28mm LOTR Helms Deep

During those mad years of LOTR I built a large collection of GW fantasy 28mm figures and accessories.

But the larger models- the fortressses and cities, for instances - had to be scratchbuilt.

Here it goes my approach to Helms Deep, using mainly styrofoam.

The door is one of the few elements made of wood and it opens with the help of some pegs.

The broken statues were made of Green Stuff.

The stairs are plastic glued to the styrofoam. This model gave me a big pleasure to build as you can work styrofoam quickly and with nice results. I tryed to use the same techniques I saw in GW magazines of the days ın which LOTR was rocking copying shamelessly those big modellers and painters they have.

28mm AOE1815 Waterloo- Marcognet Division

Marcognet Division with General D´Erlon himself leading. There is a mix of metal and plastic Perry minis and Victrix.

Flags are out of the box paper flags by Perry Miniatures.

The Aide de Camp of D´Erlon is also Perry metal. A nice moving figure climbing atop of his horse.

Some figures, like the 1st voltigeur, has Victrix and Perry parts.

The famous FN 100 Perry reference (plastic french Inf.) has loads of modelling possibilities allowing the Pokalem and the Bonnet the police to be portrayed in many figures, besides being able to create many different moving and firing figures.

"General D´Erlon, the British Heavy cavalry is coming . We are F******"

Drummers and flag bearers are Victrix plastics.

Rapid Fire! 20mm Painted Bronekaters

Finally I managed to paint the the Bronekaters....
I used web info for that purpose. Colours aren´t probably the most accurate but the final result is acceptable.

First, car spray all over.

Acrylic Vallejo colours were used. Nothing special, just the ones I had around: Panzer Grey; Lutwaffe Blue and Light Blue.

The flags were hand painted as well as everything else in that "wargaming  style" were we start from dark to lighter colours, drybrushing mostly.

The figures are German WWII Preiser, painted to look as soviet sailors.

The deck was painted with GW colours.

The river water was painted used the darkest green I had , followed by GW Snot Green drybrushing. The  angle between the boat and the water was painted black. In the end a little of yellow and white was drybrushed over the black to simulate waves.

Rapid Fire! 20mm scratchbuilt Bronekater

Some time ago JF (Jorge Faria) of Brigada Tripeira placed some nice photos of his resin 1/144 Bronekater, which oppened my appetite for a 1/72nd scale one. Beautiful painted kit with an even more beautiful river ... You must see it at the Brigada tripeira site.

In this month MW (344) Andrew Hubback (MW publisher) placed a nice scratchbuilt Bronekater. However Andrew´s gunboat is a generic one - he warned about that in the article- and I intended  to do something more historical.

So Internet showed me some very nice MIG 1/72nd and 1/35th scale and Boltaction 28mm Bronekaters, besides fantastic b/w photos and articles and those scratchbuilt and beautifully detailed 1/25th scale that even float and sail! Just surf  the net and all you need is there.

So several options emerged. I chose Styrofoam as a base for the hull and plasticard (Evergreen ) for other parts.

 Size was decided (31cm X 6,5cm). Then the generic shape both in styrofoam and Evergreen. Two T-34 turrets - one Zvezda T-34/43  and another Matchbox T-34/42- were placed inside a plastic ring of unknown origin.

The command house is a simple Evergreen box shaped to size .

A few days later everything was ready.

One of the Bronekaters had a rear exposed 76,2 mm gun (45 mm I read somewhere?), intirely scratchbuilt and based in a solo b/w photo of a parked Bronekater.

The other one had a Katiushka rocket system taken from the Altaya model. The truck will be useful elsewhere. The deck T-28 turrets were adapted ex-Matchbox Honey turrets given to me by JF.

The anchors were made with Artesania Latina stuff.

The surplus parts of two Matchbox Flower class Corvettes were used for the engine deck.

The small T-28 turrets on top of the command house were made of  two-part cement. All weapons systems have small pegs so the turrets can turn.

There are very few details on the deck floor as exaust tubing, etc would hinder movement to the naval infantry figures these gunboats are supposed to carry from time to time.

 The bases are PVC sheets with plaster mixed with PVA glue to simulate water. The sides of the gunboats were sanded and given some coats of PVA.

Next is painting.

Rapid Fire! Lord Lovat Special Service Brigade in Sword beach 6 June 1944

  Here they come:  at 0820 Lord Lovat 4 commando hit the beach in front of the Riva-Bella casino.

The true casino had nothing to do with that magnificent building portrayed in "The Longest Day" film.

Instead the germans destroyed the area in front of the casino looking at the sea, the casino itself,  and fortified the place.

 Sentry Models has or had the film version on sale which is a lovely piece.

I based this scratchbuilt complex in "D-Day Then and Now", a two book study of the battle which is probably one of the best on the subject. It has only a few far away photos of the complex, so some items are not historically correct. Obviously the lovely photos on Colin Rumford Rapid Fire! D-Day were of great help to scale down the building.

On top of the complex I placed this resin Flak open emplacement that I bought for something else  (I don´t remember the manufacturer, any help?) which from the photos seems to have been the model used on the true fortification.

The Casino included a 75mm of French origin. In this case a simple tubing of Evergreen on a carved hard styrofoam.

The SS brigade was modelled from the Esci; Revell and Matchbox British infantry boxes.

Lord Lovat was made out of the helmeted Esci officer with a Nato Matchbox Paratrooper beret.

Bagpiper  Bill Millin was modelled in three parts: head from a somewhere bereted figure, the body from Esci 8th army bagpiper and legs from another Esci figure.

LCI (s).

Everything was built on the sturdy side an inspiration I received from the Britannia Miniatures style.

The LCI (s) were made in various materials after seeing many photos of the vessel: card, plasticard, wood, etc.

The late Dave Howitt from Britannia Miniatures sent me these metal AA Oerlikons. I miss talking to him on the phone, he seemed a very nice person as he was always patient bearing with me. A great hug to you wherever you are. It was a very sad day for me when I read you were gone.

The bridge officers were taken from various Airfix kits and the Matchbox Flower Class Corvette.

 Some of the berets were cutted and burned helmets modelled with the fingers while hot and melting.

Now for some support: Revell Cromwell turned a Centaur CS with scratchbuilt 95mm gun and Britannia figure.