Review: 'Total System Scenics' 1915 Lanchester Armoured Car (15mm)

Hey Internet,

Its been a little while since I last did a 'review' on here, but a little something came in the post the other day, and I feel like writing somthing about it.

For a while now, I've been after some Great War era British Armoured cars for my 15mm British 'Scientific Romance' project - which surprisingly are in very short supply.

Both Minifigs and Quick Reaction Force do a Rolls Royce, but to be honest - they are horrible. Battlefront do one too, but its circa 1940, with a completely different turret, so is no good for my current project.

So, when TSS (Total System Scenics) put out a 15mm Lanchester, I thought I'd go for it.

A Lanchester Armoured Car

When I ordered them their webstore did not have a photograph of the product, but since then they have uploaded one - although it is low-res, out of focus and only shows an unpainted casting.

Ordering it was simple enough online, and it arrived well-wrapped in newspaper a short while thereafter.

Now, I don't give 'bad reviews' as a rule, but I must say that this model was a bit of a disappointment.

Why? Mold Lines. Real nasty ones running right down the middle of every hull panel, and a nice big pair of them marking out the circumference of the turret.

Now, this wouldn't be all too bad a thing normally - you'd just grumble and grind the panels down; but unlike most badly cast models, the detail work on this one is just superb.

Just look at all the tiny little rivets and surface details.

Its just such a shame. Clearly some talented fellow has gone to a great deal of trouble to produce a superb master for this model. I'd guess that it was a 3D printed affair in order to achieve the level of detail present - and that would mean that its had to be printed on top of all the other cost and effort. But then at the last hurdle all that hard work has been wasted by some shoddy mold-making and casting.

The above photograph is post-'grinding down'. For an indication of the mold off-set, just look at the front. It was maybe a full 0.5mm out of alignment!

I hope to get the one that I've already put together painted up before too long, and will post up the results. I hope to be able to finish it to a good standard - but the effort involved in getting this far has put me off even starting its partner.

MM.

"The Wrenched Boys"

* * * 

They sleep below the hillside

In earthen cots

'The Wrenched Boys'

But when they rise

Look upon their sullen faces; 

So dismal; unwashed, tear-streaked

For a Frenchman killed their father

And mourning, they wait to cry 

Their leaden tears in revenge.  

* * *

Hey Internet,

This time around, I present 'The Wrenched Boys'; a pair of 'retractable' gun cupolas.

The models are of a particularly nice type of turret that helped make up the Maginot Line back in the 1930's. They had the novel feature of being able to be lowered down into their concrete pits as a further protective measure, so that only their well-armoured roofs were exposed to enemy shells.

I've done a fair bit of rambling around old European military sites in my time, and always thought the things looked really rather 'cute' for fortifications. 'Alien Squad Leader' allows me to take some defective turrets as part of my Human Colonial force, so I took the opportunity to add a few to my collection.

I got these models a few months ago from "Last Man Last Bullet", and are really rather nice. The company makes a number of different WW2 era fortification works - and interestingly, they've chosen to duplicate the lion's share of their range in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm scales. And its not a matter of 3D printing each item re-sized either; they're casts from a traditional master.

Initially, I painted these up in no time at all using the same colours that I've been using for my British Armour. They looked good, but were quite boring - they looked like green bobbins on little grey coasters. So, I went at them with a little weathering.

I justify the totally-over-the-top amount of rust on account of their twofold 'pop-up' nature - I can quite imagine that, built in the mists of some Anglo-French war-scare, the plans for their subterranean drainage could have well fallen by the wayside, leaving them to stew in pits of groundwater whenever they are not in 'firing position'.

I also used some 'varnish weathering' effects on the roofs. It does not show very well in the photographs, but the idea is that they are sun-bleached compared to the rest of the turret facings.

Even the most Wreched Boys of the Empire 'll show those Frenchies what, eh?

MM.

His Majesties Land-Ship Minotaur

Hey Internet,

May I present His Majesties Land-Ship Minotaur.

* * *

Minotaur is the very image of the modern Land Destroyer - a novel fighting machine designed for the particular task of combating other Land-Ships. To the accomplishment of this new task every facet of the ship's design and equipage has been directed.

