Thursday Update 15 November

Over the past two days I've received some shinies through the post. Yesterday these came:

Some people will recognise those little black boxes from Perry Miniatures. This is what was in them:

What are they all? British tank crew, Aussie slouch hats and a Blitzkrieg 1/56 scale M3 Stuart. I've checked and it's the same size as the Warlord/Italerei one I made earlier. I bought the heads to see if they'd fit the Warlord plastics, but it doesn't look as though they will.

Today I got this lot from Warlord Games:

That's a mix of stowage, some tank crew, a sprue of Chindit heads (which will fit on the Warlord plastics), some commando decals (bought for the rank insignia) and Army Painter dark and soft tone inks.


Now for what I've been up to since finishing those Kokoda Aussies. On Monday I primed the T34s and the Matildas. Yesterday I got the body colours done on the T34s with the airbrush. Before it died on me - the air valve is kaput. If I had the right tool, I could remove it and replace it with the one from my previous Revolution CR (which had the nozzle thread break off irremovably). Sadly I don't, so I've had to order a replacement; I decided to order a Revolution BR as well to replace my Neo for fine detail work.

Today I hand painted the details and did some washes.

They just need varnishing now, but that will need to wait until my new CR arrives - that should be some time tomorrow.

I've also been assembling the 8th Army plastics:

As you can see, they are headless for now. As the Perry slouch hats don't fit, I might need to get some more of the Chindit heads to get some in slouch hats. The fact that some of them are bearded and have battered hats is fine, as they'll be for the 39th. I'll need to order another pack of 8th army plastics for them. The big problem with the pack is the lack of left arms posed to support weapons - there are only two per sprue, but four weapons that need to be supported. And then there is the Lewis Gun issue - there might be a couple of arms that could hold one, but the guns from Colonel Bill's seem quite slender. I know that Minifigs do some, and Company B - I might have to take a look at those. There are also some for sale on Shapeways, but they are a bit costly.

Oh, and the Panzer IIIs have also been assembled. I won't be able to prime or paint the IIIs and IVs until the T34s are finished.