Rubicon Models US armour reviews

In these reviews, I'm doing something slightly different, and rolling several reviews into one, as I built all the kits at the same time, and most of the comments are the same of each of them, though I'll cover each individually too. In the interests of integrity, Rubicon have been kind enough to provide me with review samples of each of the kits below, however these particular vehicles were part of a work commission.

Rubicon Models have quite an extensive line of mid to late war US armour in their catalogue now (I do keep harassing them to make an M4A1 too...), and whilst I've already looked at their M5 Stuart and M4A3 Shermans, this time I've been building the M3 halftrack, M8 Scott, M10 and M36 tank destroyers, and the  M20 armoured car. 

All of these kits come with Rubicons standard packaging of a letterbox type packaging with each sprue individually bagged to prevent loss of parts, as well as an extensive decal sheet, and well laid out instruction booklet. Each kit contains multiple variants, so it's worth taking a few minutes before cutting things to identify which variant you will build, and what parts you will be using.

All of the vehicles were painted the same way, using a black primer as a base, and then airbrushing Vallejo Brown Violet over most of the vehicle, leaving some black visible in the recesses. around the edges and raised areas I then airbrushed Vallejo Green Grey, before weathing them using some Burnt Umber oil paint used as a wash around the details and recesses. 

 

M3A1 Half Track

The M3A1 kit actually gives the option of assembling the vehicle as either an M3, or an M3A1, with a choice of winch or bumper at the front, deployed or stored stowage racks, open or closed radiator grill, and open or closed armoured wind shield, as well as pose able machine guns and a choice of interior radio fits, and also comes with 2 crew figures. 

 

Decals are also note worthy, as they contain some nice Free French markings,  as well as a good jumble of codes and stars too, so will be useful for future projects too.

I found the kit to be a fairly quick build, with some very nice detail and good fit to the parts. The only part of the kit that failed to impress me were the crew figures, although fortunately these are barely visible.

I still opted to use the driver and omit the other passenger. Some inevitable comparison will be asked with the Warlord Games plastic M3A1, and there's very little between the two, though Warlords is probably a marginally simpler to assemble kit, and comes with less decals and no choice of variants. I'll be adding Rubicons kit to my own DAK force as an M3 variant at some point in the none too distant future. 

M8 Scott

Another nice kit, the M8 Scott allows you to build either an M5A1 Stuart, or M8 Scott. 

There's little cross over here either, but with a bit of care and creativity you could build both and swap parts as each variant is required if that's your thing.

Between the Stuart and the Scott, I prefer the look of the finished M8, the spare track parts on the turret have slightly more impact and definition than on the Stuart parts, and the finished vehicle just has more impact. Turret interior is pretty good too for the M8, although it's lacking in crew and you'll have to convert some up if you want to fill their void. 

Assembly is straight forwards,  and rounded off by another well stocked transfer sheet with a good selction of markings, with options for several nationalities covered, including the USA, Britain and France. 

M10 Tank destroyer

This one comes with some fairly notable options, namely the choice of building an M10, an M10A, an M36 and finally an Achilles tank destroyer. 

Parts for these are all fairly specific,especially due to the way the turret rings are constructed, although you could potentially work out a way to make them interchangeable with a bit of work, the kits not really designed that way.

Interior detail for the M10 vehicles is good, though no interior is provided for the M36 turret apart from a gun breach.

Oddly, whilst ammunition racks are provided in for the hull, there is no floor, which is a fairly visible part of the fighting compartment. Sadly, no crew or stowage are provided, though once again the decal sheet is superb. 

M20 Scout Car

The final kit I'm looking at today, the M20 kit also includes parts to build the M8 armoured car as well. This was a bit of a surprise kit as it has some really superb detail.

 

It's not an easy kit to switch between versions however, so be mindful of that if you're intending making it as both. assembly is a breeze though and the finish model is superb to my eye. 

Of the 4 of these, I think my favourite is probably the M20/M8, although I really like the M3 kit too. the Scott is good value for money, though I have to admit to being disappointed in the M10, as I felt it a little lacking, though I'd struggle to put my finger on what precisely. 

