Been making some 28mm Kits

For my Chain of Command 28mm British Infantry the welcome sight of a Sherman Mk I (see below, the ubiquitous Western Front armour support): 

She came up nicely, less parts in 28mm than most 20mm kits (see below, looking ship shape and ready for battle): 

Keeping with the 1944 theme, my Crusader originally bought as a Western Desert AFV had a course change and became a AA D-Day+ addition to the British Armour inventory (see below, the Crusader had an extended career with the various specialist functions it found itself in): 

The Western Desert armour support was provided by the Valentine Mk II/III variant (another nice Rubicon kit). I did briefly toy with the idea of a Soviet version but decided that could wait for a 6pdr later variant (see below, 2pdr and 3 inch turret options shown):  

Assembly of 28mm kits is faster than 20mm! Painting might take longer though!

What "Another" Sherman .. this time 10mm from Pendrakon

As part of the props for the Wargames Developments (WD) Convention Demonstration Game 2024 of Arnhem (1944), I decided I needed to paint up a Sherman tank. I needed a relatively small one, ignoring the fact that I had several suitable models already (15mm and 1/200), I thought it appropriate to use a Pendrakon 10mm Sherman V seeing as the game was going to be ran at their Battleground Show (see below, the Sherman faced off against a Stug IIIG and some German Infantry moving up a linear battle track/ladder): 

It went together, four pieces, no flash, fitting in tightly together with a tiny bit of filing. 

The painting scheme was:

• A grey primer (Airfix Acrylic 001), with a Vallejo Brown Dipping Wash liberally spread into the cracks. 
• Next an undercoat shade of (924) Russian Uniform Green.
• Base layer of 50% Olive Grey (888) and 50% Russian Uniform Green (924).
• Final highlight Olive Grey (924). 
• Tracks matt Black (950) and dry brushed Gun Metal (863).

I planned but epically failed to put any decals on it but I did manage to put it on a base (not shown above) which took more time than I thought, hence no decals!

Note: The Sherman faced against the Stug III shown in an earlier post (click link)!

VE Day Celebration: British Sherman V in 28mm

The Warlord Games British Sherman V (I originally bought it as armour support for my US infantry only to find out it was "the wrong type" [not used at all by the US] so I decided rather than "take it back" I had to go get some British Infantry to make as well - that is a current WIP project) has been luring on the shelf for far,far too long. Being bigger than my normal 20mm area of expertise, I suspected it was going to be a harder to make .. flashbacks to those 20mm Airfix Shermans of my youth perhaps .. but no it is a perfect low fuss wargame build (I was fearful of the Tamiya 1/35 fine scale modeller syndrome to be honest too). It reminds me of a PSC style build and only after I completed it did I notice the Italeri association (see below, the kit as per build instructions, I went for the basic Sherman not the Cullen "bocage strimmer" that could be useful in Chain of Command): 

Looking long and hard at the box art and some internet photographs (of a wargaming nature), plus several conversations with fellow 28mm wargaming Chain of Command friends who know far more about British Armour of WWII it was decided that the .50 calibre turret mounted HMG had to go. The clincher for me was more for aesthetics (using the HMG seemed ergonomically awkward - scenes from the battle of Caratan in Band of Brothers showed the, albeit US tank commander, standing on the rear engine deck firing the .50 cal HMG) and practicalities of painting the commander figure. There were  (see below, the Sherman V, minus the HMG-AA, but with ease of access to the tank commander for the paint brush): 

My eye now falls on the KV1 Russian tank which could come in useful at the up and coming (post-lockdown) restart of the Battle for Stalingrad Chain of Command campaign. 

Weekend Plastic Frenzy (1) Airfix Sherman

Well at the weekend I had the chance to write up an AAR for the blog or do a bit of hands on plastic modelling and the modelling won, first up was an old Airfix Sherman (see below, turret hatch open waiting for a suitable British tank commander figure to be found):

This means I am almost finished the basic 1944 RTR Command Decision OoB complement of standard tanks ;)

Modelling Note: The new Airfix tracks are a great improvement. They were really easy to glue together with "cheap pound shop" superglue! Dried white but everything is going to get painted over, so that ain't an issue,

Plastic Soldier Company Sherman Firefly and Airfix Sherman

Blow me the boys at PSC make a mean Sherman Firefly. I mean I would think twice even if I were in a Tiger from taking these boys on, with obligatory cup of char in the background "though decaffeinated" (see below):

Nice looker with spare parts to adorn the hull front to add a little extra armour, and we all know "every little extra helps" (see below):

Compare this against the old Airfix veteran, with a PSC tank commander to nominate it as a command tank (see below):

I don't think I can mix these boys in the same regiment though (see below):

One RTR with Airfix Sherman and Matchbox/Revell Firefly. The PSC Firefly boys are intended to support the Cromwell RTR I am forming.

Model on as a fellow blogger would say

The British and American Sherman Response

Just to prove there is more to my AFV collection than late war German heavy panzers.


As they came. Three decoys (the Airfix 1/72 Sherman) and the one that stood a chance (Matchbox Sherman Firefly 1/76) of a return kill on a German heavy. Nice to see the latter is back on the market through Revell. I will have to do the cunning Tommy paint trick (as per the Revell box art) of fore shortening the length of the 17pdr main armament with a bit of light sky blue on the underside of the barrel. Also to do is some work on the tracks to weather them down from that plastic look and naturally, the decals.


These come straight out of the wargames cupboard. I painted them over ten years ago with a ubiquitous base coat of Tamiya Olive Drab (XF-62) then highlighted it up. The rub being, for the three on the left I used Olive Drab (XF-62) with increasing amounts of Sand Yellow (XF-60), while the Sherman on the furthest right was painted at a slightly different time when I used Olive Drab (XF-62) with Yellow (XF-3) having forgot my previous recipe. Only later seeing the subtle difference!

The same Olive Drab (XF-62) with increasing amounts of Sand Yellow (XF-60) scheme was used for my American Shermans (All 1/72 Esci, although two slightly different types, the left and middle one type, the right hand one another) below:


They are begging for White Star decals and the US tank commander can do with a bit of shading and highlight.

The moral of this story: Paint all your tank troops together at the same time, even if it takes longer

:(