New Stuart V’s

Two more tanks off the ranks.  Bought from toyworld where they were selling them about half price (clearing out their stock, again).  Since I needed a fourth anyway as some lists require four rather than three which was what I had.   Got the extra one because…. well you can’t really have enough light tanks, they always have served me well.  Anyway now I have five, painted in three batches so all a bit different but not to worried.  These were painted I think using Russian Green (surprising I can’t recall was only a week ago), I then gave them a bit of a wash with black, green and brown, (just trying to work out what looked best, for what it’s worth green wash is too bright, brown is good and dirty looking, what doesn’t devlan mud work with? and black looks grimey though can be a bit harsh, if I was doing it again I’d probably do two brown washes or a mix of brown and black).  After that I mixed painting on and drybrushing more russian green (or whatever green I was using) just to smooth out the areas where the wash shouldn’t be.  Drybrushed a little black in areas and khaki to simulate dust and grime.  Tracks were german grey, with black wash and then german grey again with a little bit of khaki drybrushed on later.  Anyway they’re ok.  Did photograph all five together but I mis-focussed and picked up the rear tank which mean the majority of the photo was out of focus.  I’ll redo it later.

Oh one other thing, I used a pencil to go over a lot of the metal bits (which I accidentally painted over some of).  Like the guy did on his terrain building site.  Worked really well, a lot more subtle than metallic paint.

 

Crusader III AA MkII

Having had my painting pattern broken up with work and bathroom renovations and struggling to get back into it.  So looking to knock off something quick and easy I dug out my base coated Crusader AA tanks.  Really not much to them really.  The only really standout thing is the placement of the air-identification star.  Maybe the radio aerials as well.  Apparently the difference between the MkII and MkII was the placement of the radio, from the turret to the hull to free up room in the turret.  Clearly the aerials on these are in the turret so presumably is the radio.  Reason for two aerials or one was that there is a molding defect on the one of the turrets.  That said don’t see any photos with two aerials (fact is hard to find aerials in the turret regardless)  Probably need to fix that up but haven’t decided on the right course of action yet.  Just hearth brush bristle so scissors could deal with that.

 

British Armoured Squadron and Support

Ok because I said I would here is my amoured squadron and support. (less the AA tanks and the comets, and the churchills…)

What we have there in total is

HQ:
2x Cromwell iv, 2x Cromwell vi (CS)
Combat Platoons (x3):
3x Cromwell iv, 1x Sherman vc (Firefly)
Weapons Platoons:
3x Stuart v
6x Universal Carriers
Support Platoons :
2x Motor Platoon (4x M5 Halftrack, 3x MG team, 1x Command MG team, 1x PIAT team, 1x Light Mortar team)
1x Armoured Car Platoon (2x Daimler Armoured Car, 2x Daimler Dingo)

In effect there are a few more infantry stands but it seemed wrong to leave them out.