 

Rubicon Models can be obtained through Plastic Soldier Company in the UK, and from their US distributor for those in America, and as ever you can see more examples of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Bolt Action 28mm United States Marine Corp

A few years ago now, myself, Jez Allum, Jamie Tranter and Brian Ward got together to produce a blog chronicling us collecting 1000 point armies for Bolt Action. 

 

I opted to the USMC, and thought it time to revisit the article series by collecting links to the armies creation below. 

Welcome to Paris Island! 

In this instalment I discuss the motivation behind collecting the Marines, and what I chose to add to the force.

Assembling Plastics

As the name suggests, in this segment I look at some simple tricks and cheats to get the best out of the various plastic sets now on the market, and how to reduce the stress of working with multipart figures.

Boot Camp, getting your army painted

A step by step guide to how I painted my Marines.

Ace in the hole

I like Shermans, and here's the one I added to the army, as well as how I painted it. 

Oorah! Army is complete

As you may have surmised, this is the completed army and my thoughts on the project. 

First Blood

My Marines inaugural battle report.

You can see more of my more recent work at Volley Fire Painting services, and listen to the episodes of The Brit, The Yank, and the Hobby podcast here, where we discuss a few of the USMC's more famous actions. 

Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 Sherman and Stuart Review

Today I'm looking at something new for me, although the kits have been around for quite a while, some 1/72 scale US armour from Plastic Soldier Company (PSC), namely their M4A1, M4A1 76mm, and M5 Stuart sets.

I've been tempted with some 1/72 (20mm) stuff for a while now as the sheer nostalgia associated with the models from building the likes of Airfix and Revell kits in my youth was a pretty strong pull, and after speaking with Piers Brand on episode 3 of The Brit the Yank and the Hobby Podcast I decided to pick up a few bits at Salute. Naturally a few bits turned into a mountain, but anyway, at least it's quick to paint...

Apologies for no sprue shots of each kit, I got these built and done too quickly to get pics, though there are plenty around, and even on the PSC website.   Each of these sets contains 3 vehicles, and I enhanced them all with some scratch built stowage and some antennae made from 5 amp fuse wire. All the kits come with instructions, but no transfers, and (obviously), are plastic.

M4A1 Sherman

This set features the M4A1 Sherman, and with the fantastic looking cast hull is my favourite Sherman variant. Each tank is cleanly moulded on one sprue, with a tank commander in Commonwealth uniform, and optional parts including a .50 machine gun, a run of spare tracks, a spare wheel a jerry can and sand skirts.

 

 Assembly couldn't be simpler and took about 15-20 minutes for each vehicle. Fit is great, and the only thing I'd say to be mindful of is a few sink marks, mainly on the mantlet and just below the travel lock, I missed a few but it's not desperately noticeable.

 Both this set and the M4A1 76mm mention on the box that they come with parts to make both the 75 and 76mm gun turrets, however I think this must be a carry over from the 15mm boxing of the set and this is not the case. 

M4A1 76mm Sherman

Unsurprisingly this set is very similar to the above, again containing 3 tanks, with the same stowage options, but coming with the later turret type containing the 76mm gun and this time including a commander wearing a US style tankers helmet.

 

All the comments relating to the M4A1 carry over here, and again was a very nice, simple kit to build.

M5 Stuart. 

This set features far more options than the M4A1s, and with each tank contained on one sprue comes with parts to allow you to build early, mid and late production variants. 

You get a lot of spares, notably a full set of tracks and upper hull. Also contained is a choice of Commonwealth or American tank commander figures, so you certainly get a lot of bang for you buck with these little tanks. 

Assembly was even quicker than with the Sherman's once I'd decided on variants and laid out the parts required, and again assembly was a breeze. 

