Australian Scratch built 2 pounder anti tank gun 28mm

Continuing with my Supports for Pacific Aussies, a scratched built 2 pounder anti tank gun with Perry plastic converted 28mm figures for the crew.

This gun is covering the road between Primary jungle. 

Completed gun with crew

Completed models, prior to painting.

Start of the building process for the 2 pounder

The platform for the gun was constructed using plastic sprues,Evergreen styrene sheet and brass rods. 

The actual gun portion was made by milling metal wire with my hand motor and soldering them together.

Next step was to start modifying some Perry 8th army Plastic  figures for the crew.

After viewing some images on the web I decided to model  one of the guns with side shields this gun will be destined for the Pacific. 

You may have  noticed, I actually modeled two, 2 pounder guns, one for the Aussies in the Pacific theater the other for a future project : 8th army in the Desert theater (which keeps being put on the back burner, for the past 2 years).

Australian 2 pounder crew in the jungle with side shields attached.

Some conversion work was carried out to facilitate the crew using a hobby knife and Green stuff putty, the shorts where also converted to long trousers.

Some of the metal helmets where substituted with slouch hats , ammo rounds and  ammo container where also modeled. 
I probably should have removed the bayonet for the crew.

Completed gun based on a magnetic sheet with Milliput added to the surface for texture, before applying the Milliput putty I super glued  some brass rods  onto the magnetic sheet to provide rigidity and strength to the magnetic sheet.

The wheels where modeled using 2 plastic bases in the Perry 8th army plastic kits. Follow the link for instructions on how its done; Modelling wheels.

The gunner is permanently fixed in place.

Model is painted with the base colour being: Vallejo model colour Russian uniform and I used the same painting technique  as for painting Late war British vehicles.
The grasses where made with my DIY Static grass applicator.

 The  crew painted; Junior Leader on the right.

 More crew members.

The Junior leader of the gun is positioned standing at the rear of the gunner, I decide to place him here after viewing many images on the web with the commander taking up such a position.

Junior Leader peering over the gun shield on Overwatch,  for  Japanese tanks.

Cheers John 

Australian Sniper, Flamethrower, 2 Inch Mortar, Anit-Tank Rifle, FO and Medic in the PACIFIC 28mm

Here are some more Support teams for my Late war Australian in the Pacific.

I have used a mix of Perry 28mm plastic and metal figures with some conversion done to transform them into Aussies.

Spot the Aussie sniper in the jungle.

Completed figures.

Medic,Flamethrower and sniper, all are Perry 8th army plastic miniatures which have been converted to represent Australian troops in the Pacific.

To convert these plastics:

1.  I first tapered off the bottom portion of the shorts with a hobby knife and applied Green stuff putty to convert them into long trousers.
2. Trimmed off the plastic helmet and replaced some of the figures with the a metal Australian slouch hat, again available from Perry miniatures.
3. The medic was a made by matching up 2 different body torso pieces.  

• * The flamethrower was scratch build with plastic sprues, brass rod and Evergreen styrene pieces and whatever was lying around.
• * The sniper's scope was added from the Late war British kit and a piece of  branch was used to represent the fallen trunk of a tree.

Medic, FO (metal figure) and sniper 

Medic

 

Anti-tank rifle team both figures are metal Perry figures.

Flamethrower 

2" mortar team, Perry metal figures 

Cheers John 

AUSTRALIAN MATILDA TANK 28mm

This is the first of many Support options for my Late War Australian Platoon in the Pacific theater. 
The model is a 28mm, Warlord games resin model.
I used  my previous posted  tutorial for painting British vehicle as a guide to paint this model, using Vallejo Model colour 'Russian Uniform' for the overall colour of the vehicle.

 Matilda crossing a clearing in the jungle.

VMC 'Russian Uniform' was used for the base colour of the vehicle. 

I was not sure what colour to paint the tankers' beret, so I just made it black as the British tankers beret. 

The water line marker was painted using  Vallejo Game Color 'Carme Marron Tan' with a touch of brown added to darken it slightly .

The light colour pipping from the engine bay to the exhaust was painted using VMC white grey and coated with a wash of Nulin oil.

VMC Flat Earth was used for the mud effect.

Spare tracks where painted with VMC Black Grey and washed with VMC Cavalry Brown.

In order to field any version of the Matilda, (2 pounder,Close support or Flamethrower)

I  deepen the hole in the gun turret using a hand drill. and milled metal rods using my hand motor in the desired  shapes to simulate the different gun barrels.

Thanks to John 'Truscott Trotter' for pointing out the colour of the beret was  brown  and TasminP for pointing out my mistake with the insignia number.

This is the brush I used to apply the highlighting  coats on the panels of the tank after the initial base coat was applied, its just a cheap brush but does the job.

Cheers John 

WATER TOWER

My inspiration for scratch building a water tower came from reading, Chain of Command, At the Sharp End. page 12 describes the Terrain for a campaign, stating the presents of a water tower in the middle of a wheat field.

Hence I decided to add a water tower to my collection of buildings.

Completed Water tower

Poster added for a bit of interest

Water gauge is added next to the ladder on the water tank.

The tower separates , accommodating a maximum of one Team.

HOW I MADE IT:

To make the tower I raided the recycling bin and salvaged 2  containers, one made from plastic, the other cardboard.

I reduced the height of both containers to 7cm with the use of box cutters.

Trimmed cardboard strips into strips of 4cm x 1cm to the simulate the metal plates surrounding the water tank.

Glue the cardboard strips in place with PVA glue.

I was fortunate to find an inverted lid which was fixed in place with super glue. 

If you are unable to find such a lid, you can improvise by cutting a thick piece of cardboard and glue it in place about a cm above the lip of the on a normal lid creating a raised area.

This the lid for the bottom portion of the water tower.

cut out the inner portion of the lid with hobby knife.

lid is super glued in place on top of the stone portion of the water tower and glued a single layer of cardboard strips just below the edge.

Used a hand grinder to etch details onto the plastic container.

Drilled 2 holes thru the plastic lid to accommodate 2 water overflow tubes.

Glued in place tubes and below is the view from the inside of the container.

Based the tower on 15cm x 13cm MDF, the ladders where made with metal wire cut to size and fixed in place with a soldering iron.

Ladder glued in place.

Primed with black undercoat.

• I used Tamiya color  Acrylic Paint XF-6 to carefully wet brush the exterior of the tank allowing the black primer to show through.
• For the stone  portion of the building I use stone grey and highlighted with some ivory mixed in with stone grey. I then used different washes to stain individual stones.
• For the water I first painted PVA glue on the surface of the plastic to create a bit of a ripple. Once dry I use Vallejo Model colour Black Green to paint over the PVA, while still wet I mixed in a bit of Vallejo Model colour Iquai sand into the Black Green paint  and painted the water close to the rim of the tank.
• I applied two coats of Tamiya X-22 to the surface of the water to a bit of a shine.

some images found on the web of water towers I used for inspiration.

cheers John