Bolt Action Armour WIP

I've been doing some modelling between writing and enjoying the summer. I obtained a couple very useful models for my lists, one you've seen already. The other is Warlord Games' very nice resin SU-76M. It has a quality of resin that I like quite a bit, it's softer and more pliable, perhaps to help remove it from the mold. Most resin kits that I've used in the past are very brittle and require a huge chunk of material to be filed away. As the resins are supposedly very bad for you I am loathe to do it every time. My imagination I'm sure.

Warlord Game's SU-76M. Copper wire mods look great. 

An easy mod that really helps is replacing the corners with wire. I had some laying around from another resin kit, the Verlinden V-100. Which incidentally had a ton of flash to get rid of. Anyway quick work with the pin vise and voila. (For you completeists, the observer's periscope and radio are missing. No big deal for me, I doubt that they all had them.) It does come with two very good crewman, but no head for a driver.

Tamiya and other stowage. The plastic Soviet box is very useful!

 One other bonus of the Verlinden V-100 was the excellent stowage. Very nice tarps. How is that for a line? I also had a bunch of Tamiya stowage from the very handy 1/48 Jerry Can kit. The icing on this cake is probably the weaponry assortment in the Soviet Infantry plastic box. Very useful and fun to help craft your crewmen's gear with. I plan to grab a twig to use for an extraction log on the right side of the assault gun.

Rubicon M5 with random stowage and M1919 MG. Note missing empty case hatch.

The Rubicon model needed a ton of help as far as I was concerned. I am used to better detail with Tamiya and felt the need to compensate. The Tamiya Jerry Can kit helped, as did the leftovers from the V-100. The SU-76M freed up this multi-use M5 to focus on the Pacific. Goaded on by other former Marines I am going for a 1943-44 camo scheme as well as a katana and a ton of stowage. I've also modified a Warlord M1919 to fit along with a TAG infantryman to serve as a veteran TC. (This kind of thing rarely happens in real life...) I may make a tarp over the M1919...

Mostly Tamiya with some random bits from Pooch. Hmmn , needs paint.

Next up is very fun stuff. Camo painting the Stuart to match some photos. Shading the SU-76M to the proper green, or I may camo it up as well! Now I need a Tamiya M4A2 next to convert into one of the very cool looking, specialised USMC tanks from Operation Detachment or Iceberg.

Getting some Game on Board

Trying to get some gaming back aboard.

Actual gaming has not happened yet. But...

Tamiya M10 is a very nice model

The M10 was a complicated pleasure to build with very few boondoggles involved. Even with approximately thirteen pieces of track for each side. The inside of the hull contains plenty of hints for those viewing from the outside, including ammunition stowage, seats, traverse crank and gun details. I love these Tamiya 1/48 kits and only wish that they made, and I could afford, more.

Fully assembled and base coated, blocked and first dry brushing. Ready for decals.

Uh, decals...

Rubicon M5 Stuart comes with an M8 Scott deck and turret

The Rubicon model is more brittle plastic than I’m used to with my favourite Tamiya kits. It also has a bunch of cheats to make it a simpler model to build. However, most of these simplifications leave plenty of detail for war-gaming purposes and on my desk it still looks very good next my other models. I chopped off the mud guards to  make it look more like pictures I have seen of Stuarts during the Pacific campaign. My main list that it will be used for is my WW2 Marines.

Helpfully my mate Jamie pointed out that the Soviets used some Stuarts as well, they was even an amphibious raid involving a dozen of them. We won’t get into the results of this attempt, yikes*, but this historical fact is enough for people like me to run with it.

Yes, really. Do not look at the bow gun...(force suggestion).

The Rubicon model has quite a trick up its sleeve however. A M8 Scott option! Pooch pointed this out about five minutes before I clicked BUY. It is possible to build it to have a swap-outable hull deck and turret. Voila! So now this double duty Stuart just turned into; the heavy support section for an American WW2 Cavalry Recon or Armoured Recon Squadron or Troop, as well as part of a Colonial Cavalry Squadron in French Indochine (Group Mobile 101?)! All three of these options pair with the M8 Greyhound that I have mostly sorted out below, and two of them with the M10 tank destroyer above.

Base coated with Zandri Dust, my latest fave for minis.

*Soviet Naval Infantry, the term should be understood to imply stalwart bravery in the face of certain death and fighting to the last man. In contrast to the eventual victory implied in American Marine narratives. Perhaps because the latter were purposefully raised as infantry whereas the former were pressed into service from their suddenly less important shipboard roles. Please note my American conceit may be coming into play here.