FoW bases but you can make your own if you want to use them in FoW.
 

Flames of War Afrika Korps leFH 18 10.5cm Artillery Battery

Next models finished in the Flames of War/Western Desert project... this is the last of the "Dietrich's Ghosts" box from Battlefront. I'd already painted the Pzkpfw IIIs and IVs so on to the leFH 18 10.5cm light howitzers.

There were four models in the box and since they're "mid-war" and not North Africa-specific, they came with metal crew in European uniforms. This was a problem! The solution: order some specific Afrika Korps crewmen from Peter Pig.

The Piggies sell their models in packs of 8, there are three crew poses. Since I had four guns to crew, I ordered two packs to give four crew per gun.

The new Battlefront bases have six round depressions to fit the round bases of their figures. Of course the Piggie models have rectangular puddle bases and all of 'em fit well in the holes except the waving dude. The hole in the base needed to be filled in where he went.

I always have a dilemma when painting multi-based models. Do you paint them separately and then stick them on the base? The painting is easier but if you've painted the base already, you have an issue with attaching them. You have to build up the groundwork around the figure bases and paint that separately. Or do you stick the figures to the base before you paint them? Much easier because you're undercoating and painting the whole works at the same time, but it can be an issue getting your brush into all parts of the figures on the base. 

 

I went with the first option - I stuck the figures on popsicle sticks to paint, glued the gun to the base and did the groundwork on the base (leaving space for the figure bases), then painted the figures and gun/base separately. The last step was to glue the painted crew to the base, then carefully fill in and paint groundwork around their bases.

Colours used: gun - base XV-88, overcoat with Tallarn Sand, washed Agrax Earthshade then Tallarn'd again. Groundwork - Steel Legion Drab or a darker tan, then Khaki, drybrushed Rakarth Flesh, Crew - allover Khaki, washed Agrax, then spot highlighted with Khaki, Tallarn, and other random khaki green/olive or lighter colours on jackets and caps.

That's it for the field guns. I still have four 88mm Flak/AT guns to build and paint plus some 50mm PaK 36 AT guns so the Afrika Korps artillery park will be amply filled.

Heia Safari!

The Western Desert - Now in 15mm! (Plastic Soldier Co and Battlefront for starters)

So... here's the start of another insane project. Following in the footsteps of Conscript Greg, I've started the Western Desert in another scale, this time 15mm.

But there is definitely a method to my madness here. As I worked on the Yom Kippur War escalation I began to accumulate an unfeasible amount of 15mm desert terrain, including but not limited to the buildings in the pic above, and a crazy amount of palm trees. So it only makes sense to start more 15mm desert projects to helpfully amortize the terrain I already have. Right...?

Anyway, I've decided to build a couple forces for Flames of War (the multi-figure basing helps differentiate it in my mind from Bolt Action's individual-figure basing) and I fell into a couple great deals on Battlefront sets. These have been started in on with vigour...

I picked up a box called "Dietrich's Ghosts" from Meeplemart in Toronto, last time I was there. This isn't a "desert" set per se but includes three Pzkpfw IIIs, three Pzkpfw IVs, and four 105mm howitzers. So far I've finished the tanks - the IIIs are in the first photo and the IVs are above.

I did a mix of main guns... the IIIs have one short and two long 50mm guns, and the IVs have one short and two long 75mm guns (the latter being the infamous "Mk IV Specials"). The models were assembled (easy!), primed black, then basecoated XV-88, painted Tallarn Sand, washed with Agrax Earthshade, then panel-painted Tallarn again. Battlefront decals were applied then the model was sponge-chipped with German Camo Black-Brown. Lastly the stowage was painted and washed.

I use a lot of stowage on these Western Desert tanks, some is from the Battlefront sprues but a bunch of it came from Redog in the UK.

Next up I did some Shermans from Plastic Soldier Company. For some reason the early M4 kits are near-impossible to find, but I had a cunning plan... The M4 "wet stowage" Shermans were never used by the British in the desert of course, but the PSC sprues also include small turrets for the 75mm gun, sand skirts, and all the stuff you need to make an earlier Sherman II/M4A1.

I've read that the PSC kits are a bit dodgy on strict accuracy (for one thing, the 75mm Sherman never came with a travel lock on the hull) but I think our group will let that go. The cast rounded hulls look great to me and that's the main thing. Assembly was fairly straightforward but the tracks were a bit tricky... cast in two pieces (top and bottom) and a couple of the models needed some greenstuff filling. Battlefront commander fits well and looks cool. 

