28mm late war British & Germans

[carlos marighela]

Agreed but Commonwealth armies have always been shit at handing out gongs, especially to ORs. Quota system in play.

[Shahbahraz]

Agreed but Commonwealth armies have always been shit at handing out gongs, especially to ORs. Quota system in play.

I've always said the dead cert way to win a medal in the British Army is to rescue your Rupert.. Officer witness .. tick...    encourage the other oiks to do the right thing.. tick...  etc

[FreakyFenton]

Hadn't come across that before, interesting info.
Just did a google search for '5th KOSB Tiger tank' and found this :

http://overlord-wot.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-battle-of-forrest-damp.html

Am I mistaken or isn't this also mentioned by Peter White in his book "With the Scots through Europe", I seem to recall him mentioning a similiar encounter. I do have one in mind, where he and someone manage to avoid a Tiger from firing by shooting the barrel with a PIAT, but I seem to also recall this story. I could be mistaken though!

[Jemima Fawr]

That was my point. If the officer got an MC, then the private who did the same should have got an MM, instead he got a DCM.

The DCM is a higher award than an MC or MM.

[Rickf]

Ash, what impresses me most is that you've separated out the leather jerkin wearers into a separate unit from the windproof gang. So simple and obvious, yet I never thought of it.

[Ash]

Ash, what impresses me most is that you've separated out the leather jerkin wearers into a separate unit from the windproof gang. So simple and obvious, yet I never thought of it.

Funnily enough you weren't the only one who never thought of it...!
I think you may be crediting my grey matter with more acumen than it deserves, but thank you all the same.
It wasn't my intension, but I do have enough in BD for most of a section.
I just separated this lot as they were the ones in need of a uniform upgrade ( badges on the right sleeve).


Think I'm done swearing at the 6 pounder, although I do need to touch up the edge of the base.












Whole thing:



Next up; found this Warlord Commando MMG on eBay. Added Denison bits. Bloke with Tommy Gun will get added to the SAS group, the rest will go with the Arnhem lot.

[fred]

Great work on the 6pdr - it could easily be a modelling diorama rather than a wargames peice

[CapnJim]

Yeah - they all look good.  Well done!

[Jemima Fawr]

Flippin' excellent! 

[carlos marighela]

Nothing says Christmas at John Lewis more than a 6 pounder in the snow.

That really is superb. Individually each piece is gorgeous but the sum of its parts takes it to the sublime. I've seen competition winning 1/35 dioramas at modelling shows that don't come close to that.

Was there a particular trick to get the heavy snow build up onto the hedge? Keen to try this on my newly acquired pine tree collection.

[Ash]

Great work on the 6pdr - it could easily be a modelling diorama rather than a wargames peice

Thanks fred.

Yeah - they all look good.  Well done!

Cheers Jim.

Flippin' excellent! 

Thanks, and thanks for the info re KOSB AT platoon.

Nothing says Christmas at John Lewis more than a 6 pounder in the snow.

That really is superb. Individually each piece is gorgeous but the sum of its parts takes it to the sublime. I've seen competition winning 1/35 dioramas at modelling shows that don't come close to that.

Was there a particular trick to get the heavy snow build up onto the hedge? Keen to try this on my newly acquired pine tree collection.

Thanks Carlos, much appreciated.

The snow is just a mix of Woodland Scenic 'soft flake snow', PVA and water.
On the hedge it all turned bright green. I wasn't too surprised, assuming the colour leached out of the green flock stuff (Luke's APS mid green fine 2 in 1 flock).
On the ground that had Vallejo 'thick mud' acrylic paste, it went a mix of green and pissed on snow. I'd had that happen before, so had chucked some varnish over the mud. Didn't work.
I scraped most of that off, tried a new base layer of Vallejo environment snow, sort of thick textured paint (acrylic again) as a base layer, still went green. Then slopped on some MIG acrylic resin, made a nice wet look to the ground and set fairly hard. New snow' over the top, still not quite white.
I eventually applied a liberal amount of Gorilla super glue, which I noticed dried slightly cloudy, on top of the hedge and various parts of the ground. It dried looking like ice (bonus points) and made a good seal between the flock/ mud and the next batch of snow. Once it dried any really dodgy bits of green I just slapped some white paint on, then another layer of the Woodland scenic concoction. Which is why it looks a bit thick, but at least it's not green...

