Late War German Motorcycles.

Some of you may, much like myself, have first hand experience with the ability of earthquakes to damage wargaming armies. While on the grand scale of things, a damaged toy army is not the most pressing of problems, it does limit the amount of gaming that you can use it for. One of the most heavily hit units of my wargaming horde was my WW2 German Motorcycle units. Pre-earthquake they were a mix of paint schemes, largely unbased, and not the best. But what they lacked in quality, they had in quantity. For these toys, the earthquake presented an opportunity to rebuild, and possibly expand the size of the units.

Late War German Motorcycle Stands based for CD3.

The expansion came about as, due to a number of factors, I had lost a number of riders for the motorcycles. The solution, and more motorcycles, came in the form of the Italeri German Motorcycles set. ( PSR review here) The set contained some spare riders and gunners, so the extra bits could be used to fill the missing bits on my existing motorcycles. I purchased two packets, and started the rebuild. Broken fiddly bits like handlebars were not replaced, as these are gaming pieces and any replacement would most likely not last through the handling received in a normal game.

Where there are Recon stands, Patrol stands may appear.

 One of the first things I wanted to make were Patrol stands. in Command Decision stands designated as Recon have the ability to split into two smaller Patrol stands. In addition these stands could also serve as markers, akin to horse holder stands, should someone wish to dismount their troops from their motorcycles.

Unknown Metal figure and M/C. Possibly SHQ?

Unknown Metal figure. Micro Machines BMW. Totally legit....

 It also gave me a way of using some single bikes, and some of the metal standing bike riders that I had acquired in the distant past. The inclusion of the Micro Machines BMW is a joke to see if anyone notices a modern German bike in the mix. Previously I had used this model with a different paint job, and a British Para rider, without comment in a British armoured force during the late 1990s.

Unknown Plastic. They came with horrible sidecars. Bikes look great, Riders are naft.

 I have no idea of the maker of  these two plastic figures. They are cast as one piece with the motorcycle, and were a dark grey plastic. I acquired them second hand years ago when at least one of them had a crude combination car attached. I liked the bike so painted them up as patrol stands.

Front on they look worse. But the actual motorcycle is great.

The painting and rebuilding of this unit was halted for quite some time, as I was reluctant to paint any camouflage on the motorcycles as I didn't want to ruin my efforts with a bad job.  So for about a year the whole unit sat with nice dark yellow ( actually Vallejo German Camouflage Orange Ochre 70824) motorcycles. Then I saw the recent postings from Paul at Plastic Warriors, showing how good his guys looked with camouflaged motorcycles, and I took inspiration from his efforts. A chat with the Archduke also helped to make up my mind about posting my efforts, so I added on my standard camo colurs, and then gave them all a wash of GW Devlan Mud to help hide my sins....

Hasegawa M/C and rider with metal figure. I use this as a joint Command stand in CD.

Motorcycle MMG or Weapon stands. All bikes are Hasegawa. Riders LtR are: Italeri, Hasegawa, Hasegawa, Italeri. Passengers LtR: Standing unknown metal, converted Hasegawa, Italeri, converted Hasegawa.

 The Hasegawa motorcycle comes as part of a kit with a Kubelwagen, and is quite a pleasant kit to put together. It does suffer from the omission of  a passenger for the sidecar, although one can be converted from those provided for the Kubelwagen. It has also been one of the more numerous plastic German WW2 motorcycle kits I have seen on gaming tables over the last ten years, most likely due to the fact that it was readily available when the Fujimi and Matchbox ones were not.

F

German Motorcycle SMG stands. Bikes LtR: Hasegawa, Hasegawa Fujimi, Hasegawa. Riders LtR: Hasegawa, Italeri, Italeri, Hasegawa. Passengers including standing figure are all Italeri.

German Motorcycle SMG stands. Figures and motorcycles are all from Italeri.

Motorcycle stand painted by my friend Andy. Motorcycle and rider are Hasegawa, but passenger is from the Revell German Artillery set.

Readers will note that I have not presented these stands as being part of any particular  unit organisation. This is because that I will use these stands to represent motorcycle elements of various German
 formations from 1943 onwards and as such tried to keep them as generic as possible. The early war, and Afrika Korps motorcycle stands I am also working on are going to be more closely tied to an appropriate  table of organisation.

Flakpanzer Rebuild

A heavily painted Eidai Mk IV.

