I was working away merrily on my Matilda tanks with one of the kittens sitting on my lap to get them used to human contact. I didn’t think he was terribly mobile.
Lucky I had finished! Caliph squealed as he tried to get out but couldn’t. I quickly grabbed the mobile and took a snap mum came to the rescue grabbing it by the scruff of the kneck and knocking everything over in the process, but fortunately no paint or the water jar!
Fuggly is normally not protective and allows us to play with her kittens, but apparently WW2 Australian Matilda tanks cannot be trusted!
No doubt there will be more kitten frolics over the next few weeks as the become mobile and start climbing the curtains!
Note: Imperial Guard NOT that “new-fangled” Astra whatever it is!
“The Imperial Sentinel can be armed with a wide variety of weapons. The original Sentinel design called for a completely open canopy and an Assault Cannon as the walker’s standard armament, but eventually this design fell out of use in place of more common weaponry and an armoured or partially armoured canopy.“ 40k Fandom
Well they haven’t fallen out of use in my armies!
I have a squadron of the Rogue Trader walking eggs and two squadrons of the later bulkier Middle- Hammer versions all armed with Assault Cannon.
Two squadrons (six Sentinels) have been fixed to their bases and undercoated for years and I have finally felt like painting them.
Just a quick wash and dry brush, the metal bits picked out, and some detail added.
Foot showing rust look.
I will work on the second squadron and post it in a few days time.
I came across this crafting wool in Spotlight stores (a large art and craft store in Australia) and immediately thought of Bolt Action Pin Markers, and markers for destroyed building, objectives or vehicles. I still prefer casualty markers is you can afford them or they are available, but this is a simple and cheap alternative if not.
The total lot of six packets cost me AU$18.00 on special, with the only failing that there was not any black left.
The packets with a 20mm 1/72nd scale Pz III German tank for size comparison.
I then stuck some 12mm dice holders from Pendraken to 40mm round bases. These will provide the number of pins, suppression or whatever for your game systems.
various pieces of the coloured craft wool were then twisted together and stuck on the base with supa-glue.
As I could not obtain any black wool I sprayed them very lightly, from about 18 inches away, with a cheap matt black spray can. This provided that oily black smoke look that I wanted. This step is not necessary if you like the bright look or have been lucky enough to find the black wool.
Now all you need to do is to add your die when your unit requires marking.
These French Partizans are moving through the ruins with one pin marker.
Different coloured dice could be used to differentiate both sides.
I have put two dice holders on some markers for that rare occasion where a unit has suffered badly. Just use one holder if not.
The markers can be used for destroyed or damaged vehicles with using the die.
I have only put together 12 markers at this stage and there is enough “wool” left over for at least another one hundred bases or other uses.
These have been around for as long as I can remember. So a quick paint and I have at last finished them. They will be useful for a range of Fantasy games.
Wraiths
Collection of Skulls
These will make great scatter terrain or objective markers.
The Type 4 Ke-Nu was created to provide improved fire support to combat engaged IJA divisions all around the Pacific theatre. At the same time, the upgrade of the original Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank was taking place. It swapped, in 1942-43, its short low velocity Type 97 57 mm (2.24 in) main gun with a newer high velocity, long barrel, Type 1 47 mm (1.85 in) anti-tank gun in a modified turret to increase its firepower, range and increase internal space. This left the many original Chi-Ha turrets with no purpose to fulfil. Many were sent to reinforce fixed defences on various islands, but others were available for any kind of chassis-turret marriage.
Specifications
In 1942, the General Staff ordered a study of converting obsolescent Ha-Go chassis with these spare Chi-Ha turrets. The Ha-Go was, at the time, armed with a Type 94 37 mm (1.46 in) gun with limited anti-tank capabilities. At the same time, more efficient HE and AP rounds had been issued for the Type 97 57 mm (2.24 in). The resulting conversions made the new model one ton heavier and, subsequently, reduced its original top speed from 28 mph (43 km/h) to just 25 mph (35 km/h). Approximately 100 (factory conversion records are complicated to track) of this hybrid were delivered in 1944. It appeared that many (if not most) were converted as radio tanks, with the characteristic horse-shoe antenna.
The Ke-Nu in action
Battle records of the type include Manchuria and Korea in 1945, but they saw little or no combat. Others were stationed in Okinawa and Kyushu, in prevision of the expected Allied invasion. A single one was captured by the Soviets in August 1945, during the invasion of Manchuria, and now is displayed at the Kubinka museum.
Camouflage on the tanks at the Australian Tank Museum, Puckapunyal, Victoria.
Closer view.
Tanks with just a faint hint of camouflage left.
