The Other Armourfast Su85

Having completed one of the Su85s, I went and finished off the other.  I thought I'd go further with this one though and add a bit more clutter.

Working it out with a pencil

This included a barrel made from a bit cut off a pencil, with some strips of paper glued round it, and a roll of material made from a a piece of old T-shirt rolled up and tied off with thread.  There is also a piece of spare track on the front.  It's not quite right as T34/Su85 track section but it was the best I had to hand (made from some old Airfix Tiger tracks, cut down a bit).

This Su85 has been depicted a lot more beat up and muddy than than the first one I painted.  I also left the commander's hatch open, until I can find a figure to go in it.  I had wanted to leave the driver's hatch ajar too, but that would have been a bit more fiddly.

Not sure what's up next, although I expect that it will be these KV-1 babies.  Looking forward to these as they seem a bit more detailed and for the first time ever (after being brought up on Airfix and Matchbox tanks), gravity seems to to be having an effect on the tracks in a realistic manner.

After this, it seems I've run out of Soviet tanks to make, although the Pegasus early KV-1/KV-2 combo, plus their T34/85 and even their T26, are beckoning.

Armourfast Su85

Following on from the Armourfast T34/76 models I made and painted earlier this year, here is the Su85 tank destroyer.  I'd actually painted another T34/76 this week as well, but you've seen one of those already.

It is rather a spiffing model with nice details such as separate handrails and four fuel tanks.  I put another one of my bespoke hawsers on this one.

Paint scheme was the usual Tamiya XF-13 J.A.Green with a black wash, followed by some light dry-brush highlighting with buff paint.  Decals came from ebay after I decided that my hand wasn't steady enough to paint the numbers.

I didn't make this one as weathered as my T34/76 as they are the 1941 versions so I reckoned that this one hadn't been in the field as long as they had.  I have another Su85 to make and paint (Armourfast kindly put two in a box) and then I can move on to the Pegasus KV-1, or perhaps another project...

Pimp my Tank, or, More Armourfast T34/76

Happy New Year guys.  So this is the Wishful Wargamer's "new year, new you" pledge: to do more wargaming this year.  Therefore, to start the year off as I'll probably continue, let's cut straight to this week's displacement activity, i.e. a couple of 1/72 Armourfast T34/76.

The first one is actually a model I completed previously, which I thought was a bit boring at the time so I've now upgraded it with a bit of clutter.  This clutter inlcudes some fuel tanks, basically made from some 5mm plastic tubing sealed up with filler, that this rather simple model didn't even include in the box (this being the older and discontinued T34/76 Armourfast tooling).

"Totally tubular"

I also added one of my patent hawsers I describe making in a previous post.  I took the opportunity to touch up the paint job a bit and slap on even more weathering, particularly around the exhausts area, inspired generally I have to say by the fantastic work on the Plastic Warriors website.

As well as this old T34/76 (actually there were two of them, No.2 not shown here) I also constructed and painted the 'new tooling' T34/76, which is quite a different and in my opinion a far superior model.  The whole thing is lower and far better proportioned than the previous tooling - and the parts fit together better which helps: when you compare the models the earlier one seems really weird and hgh.  The new one also has better detailing, for example on the engine covers and wheels.  Plus it has fuel tanks.  However, I think I will be able to get away with both types on the battlefield when the time comes, as long as they aren't sitting side by side.

For this model I added an extra fuel tank for some real-world randomness, as well as sticking on a roll of tarpaulin (made from some tissue paper rolled up with woodglue and tied off with thread).  And there's another one of my hawsers.  The crewman is an officer from the Revell Soviet infantry pack, with his map and legs cut off.

Finally, a note on how I painted these.  The base colour for my soviet tanks is Tamiya XF-13 J.A.Green, which goes all over.  I then give the tank a black wash to bring out the detail and add rust marks (I use thinned Revell acrylic 37, reddish brown).  For mud, dust and general weathering I employ a combination of 'flicking' thinned Revell 17, Africa brown with a stiff brush to get a mud splash effect on the front of the tank (mind your wallpaper), and then finish off with extensive dry-brushing using the same pale brown colour.

