Zirrian's WW2 blog of various scales (15-20-28-54mm)

[zirrian]

Sorry folks, I didn't get notifications for replies for some reason...

Good start. The packs do improve the looks of the PSC figures no end. Talking of mortars, am I correct in thinking that the mortar in the Valiant US set is the 60mm company level mortar, not the 81mm?  It is very small compared to the 81mm mortar in the German set.

Thanks. The Valiant mortar is the 60mm, correct. And the so-called medium mortar in the PSC set is like...a weird 60mm mortar injected with growth hormons to give birth to a godless abomination.

Good progress.

So how are you going to clean up those coins?

Coins will be tossed, they are not used in my country for some years now, and I have tons of them stacked away to sell 50 years from now...tho they won't worth more than their current value then I think.

Well done and I salute your commitment to making silk purses out of sow's ears! 

One small criticism; the .50 cal looks the size of a 20mm auto-cannon, I'm guessing that was borrowed too?

Criticism for PSC It came already assembled, and I'm not feeling replacing it, although I have tons of the Revell .50cals from their Ardennes set (a really lovely kit by the way, the next US platoon I'll do will probably be for the Bulge).

Here is a pic of Valiant compared with Esci And Revell....the PSC (vehicle crew) figures I have had in my hand were same height as the latter two but less thin, so kind of in between  those and Valiant

http://www.miniatures.de/britain/esci-valiant-miniatures-revell-scale-comparison.jpg

Sadly the two don't mix at all. I was considering giving some carbines and Thompsons from the Valiant set, but nah...

Weirdly enough the Bazookas are the exact same size from both kits. I'll dig out my Hasegawa US Infantry Combat Teams to get some Tommyguns and Garand, plus I have some more from an unknown sprue...that was really helpful for doing Airfix Paras as it had small-ish 60mm mortars and BARs, something both Airfix and Matchbox really hates.

I couldn't make much progress besides cutting the bases and mounting the casualties and remaining teams on them, except for the mortar...we had a game of Warhammer Quest with some friends, and got a bit tired.

[vodkafan]

Thanks. The Valiant mortar is the 60mm, correct. And the so-called medium mortar in the PSC set is like...a weird 60mm mortar injected with growth hormons to give birth to a godless abomination.

 

I am thinking about using the Westwind US medium mortars....

[zippyfusenet]

...an unknown sprue...that was really helpful for doing Airfix Paras as it had small-ish 60mm mortars and BAR...

I'll bet that was the old Nitto US Infantry sprue. It's so old that it's not even listed on Plastic Soldier Review. The figures are mostly hard-plastic copies of Airfix USMC and British Paras, with extra infantry weapons and a couple of 37mm AT guns. Fujimi took over the Nitto product line and re-issued the kits:

http://henk.fox3000.com/Fujimi/76070/04.jpg

[zirrian]

...an unknown sprue...that was really helpful for doing Airfix Paras as it had small-ish 60mm mortars and BAR...

I'll bet that was the old Nitto US Infantry sprue. It's so old that it's not even listed on Plastic Soldier Review. The figures are mostly hard-plastic copies of Airfix USMC and British Paras, with extra infantry weapons and a couple of 37mm AT guns. Fujimi took over the Nitto product line and re-issued the kits:

http://henk.fox3000.com/Fujimi/76070/04.jpg

That's it! I've been looking at the Fujimi sprues, but somehow missed this. A really useful sprue if I might say - I might pick up some from my favourite Tokyo-based shop from eBay...I wanted to grab a few kits from Fujimi anyways

[zirrian]

Sorry for the subpar quality, sadly it's getting dark really early.



Everything's based, and I've decided not to add anything with Greenstuff for now. 57 figures if I counted correctly incl. the 3 casualties.

[zirrian]

Well, as I don't feel like priming today, I finished the three vehicles shown on the tray...







Hope you like 'em.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Very good.

[zirrian]

Well, it's December, so - Week 0, Day 1, status report:



The whole affair is primed. I call this week zero because there are exactly four more weeks of December after this to paint it all up, so these three days will be kind of a warm up. I'll do the bases (without the static grass), and probably minor colors like Olive Drab or dark grays for guns. The .50cal, a single rifleman and the casualties are kinda like bonus figures that are not part of the plan, but hopefully can do them. As for the rest, the exact list with color coding because I love color coding:
Platoon HQ - 1st Lt. +1 rifleman
Forward Observer - 2 men with a radio
Medic - one man with a pistol
Bazooka Team 1 - 2 men with a Bazooka
Bazooka Team 2 - 2 men with a Bazooka
Sniper Team - 2 men, one sniper rifle, one SMG
MMG Team 1 - 3 men with a .30cal
MMG Team 2 - 3 men with a .30cal
MMG Team 3 - 3 men with a .30cal
Mortar Team - 3 men with a 81mm mortar
Rifle Squad 1 - 10 men, 1 SMG, 1 BAR, 8 riflemen
Rifle Squad 2 - 10 men, 1 SMG, 1 BAR, 8 riflemen
Rifle Squad 3 - 10 men, 1 SMG, 1 BAR, 8 riflemen

Also, made a list for vehicles as well. For a 2k list, I need:
3 M4A1 (76) - two done
2 M5A1 Stuarts - all done
1 M4 Mortar Halftrack - needs to be assembled, Science Treasury kit, original from Hasegawa I think
3 M4A3 tanks - Armourfast, assembled, needs to be painted
1 M7 Priest - done, need to make crew from PSC heavy weapons set

Also, I'll need to get a bunch of stowage for them - even for the painted ones, as I did them when I had no stowage. And I hope superglue will be strong enough and I won't need to rub the paint off from the vehicle. As for sources, I'm aware of Early War Miniatures and Steel72, possibly Value Gear Detail and SgtsMess, if anyone knows any other good sources for allied stowage, don't hesitate to tell me.

[vodkafan]

I do like to see a Man With A Plan....

[zirrian]

Week 0, Day 1



Because my social life is generally nonexistant because I enjoy sitting at home on a Saturday night, I did some painting. Made all the bases (static grass and tufts added when the figures are varnished), applied basecoats to roughly the third of the platoon, plus painted every Olive Drab part like helmets, mortar, MG tripods and so forth. What's missing for the first third is the basecoat for the webbing, but I might do that today...

Also, after December I might transform this thread into a general "zirrian paints 1/72" thread.

[vodkafan]

Good start. Going out on Saturday night is over rated, anyway..

[zirrian]

I wanted to try out the colors I planned to use, so painted up the Platoon Commander's assistant.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Good start, and I like your plan.

[zirrian]

Sorry for the long delay, thankfully managed to make some progress.



This week, I wanted to paint one squad, HQ and three MGs - well, they are all done! Only varnish and basing left, plus some touch ups that I can do once I get better lighting...a disadvantage of winter is how early it becomes dark. Once they are deemed finished, I'll take better photos of the completed lads

And since I finished early, I might treat myself with the assembly of a kit purchased this week, namely this:



For me it feels like a vehicle belonging to the PTO, but as far as I'm concerned it was used in Europe as well.

[zirrian]

Despite the dying interest...

The ACE model is not exactly the greatest, but it will do. Don't think I'll finish it this week, maybe at the end of this project...