My Ongoing WW1 Project: UPDATE on stolen Figs

[Doc Twilight]

Some images with of the armor I've done so far. The photos were taken with my new Iphone, which I'm still toying around with. Not the best photos in the world, but I have tweaked them to tone down the excessive bright tones that seem to be common with this type of photo. (this is why the soldier may seem unusually dark in some images, even for a man from Portugal) All models are marketed as being 28mm or 1/56 scale. I have included a Great War miniature in most photos to give a rough idea of size. Great war miniatures are around 30-32mm tall.

MkIV Hermaphrodite "Mithras"  (Old Glory)

Right View, showing Female Sponson



Left View, showing Male Sponson




The model went together relatively easy, and was generally free of the flash that plagues most Old Glory models. Can be built as a MKIV "Male", "Female", or "Hermaphrodite", which is an advantage over having to buy  multiple kits. With a little ingenuity, you could easily set up the sponsons with rare earth magnets. Not terribly crazy about the size. It does work, but it could stand to be slightly larger. As with most WW1 vehicles made by OG, I suspect that this is actually a "Large 25mm" rather than a true 28mm vehicle. It scales up fine next to the Brigade Whippet, but it is a bit too small next to the Brigade Schneider, which should be shorter and smaller, if historical photographs are any indication. Included some odd pieces that didn't seem to go anywhere, but managed to figure out most. A couple, which I suspect are post war modifications or badly sculpted attempts at ablative armor and pieces, were left out.
 

Whippet Medium Tank "Meteor" (Brigade Games)

Left View:


Right View:


A beautiful model, easy to put together, painted up beautifully. The pictures don't do it justice. She is painted to match an actual photo, in which the only identification stripe is in an odd position and the name and serial numbers are hand painted in yellow. Only thing changed was the actual name. A good size for the scale. The Hotchkiss gun design used by Brigade seems to have been improved in this instance, in that the mgs are relatively robust and don't bend quite as easily as they do on the Schneider, where they are slightly oversized and cause anal retentive gamers such as myself much annoyance. Had to use the photo for reference for a couple odd pieces that didn't seem to fit anywhere, but otherwise, a good model.

Erhardt Armored Car "Medusa" (Black Army)

One of my favorite models in our collection. Gun shutters can be modelled open, closed, "slid up" (some models mounted them on rails, so that they could be slid open as well as opened like shutters), or simply left out all together, and the guns can be modeled in numerous positions. Painted this for Mina's Germans. The turret could rotate, but did so slowly, so it was more common for crews to find a comfortable position for the turret, and for the gunner to mount multiple machine guns in the turret rather than attempting to track a target with the turret.

The paint scheme was based on a commonly cited illustration, which itself was apparently based upon a black and white photo showing faint traces of camouflage. I like the way it turned out. The illustration itself shows no iron crosses, but Mina wanted at least one, so I took a cue from another vehicle, where only a single iron cross was mounted, between the front and left turret MG ports.

Left View:


Right View:


M15 Romfell (Black Army) My favorite WW1 armored car. A real beauty of a design. Originally, it was believed that only two or three of these were built, but it has recently been proposed that as many as six or seven were completed and used by the Austro-Hungarian forces. In a 1919 statement to the League of Nations, the Republic of Hungary claimed that it had 39 (!) complete examples in inventory, which might explain what happened to the numerous Romfells ordered in mid 1918 for the planned Piave offensive and reported "Incomplete" at the time of the armistice.

The two or three Romfells we're certain about were all hand built, and differed primarily in the truck chassis upon which each was based. The initial Romfell (No.1) was based upon the frame of a Lancia truck, which quite heavy, compared to the latter two, at least one of which was based on an Austro-Daimler chassis. The paint job is based upon an interpretation of one of the more common black and white images circulated of "No.1". No.1 had no recorded nickname, but the name "ROMFELL" was handpainted on the left side of the engine block.

There was only one weapon, a Schwartzlosse MMG, which was capable of being traversed a full 360, with 180 degrees of elevation for anti-aircraft fire. (Highest elevation required the opening of the gunner's hatch.

View of the Romfell from left.



