When I was in Singapore I found a plastic sheet in 1m, 2mm, and 3mm thickness. It sliced easily with a carton cutter knife, resisted warping (although not totally as it seems from recent experience) an holds glue and paint quite well.
I have not been able to find it anywhere else until a week ago when I took a Saturday afternoon out at the mall. It was the first outing since the start of quarantine here in Manila, so first time out in 3.5 months. While out I stopped into the National Bookstore in Glorietta Mall for some stationery. Enjoying some loiter time (there were only about 8 people in the queue behind me waiting to get in so I figured I could browse for 10 minutes at least.
I came across this PVC board shown above. BLoody brilliant stuff and cheap as chips. As I can now find this in Manila, there must be similar in other locations. Great stuff!
It’s just that I was at Mega Mall on Saturday looking to see if I could expand the memory in my laptop (I can’t – brickbats to Asus) and after failing at that, madam suggested slipping down to the lower ground floor. There is a Lil’s Model Shop there with an extensive range of Tamiya kits and modelling equipment as well as Trumpeter, Fujimi and others.
It was there that two things caught my eye. One was the 1/72 scale M26E2 Pershing Heavy Tank.
The Pershing was the first operational heavy tank of the United States Army. It was designed in World War II and saw a little action there.
The M26 was supposed to be an improvement of the M4 Sherman and although it was heavier and better armed, and indeed a match for the German Tiger I and Panther tanks, it was pretty unreliable mechanically. Its most famous use in World War II was with the 9th Armored Division and the dash to take the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen.
Pershings also were active in the Korean War, where they were superior to the T34/85s used by the North except that they suffered in the hilly terrain. They were replaced by the M46 Patton.
It will look good displayed next to the Panther I already have. So, you can see my interest.
Always was interested in Aerosans
Speaking of interests, I’ve always had a interest in some of the more esoteric Soviet vehicles from both the Winter War and World War II. In this case it is Aerosans.
This model, the NKL-26 was an armoured aerosan based on an earlier vehicle, the NKL-6 (OSGA-6). It was constructed from plywood and protoected with 10mm armour plate to the front. Armarment was a 7.62mm machine gun in a ring mount. It was powered by an M-11G aircraft engine.
There were two crewmen and could carry four ski troops riding outside the vehicle on its skis or towed behind.
Detailed painting instructions, in colour. Paint it white!
The Trumpeter kit is 1/35 scale and includes two crewmen.
Also included is the coloured colour painting guide. Painting guide? Paint white 🙂
I’m really looking forward to building this model as it covers a vehicle not often seen. I am also looking forward to trying my spray gun out on this – after all, how wrong can a bloke go spraying white?
The big surprise for me with this kit was the number of etched brass parts included. Now I am really going to need to pay attention during the building.
I think next I’ll pick up some 1/100 scale aircraft next, just to relax with mind 😉
And as I say in the title, this is not the start of a new project or interest – just a bloke building a couple of models on a cold Manila evening!
Damn, there are a butt-load of etched brass fittings!
Or rather my part of it is finished …. Anthony still has the bases to finish. I will leave it to him to photograph them finally when he gets the bases done.
Well, actually I still n need to do the unit flashes but that will the last minute job.
I finished the first five bases today, recovering as I was from watching the Netherlands finish the demolition of Brazilian football. I’m pretty happy with everything on them, except for the unit flashes. Looking further at the flashes on-line this evening they seem somewhat straighter and smaller. Oh well, I guess I will touch them up when I do the next batch of uniform dry-brushing.
Apart from that, I am happy with them. I don’t have to worry about finishing the bases, Anthony will do that so they look the same as the other troops in his forces.
The main colours used were the following (Vallejo unless otherwise noted):
921 English Uniform
988 Khaki
924 Russian Uniform
982 Flat Earth
967 Flat Red
963 Gunmetal Grey
995 German Grey
Barbarian Flesh (from Army Painter War Paints)
Devlan Mud (an old Games Workshop Citadel wash)
The figures themselves are OK although they appear a little large for 20mm (1/72) and there are a few in odd poses – like the bloke squatting as if he as answering a call of nature whilst pumping a few rounds off from his Lee-Enfield SMLE. The hard plastic takes paint quite well though and has the advantage of not bending like metal does when you bump a figure accidentally.
I was knackered last night so went to bed early. I followed my usual routine, large drink of water, clean teeth and retire to slumber. Usually, as the last thing before sleep, I will watch a movie or TV show on my phone. I know, it’s supposed to prevent you sleeping well but I find it relaxing … go figure! Last night I watched the first episode of Reign. I’ve been kind of caught up in the world of the Tudors recently and it was good to see how far the producers, directors and writers of the shows I have been watching have drifted from the history.
