Busy Bee

What am I like, a veritable machine, PO this morning and completing an Eastern Front map, lunch, build Cromwell tank, prime said tank, clean house, iron clothes, do another map, build and prime Humber armoured car which had just arrived, put wash on, and now a post before tea.

Running out of room.

I completed the Panzer IV the other day and everything went fine until I attempted the schurzen armour, I got one ready and no matter how I tried I could not get it to fit properly, having your fingers deadened by oodles of useless glue doesn't help either. Anyway I went online to look at Panzer IV's in Normandy, true enough most seemed to have the schurzen hanging from their bodies, but quite a few also only had them on the turret, now that seemed like an idea. The turret armour went on no problem at all and it looked good, damn it, another attempt at the side armour, this time I managed to get it on, wargame on, not tank modeller on. On a roll I decided to cut a section out of the other one, battle damage etc. and this one without the middle bit fit perfectly!


The Cromwell on the other hand was a breeze, a nice clean kit, some small parts but I managed them as I dug out my tweezers, it's actually a lovely tank, much better looking than the Sherman which I have never been a fan of, but might have to shelve my prejudices to get a Firefly at some stage.

The trucks, what about the trucks, these are resin vehicles with some metal parts, not difficult to build and no real problems with the casting. I do wonder however at the person who designed the cab for the Opel Blitz, you have the doors with the windows, then the roof comes with its own front struts which fit over the door struts, why? It is not an easy fit and this part will not be perfect on the finished item but will look OK on the table I am sure. Apart from that it looks good. The Bedford presented no problems although the canopy is not a great fit and will need some serious jiggling to get it to sit right when the time comes. I have left the cabs open so that I can paint the drivers and insides before I get stuck in.

Next week's job.

The Humber is a smashing little thing, very British and quirky, one problem with it, no two, but I'll get to that. In the middle of it is a kind of cage step, during casting the clear parts have a film of resin over them and it's not that fluffy stuff you can blow away, I took a knife to it as you just know it should not be there and broke one of the spars! So guess what, it is staying. It is a very nice piece of kit but the second problem is that it took a month to get it, if I do choose to get another from Blitzkrieg, and they do some lovely stuff I will make sure I am not in a hurry.

This lot will keep me busy for a week I reckon maybe slightly more, which is no big deal at the moment as the missus is still away. After that I will add another squad each to the British and Germans, I was thinking of making these Paras and Fallschirmjager, one to be different and two because the figures available are very nice, also both were present in Normandy.