Isherman in 1/72 scale

A happy and peaceful New Year to everyone around the world!!!

1st up for the year is a model I painted almost 12 years ago that I recently discovered pictures of, so here they are. I had never worked on Israeli armour before and really only did this (and a Centurian) for a friend who wanted me to paint them for someones collection. Someone else built the kit and the only details I added were the antenna and also some little lights.

I base coated the vehicle in shades of earth tinted with a little green and then progressively lightened the colour until I reached a colour scheme I was happy with. I then worked on the base imprinting the track shape into polyfila mixed with white glue I then added various grades of grit and then bound this with white glue mixed with water.

The base was also given a spray with various earth and sand shades and lightened to almost white in areas and finally dry brushed in sand/white. Once the kit was joined with the base I went about matching the 2 together with pastels and the vehicle also received a light wash with a little burnt umber and black oils diluted. The markings were penciled on then hand painted.

I think the figures are also from Exokit and are very slim with sunken faces I tried to get as much detail as I could from them.

Although Israeli armour is not generally my thing and I didn't build the kit I did enjoy taking it to a finish. Not knowing anything about the subject I cannot comment on the accuracy of the model.


The model seems to have a lot of good points with lots of detail around and many hatches open the only thing I was not so happy with was the dip in the gun barrel. Overall I am pleased with the final result.

10mm WW2

It's been a good long while since my last post basically because I have been busy with my 2 other blogs:

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/
http://carlukewargamesclub.blogspot.com/

So I thought it was about time I posted a little report.

Here are a couple of pictures of a superb 10mm WW2 battle last Saturday. You can see more over at the Carluke Wargames Club Blog above.

Not taking part in the battle but from my personal favourite period of interest from WW2.

Vehicles are from John M's collection. I think I will be getting some of these soon.

Just like from my childhood only smaller. I think almost every wargamer and modeller has build an Airfix short barrelled PzIV in panzer grey?

Russian T60

Well it has been a mega long time since my last post and I was beginning to think I may have begun 1 blog too many as I also maintain our club blog and my Napoleonics blog.

I had started to plan putting all my works in the 1 blog but I decided no, I need to keep my main interest Napoleonics seperate.

And I am sure in the near future I will be back building and painting more 1/76 and 1/72 scale models again.

This is a model I finished a few years back a Soviet T60 from Milicast. I airbrushed the vehicle with dfferent greens and added a few little extra's. The figure is from Cromwell Models.

The idea in my head was somewhere around the prippet marshes at the start of 1941.

German Tankers Winter Uniforms

This is another set I did for Tom at Milicast a number of years ago. I really need to get some better pics of these as Tom took the pictures when he was just getting into the whole digital camera and computer thing and they are too small. Also you can see with the first figure in this set Tom has had a little tinker with photoshop removing a little beard I painted on him.

You should never reveal the secrets of the dark arts to new blood as when you leave them on their own there is no telling what they will do!!!

As These guys are in Tom's shop they have had a hell of a lot of handling as you can see. Not even 2 coats of revell matt varnish could protect them from the greasy hands of passers by!

I was pretty proud of them when I first done them as the camo was a bit of a challenge.

Germans at Rest or Prisoners?

Yip more figures I done for Tom down at Milicast

These excellent pictures were taken my a modelling friend of mine Alex Clark who was writing a book for Osprey at the time on 1/72 scale tiger tanks.

I believe Alex has done 2 books now, 1/72 scale PzIV's and Tigers?
I was lucky enough for Alex to include a picture of 1 of my hanschar figures in the tiger book for size comparisons

I have recovered from my big swollen head. I haven't painted any WW2 figures for a few years now as my brother, nephew and I have moved onto wargaming with Napoleonic and ACW figures.

I think this picture was taken by Tom for his website?

