Forged in Battle 105mm LeFH

 I thought the DAK deserved some dedicated artillery, and I wanted some sand coloured 105mm guns anyway. Sadly BPM don't do 105s, so metal it would have to be. I did vaguely think about getting some more QRF 105s, but in a moment of madness I passed the Forged in Battle stall at Partisan and saw they had packs of two 105mm LeFH, including crew.

What they didn't have on was a price, but I was in 'must have' mode, and had a horrible shock when I came to pay. Fifteen quid! Fifteen quid for two guns? I could buy an entire battery of QRF guns for that. To paraphrase Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction, we'd better be talking some absolutely charming motherf***ing guns here.

Anyway, they are actually rather charming motherf***ing guns. Exquisitely detailed, and with lovely crew figures who aren't loaded down with gear and actually have bare arms. One guy is even in his shirt. Hooray! 

They are reasonably easy to assemble, the wheels and trails are a single piece casting thank goodness, the barrel sits on them fine, but sadly the shield is separate, so a degree of cursing was involved to get all the relevant bits to stick together at the correct angles. Compared to some guns I've built those, these were a walk in the park though.

 

The detail on the breech etc is great, as are the tyres on the wheels. There wasn't much flash on them, although one model did have a damaged tyre. I couldn't be bothered to repair it, put it down as battle damage.

The guns were just done in overall sand (VJ Dark Sand this time) over a grey undercoat. I did the crew in tropical uniforms, but went a bit heavier on the olive green so they are good for other warm weather campaigns in Russia and Europe.

I also only used a few of the supplied crew figures and fleshed them out with some Peter Pig DAK gunners. I have other uses in mind for them in the future.

So, despite my price shock (I've obviously lived too long in Yorkshire), these turned out very well in the end and I'm pleased with them.

Time for a re-spray

 Rather than buying extra Pz III Ls or Sdkfz 221s for my DAK forces, I'd planned on using some of my existing late war vehicles.

Now, most of the my late war stuff is done in three tone camo as above. This looks quite 'sandy' anyway, but I thought I'd repaint a few of them in plain sand. They will still be good for 1943+ but would look less out of place in the desert.

I have three Zvezda long barrelled Pz III (filed down Flammpanzers), so I re-did two of them in plain sand. I didn't do anything fancy, just carefully went over the larger areas in VJ Dark Sand. 

I'm really pleased with how they came out - bits of the original darker paint scheme show through around the lowlights and give them quite a beaten up look. I finished them off with a light drybrush of Pale Sand to pick out the highlights. They are now good to go for anything from Gazala to Pz Ko Mielke at Arnhem in 1944, which was also in plain sand. 

Similarly I re-did a couple of my Forged in Battle Sdkfz 221s. They were originally done in the same very heavy three colour scheme as the Sdkfz 251/9 (based on 5th SS Vikings recce Bn). As with the Pz IIIs, I just went over the larger areas with Dark Sand, leaving gaps where appropriate.

Again, like the Mark IIIs, they ended up looking pretty beaten up and dusty. I'd forgotten what lovely models these are, much nicer than my QRF ones, the detail stands out better in the plain sand than the camo. The crews helmets sticking up behind the anti-grenade netting is a very nice touch.

German armoured cars 1 - Forged in Battle Sdkfz 222

Some months ago, I had a donation to my 15mm forces from Tim, some Forged in Battle Sdkfz 222s. I've never had any FiB stuff before, had a look at them at shows a few times, but they never really seemed to have anything which I didn't already have in quantity anyway and all their stuff seems to be in multi-pack blisters.

Anyway, I had been thinking about a certain lack of armoured cars so these came along at a timely moment. Having left them to stew for a suitable interval (umm, it may be well over a year), I set to work.

These chaps came in a pack of three. Nice crisp resin mouldings with metal turrets. The spare wheels are moulded with covers on, which provides a bit of contrast, particularly on the grey one.

A slightly closer look at the side.  The shovel stands out very well and the jerry cans are moulded on. The only fiddly thing was seperate metal guns to stick into the turrets, which I had to hold on with Blu Tak while they dried.

Rear view. The turret crew come moulded in, which is a nice touch. One them them is wearing goggles, you can see the strap on his helmet. One thing evident in this picture are the pre-moulded bases, which unfortunately mean the models end up standing on little rocky hills. I could have just used those, but I prefer to use my own base sizes. Just something I'll have to live with.

I did one in Panzer Grey to go with my QRF Sdkfz 221s. The other two are done in the same scheme as my Sdkfz 2341/1s so they can join my late war panzer recce battalion. My early war panzer recce Bn is still short of Sdkfz 231s, but more on that anon. Didn't have any problems with painting them, the resin didn't seem to be greasy so I just painted right over it (I wonder if it isn't resin but that plasticised plaster the Timecast terrain is made from? the texture seemed very similar).

So there we go. These are nice little models which I'd recommend to anyone, the only thing to watch out for are the pre-moulded bases. If you want bulk purchases, they are relatively inexpensive, certainly compared to BF, and I have a project in mind where their truck packs may come in quite handy.