Snowspeeder part II: Squadron Markings

Having finished the pre-shading and base layer phases on my Snowspeeder, I moved on to adding squadron markings. In Empire, two distinct paint styles can be seen flying over the icy rebel trenches on Hoth. There are speeders with red insignia, and some with grey markings.

Snowspeeder part 1: pre shading

After a bit of a dry spell, I'm happy to report that I made it back to my painting bench!

A vigilant Facebook SW Legion community shared an amazing sale on the T47 Airspeeder, and the deal was too good to pass up. The model takes very little assembly which lets you focus on the painting portion. For this model I am trying my hand at the pre-shading technique

Churchill Tank 2

I have decided to paint all my Churchill tanks uniquely. This is not for any historic reasons except for the fact that there are a lot of variations in the paint on the original vehicles from this theater, especially if extended from Mediterranean into Southern Europe. Basically I am doing this so I get to try more fun paint schemes.

Churchill Tank 1

A year ago I received a set of three Churchill tanks for Flames of War. They are late war Churchill VIIs but I plan to take a few liberties to include them in the latter part of my mid war desert group.

Stall Warning

I'm afraid I'm stalling out on my painting again. I was so happy to be consistently creating after a bit of a down period, but life conspires to keep me from my brush, and I am less happy for it. Couple this with a few too many options and indecision kicks in when I do have the opportunity to paint and wastes precious time.

I do have some more updates to share that haven't been written up yet, so I will post more about my desert war British group. I had really hoped that I would be farther along with my Star Wars Legion minis by now, but have so far accomplished two test squads in about 5 months.

Crusader Tank Test Models

The Crusader tank is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of equipment used by the British army in the North Africa campaign in 1942-3. Its very modern appearance belies a rather mediocre performance, but despite eventually being replaced in service by the more reliable lend lease Sherman, it played a vital role in the war in the desert.

Guns in the Sand: OQF 25lb artillery in North Africa

Watching the horizon for dust plumes.

As teased in desert table photos, one of the projects gracing my workbench these days is a midwar British desert army. Since I hope to field this force in both North Africa and Southern Italy scenarios, I made my desert basing a little deeper in tone than purely sand. I also used a special blend of static grass I mixed to try and average Tunisia and Sicily.

I love the crew poses in these sets - they really bring the tiny scenes to life.

My interest in military modelling was helped along early on by a visit to an old dusty hobby shop across the street from my dad's school. When he took us in there as kids, there was a display case with a diorama of a British artillery piece with its crew entrenched in the western desert, loading like madmen. When I got home that day I hot-glued a bunch of rocks to make sandbags and put a little metal souvenir cannon from Ft. McHenry in it with some green army men. I really wanted to make my own artillery diorama. When I got back into Flames of War this past year, I jumped at the chance to paint up some OQF 25lb guns with their crews, and hopefully do that orignial diorama justice.

One of the best little features of the Battlefront kit is that the sprue comes with multiple barrels. You can build the guns as early or late 25 pounders (muzzle break available for late war) or as the now legendary 17/25 lb anti tank guns. (Like mixing peanut butter and chocolate, these 17lb guns really came into their own when mounted on Lend-Lease Sherman tank hulls).

You can see the small magnet under the gun mount

Of course I couldn't let the other gun barrels go to waste, so I added magnets to the gun carriages and glued some short sections of paper clip to the under side of each gun's breech.

With the first guns completed, I'll be updating periodically with the forces I continue to work on for this army, in the in between my updates for Star Wars Legion.