These tanks were fully stowaged-out too. The models were basecoated with AK Light Earth, camo was done with Castellan Green, then the whole thing was washed down with Agrax. Then the Light Earth was redone on the panels and the camo highlighted with Death World Forest. Battlefront decals snuck in there too. Since the Shermans only appeared for El Alamein I kept the chipping to a minimum, since these tanks are pretty new after all.

The last thing was to hit the models with matte varnish... and I am so happy to say that these were finished with TESTORS DULLCOTE! Yes it's back!! The best matte finish I've ever used, long out of production, but now available once again, it makes me very happy.

Toodles and heia Safari!

Summer Painting Update Pt 3 - French Men-At-Arms for Hundred Years War

Here's a scary lot to see on the battlefield!

Diving further into my (relatively) new Hundred Years War project, we get into some of the flashier participants in the setting - some men-at-arms and foot knights. These are 28mm figures from the beautiful Perry Miniatures range - there are some multi-part plastic figures in here, but also the amazing Agincourt French Foot Command set, which was a gift from fellow Conscript Dallas. 

Plastic Foot Knights

A selection of plastic French men-at-arms from Perry Miniatures. 

I have only assembled a few of the multi-part plastic men-at-arms so far - you get one small sprue of them in the French plastic infantry box. As mentioned before, nobody is ever going to pay me to assemble multi-part 28mm plastics, but they go together nicely, even with my fumbling, and you have a really neat assortment of arms/helmets/weapons. I am surprised there are not that many shields, and that the shields which are available seem...small. But this also points to how my assumptions going in are derived from years and years of marinating in various fantasy-type settings, which feature all manner of heavily armoured warriors and yet are...well, fantastical, right? 

Love that axe! Looks like some serious business there...

Anyway, the armour is still amazing, and the figures are beautiful. As far as attempted heraldry goes, my assumption is that some of these footmen were nobles, men of rank, who might have their own heraldry, while others would be in their retinues...either lesser ranked, or perhaps not even nobles at all, but trusted retainers? At any rate, I experimented on a few of the figures, copying (or trying to) some of the heraldry patterns I have seen elsewhere, and in other cases just sort of making some up, and in still other cases keeping very colours in place on the assumption they are non-noble footmen/retainers...

Of course, heraldry continues to be a real challenge, and in the case of the Agincourt foot command, a real challenge, as these are all meant to represent specific people from history who had specific heraldry they would have worn to war...BUT...the Perrys have me covered, as the metal command figures have their heraldry patterns sculpted on to the casting, making painting them much, much more achievable...

Agincourt Foot Command

French Foot Command for Agincourt - amazing metal castings from Perry Miniatures.

Now we move to the metal command group. These are AWESOME sculpts, challenging to paint, but a lot of fun too. I'm not planning to make any kind of serious attempt to replicate the battle of Agincourt itself, but I love these figures, and they will do absolutely splendidly to serve in all manner of French forces in the period. I mean, if the game is post-Agincourt, perhaps we can assume an heir has taken up the role, right...?

Boucicault, Marshall of France on the left, and Guillaume Martel (awesome name), bearer of the Oriflamme

The heraldry involved with this project is a huge conundrum for me, but fortunately with these figures, the patterns are sculpted right on to the figures, which makes painting the patterns a lot more possible. 

John, Duc de Bourbon (left) and Lord Rambures, Grand Master of Crossbowmen, which sounds like a cool job to have in France.

You will see two banner bearers here among the group...the flags are another thing I find daunting about this period. I mean, the flags are so cool, and I would like to squeeze in a reasonable number, but it also seems like most of the flags were not cloth banners as I mind imagine them, but were rather fixed in a way as to be stiff and rigid...I don't quite know how I will tackle that...

Charles x 2! Charles, Count of Eu (on the left) and Charles, Duc de Orleans, with a big f*cking hammer...

Having said that, these two seemed to be more traditional in the sense of curling in the wind...we have the flag of the Constable of France - at least, I THINK that it is...and the other is the fabled "Oriflamme", raised, as I understand it, when the French intend to signal that no mercy will be shown, and no prisoners taken. In both of these cases, I attempted to freehand the flags and it was kind of a mess...but whatever...

Here we have d'Albret, Constable of France (in the middle), his standard bearer (on the right, holding his boss's helmet) and on the left, a figure assembled from spare plastic bits...I made into a herald/trumpeter.

As for the rest of the Agincourt command, I did my best to copy other online sources to paint the heraldry. I also sourced some much brighter "white metal" metallic paints to capture that real sheen seen on the armour of this period. 

