15mm QRF Universal Carriers

 For my 15mm desert project I needed some carriers. Now, I already have more carriers than I can use, and if needs be I can repaint some in sand, but I wanted to get some new ones anyway as they aren't hugely expensive. 

And here they are motoring across the dining table. QRF do a wide range of carrier variants but I just went for Universal carriers.

 They are very neat little models and come with seperate tracks, two (partial) crew figures and no less than two Brens and  a Boys AT rifle. There was little bit of flash to clear up, and I had to slightly prise the front mudguards apart to get the tracks in, but they went together very well. 

I had a go at getting the ATR into the front weapon slit but in the end I just propped it up as there wasn't room for the rifle and the gunner. Of course I should have cut the breech off. Doh. I so propped up a Bren in the back and didn't bother with the (supplied) mount. If I get any more of these I'll mount the weapons in different combinations. 

The extra cew figures are from my huge bag of Old Glory carrier crew figures, which I have had for 25 years and is apparently inexhaustible. They are in NWE uniforms, but it was easy enough to file down the helmets and trim down the No 4 rifles. 

The carriers themselves I under coated grey then painted in a plain Light Stone finish. Vallejo Desert Yellow with a dark brown inkwash, followed by a heavy drybrush of the yellow again followed up with a light drybrush of Pale Sand. 

I'd normally do the tracks and running gear in mud, but for the desert I did the tracks khaki with and ink wash and a highlight of gunmetal. 

I have a system for painting 6mm desert stuff so that the Germans, British and Italians all look different, but for 15mm I need to come up with a more varied subtle technique. It is good to learn new stuff though. For the British transport I'll probably stick to this general approach, but I'll mix it up a bit more for tanks. I came across some useful basic painting guides on the Battlefront site, so I'll use those as a starting colour guide.