Camouflage in an almost jigsaw like pattern.
Before 1942 there was little standardisation in paint schemes for Imperial Japanese Army armour. In fact for the majority of the War! Most vehicles were painted in a hard-edged camouflage scheme with distinctive yellow stripes. The exact colours and how they were applied remains a complicated and confusing subject which for historians in problematic, but from a wargaming perspective the argument tends to be about which colour was the first coat green or artillery brown which is hampered by descriptions and names of colours being inconsistent between different sources.
Tanks with a wavy line pattern.
The official instructions from the Imperial Japanese Army on how tanks were to be painted are quite well documented. But just how closely these were followed is much debated. More likely those on the ground used what was available rather than what was the official edict.
Official instructions called for vehicles to be painted in “tsuchi kusa iro”, a khaki colour known to the US as “Japanese Artillery Brown.” Roughly 30% of the vehicle was painted in disruptive patterns of a dark “tsuchi iro” or mahogany brown.
In 1942 this changed to “kusa iro”, or army green in summer or jungle areas in the south. More often the green was just added as an additional colour, rather than the base, which is what I have done. Like the multi-coloured French tanks these were sometimes separated by a thin black line.
There is also much speculation about the yellow cross lines on the tanks. Yellow wavy lines were applied in a rough cross shape when viewed from above, centred on the top of the vehicle. There is some dispute about the actual colour of these lines. Some researchers have theorised that it was actually a sandy, ‘dry grass’ colour, which was described as ‘yellow’ because that is how it looked in contrast with the darker camouflage colours. This is certainly a plausible hypothesis, because the low contrast result is more in keeping with camouflage theory at the time. The You-tube video below also suggests it maybe trying to mimic how the sun rays break up the outline of the tank (?).
There is an excellent article from Nick Kohima who has translated the Japanese WW2 Camouflage manual which I found after painting the tanks! @#$%*^!
I have been busy with family issues over the last week and completely forgot that October 22 was my 600th day of consecutive posts.
Over the last 600 days a few have been very short but I have made it every day ! Phew! There has been more than 600 posts with a number of days having more than one………it’s called “verbal d………”!
Thanks to all of my readers, followers, and especially you guys that comment regularly. Keeps me going.
Arachnophobia (n): “extreme or irrational fear of spiders”
I HATE SPIDERS!
Despite this I found the Jeff Daniels and John Goodman film Arachnophobia to be quite funny in a queer sort of way.
You may have noticed that my movie watching of late has taken a bit of a “creepy” and “crawly” bent of late. A pity these movies are at best B grade, but they have at least got me psyched up (out?) to get some more “little beasties” painted!
There are four standard types of golems; these are (from weakest to strongest): flesh golems, clay golems, stone golems, and iron golems. This is a Reaper Kickstarter miniature that I was given by Azazel. I have painted it up as a stone goilem.
These constructs were generally made with a bipedal, humanoid shape, but stylized to suit their creator. Appearing as merely beautiful statues until commanded by their master to move and act. They were almost never outfitted with any sort of weaponry or armour.
The average stone golem was about 9 ft tall and weighed approximately 2 tonne.
Stone golems were constructed from a single piece of carefully chiselled stone. The most elegant stone golems were used as both guardians and art pieces in magical buildings.
Watched a really bad Sci-Fi movie the other night on Amazon Prime called “Big Bad Bugs”. It was like those really bad Alien Bug movies such as Eight Legged freaks, Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Mosquito, Kingdom of the Spiders, Naked Lunch, The Mist, Slither, Tarantula, the Fly, the Deadly Mantis, and of course Them! The only difference is it didn’t have the “camp” to go with it! In fact it has nothing!
So why am I posting on a really bad movie? Simply the storyline:
After a convoy of American soldiers disappears, a special ops team is deployed to rescue them. They soon encounter an army of gigantic bees, scorpions, spiders and snakes that have come to Earth from another dimension. What a great scenario for a game.
Now don’t get me wrong the “stills” above are the best part of the movie which looks as if it was made by a primary school remedial class. It is hilarious, because it is so bad , but I don’t think it was meant to be a comedy.
Normally a film has some sort of structure, a plot, acting even if it is bad, or even cinematography but this doesn’t have anything. Absolutely nothing!
Nothing but the scenario idea of Seal Teams and Scientists against a variety of giant bugs! Star ship Troopers did this well, and was almost believable. Now what I want is something really bad like lots of packets of plastic centipedes, ants, snakes, spiders and the like!
I have vehicles, Seal Teams, figures that will do as scientists, and even modern tanks, I have. BUGS I don’t! At least not many painted.
