Technical Details
3 Crew
1 Flak 43 37mm
300Km Range

Another of the quick German solutions to increase the anti-air protection of their units, mounting Flak guns over almost any capable platform.
This one is a Flak43 of 37mm, mounted in a 5Ton Chassis, the same issued to the Panzerwerfer 42. Most of this tractor were issued not armoured, just as tractors, but since 1944 some of them were issued with armoured cabs.
The Flak43 was a very capable weapon, firing at a 250 rounds per minute. Mounted in this platform it was capable to fire in a -9º to 90º elevation and traverse 360º. His range was between 6500 – 4800 metres, depending of the shell type used.

Altaya’s model, as usual, comes in fixed transport mode. This one don’t looks specially good, although the quality is the IXO standard the Flak itself looks pretty bad. Even this, the basket used to collect fired shells looks good.

It’s not a very common subject in our scale, but a high quality ones can be found in the MACO range.

All collection issues.

Technical Details
15 Crew.
203mm.

This monster of 19Tons needed around 15 men for firing service. It was capable to fire high explosive shells of 98,8 Kg with a range of around 18Km. Around 871 units were built and after the war it was modified to fire nuclear shells. It was in service until 70′s, when was replaced by the M1975, also 203mm.
Firing rate was low, about 1 round per 2 minutes but their destruction capability was awesome. It was deployed at Front level, and was issued specifically to destroy fortifications, bunkers and urban areas.

Altaya’s model show the usual quality of the brand, model is fixed in transport mode although the gun elevation works. There isn’t any special bad feature, maybe the worst of the model are the tracks.
Camouflage pattern is a very late war one, also used after war.
As other times, i must said that this kind of models (guns, light vehicles) looks quite well, while some of the tanks of the collection have a very bad looking and low quality details.

Again, this one is a very exclusive model in our scale, none of the major plastic manufacturers have it on their ranges, and at this moment we don’t know any metal or resin manufacturer doing it, a “big” budget in the market.
Our big brothers of the 1/35 scale can found it in the Trumpeter range.

All collection issues.

The set  consists of 96 figures, which comes on four sprue of 24,  divided into heavy and light infantry types. There are 8 heavy infantry poses and 8 light infantry poses, which means a few of the poses are repeated 8 times within the set.

All 16 poses

Some of the light infantry after head transplants

The same, heavy infantry part of the set,  painted up as their northern “neighbours”, the Normans. A pretty versatile set…usefull as Normans, Iberians or early crusaders.

A couple of the heavy infantry painted as normans and stood alongside the Strelets Norman infantry.

The one really big difference between the HaT and the Strelets figures, the HaT ones have their shields held to the left or right sides of their bodies….the Strelets ones have them held forward.  When the two sets are combined this has an advantage. The Strelets figures can be used to form the front part of the shield wall, the Hat Figures can be used to form protection to the left and right flanks.  Combine this with a few of the figures from the Strelets Norman infantry on the march set to fill out the rear and you have a pretty decent looking battle line. The bottom photo shows 21 figures on a 12cm by 8cm Impetus wargames sized base.

If you are looking for this set, try our utility to find it at best prices.

Left: Armourfast Center: Zvezda Right: Revell

It was the standard divisional field howitzer used by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was designed and developed by Rheinmetall in 1929-30 and entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1935.
LeFH 18 was developed in 3 different versions, the LeFH 18, LeFH 18M (1941), which incorporates a new muzzle brake and the recoil system adjusted to allow the use of a more powerful charge and new long-range shell and finally the 10.5 cm leFH 18/40, mounting the gun on the carriage for a 7.5 cm PaK 40, additionally, a more efficient muzzle (which also upgraded some of the 18M version).

Revell 02515 German Artillery.

Revell model was the first to appear, in 1995. Set is an excellent show case of the Revell’s better works in our scale. The two guns included in the set, depicts the early LeFH 18 gun, without muzzle, and with pressed steel wheels, although it comes with a full horse limber, a missed good opportunity to include the wooden wheels. Set also have a full crew for the firing gun and a lot of excellent extras, such munition, helmets and so. Instructions are clear enough and guns have a very good detail, taking care that they are made in soft plastic.
As other times an excellent full review can be found at Plastic Soldier Review site.
This Revell model is also usable for the Spanish civil War, as this early version was shipped to Spain as part of the Condor Legion.

