February 2022 — War In 15mm

February 20, 2022

Creating my version of the Pykes’ train from The Book of Boba Fett was my opportunity to put to use a plastic bullet train toy I got at the swap meet for $3 some years ago. I have no idea what manufacturer made it… no information was stamped on the bottom. I kept my repurposing simple. I closed the wheel wells with Evergreen plastic and added a roof engine from the Incredibles jet car (also found at the swap meet for $3 just this past weekend). I sprayed the entire train flat black. Once that was dry, I dry brushed it with a mix of Vallejo Model Color Silver and Natural Steel. I then highlighted it with Vallejo Saddle Brown. It will be part of my 28mm Star Wars collection. My thanks to David Knight for sending me a video of the one scratch-built by Steven Doc Gibson. I love seeing the work others have done when I’m doing a project like this.

This week has really left the 15mm North Africa collection on the back burner. Instead, I’ve been focused on repurposing swap meet toys. First was the bullet train converted to the Pykes’ train. Next on my agenda was repurposing the Disney Frozen Light Up Musical Elsa Ice Castle Playset to serve as background terrain for my Gordon Institute Frozen North collection. Before the Covid shutdown I saw these at the swap meet quite often in piles of broken toys, but since the swap meet reopened back in July, I haven’t seen one until this past weekend. I got it for $2, and I hope to find a couple more over the next year or so. I cut the front and back into two separate pieces, removed the balcony and covered the doors with Milliput. I then sprayed both pieces with bright blue and dry brushed them with Vallejo Model Color Pale Sand. Once that was done, I went over both with Vallejo Off White.

Fed Ex brought joy Tuesday afternoon. For months I have been trying to conduct a successful purchase of the 15mm Plastic Soldier Company SdKfz 231 8 Rad armored car. Apparently, it is not currently in production and while the 1/72 scale version is not hard to find, the 15mm is a very difficult get. This is my third order of this PSC item. The first two failed. I was told that one was lost in the mail and in one case the seller found that he was incorrect in his posting. When this arrived today, I was hoping that it didn't turn out to be another mistake, and thankfully it wasn't. Flames of War is not producing them... at least not at the moment. Command Decision makes the late war version but not the 231. These five armored cars will complete the German armor for my North Africa collection so finding these was important to me.

By mid-week I returned to my North Africa project. I began with the painting and basing of three Command Decision Flak 36 88mm AA/AT guns. With those done I turned my attention to the Plastic Soldier Company SdKfz 231 armored cars that I spoke of above. Almost immediately I discovered that I was going to be doing six rather than five of the eight wheelers, and that one of the six would be an SdKfz 263 command armored car and one of the remaining five SdKfz 231s would be by Battle Honors rather than Plastic Soldier Company. I’d purchased that one years ago and had forgotten about it until I started working on these eight wheelers. To give the Battle Honors 231 more of the Plastic Soldiers Company look, I used the 231 turret option from the sprue that I used to build the 263. I think that worked out pretty well. As the week came to an end, I built two more of the Plastic Soldier Company 231s, but didn’t have time to paint them.

February 13, 2022

I opened the workbench week with another Flames of War Famo towing a Plastic Soldier Company Pz. IIIJ with the short 50mm gun. That left me with four PSC Pz IIIs in the pack. I decided that since I really didn’t need them for my current project I would do them as Pz. IIIJs with the long 50mm gun so I could use them in the post-Gazala period.

Now meet the irrational me. I am about to show you some miniatures that represent terrible quality control and a sales organization that has no understanding of the product they are selling, made by a company that is producing something that is being assembled by workers who have no idea what should be included or how they should be putting the pieces together to be shipped to the company(s) they are selling it to.

The product I am speaking of is a 15mm 3D printed British Scammell Tank Transporter. The Scammell is something I have wanted for years and have only seen one other made in 15mm, and it was extremely expensive and really more than would allow me to buy several, and I wanted several. When I got the four that I bought, I saw almost immediately that they were the perfect size which had been my big concern when ordering. The next thing I saw was that parts were missing and many of the parts I received were poorly 3D printed (or whatever you call it) ... very inconsistent detail from one piece to another.

I emailed them my concerns and sent pictures. It was evident from their response that they had little understanding of their product; they said they would send the needed parts but told me they did not actually produce the product. When I got the replacements, many were wrong, but I realized that writing again would not produce a better result, and so I began putting what I had together and scratch-building pieces I needed that were missing or poorly shaped.

