The Brit,TheYankandTheHobby, Salute 2017

This week Andy has been off to Salute, head over to the facebook group to see all the pictures as you listen in. I've sorted them into gallery by manufacture, so you can see all the things I managed to get round to viewing.

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28mm 1/56 StuG III Ausf G kit round up and comparison.

Day 4 of StuG week and here is the round up of all 4 kits reviewed. I'm not sure if Warlords resin kit is going to remain available, however I have included it in the comparisons as I'm sure many people will be familiar with this model. 



In the attached photos the vehicles are as follows, the plain sand vehicle is Blitzkriegs, the sand and green vehicle numbered 221 is Warlords new plastic. The sand with heavy over spray of brown, large number 13 and heave covering of foliage is Warlords old kit. The sand green and brown vehicle numbered 222 is Rubicons and finally the vehicle with the heavy brown over spray and missing Schurzen panels is Die Waffenkammers.

First of all I have prepared a brief table to compare what I feel to be the salient points of the various kits listed to allow you to see at a glance what appeals to you most in a model. 

I'll let the pictures do alot of the work here as the models can speak for their own quality, all are very good though, and you won't be disappointed with any of them. 

  From this we can see the plastic kits are much more time consuming to build, however they are easier to convert and add battle damage too if that's your thing, and personally I prefer working with plastic as well, it reminds me of building the old Airfix and Matchbox kids from the newsagent as a kid!

In terms of price all the models are around the same, Die Waffenkammer though wins out through sheer amount of stowage and extra parts. Warlord however are offering their kit in a boxed set of 3 with some figures from their forthcoming panzer grenadier set for £50, and if your looking to get several vehicles it's very hard to beat this offer. 

In terms of detail, for me Warlords new plastic kit is the best of the bunch, with Die Waffenkammers a close second. It was hard to pic between them however Warlord crispness and finesse won it for me. 

Rubicon and Blitzkriegs models are both very sturdy, and Rubicons has a lot of flexibility in that you can interchange weapons and Schruzen without gluing the parts in place. Warlord does allow the swapping of weapons as well however. Also impressive are the amount of variants possible with Rubicons kit, although these do need to be fixed in place.

Warlord and Die Waffenkammers kits both come with crew figures, with Die Waffenkammer's having more men than hatches! 

Individual reviews of each kit can be found at the links below
Blitzkrieg
Die Waffenkammer
Warlord
Rubicon 

I think overall my favourite is Warlords new plastic kit just for it's sheer finesse, however Die Waffenkammers kit is superb, however the plastic is my preferred medium to work with. Rubicons is an excellent model as well, and great if you want a lot of flexibility out of a kit, whilst Blitzkriegs is marvelously elegant and simple, so there is no real out right winner, but hopefully I'll be able to help you in picking a kit that appeals to you.  

As ever more of my work can be seen here at Volley Fire Painting Services. If you'd like to contact me either leave a message on the blog or through Volley Fire, and if there are any other series of kits you'd like me to treat in a similar to StuG week let me know!

1/56 Blitzkrieg StuH 42 Review

Second article for StuG week sees me reviewing Blitzkrieg miniatures 1/56 scale StuH 42.  You can read part one where I review Warlords new plastic StuG III here.

The StuH 42 was introduced into service in March 1943 and served right through until the end of the war. It was designed to provide greater infantry support capability on the proven StuG III chassis, and all but a few prototypes were built using the StuG III G Hull, and fitting it with a 105mm howitzer, with nearly 1300 being produced by the end of the war.


Blitzkrieg have a growing reputation for producing excellent vehicle kits in both 1/56 and 1/48 scale. The models couldn't be simpler to build and come in the bare minimum of parts. The StuH 42 consisted of a solid hull, separate gun, and separate hatches and machine gun mount, the model took around 5 minutes to build, and required the barest minimum of cleaning up.

When working with resin it's vitally important to wash the models in warm soapy water, and use a proper primer. I use an enamel car primer from Supadec, you can pick it up for about £5 on Ebay, although Halfords do a superb primer as well. It's important to use an enamel primer as it's much harder wearing and acrylic primers don't tend to get as much purchase on the resin as these. 

Once I'd left the primer to dry 24 hours I sprayed the model with Vallejo Middlestone using the same techniques to bring light and shade to the kit as described in my review of Warlords kit.

To make the foliage I use seafoam sprigs and leaves purchased from Antenocitis workshop. To prepare them select a sprig, paint it with pva glue and sprinkle it with the leaves. Leave it to dry for a few hours and then cut off some small amounts using references as a guide to the sizes used on the real thing.

Stowage and crew figures came from the JTFM/Die Waffenkammer kit, which is reviewed here

The only negatives to the model are that it doesn't have any Scurzen plates, and I found in a few places the detail wasn't as crisp as I'd like. On the plus side though the model is very strong, and couldn't be simpler to build!Overall Blitzkriegs StuH is a very nice and simple model and if you are pressed for time and want something ready to go pretty much straight from the box, its a great model.

Antenocitis workshop can be found here


Links to the other StuG reviews for Stug week can be found at these links

Die Waffenkammer
Rubicon
Warlord
Blitzkrieg miniatures can be purchased from here

As ever, my work can be viewed at Volley Fire Painting Services

Fury!

I love the Sherman tank. It may not be the best tank in the world, but I just love how it looks.



When Fury opened in the cinema earlier in the year I througly enjoyed the movie, and needed a model Easy 8 and here she is.








This is Blitzkrieg miniatures superb model with
alot of tlc to make it into the titular film star.











 I won't dwell too much on the making and painting of the model, as I'm very proud to announce that there is a full article due to appear in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine in the none to distant future!

As ever, more of my work can be found at Volley Fire Painting