One man and his brushes.

Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Normandy 44 - The tank top up!

Part 2 of the 15mm painting plan seeing the factories of Detroit filling up the ranks of the US army in Normandy and beyond ,

M4 Shermans. - most of these have hedgecutter "Rhino" / Cullin prongs added for some later bocage battles.

75mm armed

76mm armed

M5 Stuart’s , and tractors

AAA Half’s tracks -

M15 & M16

SP Artillery

M12 GMC's - 155mm big bang stuff!

now some late war stuff. I haven't made my mind up on timeframe for these at the moment so have left tufts off as I am tempted to do a bit more "winter" Bulge stuff - but that way could lie madness

Late war

105mm armed

Easy 8s

the aerials are made form fishing line - it does add something i think

M36 Jacksons

the tank park!

They are all Battlefront items. they do need a chunk more work on stowage and some passengers , but for now thats a job a another time

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Normandy 44 - Hit the Beach

I am now fully into the swing of the 15mm part of the painting plan. So first up I have new items for my US 1944 ETO. Last year I played a large Utah beach game (Link here)and these items are to further enhance the invasion beach items.

So I have 6 classic Sherman DD’s (taking me to 10 in total now)

More units to add to my 70th Tank Battalion for Utah Beach

Following a conversation with JamesM we found some 3D print designs for deep wading kits to add to the tanks. I was going to magnetise these so they could be removed , but in the end with Battlefronts “Hit the Beach” set being such good value (I ended up buying one and being given the Sherman's from 2 of them !). I just went with having more tanks!

So I have 4 with deep wading kits , 3 of those are also dozer equipped - they represent units from 70th Tank Battalion that landed on Utah Beach on D Day. There is also an armoured bulldozer to help clear those troublesome obstacles

I really like these , and I don't think I have ever seen any on a gaming table.
Nice to have something unique too.

Then as I had some M10’s spare (as you do - well I do/did...) I added wading kits to them . While they didn’t actually land any TD units on D Day itself , they just looked too coool .. so they will be in my next re run of the Utah beach game this summer.

The next lot of tanks are already lining the docks ready to make a swift appearnce