Here's me dropping in again to this project, as it takes my fancy to work on some more tanks.
I've been working on bits and bobs for my WWII collection in the past while since my last post, though progress tends to be sporadic as its split between this and the dozen other things which catch my interest at that moment. Recently then I have managed to paint a few things fairly quickly, though many other projects remain a work in progress obviously.
Here's the handful which're done.
E-75 in Soviet Service (T-E-75?)After an order arrived from Die Waffenkammer I hadn't expected I found myself landed with a few kits which I'd otherwise reorganised my plans for. See I'd wanted another E-75, but with this order falling off the map for the better part of a year I had bought and made a pair after this hadn't arrived (Jeff at Die Waffenkmmer was able to resend it twice even in the troubles he'd been having recently, so I can't slight him for the muck up).
Which meant I was landed with a kit and no idea what to do with it. The thought of doing something weird crossed my mind, though Warlord's plastic Tiger II makes for a better platform for conversions. Instead I was boring and turned the Tiger II into an E-75 (of a sort) and just painted it up in Soviet colours like the Panther II.
Its not too outlandish a conversion of Die Waffenkammer's model. These E-75s are becoming a bit mundane to be honest. Take off the hull MG, add on a rangefinder, and then do some other weird stuff if you feel like it. I didn't bother replacing the engine deck this time as there was enough going on, though did give it the gun from Heer 46's Schmaltrum kit to make it look a bit different. Otherwise with it being in Soviet use there's some of their modifications with a pair of bins and fuel drums from a T-34 at the back, and a replacement headlamp at the front.
I could have been more adventurous, but it seemed interesting enough with the new paint scheme. It'll be another in a line of foreign tanks in Soviet service as I find excuses to give them more vehicles from models I've already built (i.e.a crap tonne of German stuff). Just slapping on Soviet colours to these already alt-history vehicles keeps them unusual enough for my liking, without delving into the gas turbine engines and other oddities that I find myself adding to the German kit.
Soviet E-10Speaking of captured German equipment...
This time its less of the green splurge, and I instead mixed in a repainted turret on top of the original German paint scheme. Otherwise it remains pretty basic - with all the grime covering up for the lack of any camo scheme.
Regardless, another light tank for the Soviet forces- as I know I'm going to be inevitably as short on those as I have been for the Germans, as even with a few lighter vehicles being built, the heavies are always so much more fun to play with.
Chi-Ha / T-70 Hybrid Recce Vehicle (Y/T-70?)The dumb things you do when you buy a kit, forget about it, throw it together into a dumb vehicle and say "meh, good enough".
My Japanese alt-history project remains where it was from the last time I posted anything about it. With Warlord releasing their plastic Chi-Ha kit, that made the resin vehicle I'd bought from them less appealing for conversions. There was other ideas (like sticking a Zis-2 on the roof), but this seemed like the most suitable for the resin kit without needless tearing it apart.
Not a lot of thought went into the background when throwing this together. I think it'd suit as a glimpse into the war on another front. Perhaps with things not going so well for the Soviets leading to the need for conversions like this. Or maybe its in service with local fighters somewhere in China in a similar workshop to the one the Germans had in Romanian for converting captured vehicles to their standard? The Japanese front tends to be overlooked in alt-history media centred on Germany, so who knows what the state of the war over there is with Britain bowing out of the war in Europe (who knows, the Colonial powers could be duking it out the Far East, or around Oceania/ India).
Whatever, as I said I need more light tanks and this was a simple build. Just a widened turret plug to fit the Blitzkrieg Miniatures T-70 turret and some spare parts from a T-34 to Russiophy it. I've no idea how practical this would be as a real vehicle, but it looks neat. Like some parody of post-war cinema making mock up enemy vehicles from whatever tank they could get their hand on.
Chelovek iz Stali (Soviet Soldier in Captured German Panzermensch Suit)Clockwork Goblin's German Power Armour suits have a nice dieselpunk look which suits the era perhaps a bit more than their other stuff. They're good and chunky. Once some of the sillier details are removed (like the spare magazines on the power plant - how is the wearer supposed to reach them with those shoulder pads?) they're pretty nice models.
