Weekly....no, Regular (ish) Round Up with a German Armoured Theme

So, as my attempt at a weekly update is failing miserably I thought it would be as well to just call these posts Regular(ish) Updates until such a time as I get into a groove with producing them or I can afford to get a decent laptop...or both!

Anyway, with my Sharply Buffed project now finished I have been cherry picking from the Pile Of Things To Do/Finish, some of which I will catalogue here, starting with a German Armoured splurge!!

First off, i was very lucky recently when i was the winner of a prize draw made on the Downorder Podcast. Sam Downorder, who produces the podcst, does a draw for his patreon backers every third episode, the winner receiving a twenty pound gift voucher from Boss Miniatures, a shop way down south in deepest Engerlandshire.  After an exchange of some very convivial emails (Scott the Boss at Boss Miniatures, seems like a very nice chap indeed and even though he's at the other eend off the country I shall be definately putting some of my custom his way again) I received my real prize; a Lorraine Schlepper!!! Top marks, Scott!! This kit is from Warlord Games

The kit components

A view of the excellent interior detail. Note the jacket hanging up in the right corner and the jack boots jammed in behind the radio

Ammo stowage. The charges for the shells are stowed n the floor
of the vehicle. You can see them clearly in the first photo

More well thought detail; another jacket and a helmet in the corner along with
an appropriated British jerrican, a spoil of war, no doubt. How do I know it is British? The sculptor has sculpted in the War Department stamp on the top of the jerrican.

The kit has minimum flash and goes together like a
dream. I left the barrel off for ease of painting.

Some photos of the finished kit. Like the rest of the kit, the crew are lovely sculpts. The loader, the one in the side cap, has a separate head and is sculpted with a charge in his hand, ready to ram it in the breach.

Next up, a Sdkfz 250/9. A lot of my inspiration for stowage and camouflage schemes I get online by googling for 1/35th scale versions of the vehicle in question. Those chap that do proper, detailed scale kits can save you a lot of searching through wartime photos, which is a joy in itself most times, but these guys have usually done a ton of research so it's a handy wee short cut. 

My highly esteemed chum, Richie,, made me a gift of this little beauty, Warlord Games 250/9 recce half track (but not before he had used it to annoyingly good effect against my British Glen Darroch Highlanders in our last Bot Action game) I fecking love this kit and I'm extremely grateful to Rich for his generosity. Anyway, l decided to add a little to it by piling on the stowage and touching up the paint job it had.

Okay, maybe I didn't quite pile on the stowage perhaps adding discreet amounts is a better phrase. Anyhoo, a scrim net from Any Scale Models, a couple of bread bags and jerry-cans from Tamiya's 1/48 scale Tank Stowage set and a piece of spare track from Rubicon's German armour stowage set and, finally, a helmet and, Hey Presto, Hermann's your uncle!! One 250/9 finished 

then my Sdkfz 234/2 Puma one of which every self respecting wargamer with a late war German army has...

And, whilst I was touching up the paint job on the  250/9 I did the same with my Puma, which had had a plain, unadorned German Dunkel Gelb non-camouflage camouflage scheme (eh!?)

Quite pleased with this. I even went so far as to "chip" it using a
 piece of sponge dipped inn dark grey paint

And finally, a kit that I have had lying about for quite a wee while. Another kit from Any Scale Models. This time it's their Opel Blitz with 20mm flakvierling. It,ss a steal at justunder elleven quid. I replaced the kit flakveirling , which will get used later, either as a static gun or a terrain piece, with Warlord Games Fallschirmjager flakveirling which I had bought, built, painted and used once waaayyyy back in Bolt Action first edition. Both the truck and gun had been painted plain Dunkel Gelb but once they were put together I decided to give them a proper cammo paint job

The finished result.  I added the stacked ammo boxes, again from Any Scale Models to fill in the rather empty looking  truck bed. Still, it wasn't busy enough looking with plenty of empty space...  

then bingo!! One of the 1/35 scale kits I had looked at and, yes, admired had a ton of after market bits and bobs added including spent shell cases on the floor of the vehicle; That was what my flakveirling needed. But how could I replicate that? Green stuff rolled very thin? No, I'd only end up squishing it, besides it takes too long to dry for an impatient curmudgeon like me. Then it occurred t me that paper clips might do the job so after rummaging through my paper clip collection (my other hobby :) ) I settled on a Ryman Stationery No.9 Full Fold Paper Clip which seem to offer a roughly scale looking thickness for a spent shell case. I snipped several pieces of similar length and super glued them randomly onto the truck bed,  I then put some more super glue on top to and left them to dry. About an hour later, I painted them then sat back and admired them

So that was a busty and fruitful couple of days worth of work. At some point I hope to convert the trailer that comes with the flakvierling into an ammo trailer for the Blitz but that's way down near the bottom of the Pile Of Things To Do/Finish for a late date.  Next up are some Afrika Korps but for the moment, it's pip pip from me,  

pip pip!