Lockdown Labours

"Oh yes," I thought, "spending all my free time indoors I'll get plenty of painting and blogging done!" Har har har. Not only have I been dabbling in the videoed-games, the family clear-out of the lego (it's not like there's much else to do round here...) has occupied rather a lot of "model time". 

About half the lego in our mysterious boxes is now clogging up the dining room table. We didn't originally own the pirate ship, it came in bits in a box of lego some acquaintances were giving away.

The four things I've completed after 3 months of social isolation. The Lee and the Panzer 2 were already part-done in the first place for extra disappointment points.

Due to my complete lack of any sort of blogging over the past months, I do actually have a few things to show you today, including the last of my Uncle's old WW2 airfix tanks. They've held up well after 50 years in an attic, and as I've said before, the quality of assembly is much better that I was achieving in teenage years. To tie things together a little, I found one of the missing wheely-bits from the Churchill in a box of lego, sadly after painting had been completed and too late to put back. Those wheely-bits are unbelievably fiddly you know. You can tell they were still at the dawn of model kit making back in the 60's.

Close-up of the Lee showing the Girls und Panzer markings: "Bunny" team logo present and correct on the front hull. This close up, the places where I've filled in gaps with poorly-smoothed milliput are fairly obvious.

As I'd bought another Churchill (I was supporting local businesses, so it doesn't count!) which will be in North-African camo, I used the new transfers to replace the originals which were covered by my brushwork. G&P markings will be applied to the replacement, if and when I feel like it. When applying transfers, I always remember an old tip I must have read in White Dwarf many years back, that you should cover them with gloss varnish before the protective coat of sprayed-on matt varnish to stop the transfers bubbling up. I have no idea if this has any effect but I don't want to take the risk.

Side views of my Uncle's tanks. I think I did well with the transfers, although the gloss varnish seems to be shining through the spray-on matt layer. 

The rivet-counters among you will have probably noticed by now that my late-war British vehicles all feature black splodgy stripes over the grey-brown I paint the hulls. Consulting online resources and period photos online suggests that this scheme is only valid until August 1944, whereupon a uniform brown was applied. While this is easier to paint, it is also far more boring and may be confused with my US vehicles (especially on Stuarts and Shermans) so I have taken the liberty of keeping the black stripes. I imagine that there would have been tanks where there was no time to paint over the "dappled" pattern so I don't think my choice is particularly egregious (and certainly not when compared to my markings!).

Stuart (left) and Panzer 2 (right). 

Speaking of dubious markings, the Panzer 2 features none save a post-war Bundeswehr iron cross on the turret. I was a bit fed up at this point, having decided to paint on the suspension springs freehand due to their omission from the casting of the side-pieces. The job wasn't too bad, and certainly my blurred amateur photography covers a multitude of sins.

Another view of the lego, aquanauts and aquasharks to the front.

Currently on the metaphorical painting table I have some more British armour (including the airfix Cromwell with one-piece solid tracks which are no hassle at all to fit!) half-done. There is also a couple of 'Mechs awaiting matt varnish (with gloss varnish on the cockpits) and basing, although I won't have my basing supplies with me until later in the month. Sadly I will soon have no excuse not to address the vast selection of 28 mm and 20 mm people sitting judgmentally on my shelving units...

Side view, showing a few other models too.

Of course, now conversation about the plastic pile can be complete without reference to the armourfast kits I received for my birthday. You usually get 2 in a box, which sometimes seems surplus to requirements, but after careful examination of pictures of the sprues online, I have determined that I should be able to make the Achilles kit into and Achilles and the American M10 (trimming off the end of the gun should do) and the Panzer 4 into the D version as well as the G supplied (omit the rear turret bin and cut down the gun barrel). Not sure about the Stummel though, but hopefully I can squeeze a regular 251 half-track out of it. Ho hum, catch you in August I suppose!

Some lovely birthday presents from the family. Chosen specifically so I get 2 different variants out of each box.