Rubicon Models SDKFZ 251/D Review

I love Hanomags. When I first started second world war reenacting the first vehicle I ever rode around in was an Sdkfz-251/D, and it was an amazing experience. The vehicle is surprisingly small and when you jump out the hatch you learn very quickly not to have your entrenching too hanging off your belt, as it tangles very easily...!

Rubicon were kind enough to send me a test shot of their recently released Sdkfz 251D 3 in 1 kit, and my apologies to them that it has taken so long to get around to reviewing it.

 

This is a very nice kit, and allows construction of an ambulance version, a personnel carrier, a pioneer version, and an anti-tank gun variant that allows you to build the 37mm anti tank gun with either early or late gun shield. It's worth noting though that if you pick the Ambulance version you won't be able to swap the bits out and use it as a transport model, at least not easily.

I built mine as an Sdkfz 251/7 the Pioneer version with assault bridges. It may be possible to make the model and not glue the bridges down, but I think they would fall off fairly frequently and potentially get lost.To add a little interest to the model I turned the front wheels slightly, by gently (And nervously..) applying pressure to the wheels once they were fitted.

Detail is very nice and very delicate. Some drilling is required to open up slots on the mud guards and hull depending what version you decide to do, and it's really worth sitting and reading the instructions once or twice before building, and to go in with a plan on how you will make the model.  I'd recommend some dry fitting too before committing to glue.

As mine was a pre-release version of the model I found a few fit problems with the hull, however I suspect these have been resolved now. It's nothing a little filler can't fix too.

I painted mine using Vallejo Middlestone, Luftwaffe Camo Green and Red Leather, then used artists oils and Mig pigments for the weathering.

Assembley took me around 20-30 minutes once I had decided the version I wanted to build. Now that the kits done I have a nicely stocked bits box with stretchers and a 37mm anti tank gun too that I can see being worked into a conversion in the future too.

All in I'd recommend this kit, and the 251 family from Rubicon, and I'll probably do a comparative piece in the future with this and other 251 kits similar to my recently finished series of StuG articles.

Rubicon models website can be found at this link And as ever more of my work can be seen at Volley Fire Painting Service

Warlord Games Veteran Grenadiers review

Tonight I'm looking at Warlord games Veteran grenadier set. These figures have been available for a few months now, and I've finally gotten around to writing up the review!

The Figures
The set contains 10 metal figures, wearing a variety of uniform suitable for representing German soldiers from 1945 onwards. Although billed as Heer veterans they could at a pinch also be painted as Waffen SS. 
Each soldier is wearing very light fighting order, consisting of a bread bag, waterbottle, and ammunition pouches for the MP44 (StG44) assault riffle that he carries.  Some are also wearing Zeltbahn ponchos, that could also be buttoned together to make a tent. 
Uniforms are very accurate, and I really like the light order that they wear as this is the most frequently seen way of wearing field equipment seen in photos of the period. 

Each figure has a separate head, with 7 in helmets, and 3 in M43 forage caps.It's worth spending a bit of time matching heads to figures, as some of them work better with particular bodies. A couple of the faces I wasn't to keen on, however once they were on the figures and painted they have since grown on me. Some of the helmets also have molded on foliage as well, which further reinforces the 'in the field' look of the models.

Figures are clean and crisply moulded, and I found clean up to be very quick and hassle free. 

10 25mm MDF bases round out the sets contents.




Painting

I decided to paint these figures in Heer uniform, as I want to field them as Volksgrendiers alongside the new plastic set. 

As a base colour I use Vallejo's Russian uniform for my field grey. Reflective green is used for helmets, pouches and gaiters, whilst I use middle stone for the bread bags. 

For the splinter pattern camo I use a base coat of khaki, highlight and shade this, then use Vallejo either Flat Earth or Leather brown, (depending how dark I want to go), to do the bulk of the angular disrutpive pattern. Onto this I then paint smaller patches of reflective green.  Once the camoflage pattern is in place, I give the camo item a thin glaze of a mix of army painter soft tone and green inks, then do some highlights of the base colour mixed with increasing amounts of pale sand. Splinter camo is very time consuming, but can be striking! 

I wrote a guide that can be accessed on the Warlord Games site called Painting Ostfront Germans that has some more reference photos and also a list of Games Workshop alternative colours if you can't access Vallejo.

