The British Are Coming Part 2

I have completed the Matilda tank for my BEF forces.

As always I started with a black base coat. I prefer black as a base for figure and vehicle painting because it enables me to use a very simple block painting technique, about all I can manage. Here we see me learning a valuable lesson. The black acrylic paint has clearly pooled, and tended to slide off the surface. I suspect Airfix use some old-fashioned mold release agent, reminding us why plastic parts and figures should get a wash in warm soapy water before use - as the ancient masters taught us. I decided to persevere, on the theory that the paint would still get into the nooks and crannies. I painted the turret separately so that it will rotate freely.

Here is the tank based and base coated. I have mounted the vehicle on a piece of black "mounting board". It is normally used for framing pictures and can be bought cheaply at art stores. Under this is a layer of magnetic paper, of the type used to make fridge magnets. I purchased several sheets from an office supply store that came with an adhesive backing. This is easily stuck to the base and allows the vehicle to be secured in a metal-lined box for transport. The top is textured with Polyfilla from the hardware store, painted brown with an enamel model paint. The tank has been painted in olive drab, a rough approximation of the light green shade used by all BEF vehicles.

And here is the complete model. The tracks are painted khaki, and the tank has the simple camouflage used in France, large rough "tiger stripes" in dark green. These were added in the field and had no set pattern. The white squares are recognition symbols painted on the sides and front of the hull, and the back of the turret. These were used to prevent friendly fire incidents, but were notoriously said to make great aiming points for enemy AT guns! There are no recognition symbols on the top, because the Allies only had fighters rather than tactical bombers. In the late war years (1944-5) vehicles routinely carried large recognition symbols on the top to prevent bombing accidents.
Now, on to the infantry.

The British Are Coming part 1

The League of Extraordinary Wargamers has decided upon a WWII game. It will be an early war scenario depicting fictional events during the Battle of France (1940).
We will be using the Disposable Heroes and Coffin for Seven Brothers rules from Iron Ivan Games, the best small unit rules around for gaming WWII.
Each of us is building a platoon-sized force. Mine will be a small British motor platoon, consisting of a platoon command section, three rifle squads, a Boyes anti-tank rifle, a Vickers MG and a 3" mortar, supported by a 2 pound anti-tank gun and a Matilda II infantry tank. The platoon will be transported by several small 15CWT (3/4 tonne) trucks and some Universal Carriers (aka Bren Carriers).
Because this is a side project (I mostly game late war US and Russians) I decided to set myself the goal of building this little unit as quickly and as cheaply as possibly.
We will be playing with my favourite 1/72 scale plastic soldiers. I have purchased a single box of Airfix British soldiers, some trucks and carriers from Minimi Miniatures and a couple of AT guns from SHQ Miniatures.
The biggest challenge will be to get all the figures I require from the one box.
But first, the sole armoured support, a Matilda tank.
I chose to purchase a relatively recent Airfix release, the Matilda Hedgehog, which is an Australian adaptation for busting Japanese bunkers by mounting naval rocket tubes on the engine deck. I went this way because the other vehicles I bought are 1/76 scale so this kit would fit better than the Italeri option (which is a true 1/72 scale), and I was unable to find the original Airfix kit or the other Fujimi kit available on the market. Of course Airfix kits have the advantage of being relatively cheap. Luckily the re-release includes the original kit plus an additional sprue for the mortar, and there are parts to mount a reserve fuel tank (which is not mentioned in the new instruction sheet but still in the kit from its original version), so the purchaser can build the Hedgehog for the Pacific war, a MKIII or MKIV for the desert war (with the extra fuel tank) or the early war verion that I have built.

Here is the box and the contents. The mortar unit is on the separate sprue at the right front, which has simply been added to the original kit along with a new instruction sheet. This will go into the spares box along with the reserve fuel tank. As you can see the kit is relatively simple, one of the advantages of the Airfix kits for a muppet builder like me!

 

Here is a shot partway through the build showing the tricky bit, fitting all the wheels and bogies to their holes and then fitting the outer plate to match. It took a bit of jiggling but we got there.

 

 The completed tank. In the end it went together easily and was completed in maybe an hour. All in all it is a good kit with very little flash and a fairly intuitive process.

 

Here you can see the problem with using 1/76 scale vehicles with 1/72 scale soldiers. The Matilda looks like a tankette, but it will be close enough for goverment work.

The next stage is to paint and base.