Olfarty's strictly WW2 extravaganza

[Olfarty]

Coming soon...

[Hoth_902]

Sweet!!!!!!

[Olfarty]

This is where I attempted to join the forum on 14Nov23....

A short & boring history. I started on 6mm stuff quite a while ago - to start with it was just pocket money. At the time H&R was available from a local retailer and of course much cheaper than GHQ. So I got into H&R. However as my spare cash became more plentiful I started purchasing GHQ, then finally replacing (about 97%) of my H&R collection. In the meantime a few CinC items were aquired. Much more recently I've added 3d printed stuff to fill the gaps. However, the conclusion is: Give me GHQ pewter anyday!!!

So I've been doing this a few years now. My painting skills are never going reach the standard of the likes of Pete. My attempts at conversions and scratchbuilding have had very mixed results....

Pic 1. GHQ's UK107 Morris C9/B deployed (unfortunately the pewter in this casting was very pitted, and there was a whole ship-load of flash to remove - nevertheless yet another great piece from GHQ). Paint scheme is the standard SCC2 (known as dog sh$t brown!) and SCC14 - still prevalent in June 44.



Pics 2,3 & 4. Again this is UK107. The version supplied is in deployed mode. To create the travelling mode I have cut off, then re-attached the four stabilisers in the appropriate locations (for a road march the gun faced rearwards with a travelling lock, however photos and cine footage shows these vehicles travelling without the gun lock ie. ready for action if need be!). The additional crew members are GHQ's UK35, most of whom had to lose body parts to be inserted...








More later. In November last year I was ready to 'rock', however I've currently got less spare time...

[Begemot]

Olfarty - Welcome to the forum. Your work is very well done. No need to feel bad about your painting skills from what I see here. Looking forward to seeing more.


Begemot

[Harlan]

Great job Olfarty

[pmskaar]

Those Bofors look great! Welcome to the Forum, Olfarty!

[Olfarty]

GHQ's lovely G591 Opel Blitz Bus...(no slicing of fingertips required here)

[redleg]

Glad you finally got access to the forum Olfarty! Your work is awesome! I can't wait to see more of your WW2 extravaganza!

[chrisswim]

Nice painting, detail. You did well Olfarty.

[Olfarty]

Next pic. Clearly some paint required here!

This is GHQ's G8. It is a Sd.Kfz. 251/1 AUSF B. A very old but good quality piece from GHQ. This is a model which has long since been deleted from the range, not updated ie. the subsequent releases have been variants of Ausf C & Ausf D. The G8 pack came with MG mounts and a couple of 3.7cm's to create a basic 251/10 (with the early Pak36 shield) - however these very old MG castings were poor, so I've used MG mounts from the spares box.

If you want to do 1940 blitzkrieg era game you'll need an Ausf B (and it's obviously okay for later campaigns). If you want some G8's then go to Dave Winfree's I-94 Enterprises - he currently has 4 G8 packs in stock - included in his large range of newer GHQ items.

Still on the subject of now deleted GHQ packs, clearly ebay is a possibility, though Noble Knight Games has been one of the best sources for older stock. However, make sure you have a look at the online pics before making a purchase - some of the older models are not at all good quality,

[Olfarty]

Today's offering.

UK85 Churchill Bridgelayer. Each pack comes with two Churchill hulls and two bridges, The instructions suggest the bridge be attached in the travelling position. That's way too boring!



The launch 'arm' is a seperate piece. Thus I have assembled the launch arm in mid-launch mode. I attached a cradle to the end of the launch arm so that the bridge can sit loosely (but reasonably safely) on top of the arm....



This way, using two hulls and one bridge I can create three 'scenarios' (I purchased three packs, as I wanted the additional five bridges for another project).

[pmskaar]

That is great work on the Churchill Bridgelayer, Olfarty! It looks really nice with the bridge in mid-deployment as you have shown. I have a couple of unpainted ones in my collection. One of these days....

[redleg]

Those bridgelayers are awesome! Well done!

[Olfarty]

Next. An ultimately pointless attempt at a minor conversion (from about 25 years ago!). GHQ's G11 PzJäg Elefant. The GHQ model has the late 1943 upgrades ie. commander's cupola and hull MG. However, I envisaged putting them into a July 43 scenario, so I attempted a backdate by removing the cupola and MG.

Two things went wrong. Firstly, having removed the cupola I failed to engrave a hatch in the roof. Secondly they never have appeared on a games table!

Three pics of the same vehicles which illustrate the dreaded blue hue...

[Olfarty]

Anybody out there?

If so, then the next item is another conversion attempt. The basis of this one was GHQ's now deleted UK14 Universal Carrier (this was a Mk II, which has been now replaced by UK98 which is a Mk I). I've ended up with a total of 77 UK14's, which, with some tweaking have evolved into 8 slightly different variants. The variant depicted today is the Wasp II flamethrower (which saw service in Normandy from July 44).

Firstly a pic of the real thing.



Secondly, an unaltered UK14 and the conversion.



The conversion involved:
1. Adding Fuel tanks in the rear compartments.
2. Adding some 'plumbing'
3. Adding a flame projector at the front.
4. Removing the so called Stacey draw bar (ie. towing hook) from the rear.
5. Adding some crew, being modified UK35 figures.