May 29, 2022
I began this week with a cast-off toy I found at the swap meet over the weekend. I bought a bucket of loose toys for $5, and in that bucket there was a tent that I thought would work well as a medical tent for my 15mm WW2 North Africa collection. I gave it a new entrance (probably a little crude) using Evergreen plastic, painted it, and added red cross decals to the roof. It is set in a base of Milliput.
With the medical tent complete I turned my attention to the first company of Italian M13/40 medium tanks. There are three troops of five tanks each per company, and in each troop, I have done two tanks with a tank commander shown in the turret’s hatch. These tanks are by Command Decision and the tank commanders are by Peter Pig (8/177). Fitting the tank commanders in the hatch was not easy and required opening the hatch covers further than was actually done and raising the figure of the commander with pieces of Evergreen plastic so that his arms would fit within the open hatch and not be obstructed by the hatch covers on each side… not a perfect solution, but one that will serve.
Rather than using 28mm buildings with removable roofs as the site for the interiors I use with my miniatures, I like to build interiors that might resemble a film set with two walls and a floor. They permit me much more space for my figures and the furniture I want to use in those interiors. Years ago at the swap meet I found a toy (the Fisher Price Sweet Streets Ocean Club Beach Doll House) that has dramatic windows that I have used in several of my interior settings, and over time I have purchased several of those buildings for their windows. But with the passage of time the Fisher Price Beach Doll House has become more difficult to find so last weekend I was very happy to find one, and yesterday I began the complex process of taking the building apart so I could free its windows for my purposes. I haven’t done the final detail cuts, but that is relatively easy to do once the windows are free of the building itself. In years past I could pick one of these up at the swap meet on a pile of cast-off toys for $3, but those days are gone. They are rare finds these days and more expensive. I paid $7 for this one, but still not bad for six great windows.
With the windows removed, I returned to painting and my work on the 15mm Italian medium tanks for my North Africa collection. I completed the first tank company and painted three medium tanks for the second company.
On Friday my order of 15mm Italian vehicles arrived from Gaming Models so I decided to take another break from tank painting and do the Gaming Models to end the week. Those consisted of TL-37 tractors, Lancia heavy trucks and two Dovunques 35s that I marked for medical use since as far as I can tell no one makes Italian ambulances in 15mm. I left the last four Lancia trucks uncovered because I will be using them to transport L3/33 tankettes.
May 22, 2022
This week was devoted to the painting of 15mm Italian L3/33 light tanks or tankettes by Command Decision. The first sixteen that I painted were modifications I did that had a crew member shown out of one of the two hatches. The crew figures are by Peter Pig (Range 8/177). I am doing two companies, the first (red) and second (blue). Each company comes with one flamethrower tankette and a fuel trailer. In order to have a figure coming out of one of the hatches (hatch open), I shaved the detail off the top of one of the closed hatch covers, glued a tank crewman on the hatch site and then used Evergreen Plastic (#127) to create the open hatch cover. I painted the tank crewmen wearing their blue jumpsuits or coveralls. For this I used Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue highlighted with Vallejo Prussian Blue. The last twelve L3/33 I did with hatches closed, which is the way they came from Command Decision. The unit markings on each of the L3/33 are decals by I-94 Enterprises (aka Decal Details).
May 15, 2022
This workbench week saw the completion of my 15mm German equipment for North Africa. That consisted of six SdKfz 10s and six SdKfz 11s by Command Decision.
I also painted up four Gaming Models British Quads as equipment captured by the Italians. By the time of the Gazala fighting in 1942, a large percentage of the German field artillery was composed of captured British 25 pounders. With that in mind I decided that it would make sense to have some captured British artillery in Italian service as well.
With those done I turned my attention to my last four Dovunque 35s by Flames of War. I purchased these years ago when FoW was still making resin vehicles and selling them in blister packs.
With the Dovunque 35s done, my attention was drawn to eight Italian TL-35 tractors. Like the Dovunque, these are by Flames of War and purchased years ago when Flames of War was selling resin and metal in blister packs. Since these are the first open cab Italian vehicles I have done and thus the first Italian uniformed figures I have painted, I should note that I decided to use Vallejo English Uniform for their uniform color. To give it a faded effect, I mixed English Uniform with Vallejo Pale Sand to highlight the uniform color.
I concluded the workbench week painting Autoblinda 41s by Command Decision and Autoblinda 40s by Battle Honors for Italian armored car company number one.
My last pictures for this week have absolutely nothing to do with the workbench, but I can’t resist sharing this. Last Saturday’s trip to the swap meet brought me a wonderful find, something that I have wanted for years and never believed I would get… a full-size Samurai helmet (kabuto). It was made by an artist by the name of Paul Chen. It weights 8 pounds and is a thing of beauty. There is a small device on the crown that holds three feathers (real feathers not sculpts). Those feathers were missing but, other than that, it is perfection.
May 8, 2022
I began the week painting eight Italian Dovunque 35 3-ton trucks. Four of them are Flames of War and four are Gaming Models. There is no question that the Flames of War versions are much nicer, but it turned out that I needed many more than I thought I would need when I bought these 17 years ago. Now the only place you can get them is on eBay and people are asking for $42 for a pack of two plus shipping whereas the Gaming Models are available and $5 each. The upside to the quality difference is that these are 15mm and will be on a 5 ft. x 7 ft. table and so the quality difference will not be all that obvious.
With the Dovunque 35s done, I returned to five AB 40 Italian armored cars I did last week and added number decals.
Over the years I have repurposed both versions of the Atlantis the Lost Empire water tankers in several different ways. One of the repurpose jobs I did to the Disney Store version was to remove the water tank and replace it with a block of Duplos that I then covered with v-groove Evergreen plastic to provide me with a paneled cargo truck (I did two). In terms of the execution of the modification, it went well, but I was never thrilled with the general appearance. They needed some “pow.” This week I decided to add some additional framing bands on the front and rear of each cargo box for added detail and frame up two different Gordon Institute signs… one showing the Institute’s full name and the other its logo. This additional change didn’t alter the purpose of the vehicles which were always going to be part of the Gordon Institute motor pool, but it added a little more interest value to the cargo boxes.
I closed the week by painting and decaling my last five Gaming Models’ AB 40 armored cars and the last 6 of my German infantry… eating and resting.
May 1, 2022
The week began with more 15mm Italian transport trucks (Lancia) for my WW2 North Africa collection. I did a few by Flames of War, but the majority are Gaming Models. On six of them I painted the Italian national colors on the engine hood for air recognition. I also did some Gaming Model Autoblinda Italian armored cars. They are resin, the AB 40 version which mounted only machine guns. They are generally nice, but Gaming Models added oversized rivets that I think are too much, so I had to carve them off.
Last weekend I found a version of the outrigger/catamaran marketed with the Disney film Moana. I have three smaller ones, but I had never seen this one before. It’s a larger version but basically still in scale with the smaller ones as can be seen by the fact that they both have basically the same size sail. I had to fill some indentations on the deck and give it a water surround using Milliput, but other than that all that was required was paint. I’ll be using this one as the chief’s outrigger in my Gordon Institute King Kong adventure.
I ended the week by doing two more Gaming Models’ AB40s