Much like the Mobelwagen, Wirbelwinds were also constructed from damaged Panzer Mk IVs that were returned from the front for repairs. given that, I felt it was only fitting to turn this model into a Wirbelwind, especially since I had a spare Eidai Wirbelwind turret in my bits box.

Panzer parts awaiting cleaning and reuse.

Since the model was a snap together kit, and glue hadn't been used on the kit (other than on the Brumbar superstructure that I had earlier removed), it came apart easily for its bath in Simple Green.Enamel paint generally just peels off  after a soak in Simple Green, but acrylic paints don't always come off that easily. giving the parts a scrub often helps. I am tempted to see how Dettol works after seeing it being used successfully here over at Jim Duncan's blog.

The parts are left to soak in Simple Green overnight and are then scrubbed with an old toothbrush to aid the paint removal process.

After a scrub and a rinse in cold water, the parts are ready for reassembly.

Once the parts were clean(er) and dry, they could be reassembled back into a partial MK IV, and then have plastic card used to make up the superstructure, visors and hatches needed to make up the hull before the turret could be mounted.

Now much clear looking! WIP Haradi horse in the back.

Having donated its muffler thingy it needs a new one.

A plastic runner is the source of the replacement muffer. The one shown belongs to a Eidai StuG IV awaiting restoration.

 The upper deck is assembled using plastic card cut and measured to the 'looks about right' method. since this a quick and dirty rebuild, I figured that I could use quick and dirty methods.

Upper hull sides glued in place. The turret awaits placement.

Drivers visor is added to front of upper hull.

Top is glued in place. A hole is cut for the turret pin.

Hatches are added.

Testing the turret location and movement.

The muffler/exhaust is replaced.

A comparison of the two Flakpanzers.

From here it only remains to spray paint the vehicle, and then paint it up in the same fashion as the other Flakpanzer. This has been a rebuilding project that I have been meaning to do for quite some time, so I am quite pleased that I have managed to do it so quickly.

Alternate paint scheme for Kubelwagen.

The Kubelwagen is a familiar sight to many WW2 gamers, either as a valuable and useful piece of transport, or as opportunity to demonstrate Allied firepower. Many manufacturers have made Kubelwagens over the years, and I have acquired a number both brand new and secondhand, in various conditions over the years.

Hello Kitty Kubelwagen - two icons meet at last.

I am unsure of the manufacturer of this Kubel, possibly Nitto or Eidai.

I still haven't decided if I am going to give it white wall tyres or not.

Inspiration for this paint job came from reading the comments on this post over at Plastic Warrior. Iwasn't going to paint up a halftrack or tank this way, but I did have a very small Kubelwagen that I was prepared to use to test this paint scheme out. Regular service will shortly resume.

Japanese Mules -a work in progess.

An indoor shot taken with poor light and no flash.

 Having acquired a number of Airfix Supply Mules from Glenn, I am making up a couple for use with my Japanese forces.  One of them was missing its load, so I decided to give it a new load of barrels from the bits box, and construct a carrying frame out of matchsticks. Because the barrels stick out from the body of the mule, I decided to base it on a larger base, rather than the normal 20mm x 30mm piece of MDF.

Outdoors with natural lighting - a much better photo.

The carrying frame is made from Beehive Matches - only the best for my mules!

The poor mule looks quite overloaded!

The resulting conversion is very simple, and in is something quite different from the normal supply elements on the table. Two different types of barrel were used to add to the mismashed look of the element.  A rough calculation of the barrels containing around 158ltrs each, and having the weigh of the liquid at around 160kg (320 for both) and then adding in the weigh of the empty barrels, plus the weight of the carrying frame, puts the load in excess of the upper end of what a mule can carry - meaning that carrying this load long distances is going to be very bad for the health of the mule - if indeed the poor bugger can even move with the load! A more normal weight for a cargo load would be around 70kg. (according to the good folk at GDW, who give that figure in  Twilight 2000  Version 2.2  p.88, and other less game related sources on the internet.) The maximum load for a pack mule in the US Army during the Plains Wars was 275 pounds or 125kg. Odds are then, that the barrels are only around a quarter to a third full each, putting the load at a more practical level.

The other two mules are built straight out of the box.

All three stands await an undercoat of black spray paint.

 The Airfix Jungle Command Post set has always been a favourite of mine, as it is an excellent source of bicycles, boxes, another other fine items - as well as having a very nice native building.

Undercoated and overloaded.

A distance shot.

And the close up.