With the squad of German Panzermensch I made (in need of a new paint job...) the idea was they were some super secret experimental program. Hidden away in the German heavy water treatment plants or deployed rarely in the field from E-50 based Heavy APCs. This Soviet example then would have had to be a rare capture (perhaps more common as the Panzermensch trials escalate), though indicative that at least a few had been captured, and this was one suit being field trialled to record the results.
It didn't take much to turn these into a Soviet figures. I just got rid of most of the StG-44 magazine pouches, replaced their heads with a Soviet ones with a sculpted on ballistic mask, and gave them a modified DP-27 LMG and AK. The DP-27's in the style of post-war modernisations, so I guess top of the line for the time. Just a bit of silliness to probably use in Zombie games or whenever I actually use infantry (I think we've played maybe one game involving infantry, otherwise we just use this stuff for World of Tanks style games pretty fitting given the subject matter obviously)
ZombiesI suppose now would be the time to show off some of the zombies which I'd rushed through for a game a few months ago,so hadn't had the time to post any pictures of.
These have been used the once for a The Walking Dead game set in WWII. Where a group of Soviet special forces were sent out to discover the fate of some secretive Nazi weapons program, only to find the site overrun with zombies and a group of SS remnants fighting for their lives.
...At least on paper. All of the zombies wound up being killed by turn two or three and it turned into a shooting match. Um, because The Walking Dead doesn't seem to balance itself well for every model having a gun. Hmn. We'll have to rework things more in future so there's more zombies, but that'll mean painting more of these things.
Here's some snippets of the some 60 Zombies I now have. Depending on whether we run a WWII zombie game again I'll probably have to keep my eye out for more suitable figures at shows, as I suspect another 30 wouldn't go unused the next time we play .
The figures are a mix of Clockwork Goblin, Studio Miniatures and West Wind. With some of the Studio Miniatures models having West Wind heads for a bit more variety. There's a mix of camo in use by the Germans to give them more variety (if I paint more I'll add more patterns), as are the West Wind Soviet zombies a nice addition to break things up a bit.
I do have some 40 Zombies made from Warlord Games plastics. Those are chunkier and less animated however, which is why despite having made all of them, I rushed out to buy models from those three other companies instead. I could maybe salvage 10 or 20 to mix in with the zombies which are already painted, but the dedicated zombie models look better (I did sculpt over a few of them, but they just look too animated compared to the sluggish poses on the other figures).
(From left to right - Clockwork Goblin, Studio Miniatures, West Wind)
The Unpainted TatAs for the state on the still yet incomplete vehicles.
Things have progressed somewhat on previously discussed models -though not to an extent particularly worth showing currently. ...I tend to work on too many things at once, so yes as those who follow my threads here will find individual progress can be slow. I'll relent and post some images of a few unfinished projects, which yes, I don't tend to like to show models off before they're ready for paint either, so these aren't at as complete a state as I'd like.
T-34-54This crept up on me a bit as I was looking for a spare T-34/85 turret for a T-44. I didn't intend to make this vehicle from an existing model, but having stolen the turret from on of the German captured vehicles I'd made previously, I had to do something with the chassis. Of the T-34 Beutepanzers I have it was the least visually interesting, and with any long project you look back on older work and see their flaws (I want to repaint half these models...), so it was for the chop.
As for the actual conversion. It hasn't been too bad. Its based on another scale model representing the Bulgarian T-34/ T-62 hybrid if it were a functional vehicle. In particular with the engine deck being set back to allow space for the turret (unlike the real one where its removed entirely and plated over), giving the vehicle a bit of a M48 Patton look with its extended engine and perhaps a bit more modern a style than the T-34.
The T-54 turret obviously still needs work. I've torn off the details on the original model which were overly simple to recreate them later. That's largely what's left to be done with this, other than rebuilding the front a bit where I'd removed details to add some extra armour on the original model.