Painting

I primed each tank with some cheap grey automotive primer and then airbrushed them with Olive Drab Base from the Mig Ammo range. On top of this I sprayed a mix of Olive Drab Base and Vallejo Pale Sand, to pick out the edges of armour panels and raised areas. I didn't go to far with this as I knew I'd be weathering these pretty heavily, and I didn't want the tanks to have too high a contrast either. I picked out tracks, tyres and tools and then set the models to one side. At this stage I also added some transfers from my spares box, and added a disruptive pattern to the 76mm armed Shermans using Vallejo Black Grey.

I've had the paint react badly to the next stage of using enamel washes if it's not left to fully cure. Once a couple of days had passed I first up painted AK interactive dust and dirt deposits over the entire model, letting it pool in the recesses and leaving it to become touch dry for an hour or 2. 

The beauty of enamel washes is you have plenty of time to work on them so I came back with a large brush dampened in white spirit and worked back some of the dust and dirt so it had a streak, irregular finish, and then painted a load of Wilder European Terrain Pigment onto the lower areas of the model. 

After using some pigment fixer and leaving the tanks to cure for another day or so I finished them off with a wash of Mig Ammo Dark Brown Wash for Green vehicles into the recesses, applied some streaking with Mig Dark streaking grime, and added a few chips of paint with sponge. 

With that the stowage and commander figures were painted, and that was my US armour done. 

I'm thoroughly impressed with these kits, and am now decided whether to expand them to a full company's worth of Shermans, or to branch out and perhaps do some British armour, as the PSC Churchill and M4A4 sets look especially enticing. With an average price of about 15 a box, these are excellent value, and I recommend them to anyone looking for some 20mm Shermans or Stuarts. 

As ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service, and you can browse Plastic Soldier Company's to see what treasures they have to entice you.

Bolt Action Empires in Flames overview

First off let me apologise for not getting this article out sooner, I had intended to publish this at launch, however work got in the way, and I wanted to do a proper article for this book rather than rushing something incomplete.

Empire in Flames is the fourth book in Warlords theatre book series for Bolt Action following on from Battleground Europe, Ostfront and Germany Strikes. Empires in Flames is a 124 page, soft back full colour book, and is written by the esteemed Andy Chambers.

The book divides into six sections. The first is a prologue explaining what the book is, before going into the meat Empires in Flames.

The Second Sino-Japanese War.

This is probably the longest section of the book, taking up over a third of the page count, and covers the conflict in China from 1937 until 1945, with a brief over view of the history, before providing many new units and theatre selectors. Some of the units may be familiar from the earlier books, but most of these are all new.Although the book lists the theatre selectors before the Chinese army list, I'll briefly mention that first.

Empires in Flames adds the first new army to Bolt Action since the last Armies of book came out a few years ago. The force is divided between Nationalist, Communist and Warlord forces to represent the difficult political situation that was present in China during the period. The Chinese forces have several national sepcial rules, those these break down into a per faction basis, as you have to pick whether to play Nationalists, Warlords, or Communist forces. Unique to all of these though is a free 14 man inexperienced infantry squad, similar to the Russians.

Communist forces are given a rule that represents their useage of gurellia tactics, and allows their infantry units to move up to 9" before the game begins! Warlord and Nationalist forces recieve the bodyguard rule, which allows their commanders to sacrifice the body guard (A unique Chinese character) in their command squad to stop the commander becoming a victim to snipers and exceptional damage. 

Nationalist forces are the best equipped, and depending on the period get access to German or Western Allied trained units, and equipment, notably things like German trained infantry squads, MMG Teams with the Hitlers buzzsaw rule, and allied armour like the Sherman, they also get access to the Big Sword squad, based on the society of the same name, and possibly the coolest unit now in Bolt Action!

Warlord forces represent local warlords, unsurprisingly. Warlord forces have a fairly limited range of equipment, however their command squad is probably the most potent in the game, being large, having a big command bubble, and good options, as well as great command bonuses too, and also has the option to be upgraded to cavalry. 

The Communist army is provided with some early Russian armour, and also has access to small guerilla and scout units. The army looks quite fun to play with lots of small, lightly equipped units, I suspect it will be fragile, but very fluid to use.

