The good news is that I haven’t lost my painting mojo, more a case of losing my blog writing mojo! I last wrote about my Lord of the Rings project but also mentioned that I had started a WW2 Cromwell tank. Well since then, I have completed the tank, I’ve also expanded my collection of Home guard weaponry with a Blacker Bombard and a Northover Projector. I’ve also painted two Medieval wagons for my WOTR project, added eight Kern to my WOTR skirmish contingent, played at least 3 games of Never Mind The Billhooks, spent a weekend gaming including a Crimean War Battle, a Zombie apocalypse and a Swiss Burgundian play test. Oh, and I have finally tracked down a Beaverette Armoured Car for my Home guard and that is on the paint station as I write.
In this blog, I’ll show you the Cromwell that I have completed.
The Cromwell is a 1/48th scale resin model from Blitzkrieg miniatures. I prefer the larger 1/48th scale models as I think that they look better with the modern ’28mm’ figures which although are nominally 1/56th scale, in reality they are not a scale at all but a size. I know that not everyone agrees but I find that the 1/56th scale tanks look too small against the figures, especially when the figures are based. I am using 28mm crew and as you can see, they look fine.
The painting process was straight forward enough. After washing the tank in hot soapy water, I primed it with Vallejo Matt black model air primer. I then used the airbrush to spray it with Mig Ammo British 1944-45 Olive drab MIG0112. I had a bit of a wobble over the colour. I started to get hung up on whether I was using the correct shade of green. In fact, the whole process of completing the tank was almost derailed by being side-tracked into trying to produce an IPMS competition standard replica rather than a representation of the tank that would look reasonable both on the gaming table and in my own display cabinet.
Putting aside such pedantry, I got on with the model and having airbrushed the basic colour, I used Army painter dark tone ink to add shadows to the panel lines and around the rivets. I then gave the tank a couple of dry brushes using the original colour, highlighted with Iraqi Sand added to the green and then white to get the top lights. The road wheels were painted in black ( a mistake – I think that black grey would have been better) and then the tracks painted with gun metal. All the running gear was then heavily ‘muddied up’ with a mixture of browns daubed and dry brushed on. I also added some mud pigment to get a ‘crusty’ effect in places where I thought that the mud would accumulate.
I took pragmatic approach to the markings. I suppose I could have sent off for some decals but I used a fictional vehicle number on the turret and I hand painted the Squadron triangle symbol. The final touch was to add the aerial. I’ve painted this black because it looks black to me in the photographs but I do wonder whether it would have been the same colour as the tank.
So another tank is added to my collection. It wont win any prizes at competitons but then it isn’t going to be entered into any! The important thing for me is that it looks like a Cromwell! On to the next model!
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available from my shop here:
You can see the Blitzkrieg range of both 1/48th and 1/56th scale tanks here:
You can see our range of MIG ammo paints and accessories here:
we carry a huge range of Vallejo paint and accessories here:
We carry a full range of Evergreen Plastic – ideal for modelling and converting:
If you haven’t got a piece of wire….the 50mm spears are here!
If you prefer proper brass rod or tube, we carry a huge range of Albion Alloy metals here:
Happy Modelling!