Comparison of Sherman turrets (1/56 scale)

 Here are some overhead views of Warlord and Rubicon Sherman Tanks.

Top to bottom: Rubicon Sherman IC Hybrid, Warlord Sherman VC, Rubicon Sherman I with early turret.

Left to right: Warlord Sherman VC, Rubicon Sherman IC Hybrid.

Top to bottom: Rubicon Sherman I with early turret, Rubicon Sherman IC Hybrid.

Top to bottom: Warlord Sherman VC, Rubicon Sherman IC.

Salute 2021 - Rubicon purchases

 There was (excepting the Semovente) a bit of a theme on my Rubicon purchases

I also bought the other Valentine kit but it was in a different bag so did not get photographed.

I did forget to buy the Sherman V, maybe at the next show.

Rubicon - Empress comparison

 Comparison of Empress and Rubicon miniatures.

Empress Late War British, Rubicon Zhukov, Empress Early War.

More Scale photographs

Rubicon is developing a range of 1/56 post war tanks, starting with Centurions.

Now I would have preferred 1/50 (or 1/48) as it would suit the Empress Vietnam range.

Empress US Marine with a Company B Volkswagen Beetle.

And with a Rubicon T34/85.

Compare the Jeep, part 94

Comparison photographs.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank - part three

So the T26 is painted. There is some final weathering to be done, but that will wait until the rest of T26s have been (bought,) painted.

Comparison with the T34/76.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank - part two

Having assembled the tank, started with some minor modifications.

The rear turret machine gun was deleted from the T26 design in January 1939. I cut the moulding down as flat as I could, then filed it further flat. Milliput was then used to smooth the rear surface of the turret. One of the structures on the turret roof does not appear in the illustrations I have found. I removed it with a combination of a sharp scalpel and wet and dry.

What appears to be the commander's periscope has an open top. I drilled it out to 1.5mm then shaped a piece of 1.6mm rod to fit. Holes were drilled on the mudguards and 1.0mm plastic rod added to help secure greenstuff soft stowage.

The tank was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black. This was then sprayed with Humbrol Dark Green.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank

Rubicon released the the Soviet T-26 light tank last year. It is an extremely versatile kit, allowing you to build one of ten variants.

It comes in the standard Rubicon box.

There are three sprues. This is the chassis sprue.

This sprue has the mid series turret, plus the wheels for a Soviet heavy armoured car which also uses the same turret.

The final sprue has the twin turrets and the late model turret

There is an extensive instruction booklet and a set of decals.

I decided to build the late model 1939 version.

The turret features the mounting points for the aerial.

It also has the rear ball mounted machine gun.

Now, in January 1939 the machine gun on the back of the turret was deleted.

Salute 2019 Part one

Salute 2019 was on Saturday the 6th of April.

It was very busy, and I hope the traders and customers were as happy as I was (even if I forgot a number of items that I had wanted to buy, but then my arms would have ached more ^__^).

First up was Crooked Dice's new 7TV Apocalypse, fresh from their recent Kickstarter.

This is a self contained addition to the second edition rules with added vehicle rules and apocalypse orientated casts.

Another recent Kickstarter from Mantic Games, the Hellboy board game is a co-operative game for 1-4 players. This edition contains miniatures of BPRD heroes Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Johann Strauss, and Abe Sapien facing off against Rasputin, the Giant Frog Monster, and the Tentaces of Sadu-Hem, plus eighteen minions.

I added a number of plastic kits from Rubicon.

Plus a resin kit of a "Carta Armatura" Carro Armato P43 bis tank.

I often wonder why I take my camera to Salute, I am always too fascinated by everything to take any photographs. I did photograph one of the Carnevale boards on the TTCombat stand.  I thought it would be some inspiration for using the TTCombat Streets of Venice buildings for Malifaux.

Empress 28mm BMD-2 IFV - part 4

So, further progress on the BMD-2.

The camouflage-net over the nose has had some additional bits added.

I was staring at the front of the BMD, and thought, maybe some additional armour would be nice.

I was looking through my bits and pieces and found the Crooked Dice Mattress set. The lower front of the hull is angled, so I used my trusty razor saw to first cut one in half but with an angled cut. I then made a similar angled cut so the two halves came together at a shallow angle. The two parts were then superglued to the hull front. The gaps were then filled with Greenstuff.

If I had thought about it earlier, I would have added some on the side.

Straps and a sling were added to the ammo box on the port side.

A similar sling was added to hold the Rubicon crate. A rolled tarpaulin was added to the two pegs, again out of Greenstuff.

Starboard side.

Port side.

View from above.