#30daykitchallenge part 4 & wrap up

 

 Wrap up

Well thirty days of putting 1/72 kits together, completely over it actually, still have ten kits to go that have been started up to three years ago, but very happy with my results. A total of 56 kits assembled ready for undercoat, I hit my goal of 50, but run out of steam in the last week. 

Ok so more resin and plastic plus a few metal guns 

Airfix scorpion, the tracks were a pain in the A

Wespe resin Dutch Paag trekkers, fiddly kits

Mirage 2000 a nice fitting Helier kit

Skyhawk starfix kit a very old kit 

T55 enigma a mixed resin and plastic kit

DD Sherman’s Britannia I think 

SHQ 15cm Howitzer 

T-62b Britannia for my Egyptians 

Para motorcycles 

PT76 plastic a very nice kit for my Egyptians 

Airfix bofors 40mm for my Dutch 

More T-62b these need the Syrian upgrades 

British airborne locust and 6pdr SHQ

Britannia Churchill funny, I want to scratch build the which and add cable after painting 

Airfix Buccaneer awaiting pilots 

Total 25 kits 

Cheers

Matt

#30DaykitChallenge - My Pledge

 30 day kit build challenge 

The idea of the build is to finish unbuilt kits and new kits in the next thirty days. As suspected France goes back into lockdown again on Easter Sunday for 4 weeks, so a timely challenge. 

So I have put together the pile of unbuilt and unfinished shame and new kits I intend to build this month. 51 kits in total my plan is to complete 30 kits at least, a mix of resin-metal kits and plastic kits. I will also add some details to a few, tow hooks, aerials, crew and stowage.

I do need to paint the interiors of a few aircraft, plus the pilots to have the aircraft ready for paint. 

My Pledge

20mm ww2  kits

ww2 Resin, metal and plastic kits total 39 kits

 

started 1/72 aircraft kits x 4 I want to complete these the most

dassault Mirage 2000N

Buccaneer s2b

Skyhawk A4

Gotha 242 ww2 glider

Resin Britannia T55 and a OT-62 resin kit from Armo for my Egyptians

ww2 Radar 3d print, needs a alcohol bath and clean up, plus assembly

Wish me luck, I wish to complete as much as possible during our lockdown to undercoat stage at least. The goal is Thirty kits, ready for undercoat, I think If I work hard I may complete the lot. 

Cheers

Matt

#30daykitchallenge

 

April 30 day Kit build challenge!

So what is the 30 day kit challenge? Well, something I shamelessly copied from Gunbird and his blog "20mm and then some" back in 2017 when we chatted about doing something about our piles of shame.

When I moved to France I found I had a lot of unbuilt kits, particularly modern and ww2, plus some ww1 aircraft make up the majority plus all of the Perry and Warlord figures. I also suffer from half built kit syndrome, as I like to paint the interiors, the pilot then assemble the kit. So during the current lockdown looming in April in France due to rising cases of Covid in our region I have decided to have a kit build challenge to fix my problem in some way.  So with that in mind I'm starting the 30 day kit build, if you like join me and blog about it, steal the picture below if you like...........I have started the Prep sorting the kits that need finishing and then some new builds, building kits trying to stay within current build restrictions for my yearly goals but wherever the wind may blow of course!

Join me if you wish

Facebook, Blog and Instagram using the tag 

#30daykitchallenge 

RULES

Goals are simple, you will build your part built and new kits during the 30 day challenge:

• Any material (plastic, resin, metal, wood).
• New in the box or partially built, it matters not.
• Gun, tank, truck, aircraft, ship, figure animal? Your call.
• Kit must be basically finished, based if you prefer that, to qualify as a build.
• The completed kit must be ready for primer.
• Resin and metal upgradesets can be applied after the build.....the goal is to get kits built and ready for primer, not to finish them with paint and varnish etc.
• You decide how many kits/models you want to build in the 30 day period.
• You set the penalty for not meeting your goal (and after that it is the honor system)

Anything beyond that is up to you

My goal is the period from 1/4/2021 up to 30/4/21, each day I plan to work on a kit until I have completed my goal.  My goal is grand total of 30 kits, If I can build more kits n the month, then bonus.

My penalty is that if I don't make my target, is not to buy another kit for the rest of the year :(.

So, starting with Day #1 (1st April 2021), I'm starting with some 1/72 armourfast kits to kit off then onto some more tanks and aircraft.

