P51 Mustang

I built this Mister Craft P51C Mustang Mk III back in July 2018 for Norjam, our big international jamboree organised by Norfolk Scouts and Guides, over 6,500 of us from across the world camping for the week.

The camp is broken down into a number of subcamps and this time the theme was "Decades".  I was on the 1990's subcamp with my Scouts and Explorer Scouts but in my role as one of the County team I built this little 'plane for the 1940's subcamp for their aircraft recognition activity.

It was a very rushed build but I couldn't just construct it as the basic kit.

I chopped up the cockpit canopy and filed it down so that I could paint the interior.

This aircraft has a "malcolm hood", a special bulbous centre section to the cockpit canopy which gives superior visibility compared to the standard canopy.

I carefully painted in some dials on the instrument panel and added some extra details such as the fuel filer caps on the wings etc.  I'm not sure all the detail is completely correct but I was too pushed for time to have a chance to research it fully.

If I'd had more time I'd have made some metal foil straps for the harness but this time I just had to make do with painted-on ones.

The instructions in the kit were pretty poor.  I had to ignore them when attaching the undercarriage - they showed it attached to the wrong sides!

Alas the undercarriage isn't quite straight but I'm still happy with the end result.

The decals were something of a pain to apply, quite thick film so I needed lots of decal softener and adhesive to get them to conform to the curved surface.

I've painted this one as GA Q, flown by Flight Lieutenant Raymond Vincent Hearn DFC of the RAF Volunteer Reserve, based in Italy during 1944-5.  You can read more about him here and here.  He was shot down by FLAK in February 1945.  Being a Polish kit, there are are also a couple of sets of decals included for Mustangs flown by Polish pilots.

Although fun to build and modify, I don't think I'd recommend this "Mister Craft" kit.  The instructions were completely wrong in a number of places (I refer again to the fact they told you to fit the undercarriage the wrong way round) and rather ambiguous in others.  The fit of several parts was also pretty suspect and required clamping with clothes peg followed by copious amounts of model filler and extensive sanding to try and disguise the gaps.

After all this effort, it turned out that the 'plane was going to be suspended on thread from the inside of one of the marquees, way above head height so none of the detail I added was really visible!  Still, at least I knew it was there...

UN helicopter - Matchbox "Mission Chopper" repaint

Z Force deploy from their helicopter.

Last year I picked up a nice Matchbox "Mission Chopper" helicopter in the local charity shop.  I decided that it would become a UN helicopter which can fulfil the dual roles of either being transport in/out of action or being a game objective.

New and old.

Unfortunately Number 1 Son spotted it and appropriated it for his own use.  It now has a fine collection of "landing lights" (stick-on craft jewels which can now be found dotted throughout our entire house) but is no longer available for wargaming.  Luckily a quick check on ebay provided me with another Mission Chopper plus an F4 Phantom and a couple of Spitfires for only £4.

"Landing lights"

I moved quickly with the new one and had it washed and undercoated before anyone else got hold of it!

Base colours are Vallejo cold grey and Russian uniform green.  After a Future and black ink wash, it ended up looking much more RAF than I originally planned but I decided to go with it and added a Union Flag to shown who has supplied it to the UN.  I could have gone for traditional UN white but decided the camo scheme will be more useful for game purposes.

Repainting provided the opportunity to add extra windows on the front which are clearly implied by the moulding on the model.

Side windows have also been painted larger than originally printed on the model, again to match the actual moulding.

Decals are all waterslide transfers and come from a variety of sources: Space Marines, Matchbox A34 Comet cruiser tank, JB models land rover, Matchbox Panzer II, Airfix Westland Sea King, Airfix Westland Scout, Italeri Hind-D.  Plenty of Vallejo decal medium was used to soften and stick the transfers to all the curves!  A top coat of Future floor polish has hopefully sealed everything in.

Z Force trooper helpfully pointing out nose warning sign.

Although perhaps a touch on the small side for GZG or Brigade figures, it still scales pretty well with my Peter Pig infantry and they'll be the main people interacting with it during 1980's through to modern skirmishes.

APCs/ Multi Purpose Vehicles

 I've picked up a few of these APCs,.  They both seem to be an approximation of the Canadian Terradyne Gurkha MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle), with a bit of artistic license over the exact design.

 

They're available in the UK in Poundland and/or Poundstretcher.  The Matchbox vehicle is slightly longer, taller and much slimmer than the Zuru "Metal Machine".  Both come in a rage of different colour schemes, you may have spotted some lighter blue Matchbox ones in a few battle reports on the Hammer's Slammers web site.  I have 3 white and 2 black Zuru vehicles.

Blister pack

The Zuru ones have only appeared recently in Poundland and Poundstretcher but the Matchbox ones seem to have vanished from Poundland at the moment, I got mine a couple of years ago along with a load of Matchbox M-ATVs and Marauders.

Side view

Overall, I think I prefer the Zuru one.  It also looks to have more internal detail, not that it'll show much once it's been painted.

Rear view

The Zuru vehicle has a better sized rear hatch for quick troop deployment.

Front view

The wider body gives the Zuru model a chunkier, tougher appearance. Note that both have a gun shield suitable for mounting a pintle machine gun such as those offered by Brigade Models.

Top view

The Zuru vehicle also has a larger hatch into which you could place a cut down figure as a gunner.

Terradyne Gurkha MPV

My white Zuru Gurkhas will get a repaint, probably in a jungle or desert green/brown scheme.  I might leave the police ones in their native colour scheme to start.

Action Force - Red Shadow reinforcements

Some final infantry reinforcements mean that I have, at last, got enough Red Shadows for a decent Action Force game.

As before, these are Peter Pig late war Germans, a mixture of assault rifles (StG44) firing and advancing plus some German NCOs kneeling and standing.

I have enough for a good mix of fireteams including team leaders and support weapons.

I've recently purchased a copy of the Osprey Wargames Black Ops and have the first scenario planned...

Perhaps I'll even manage a game before Christmas!

Action Force - Red Shadow machine gun teams

 More support weapons for my Red Shadows, this time in the form of a couple of machine gun weapon teams.

They overhang my usual weapon team base size slightly but not enough to cause any problems.

These are Peter Pig late war LMG teams (MG42s).  Peter Pig doesn't tend to add much face detail on the prone gun teams because you don't really get to see those features during a normal game!

This actually made them easier to use than the normal Peter Pig figures.  I didn't try to shape the front of the helmet with Milliput, just painted it as it was.

Action Force - Red Shadow support weapons

 My Red Shadow army receives some much-needed support weapons at last.  The action figure Red Shadow came with a bazooka and these Peter Pig WWII late-war German Panzershreck troops need only a little bit of work to look the part.

An additional late-war LMG advancing figure becomes a Red Shadow machine-gunner.

Action Force - Z Force Infantry

 A few more Z Force infantry to add to my Action Force army.

A mixture of M16/M4 armed troops.

Some have M203s for added firepower.

Now they just need some more Red Shadows to fight!