Not sure what's next but I do have another T34/76 to make plus a couple of Su-85s and KV-1s (Pegasus) which I'm looking forward to.  Once they're done I will be going through the wargames box and refurbishing all the old, clapped out and randomly donated tanks in there (must be a couple of dozen at least).  Plus, I found a tangle of brass picture hanging wire in the toolbox yesterday and of course I'm now wondering if I can make even more hawsers out of that...

Armourfast T34/76

I'll confess that I don't paint as much as I should and certainly I haven't painted any armour for a very long time.  However, this week I finished a couple of Arnourfast T35/76 that were assembled last summer.  This was mainly an exercise in weathering techniques and to try out a few ideas I'd seen discussed on the internet.

The main colour is acrylic Tamyia "J.A.Green" (XF-13).  Over this I added various rust spots and lines around hinges and other areas I thought might go a bit rusty, for example around the exhausts.  Tracks were painted black and then with a metalic gun metal/steel colour (a humbrol enamel).  I then gave the tracks a thin wash of rust colour, Revell acrylic "Reddish Brown" (37).

The whole model was then given a black wash and dry brushed with acrylic Tamiya "Dark Yellow" (XF-60) to pick out edges and any raised details (XF-60 happens to be the recommended base colour for german tanks).  Numbers were added by hand (might try to find decals next time).  Then came the interesting bit - adding the mud.  For this I used Revell acylic "Dark Earth" (82) thinned down, which was washed over the wheels and mudguards a few times

I then loaded up a stiff brush - one of the cheap nylon ones for children you get from IKEA and, using my thumb, sort of flicked the thinned paint in various places to simulate mud that had been thrown up onto the tank.  I may have overdone this a bit but it was fun.  The last thing was to add some more black wash around the exhausts.

Overall, they have turned out OK although I think that a little more contrast would be good.  Next time I'll make the black wash a bit thicker and add more rust spots - the detail isn't that deep on these models so more contrast between dark wash and lighter highlights will be required.  Also, I will add a bit more detail, hawsers, tarpaulins and whatnot and might even paint on some suitably stirring slogans - I did try it this time but couldn't paint them small enough so that the words would fit.

Panthers in Skirts

Spring must be in the air because I'm feeling the urge to make things again.  I'd actually constructed these Armourfast 1/72 scale Panther Ausf. G a while ago and as they are modelled with side rails I decided to add some side skirts to them (Schürzen).

The plates are basically 15mm by 10mm (approx.) rectangles that I cut from thinnish plasticard just glued on so that they were slightly uneven with variable gaps between them.  Having looked at various photos on-line there seems to be some variation in the number and dimensions of plates that were generally used.  I went with five on each side to match the Hasegawa Panther in the background, which comes with Schürzen fitted as standard.  Similarly the fastening arrangements seemed to differ so I just added some little slips of cut up business card to represent these - it'll be good enough for wargaming, that's my mantra.

More Armourfast

In between laboriously and slowly re-basing various ACW 20mm plastic armies (see previous posts) I've been putting together a few Armourfast kits.  I have to say they are all pretty simple and look good and are certainly more robust than normal model kits.  Here's a selection of unpainted models.

First up.  The Pz IV G

T34 / 76

Sherman M4A3 75mm

Cromwell

Achilles

Good clean fun.  And one of these days I'll get around to painting them.

Hasegawa Panther

Following on from my post about the Armourfast Panther, I thought I'd show you one of my favourite models- the 1:72 scale Hasegawa Panther Ausf.G that I made a few years ago.

I like the colour scheme, which is taken form the box art.  Not the best paint job ever but I still like it.  And here is the Armourfast Panther as a comparison.

A fairly good match, I thought, although the latter seems a bit taller overall.

Armourfast Panther

Been a bit busy recently what with that thing, what's it called? oh yeah, work, and all.  However, I did manage to put together one of the Armourfast models that I'd got a few months ago.  This one in fact.

Which comes in a box like this:

Not bad really although lacking a little in detail and missing the hull machine gun for some reason.  At least you get two in the box.