Empress Land Rover (WOMBAT carrier)

 As part of my Not-Colours order from Empress, I got a BAOR Land Rover carrying a WOMBAT Recoilless Rifle.

Here are the components of the Land Rover (there is a pack with the crew and the WOMBAT still to photograph).

The doors are optional and it comes with a set of stowage and opened WOBAT ammunition boxes.

Size comparison between the Crooked Dice (SWB) Land Rover and the longer Empress one.

Empress M422 "Mighty Mite" Light Vehicle

 I am not sure when I ordered the Empress M422, but the first photograph I have is at the very end of 2020.

It was a very easy kit to put together, the only issues I had were extraneous texture on the bonnet and some issues with the "grill" on the front. I did add a small tarpaulin rolled up on the bonnet (clear of the grill on the top) to reinforce the windscreen, a a bed roll in the load space to reinforce the rear door.

I undercoated it with Citadel Chaos Black and then removed the (still separate) wheels from the box I use as a base for spraying. The body (and various figures) were then sprayed with Humbrol 155 Olive Drab.

The wheel hubs were then hand painted with Humbrol Acrylic 155 Olive Drab.

The wheel arches and the underside were given some muddy texture with Citadel Stirland Mud texture paint, a bit of Citadel Typhus Corrosion for additional texture and plus a coat of Humbrol 29 Dark Earth to bring it all together. Citadel Agax Earthshade brought out the final texture.

The seats were painted with Humbrol 29 Dark Earth.

The decals were provided by Rubicon again, probably the wrong numbers (WW2 Jeep numbers)

And I managed to seriously mess up one of the USMC prefixes, so had to use one from another set which was more yellow and thicker.

That rear axle needs looking at.

Well, the interior. Well...

After trying some of the Humbrol Weathering powders on the Empress T-55, I thought I would add some interior weathering. I again used Army painter Dark Tone as the medium, but it sort of got out of hand...

It does look either like a shag pile carpet, or someone has been making mud pies in it.

You may ask "where is the driver and crew", to which I have to reply "somewhere in a box, undercoated". I will eventually find them and paint them.

Empress M422 light vehicle

 The US Marine Corp used the M422 "Mighty Mite" light vehicle in Vietnam.

This is the Empress Miniatures model.

It is a multi-part white metal kit with a one piece body. I reinforced the front windscreen with a rolled tarpaulin. The bonnet needs a bit of a sanding as it has rather a lot of extraneous texture.

There is a bedroll providing some support to the rear door.

T-55 Soviet Main Battle Tank

The Soviet T55 main battle Tank was  one of the first MBTs to be fielded, and is still in service with may armed forces.

 The Empress Miniatures model is supplied as a multi-part resin and white metal kit.

The model is easy to assemble, with the following notes. the turret plug was slightly too deep for the socket, I had to cut about 5mm off with a razor saw. There are some mould lines on the auxiliary fuel tanks which are difficult to remove.

I replaced the white metal hand rails on the turret with 0.7mm brass rod for durability (being clumsy).

I also added the Coax machine gun and the stub of the aerial using 1mm brass rod.

The fore and aft mud guards were reinforced with green stuff and milliput to keep them in place.

A tarpaulin was added to the rear of the turret and another was added to the two auxiliary tanks. Strapping from Slater's microstrip was added to the tanks.

The model was assembled into four block, the complete turret, the hull and the two track units. After masking the hull nd the track units, the whole thing was sprayed with Citadel Chaos Black.

The turret and hull were then sprayed with Humbrol 86 Light Olive from a can.

The tarpaulins and the mantlet were painted with Citadel Death World Forest and the whole thing dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green.

The tracks were painted (before adding to the hull) with a mix of Army painter Black, Army Painter Chaotic Red and Vallejo Black Grey using a wet palette. This was also used on the exhaust. The wheels were painted with Humbrol 86 Light Olive.

Numbers were added to the turret side from the Rubicon Soviet Tank decal set.

The straps were painted with Citadel Dryad Bark.

The tank was weathered using Humbrol Dark Earth Weathering Powders, hopefully held in place by a combination of Citadel Lahmian Medium, Agrax Earthshade and Army Painter Strong Tone.

T-55 Soviet Main Battle Tank

The T55 Main battle Tank was the Soviet Union's primary tank for a number of years, and was still in production (for export) after the T62 (its successor) ceased production.

This is the Empress Miniatures T55 model. It is a multi-part resin and white metal kit. The resin is a slightly yellowy white and seems to take superglue well.

It comes with loader and commander hatches, a DSHK machine gun, two rear fuel drums and white metal had rails for the turret.

I replaced the white metal had rails with 0.7mm brass rod.

I also added a coax machine gun from 1mm brass rod. 1mm brass rod was also used for the (stub) of the aerial.

I have still got to add some restraining straps on the fuel drums.

What is not shown is the plastic rod I have used to secure the unhitching beam.

1/50 scale Architectural Mercedes Car

The German company Schulcz manufactures a range of items in various "Architectural" scales in white polystyrene. The 4D Model Shop (on Leman Street, Whitechapel) stocks them and an assortment of other modelling items.

They do one vehicle in 1/50 scale, a Mercedes saloon.

The "kit" comes in a poly bag.

It comprises a one piece hollow body and four wheels. William Kilain for scale.

The wheels have a reasonable amount of detail, the body suffers from the limitation of injection moulding tooling, a lot of where there should be detail is at too acute an angle for the detail to be added to the two piece tool.

The wheels have half moon cut outs where they fit into the wheel arches.

Cleaned up (about two minutes including finding a file for the sprue tab and a scalpel to go over the edges).

Height wise it matches up to the Spectre Saloon car. My camera has a special "dust focus" setting.

Now to paint it up (white plastic does not photograph well with a compact camera.