28mm French mortar, late XVII c.

Hi again and happy summer,

I present to you a French mortar for the League of Augsburg war, (and Franco Dutch war too!). In fact, this little project was a mixture of spare parts: some Warfare Miniatures artillery crew, an old Hovels 28mm artillery position, made of resin, and parts of Warhammer Empire cannon, converted into a renaissance mortar.

I painted the miniature in French artillery uniform of the period, light grey, red and blue, and the mortar wood in red, then I covered the ground of the base in sand, because I simply don´t like the textured sand sculpted on it, some static grass and a pair of details and Voilà,  a little diorama base finished. Quick project indeed, and now I have 3 French artillery pieces for this period, now they can pummel the Spanish and Dutch fortifications freely (as they did with the "terror bombing" of Brussels in 1695). I was in "La Grand Place" last week and saw the reconstructed buildings, most houses are post 1695.

Enough words, now the pics of the mortar itself :)

I know, quite a few pics for just one "unit" I hope you like it !

By the way, in La Grand Place of Brussels, you can find some old traces of the period mentioned here, and the Spanish rule:

Charles II of Spain

pics from "http://reinadodecarlosii.blogspot.com/2010/08/de-vuelta-de-bruselas-y-brujas.html"

Regards

WW2 mood... Panzers in Sicily '43

Hi there mates,

Maybe it's because we are in July, and close to the anniversary of "Operation Husky", but I am in a World War 2 mood, so I finished a while ago 2 panzers for Bolt Action. They are plastic kits in 28mm or 1/56... Panzer III ausf. M is from Warlord Games,  and Panzer IV ausf. G is Rubicon's. Both kits are great, not perfect, but quite good. I wanted to try both companies in order to test their quality. And both have advantages and disadvantages, I think Panzer III from Warlord is better than its Rubicon counterpart... because of the Schurzen or Schutzen (sorry I am not a German speaker) and their tracks... However, I found Rubicon's Panzer IV a better and cheaper kit than Warlords. Just personal preference.

I painted them with Tamiya paints, trying to modulate the light with the airbrush, then a coat o satin varnish and the decals. The decals are 1/48 Bison decals, for panzers in Sicily in 1943, very well researched, and of great quality.

After the decals were applied, I started the "wet" weathering with some filters, oil fading,  pin washes, and streaking grime. then chipping with 2 colours, and dusting with washes and pigments.

It is time consuming, but the result is very pleasing for me. I am proud of this two little tanks. I would like to expand my german force for Sicily, with a 2cm flak, and a squad of Fallschirmjager in summer uniform from the old Artizan "Ramcke Brigade", I was lucky enough to buy them second hand just after its out of production.  Already have Wehrmacht  infantry, Pak 40, mortar and MG42 in feldgrau uniform, eventually I'll post them here. 

I hope you like the kits!

Panzer III ausf. M  Division Hermann Göring, Sicily 1943

Panzer IV ausf.G  Division Hermann Göring, Sicily 1943