Forgoing the usual batteries of machine-guns and cannon, Minotaur's primary asset is her 3" high pressure gun of 55 calibres, who's 17lb shell is able to penetrate the protection of any known Land Ship currently operating in Europe or overseas.

Equally, she is protected with a sufficient thickness of plate to grant her practical immunity from rifle fire, and even from shells fired at all but the closest distances. This protection is granted by the hanging of 3" Harvy Steel plates about the hull and turret, reduced in thickness to 2" and 1" on the sides and rear of the hull respectively.

All of this comes at some expense however, for the thing displaces no less than 80 tons. Yet, by utilisation of modern advances in the field of electrical engineering it is able to keep pace with the advance. Her machinery consists of two electrical motors of new design, powered by an internal dynamo. This outfit is able to produce a constant locomotive force of six-hundred horse power, driving the whole assembly along at speeds approaching nine miles per hour, on level ground.

* * *

The model is a 1/100th (15mm) scale TOG II* tank produced by Battlefront/Flames of War. Its a reasonable offering from the company, though unlike their more recent kits it took some fitting and filling to get the parts to go together snugly. Makes for a fine finished piece though.

In terms of painting this peice was pretty standard, but for one respect. The huge flat surfaces of the hull gave me opertunity to experiment with some 'model railway' and 'large scale model' style varnish weathering techniques, which turned out okay.

The Minotaur decals are by Dom's Decals.

I have long been a great fan of the real-life version of this machine, having regularly visited Bovington Tank Museum as a boy and been awed by its sheer scale.

If your interested in the history of armoured development, then the TOG makes for good reading. A contemporary of the WWII Churchill and Valentine tanks, it was designed by the same men who designed the worlds first tanks during the Great War. Known themselves as "The Old Gang", their machine too adopted the jestful title, becoming known as the TOG.

Minotaur is soon to be pressed into service as part of my 15mm British Empire project, more of which I will be posting shortly.

Think she will do King Edward proud?

MM.

Pax Britannica - The Cannon and Artillery-Men [5]

* * *

"At Byfleet we came upon an Inn, but it was deserted."

"Is everybody dead?"

"Not everybody. Look! Six cannons with gunners standing by."

"It's bows and arrows against the lightning. They haven't seen the Heat Ray yet."

- The Artillery-Man and the Fighting Machine, 
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds 

* * *

Hey Internet, 

Today we have the last of my 'Martian Empires' British figures - four guns, with gunners standing by.

With my enthusiasm for this project somewhat ebbing, these guys took much longer than they should have to get done - about 3 weeks from start to finish. 

That said, they were nowhere near as painful as the Infantry were. The castings required far less 'clean up', and with no rifles or webbing they painted up rather quickly. 

One oddity is the gunner 'pulling the lanyard'. This figure is supposed to have a turnpike, but for some reason the tool is far too short, being about 2mm off the 'ground'. Given that it would have looked rather strange to have a gunner just sort of holding a stick on each base (and with me being unwilling to bore-out and convert the bloody things myself) I opted to fashion them into 'lanyard pullers'.

I mean, yeah, I know that even a heavy gun's lanyard would be scarcely over an inch thick, and these guys look like they are pulling on a 3" Naval Rope, but - bah! - it was either that or leave them off all-together and have two man gun teams, which would have looked even worse.

With these done, I have only to paint the Expeditionary Force's armoured support and this project will be at an end. Well, at least for the time being.

***

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +91       Painted: +126          Total: +35

Pax Britannica - Command Stand [4]

Hey Internet,

This week we have what should be the last of the British Riflemen. One of the stands is the Commander of the force, and features an Officer and Flag bearer.

click to enlarge

The Officer was a pig of a model to 'clean up'. It had the some of the worst flash I've ever seen on a model. All of the castings of this 'pose' are just as bad - if I hadn't got these figures off a friend, I'd have asked in strong terms for some replacements!

That said, with more than a little effort with a set of needle files he's ended up looking pretty all-right. He even has a bright white Pith on to mark him out.