Cheers
Matt

Argentinian Dassault Mirage IIIEA 1/72 finished

  Argentinian Dassault Mirage IIIeA 

Completed, really happy with the build, went together ok, did need some putty, but sadly my squadron putty had dried out and I tried to resurrect it, sort of successfully. I added a wire through the centreline to attach to my flight stands for jet aircraft. If I was building a display piece I may of spent more time on it, but this model is a poor example of the dassault Mirage III, requiring major changes (wheel hub location, rear tail alignment, panel scribe detail and tail deflectors etc. The paint went on well and happy with my camo work, added the extra fins to the missiles to make them look more like the magic 550 missile. I did fek up with the clear varnish and forgot to mask the canopy for the matt finish.....oh well still serviceable. Decals were the biggest problem but saved by and a big thanks to my mate Robin for saving me, as Hannants are not delivering to France at the moment. 

Built as a Mirage from Grupo 8 de caza I-1003 with the yellow tail marking for the falklands war

I will get around to a Harrier soon, but onto some ww2 stuff for the next three weeks!

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™ 

From Caesar to World War Two

cheers

Matt

Argentine Dassault Mirage IIIe/a Build part 3

 

 Argentine Dassault Mirage IIIe/a Part three 

Out of the paint shop, I painted it with Vallejo colours using a camouflage guide from the net that a Argentine modeller had put on his 1/48th kit, plus some guess work looking as some paint guides on the net crossmatching Hakata to Vallejo, quite happy with my result.

Paints used

• Base surface primer Vallejo Israeli sand grey 70.614
• under belly Vallejo Air Pale Blue Grey 70.046
• base khaki Vallejo Air Khaki Brown 71.024
• dark green Vallejo Air Russian Green 71.017
• light green Vallejo Air Olive grey 71.015
• Black nose Vallejo Glossy Black 70.861

Gloss varnish done and black lining complete. When you paint things you do see bits you have missed and if it was going to be a display model I may of went back and fixed them particularly joints ... as the I have run out of Tamiya putty so had to resurrect some squadron putty that was not quite good enough....need a replacement putty. 

Next was my problem with Decals........Hannants are no longer shipping to Europe and with no European supplier with any decals in 1/72 I though I may of missed the build deadline for the Brexit Modellers build. My mate Robin saved me with a set of micro scale decals that he had is his stash, we swapped for a set of Mirage 2000 drop tanks.......

 I now need add the guide wire for a flying model, though the chassis, then touch up paint bits, add the squadron markings, add the pilot, missiles, drop tanks, antennas and canopy, then complete!

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™ 

From Caesar to World War Two

Cheers

Matt

Terrain Tuesday - more tabletop scatter

 Tabletop scatter

Some more 20mm additions completed for ww2 and modern town and ville scatter. Enjoying these pieces in between painting projects. Again mostly HO train bits, the cross is from a rosary sized set on a base and  large saint Anthony was from a brocante, he was missing his head so now has a essex late roman head. 

Argentine Dassault Mirage IIIe Part two WIP

 

Argentinian Dassault Mirage IIIe WIP 

A work in progress shot, completed the pilot and painted the air intakes and exhaust, a few sinkholes and gaps to be filled then off to the paint workshop, hope to get a coat on it by the weekend.

Argentinian Dassault Mirage IIIe Falklands war build part 1

Argentinian Dassault Mirage  IIIe

A wet day today in Sunny Mayenne so not feeling like doing more trees or painting horses (big napoleonic cuirassier commission). I have been recently watching a documentaries on the Falklands war and reading Dougies wargaming blog on his Falkland war builds. With that in mind I ventured upstairs to the stash and found a old Frog Dassault Mirage IIIe kit.  

A very simple kit, but as a wargaming model that is a good thing, I should have it built and ready for the spray painting yard by tomorrow....I will wait until it warms up later in the week before giving it a once over. I will need to source some transfers from the UK I think, so a searching I go!

Not decided on which groupo I will build as yet, more research to be done.....

Special Forces Splinter Teams

 Special Forces Splinter Teams

Another completed unit from the project drawers, almost completely emptied one this year, these guys have been sitting in there for at least 10 years. 

I completed these three sections of four man splinter teams  for my Cold War collection, all based on different bases to tell them apart. The bases are built up with green stuff for tiles or floorboards. Perfect for indoors ops during Covid! I will use them for my Force on For e skirmish games and perhaps for Cold War skirmish games. They are from the platoon 20 Israeli range. Quite happy with the results.

cheers

Matt

Coloured WW2 and Modern smoke markers tutorial

 

 Making WW2 Smoke markers

Terrain Tuesday

Since lock down began here in France I have been concentrating predominantly on my medieval and ancients collection painting over 600 28mm miniatures. This coming week I am shifting my focus back to ww2.