Zvezda 6121 – German 105mm Howitzer with Crew

The Zvezda’s set only comes with two crew men, which maybe is good for their gaming system, but not so good for other purposes. Figures have the usual good quality of the brand, but their are just two. Gun is depicted in the box as the 18M gun, the muzzle brake is clearly visible, but it looks more like the 40 version, although this muzzles also upgraded some 18M versions in the late war. Which definitively seems to be a 40 version is the carriage and wheels, which looks to be the Pak 40 ones and the modified wheels designed just for this gun, some taller than the Pak 40 ones, but smaller than the other LeFH 18 versions. Figures seems to be to classic German soldiers, more appropriated for the early war, but the gun is the last version, appropriated for the late war, so at this point Armourfast crew could be good for the Zvezda’s gun.
Plastic is quite rigid, instructions are easy and gun is mounted with just a few parts.

Our mate Cristian Florescu made an excellent review about this set in the Braille Scale Discussion Group.

Armourfast 89001 LEFH 18 Howitzer 105mm

The Armourfast version seems to be the real 18M ones, taking care of the muzzle shape. I’m not sure about the wheels, maybe this time they are wooden spoked ones ?. Crew figures are probably quite good, details are very good, and maybe the discussion could be around the poses itself. For my taste the quality of these figures are better than previous Armourfast figure set, they are hard plastic and looks pretty well. They need glue to fix the multi-part, this allow no plastic excess at any point and flash is non existent, have mould lines, but are easy to fix. These figures are all wearing anklets, a late war feature.
Instructions come in the box rear, they are clear enough to build the gun.

Figure comparison, Armourfast crew are thicker but well detailed

Zvezda figures close to the Armourfast officer. Both quite compatibles.

Conclusion
So 17 years after the Revell’s launch, their set continues to be the most complete ones. Not only by the excellent crew, it also comes full of munition and boxes and the complete limber. Although soft plastic is an odd. The new Armourfast ones is clearly oriented for wargaming environment, but we though it’s a great product for this purpose, 4 crew men per gun, robust, and shape detail in figures. Also we like the style of these figures, discussion about the poses apart. Zvezda ones is a product which don’t gets happy to much people, 2 crew is a joke and detail level of the gun also is nothing special, a wargaming product less useful than the Armourfast, even if sculpture in the figures is better. Both sets lacks of munitions, boxes and so, which is a pity.

With the three sets seems that we have the three LeFH 18 versions available for our armies.

Minor faults are present in all the sets, which have a quite simplified detail, the worst in the Armourfast could be the absence of a sight, and detail missing in the lower shield. The most ugly in the Zvezda’s ones is the gun itself, you may drill and drill to get this muzzle looking well. Also you may drill the Revell’s and Armourfast’s ones. Zvezda and Armourfast are the most robust, as correspond for wargaming models.

What we miss now is a decent winter crew for these guns, to combine with all the leFH 18 available in the market, such for example the ACE ones, with 18M and 40 versions. Note than the box illustration for the 18M comes without muzzle, which is incorrect. Also some resin manufactures have the LeFH 18 in their ranges.
A set in the way of the recently released Orion Russian Artillery Crew could be welcome for the German guns.
By the way , we also recommend to take a look to the excellent MMS material, such this.

Armourfast team at full.

Today a transport model which was used by U.S.Troops and Britain. Model can be built in an easy way for gaming and in a more complex way for collectors. I took the hard way, although it means a more fragile model, not so ready for gaming, which is my intention.

Model comes in 3 sprue, decals plus clear plastic for windows (i didn’t put the glass).

I added some Airfix/Heller cloned boxes (from the willys jeep + cargo set), a machine gun (Airfix/Heller set) and a camouflage net which i did with putty.

About the paint i used Olive Drab and Dark U.S. Green applied by dry-brush, both from Vallejo.

