Canadian Late-War 6pdrs

Well folks, I have alas been sick this week, and as such unmotivated to do much painting, modeling, or uploading. Here then, is the post that would have uploaded last week, about the final completion of my 6dprs!

Alas, the colour on these first few shots is a bit cold. I tried fixing it and it just looked more bizarre, so this is "shade light".

I decided to take advantage of the Tom Stanley box bits of wall, so unlike how I've based the rest of my Infantry force so far, these guys are urban-based. At first I wanted to make it appear as though they were one congruous base line, but I realized it was rather silly to have six 6pdrs arrayed that close together, in a line, in any European village.

I did use greenstuff to try to make the bases look as much like they're in a village as I could, with various types of road surfacing, some interior-of-building bits, and lots of rubble.

Tom Stanley himself is present with medal decorated. Though he would be unusable in a Canadian force, I figure having him there allows me the opportunity to 'pretend' my force is a British one and throw him in. Advantageously, this also meant I had an extra wheel (which got put on the T16s) and an extra crew figure, who will likely be a 'firing' PIAT model down the line.

These are by far the most frustrating guns I have painted yet. They are fairly large on their bases, and awkwardly spread for trying to put crew around. There is a lot less variety than I may otherwise have wanted, just because there's only so many places to arrange the same figure on the same base behind the same gun...

 (Here you can see some of the bases are decorated with building interiors. In this case, a hardwood floor that has somehow remained mostly undamaged, despite the near-complete obliteration of the building!)

To keep the theme consistent, the command team had plasticard walls added to their stand, and the lamp post was integrated with the rest of the sidewalk tiling. The pointing platoon commander and the prone figure are made to look like they could be taking cover behind the post, while the remaining crouches inside some rubble. I have yet to decide where to have them fighting, so at the moment the sign itself is blank. I may decide to make it a military-related signpost so it could in theory be anywhere.

These shots are more accurate for colour. I would have these all nicely merged into a panorama shot, but Photoshop's automate function has gotten worse! I can no longer tell it where I want the lines to be assumed from, and so it freaks out most of the time, unless you've taken a hundred photos...

More will be coming soon. The last five Panthers have been assembled, and all are being given stowage now. Because that's a relatively fluid process, it's been taking some time. I hope to put up a preliminary post later this week describing how to do some of the more 'basic' rivet counter things to do with the PSC Panthers, before launching into a stowage special as a final pre-painting post.

T16s Painted At Last!

After much toil and work, my T16s are finally ready to grace the table! Be forewarned, this post has lots of large images!

All the vehicles have been painted very similarly to my Shermans: Russian Uniform Green paint, overwashed a few times with Agrax Earthshade, with drybrush highlights of the base with a bit of pale sand mixed in. The tracks are Gunmetal Grey mixed with a bit of matte black, the tires are a mix of matte black and Panzer Uniform Black from Vallejo's Tank Aces line. Netting and most of the stowage is a mix of colours I couldn't even remember now, but involves a leather colour, some green, and some pale sand, to make a unique hybridized colour very similar to British tunic colour.

The order of battle markings show my company to be from the Algonquin Regiment of Canada, chosen because it's the closest one to where my family grew up. I had to paint all the 62s by hand (and the green squares) though the Canadian 4th are decals.

The front of each of the T16s has a different specific stowage layout, but all have the extra wheel mounted, which matches the ones on the vehicles themselves.

The interior of the T16s are likewise varied in stowage, one having an extra wheel from the deployed 6pdrs thanks to Tom Stanley's figure standing on one himself.

The sides of each vehicle have a serial number, which is random except for the first two digits, which seem to have been relatively consistent. The rivets were added with liquid greenstuff which, while it's not exactly the greatest for gap filling, makes a fabulous surface additive for subtle detailing. This kind of depth was achieved with only two layers of green stuff, then some careful highlighting to make sure they didn't get lost.

All the guns are magnetized in place by a magnet buried in the vehicle, and a chunk of paperclip in the gun trails. They aren't strongly secured, and will separate on rough surfaces, but it does help reduce the unruliness of the two.

The interior of each vehicle was also intentionally made to be different where I could manage it. Each has the gas tank in what seems to have been the most common place, and has the radio in an appropriate place, but beyond that, I varied up the location of stowage and extra 6pdr shells, as well as doing what I could to throw in different figures for crew. In two cases, commanders from the Shermans from Open Fire became crewmen.

Something else that delayed my finishing of the T16s was that I painted the deployed guns at the same time, to ensure consistency where possible between them. I am at the stage of basing the guns, which I am trying to putty to look like they are in a city, and then this entire platoon will be finished and ready for the table!

T16s nearly done!

So I have finally managed to cast, and glue in, the remaining T16 crew! With them came a huge bunch of stowage, enough that I feel any more would hinder its combat role. I have (since these photos, black-sprayed them, and given the initial airbrush of green.

