Children of December - part 1

Children of December is a Malifaux Starter set.

There are six figures in the set, four of which are December's Fist (or Ice Golem) and three Ice Gamin.

The Ice Golem is a large figure, on a 50mm base.

 I undercoated the figures with Citadel Corax White (I also undercoated Rasputin at the same time).
Next I spray painted the Ice Golem and the Ice Gamin with Army Painter Ultramarine Blue.
The figures were then dry brushed first with Citadel Ice Blue followed by Ceramite White.
The figures were washed with Citadel Asurmen Blue.

The Ice Gamin were painted the same way.

Here are the four figures together.

Rubicon Panzer III M - Finished(?)

Here are some views of the Africa Korps Panzer III.

The model was undercoated black, followed by PSC German Tank Yellow.

Soft stowage was painted various shades of field grey and dark green camouflage. The helmet was also painted dark green. The boxes were painted dark green and black grey. The bucket was painted a mixture of Luftwaffe Grey and black grey. The crates were painted Vallejo old wood and shaded with Agrax Earthshade. The two sand bags were painted Citadel Karak Stone and shaded with Agrax Earthshade.

The track links were undercoated black and dry brushed a mixture of black and hull red. The final dry brush was Citadel Ryza Rust. A shade wash of Earthshade finished the track.

The edges of the armour were dry brushed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone, as was the stowage.

This is my attempt at the view on page 5 of the Osprey book on the Panzer III.

Rubicon Panzer III M - the continuing saga.

Well after a rather long Christmas break, I have returned to the Panzer III.

I made some modifications to the rear deck, removing one of the ventilation structures.

 I used the depression on the underside of the errant ventilator and drilled a series of holes, joined them using a scalpel and then filed it all square.

 I then glued a cover piece on the inside.

And then filled the cut out with some more plastic card.

 I used milliput to smooth out the surface (a Crooked Dice Corporal shares the workspace).

 It has now been undercoated with PSC German Panzer spray paint.

Grizzling... The M4A1 Grizzly

Previously I mentioned the T34 in "Dress up" at the IWM Duxford, there was another two vehicles there that were not as they seemed.

Canada started licensed production of Sherman tanks (as the M4A1 Grizzly), based on the M4A1 pattern (cast hull and Continental Radial Engine), however from their experience with the Ram, there were some minor modifications: the armour was thicker (some examples) and sloped more and the track used was lighter and simpler and did not use scarce rubber. The track required a different 17 tooth drive sprocket (the M4 used a 13 tooth sprocket).

They built 188. As US production of the M4 series was thought to be sufficient, production was then turned over to the Sexton Mk 2.

After the Second World War a number of Grizzly tanks were sold to Portugal. They remained in service until the 'eighties. It is this late survival which has led to their appearance in museums, as the other marks of Sherman were either lost or scrapped.

So, if you see an M4A1 Sherman, it might be a Canadian in disguise.

So, going back to IWM Duxford, here are some pictures of the example that was there in November 2015.

 This is a doubly dodgy paint job, Akilla was a welded hull tank (see surviving photographs) .

 General Steel logo on the glacis

The IWM Duxford Land Warfare hall is not convenient for photography as the exhibits are close together and poorly lit.

 Probably not an original style box.

The D-Day museum at Southsea (near Portsmouth) has an M4A1 outside.

References:
Wikipedia
Sherman Minutia page

Churchill AVRE (15mm PSC)

Some work in progress pictures of Plastic Soldier Company's 15mm Churchill AVRE.

There is a fill issue on the side hatches, though it is not very noticeable at 15mm scale.

As you can see, I have added the AVRE bits to the side of the track units.
I also removed the mud guards from the front.

Jerry Cans

This came up on the Rubicon Forum.

Display of three Jerry Cans:

The can on the left is a British manufactured one, note the WD embossed on the side under the handle.

Flimsy can.

More in the LRDG Chevy.

On the subject of boxes and crates, here is an example from Duxford. Not really sure if they are real.

7TV Second Edition

It is here, it is very very shiny!

7TV is a miniatures war-game of those sixties and seventies television programmes, combining SciFi and Espionage with the making of those programme with all the squality production values those of a certain age remember (and with DVDs and the Internet relive).

Front of the box:

Back of the box:

Box contents:

The contents include:

• Director's Guide  (containing the core rules).
• Producer's Guide (containing cast creation and scenario rules)
• Hero and Villain cards containing their specific rules
• Gadget cards
• Countdown cards
• Plot point counters
• Status and objective tokens (plastic)
• Blast template (plastic)
• Dice
• The MacGuffin token (white metal)

As you can see, it is a high quality product.

In line with the metagame nature of 7TV: the scenario is called an Episode; your models are a Cast made up of Stars, Co-Stars and Extras; their value is referred to as their Ratings and the Episode length is determined by countdown cards in Three Acts.

The rules use normal six sided dice (included).

Rather than go through the rules, you can see them yourself, have a look at the  Crooked Dice website.

Now rather than witter on about how good it is, I am off to pit the "Organisation to Nurture and Consolidate Europe"* against some Federated Security.

* Apologies again to Charles Stross for borrowing his joke (it is better in French and in the novel Halting State).