The 'Flag Bearer' is a conversion - I snipped and ground away the rifle of a standard infantryman and replaced it with a shortened steel spear. Black Hat do do a British Standard Bearer figure as part of the Martian Empires range, but the flagpole/lance is cast in white metal and so thin that a stiff breeze would destroy it, and despite my best efforts I couldn't find a way to substitute it for one made of stronger stuff. I think it looks rather neat considering. Oh! - and the flag is printed; I'm not nearly that good a painter.

This is the last of the 'basic infantry' for this project, and to be honest it fills me with joy to type those words. They have been absolute pigs to get done; I mean, I did enjoy doing it and all, but I'd have liked it a whole lot more if they had been cast better to start with.

I think that I've ended up with a decent 'finished product', but the pain it took to get them done has left me to glaring at them spitefully now they are done.

Eh!....do you like them?

Four guns, with gunners, and I'm done with bloody Martian Empires! Hurrah!

MM.

***

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +91       Painted: +106          Total: +15

Pax Britannica - Re-basing [3]

Hey Internet,

Bit of a boring one this time. After feeling no small amount of discontentment with the final product of my recent labours, I decided to do a U-turn and re-base the whole lot.

This proved to be no fun at all. But its done now. And no figures were destroyed in the process.

As it turns out, 100x20mm bases are rather unique to 'All Quiet on the Martian Front', making it quite awkward to use figures based this way for other war games.

click to enlarge

After a rather obsessive and agonising period of soul searching and deep existential meditation, I decided to re-base them, four to a stand, on 40x40x2mm MDF (from Warbases). This makes them quite compatible with Alien Squad Leader, Future War Commander and Space 1889: The Soldiers Companion, as well as All Quiet On The Martian Front.

With a good number of guys at the gaming club interested in 15mm sci-fi, but totally uninterested in goofy Tripods, I hope that they might actually get to see a fair bit of use.

Plus, they make a much better firing line. Wouldn't be British if they couldn't do a good firing line.

***

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +91       Painted: +106          Total: +15

Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotives

This week the Royal Garison Artillery have taken delivery of the first of a new type of machine, the Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotive! Running on endless tracks, and with the power of no less than twenty-four good horses, these fine machines have the capacity to manoeuvre even the heaviest of our guns into position.

Hey Internet,

I do present two Honsby-Armstrong Artillery Locomotives...

The eagle eyed amongst you will, of course, recognise the models to be Soviet WWII era 'Stalinets Tractors'. However, I have cunningly painted the radiator casing, headlamps and doorhandles a brassy-coloured metal colour, flawlessly transporting the machines back in time to turn-of-the-century England!

A gift from a friend who had no use for them, these models had been an unloved part of a Soviet Flames of War force for five years or so. Interestingly, this force had no artillery in need of towing, so they never got used. Not even once.

Coming across them quite by chance recently, I thought they'd be just the ticket for the late-Victorian / Great War-ish project that I am currently working on.

I've had a bit of a play around painting them. Being the first vehicles in this project, I wanted to tie down a number of painting techniques and effects that can then be rolled out across all of the British vehicles for the project.

I had to get the green just right. I wanted that particular shade of pale green used on some British equipment around the time of the Great War.

The colour had to be fairly easy to achieve so that I could paint up a dozen or so tanks and other vehicles in a uniform matter. It took three attempts, but I think that the one that I settled on looks about right.

This was the colour that I was going for.

Other than that, it was the smaller details, but in particular, I wanted to try something different with the windows and headlamps. For a long time I've been painting both in the same way, going for a sort of 'blue gem' effect, but recently I've noticed that, while pretty, the effect is totally overblown and utterly unrealistic.

Instead, the windowpanes have been painted flat black and lightly gloss varnished. I'm quite sold on this look for medium scale models like this.

Hopefully the headlamps are looking more realistic too. With them, I've just done highlighted circles of silver. Looking at the photo above, I can't help but feel that its the way to go, particularly with the big lamps of the first quarter of the century.

