Brigade Models Belgian WW1 Dog carts released at Salute

wow look at these lovely's been waiting for ages for these to materialise from the Kentish firm of Brigade models.....and as usual they are going to be released at salute.....yes that massive model show which always takes place at that time of the year when MOT, car tax & summer holiday costs all conspire to impose immediate poverty on my bank balance!!! I just know that attending Salute would be 'fatal' !! Anyway aiming to visit wargame shows in the Autumn this year

Famous 1914 - 1918

Just finished another Richard Van Emden WW1 book 'Famous 1914-1918' co authored with Victor Piuk. This was another one of my Oxfam bookshop buys and is a very interesting read. In summary the book deals with well known people of the 20th century and their part in world war one. JRR Tolkiens service was reasonably well known to me and I must read Garths book 'Tolkien and the Great War' which is in the pending pile. The other famous people included were; AA Milne, George Mallory, Arnold Ridley, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Reith, Dennis Wheatley, CS Lewis, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alexander Fleming, RC Sheriff, Montgomery, Tom Denning, Winston Churchill, Henry Moore, JB Priestly, Harold Macmillan, Peter Llewelyn Davies. All these names are extreemly well known like Churchill and Montgomery or at least familiar to most people even if their part in WW1 is not so well known.

The two unusal inclusions are the infamous John Christie of Rillington Place murders fame and Ned Parfett....who you ask? Well Neds face is well known as a boy to most historians of the 20th century as the face of the newspaper boy selling the evening news with the headline 'Titanic Disaster Great Loss of Life'


Ned joined up in 1915 and served in France with 126 Battery RFA part of 29th Brigade RFA and he worked as a signaller maintaining the telephone wire from the forward observation officer back to the battery. The battery was heavily involved with the German spring offensive of march 1918 and the battery caused significant casualties to the advancing German forces only loosing one gun in the process. Ned was mentioned in Field Marshal Douglas Haigs Despatches and remained with the battery through the summer of 1918. Three weeks before the armistice his battery was supporting the 1st BN the Somerset Light Infantry and 2nd BN Duke of Wellingtons Regiment in an action to take the village of Verchain in Belgium, by the 29th October 1918 Ned was waiting to go on leave in the quartermasters stores with 2 other men from 126 battery when a german shell made a direct hit. All were killed and were buried in Verchain British Military Cemetry, Ned was only 22 had been recommended for a Military Medal for supporting his officer 2nd lieutenant Percy Hunt in the dangerous activity of forward observation for the guns and would not have returned to his unit before the armistice was signed...what a cruel twist of fate.

This was a very interesting book as it encompassed people I had not read about before like the Sculptor Henry Moore the author Dennis Wheatley and writer, Playwrite,Broadcaster and founder of CND JB Priestly and would recommend it as a good alternative 'easy to read' book on what was a horrific conflict.


To lighten the mood a work colleague forwarded an amusing item from 'Newbiscuit' the spoof web based news channel with private eye like articles this one 'Screaming fans Mob Wargames Championship' was most amusing!!

Great War Belgian Armoured Car Models

One of the features of the Belgian Army in 1914 was its antiquated uniforms and structure. However thanks largely to having a ‘modern’ car manufacturing industry the Belgian Army soon realised the value of armoured cars and they played their part in the early war period before the bogged down attrition of the trenches. An excellent article was written in Wargames Illustrated in September 2008 on these early Belgian armoured car engagements so I don’t want to cover that ground again but advise anyone interested to look at various web sites especially Minerva Armoured Motor car which has many great pictures and detailed history of the Minerva and Sava companies. The other reliable source of info for WW1 model makers is as always Landships on there are a couple of useful pages on Belgian armoured cars including a review of Convoys Minerva armoured car in 1/76 scale. On the web site ‘A Great War in a Different Light’ can be found some excellent photos of mostly Minerva armoured cars.





Now recently I have got hold of 3 Belgian armoured car models. The first is purely a 15mm War Gaming piece representing a Minerva armoured car and is produced by my favourite 15mm wargames figure producer ‘Peter Pig’. In their WW1 range they produce Belgians….’hurrah’ and a very simple metal Minerva armoured car in 8 pieces!! Now admittedly its only 15mm scale so you wouldn’t expect too may pieces especially if you want to retain your sanity! It is basically a one piece casting for the body work and chassis, 4 metal wheels, and 3 crew members as can be seen from the photo below.





I have cleaned and primed this model as I thought I would start with the simplest kit of the three…..good for morale!!