Here with decals:

and here with mud and dirty, and the crew, the useful Hät tank riders. To see crew in detail take a look
here.

The set is available through our utility here.

This is a build that I did about a year ago. I am lucky enough to live near Bovington tank museum home of the first armoured vehicle “little Nelly”. I drive wife nuts dragging her around the same tanks year in year out, so it was a great surprise to find out that the refit had finished and rushed down there. I had the opportunity to sit in a world war one male tank for a talk and was shocked by how cramped it was for eight men to be bumped around the battlefield being shot at and gassed by your own engine fumes. The crew used to be evacuated to rear to recover after 24hours duty. I had to get a model of this tank and ended up with the female version which has machine guns for the anti infantry role rather than armed with main guns.

The kit is only about 33 parts, two tracks and four decal options. Two British and two “Captured” German options. Looking on the Internet most of the other builds went for the British tanks so I wanted something different so went for the German tank.

The detail on these Emhar kits are cracking, lots of rivets and panels. The build of the tank was very straight forward apart from the rail on the top which I left off. According to “On the way” modelling site the instructions are incorrect and show the rail reversed. They are quite fiddly any way and I had fun building them on the Male tank so I thought better of it.

The tracks are quite simple and are the only let down, but a good covering in mud soon sorts out that problem, if you cant see it you cant complain!

This was one of the first tanks that I painted using the airbrush. I copied the camo scheme from the art work on the back of the box so please do not shout at me if it wrong. The decals are not that great but it could be down to me being useless at decals. The gloss effect is the bane of my life. The mud on the tracks came from a Tamiya weather stick and goes on just like a lipstick and gives a great look. MiG rust weathering powder was used to give it that “One careful owner” look.

I would recommend this kit to anyone that fancies a change from “Tigers” and T-34′s”.

The set is available through our Ebay utility.

Here is some work I did a year ago on Caesars World war two British commandos. The commandos were set up by Winston Churchill after Dunkirk  to let Hitler and the British public know that they were still in the war. They were to launch raid on Nazi occupied Europe from Norway to Greece. The men were recruited from the army and the Royal marines to undergo specialized training in unconventional warfare and sabotage. Most of this training was conducted up in the rugged Scottish highlands.

This is the first new set of commandos in about twenty years so it has a lot to do with why I like them so much. They are a great rival for the old classics like the Airfix and Matchbox set. I believe the Matchbox set might be re issue in the future but do not quote me on that. The ESCI/Italeri blokes are still on the market and are well worth looking at for the earlier period of the war.

I have always been a big fan of Caesar figures, with there multi part moulding giving them more lively poses and better sculpting and detailing. This has dropped a little on the newer modern figures weapons and they do suffer from bent weapons but this is nothing that some boiling water could not sort out.

This set is aimed at the latter stages of the war and could even be used for the SAS as well. This figures would not look out of place fighting along side Partisans or the resistance in Northern France or Northern Italy. This set is screaming out for lots if head swaps and conversion with the Caesar world war two British army set to increase both sets. The same could be said for the ESCI infantry and commandos as well.

I believe that this set contains some of the best 1/72 poses on the market today. This is one of them,

The image if a soldier truding his way through the Scottish highlands on a training march was the idea behind this photo,

I will go in to detail in part two of this post on how I made this diorama base, but it was intended for another set of figures and a different war all together. All in all I am chuffed with these figures even if the wooly hat is the wrong colour and the smock is a bit iffy.

The set is easy to find in Ebay and many stores.

Once it is black primed, our first step is to paint silver armour parts.
1- First a base coat of Citadel Boltgum Metal (Games Workshop).
2- Wash it with Babab Black
3- Once dried, highlight exposed areas with Boltgum Metal again.
4- To ends, apply a final highlight with Mithril Silver.

If you use other paint brands, as you can see, steps uses once darker silver colours, black wash and a lighter silver color. Even if you only have one silver colour, try to mix it with black, to darkener it.