 

Here they are, all lined up and ready to go! The metal 'guards heads' from BF were incredibly useful for the casting, and to the right is the command UC that comes with the box set of 6pdrs. In a couple places, just to add variety, I have inserted British tank commanders from the Open Fire set. I can also say with hindsight, having basecoated them, that the rivets work! Liquid green stuff, with one or occasionally two coats to thicken it up, will indeed look like rivets if applied carefully! Much less work than trying to cut plasticard or paperclip to length and filing it back!

The other rivet counting thing I did was add the metal frame protector for the front left headlight. I had some spare PE metal sprues laying around, and carefully cut and bent them to length. Though they were easily the finickiest things I had to add to this project, the effect is, I think, quite strong!


In similar news, I have decided that rather than turning the remaining three otherwise unused Shermans from Open Fire into wrecks, I will convert them to Fireflies. Canadians in late-late war get to bump Sherman troops up to two Fireflies each, and this will give me a low-cost way of doing just that!
This project has certainly been more straightforward, but I think I'm less impressed with the outcome:

First, the tanks were assembled save the gun barrel, and the mount for the hull MG was shaved down. Next, I cut lengths of plastic rod to roughly the right length. The gun mantle was cut to accept the new barrel size, and stowage was prepped to cover the hole on the hull.

Next, copious amounts of putty were added to the ends of the barrels, so that I could shave them away for the muzzle brake. The turrets were then modified to have the second escape hatch, and since these photos, I have cut back the muzzle brakes, sloped the base of the gun barrel appropriately, and added a PE metal piece 'hatch hinge' on each. I've also added the externalized radio, and two storage bins to the backs of the turret. I'll put more photos up when they get further along, but as you can imagine, the next little while will be devoted to painting T16s!

T16 update photos

I know there's been a delay, but I've been doing a lot of minor things on various projects of late. I have half-painted US Paras, a half-painted High Elf Mage, half-painted High Elf horsemen, and a now-basecoated Ork Bomma. Also, this!

I have applied the camo nets, and started adding crew. I'd cast enough for all but one carrier, but I wanted to get them in so I can start adding stowage. In two cases, I've taken slight liberties with uniforms to add a radio man from a tank commander and another with a pair of binoculars and awesome mustache. Also you can see in the pictures, I've started adding more front-deck stowage in the form of two flimsies, as well as tail lights and racked guns. The guns are pretty crude, but they'll be covered with crew forearms and stowage in most cases, so I'm not too concerned.

The other thing that's been eating up my time lately is this!

I'm currently making moulds of a final truck cabin, another truck body, and all the stowage I could amass from the Open Fire kit, to really pile the stowage on the T16s and the tanks.

Making Camo Nets

When 6pdrs were limbered, it seems they were almost always given nose caps and nets or blankets of some description over the breech. I wanted to test out a method of covering them based on my work making decorative bases for my Malifaux figures (which will feature perhaps in tomorrow's blog.)

I found a method that seems to work fairly well, and gives an accurate-enough looking camo net.


Stage 1:

First, mix up an amount of epoxy putty and stretch it as much as possible into a roughly rectangular shape. The more rectangular you get it, the better, but with what we'll be doing, it shouldn't matter too terribly. You'll notice I've moistened the board beneath the putty. I didn't find this to work 100%, so I'll have to figure out another means of preventing the putty from adhering to the cutting board.

Stage 2:

 Next, I use the smooth part of a craft knife to make certain it's good and flat, and also to spread it out. The thinner the net, the better when it gets applied.

Stage 3:

Next, use the part of the craft knife that has the nice diamond-patterning on it to thoroughly groove the surface of the putty. You will want to make these as deep as possible, because any and all handling is going to degrade the sharpness. It's also important to note that with the shape of most holders, if you try to roll successively further along the length of the blade, you'll end up obscuring earlier detail as the smoother part of the holder rolls over previously grooved surface.

Stage 4:

the next couple of stages are pretty much repeat as necessary. The orphaned blade now gets used to cut the shape of net needed based on coverage. Because the net is going to get all bent out of shape, you'll notice I'm not terribly concerned by the lack of a crisp edge at the bottom, but I have initially tried to avoid the parts that are more curved.

Stage 5:

Now, use either the orphaned blade, or in my case a sculpting tool, to carefully remove the net. It's going to warp some during this, so try to minimize it by going in gentle sweeps along the length of the net. Make sure the sculpting tool (as should any tool using Epoxy Putty) is moist.

Stage 6:

At last we've reached the fun part. Gently lay the net over whatever surface you want to apply it to, and using a pointed tool, push it into place. The advantage of using a tool with a point (dental pick, sharp sculpting tool, blade) is that you can poke in the gaps, and retain the look of the camo net. Anything broad and flat or rounded can end up 'cutting' an odd line in the net.

 Stage 7:

The edges of any piece should now be worried with a blade or sharper sculpting tool, to look frayed or edged in hessian strip. If this step is skipped, the sides will look oddly un-textured, and the effect may be ruined. It also helps to thin down the edges to give the entire piece the perception of being only the thickness of real camo netting.