And this is the set in it's original form. I think this is a really nice set and I always planned on putting some of them in a little scene in normandy sitting at the side of the road with a couple of British (or Canadian) soldiers drinking wine as a Sherman firefly rolls past. One day I'll get it done as I have the shermans built and packed away in the loft.

Russian Tank Riders

Well my quest to make a record of all the figures and tanks I have done over the years continues . . .

This is another set of figures I painted up for Milicast and are photographed by Tom.

A nice little set of figures for sitting on 1/72 and 1/76 scale Russian Tanks.

I used a lot of different shades of khaki and browns to make the uniforms stand out from each other (I know you can't really tell from the picture).

I believe this set is FIG052 and can be bought direct from Milicast in the UK.

Hanschar from Milicast

This is another set of figures from the milicast range I did for Tom

There is loads of detail on these guys to paint and I managed to pick out the medals and ribbons etc.

They are a very unusual subject that I dont think have been covered by any other companies. I really enjoyed painting these guys.

Brush Painted WW2 Camo

I wrote this guide for painting WW2 German vehicle soft edge camouflage a few years ago when I didn't have an airbrush. I now own an airbrush but I think it will still be of some help to modellers who don't have 1 yet.

I would guess a good many modellers still haven't got an airbrush to their name and this can cause a bit of a problem when trying to create a realistic 3 tone late war German panzer camouflage that was applied in the field by the troops with an airbrush. So here is my simple solution that I stumbled upon a few years back. (it's best to use enamels for this)


STEP 1 Always keep your old brushes, I trim mine down to varying shapes and sizes, have your brush cleaning fluid (turps, white spirit etc) in a small easy to handle glass container sitting close by (work in a well ventilated room).

STEP 2 Base coat your vehicle in your chosen colour (I use Humbrol dark yellow 94). This should be left to dry for 1-2 nights. Also you should have a good idea of what camo scheme your looking for.

STEP 3 : Your now ready to apply your second colour, it is up to you what colour you start to apply next either red, brown or green.

After mixing the paint well I paint on a couple of sections of the second colour with a normal brush and then I switch to 1 of my old trimmed brushes first dipping it in the cleaning fluid to get it damp then I dry off the excess liquid on an old rag. Then I gently begin to smudge the edges of the newly painted colour and this begins to give a nice feathered texture to the paint finish (smudging with different brushes produces harder and softer effects). It will take a few nights to do the 2nd and 3rd colours and it's best to limit the amount of sections you do in each painting session.

CONCLUSION Hopefully with a bit of time spent you should end up with a more natural looking 3 tone camo with an airbrush finish. Unfortunately this will not replicate totally the excellent effects achieved by using a high quality airbrush but it's worth a try.

Figure Painting Guide

I created a version of this guide a few years ago for my old website when some friends asked me how I go about painting figures. So I thought it would be a nice idea to rejuvenate it for this blog.

I first became aware of figure painting as a young lad watching over my older brothers shoulder as he painted boxes of Airfix figures and I guess soon after I covered my own figures in many layers of multicoloured paint. Over the last 20 odd years I have painted everything from English and American Civil War, Napoleonic, Roman, Dragons, Elves and Skeletons from 15mm to 1/35 scale.

I usually prepare 2 or 3 figures at a time unless painting character figures. Once I've decided on which figures I will be painting 1st thing I do is wash them in cold water with soapy liquid to get rid of any casting agent/chemicals that may remain around the figures then I leave them to dry. Next I will cut and file off any casting blocks or flash and fill any imperfections with milliput or glue depending on the size. Once prepared I glue the figures to little bases of old model box card for easier handling while painting.


PAINTS Mostly I use acrylics but make use of both acrylics and enamels of various makes. I have no particular favourite but you can finish figures much faster with acrylics.

STAGE 1 : PRIMING THE FIGURE Patience is the key to figure painting, first the I prime the figures with a coat of light grey. This acts as a good base for any following coats and brings out detail and any imperfections I've missed. Then I leave the figures to dry for a time depending on what type of paints I've used.