Basing

To texture my bases I use Vallejo Dark Earth texture paint, and layer this on fairly thickly. On top of this I 
Use PVA to attach clusters of course olive green flock, and Gale Force 9's dead grass. Once this had dried I decided to add some snow, so mixed Vallejo water effect with baking soda and painted this on as a thin paste into selected areas. I didn't want to give the effect of deep winter, going more for an early spring vibe. 
To add colour, I also added a few dead leaves. I've no idea where I got these from, so they are being carefully horded on my projects! To finish the figures off I also added some green leaves onto the foliage of the figures helmets.




Conclusion

A great and characterful set of figures. Retailing at £15 for the set this works out at £1.50 per figure, and also includes the base, unusually for historical figures, yet very welcome. The separate head system also allows for more variety so you could probably get a couple of boxes without getting excessive variety if you wanted too. 
The figures also fit perfectly in size with the rest of Warlords range, and could be used to increase the amount of assault rifles in your existing units as well if you wished.

Warlords figures can be purchased from all good games stores, and direct from their webpage here, 
As ever, more of my work can be viewed at Volley Fire Painting

Terminator!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a sprue of the T800 Endo skeletons for upcoming Terminator Genisys miniatures game developed by gaming legend Allesio Cavatore.












These figures are very, very simple to put together, and are fantastically detailed. I've always loved the Terminator films, and I'd probably put them as my favourite movie franchise of all time.
As such I wanted to do something a bit special with painting mine, so I did some light conversion work on both to make them look as if they are striding through the post nuclear war zone seen in the movies, as well as giving them that classical chrome look.

Simply using a silver paint wouldn't quite cut it, so I went back to m scale modelling stash and dug out some Alclad II Chrome lacquer. This stuff isn't for the faint hearted as it requires a truly immense amount of preparation work, but is well worth it. I've been asked a few times for a step by step, so here it is. I only have these two figures at the moment so can't do a stage by stage with photos...

1. Assemble the figures, prime with grey primer. Leave to dry for about 12 hours. I use a cheapish primer from my local hardware shop.
2. Spray the model with gloss grey paint (In future I'll use black as it gives a richer colour). Alclad II is a lacquer rather than a paint reacts with whatever is under neath. using a matt paint or a primer will give a dull finish, whereas a gloss base will give a shiny finish, which is what we want for Skynets finest. There is a TON of information on the net about using Alclad, so I'll not go too into it. 
3. After leaving the gloss layer to dry for a minimum of 24 hours spray it with your Alclad Chrome. Alclad can only be applied using an airbrush, and you spray it on by misting on layers and letting the metal effect build up slowly. The lacquer is pre diluted so you just have to spray it through the airbrush, it's quite a delicate finish until it hardens too, so take a bit of care how you handle the models. 
4. Cleaning the airbrush is worth it's own step as it's so important with Alclad. To clean the airbrush after you will need some cellulose thinners, and you'll need to give the airbrush a serious strip down and clean. Mines been in an ultrasonic bath for about 2 hours. after having a good soak in cellulose thinners and it's just about clean now. It's also worth getting a respirator mask when working with any airbrush, but especially so when working with Alclad.
5. Whilst you've been cleaning the airbrush your Terminator will be dry enough for the next stage. First up I paint army painter dark tone into the darkest resesses of the figure, as well as picking out the teeth in white, the eyes in red, and the plasma rifle in black grey, then leave this to dry. 
6. Mix some pledge multi-surface wax with some army painter soft tone to make a thin, but glossy glaze, and paint this over the entire Terminator to accentuate the detail, but retain the chrome finish.
7. After the glaze has dried, pick out the eyes with some bright scarlet paint, and paint the vents on the weapon white. 
8. Paint purple ink from the Army Painter over the vents of the weapon
9. Paint white dots along the center of the weapon vents, center of the eyes, and teeth, and your done. No need to varnish as between the Alcad  and the glaze the paint finish is now extremely tough.

You can check out more of Terminator Genisys Miniatures game at the River Horse Website, the game is being distributed by Warlord Games And as ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting. Alclad paints and even airbrushes and respirators can be purchased from SNM Stuff
 

Warlord Games German Grenadiers review

Some very exciting figures have just come marching out of Warlord towers, with sets available to pre order, and the lucky Salute attendees being able to pick up boxes at the show yesterday!