In aggregate, this provides the 12 warriors needed to form a single unit for a game of "Never Mind The Billhooks", but there are many more men-at-arms to come and I hope to form several units to spread these fellows out a touch. Big thanks again to Dallas for these awesome figures! That's all for now, hope to be back with more before long!

Summer Painting Update Pt 2 - Hundred Years War - New Project

A couple of initial French units for my 28mm Hundred Years War project. Figures from Perry Miniatures - movement trays courtesy of Byron M's "Northern Lights".

Another little painting update to share as June concludes here - a project that is "new" - in terms of blog posting, if not in terms of when I actually started messing around with it. Here it is - the Hundred Years War in 28mm. These are all 28mm multi-part plastics from Perry Miniatures (or, nearly all of them...I think a couple of metal castings are in one of the photos).  

Why do the Hundred Years War? Well, it has Knights! Castles! France! Plus, while the war went on and on - for, er, a hundred years (actually, I think, slightly longer even?) - and featured some historic larger-scale battles, and the majority of the conflict, it seems to me, featured raids and counter-raids (the famed "chevauchees") which, to me, make it ideal for smaller-sized skirmishes and minor battles which are a lot more within reach in terms of getting a couple of opposing forces painted up and staged on a 6' x 4' table. 

For all that, I do find this setting does have one major, major barrier - at least for me - and that is the presence of medieval heraldry. Now don't get me wrong, medieval heraldry is really cool! The thing is...there is a whole lot to it! It is so easy to get things wrong, and even if I have the intended heraldry correct, it us usually, at best, almost impossible to paint properly...

But...if you don't at least try it, you'll never get to play it so...I started messing around a little bit with the Perry kits in late 2024. For rules I found myself intrigued by Andy Callan's "Never Mind the Billhooks", which was originally written for the Wars of the Roses, but was quickly adapted for the Hundred Years War (and an increasing number of other periods). The process was very slow - such that none of the work ever made it into Curt's most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - and, well, it still is pretty slow...but there is enough done that I have a couple of very basic units ready to go. 

French Crossbowmen

A unit of crossbowmen for the Hundred Years War - 28mm multi-part plastic figures from Perry Miniatures.

In "Billhooks" many infantry units are in blocks of 12 - and that is what we have here, a basic unit of crossbowmen for the game.

Let's get ready with those crossbows now!

So - which French city or lord are these crossbowmen from? Great question. I have no idea. This unit was about experimenting, seeing if I can get the plastic models assembled and painted so they can be a kind of general "medieval crossbowman" unit - able to fit in with a French force, but just as possible perhaps as part of a Free Company. 

Reloading crossbows seems like a drag!

I love the Perry Miniatures sculpts, but I'm not ace when it comes to assembling their multi-part plastic kits and you won't have to squint too hard to find some very awkward shoulder connections. A few of them appear to be holding their crossbows in a reluctant fashion - which can be kind of interesting for the setting, but would be better if it had been a product of my intent instead of a coincidental outcome because I suck at assembling plastic figures. 

I struggled with the shoulders on these models...fortunately a hobby knife helped sort the worst of it out...

These crossbow blocks are basic building blocks for a French force, so I will need another couple units. I might try to get some more metal castings to bulk out my remaining box of plastics crossbowmen. I may also try to get a little more specific about a city or lord for the next crossbow group. 

French Spearmen

French spearmen ready for action in the 15th century!

Again, we have a block of 12 figures here to comprise the unit - in this case, spearmen, although not every fellow is armed with a spear. As far as the "Billhooks" rules go, it's all close enough so they get counted as spears, and that is fine with me!

Variance in the level of armour/equipment...

You can see here that I have attempted something of a matching color/marking for this unit. Which city, or which lord? I have no idea. I copied the look from something I saw online...if you are looking at this and know the period, you may recognize it - and if so, will spot the mistakes I surely made...but whatever...I went for a look that was generally matching, but still had one or two fellows stand out a little more. 

Not all the "spearmen" have spears...the chap on the right looks like he is ready to crack open someone!

These are all multi-part plastic Perry miniatures, and I was struck by the wide assortment of armour and equipment worn by these soldiers. Some just seem to have padded jackets, while others have chain mail, and still others have a fair collection of plate components, on their arms or their legs. I still have so much to understand about this period - was this pretty common? I guess with any mix soldiers from this time in history, it would have been a bit tricky to have every single soldier outfitted in the same way...so I went with the motley look. It...seems right to me. I'll go with that for now!

A day at the office somewhere not far from Calais...

OK - that is two basic infantry for the French side. But the REALLY cool bits of the French armour are the noblemen and knights, mounted and on foot. Stay tuned for more on that...that's all for now, thanks for reading!