Something French (with a little bit of German on the side) on the Painting Table

Modelling Projects: 

Next up, on the "Napoleonic Ship" modelling front (or should I simply say "shipyard") is the first of the French "Commerce de Marsailles" a 120 gun 'monster' (though even she was again used against her original owners after again being captured by the British, but Navwar lists her as a French ship). 

The rationale of my choice being that my collection of Napoleonic 74's (bar HMS Thunderer) are really capable as serving as "dual nationality" (especially as I have not put any flags on any of them). Two out of three of them started life with the French Navy and also had 'other' French sisters of the same type. Therefore a big nasty "120 gunner" with a "74 gunner" companion in French colours should put up a decent fight against two British "74 gunners". Does it make sense to you? I hope so! 

The "Commerce de Marsailles" is shown belwo in her naked metal under construction (see below):  

As I was painting her an undercoat of aTmiya XF1 black I decided to catch up with undercoating the French D2 Infantry Tank, a 1/72 SHQ model I had assembled a while back (see below):

If there is one thing that annoys me about those "rare" metal tanks you have to buy to make up your OoB (apart from the hefty price) is the fact that to avoid casting a hell of a lot of wasted lead, the model is always artificially hollowed out without being provided with a flush bottom. 

Perhaps a small and petty thing to others, but to me it is an annoyance as it makes the kit unnatural to pick up and silly if viewed from the wrong angle. Seeing as it was only me that had this problem, rather than start a petition to the Prime Minister , I decided to add a plasticard bottom to the D2 (see below):

It worked so well (IMHO) I decided to add it to the German Propaganda Tank too (see below):

The two metal early war tanks (with 'plasticard' bottoms), the black undercoated 1/72 SHQ beasts parade their wares (see below):

Their camouflage paint jobs will have to come at a later time as "other projects" are crying out for my time. Priority goes to stuff that is needed for war games .

SHQ German "Propaganda" Tank

Wikipedea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neubaufahrzeug

A multi-turreted early war metal monster, the German equivalent of the T-28. Not quite as mad as the Russian T-35 but clearly sanity prevailed as it never reached production getting halted at the prototype state (five in total), although three vehicles did fight in the Norwegian Campaign. It is a SHQ birthday present that has been a long time waiting for its time in the sun (see below):

It has all kinds of experimental madness, with twin guns (3.7mm AT and low velocity 75mm L24 HE) in its main turret, two Pz I style machine gun sub-turrets (that only have one HMG a piece in them) and a crazy high hull with multi-roller tracks (see below):

It comes together in a sort of mad Indiana Jones style way (see below):

Next stage(s): From silver to black to Panzer Grey, but when?

The "Clanky Tank Party" starts (Polish, French and German early war tanks)

Every party needs some "Party Animals" and I have a bunch of five from SHQ:

The three Polish 7TP's (one with twin MG's and two with two with 37mm Bofers cannon), the French D2 and the German Propaganda Tank

Work starts on the elaborate early war Polish camouflage (see above en mass), the base coat is applied, Anita's Acrylic Earth Brown (11014), Tamiya Acrylic XF-60 Dark yellow and Tamiya Acrylic XF-62 Olive Drab (see below for the close-up of the twin-MG 7TP):  

Both the yellow and green will have to be modified to match my guide and early war tank bible (see below):

Handily all three tanks are covered with nice plates and descriptions. Still on holiday and loving it ;)