The set contains 30 figures with very late war equipment and uniforms, including the short M44 pattern tunic that was styled after the British battledress, and started to be issued in the summer of 1944.

The set contains 5 sprues of 6 figures, bases for everyone, an instruction sheet and a small sheet of Heer decals, with Panzerfaust labels, rank badges Cuff titles, and helmet decals (though these are more suited for pre 1942, some did still linger around until the end). Bases are Warlords own 25mm lipped bases that are starting to become a regular feature of their kits.

Each sprue breaks down as follows

3 Bodies wearing M43 tunics 1 body wearing an M44 tunic, 2 bodies wearing Zeltbahn ponchos.








5 Heads wearing camoflaged covers on their helmets
2 head wearing an uncovered helmet (One does have a chicken wire mesh cover though).
2 heads wearing M43 caps
1 head wearing a Heer pattern crusher cap
1 bare head






Weapon options are :-
2 MG 42's
3 MP44 assault rifles
3 K98 Rifles
2 G43 rifles
2 MP 40  Sub-machine guns
1 PPSH 41 Sub-machine gun
 2 Panzer Fausts
1 Grenade




6 bread bags with attached waterbottles, some also have mess tins and Zeltbahns rolled and attached.
4 gas mask tins
a spare barrel case for an MG42
Holster and MG tool case
1 arm carrying a box of machine gun  ammunition
1 ammunition belt
Various ammunition pouches
 A map case

Lots of arms, including ones reading a map, and one carrying binoculars.


1 Iron Cross!

This is an excellent and characterful set. some of the arms are molded to the weapons to make assembly a doddle, others feature open hands, however the nature of the design means that assembly will prove simple.

The set is £26 and I believe represents excellent value for money. I'm currently building some as passengers for my StuG, although I'll be building some as heer, some as Waffen SS. I'm very much looking forwards to working through these, and whole heartedly recommend them to anyone even thinking about a late war Heer or SS force.

You can pre order the figures from Warlord here  and see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service

Spinning a tale, starting out with Saga Crescent and Cross

The Saga games have been available for a couple of years, and as I like to keep my finger on the pulse of gaming I've finally decided to look into the game and give it a whirl. 
After contacting my local model shop, Rochester Games and Models I went and picked up the Crescent and Cross rulebook, and a box of Fireforge Games Templars on foot. If your in the Medway area it's worth checking into the model shop as they have a great range of stuff!


I've not had a chance for a game of Saga yet, however my initial impressions are that it's a very simple game, with a lot of subtly to it. The book is very nicely presented and comes with everything you need to start playing, apart from figures. 

Usefully, at the back of the book is a page with all the relevant counters and markers for you to copy and use in your games, as well as a chart so that you don't need the Saga dice that are available. 

Included in the book are 6 army lists for 3 Islamic and 3 Christian factions. I've initially chosen the Milites Christes as locally we have a local Knights Templar manor locally. I may instead play them as Crusaders though, as I quite like the thought of having lots of peasant pilgrims tagging along with the Knights, and these aren't allowed in the Milites Christes list. I believe these forces are compatible with the lists in Dark Ages Saga as well, allowing for some cool what if history possible. 

The Fireforge figures are excellent too, around the size of a Foundry or Perry figure, with a lot of options. The set allows you to build 12 crossbowmen, 12 spearmen, lots of models with hand weapons, and tons of optional heads and arms, and command parts. I'm really impressed and excited by these sets, and am contemplating getting more of the range too. 


So far I've built 12 figures with hand weapons and shields, I'll use these as either Sergeants if I want to play Lion Rampant, or build another 4 to have 2 units of Warriors in Saga. The remaining 8 figures I'll be building tooled up with capes and command parts to be my hearthguard for Saga Crusaders, or alternatively use them as men at arms on foot for Lion Rampant. 

To add variety on a couple of figures I have added some spare Gripping Beast Viking Arms I had knocking around, and I'll use the spare crossbowmen arms and heads from the Fireforge set to added to the Gripping Beast bodies to make myself some Crossbow armed figures.