Anyway, I watched, snoozed then slept … only to awake at about three in the morning, unable initially to fall back to sleep again. So, what else does one do at three in the cool of a Singapore morning? I got up and painted for a while. Painting is a catharsis for me (as compared to cathartic for which I rely on a good, heady beer) and usually calms my mind, spirit and emotions so that I can relax. I was hoping that a 3:00 am painting session for about 30 minutes would help me to sleep again. It did.
I had decided that rather than work on all the figures in a single batch, from yesterday’s point onwards I would work on 5 or so bases at a time. That way if any of the technique or paints did not work out I only had a few to repaint rather than the whole batch.
The painting sessions yesterday and this morning were initially to get the webbing done but I decided to do some washing and dry brushing as well, just to see how things turned out.
Webbing and packs were painted in a khaki colour
A brown was was applied. When wet, it looks like all the colour has been sucked out
The same group once the wash has dried. The colours are a little more separate again
I then dry-brushed some English Uniform (the brown colour) to restore some depth to the uniforms
Followed by a dry-brush of khaki to lift the webbing and the packs
And lastly, some Russian Uniform (green) across the helmets
The picture quality is not great – the phone’s camera combined with the light on the painting table tends to wash the colours together but I am quite pleased with the way that batch looks now. The wash has picked out items such as the collars on the uniform and other fine details. It has also provided an edge between the uniform and the webbing.
Next task will be to do the same for the rest of the figures, then pick out the weapons, water bottles and other smaller items such as the bayonet scabbards.
I had hoped to have uniforms and webbing done but I was only using a standard sized brush (about a size 0 or 1) – the uniforms took somewhat longer to paint than expected (memo to self: “self – get a couple of bigger brushes … when you get a job”).
Uniforms painted – now starting to look like soldiers. Note how the two figures already painted are starting to merge in with the others
Next up – webbing and other impedimenta. Then wash, highlight and lastly pick out the weapons.
No more beer money left – time to get cracking on the painting. Yesterday was a good day – two colours were added to the figures.
The first colour to go on was the hair. Yes, I gave the Tommies hair. There is enough of an area under the helmet and above the neck that if it is left flesh, well, they’ll look like a little unit of Sinead O’Connors!
Hair painted – of course, it is lucky this is not next to yesterday’s picture as you wouldn’t see it … but I know it’s painted 🙂The tin lids are painted. The colour is Russian Uniform and used for British helmets and tanks – and by default, equipment such as 2-pdrs, mortars and MMGs.
I also touched up the helmets on the painted figures as well as I want them to look like a part of the same unit. The helmet colour will soften a little as well when I apply some brown wash.
The figures have been under-coated in spray black. I like to use a brown undercoat these days, works as well as the black and makes it easier to see details on the figures as they are painted but I am trying to match his other figures a little so black under-coat was the way to go.
After basing material is added, the figures have been under-coated in black
After under-coating, especially when dealing with black under-coat, I like to paint the flesh next. It helps me see the other detail and generally it is the lowest part of the figure to paint (well, the face is anyway) so I can paint up to the edge of it easier.
Flesh coloured paint added to the, er, fleshy areas on the figures
Painting some plastics for a mate here … the things I’ll do for beer money 🙂
Some British WW2 Infantry, figures in grey are from the Model Soldier coming I believe and the light brown are Zvezda. The 2-pdr base has had some modeling plaster added to it to help bed it in finally as the model was a bit unstable just attached to the wooden base.
Plastic Soldier Company in grey, Zvezda in brownA view from the other side – the 2-pdr was a challenge to construct given my fat fingers and the fine parts on it
Figures are just now sitting and I’m letting the glue set before adding sand to the base and undercoating. Target is to paint them by mid week.
I was walking around Art Friend the other week here, looking for some A4(ish) size sheets of 3mm MDF. These would be perfect, I thought, for making terrain squares for the Aeronef project. They didn’t have any.
I did, however, walk past the plasticard ((very expensive and now warping under my Middle Eastern 2mm buildings)) and came to one corner and end of the store. There I found some plastic sheets, about 3mm thick. I thought I’d get one, it was only 90 cents, and try it out.
It cuts with ease using a box/carton cutter and a steel rules. It is slightly less “bendy” than balsa but appears as strong as MDF. Because it is a PVC, there is no grain so slicing in any direction is fine.
So far I have used it for basing under some ships. I am also planning on using it to make some 15mm DBA terrain pieces. I also think that the next batch of 2mm terrain will go onto some 1mm thick sheets of this stuff.
I’ll also post pictures of the terrain when it is done. I’m also sorry that I cannot give more of a name to it than just the label in the photo.
When I was in Singapore I found a plastic sheet in 1m, 2mm, and 3mm thickness. It sliced easily with a carton cutter knife, resisted warping (although not totally as it seems from recent experience) an holds glue and paint quite well.