I was recently on John Bonds blog looking at his lovely ww2 terrain. So I have also decided to make from now on "Tuesdays Terrain day", making terrain or tabletop scatter a priority each week to get through the tonnes of small projects I have in my head for ww2 and modern bits, predominantly though for ww2. Most of these pieces will take several days and possibly weeks, but spending a dedicated day on them will help me get through the list.  

For year and years of ww2 and modern gaming I have just used cotton wool or lounge stuffing that is white for smoke markers, and while watching Band of Brothers...again, I watched the scene at the ferry crossing and thought....I do not use coloured smoke in my games...I have just used white smoke markers, but as we know they were mostly coloured for  ww2 and moderns warfare.

Anyone who served in the military will know they are not particularly good for your health, but neither is getting shot!  The smoke delivery could be via a grenade, mortar or artillery round, or a smoke generator either vehicle or a pump (normally white/grey though) the main colours available were, Red, Blue, Green, Purple, yellow, white, plus pink and  Orange (both post ww2)

So I have put together a simple tutorial.

Step 1 :Lounge stuffing is my choice of product, easy to find and cheap.

Step 2: I selected my colours and made up a wash, with a drop of detergent to break the surface tension of the stuffing and allow colour to penetrate. A few drops of paint 10% to 90% water. Dropped in the pieces that were teased out to shape. 

Step three. Rinse with water, to get rid of any settled pigment otherwise they will shed bits. allow to dry. 

Step 4. I based mine on clear plastic with a hot glue gun. 

Step 5. Put them on the table ! 

Lessons.

Quite happy with the result, but  I think it would be faster to use a spray paint tin in the desired colour or a airbrush, plus the colour will be more vibrant,  I will try again soon on another Tuesday! 

Cheers

Matt

Desert dwellings

picked up some desert dwellings for my impetus and modern gaming, although published as 20mm they are closer to 15mm, so may be traded some time in the future.

Cheers 

Matt

Explosive Ordanance Disposal 54mm Black Dog miniature

I was recently asked to paint up a Black dog 54mm EOD technician for a retiring serviceman, I really enjoyed painting him and will probably get another just for my collection.

Modern gaming pics

Some selected pics from the weekend games full report on my ww2 and modern blog 

Figures from my (Polish, soviet and American) Gregs (Brits) and Bruce (soviet) collections, a great day out playing Able Archer (Modern Rapid fire) lets just say Team Yankee Fail.......

My Polish Airborne assault 

Mil Mi2 1/72 model

cheers

Matt

Shop.............ping Moderns

Sometimes I think wargamers are a bit like women when it comes to buying stuff for our hobby we go out with good intentions to just get one or two items and come home with an armful! It all happened on Monday when the Cardinal and I went for a drive too Canberra to spend my Father’s day money and pick up some Vallejo paint and peruse the bookshops of Fyshwick (Academic remainders and Crusader books). We went to Crusader first to pick up some Vallejo paint and have a look at some books, so I picked up a mix of browns and some washes. Next stop was Toyworld and as my painting MOJO has returned and the weather is warming up I decided to peruse the kit shelves and decided to pick up an Apache helicopter (Airfix) as I am starting another modern army in 20mm and I thought justified it that way, then we decided to get some lunch next, however we thought that we really should visit Monaro hobbies. At Monaro I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of plastic kit they had of the shelves and decided to pick up a Trumpeter M1 Abrams, however on the way out they had a sale on ICM cold war Russian kits for $5 each, so I picked up 3 BTR152’s and 5 trucks!
Now I normally get one of my mates to put my kits together because they annoy me and I have two left hands when it come to fiddly bits. However as they last few days have been wet I have sat down and put four of the nine kits together already.
The Apache went together very nicely and I made the rotors removable for transport.





The ICM 152 kits are excellent and I put them together easily also, the ICM plastic is a little different
so setting times are a little longer, but I used a production line so I could do three models at the same time, a few little adjustments, so battle kit and damage then off to the spray booth for all of them (probably after I finish the trucks).




The BTR152s and trucks will see service with my Soviets for Afghanistan and Cold War and may even make it into my African Warlord army, so I think either a generic green or the tan/khaki camouflage.

On the painting desk I have some Volunteers de Clermont (see my 18th century blog 'Fine and Dandy") and some 18th century civilians, next up will be some WSS French and then some more Imperial Romans, and some individual British general characters for the “William Atkinson memorial build” on the Guild forum.

Cheers
matt