Every Englishman needs a Castle

Donnington Castle - a quick scratch-build project

I didn't have a castle so John lent me his gatehouse to act as Donnington Castle in our upcoming bath-tubbed refight of the Second Battle of Newbury, 27th October 1644, in the English Civil War (ECW).

While looking the part, when I put it on my table it was clearly going to dominate the look of the whole thing.  Likewise, the manor I was lent to play the part of Shaw House.

While perfect for some skirmish gaming, e.g. with my Three Musketeers, it made my whole table look like little more than the grounds surrounding the house.

While I had an OO Dapol kit, the Country Inn, that could serve for Shaw House I was lacking anything like a castle.  So, a scratch-build was the only option, but looking at the castle I decide I would only build the gatehouse, which is all that's left nowadays.

A quick scramble through the loft located my foamboard and a suitable cardboard tube that was holding my maps of Spain.  This was quickly cut into two lengths for the gatehouse towers - shown with a few 25mm Hinchliffe ECW figures used to help gauge how small (sub-scale) I could make it without it appearing silly.

The walls for the main part of the gatehouse were made from foamboard with the foam cut out for the corners, and the butt joint where the two ends are joined. 

The folds have a 90° cut-out section (±45°) ...

... and the butt-joint, simply has the foam backing removed from one end the same length as the depth of the other end to be slotted in.

Hopefully, how this works can be seen with the walls folded round into shape and held in there with an elastic band.

The 'towers' then had sections cut out so they would fit around the front corners.

The next task was to come up with a suitable render for the castle, which called for something like a flint wall effect.  Finding a picture online was not a problem.

But, tiling this image to print out and cover the walls is always a chore, involving lots of manual pixel manipulation in MS Paint.  But this time I tried something different, AI, namely ChatGPT.  ChatGPT did the job, albeit I had to go through several iterations of instruction before it did what I wanted.  Nonetheless, it was quicker and a much less onerous than doing it manually.  So, I printed the walling out of A4 sized label paper and applied it to the component parts, and then glued gatehouse walls into their final form with PVA - shown here with more elastic bands to hold it in place while drying.

It was then a case of adding all the features such as: windows, doors, merlons, stone courses, etc.  This was very fiddle and quite time consuming, and with time pressing[1] I stopped taking photos.

It might've gone badly wrong, but it didn't.  And here it is, in place on the field of battle and ready for action.

More pictures should follow in the post on the battle to be fought.

Notes:

[1] The castle was only finished earlier today, and as I sit here typing this, the game is scheduled for the day after tomorrow, and I need to do a quick review of my rules to make sure there's nothing in this game they can't cope with - so I cut it quite fine.

An Airborne WiP

The heat-waves (and, to be honest, the World Cup) has played havoc with my ongoing 20mm Airborne platoon project.  With the weather cooling (and the matches fewer) I've managed to get back to it, albeit with a bit of modelling rather than painting.  To build on this, and reinforce my mojo, I thought I'd post an update of where I am and how far I still have to go.

The completed figures, except for final varnishing and base texturing, are shown in the two photos below.

Support platoon + Brens, snipers, PIATs, 2" mortars & medic 

Gun teams, casualties & tank crew

Some of these, including about half of the crews for the 75mm pack howitzer and 6-pounder anti-tank gun were completed in my last post, but now the crews are complete a couple of shots showing how I crew my guns.

75mm pack howitzer, junior leader & 5 gun crew

6-pdr ATG, junior leader & 5 gun crew

This leaves the core platoon still to do.  I left them to do last, as this way I can't play games without them so I can't put off support items and extras for another day if I want a game.  

Three sections of the core platoon + a few extras

Each section has a junior leader with a Sten submachinegun, 3-man Bren team and 5-man rifle group (1 equipped with a Sten).  In the above one junior leader is missing as he was painted earlier by mistake and in his place is one of the support flamethrower team whose place he took in an earlier batch.  Also included are a couple of extra casualty figures cut down to size from a different manufacturer.

And finally, the most recent bit of progress, the crews for the Jeeps.

Jeeps and crew + Tatra T-57K Kubelwagen & airborne supply canisters

The Jeep crews are by AB figures and sit in the SHQ Airborne Jeeps really nicely.  To make them removeable, yet secure, they have had magnets added to both the figures and their positions in the Jeeps.

A nonchalant Jeep passenger ...

... and the magnets holding him securely in place

The last photo also shows some greenstuff, tidying up the holes where the magnets were inserted and providing a footing for those Jeep crew whose feet didn't touch the floor.  

So, now I just have to paint up this lot and I'm there, well except for the Horsa glider kit still in its box - does it ever end?

Great-coated WiP

The latest batch on the work / painting table is a unit's worth of 20mm Hinton Hunt (HH, but most are probably copies) Napoleonic French infantry in greatcoats, all recently emerged from the bleach bath to remove their old paint jobs.

There's enough here for a 24-man unit (battalion) and a 6-figure skirmish unit, and rising above it all (on a cocktail stick up his fundament) is an HH personality figure of Dorsenne.

There's a fair bit of figure bashing happening.  The advancing figures used for the battalion (FN12) are all grenadiers.  This means all the figures in the fusilier companies need their epaulettes, sabre-briquets, and the shoulder-belt it is suspended from, removed.  All the figures are also getting their shakos changed to covered shakos courtesy of some thick coats of white paint.

The biggest job was to create an officer standard bearer from a firing figure, the arms requiring a lot of repositioning.  There's still more work to do on these can be seen below, but this is a WiP.

The rear view shows the backpack's removal (officers wouldn't carry one) and the extension of the sabre briquet into a sword.