Some Blue Moon Mark I Tanks and a pair of Flames of War Tog IIs should be on their way before too long. I'm quite looking forward to giving them the same treatment.

Do let me know what you think, eh?

Mr. Marx.

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +59       Painted: +69          Total: +9

TOG 1 or 2 ?

Hey Internet,

Today a package finally arrived in the post - yay!

Within it was a Flames of War TOG 2 tank model that I ordered about two weeks ago, and have been looking forward to receiving with childlike excitement.

For you that don't know, this magnificent beast is a TOG.

Irritatingly, I ordered two, the other one has been placed on 'back order', whatever that means.

More to the point, as soon as the postman was gone, I of course got out my new toy for a bit of a play.

As fate would have it, I recently took delivery of some Blue Moon Mark I tanks. The Blue Moon kits come with both 'Male' and 'Female' sponsons....and I'm building them as gun tanks....and the 'spare' machine gun sponsons just so happen to perfectly fit my pretty little TOG....

....so.....why shouldn't I build the model as The Old Gang of the Royal Navy Landships Commitee originally intended?

These drawings gives a fairly good impression of the original design. 

I mean, the sponsons are not *100%* historically accurate as they are from a Mk.I, rather than a Mk.V tank, but on the other hand, the machine guns contained within would be being used to mow down Martians in revenge for the 1899 'Rape of London', so, I'm not all too fussed on that front.

I'd need to get some Matilda II turrets to complete the transformation, but that is no problem really.

Feeling really jazzed about doing this.

Let me know what you think!

MM.

Black Hat British Infantry [2]

Hey Internet,

I've finally gotten around to finishing my two platoons of Black Hat British Infantry.

All in all, its taken me two weeks to get the thirty of them painted up and based. To be honest, it was quite a chore to get them done.

The painting itself was not bad at all, but the clean-up of the flash and mold lines was really quite arduous.

I got these figures from a friend* who had them around collecting dust, so they are quite old, and given that fact, I have no idea if they are reflective of Black Hat's casting quality nowadays.

That said - and I am loathed to give a bad review - but the casting quality really was awful.

Almost every figure had prominent mold lines - sometimes two sets of mold lines per figure! Some of them also had major 'mold misalignment' issues. There was one 'pose' of figure that was so systematic in the poorness of its casting that every last one of the 'pose' had to be discarded.

After many hours filing and cutting, I got around to painting them. The figures are 'really big 15mm' or 18mm/HO scale, and as such they possess a pleasing level of detail and paint up rather nicely.

After a good deal of 'umm-ing' and 'ah-ing' I decided to go with turn of the century Khaki uniforms rather than the more stereotypical scarlet Redcoat. This made painting them a far speedier process, which was rather a good thing as, to be honest, the whole 'casting' issue had soured the whole modelling project for me, and enthusiasm was in short supply.

I've got some more Black Hat Commanders, Artillery and Gatling guns yet to do, but I think I need a rest before getting back into painting them.

I've got the first of the 'Tanks' on the way, so I'll probably do some of them before boomeranging back into the rest.

Mr. Marx.

* cheers Neil :)

The Lead Tally - 2014

Acquired: +59       Painted: +67          Total: +7

AQotMF British Infantry [1]

Hey Internet,

This week I've painted up a stand of British riflemen for 'All Quiet on the Martian Front'.

"But - what?!" I hear you say. 

"I'm quite sure sure that you said at the beginning of this year that you were not starting any new projects!" you continue.

But "ha!" say I, "I am not breaking my self-set rule! I said only that I would buy new figures for new projects - to put figures I already own to good use is the very intention of the ban!"

"...ah..." you must succeed, "...that's probably all-right then".

So, yeah...

I've painted up five British riflemen for 'All Quiet on the Martian Front'. 

The War of the Worlds has always been one of my favourite books, and something that I've always wanted to game. 

Yet, ''All Quiet" was not a game that I had previously given a second look, as on first glance. I found the tripods goofy and the tanks uninspired, but after a friend bought into it, I strayed onto the games webpage, and soon saw the new models for the BEF faction.

