1/72 US 105mm Field Howitzer Conversion

A few years back I saw an article on Paul's excellent Plastic Warriors Website on using a cut-down Airfix 88mm Flak to make a 105mm US howitzer

http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/m2-m101-105mm-howitzer.html

I needed a couple of these for my WWII US forces and inspired by Paul's original idea, I decided to put a couple of old Airfix 88s I had in the stash to good use.

The barrel of the 88 has been cut down and the shield comes partially from an old Airfix 6 pounder AT gun and the rest was made using some cut-down clear plastic sheeting.

The axle and wheels are from a trailer that comes as an accessory with a die-cast Altaya M16 Half-Track. The trail legs are flat plastic cocktail sticks.

Yep, it's a crude "representation" and it would probably raise a lot of eyebrows at an IPMS meeting, but I think once it's painted and on the table it maybe won't look too out of place.

I'll try and get this painted up and will post a couple of shots soon.

Battle of the Bulge - Keep Moving

Since the last post, things have kept on moving - not as fast as I would have liked, but at a fair pace.

The HaT / Armourfast M4A3 76mm tanks after having been base-painted, washed/highlighted, and mud-weathered, were given a couple of white stars on the turrets courtesy of the decals spares box - the Armourfast tanks unfortunately come with no decals.

They are also very sparse, no tools or any other kind of stowage, and the hatches are moulded shut, but in spite of looking very bare they are fine for gaming and are now ready for table 

The old Hasegawa M5 High Speed Tractor and 155mm Long Tom that were dug out of the old stash have now been repainted and are also ready for action.

As with the Shermans, after repainting the M5 also received a good dose of mud on the tracks.

Below the finished tractor and Long Tom, the Armourfast Shermans and a GPA Amphibious 1/4 Ton 4x4 Truck that was also on the painting table. 

I stuck a figure in there wearing a thick overcoat - he's from the Revell US Ardennes Infantry set.

While I was at it, I took a shot of that now finished 1/4 ton amphibious "Seep". It's from the Academy "WW II Ground Vehicle Set -6". I trimmed down and added a few figures to fit in there.

So a fair amount of progress, and more to come.

And to finish off, a taster of what's on the table at the moment.

We've got die-cast Altaya / Amercon self-propelled artillery, a Fujimi M30 Cargo Carrier, and trucks of various makes and from various sources - all of which will be repainted and might be finished shortly.

So come back soon, as time permitting there should be another update with work in progress.

Nebelwerfer Scratch-Build – Juan Reyes

Scratch-built Nebelwerfer

Our gaming group had a list of things we needed to build for some of the forthcoming games we had planned in the Disposable Heroes Arnhem campaign, one of those being a Nebelwerfer.

The old Esci kit still hasn't yet been re-released by Italeri and the expensive prices on Ebay for the old Esci kit made it a no-no, and resin or lead alternatives aren't really our thing, but Juan said he'd take care of it.





The rocket-tubes on the Nebelwerfer are made out of sprue, and the split-trail carriage, and wheel assembly are from the HaT Industrie German Pak-36 37mm Anti-Tank Gun.

The Steyr 1500A in the background is also another of Carlos de la Concha's Altaya-Repaints.