Rubicon Models Sdkfz 305 Review

 Rubicon have recently released their new Opel Blitz kit, labelled as the Sdkfz 305 for copyright reasons, and supplied one to me to review. (The painted vehicles being ones I have assembled for work, with my own one being the unassembled one).

The kit comes in the familiar dark grey plastic on 2 sprues, and is scaled to 1/56. Of note is the fantastic decal sheet, and the slide moulded cab. Also included are 2 crew figures.

 No windows are provided for the cab, however a template is supplied on the instruction sheet for you to make your own. also included are a choice of canvas tilts for the cargo area. 

Rubicons Opel assembles very quickly and simply, taking around 30 minutes to put together, and fitting very well. One nice feature is that you can leave the cab and cargo tilt off the model until painting is complete, and then they just snap into place. 

One feature I especially liked was the pose able nature of the cargo bed, allowing you to model the tailgate dropped, or even convert the kit to mount a 20mm anti-aircaft gun, something I may well do with mine. 

Only a few negatives presented them selves with this were the crew, who were very soft in detail and are probably best off replaced, however they are also hard to see so it's not too much of an issue. 

One thing that did confuse me though was the instructions suggest you can fit the benches along the sides of the truck bed as well as rowed up along the centre, however if this is the case there's either one missing or you have to cut one of the benches in half. 


 


Again, a minor complaint. The final issue to present itself was the pioneer tools are quite brittle and several snapped in removable from the sprue, although this was easy to over come due to the way they fit to the rest of the truck. 

I painted the trucks with a base coat of Vallejo middlestone, before mixing increasing amounts of Pale Sand in and airbrushing on a series highlights and areas of fading. Weathering was carried out with washes of artists oils, notably Daley Rowney Burnt Umber.   

More information can be found at the Rubicon Models website, and the kits can be obtained in the UK through Plastic Soldier Company. As ever you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Rubicon Models M4A3 Review

Rubicon Models M4A3was one of their first wave of kits to be released, and I've built several for work, as well as having one of my own buried in the stash. As a result of this it seemed like it was high time for me to post a review of the kit of this ubiquitous Sherman variant. 

 Rubicons kit comes moulded in a dark grey hard plastic on 3 sprues, as well as an instruction booklet and nice decal sheet. The kit is scaled to 1/56 so fits nicely with other 1/56 models on the market. 

The kit is designed for war-gamers, and so tends to forego any really fine parts.

The Sherman allows you to build either the 75mm, 76mm, or 105 mm armed varients, and includes parts to build either the 75mm turret, or the T23 turret as used for the 76mm and 105mm armaments. Unfortunately there are only enough parts to build one turret, and the only way to make them interchangeable if that's your thing, is to do so with magnets. Unfortunately fit of the lower to upper turret's not ideal either, so you will have to do a little work shaping it if you wish to avoid a gap or notable join. 

Rubicons Sherman assembles easily for the most part and the instructions are nice and clear. The only Issue I've found in assembling them is that the .50 machine gun has a tendency to snap, as it's so fine, and the connection points are at either end. A trick for removing such delicate parts is to cut the sprue that surrounds it 

Rubicon have recently withdrawn the kit from scale as there are a few niggling accuracy issues with the model, notably due to turret shape and in an admirable move are re tooling the kit for future re release. As it stands and based on the strength of this release I'd recommend picking up this boxing if you can find it, and want an M4A3. Once the new kit is released and I have my mitts on one I'll give a further review of it. 

Painting was done by simply airbrushing MIG Olive Drab Base onto the model, followed by Vallejo Green Grey as a highlight, before weathering with artists oils.

More information can be found at the Rubicon Models website, and the kits can be obtained in the UK through Plastic Soldier Company. As ever you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Trenchworx T-28 review

Earlier in the year American manufacturer Trenchworx were kind enough to send me one of their new (at the time) T-28 tanks. The kit is scaled to 1/56 so fits nicely with other 1/56 vehicles such as those produced by the likes of Warlord, JTFM and Rubicon etc. 

Very cleanly cast in a dark grey resin, the the T-28 comes in minimal parts with neat plugs to hold all the parts in place. 