I'm not crazy about the 'official' miniatures - but luckily a friend of mine gave me a huge pile of Black Hat Martian Empires figures. They are the same strange '18mm' scale as AQotMF, so should do nicely.

I've plenty of infantry and a good battery of guns. The uniforms and weapons go against the 'cannon' of the game, but I'm really not too fussed about that. To this little force I'll add probably add some of the Heavy Infantry and a fair bit of armour.

Fortunately, most of the tanks I want don't exist in this scale yet - but between the centenary of the Great War, and Flames of War's new foray into the period, I only expect a short reprieve for my bank balance.

Oh, and one more thing -

Something that all my wargaming friends mock me for is my habit of writing down exactly how I paint everything.

I have a good reason for doing it though - firstly, my memory is a bit 'iffi' nowadays, and secondly, I tend to jump between projects a heck of a lot, and being able to settle back into a project at will is an incredible luxury.

On the off chance that you really like these figures, here is how I painted them;

MM.

Model Review: QRF Beaverette, FAI-M & Overvalwagen

Hey Internet,

This-morning the postman brought be a parcel containing a number of vehicle models from Quick Reaction Force (QRF) . I've not put anything up on my blog for a while, so I thought I'd do a quick review of the models that I ordered.

Once I've got these models done I'll pop up some finished pictures and retro-actively add some links here (unless I forget to).

'NPC 01 Overvalwagen'

As far as I know, this model has only just been release by QRF, and is the only 15mm model of this obscure Dutch Armoured Personnel Carrier on the market. I don't know much about the Overvalwagon in real life, but the model looks the part compared to the photos, but might be a bit on the big side.

In my experience, QRF models are very 'hit and miss' in their quality, but Id definitely say this one is a hit. The master that his model has been cast from appears to have been well made, doing well to capture the strange angular appearance of the vehicle. On the other hand, the casting is a little iffy. Nothing terrible, but the hull has some big, nasty mold lines that are going to be a bugger to remove and some of the finer parts and details have failed to cast properly.

In time I hope to add this model to my Polish Resistance Flames of War force as a stand-in model for the famous 'Kubus' improvised armoured vehicle. Although produced in greater quantities the Overvalwagen was also an improvised vehicle - little more than an armoured lorry. I don't think that it will take much suspension of disbelief to think that the Polish resistance could have thrown together a similar looking machine in their own struggle against the Nazis and Soviets.

'BAc08 Humber Beaverette'

I also ordered two more vehicles to add to my Polish motorpool, or rather replace my existing armoured cars. The first of these is this, a Beaverette. For those of you who don't have a geeky knowledge of Britain's preparations for invasion in the Second World War, the 'Beverette' was a mass produced series of armoured cars, built on civilian motorcar chassis.

The QRF model is rather neat - another 'hit'. The details and casting are fine, but suffer from the same mold line and detail loss problems as the Overvalwagen. Interestingly, the four wheels come cast together as a single peice, making puting the model together a simple task.

I have a certain fondness for improvised armoured vehicles, so rather than having a captured German armoured car I thought it would be nice to have somthing a little more home-made.

'SAC05 FAI-M'

The final model in this haul is a Russian FAI Armoured Car. The FAI was one of many Russian types of armoured car fielded against the Nazis during Operation Barborossa, and, like many other peices of Russian equipment, large numbers of them were captured by the advancing Axis forces.

Another hit! QRF's FAI is a really nice little model. This example came cast better than the models I received with it, with crisper details and no really-nasty-detail-obscuring-mold-lines. In fact, I would go as far as to say its one of the best specimens that I have ever got from QRF. The wheels come attached to the hull (and are not crossed by the mold line!), and despite looking fiddly the front bumper fits really well and will go on without any trouble. The only criticism I can make is that the barrel of the machine gun is incredibly thin and will need replacing for the model to be usable.

Unlike the other two vehicles, the Polish resistance did actually capture an FAI during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, although not much information on its use appears to have survived. I think the FAI is a paticularly good looking machine, perhaps second only to the Rolls Royce Armoured Car in the looks department - and it is for this reason that I chose to include one over a second Improvised armoured car.

MM.

