Plastic Somua S35

On the cover of Wargames Illustrated this month was a free plastic sprue from Battlefront, either a British Light Tank or a French Somua S35. On my magazine was the Somua S35.

This Somua S35 was on display at the Bovington Tank Museum.

I will probably try to recreate this camouflage pattern.

The Somua S35 was a French cavalry tank of the Second World War. Built from 1936 until 1940 to equip the armoured divisions of the Cavalry, it was for its time a relatively agile medium-weight tank, superior in armour and armament to its French and foreign competitors, such as the contemporary versions of the German Panzer III medium tank.

This is a nice little kit and it went together really easily.

The next step was a base coat of Wraithbone.

I took a photograph of the Char 2C next to the Somua S35 medium tank. The Char 2C was a huge tank in comparison.

Undercoating the French Char 2C

The Char 2C was developed during the Great War, but did not enter operational service until after the war. It was a heavy tank landship designed for the trenches of the First World War.

Battlefront announced that they were releasing models of the Char 2C. They were delayed for a while. However, in the end I pre-ordered a box, who wouldn’t.

You get three models in the box, these are resin kits with metal parts. After constructing the models, the next stage was undercoating the models.

After giving the models a white undercoat, I then gave them a base coat of Wraithbone Spray.

I think this might be lighter than I thought it would be. However I am planning to use a wash on the models. I am attempting to recreate this paint scheme.

The Char 2C is quite a big tank and I took a photograph of the Char 2C next to a Somua S35 medium tank.

The next stage will be the green camouflage pattern.

The Bretonnian Joust

I have always liked this jousting diorama, The Bretonnian Joust, by Dave Andrews which won the Open Competition in the 1996 Golden Demon awards. The level of detail is outstanding. There are hoof marks in the ground, created using clay. The manuscript on the back is handwritten.

Across the diorama are lots of figures adding to the story. The pavilion is made from foil, but is painted to look like cloth.

More photographs of Bretonnian miniatures and The Joust.

Undercoating the Snotlings

I’ve always liked snotlings, the snotling pump wagon is probably my favourite model of all time. On a recent visit to Warhammer World I picked up a box of snotlings. The box contains 28 individual metal snotling miniatures, which fill four bases to create mobs. There are some wonderful characters in the collection.

The first stage was cleaning the metal castings. I decided I would paint them on the casting sprue and then attach then to the bases.

I used some wooden pegs to hold the castings and make them easier to manage when painting and when drying.

I gave all the models a white undercoat using a Citadel White Spray.

The next stage will be to base coat them, I think I will use a contrast paint on these models.

Preparing the snotlings

I’ve always liked snotlings, the snotling pump wagon is probably my favourite model of all time.

On a recent visit to Warhammer World I picked up a box of snotlings. The box contains 28 individual metal snotling miniatures, which fill four bases to create mobs. What is nice is that there are no duplication of miniatures, so you have 28 unique models.

The first stage was cleaning the metal castings. I think I will paint them on the casting sprue and then attach then to the bases.

I decided to use wooden pegs to make them easier to paint (and to remain standing when the paint was wet).

I am thinking of getting some more to use on my Warhammer 40K Ork vehicles, but will paint these ones first.

Constructing the French Char 2c Platoon of Tanks

The Char 2C was developed during the Great War, but did not enter operational service until after the war. It was a heavy tank landship designed for the trenches of the First World War.

Battlefront announced that they were releasing models of the Char 2C. They were delayed for a while. However, in the end I pre-ordered a box, who wouldn’t.

You get three models in the box, these are resin kits with metal parts.

I washed the resin and took the time to glue the tracks to the hull of the tanks. I then glued the metal weapons, of which two are attached to the two turrets and three to the front of the hull.

I decided to glue the rear smaller turret into the hull, as I couldn’t really see any advantage in having it loose.

The next stage will be an undercoat.

These are lovely crisp castings and really look the part. You also realise how large they are, well they were super heavy for their time, even if later in the second world was there were even larger and heavier tanks.

The Battle for Ceres City

This was a Legions Imperialis Diorama at Warhammer World. On my recent visit I took some more photographs of this excellent diorama.

Ceres City changed hands nine times during the campaign for control of the Delta-Garmon system, and the diorama captures the Blood Angels and the Titans of Legio Solaria waging war against the Iron Warriors and Legio Fureans.

More photographs of the diorama.