I paid $9 for each of these Scammells. Here is where the irrational part comes in. Knowing what I know, namely the absence of other options, the poor quality control associated with what I got, and the hours it took to put these together, I would still buy them again, because I wanted the Scammells and in the end I was able to get a good if imperfect result. I am posting six pictures. The first two pictures are of two Scammells that are completely finished and include a Command Decision Crusader II and a Plastic Soldier Company Honey... the size relationship to the Scammell is good. The third picture is of the Scammell compared with the Flames of War German Famo towing a Plastic Soldier Company Pz. IVF1. The fourth picture is of two painted Scammells, one based and one awaiting basing. The fifth is of a complete Scammell and one that isn't painted but put together. And the last picture is of a completed Scammell and one of the trailers as it arrived to me in the mail.

Given the fact that in the first half of the North African campaign the British lost as many tanks to mechanical breakdowns as they did to battle damage, I think tank recovery vehicles like the Scammell are an important piece of equipment to have in a collection. And I now have mine. By the end of the workbench week all four Scammells were painted and based… three with ramps up and one with the ramps down in loading position.

On Saturday I had a good trip to the swap meet and one of my finds was another Hawthorne Village house/building, the tea room. I have it already, but for $5 I couldn’t pass this up. I closed out the week by adding some Milliput shrubs to the tea room to hide the sign, an outdoor bench, and one side door plus a few others just to change the general look of the structure and make it more usable.

February 6, 2022

The workbench week began with the painting of the fourth Plastic Soldier Company Styer field car. This will be the last that I plan on doing for my North Africa collection. I’ll save the fifth one (they come in a box of 5) for another collection… perhaps Normandy.

My recent Old Glory 25s order of two packs of Command Decision Crusader II tanks arrived at the end of last week and with the Styer field cars done, I turned my attention to the last of my British armor… six Crusader II tanks with commanders in the turrets. I plan on doing five more Panzer III tanks, one pulled by a Famo and the other four with tank commanders. I hope to pick those up at Brookhurst this weekend. When those are done, I will have all of my British armor completed and only five Plastic Soldier Co. 231 armored cars left for all the German armor to be completed.

For what I am about to say to have context, you have to understand that I have been putting my 15mm WW2 North Africa collection together for more than 17 years, and for much of that time I have been looking for a British Scammell Tank Transporter. They make them in 1/72 scale. They make them in 1/285 or 1/300 scale (can’t remember which). They make them in 1/35 scale, but until a week ago I have only seen one that was made in 15mm (1/100) scale, and the seller was asking about $40 for it and that was too much for me. Last week I was surfing the internet looking for a Scammell, and to my great surprise I found one for $9.00 on eBay with free shipping. I realized immediately that this was a 3D-printed version which made it a shaky purchase even if the size was right and just because it was advertised as 15mm didn’t mean it would be compatible with my 15mm British tanks. Nonetheless, it was too good to pass by, and I ordered two of them. That proved to be fortunate.

When they arrived (and they arrived quickly) the first thing I looked at was how they worked with my tanks, and happily they were great. I got on eBay and ordered two more. At that point I began to realize that I may have acted too quickly. The two Scammells I received were in two different colors… one gray and one yellow. The gray immediately looked good, but on further inspection I began to see problems. The gray version was pretty nicely made, but it was missing part of its two loading ramps. The yellow version had the ramps, but the quality of casting/printer (whatever) was poor. The trailer lacked detail. Because I had the two, I knew what one good one should look like and I liked that so I contacted the seller and sent pictures asking for them to send me complete ramps and a new trailer for the yellow Scammell. They were initially less than excited about doing that, but I think that fear of a bad review on eBay with pictures caused them to reconsider, and they are sending me the parts I requested. I hope that the two additional ones I ordered are in good shape, but even if they are not I will probably have two Scammells that will work, and I would have been happy to pay $18 each for the Scammells so this should work out. I painted the cab portion of the Scammell mid-week to see what painting a 3D-printed miniature would be like. It is not nearly as clean a casting as the normal resin or metal casting because of the printing lines/grooves, but it came out better than I thought it would and on a 5’ x 7’ table with scores of other vehicles it will look fine. Most importantly I finally have a usable 15mm Scammell Tank Transporter.

Following my test painting of the 3D-printed Scammell Tank Transporter, I turned my attention to some of the unique artillery pieces used by the Germans in North Africa. The first one I painted was the Bison II. Twelve Bison II were used in North Africa. It carried a 150 mm howitzer. The Diana was a captured Russian 76.2mm anti-tank gun mounted on Bussing-NAG halftrack. Nine of these were made for use in North Africa. The Lorraine Schlepper carried a 150mm howitzer. Twenty-three of these were employed by Rommel. I ended the workbench week painting four Command Decision Panzerjager Is. Twenty-seven of these saw service in North Africa, and they were among the early arrivals. I believe they showed up in February 1941.