I have also used the camo net on the deployed guns, but only around the barrels. For the limbered guns, both the gun barrel, and the breech area get coverings. (Historically, I claim camouflage and travel cleanliness respectively. Honestly? I didn't want to have to sculpt detailed breeches on the guns!)

And here's the full battery of 6 unlimbered, and limbered guns, all with their camo nets.

 As a bonus feature
Here's what a Firefly VC looks like with this camo net concept applied. This was the first attempt, and you can see what happens if you use a rounded tool to push the net into place (over the front hull where the machine gun was removed.)

QF 6pdr in transport

Now for the other half of my creation. I am also scratch-building limbered 6pdr guns to magnetically attach to the back. This way, hopefully, I'll be able to fill the T16s with crew, and not have phantom 'surfing' crew out the back.

To that end, first I bought a box of 6pdrs. I found it rather funny how they were wrapped though:

For some reason, everything but the bases and the UC were in the smaller compartment, with all that space for one adorable little vehicle!

I assembled one 6pdr gun to use it for measuring, and then set to work on a flurry of cutting, bending, measuring some more, and pruning:

The top gun shield is what they look like when bent. Everything else is meant to either be part of the base, or part of the shield itself. (The 6pdr has two shields!)

This is the 'front' shield, starting to be assembled. The fiddly pieces on the left were the most annoying to cut so far, I think. Luckily, it's all on thin plasticard, so it's not terribly hard to cut through.

Here, I've added the closed gun trails, and the side-panels for the wheels to attach to. Above you can see the pre-cut lengths of doweling for the gun barrel and recoil dampener. At the top is also the first test of attaching the main gun shield.

Finally, here's all the gun shields attached, the barrels drying in the background, and the wheels (4.8mm rod thickened with greenstuff, then sliced like a salami to the proper 2mm width) ready to be grooved and assembled. Beside them is the BF 6pdr assembled, to make sure I'm doing everything properly.

Next steps are to magnetize the backs of the T16s, magnetize the rails of the 6pdrs, add the shovelplates to the rails, (glue the guns into the mounts) and putty on the canvas covers for 'travel mode'!

The T16 Build

Since it's the project that prompted my getting a blog at long last, I figured I'd document the process up until this point.

It all started when I was researching a possible Canadian Infantry company for Flames of War. I discovered during this that in WWII, the Canadians did not use the Loyd Carrier, as the British did, but instead used a vehicle developed by the United States, but not adopted by them. It looks like a stretched Universal Carrier, but is distinctive for being about 30cm longer, and having a different suspension layout.

No one makes a T16 in 1:100 scale, or even close, so it was up to me to craft it on my own.
I did my usual due diligence in researching, and compiled as many drawings and photos as I could lay hands on. Initially, I was going to build one, and cast it to make the rest, but I realized that with how thin the walls of a T16 are, one-piece moulding would result in too many bubbles. I crafted an initial prototype to get measurements right, and correct what might've been wrong, and the end result was this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41832634@N03/8248376599/in/photostream

From there, I revised the measurements that didn't work, and got to building:

Here, the lower hull is assembled, as well as the upper hull being framed in.

Here, the upper hull has had its engine filled in, and the front armour is starting to be put in place.

On this one, you can see the bent part of the front panel is done, and cut at the right angle. (I glue it on as a full box, to make sure I can cut to measure.) Next, I've started to work on the tracks, with the loose shape filled by the blank template wheels.

Here, the tracks have been laid out. You can see my measurement of the overall length of the strips that become the track lengths. This gives enough space to add gravity dip along the top up to quite a significant droop.

Next, I drilled holes into the wheels for both types of roadwheel, and cut pieces for suspension. The 'springs' are made from paperclip which has been grooved by pliers. You can see the track in the back has a significant sag.

Upper hulls glued to lower hulls, with the test track now filled with crew. I'm casting the bodies, and then replacing the heads (that tend to miscast) with ones ordered from Battlefront.

Here, the front track guards have been glued in place, the front has been sloped appropriately, and I've started to add the vision ports. You can also see in this one the engine deck has been textured to get its grill.

The front panels then were cut to be properly smooth, the horizontal rails glued on, and the default extra wheel glued in place. At this point I've also put another extra roadwheel on one or two, as well as the canvas hooks along the upper hull. Finally, because it was bothering me (rivet counter and all), I'd gone back and cut slots in the bulkhead behind the driver to add the engine intakes, then covered them appropriately. It looks a lot better, and adds detail to what would otherwise be flat space.

As a final T16 update, here is the current status of my vehicles. The rear exhausts are in, as well as their cover; the tow hooks have been added to the front; the extra roadwheels have their putty applied; the radios installed, in the front-right of the passenger compartment; the radio antenna's base, and what I believe must be its fold-down protector, are glued in place; and my 6pdrs have arrived! I'll make them a second post though... This one's already quite long.