Assembly took around 10 minutes. All the parts fit flawlessly, and it's worth mentioning that the main gun can be magnetised to allow you to switch between the early and late versions. (I glued mine though as I always loose swappable parts). 

Speaking to Nate at Trenchworx the resin they use doesn't require washing, however mine had a bath in the ultra sonic cleaner through force of habit as much as anything else, and was then primed with black automotive primer. This worked very well, and adhered nicely. 

For paints, I used the Vallejo Russian 4BO green paint set, and I discuss this in my Warlord Russian armour review here. 

 Trenchworx T-28 retails at $38 US, and represents good value for a kit of this quality, with international shipping at $15. 

 

As ever you can find more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service, and you can order Trenchworx kits direct from their website.

The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby.

Now that we have 6 episodes under our belt, I'd like to introduce a new historical gaming podcast, namely The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby. 

The podcast came about through my friends Rob and Carl, along with myself had been discussing gaming in general, and our own approaches and philosophies to collecting armies and gaming in general.

We thought it could be a good way to fuel discussion and get ideas from the gaming community at large if we were to produce a podcast of ourself and guests discussing a period of history each time, and then going on to talk about how to bring that to the gaming table. 

Whilst we don't aim nor claimto be historians we do hope we can spur you own with your gaming and provide some motivation to get those old projects finished off. 

You can listen to us on both PC and Android, and also on iTunes, and can join our Facebook group to take part in the discussion.

So far we have the following episodes

Episode 1: The Battle of Tobruk. We talk a little about the battle, and talk about some of the figure ranges and rule sets for the period, before being joined by Jasper Oorthuys who talks to us about Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine, his own gaming projects and interests, and a discussion on the gaming industry as a whole.  

Episode 2:  Gung Ho! The raid on Makin Island: Just myself, Carl and Rob for this one, and we chat about the raid, and some gaming ideas around it. 

Episode 3: Battle of the Bulge, "Wacht Am Rhein": This time we're joined by Piers Brand, one of the crew responsible for the Battlegroup rule set, and he tells us a little about the battle, and then talks about the Battlegroup rules and new Battle of the Bulge supplement.  

Episode 4: Rebels and Redcoats: Rob, Carl and I give a very potted history of the American War of Independence, and have a round up of figure ranges in various scales,

Episode 5: Battle of Carentan: Just the 3 of us again this time, discussing the Battle of Carentan, and some gaming and modelling ideas too. 

Episode 6: Summer of 1940: We have an extended introduction this week, where Rob and Carl discuss some of the events they have attended recently, before Piers Brand joins us again to talk about the Blitzkrieg campaign through France and the low countries. 

We have plenty more to come too, so far we're averaging about 2 episodes a month, and each runs to around 2 hours, though a few run to 3. 

Those links again, and we hope you enjoy the show!

The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby Facebook group. Join us here to chat and see galleries of models that support each episode. 

 The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby Libsyn, this also allows you to download episodes.

The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby RSS Feed

The Brit, The Yank and the Hobby on iTunes

 

Warlord Games M4A3E8

Warlord Games have very recently released an M4A3E8 kit, otherwise known as the Easy 8.

This is a very simple kit, comprising 4 resin parts and a handful of metal detail components, such as light fittings and machine guns. (There is a bow machine gun included, however I forgot all about it when taking the pictures...), and I believe the kit comes with a commander figure too, however I decided to model mine buttoned up. 

Parts are exceptionally cleanly cast, clean up took around 5 minutes with a bit of sand paper and some clippers. Fit of parts was superb, and no warping was present. No stowage is provided, and there are no pioneer tools on the decking either, which is a little disappointing. I've kept my vehicle unloaded at the moment,  I may well come back and pile it up with gear. For now though I'm really liking the unladen aesthetic. 

The base Olive Drab colour came from MIG 926 Olive Drab Base, which was applied with an airbrush, before some increasingly lighter layers were sprayed on using a mix of Olive Drab Base and Vallejo Pastel Green. Decals were applied, before a filter of Mig 241 Brown was applied. Once this had set pin washes using MIG 1005 Dark Brown Wash for green was applied. 