LTTBAnother thing which has been on and off my workbench as it slips between flights of fancy. The underlying model is a 1/72nd scale IS-2. Working from an existing kit, albeit a modified one, makes builds simpler even if of course that may mean the resulting vehicle isn't as accurate as it could be. ...I just hate building running gear.
The initial shape of the hull is lain out, but work on tidying it up and adding detail is still to come. Its not as accurate as I'd like with the rear section being too wide due to the donor engine deck I used being larger than on the real vehicle. Though I'd like to think that was a simplification caused by using existing parts rather than manufacturing new ones. Which with a decent chunk of this vehicle being fictional due to the lack of complete blueprints, is something which can be overlooked.
Otherwise its also in need of a turret. The one it has on it right now will likely find its way to another T-44. The turret this vehicle has in World of Tanks is basically off of a T-34/85, meanwhile the T-44 variants can be a bit modified, making this plastic turret more useful for those than one which I can find in another kit. I may just buy a spare turret from Die Waffenkammer and pop that on. Nothing's a priority then.
Oh, and the road wheels are stand ins. I just needed something round to work from. Those will be redone later.
T-44Still early days on this one. Ideally the plan is to produce a bit more period accurate a model than the T-44 which I already have. Adding in some details which I otherwise missed (like the extra vision block on the side of the hull for the driver not found on later models), bulges on the turret, etc. As I have another two T-44s after this to build ideally this one will be a basis for what to change, though obviously the real vehicle were made over a number of years, so there will be some differences between models.
The idea for the moment is still to do the Assault Gun and a T-44-100. Which will have one vehicle using a static casement, and the other would be a modified T-34/85 turret which is why I'd rather keep the plastic turret for that. I'd been looking at early T-54s (Object 137) as well as an alternative to the T-44-100, creating a turret from scratch to save the T-34/85 turret for the LTTB, but I think I'm more inclined towards the WWII era prototype rather than its post-war child.
German Armoured CarThe last thing with enough work done to be worth showing is something else German. ...I have to stop myself from making more Axis stuff instead of giving the Soviets a competent force, but I keep finding new ideas I'd like to build...
This one is a cross between a Puma and a post-war Spδhpanzer Luchs. I think conceptually an attempt to make the Puma chassis more suitable for modernisation (it was difficult enough sticking a 75mm gun on it), in the style of Post-War French armoured cars. This isn't the base variant of this armoured car, rather its some weird offshoot mounting the Kugelblitz turret. With the original idea being to create vehicle with that turret styled after the BRDM which then evolved into this. The base vehicle would instead be using a large calibre autocannon or gun in an oscillating turret, but this is still fine as it is.
The underlying model is a widened Warlord Puma kit, with part of the engine deck from the Panther at the back (just to keep things period consistent, rather than creating a more realistic one from scratch) and a turret by Heer46. Its a hybrid of those two German designs I mentioned like a post-war vehicle made from WWII parts -, with some contrivances to fit this concept (the separate mud guard) which otherwise would have had it looking too modern for the setting. I'm chuffed on how it turned out; its modern enough looking for some games set in a later period "Man in the High Castle" style.
Mudguard wise they're based on a mix of both vehicles though they don't reach all the way to the front as that's how they are on the Luchs. However the Luchs has a trim vane, which seemed a bit too advanced for the era so was left off. I may extend them further in the style of the E-10 with some thin sheet metal there just to stop and dirt something would then be removed in later models perhaps to allow for a trim vane.
TerrainSegwaying into other things (is this the half way point of this post yet...? I had to add bloody headings to keep things from becoming just a word mess in this essay). Here's another ruin also in an unpainted state.
I may have shown off the one with this one before, as its been sitting around since I started building the ruins for this project over a year ago. It was bought to steal its tracks from for one of those Hanomag/ Panzer III hybrids I made. Looking back I could have used it for another conversion, but having wrecked tanks as part of your terrain is a nice feature (even if it does limit them to just WWII games ...unless your games happen to be taking place on an old film set).
----- End of part 1 (because LAF has a character limit? Who knew?
-----