Cromwell - 7th Armoured Division

 

Despite it's age, the Tamiya Cromwell is one of the best styrene kits around  for the money in my view. It goes together like a dream. The tracks are showing their age though, so I added some individual link tracks from Hobby Boss. These were a bit more detailed and easier to work with. The turret was replaced with a Black Dog resin item with a moulded on cam-net. Before anyone points it out - the periscopes DO appear to be covered by the net - but it was too much hassle to hack the resin about to correct this.

 

Most of the other stowage was from the same set, with a few other items by Value Gear, Resicast and Ultracast. I used an Ultracast Crusader turret bin after seeing a photo of a Cromwell with one fitted - unusual. Seeing as 7th Armoured fought in the Western Desert, I thought this would fit my theme nicely. The small cable drum on the right fender was used not only to help keep the tow cables tidy, but also to attach wire to Teller mines to pull them out of the road. I've also seen photos of Pz III or IV roadwheels welded to the fender for exactly the same purpose.

 

The figures are all by Ultracast, from a variety of their UK/Commonwealth figure sets. The markings are for the UK 7th Armoured Division. The cap badges of the crew are RTR, so this would make my Cromwell from 5 RTR in Normandy.



 

 

SdKfz 11

This is the AFV Club SdKfz 11. The figures are by Hobby Fan, and the accessories are AFV Club bits and pieces for the leFH18/10 German 10.5cm Howitzer. It will be joined by the howitzer shortly.

Churchill IV - Coldstream Guards, 6th Guards Tank Brigade

This is the AFV Club Churchill IV. It's pretty much OOTB except for some Resicast stowage, spare DML Sherman links, spare Fruil Churchill links and figures by Ultracast and Hobby Fan.

It was inspired by photos of 6th Guards Tank Brigade Churchills covered in spare track links.

Comments welcome of course - please bear with the figure with his hands folded. The little beggar kept slipping upwards as a I was photographing the tank, so he looks a little odd in some photos.

 

Review - Reality in Scale #35225 - 1/35 Large Dogs

Here we have a set of resin dogs from Reality in Scale. The box contains four dogs; a German Shepherd, a Doberman, a Collie and a Heinz 57 (or a mongrel if you prefer).

The dogs are finely cast as you would expect from RiS, and no clean up was needed other than a quick once over with a damp cloth to remove any grease or residue from the manufacturing process.

 I've never painted dogs before, so I just used the box photos as a rough guide to colours. A good oil wash after the acrylic tones really brought out the animals features which are very well mastered.

OK. The elephant in the room. No pun intended. The German Shepherd is far too big for 1/35 scale, and would be a huge beast in 54mm. The Doberman also, and his head is simply too big and out of scale to his body. The other two dogs, the collie and the mongrel would come across as quite big dogs in 1/35th and probably just about on the extremes of "in scale" for 54mm. That's my considered opinion, but have a look at the photos and judge for yourself against a 1/35 resin human.

 

 

 It's a shame, as I genuinely love Reality in Scale products. They thoroughly deserve the accolades they receive - not just from me but across the modelling world. However, these mutts are just to big.

Recommended - if you need a few BIG dogs!

Review - Reality in Scale # 35184 1/35 Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard boxes are all around us, but few manufacturers of resin accessories have produced any. Reality in Scale have created a set of twelve resin cast boxes of all shapes and sizes. I'm taking a look at them and painting up a few to see how they go.

 

 

 

The boxes are beautifully cast, with only a couple needing to have a casting plug removed. The first thing to say -- and the photos should speak for themselves - is that some fine detail has been reproduced here. The boxes look creased and dented in places, and often overlooked features such as parcel tape around some seams have been faithfully recreated. The only small criticism when I look at the images is that one fold of the biggest box looks a bit thick in scale terms. This could easily be sanded down if it bothers you.

 

 

 

I sprayed each piece with my usual base coat of Tamiya acrylics - a 50/50 mix of flat black and hull red. Next, they were sprayed with a mix of Tamiya acrylics to represent different shades of board. Next came an oil-based wash with burnt umber, finishing off with a dry-brush of Humbrol 74 Linen and a few spots of Vallejo acrylic brown tones applied with a piece of ripped up scotchbrite to represent dirt and stains. You get a set of decals to apply to the boxes if you wish. These looked unfamiliar to me in terms of branding, but they have a period feel anywhere from the 1920's to 1950's I guess.

 

 

 

Conclusion? A really nice set of resin boxes. Finely cast, great detail and very easy to paint well.

 

Highly recommended.

 

SdKfz 10/5 Armoured Cab

This is the new DML SdKfz 10/5 with armoured cab. Let me say from the outset that this was not an easy build. The fit, especially of the cab area was poor, and the instructions were vague in places, which didn't help. That said, with a bit of patience, it worked out OK I think. The detail is excellent, in common with most of the newer DML kits. I marked it up as a Waffen SS vehicle with some licence plate numbers from the spares box. I did use the aircraft kill markings in the kit on the gun armour to add a bit of interest, The figures are DML with Hornet heads. It's placed on a Reality in Scale cobblestone street section, and the advertising kiosk is also by RiS. Both excellent items, as you would expect.