If I was going to do this again (snow on a hedge), with the same materials. I think I'd cover the top of the hedge with neat PVA, to let it set fairly solid, then seal it with the super glue (bonus ice effect), then the snow stuff on top of that.


Also added some range thingies to the Arnhem mortar pit:

[carlos marighela]

Sounds like a real labour of love. Thanks for the tips.

Mortar pit is looking grand.  Just be aware that's not how aiming posts are set up. Presumably they have just dumped them there in their rush to get the mortar into action. Top marks for their inclusion, rarely do you see gamers put such items on the table.

[fred]

Great persistence with the snow - it has come out great - and the super glue ice effects really work well, give the look of snow slightly melting round the edges.

I too found issues with ground coverage showing through the snow flock - I went with painting the area to get the snow white. But this was over the basic brown base, separate to the any flocked areas.

[Ash]

Sounds like a real labour of love. Thanks for the tips.

Mortar pit is looking grand.  Just be aware that's not how aiming posts are set up. Presumably they have just dumped them there in their rush to get the mortar into action. Top marks for their inclusion, rarely do you see gamers put such items on the table.

In all honesty I haven't a clue how these things are used, my only experience with a mortar is dropping a couple of inert drill rounds down a tube on a cadet camp in Germany back in the mid '80's.
Only added them as I noticed some in this pic, still not sure of their correct name.



Didn't have any thinner rods, hence the stout look...

Great persistence with the snow - it has come out great - and the super glue ice effects really work well, give the look of snow slightly melting round the edges.

I too found issues with ground coverage showing through the snow flock - I went with painting the area to get the snow white. But this was over the basic brown base, separate to the any flocked areas.

I should have known better.
First figures I added the snow to had been based with the Vallejo thick mud, but they had then been sitting in a box for several months before I got around to the snow. I'm assuming in that time it fully cured and set hard. The snow stayed white, so thought nothing of it. Later additions where the 'mud' was still relatively fresh went green. So from then on I just stopped putting the mud on bases that were going to end up 'wintery'.

With this 6 pounder I think I was just still in 'Arnhem' autopilot mode, and made something that looked quite summery; then the light bulb went on and realised it should be snowy to fit in with the rest...
It's only these two products that I've noticed a self inflicted issue. Static grass, tall shrubbery, pigments, washes etc don't seem to leach any colour, fully cured and dry mud, not a problem. The green flock should have been a red flag, as it's literally marinaded in some sort of ink/paint, so the colour soaking into the wet snow should have been expected.
 
The icy looking super glue was an unexpected bonus, not sure if all superglues do that, the one I used was Gorilla 'Super Glue' impact tough formula. It was also quite cold when I did this, not sure if that was a factor.

All good fun and part of the learning curve, some bits are just a tad steeper than others...

[Rickf]

Only added them as I noticed some in this pic, still not sure of their correct name.

Advanced 81mm instructor to the rescue :)They're called aiming posts mate, they're still used nowadays and the design hasn't changed since that photo was taken. Basically you take a bearing from the sight on the mortar to the aiming post and adjust the bearing scale on the sight to read whatever that bearing is. Then the sight can be used like a compass to drop rounds on the correct bearing. It's a bit more complex, but that'll do for now. They should be set out about 20 meters in front of the mortar, obviously in a pit you aren't going to see them, so they come with a bracket to connect 2 together so it's double the height. In this case the pit is so deep that they probably still wouldn't see them. In such cases you can put them on the side of the pit and use them as normal,  it's not accurate but when firing at enemy who are very close....