The theatre selectors are as follows, For the Chinese army

• Battle of Shanghai 1937

• Battle of Tai'Erzhuang 1938

• 8th Route Army 1937-45

• X and Y Force 1942-45

• Tank War:- Chinese Armour, though this is more a paragraph than a full selector describing how the Chinese armour was organised

 For the Japanese

• IJA Kwangtung army 1937
• IJA Kwangtung army 1945 

 And for the Russians there is the Soviet Army of Manchuria of 1945.

Each of these provides interesting new frameworks for players with existing armies, and I'm quite drawn to the X and Y force list, and at some stage in the future I'll look to making some Chinese Nationalist figures equipped from US stocks, and supported by Warlords new Merrils Marauders figures.

New units for the Sino-Japanese war include Japanese cavalry command, Japanese cavalry squads, Japanese scouts squads, a couple of nice new artillery pieces,  the type 92 armoured car, and the SS-Ki armoured engineering vehicle. This is an awesome looking machine, and although it has the option to pack several flame throwers, the armour is paper thin, and it can only fire one per turn...  The Russians get the Mongolian Cavalry Troop, and all forces in the game get access to the horse drawn limber, a cheap way to shift artillery around without paying for an expensive towing vehicle.  Rounding out the Sino-Japanese war section are 3 special characters, one for Japan, and 2 for China. 

The Red Sun Rises 

This section covers the Japanese attacks on Singapore, the Dutch East Indies and the Phillipines, and covers making a short campaign using a couple of new scenarios added in this book, as well as the existing scenarios in the main rule book, and handily also provides a bit of advice on what terrain to use asa well.

New units are Phillipine Scouts and a Phillipino character for the US army, and there is also a theatre selector for the Battling Bastards of Bataan, a largely inexperienced US list, but one that looks like being great fun to model. This is another that has caught my imagination, and may well end up in one of my figure cases one day... 

Burma and India

I was deeply shocked and pleasantly surprised to discover this section detailed the fighting in Burma and India,  and covers the whole period with a brief history of the campaign, a couple of scenarios, and another guide to playing out the campaign with a guide to what scenarios and terrain to use.

No theatre selectors this time, however 5 additional units, and 2 more special characters.

New units include Ghurka Paratroopers(!!!!) Australian Commandos, Merrils Marauders and the Indian National army for the Japanese.

For all the forces in the Pacific theatre are added native scouts, these are a small unit for scouting purposes, and would add a really nice element of flavour to any army I think. 

 

It's worth mentioning the two special characters though, as the first is Orde Wingate, one of the great commanders of the Second World War, whilst the other is Bhanbhagata Gurung, a Gurkha VC winner who is equally equates to being just as awesome as you would expect in game.

Island Hopping

  This penultimate section of Empires in Flames covers not just the Campaigns in the Pacific

but also discusses the Kokoda Trail, New Guinea and the Phillipines, as well as the battle of Guadalcanal. New scenarios are added including one theme to Tarawa which I need to play, as my own US Marines are based around this battle.

3 new units for the Americans are added in this section, including USMC raiders, USMC War dogs, and the M29 Weasel amphibious utility tractor.

There are also 4 more special characters, namely John Basilone and Chesty Puller for the Americans,Tom Derrick for the Commonwealth forces and Tadamichi Kuribayashi for the Japanese. As ever with these type of characters they give a nice flavour to a force, without being especially overwhelming, and are always one sniper shot away from being out of the game...

Scenario special rules

Rounding out the book is a large section conting rules for Night fighting, digging in, minefield,s amphibious warfare and beach landings, and city fighting, as well as rules for tropical hazards!

As you can see there is a lot to digest with this book, and if you have even a hint of interest in gaming the theatre in games of Bolt Action I really recommend it. Everything is nicely produced, with lots of great artwork and colour plates from Osprey. Especially handy for painting and collecting the Chinese forces.  You can order the book from Warlord Games and buying direct will also give you a special figure of John Basilone, who I will be painting up shortly and presenting here. 

All the models and photos in this piece are from my own collection, and you can see more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service. I also have a guide to how I painted my USMC, as well as a series of articles on how I collected the force here at A tale of Bearded Gamers 

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