Well, there you have it, the first photos of the project, with a hint at the look of the Portuguese. Hopefully the better camera will resurface soon, but at least you have an idea of what I've been doing, and I'm at least proving I'm getting stuff done;)

-Doc

[Plynkes]

Aha, progress! That's what we want to see. Unfortunately Doc, British tanks weren't green in the Great War. Early on they had various disruptive camo patterns (some may have gone into action in the original tank colour of battleship grey), and for 1917 and 1918 they were brown (sorry for being Private Picky of the Picky Patrol there  ). Still, never mind. Nice to see your project is moving in the right direction.

On the whole I think I prefer the Brigade Whippet to the 1st Corps one. Something in the 1st Corps proportions looks a bit off, though I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

Looking forward to seeing more of the Portuguese infantry.

[Danrit]

The WW1 tanks I've seen in the flesh are green (the Imperial War Museum and Bovington). The ones I've seen in drawings and paintings are brown.

[Plynkes]

Those green museum paint jobs are just that: Museum paint jobs. They are probably why we WWI gamers all paint our tanks green, but to the best of my knowledge it is incorrect for the period (Osprey and those nice folks at Landships seem to agree on this).

[Doc Twilight]

D'oh! Cor Blimey. Etc.

You know, I so like the paint job on the Whippet that I may actually leave it as is, Plynk, but I think I may attempt to re-do the MkIV, anyway in Brown or Grey, as per your suggestion. The color of the Whippet I based it on is a dark green - in this case, "Firefly", in the Brussels Army Museum, which supposedly hasn't been re-touched since it was knocked out by German anti-tank fire. But it could very easily have been repainted many times over, especially for a vehicle that old.

What shade of brown are we talking about! Dark brown? Khaki? A lighter shade? Would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

I haven't seen the First Corps model in the flesh to give it a good lookover, although Aircav's recent work is very nice, indeed. I have to say though that the Brigade Whippet was a joy to assemble and to paint. Just seemed to take the paint naturally!

Found the "good" camera, although I'm too tired at the moment to be bothered taking pictures. Will do that tomorrow, and will hopefully have some images of the Pork n' Beans for you lot, then.

In related news, I finally managed to get my hands on the Osprey "German Panzers, 1914-1918." There is an interesting section on "other" German armored vehicles, which includes the Flakwagon. This interests me, since there's a scenario for Mud and Blood based upon an historic incident in which the Flakwagon was used as an anti-tank weapon. Perhaps some interesting vehicles to be released there, if folks would be interested in obtaining them (or the other various A7V variants that actually saw service.) At any rate, the book will be a good reference for me when I paint up my German beute-panzer MKIV.

-Doc

[Plynkes]

I'd love a kit of the Flakpanzer, and I really like the Gelandwagen, too.

I wouldn't worry about the colour. I wasn't meaning to get you to change anything, just thought you'd want to know. The colour has been described as "dark khaki" but that really isn't any help, as "khaki" is just about the most imprecise term in the modeller's lexicon. 


The only colour photos I have seen are, of course, museum-painted exhibits! So we're back at square one there. But, for what they are worth, here are a couple of pics:


May not resemble colour of actual historical tanks.

[Doc Twilight]

No worries. I really am not completely satisfied with the paint job on "Mithras," so I may give the brown color a try. I'd like to be as accurate as I can be, where possible. Thanks for the images. I have a color that will match that very well, I suspect.

I agree, the Flakpanzer and the Gelandwagen are very interesting pieces. I wish the Zaloga book had gone into slightly more detail about their use; the main focus of the book seems to be what a failure the A7V was;)

At any rate, will try to get some better photos today, and I may look into re-working that MkIV.

-Alex

[Doc Twilight]

Well, the camera is -finally- back in my position. I thought I had it on Saturday, but I only had the case. Found it under a pile of ship cards for Federation Commander... just happened to be going through them as I'm finishing an Andromedan fleet at the moment, and... wow... talk about a totally unrelated topic;)

Camera has to charge, but wanted to share a couple thoughts, quickly, for those following, namely on the subject of Mark IVs, specifically: Plynkes comments regarding the proper color for Mark IV tanks in British service, and the size of Brigade Miniatures' Mark IV "Male" compared to the Old Glory Mark IV. This evening, I am hoping to finally get some real photos here for your perusal, but, barring that...