 So all that is left to do is to paint them up, flock the bases, and then get them on the table. Easy - unless I get sidetracked into another project.

EDIT: Drum volume changed from 200 liters to 158 liters, as I was using figures for the US 42 Gallon Drum. This makes the weight figures given make sense....

One of these Mules is not like the others.

A trio of Mule stands.

A while back I started making some pack mules for use in Harad. At around the same time I rediscovered what appeared to be a Roco model of a Mechanical Mule, or at least a similar type conveyance. Naturally I decided to add it to the build list - especially since it was mounting a TOW. I also acquired from Glenn a number of the hard plastic supply mules from the Airfix Jungle Command Post set that I felt would be useful logistics elements for various forces operating  in Harad.

Rocco Mule and Hong Kong Green Army Man Radio Operator. He was purchased in Invercargill during the the late 1970s in a packet of mainly Series 2 Airfix US Marines knock offs.

The view from the rear.

The facial detail on the Green Army Man is better than I thought it should be.

The Mule driver is mostly the driver from the Airfix Matador and 5.5 inch gun kit, with a few bits added to him.

Ready for undercoating.

View from above. The steering wheel came from the bits box.

Undercoated in GW Chaos Black. At the rear is a Supply Mule that i am starting to work on for my Japanese.

The figures on the two supply Mule stands are respectively an unconverted Airfix/Hat Arab, and on the second stand an Esci Modern Russian Paratrooper who had earlier donated his weapon, and now received a head transplant from another Airfix/Hat Arab.

A Mule train with added punch.

A view from the side.

 I have on the workbench at the moment a number of mounted stands that I am slowly painting up for use in Harad. I will try and take at least some work in progress photos of them. As for the Roco Mule, I haven't seen any pictures of the various marks and models of the US Mechanical Mule that is an exact match for the Roco beast I have used here. My suspicion is that it is actually a NATO vehicle that is similar in concept, rather than being the US one. Still, it allows me to have another TOW on the table, which is a good thing. The driver does look a little awkward when viewed from some angles, but when using the three foot rule he looks quite good. Not bad given that the vehicle is meant to be 1/87 scale. the odd thing about the seating arrangement is that the model has the driver sitting down with his legs in a box, similar to the arrangement on a Kettenkrad, whereas normally on the Mechanic Mule the legs are either on the deck, or extended over the front. It is this seating arrangement that makes me think that it not an actual Mule, but something quite similar instead.

Airfix Sherman Crab.

I have finished the Sherman Crab, and had a great deal of fun doing so. Unfortunately, I didn't take any WIP progress shots as I was so keen to finish the kit. The kit consists of the classic old Airfix Sherman, but with new rubber tracks, and a new casting of the flail gear. Unfortunately, the chains are cast in action mode , so I decided to go for a chains down model. to do so, I used a combination of old jewelery chain from the local charity barn, and plastic flails from the kit. I had also seen a number of flails down modifications of this kit elsewhere on the net, so I decided to give it a crack.

Left over jewelery chain and plastic flails.

Assembly of the Sherman was great fun, but I found putting the flail mechanism together to be somewhat challenging. I also decided to add a .50 cal to the tank. I have seen numerous debates about this online in various forums  - essentially saying that it's a big no-no, but like many things, it did happen sometimes,  and as time goes on, more research show up quite interesting things. Besides, I like .50 cals. That being said, the 'Tombstone' ammo can is very much a stretch and probably quite wrong - but to me it looks great!

The Crabman cometh...

 I don't normally mount tanks on bases, but I felt the fiddly nature of the flails  needed some protection. I made the base at work, from some scrap MDF. Painting the tank was interesting, as I wasn't quite sure what colour to paint it, as while it was British, it was a lend-lease vehicle, so should it be Olive Drab, or a Dark Green, or something different again? I did some research and blended a very nice colour, which then looked like Olive Drab after I applied the wash....so Olive Drab it is! Clearly, that's how all the Crabs supplied with the .50 cal./tombstone ammo can combination were painted...

.50 cal. HMG with 'Tombstone' ammo can. So wrong that's it's right!

A side view of the beast.

Flails on view.

Look, I actually put transfers on and wasn't slack...

View from above. I am tempted to put down some nice golden sand to finish the base up.

 So that's another of the Christmas stash sorted. Time to do some more model building, some painting, and some gaming too. Then I can do some more blogging - or post the backlog of pictures I have taken recently.