STAGE 2 : BLOCKING IN THE MAIN COLOUR I work from dark to light when figure painting and I tend not to use black neat on a figure unless with panzer uniforms or the base for very small details.

So I start off blocking out areas of uniform with a darker shade than I am aiming for (dark drowns, dark greens and dark reds). I then block out the flesh area using the same method but using a blend of browns and blue and flesh but I make sure I don't go to dark as the paint job can then become a wargames look.

STAGE 3 : PAINTING FACIAL DETAIL I then paint in the eyes with white then Prussian blue, I do this before finally shading the face. Painting the eyes before painting facial features lets you blend them into the face as you begin adding in facial detail. I do this by using a very fine brush to apply subtle shades of the base colours mixed with flesh to prominent areas such as nose, cheeks and ears then gently continue adding a little white until I am happy with the result. I also paint the rims of helmets or hat at this stage. (I do the face 1st as once complete I find it spirits me on to finish a figure well)

STAGE 4 : UNIFORM PAINTING There is no secret in my uniform painting just the same working from dark to light and I leave all small detail till later and treat all webbing and weapons as individuals leaving metals till later too. I also leave headgear till later as I have a tendency to hold the heads with my index figure.

STAGE 5 : PAINTING IN UNIFORM DETAIL I use black neat to pick out buttons, belt buckles, medals and unit insignia then it's down to a steady hand to paint the items in their actual colour and then I finish off headgear and metal objects (this is the points I feel really completes a figure). Then finally I varnish the figure in Revell matt Varnish and I'm done.
So that's my simple method of painting figures and definitely is not the only way but it gives me my best results. (Hopefully it will be of some help to someone else).
Happy Figure Painting !!!

When I am painting figures I try to gather as much reference material on the uniforms as possible, being able to see what your aiming for definately makes life much easier. All the figures shown in this article are from the Milicast range of 1/76 scale resin figures and are sculpted by Tony Boustead of England. Tony's figures are some of the best around for the smallscale modeller at the moment and can be found in many figure ranges such as Milicast, FCM and SHQ.

Milicast British WW2

I done these figures for Tom at Milicast a number of years ago and was pretty pleased with the finish. They were painted with various types of acrylics and then varnished with Revell matt. I have had a very long break from doing 1/72 scale kits and because of this have seen no point in painting WW2 figures.

I really like the Milicast figures, they are listed as 1/76 scale but fit in great with 1/72 scale vehicles. I am itching to get back into building WW2 armour again but unfortunately I have no space in my wee house to work on them. I'm hoping that over the next year or 2 I will have my loft converted so I will have somewhere to set up my paints and build kits again.

Cromwell Swimming

The Cromwell is from Revell with wading gear from MR Modelbau (It's been a while since I did this one but I believe that the wading gear was part of the centaur conversion set?) Some of the stowage was from MR Modelbau with additional stowage from the spares box. I used milliput to represent the areas protected from the sea.

Figures are from Milicast and different grades of wire was used to make the earphones, antenna and wading attachment.
To acheive the water effect I poured clear resin in different layers mixing in enamel blue/brown/green to get a dull water look and stipled a light grey into certain points to get the froth effect.

Centaur 1/72 scale

This is a Revell Cromwell converted to represent a Centaur used by the Royal Marine Support Group at the time of the normandy landings. They were used to provide artillery support to the troops during the initial stage of the assaults and were not supposed to proceed beyond the coast however some did advance inland up to 10 miles. The little numbers marked on the outside of the turret were to help direction the fire and was first penciled on then hand painted.


I added additional little details of my own and the figures are from Milicast with a little bit of conversion work. Different grades of wire was used for the antenna and head phones. I worked from pictures of the actual vehicles and I really enjoyed doing this one and feel it turned out pretty well. I took the colours of the uniforms and berets from fellow modellers advice but I believe that the current thinking is that the tankers would have been in the usual uniform of khaki with black berets.