I've gone for a really battered, bloody and worn feel to my figures, as they just look like double hard bastards when they were put together. A theme I'll carry over to my other Saga forces too(!)

As ever more of my work can be viewed at
Volley Fire Painting Service

The Legion! 28mm French Foreign Legion

I've recently finished these French Foreign Legion and Tauregs for my mates over at Colonel Bills.

I was asked to paint these figures up to go on Colonel Bills stand at Salute next weekend, as he will be stocking the range. 

From the words of Colonel Bill himself 'All the figs come in packs of 4. The foot are £6 per pack and the mounted £9. There are one or two accessories, such as weapon packs etc. There is also a Laurel and Hardy set and a Beau Geste character set. I if anyone wants to pre order for Salute, and get our 10% pre order discount, if they contact me directly I will sort everything out' Colonel Bill can be contacted via their website here Colonel Bills. 

The figures were exceptionally well cast, and are also full of character. This isn't a period I'd normally be interested in, but however these are nice figures, I particularly liked the skirmishing Legionaries actually. First thing that struck me after I had stopped thinking (giggling),about Carry on Follow that Camel Was how good these would be for skimish and pulp adventure gaming, I could see myself getting some of these to use for stuff like In Her Majesties Name too.

All in all, great figures, and worth checking out! 

Figures were painted with Vallejo Prussian Blue for the tunics and robes with army painter blue ink for shading, before mixing increasing amounts of Prussian blue with white for the highlights.

 The white colours were done using Vallejo Off white as a base, and then using army painter soft tone to shade them, before working up in layers from deck tan to pure white.

Bases were done using Games Workshop Agrellan Earth, and various static grasses acquired on my roaming at shows.

As ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service

28mm, 1/56 StuG Variants reviewed

In today's finale article of StuG week I will be looking at The Die Waffenkammer StuG I, in the camoflage with the foliage, and  Warlords StuG III D which is in grey primer (For now...!)

The StuG III D Was produced between May and September 1941and carried the short barreled 75mm gun, origionally intended to support infantry attacks but suppressing enemy positions and bunkers.
 As more StuGs were committed to Operation Barbarossa and the fighting in Russia the StuG proved itself to be a very effective tank destroyer, and this lead to it's evolution into the Ausf G as seen in the other kits I have reviewed earlier in the week.

Warlord released this kit last year and it's very simple, the hull and tracks are resin, whilst the hatches, gun, headlights and gun cleaning rods are metal. Apologies for not actually getting this one painted for the review, however I'll probably do a step buy step guide to how I airbrush a Panzer Grey model.

I really do love this model, there's something cool about the short barreled StuG, but this kit is very nice and cleanly cast, with very crisp and delicate detail, it just feels right. No instructions or decals are included, but it's simple enough not to require instructions.

Also reviewed here is the StuG IV from Die Waffenkammer. I've had this one done for a while, but wanted to include it for the sake of completness. The StuG IV was built to supplement production of the StuG III following heavy allied bombing on the Alkett factory outside of Berlin in late 1943, and the StuG IV was simple old or refurbished Panzer IV hulls with a StuG superstructure attached. They were issued from early 1944 up until the end of the war. Notabley the 17th SS Panzergrenadier division used StuG IV's in place of panzers during the battle of Normandy.

The comments used to describe Die Waffenkammers StuG III all apply to the IV as well, and I believe it even comes with a similar quantity of stowage. Again, it's a fantastic little model, and a fairly unique way to add flavour to a late war force.

There are other kits of the Ausf D and StuG IV on the market, however I've not been able to get my hands on them, I believe Army Group North do kits of both vehicles though, and I did do another StuG IV for a mate, but it was molded an orange resin, and was very crude. I'm not sure who produced it so I've not reviewed it here.

I hope you have found my series of StuG reviews interesting and useful, and if there are any other vehicles you would like me to provide a similar themed review series on let me know either in the comments section or though the Volley Fire Painting Services Facebook page.


Warlords StuG III D can be purchased here at Warlords website.

Die Waffenkammer kits can be purchesed either through the website here Or through one of their regional distributors such as Campaign Games and Logisitcs in Australia, and Great Escape Games in the UK.

I'd like to extend my thanks to Warlord Games and Rubicon Models for providing the plastic StuGs that were reviewed earlier on, keep up the great work guys!