In regards to the color of the vehicle itself in British service, I went ahead and repainted Mithras, as per Plynkes' suggestion of a more appropriate shade. So happens that Army Painter "Leather Brown" color primer is a very good approximation for the shade of Brown displayed in several photos, so doing the first coat was relatively easy. Dry brushed that with some Privateer Paints "Gun Corps Brown" mixed with a tiny bit of white (GW Skull White, specifically). Brought out the details of the sculpt nicely. Re-did the other bits, added some mud and the other things that make tanks so much fun, finished with some Brigade Games decals, and quite satisfied with the result.  Now, as to the subject of size, I had something of a surprise this week...

I received the Brigade MkIV "Male" on Monday. Very nice kit. Slightly more flash and clean up to do than the Brigade Whippet. Comparatively speaking, the Whippet seems to be a slightly more recent sculpt/cast. Both are beautifully done, absolutely worth the money, etc., but the Whippet is just -slightly- more crisp. Can't explain it. More of a "feeling" to the models, if you follow me.
At any rate, the MkIV is very easily built, including a very clever system for keeping the gun mounts mobile, rather than having them glued and fixed in one piece. Nice idea. I made a minor modification to the Brigade model, as I intend to use it as a beutepanzer (or, for those unclear with the terminology, a German operated vehicle.) I removed the Hotchkiss MGs and replaced them with three Maxim barrels (I have some extra Filatovs laying about that I pulled from Black Army stock as part of another project.) As German MKIVs could often be rearmed with these weapons, I thought it was a nice, not terribly complicated touch, and they do look quite nice, if I do say so myself.

But what surprised me about the Brigade MkIV was that its size was -not-, as I had suspected, larger than that of the Old Glory MkIV. Indeed, the two are barely distinguishable, size wise, and could easily fit into the same unit on the tabletop, if necessary. The main difference between the two, in terms of size, has to do with the size of the guns. The Old Glory 6 Pounders are, to my mind, far too long. This is not something most people would really notice, but I maintain that they seem to long for their own good, compared to period photographs. This is doubly reinforced by the Brigade MKIV, whose sponson mounted guns are, comparatively, just right, in my opinion. This is not a major problem, and I've never claimed to be rivet counter, but I am an admitted tread head, so I tend to notice such minor complaints.

The real test is comparison to a miniature, not simply side by side comparison. Once again, the two would appear to be almost indistinguishable in terms of size. They scale up just about the same compared to a handy Great War British WW1 figure I had lying about. Interestingly, the side hatches on the sponsons are -exactly- the same size; I had used these hatches on the Old Glory model as a gauge of how large the tank "really was" compared to the size of scale claimed.

So, that's another photo to add to the list, for those interested. We'll see how they look next to each other in a digital camera, and get a look at that my normal human eyes cannot. Perhaps you'll agree.

-Doc

[Doc Twilight]

Alright, the first of some proper pictures. Waiting for the matte coat to dry on my Portuguese, but I do have some items to whet your whistle.

MkIV 12977 "Mithras", Hermaphrodite type.

Repainted in more appropriate period colors. This is an Old Glory model, 28mm scale.

Front view of Mithras, showing the front mounted HMG; the Old Glory model is provided with maxim guns, but so far as I know, most MkIVs used by the Allies were equipped with Hotchkiss guns. Unlike the Brigade model, there are no depressions in the model for placing the machine gun to the fore of the model - these help to keep the guns on. Instead, there's just a flat surface with a vague raised area for the gun. The machine gun positions are either non-extant or very shallow on the Sponsons. Not entirely thrilled with this, as the machine guns on the Sponsons have a habit of getting knocked off.



Left (male) sponson. Six pound gun, with supporting machine gun. As stated earlier, I think that the barrels are a bit too long, but it's a matter of taste, really.



Right (female) sponson. Dual machine guns. Nothing terribly fancy about this. Gets the job done. The Germans initially captured a number of Female vehicles but were not entirely impressed with them; as a result, several "Female" variants were converted by having their machine gun sponsons replaced or, failing this, replacing the bow mounted machine gun with an Anti-Tank Rifle.



