BEF Part III: 25-pounder

Work continues apace on my British Expeditionary Force project. Last week I completed the first of my medium artillery. In my wish to keep costs down and give my army an old-school look, I chose the Airfix kit. I've built several of these in the past but all have found better homes over the last few years. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the molds have been to hell and back.

The actual gun and the trailer carrying the ammo are not too bad. The Quad is so and so, with the roof piece looking a bit ragged. The crew however looked as if they had been worked over with a 4-barreled 20mm flak. The only one that was usable was the driver who had been shot in the back (in typical Jerry fashion). The crew was substituted again by the HaT WWI British Artillery Crew set. Considering I have one more 4.5" and 2 more 25-pounders to complete, the set I got will be enough, but barely.

Meanwhile, the second company of Highlanders is getting some paint on, while I am debating whether to complete a base of ancient Greeks or Persians for Basic Impetus as a change of pace. The lovely Airfix Bofors and tractor are also getting along nicely and hopefully will be ready for paint by the middle of next week.

This is all for now from chilly Athens.

BEF, 1940, Part II: The Black Watch

First post for 2012 and apparently the new year got me motivated. I finished the first company of my Black Watch battalion for my BEF 1940 Blitzkrieg Commander project. Instead of going all out and using metal miniatures for these (SHQ Miniatures has some lovely Highlanders) I chose the cheap way. HaT has recently issued some WWI British Highlanders that seemed quite the part and Revell re-issued their Scottish 8th Army. HaT would provide the bulk of the miniatures, Revell the command and probably the machine gun stands (they have some lovely Bren guns on anti-aircraft mounts) and Matchbox the mortar. Old school type army, with some choices different than the usual British suspects. After all, I'll be doing a more traditional battalion as well.

The main problem with Highlanders is always the tartan; what to chose and how to paint it. I went with the Black Watch since they served both in France and later on in Greece. Google and Wikipedia provided me with examples of what the tartan looked like. There were two approaches I used to paint it.

This is the first one. The kilt looks as if there is a pattern, but I didn't paint an actual one.

Here I painted the actual pattern. Well, as close as it is possible considering the scale. Both look OK in my eyes, but the actual pattern, although too coarse compared to reality, looks more the part in wargaming conditions (when the 3-foot rule is in effect).


I really like these miniatures. They are well-sculpted, with good detail and proportions. The only let-down is the material. I wish that HaT would stop using this soft plastic and prefer harder ones like Zvezda and Italeri. But all in all, these are excellent. Nine down, 18 (plus assorted stuff) to go.

Thats all for now, from sunny Athens.