This figure still needs the shoulder belt for the 'holster' for the flag pole, an eagle for the standard (to be taken from another figure) and a head swap for one more appropriate for an officer.

The head from eagle bearer will used to replace that on the Newline Design drummer I'm going to use for this unit; this will make him blend in better with the HH figures around him.

The drummer's greatcoat will also get more folds sculpted into it to look more like the HH figures in the rest of the unit.

Then it will be on to painting them, I want to paint the skirmish unit to look like this, for me iconic, illustration ...

... from this book.

For the larger unit (battalion) I shall base them on this illustration except with a grey shako cover to tie them in with the skirmish unit.

21st Panzer Ready to Roll

It was only when writing the last post that I realised I had completed the 20mm vehicles for future Chain of Command (CoC) games that I had featured in earlier Work in Progress (WiP) posts and just put them away in the cabin without posting.

So, time to dig them out and show what the finished articles look like.

The lead vehicle in an old MMS metal kit only included in the picture for comparison with the resin and white metal vehicles from Early War Miniatures (EWM).  The others are described in turn below:

UNIC P107 U 304(F) troop carriers 

These are 'built' straight from the EWM 'kits' with a resin body and white metal wheels, tracked running gear and MG42 mount.  The figures are also those supplied with the vehicle, albeit I only used 6 of the 8 seated infantrymen provided.  The camouflage scheme is taken from a WW2 photograph of this vehicle and gives them (IMO) a lot of character.  

One slight niggle is that the gun shield on the MG42 mount on the P107 was different but I decided to let that pass. 

The driver and commander have been glued into the front seats as shown below alongside the 150mm self-propelled gun.

The seated infantrymen in the back can be removed, as they are all attached by their feet to a false floor as described in a previous post (Becker's Specials - Build Complete-ish).

Sdkfz 135/1 150 SPG LS(f), 150mm self-propelled gun

This was also pretty much built straight from the 'kit', also with a resin body, and white metal gun mounting and recoil spade.  The few minor changes also were also discussed in the earlier post.  

The camouflage scheme for this vehicle was taken from this book which I had treated myself to; it's jam-packed with beautiful artwork.

The gun crew in this vehicle can be removed as they are also fixed to a false floor, the shell cases around their feet, as planned in the earlier post, making the joints more robust.

Pak40 Somua MCG S307(f) Panzerjäger

This vehicle was the real inspiration for the whole batch as it's in the Too Fat Lardies 'Kampfgruppe von Luck' pint-sized campaign and Hans Hoeller's memoirs 'D-Day Tank Hunter'.  Its camouflage scheme was also taken from the book mentioned above but slightly tweaked to match that in the photos of Hans Hoeller's book.  As this was an ambitious kit-bash of the EWM P107 kit I shall indulge myself with a flurry of captioned photos.

Left side

Right side

Front

Rear

Close-up of fighting compartment

Close-up of scratch-built tools

It's not perfect, but I'm still pretty pleased with this effort, and it deserved the up-market crew from AB Figures (actually a Flak crew) who are secured by magnets in the figures and the seats.  The biggest error is the retention of the seating down either side of the fighting compartment.  This was error in reading the plans I used but fixing it would've undone much of the work put in and I doubted the structural integrity of the resin body would survive their removal so I decided to leave it as is.

Becker's Specials - Build Complete-ish

Finally, after lots of failed attempts I've managed to get my scratch-built S307(f) finished and ready for painting together with the other vehicles intended for 21st Panzer in the Too Fat Lardies 'Kampfgruppe von Luck' campaign.

The reference in the title to them being not quite complete, is because the Pak40 on the S307 and the machinegun mounts on the P107 carriers are not yet attached to make the painting easier - see below.

The P107s are straight Early War Miniatures (EWM) 'kits' (resin body and white metal axle/wheels and tracks/running gear).  Once painted I will glue the driver and commander in the front seats and attach the machinegun mounting.  The 'passengers' have been attached to plasticard false floors so they can be removed as required.  Unlike the Sdkfz 135/1 SPG crew these are not just superglued on, but have holes drilled up into their legs and plastic rod inserted.  This rod is then passed through holes in the plasticard floor and rivetted under the 'floor' with a hot blade.

The Sdkfz 135/1 gun crew are now more secure on their false floor with empty shell cases glued around their feet - see below. 

This vehicle is also a straight EWM build with a separate metal gun and recoil spade at the rear.  The only extras were a gun-rest, fashioned from a piece of scrap plastic from my bits box, and some steel wires as latches holding the spade in the raised position (not shown).

The Pak40 S307(f) now only requires the gun mounting to be attached, it's just resting in place in the photos below.

I'm pleased with the build, the gun mounting should be a bit lower, as should the top of the bonnet, but holding it up against a 1/76 scale drawing it's close enough.

I was rather pleased with some of the detailing like the engine hatches and tools all fabricated out plastic bits and pieces (the close-up below shows just how messy I am when using glue).

Other details (see below) include the shot rack below the gun breech, made from plastic rod (ends rivetted with a hot blade to create the cartridge rims[1]) and plasticard.  Also, in the photo below can be seen the magnets for holding the crew in place, and the rack of jerrycans on the back.

The jerrycans were 3D prints I bought especially off eBay from Diesel Dog Models as my bits box turned out to only have Allied jerrycans.  Nice prints as can be seen below, albeit I've spilt quite a bit of glue on them.

Next comes the painting, although I suspect a few more flaws might show up once I get the first coat on.

Notes:

[1.]  There should be 8 rounds in the rack, but six was all I could fit in ...   :o(