Two Pzkfw IV Ausf J painted twice!

I nearly finished these tanks last week but in the end, I cleaned and re-primed them and started again...let me explain the madness. I decided to give these vehicles a different colour scheme, opting for something called Ambush Camouflage. This is a hard-edged camo that started to appear on German tanks in August 1944. It consisted of the usual Green and Red/Brown stripes over Dunkelgelb with dots of opposing colours over the top. A bit complex, but considering I don't have an airbrush I thought it would be a good alternative to my previous attempts at soft-edge camo. Initially, I was reasonably happy with it, although the dots were a bit bigger than I liked. Then I made a massive tactical error. 

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I usually apply an ink wash to my models to darken shadows and, in the case of vehicles, deepen the recesses around hatches and engine grills etc. This time, for reasons even I don't understand I didn't use my normal ink but opted for Army Painter Strong Tone instead. And frankly, that ruined the models. They were way too dark and unlike regular ink, I couldn't clean away the dried excess with a wet brush. The models looked absolutely terrible and I couldn't bring myself to submit them for judging. In the end, I decided to start over so I stripped and re-base coated them. Heartbreaking, but utterly necessary!

A rather poor photo of some awful looking tanks! I couldn't submit these and just had to restart them from scratch. 

The second time around the results are much better. I have applied a much simpler hard edge camo design and my usual ink wash (Peat Brown Winsor and Newton Calligraphy Ink watered down 40%) and I am much much happier with the end results. As much as it killed me to restart these I just couldn't bear to present them in their former state. And the lesson folks is that even an experienced model painter can f-up occasionally!

The Panzer IV was an important tank, not because it was the best, but because it had such a long service life. It was continually able to be up-gunned and modified meaning it saw service through the whole of WWII in various iterations. These are the Ausf.J, the final production versions of the Panzer IV. In many ways, it was simpler than the earlier Ausf F version, in large part to speed production in the face of heavy battlefield losses against the Russians. The Ausf J was armed with the 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/48 gun and had 80mm rolled homogeneous armour on the front and 30mm on the sides. One innovation fitted to some, but not all, J's (and not on these models) was the move from solid Shutzen side plates to Drahtgeflecht Schürzen (Steel Mesh) which obviously saved weight but was found to be just as effective against shaped charge projectiles like Bazookas.

Having to clean and repaint these was a hard choice, but I was so unhappy with my first attempt I just couldn't bring myself to enter them in the Painting Challenge. I'm much happier with the second attempt and they are now ready for use.

Fellowship - Weathertop

I had already decided I wanted to end the Painting Challenge bonus rounds with a Lord of the Rings themed entry when I saw that the final theme would be 'Fellowship'. I gave the idea some thought and one scene from the films stood out - the battle at Weathertop. I had some old bits of GW scenery that could be cleaned and recycled and I was sure I had some unpainted Nazgul somewhere in my lead mountain. Sure enough, I found the components for a little diorama featuring a Sam and Frodo figure combo that I found on eBay.

The Nazgul were simple enough to paint, although I did add a little 'dirt' around the bottom of their cloaks so they are not just plain black. For Frodo and Sam I found a reference picture from the films to get the colours approximately right. I used army painter wash rather than my normal ink on these and I think that worked well considering their small size and fine detail. When I discovered the statue it was already painted, but so battered and chipped that I decided to strip it and repaint it from scratch so that I could use it in this model.

The Nazgul are approximately 28mm, the hobbits are the same scale but stand about 22mm tall and the statue towers over the lot, coming in at about 55mm (it's not technically a figure so I'm not expecting points for that). I had wanted to add more terrain but time was pressing and in the end, I'm glad I went with the simpler layout.

I'm quite chuffed with this little diorama, especially considering it was thrown together from bits out of my lead mountain. 

Normandy Bocage

The Bocage countryside of Northern France is a very distinctive feature of pretty much any game set during the Normandy Campaign of 1944. Bocage consists of mixed woodland and pasture with fields enclosed in very high banks topped with wild and unruly hedgerows. These have built up over centuries as farmers cleared rocks from their fields and threw them to the edges. Eventually, these have built up to form large rocky banks covered in a thick-rooted and largely unmanaged crown of hedgerow and trees. 

About nine years ago I made a load of Bocage hedgerow for my Normandy games and wrote a tutorial about how I did it. But I pretty soon realised I needed much much more. Now (just 9 years later!) I have decided to finish the job and make some more. I have been gathering the materials I needed for several months now as this was always going to be a large project involving a lot of greenery. 

The basis of my method is the use of wooden mouldings bought from a DIY store. These form the core of the earth bank and are then topped with stone chippings and sand. I then spray painted the whole lot brown before dry-brushing with a combination of light brown (on the banks) and grey (on the rocks) before adding static grass. With the earthen core completed the next step was to add the hedgerows and trees. I had bought a wide variety of scenic hedges and model trees (the sort sold by model train shops) and decided to cut these up and mix and match as much as possible. Liberal amounts of PVA were applied with additional grass tufts and flowers added to complete the build and give them an individual and wild look. 

The only problem with this new batch is that they look a little different to the stuff I made 9 years ago. I wasn't going to do anything about it I couldn't ignore the problem and in the end, I pulled out my old Bocage and spent a few hours adding new grass and turf to 'blend' these with the new stuff I have made. You can still see a bit of a difference but its less startling now and I think I can use both sets together without it looking incongruous. 

This new batch comes in at a little over 16 feet in length and fills about three 6" terrain cubes. Added to the eight feet of 'old' Bocage I made before and I just about have enough for a 6x4 table!! 

Quick visit to the Mucklebrough Collection

The Family and I went away last week as it was the school half term break. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as it could have been for the time of year and we managed to make the most of the trip, despite the fact that many of the museums I wanted to visit were closed for the winter! Fortunately, the Mucklebrough Museum was open and I was given a day pass by the wife to visit it while she and the youngling went to a nearby zoo.

Concentrating while taking a selfie! I'm very happy in this picture...honest. 

Russian T34 & T55 tanks with a British A34 Comet

The Artillery Hall

The museum also has an excellent gallery of models and military diorams

88mm FLAK37 German Anti-Aircraft gun

Canadian 'Grissley' Sherman

If you are ever in the area this place is well worth a visit. Some of the exhibits are a little cramped but the collection is very impressive none-the-less.