The next two kits I obtained at ‘Trucks and Tracks’ at Folkestone last weekend. It was my main reason for attending and its always nice to visit a show to see other modellers/wargamers work as well as look at the goodies on the stalls.





The Convoy models kit of a Minerva Armoured Car is a proper resin and metal model kit and is a more complex build. The chassis and bodywork come in two resin pieces with interior, exhaust and lights on 3 more resin sprues which have a lot of resin ‘flash’ about each part, the driver crewman is a nice little figure. The wheels and gun are in white metal and are very well cast indeed with good spoke detail not easy to cast I would imagine!





The main problem with the kit on looking at it without detailed knowledge of interiors and dimensions is that the axles are cast in resin and I will replace these with suitable dimension brass rod/thick gage wire for strength. The landships review includes pictures and is definitely worth a look.





Finally a new release is the offering from Retrokit. This is a very professional production with very finely cast pieces for a Automitrailleuse SAVA. The Chassis and main bodywork not including the turret is cast in 1 piece of resin.





with a considerable number of separate components too complete it.





The wheels are a masterpiece being cast in resin with an etched brass fret for the spokes, which if completed correctly will look stunning and advice is given on the instruction sheet for this. I would probably have preferred white metal cast wheels and spokes like in the Convoy kit as I prefer easier lazy builds! But I will give it a go!!





The biggest letdown on all three kits is the instructions!! From none with Peter Pig …but with 8 pieces you don’t need any! to 1 rough exploded diagram for the Convoy and Retrokit kits. This is often the way with these small production run resin/metal kits and it’s a shame more care is not taken with the drawings.





What is great that someone has produced these models in the first place and having seen what other armoured cars took part in WW1 a collection would be fun and Convoy also produce other kits and carry the Tommy Atkins range including a nice Lancaster AC. Really only the Peter Pig model would last being handled in a wargames environment and where ther is a gap in the market is a model of the type produced by Brittania Miniatures in 28mm well cast with enough detail and not too expensive (Retrokit was not cheap!)sadly they just do WW2 & Modern vehicles.

Ralph known for his Blog site concentrating on the Monmouth rebellion and late 16th century period in general has also another blog Ralphadeus on which there is further info on the Belgian army of 1914

Great War British Infantryman

It’s not just Belgians!! At the same time as sorting out the colours for the Belgians I painted up this figure which had been lying around in the tin of undercoated yet to be painted figures. I think it’s a Wargames Foundry late WW1 from some years ago and I have mostly followed the Warhammer Historical Great War painting guide for painting a British Infantryman of 1918.

I do prime all the figures I paint with Halfords White car spray primer, spraying as many as possible in one go. If I’m painting armoured/chainmail figures I then do a basecoat of black on top of the white covering the armour/chainmail areas.

For the British Infantryman I applied a basecoat of Charadon Granite on all uniform areas and the helmet.



Basing the Figure

The figure was based on a Renedra Plastic Stand (bought with an order from Gripping Beast) covered with B&Q ready mixed filler to the depth of the figures metal stand. A lumpy ‘churned’ up effect was applied by ‘lifting’ the filler with Starbucks coffee stirrer (101 applications cut it down to make any tool!) When dry a well pigmented wash of GW Graveyard Earth/Chaos Black was applied followed when dry with diluted chaos black to make the mud look horrific & putrid! The edge of the base was painted GW Bestial Brown. No grass no nothing! Was added to show the bleakness of the ground the troops were fighting over.

To seal the paint onto the figure & protect it Humbrol Matt Varnish was carefully sprayed on.





Below are a few pictures from the 'Military Odyssey' re enactment show 2008 held at the Kent County Showground over August bankholiday. Hazel and I went last year and amazingly I think she enjoyed it or preferred it to an airshow! The best turned out in my opinion were the WW1 re enactment groups and here are some pictures of them;





In the grey corner superbly turned out 'Hun'



In the Khaki corner the 'Tommies' in the background it is a little known fact that white 'Gazebos' were taken to the front line!





Being able to wonder through the encampment was the best bit somehow watching WW1 reenactments simulating being mown down by machine guns is a bit close to semi recent family history!


Sorting out the Books & Modelling Space

The main job on the modelling, painting front hasn't involved modelling or painting!! For some years since moving to 'pooh corner' (the unoficial family name for the house!) none of my library of books has been in order and modelling is vying with work laptop and files on the one desk. This has now changed with two desks in the house! the library lives in the 'study' with pc and display cabinets the modelling desk is in the corner of the spare bedroom...what an improvement! I can now find references & should be able to paint and model quicker without spending a whole evening digging around for references and clearing away after a painting session.