Purchased these two boxes whilst they were ‘half price while stocks last’ on the Airfix website.

There are 14 soldiers in each box in various poses

Before starting to paint it is recommended that the models are washed.

1.  Painting the 8th Army

The 8th Army get a coat of Halfords grey plastic primer after having given them a good wash and removing mould lines and excess plastic with a modelling knife and a needle file.

Mould lines where pretty extreme in places so I went over each model and filed a bit more then gave another quick spray of primer.  Next the shadows were airbrushed in with a coat of chaos black. I added sand to the bases with PVA glue and also sprayed black. I then base coated the flesh parts with vomit brown, the hats with commando kahki and jackets and shorts with ?.

Starting to look quite good.  Next I will base coat the socks, the leather belts  and the weapons.

Once I have base coated its time to layer in the highlights before finally adding a wash

Added some more highlights to the uniforms and started to base coat the socks belts and attachments.

I’m toying with the idea of using some of these in an El Alamein diorama perhaps this famous shot 8th Army Capturing a German Tank at El Alamein and possible some others in a diorama with the Gurkhas for an Malayan Campaign Diorama possibly Battle of Kampar

Still quite a bit of work to do before I get to that stage though.  Here’s the Captain? more or less finished – not sure the brown wash was all that effective but I quite like the desert base.

 

 

 

My latest project …unboxing video here : https://youtu.be/n8TmSSDXF_8

Everything gets a base coat of chaos black before removing from sprues and glueing.

The major parts have been glued and the model given another coat of chaos black … just the glass (clear plastic), wheels and the tiny little fiddly bits like the headlamps and screen wipers left.

Next I will start picking out the chrome and alloy parts in boltgun metal  and probably highlight with chainmail or mithril silver.

This is a 1/32 scale model the same as the Batmobile – I am hoping with a bit of adaptation to use the chassis with slot car mechanism – so hopefully the body will just clip onto the chassis once painted and can be easily removed and attached to slot car chassis.

So bulk of construction is complete and I have started to paint bodywork and interior.  A couple of coats of red gore for the bodywork and some boltgun metal for the wheels and chrome trim.  I pulled some pictures off the internet (shown below) for the interior and will try and go with this colour scheme as it matches the exterior nicely…

Finally the bodywork gets a couple of  coats blood red and the roof gets a coat of skull white (I use all the old names for citadel paints as that is what I have) and using Tamiya 6mm modellers masking tape the bonnet gets its white stripes (a great band btw) … and the chrome work gets a bit more attention with chainmail silver

Having painted the bonnet stripes I have just realised that in fact there are decals provided …doh!  However, the painted stripes look pretty good. I may just overlay the decals onto the painted stripes.

Before attaching the glass  I give everything a spray with Purity Seal Satin Varnish – this gives a nice shine to the paintwork and blends some of my brushstrokes a little.

Not much left to do now, the clear plastic is in place (windscreens and lamps).  Just the decals, wiper blades and aerial and a bit of tidying up to go.  I have placed the Batman in the driving seat for the time being while the Batmobile is in the BatCave getting a service!

Top Tips:  The wiper blades are incredibly fragile so be extra vigilant when detaching from the sprues.  The rear lamps and fog lamps are absolutely tiny so be careful you don’t lose them – keep on the sprues till the last minute.  I used just the smallest amount of glue to affix the ‘glass’ into place as its easy to ruin the whole thing with glue frosted glass.

So here is the final model (click on the picture to take you to my flickr album and more pictures.) Fairly happy with the results.  The rear brake lights where a real pain to fit.  The chrome trim is pretty poorly painted in places.  The wipers are incredibly fragile and the tip of one broke off as did the very tip of the aerial.  The decals were also very tricky to get in place as they are so small and my eyes are not as good as they used to be. I need to trim back the bonnet stripes as they overlap onto the radiator grill and I could probably have done another coat of red over the bodywork too.  Not too bad for my first project in about 40 years though. The next step will be to place it into a diorama and perhaps do a bit of weathering – but that’s another project.

And here is the real thing captured outside the Old Newhaven Fish Market in Edinburgh (although this is not the S version)…

Here is my first go at a Timpo conversion using bits and pieces from various broken models and some modelling putty, flock, pva adhesive, base sand mix, a can of chaos black and some citadel acrylics.  Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a picture of all the bits before they were assembled and ready for a base coat of chaos black.  Its pretty much just a case of moulding the bits together using putty and then building the base up with pva and sand and leaving it all to dry for a couple of hours.

The Bowman

Cowboy 2nd series legs, 3rd series head, unknown make indian torso, backpack from 1st series paratrooper. His Quiver is made from a 3rd series cowboy holster. The base is a standard Timpo base built onto a 1st series Horse base.

The Horse crashing through the Sand/Sea

1st series bridled horse that had a broken tail and leg, built into a small base with putty and pva

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After spraying with chaos black I overbrush the horse and the torso and face of bowman.

Then its just a case of slowly layering and dry brushing.  I used Grey and Green to create a camouflage effect for this one…