Finally, a rear view of the vehicle, showing some of the detail in that area, and some of the lovely mud on the tracks. To be honest, I slightly prefer the tracks on the Old Glory model to those on the Brigade model. They are a little more realistic looking, in terms of sculpt. But again, minor quibble, and your mileage may vary.



More images coming soon, but hope you enjoy these in the meanwhile.

-Doc

[Doc Twilight]

At last, images of my Portuguese. I'll display these in a rough sort of order. (Command and support, followed by rifle sections.)
I'm rather proud of how these turned out. Basic uniform color is Army Painter "Uniform Grey" drybrushed with GW Spacewolves Grey.
Helmets are typically Vallejo Military Green; Helmet Covers are either Vallejo Khaki or GW Space Wolves Grey. Camo is a combination of several Vallejo shades.

Portuguese Command Section: Two officers, Senior NCO, and British Liason Officer. In TFL terms, these are "Big Men." My general intent is that the Portuguese officers will be average at best, the NCOs fairly decent, the British Liason officer good, since the sections that tended to fight well were those who were well organized by their NCOs, with the assistance of trusted British Liason officers.



Portuguese Lewis Gun Section: Two guns, two loaders. The Portuguese had a chronic shortage of Lewis Guns when the German offensive of April, 1918, hit their section of the Western Front. This was corrected as the war went on, but by that point, Portuguese units had been intermingled with other Allied lines, rather than operating as one cohesive Corps.



Portuguese HMG: Again, the Portuguese were short of adequate HMG support. In theory, each Rifle Platoon was supposed to have an HMG section of anywhere from two to four guns. I have given them a single HMG, as I feel this represents the reality a little better. May add to this later if I feel the situation is too hard for them. Notably, the  Portuguese were well regarded for their machine gunnery skills, even after Lys (many of the Portuguese heroes of that engagement were machine gunners and crewmen); it's ironic that they were short of weapons in an area in which they had shown an considerable skill during training exercises with the British.



Portuguese Stokes Mortar: The Portuguese had a fairly large number of these as organic fire support, about one or two to a Platoon, which was about average for the time.



Portuguese "Toffee Apple" Mortar. The British had relegated these to Commonwealth and Allied forces, and by early 1918, most were used by the Portuguese, Australians, and others. The shells were painted in various colors to identify their purpose. These particular shells, painted off white and edged in light green, represent a particular form of high explosive shell (and I regret that I don't have my notes to state which one - a form of ammonite, I believe.) If memory serves me correctly, solid green shells were used for gas, solid red shells were used for smoke. There was another high explosive round, also off white, with a blue band (again, name escapes me, but I believe that it was a derivative of chordite).



More images of the troops soon (getting a little late here.)

-Alex

[Doc Twilight]

Yet more images of my Portuguese. You'll note that only the NCOs have helmet camo. This was something I devised as an easy means of identifying Squad Leaders at a glance. Officers are generally clear enough, but NCOs sometimes have a habit of "blending in" with their units, particularly in games that use "leader based movement." This way, whether or not the confusion is intentional or not by a player, it's immediately obvious whether the proper NCO figure is being used for various actions.

Based upon the photos I've seen, helmet camo doesn't seem to have been terribly common with the Portuguese, which is just as well, for my purposes.

Those more observant will note that few of the NCOs/Squad Leaders/Officers were modeled with covered helmets. The reason for this is that the flash on these particular models seems to be some of the worst, from Great War, particularly in the area of the face. Although I used a -few- for the 'character' types, I tried to avoid using them, as I wanted the more crisply defined castings to stand out as characters.


No.1 Rifle Section



Squad Leader/NCO, No. 1 Section



No.2 Rifle Section



Squad Leader/NCO, No. 2 Section



No. 3 Rifle Section



Squad Leader/NCO, No. 3 Section



No. 4 Rifle Section



Squad Leader/NCO, No. 4 Section




More images in the next post. Trying to cut this up a bit to reduce loading times.

