Kangaroo Tank WIP 2

WIP pics from the Kangaroo Tank project.  The hull and tracks are finished.  I chose a Commonwealth Armored Car crew for the diorama to represent the use of these tanks as reconnaissance vehicles.  I think is the best possible arrangement:  

I was able to recover from the two-tone paint job on display in those first two photos (Pro Tip: don't wait too long between painting sessions if you are painting the upper and lower hulls separately--even if you take good notes).  A coating of dry pigment fixed with a straight alcohol wash on the front slope and underside of the tank brought the two colors together without having to repaint the whole hull.

I'm pretty pleased with the dust effects on the roadwheels--concentrated near the rear of the track where the most dirt gets kicked up into the suspension and churned around.  The rear roadwheels and the idler wheels are normally where most of the dirt ends up, especially in dry, dusty conditions.  The downside is all the careful work I did to make the track tension adjuster on the idler wheel look like a track tension adjuster (I even made greasy streaks) is completely obliterated by dirt.  Oh well.  I'll have to show off that detail in a motor pool or maintenance diorama.

Next up: The crew.  Very daunting prospect as I have not painted 35mm figures since the 4th grade.  For those of you who don't know me, that was more than a long while ago.

WIP Update: Models for the Tobruk 1941 Game

 Here's the latest round of models for the Tobruk 1941 game coming up.  I painted Warlord 4 Panzer IV models for the DAK team as well as a captured Warlord 222 models to go with the captured Italian tanks for the Aussie team.

They turned out OK.  Some of the weathering and rust is a little ham-handed.  Some of the dirt effects on the road wheels looks pretty good.  Overall, though, they should look respectable on the tabletop.

WIP Update: Aussie 24th Infantry

So I originally labeled these guys as the 28th Australia Infantry, when, in fact, they represent the 24th Australian Infantry.  My bad.  But that's the cool thing about developing historical game scenarios-you get to dive in depth into some of the most amazing tales of human conflict and learn how battles flowed at the tactical level.  I'm having a blast.

So these guys turned out really well and clocked-in at about 30 minutes per model from sprue to final touches on the bases.  Much credit to the fantastic Perry miniatures.  I'm pleased with the results and cannot wait to see them in action against John's most excellent Afrika Korps forces in two weeks.  

Now I need to put together some captured Italian anti-tank guns with Australian crews...

New Project: 2/28th Infantry (Australia) at Tobruk

Here is the next project in my deep dive into Bolt Action WWII wargaming.  I have assembled the Perry miniatures Desert Rats box set.  I absolutely love these minis.  These models will form an infantry platoon for next month's narrative game which will take place in and around Tobruk in 1941.  John is putting together the opposing DAK force for this scenario, so I need to up my game and paint a force that is at least worthy of sharing a tabletop with his amazing models.

First off, they are a great deal.  For around $36 you get a a core body of command, infantry, and support weapon teams for an entire force organization.  For my money this is the best miniature buy-in for a Wargame on the market right now.  In one box I was able to assemble three infantry squads, 2 Bren teams, a mortar team, and a platoon command.  This left me with three models that worked perfectly for a non-standard "tableau" base that would work for a company command section or forward observer team.

This command/FO unit probably will not work for tournament play, but for the type of narrative wargaming our gaming group has been exploring, it will work very well.

The detail and proportions on these models is fantastic.  I definitely prefer the true 25mm scale to the heroic scale.  Something about the giant heads, hands, and weapons of the heroic scale tends to distract me.  This prone Bren team is one of my favorite models-I really have a thing for prone models firing.  I'm really looking forward to painting them.

So my plan is to hit the seam between the last set of minis, which I completed in very little time (about 7-10 minutes/model), but almost too much at the cost of quality, and some of my better quality tabletop models like these, which represent about 60 minutes per model.  That said, I still need to paint these Aussies in a hurry and move on to the next project for the February game.