"Honey Tanks for the Desert" Topic

link

Hot on the heels of the Mk VI Light Tanks I posted a couple of weeks ago I have been busy with the Caunter Paints again, this time adding them to some lovely 28mm Blitzkrieg Miniatures.

Plenty of pics on the blog link above. For our 1941 games these are the pinnacle of British Armour and it's nice to have something that isn't armed with a 2 pounder !

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

nice looking Honey's

Hi Ken, nice.

Remember, if you need a Honey 'command stand', you can have Gatehouse commanding from the back of one, sat in an armchair, blanket over his knees:

He did this after he lost his HQ during the first days of Operation Crusader.

Cheers,

Nice idea that James, hope he had a kettle and tea bags nearby too !

Hope you are keeping well.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Very nice !

Great work. Two thumbs up.

I admire the painting. Caunter is always an interesting scheme, and your choice of colors seems more true to the actual colors (to my readings) than the kind of sky blue tones often chosen.

I also like the level of detailing. Little things like painting the gun muzzles and roadwheels make a difference to me. And the weathering gives them a nice dusty look.

That said, I wonder at the models themselves. They seem oddly angular. The mantlets in particular are rather off -- too big (extending beyond the turret roof?), and lacking the rounded bevel of the Stuart's cast mantlet. The turrets also seem to have angled plates rather than a smooth curved horseshoe shape of the bent single plate of the Stuart. Whichever company produces that model would not move up the totem pole of my preferred vendors list with that particular piece.

Still, as I have practiced for years with my own miniatures, sometimes the best you can do with a disappointing model is give it a nice paint job!

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

The horseshoe turret was a later production feature of the M3 Stuart. The initial versions used rolled steel plates either riveted together (first few hundred IIRC) or welded together. Later versions got the single bent steel plate. Very late versions lost the commander's cupola & looked like very early M3A1s (called M3 composites or Hybrids in British sevice, as they lacked a turret basket of the M3A1).

The mantlet issues are noticeable on these models, however…

Damon.

Cheers,

Guys I can only paint what's in front of me, lol !

Models are from Blitzkrieg so any complaints to them.

The colours are the official ones from the AK Interactive Caunter Paints Set.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Right you are Garand. My error. A welded turret is indeed appropriate for an M3 "Honey" in British service.

Ken, I hope my commends were not received as a criticism of your work. I quite admire your work. I too have acquired models at various times that were not the best in their form or shape, and have still done my best to paint them up well (often with a bit of customization, like a TC in the hatch), achieving a satisfying result.

In fact I have exactly such a unit on my workbench right now -- French AM50s for my Tunisian Armee d'Afrique force. The models are not exactly top-of-the-line, but they are the only models of this vehicle available in my scale, and I am glad to have them. So I am trying to do a good job with them. I hope I can do half as well as you did with these Honeys.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Superb work as always!