-Doc

[Doc Twilight]

Bomber Section (12 Men) and some selected rank and file closeups. These photos are followed by a few thoughts.

Portuguese Bomber Section (Historically, about half should be equipped with grenade launchers, but alas, one is limited by the poses provided by a given manufacturer. As such, the mix is slightly uneven, but works for our purposes.)


Portuguese Bomber Section Leader (This pose is wearing a helmet cover. One of the few poses with helmet covers in the pack whose face was not at least partly mauled by the flash.)


Some closeups of selected troopers.

"Good lord, Slackbladder, that Portuguese fellow is a blonde!"


One of my favorites. I think the five o'clock shadow turned out very well on this figure.


Another good one. Almost identical to an NCO pose shown earlier.


Well, this was a very large chunk of the project, and I am pleased to say that it turned out well. Learned several lessons, but the most major of them was that I will never use Great War miniatures again if I can help it. While I think they are beautiful poses, with loads of character, the casting quality is simply -abysmal-, and cleaning up these figs took entirely too much time. Almost destroyed my enthusiasm for the project.

I'm in the business too, so I understand that casting perfectly is difficult, and that mistakes happen, but at least 75% of these figures were warped or otherwise covered in flash, requiring a file, a hobby knife, and time (a bit of patience helped, too). In some cases, the flash was so bad that a Dremel had to be used. The casting quality really did bother me. But then again, the sculptors seem to have lost interest in this period, and are now doing the Crimean War (?), so I suppose I'll have to move on to other companies, anyway.

There are a few things I'd probably change, were I do do a Portuguese range, or if I had the skill to do wide scale green-stuff based modification (I'm working on it, but not quite there yet).

First, a few would have to have the distinctive Portuguese "ridged" helmet. This was not terribly common on the Western Front, but it was used, and it should show up. It'd be a good way to denote veteran troops, NCOs, etc.

Second, as per Plynkes suggestion, I would likely alter the web gear. The Portuguese rig has only four pouches a side, as compared to five a side. Not a huge detail, but nice to have right.

Third, I'd cut down on the number of leather jerkins, and increase the number of overcoats, particularly for the NCOs/Officers. In the case of the former, the Portuguese -did- use a few, but I've seen perhaps two or three in the sketches and photos I've managed to lay my hands on. In the case of the latter, the Portuguese had a distinctive, French cut trench coat which was very popular, particularly during the colder weather on the Front, for which the Portuguese were otherwise very ill prepared. Finally, the NCOs/Officers were often issued a distinctive black leather coat, which is rather sharp looking, and would be nice for occasional leader poses.

Finally, I'd have the tunic cut properly. The Portuguese uniform  tunic had a stand up collar, as opposed to a stand and fall collar. While it is not quite correct to say that the Portuguese tunic was "identical" to the French coat, it was, in retrospect, more similar to the French cut tunic than that of the British, because of this detail. Again, not a big deal, but worth getting right in a dedicated Portuguese range.

The project continues. Hope to have some of those tank comparison photos I spoke of soon (waiting for the German MkIV to dry, which will take a while, as I've used a decal solution on it.) I do need to take a photo of some bare metal figs, as well, for those considering the sizes of various figures.

-Doc

p.s.

Someone asked me what rifle these fellows are carrying. They are armed with Enfields. The Portuguese arrived in France armed with Portuguese type Mausers, but these were quickly exchanged for Enfields. Supply was cited as the chief problem, and I have no doubt about this, but I suspect that politics also played a role.

[scarabminiatures]

Well the project is looking good so far. With an obvious bias I look forward to seeing some pictures of the Scarab Austrians 

We did get asked (once) to do a range of Portuguese (we are doing a British range), however I do have to say I like the colour schemes here so I will be revisiting some of the comments and references mentioned in more detail when I come to paint some up.

I noted the comments on casting of the Great War figs and its been a common observation on several forums. I will pass it back to the companies concerned again because it spoils a nice range which we also sell.

Thank you!

[Doc Twilight]

Thanks for your comments. Hopefully Great War will decide to cast up with more quality in the future. But, again, they don't seem particularly interested in WW1 anymore, which is a shame.