Secondly it’s time to gold areas.
1- Base coat with Tin Bitz
2- Apply a layer of Burnishing Gold over the base coat, without cover it entirely.
3- Wash with Sepia or Devlan mud.
4- Restore some parts with Burnishing Gold and a final highlight with Shining Gold.
For generic paints, steps are based in an oxide colour and two gold tones, with a brown/sepia wash.

Red parts:
1- Base coat with Mechrite Red.
2- Devlan Mud wash.
3- A mix of Mechrite red and Blood Red without cover all the base coat.
4- A final highlight adding Vomit brown to the Mechrite red and Blood Red mix.
For generic colours technique is based in a medium red, brown wash, and brilliant red and yellow brown or ochre. Another alternative for the final step is to apply a diluted layer of orange in the prominent areas. Don’t forget than red+white = pink, not a good way to highlight red capes.

Brown tones:
1- Base colour is a dark brown, such Citadel Scorched Brown
2-Higlight belts with Bestial brown, pilum with a mix of scorched and a lighter brown 75%/25%, and Sandals with Khemri Brown.
3- Wash with Devlan Mud.
4- highlight each area with their step 2 colour, and for the Sandals use dry brush with a mix of Khemri Brown and Bleached Bone (Bone White)

Flesh:
1- Base colour with a mix of Tallarn Flesh and a bit of red.
2- Wash with Ogryn Flesh.
3- Highlight with Tallarn Flesh+Red
4- A final highlight with Tallarn Flesh.
5- To shadow eyes use a it of black or dark brown.

(Easy )Basing:
1- Pumice stone paste, be careful with the figure.
2- Wash with Devlan Mud or a very diluted brown tone.
3- Add static grass or tufts in some areas.

Shields:
1- Black primed.
2- golden edges and Silver center.
3- Cut the transfer a bit smaller than the marks, they are some big, with the centre hole happens the opposite, it’s a bit small.
You can follow this video tutorial:
How to aply Transfers.

5- If some black primed area is at sight cover it with dark brown or red.
6- Wash with Devlan Mud.
7- Matt Varnish.

Step by Step picture.

Final result:

If you want to try with some Romans you can buy those here.

The kit, laser cut Balsa-wood and card comes with full and easy to follow instructions. The only part of the kit that is not wood or card is the sling which is made of resin. The  kit  can be painted with Acrylics (oils are recommended)  and I just sloshed it on. This kit got 4 separate layers of paint added and absolutely no ill affects. The walls of the bucket (counterweight) being very thin, warped with the first layer of paint but went back to their original flat condition after a minute or so.

The kit fits together really easily, all that´s needed are scalpel, tweezers,  and wood-glue.

TIPS
I recommend painting up ALL the parts before fitting, as when it´s put together it would be IMHO pretty fiddly to get into all the corners in order to paint them. The ladder. In the instructions it shows fitting the rungs in one go, they come on a sort of  comb but it is impossible to get all the rungs lined up with the holes so I cut off every rung from the “sprue”  and fitted them individually, lining them up by laying the ladder on it´s back and using two CD boxes pushed up from left and right. I dripped Revell’s liquid contact glue onto the ladder to “plastify” it and make it stronger. (I recommend doing this in a well aired place due to the fumes)
The Nylon thread provided is  white..so I put it in a cup of hot water, added two old teabags and a teaspoon of instant coffee powder and  left it for 1/2 an hour.

Here it is pictured with the trebuchet fron Minihistory

THE CREW

Sculpted by Markus Eckmann and available from Fredericus-rex, this set can be used for not just catapults and trebuchets but as hand-workers, labourers etc. I really like the style of these sculpts..all very natural looking (the one picking his nose ) and I hope Markus adds expands the range.

There are seven metal figures in the set, a “stretcher” for carrying a catapult ball (also included) and a sledge hammer (for banging in posts or knocking-out the firing pin on any throwing device they might be the crew of) Size wise they fit to virtually every available set of 1/72nd mediaevals.

Here they are with their trebuchet..also from Fredericus-rex.

and here with a mangonel from Zvezda

By now it’s available only in the Wargames Factory site as pre-order, but soon it will be spread through the stores.