"1/144 Desert Armor in Caunter scheme" Topic

Although a bit freelanced on some of the exacting paint patterns (I'll call the schemes "inspired" by Patterns A, B, & C), here's a couple troops of 1/144th scale Arrowhead Miniature's Matilda IIs, circa Operation Crusader -

In the background on the left a Honey squadron of Stuart Is, and on the right one early mixed squadron of A9 & A13 Cruisers. The Stuarts were custom ordered, and the Cruisers are a mix of Arrowhead and Fairy Kitkato kits.

The recognition insignia for around Op. Crusader were handmade from decal sheet, and the flag aerials are bristles from a dog brush. The flags are colored, drafters tape doubled over and then taper cut for the look (need to finish up the rest of those squadron flags yet), and I'll get back to that….eventually.

The flexible flag staffs can still take a bit of battle damage during gaming, but they add a lot visually I think!

You're a better man than I. I struggle with Caunter in 1/72. These are masterful

Rich, doing the camo is probably a lot easier at this [half 1/72nd] scale – because painting out each color line can often be done without even having to reposition the hand.

Still, I thank you for the kind words.

Astoundingly nice.

- Ix

Very nice! What colors/paints did you use?

Wow, stunning!

Love the flags as an extra touch to push them over the top.

Well done!!!

Now, I may have to do that for my Ukrainian and pro-Russian Separatists armor, for Eastern Ukraine.

Thank you Guys!

Great idea Thresher! – what scale are you doing your modern armor in?

With WW2, signal flags for Soviet or Italian armor would be a fun touch too (popping out of the company and platoon leader turrets – some tanks had an aperture to stick the flag up through).

Daveshoe, I almost hate to state the colors, with Silver Grey being interpreted for so long as lt. blue (but it's pretty much been in the sphere of literature now that lt. blue passes off ok – I prefer that color's look anyway).

So, all Model Master paints -
Silver Grey – *Topside Blue*
Slate – Dark Green (Acrylic)
Light Stone, or Portland – US Army/Marine Gulf War Sand

The smaller your model scale, the lighter you want your colors…..and/or dry brush with a light color overall (I use lt. tan) to brighten and highlight the top surfaces, edges, and details (I do a 2nd dry brushing with a bit of white also….pops those hatch hinges, boxes, track details, and even rivets too).

A model with good, sharp detailing can do a lot of the painting work for us, when by dry brushing, that detail bring itself "up" from the surrounding camo color(s).

Here's a closeup view of one of the Matildas pictured above, and at normal game-viewing distances the white detailing sends our eyes greater feedback (it's an exaggeration of course, but a useful one when we're playing on a table top).

We could never focus our eyes up this close naturally (or at least I can't – that thing is only 1.5 inches long), and so why paint super detailing that's lost where we use our miniatures? – what small [gaming] models need is the illusion of depth in detail, so fake shadowing and fake high-lighting that plays up the model's available surface.

Very nice!

"Great idea Thresher! – what scale are you doing your modern armor in?".

1/144th.

Would love to do it in 1/100th, given the small numbers of troops for many clashes, but that's not in the budget right now, since most funding is being directed for the attack on, and defense of Europe, during the Cold War.

Beautiful work in any scale. Well done.

Guys, thanks for the compliments!

I'd love to do some Arab-Israeli Wars stuff in 1/144th scale…..but so far have held the line.

(Thresher's comments above did get me to venture over onto the moderns forum – still trying to remain strong) :)))

Succumb to the dark side, FlyXwire.

The PSC minis look pretty decent, though sadly, there are no Israelis or American vehicles, yet. The latter might change sometime next year.

Prepainted Merkavas can be purchased pretty inexpensively on-line too.

If you prefer metal, and are willing to go the 1/150th scale route, Red3 Miniatures (a fairly new company in the UK) have a lot of what you'll want for the Arab-Israeli Wars, with more being released regularly. Beautiful minis well worth a look, and many are only 3.00 GBP each, or about $4.00 USD, plus shipping.

Minifigs also makes some stuff in 1/150th, as does Pendraken now too.

The two scales may be used together, if desired, since there is only about a 1mm – 2mms of difference in size, in many cases.

Thresher, I appreciate the Red3 Miniatures tip – hadn't heard of them before (and 1/150th would be fine).

Thanks you for the advice here, and in the least, I can do a little browsing…..nothing wrong with that, right!

(uh oh) :)

Check out Minifigs too, since they've got some stuff that'll be useful for Eastern Ukraine and Crimea as well.

Dammit man, those are absolutely fantastic. I'm so envious, wish I'd have done North Africa in 10mm…

V/R,
Jack

Jack, your 10mm mini-campaigns got me thinking how I might generate a few connected games from the same setting also, and I've arrived at doing a post-El Alamein-Retreat series of scenarios, with the Axis elements fighting rearguard actions vs. the pursuing 8th Army.

This little 'campaign' could even be played cooperatively, with me handling the Panzerarmee Afrika troops, and the cooperating team of opposing players dividing up the British forces (forces drawn from the 7th Armoured and/or New Zealand Division order of battle).

What I like about the possibilities, is that the games don't have to be balanced affairs, with the British players measuring their success on limiting losses, while they pry/shunt the Germans or Italians out of the way.

There's the opportunity for recce probes and rear guard defenses, AT gun ambushes, and even [limited] Panzer counterattacks….so a "sand box" for a wide variety of force types to keep the British players guessing (and hopefully wanting more).

Right now I'm painting up some Autoblinda AB41s, just in case there might be some Italian screen out there in front of the Bersaglieri….. ;)

That sounds fantastic man, I can't wait to see them.

I just bought a bunch more desert stuff for the very early war in the desert, Matilda IIs, CS9s, Vickers Mk VIs, and L3 tankettes, plus some German artillery, a couple more 25-pounders for the Brits, and a bunch more British and Italian infantry. It's out of control…

I have no idea how I'm going to play it out, or which rules I'll use, but it will definitely be campaign-style and will start at the start and take us all the way through the German retreat from Egypt and Libya.

V/R,
Jack

Jack, it sure sounds like you know what you want! :)

"Autoblinda set out for a recon patrol" (ebay resin models from 3D prints) -

Indeed I do, just not sure if I've got time to do all the things I want! ;)

Man, those look fantastic!

I just received my AB41s… I bought them from a different company than where I got my AB40s, and they are much different sizes… Oh well, just gotta make sure I don't put them on the table together I suppose…

V/R,
Jack

Really top notch paint jobs FlyXwire.