Hope to have the Austrians up soon. Haven't had a good opportunity to take multiple shots. However, they have turned out quite well, I think.

.......

Here are some shots of MkIV Beutepanzer "Anubis." Painted based upon schemes recommended in the Osprey "German Panzer, 1914-1918," a decent resource though, as I said before, it spends a great deal of time on the A7V and very little on other vehicles, by comparison. This particular casting is the Brigade Games MKIV Male, which, like the Old Glory kit, is a mixed Resin/Pewter piece.

The decals are a bit odd looking, as I applied some Micro-Sol to them and the weather hasn't  been cooperative enough to allow for matte sealing (as a result, the Micro-Sol hasn't completely done its job of dissolving the decal film.)

In the next post, I will have some comparison shots with the Old Glory MkIV, along with some measurements and comments.

Front View:


Profile View:


Rear View:


All and all a very pleasant kit to put together. The machine guns are smaller Black Army Maxims, surplus from Filatov kits and used to replace the standard Hotchkiss pieces. I chose not to include the top rails, as these are not always seen on MkIVs, captured examples or otherwise. The paint scheme is fairly simple, and uses Vallejo paints, with Tamiya pigments and a Tamiya "Mud" stick.

More in the next post.

[Doc Twilight]

Comparison of Old Glory and Brigade Games 28mm MkIV kits.

As I discussed last week, I would like to take a moment to talk about the differences between the Old Glory and Brigade Games 28mm MkIV kits for WW1. You may recall that, when I began this project some time ago, I was somewhat disappointed by the size of the Old Glory MkIV - namely, it was my opinion at the time that it seemed (slightly) undersized, based upon period photos and the like.

About two weeks ago, I began to draw to a close with the painting and prepping of my Portuguese, and went ahead to order my Western Front Austro-Hungarian forces and their requisite support. I decided that they would have a German operated "BeutePanzer" (or "Looted Tank"), in addition to one of my Black Army Romfells (in a blatantly ahistorical move on my part, since none of the three or so completed actually made it to France.)

Let me first begin by saying that both are fine kits. The Old Glory kit retails at $30US (unless you are a member of the "Old Glory Army"), and the Brigade Games kit is available for $52US. They are "mixed media" resin and metal, primarily with resin hulls and tracks and metal details. The primary difference between the two is that the sponsons vary in terms of material used - the Old Glory sponsons are metal, with metal fittings, while the Brigade Games sponsons are resin, with metal fittings. The machine guns used here are my own Black Army machine guns - in this case, metal barrels, though we also do resin machine guns for some of the vehicle kits.

The hulls are both resin, but in the case of the Old Glory hull, this is a hollow, box like structure, whilst the Brigade hull is a solid resin piece. This gives the Brigade Games model slightly more "heft." The only possible problem I can see with the hollow hull of the Old Glory piece is that a model crashing into a particularly deep trench or crater on the tabletop, or perhaps crossing a high piece of terrain, might expose the hollow space beneath. Not a big deal, but it could possibly ruin the "visual experience" of a game for some folks.

Old Glory makes only one MkIV kit - and it includes sponsons for Male (artillery sponson) or Female (machine gun sponson) versions - this means that it can also be built as a Hermaphrodite (one artillery sponson, one machine gun sponson). Brigade, meanwhile, makes one standard hull, but one must purchase a specific kit for each of the types (Male, Female, and Hermaphrodite). It has been suggested that one could, theoretically, build the sponsons and magnetize them for easy "swapping out"; I suppose this could theoretically be possible with strong enough magnets and appropriate modification of the hull. I'm not sure that would be a necessary step with the Brigade kit, however, as they do not sell the sponsons separately (so far as I know. Lon can correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure.)

In terms of size, the male sponsons of both models are remarkably similar, if not indistinguishable. One area of considerable difference, however, is the size of the gun. Put simply - the Old Glory 6 pounder barrels are longer than those of the Brigade Games 6 pounder mounting. The Brigade Games barrels are 1.5cm long; the Old Glory barrels, meanwhile, are a massive 2.2cm; the Brigade games barrels are notably thicker, meanwhile, whilst the Old Glory barrels are thinner. Based upon my analysis of photographs and my basic understanding of the vehicles of the time, the Old Glory barrel is oversized. That doesn't mean it will make anyone but a rivet counter frustrated enough to refuse to play; it does mean, however, that you are playing with a slightly oversized weapon.