Dirt and grime were a mix of AK interactive dust and dirt deposits, and various Humbrol and Mig Pigments mixed with Pledge Multi surface wax and spattered onto the model with an old brush. a bit of blending with a wide flat brush to get rid of the more obnoxious mud puddles, and the model was done.

I'm a fan of the Sherman, and always enjoy working on them, however this was particularly rewarding as the model has a real heft and presence to it. It just feels right. Whilst my friends at Warlord were kind enough to supply me with this one, I will be buying more, as I'd like to make a Korean War vehicle with a fancy Tiger face (Even if the tracks are too early in this kit). Also, it is a little bit tempting to make another model of THAT M4A3E8, though I already have one (You can read about how I built it in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy 77)

You can pick up your own Easy 8 from Warlord Games, and can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service. Finally, on 6th of June I am attempting to raise funds for the Royal Marines Charity, by painting all of Warlords Royal Marine Commandos in a day, so please if you can help head on over to my Just Giving page.

D-Day Charity build

Just a short post today, but to mark and commemorate the anniversary of D-Day and try and raise some money for the Royal Marines charity, I am asking for your support in sponsoring me to paint 38 Warlord Games Royal Marines, plus a Sherman DD to a high standard over the course of a day. If you can help please follow the link below to my just giving page.  There will be updates throughout the day via the Volley Fire Facebook page.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Andy-Singleton2

Beyond the Gates of Antares C3M4 launch day

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to make lots of friends in an industry I love, and last weekend I was very graciously invited up to Nottingham by the gang at Warlord Games to take part in a huge game of Beyond the Gates of Antares at John  Stallards house that saw a horde of players descend for a roughly 12,000 point game between concord and Freeborn forces, with no less than 11 Drones on the table. 

On the side of the noble and glorious Freeborn were Warlorders Nick and Dave, alongside myself and Sam Phillips .

 Facing us with the dastardly and oppressive Concord were Matt Houghton of Evil Bear Wargames, Sculptmaster Wotjek from Warlord, and the deviant monster that is Jez Allum.

The Game was umpired by Andrew Chesney, whilst Richard Dando floated around taking pictures that are immmeasurably better than mine. 

No army lists were used, it was purely a case of pile everything onto the table, and we were each assigned 10 order dice to use as we pleased (Except for Dave, he only got 2...).

The game length was set for 5 turns. Objectives for the Freeborn being to destroy 3 power generators, and conserve our tanks, whilst the Concord had to secure 3 areas in the Freeborn half of the table, and also conseerve their tanks. Victory points were awarded one for each objective secured, and one for each tank destroyed. 

For a game that featured 310 order dice pulls in what is in essence a large skirmish game, the flow was fantastic, each turn to pull all 62 order dice took approximately 45 minutes, and even with time to wander around, chat, eat, drink tea, stop for lunch, chat, drink more tea, pose for pictures, and occasionally actually play the game, we were done by just after 17:00, and started at around 11:30. 

Flow of the game was very interesting, with the tanks facing off against one another and spear heading the assaults on objectives, whilst the rest of the armies tangled with one another. Despite being MOD2 (2 activations per turn rather than the one of most units), the tanks didn't feel particularly dominating,   and all parts of our forces felt like they had a roll to play. 

Man of the match has got to be Sam's Freeborn X-Howitzer, as that managed to slay anything it landed a shot onto, and was truly entertaining to see in action. 

Eventual victory point score was 4 all, with the remaining forces being heavily in the favour of the Concord, and victory narrowly being awarded to them (Boooooo). 

Sunday saw Sam, Matt and myself take a scaled down version of the game to Partizan at Newark, and this was a fantastic little event with some cracking games on display. 

For our game we pitched Concord and Freeborn against one another again, with Sam taking on the Concord and Matt playing as the Freeborn, and myself alternating between Ghar and Freeborn forces. 

 For a giggle we(I)  threw in some Ghar too, this time saw a decisive Freeborn Victory, after Sam presumably broke his dice during our game on Saturday. 

All in all, was a great weekend, and a huge thank you to all those who made it possible. I for one Can't wait for the next one! 

You can read my thoughts on the C3M4 drone kit here, and see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service