Polish Panthers

Hey 'Web,

This week I have finished a new platoon for my Flames of War Armii Karajowej (Polish Home Army) Force: a Kedyw Tank Platoon consisting of two captured Pz. V 'Panther' Tanks.

I've been looking forward to adding these metal monsters to my line up for some time. The main reason I wanted to add them is because I have a thing about captured tanks. I just think its really cool and interesting. Also, while I'm not the most competitive of sorts, but these Panthers will add a great deal to the fighting capacity of my my force: their long 75mm guns adding some much needed heavy support.

The models themselves are both from the official Battlefront Flames of War range. One is the Panther from the special 'Barkmann' character box set and the other is a standard Panther strait out of the blister.

Both are really nice models, up to Battlefront's usual high standards. My only quibble is that Battlefront is in the process of replacing their metal components with plastic ones, and by sheer bad luck, one of my Panthers came with a metal and bobs, whilst the other came with plastic ones. This is not really a problem, but it irritates the hell out of me that they don't match properly. I don't think anyone other than me will notice though, so its all good.

^

This is the Panther out of the blister, the one with metal components. Like its brother it has been painted to closely resemble one of the tanks captured by Polish resistance fighters during the Warsaw Uprising. 

^

This is the special 'Barkmann' Panther Tank, adorned with plastic components. Other than some special chaps poking their heads out of various hatches, it is identical to a regular Panther. One fun thing though - I removed the hull machine gun to resemble the Panther in the Warsaw Uprising that had had it's one removed - and possibly even replaced with a home-made flame-thrower!

There is one good thing to come out of this though. Id actively been avoiding buying any Flames of War kit that came with metal components, because I'm an old stick-in-the-mud and have long been of the opinion that plastic is a horrid material to work with, and gives models a nasty 'cheep' feeling. The plastic Panther has gone a good distance towards changing my mind about this. Battlefront's plastic is far studier than most plastic that I have worked with, and the improvements in detail they have made in during their transition to plastic have been remarkable.

^

I really rather like the tanker leaning out of the back of the 'Barkmann' Panther.

The models were a bit of a faff to put together due to lots of small bits (but that's only because the Panther is a complicated machine) and a pleasure to paint. I did make the mistake of paining dark yellow over a black undercoat, but that was my own stupid fault. Should have under-coated them grey. The real joy doing these was doing the free-hand ad-hoc Polish markings - actively trying to make freehand look scruffy must be every painters dream.

So, yeah, great models, I had a good time putting them together and am looking forward to throwing them down on the gaming table next time my opponent is in town.

Questions anyone?

^

The entierity of the AK Armoured Corps as it currently stands. I plan to replace the armoured cars with some new ones that look less out of place.

Zomtober 2013: Week 4

Hey Internet,

So yeah, this week is a bit of a cop-out.

I got drawn back into Flames of War again this week and decided to finish the last few stands of Polish Resistance Fighters - I now have a finished, fully painted infantry horde force for Flames of War!

This isn't all of them by the way, just the ones I've painted this week.

Partisans are sort of survivors. I mean, historicity speaking, there was no Nazi-borne Zombie apocalypse at the end of the Second World War, but if there was...

^ I also did an objective marker.

I've also gone though and started the process of re-basing my Poles. Mostly its involved adding a lot of 'tufts', as they are en vogue at the moment. I've been using the brown Army Painter ones and the Games Workshop mixed ones.

^ Forest Fighters ambush a German anti-partisan column.  

What I painted today...

Hey Internet

I did a little painting today.

First up, a unit of five BA-10m Heavy Armoured Cars for my Flames of War force. Ive had these models for years, but they were in dire need of a repaint.

Also, I’ve got the first phase of my 12mm Terrain project finished – all of the buildings that I own in this scale are now painted.

MM.

Polish Home Army (Flames of War)

Hey all. Here are some (rather bad) photos of my Polish Flames of War Battalion.


The Force all together.


The Armoured Support.


The Mortar Battery


The Machine Gun Battery


The 'Cursed Soldiers


The Anti-Tank Guns


A Hetzer


Many Brave Poles.


MM,