We three carriers of universal are ** Finished **

[AndrewR]

Good luck with the weather John!

[JohnRatzenberger]

I am not sure when my next post will be, and if there will be any progress - I have a number of non-modeling things going on and today hasn't been productive at all.



Here we have the 3 carriers with a minimum of decals on. You'll note that we now have a theme - "Desert Rats at War". The 7th Armoured Division fought in North Africa, Italy, and NW Europe. I kept the same AoS for each vehicle, a motorized battalion. The only other markings are the Operation Crusader Flash, the RAC Flash, and the Allied Star. The two flashes may be arguable. No WD numbers, no other markings.

Right now the decals are curing. I then want to coat the carriers and do a little wash/weather.

The pile of fuzzy body parts are all the crew painted. They just need inserting and heads glued on but I'm waiting until the end.

Very close.

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, John. Good idea with the simple themed decals!

[Clashcityrocker]

A nice trio.
As they were from your Secret Santa perhaps you could name the vehicles Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Nigel

[ShaunW]

Those have turned out very well John and I like the Desert Rats theme as well, good idea that is.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Had only a short time today, but did get in some washes and then a simple flat coat.

I know I can finish assembly tomorrow, then maybe do some dusting ....

[BlohmWolf]

Very nice little figures!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thank You, Santa !!! A wonderful present that I did not quite do justice to, but still thoroughly enjoyed.

As you know, this is from Plastic Soldier, here's all the particulars if you are wondering where to find them.



And here's our convenient theme - Desert Rats at War.




The kits are very good, quite well detailed, and with the exception of the side skirts, the fit is precise and clean - almost snap-together. Yes, the carrier side walls are a bit thick, but so what ... The figures are also very nice - again well detailed. The hands and heads have round stubs that fit into round holes and make a very clean fit.







The instructions are basic, perhaps a bit less than that, as a few things are simply left out and there is some guess work involved.

As I mentioned before I deviated from the instructions so I could build/paint the carriers then install the crews. This took a bit of fiddling to test the concept and a little surgery. The driver can be inserted into the passenger side and slid over. Then the passenger can be slid in place. After a little surgery and sanding, the wheel (with hands) can be slid/forced into place. So far, so good ....







The problem is the Bren, which BTW, the instructions don't even show being put in. I suspect that is because there is no universal symbol for "Then a miracle occurs". You cannot, whether you build it my way or theirs, fit the Bren with the figure inside, it is too long. The first thing I did was gently clip off the feet on the bipod and the stubs on each side of the receiver - that allowed the Bren to be shoved as far forward as possible. Still not good enough, the gunner was still in the way. So I lopped off about 1mm of the stock. That gave me enough room to insert it from the side and then gently force the stock into the gunners lap.







Paints were White Ensign for the carrier colors, Vallejo for everything else. I ran some simple washes over the carriers and crew for definition, then dusted 'em up good - perhaps a bit too good as seen in the pictures, but not in real life. I was going to use Vallejo for everything but the Pavlovian response kicked in and I grabbed my WEM Colourcoats and there was no turning back. Thanks to Mike Starmer and Richard Taylor for both camo & markings information and the Aleron for some nice decals that even though being 1/76 look just right.







I did not do all I wanted, but things got a bit complex around here. I would have liked to do better on the figures and make terrain bases - both of which are shortcomings in my modeling repertoire. The bases I can look at another time.

Again, this is quite a nice kit. I usually do 1/35 and have somewhat of a 1/76 collection starting, so I'm not sure about also doing 1/72. I really need to spend more time looking at what is available that might compliment my 1/72 aircraft.

However, after this experience, I would definitely include Plastic Soldier as a company that I would look to for subjects of interest.

Again, thank you Santa very much !!

[PaulBradley]

Those are excellent, John! Well done.

[SJPONeill]

The Bren being a rather long beast, I always wondered by the coincidence of gun and gunner was achieved...all I could ever think was that the gunner sat beside it with the pistol grip by his hip and reached down to fire it in the general direction of any targets...

All three look magic (miracles notwithstanding!), John...!

[JamesPerrin]

Cracking work John, looks like you are ready for any theatre of war.

[Ian]

Lovely work, John. All three look great!

[ShaunW]

Great work on this trio John. IIRC this series is designed primarily for wargaming and therefore one would expect some compromises with regard to fine detail to allow the models to stand up better to regular handling but these look to be at least as well detailed as many kits designed for display purposes.

[Sissel]

Splendid, they look great!
So does the figures. Top work here in my eyes.

[AndrewR]

Very nice work