Of course, one could take advantage of the situation. Did the sculptors intend to represent different versions of the weapon? Probably not the intention, although one could theoretically make a point of using Old Glory sponsons for "Allied" tanks and Brigade sponsons for "Central Powers" tanks, as many (but not all) CP tanks had their 6 pound sponsons replaced with 57mm sponsons. A silver lining maybe?

I regret that I cannot compare the size of the female sponsons, but I do not currently own a Brigade games "Female" MkIV. I would be interested to see how the Brigade female sponson compares to the Old Glory female sponson, however. One final note on the sponsons - the Brigade male gun mounts are specifically designed to rotate. This is very nice feature. The Old Glory model has no such provision, and the guns are fixed in place.

Getting back to the overall size of the vehicles, as I said I was under the impression that the Old Glory kit was actually "undersized,", even going so far as to say that the Old Glory vehicle may in fact be a 25mm vehicle rather than a 28mm vehicle. Imagine my surprise, then, when I measured the two models, and received the following results!

The Old Glory MkIV male is approximately 5cm high, from lowest point of the track to the roof of the driver's position. The hull is approximately 12cm long. The rear access hatch on the vehicle is 1.5 centimeters high.

The Brigade Games model, meanwhile, is approximately 4.7cm high from lowest point of the track to the roof of the driver's position. Hull is approximately 11cm long. The rear hatch is 1.3 centimeters high.

This means that the Old Glory model is actually -larger- in all dimensions. This is somewhat notable in the comparison shots that follow.


You can see here that the Old Glory MkIV is clearly the larger of the two. However, there are two further details evident. The first is that the Brigade Games model is closer to the ground - note the larger amount of space under the Old Glory hull. It's also fairly obvious here that the track plates are somewhat wider on the Old Glory model.


Here is a profile comparison shot of the two vehicles. Taking into consideration that the camera's perspective makes the Brigade Games model seem artificially smaller than it actually is, it is still possible to determine that the Old Glory model is slightly longer, slightly higher. You can also see one other interesting detail - the Brigade Games model has a surplus of rivets compared to the Old Glory model. Not really something to base one's decision on, but an interesting modeling choice by both sculptors.

So much for size, what about quality?

Surprisingly, both were well cast, with good quality parts and a minimum of fuss in assembly. Both glued together well without major modification, and flash (even on the Old Glory model) was minimal. There are a few frustrating bits - the rails on both vehicles are frustratingly fragile, for example (the Old Glory rails are resin, the Brigade rails are white metal), but overall, assembly is a snap.

Painting went very well for both models. There was nothing unusual or difficult about the surfaces of the models. The Brigade vehicle has more surface detail, and drybrushing/detailing will enhance the realism of the model, but the Old Glory model isn't so plain that it looks out of place.

However, one unfortunate item has popped up in recent days, which colors my opinion of the models somewhat. Several large areas of paint have simply come off in sheets whenever the Old Glory model is handled in those areas (specifically the lower front hull area, and the roof of the driver's compartment). To be fair to myself, I thoroughly scrubbed both models, soaked them for some time, and did my best to get rid of all mold release agent. The Old Glory model was also sealed with two coats of matte sealer. So what happened? One of two things - either a chemical reaction in the resin, or a release of oils trapped in that resin which has caused the paint to "sluice off". A very unfortunate development, but something that has occurred in past when I've built model vehicles that have been treated with too much mold release compound (have had a similar problem with Battlefront aircraft, for example).

So, which is better? The painting issue aside, which is a relatively new development, either works well enough for the task at hand. The Brigade Models kit is certainly more highly detailed, and the rotating gun mounts are a nice bit of "chrome." That said, the Old Glory MkIV is slightly larger, less expensive, and (surprisingly for Old Glory) relatively well cast. Assuming that the paint issue is solved with the Old Glory model, I suspect that both will see sterling service in the battles to come.

-Doc