I wanted to try if the fantastic plastic DAK from Perry could be easily converted to late war germans. The miniatures with boots i just filed off the laces to make them wearing jackboots and the sides of the trousers to make them wearing normal trousers not the horse riding ones. The miniature with ankle boots, I just carved with a hobby knife the gaiters, very easy to do. I am pleased how they look and I have started painting them.

Here some pictures

Cheers

New set from AK Interactive and the first one dedicated to the middle east AFVs.

Includes 6 colours of 17ml, as usual, for Israeli and Lebanese Vehicles. The new blue etiquette says they are the new formula, that means the past problems of the first sets of AK in which the paint became a sticky goo inside the bottle are hopefully gone.

LAF Green: Very Dark Green for Lebanese Forces and Lebanese Army Forces (Please excuse my ignorance about the difference between the two of them)

SLA Blue: Grey Blue for South Lebanese Army. Never seen vehicles painted like that, would make an interesting modelling subject…

IDF Green: Olive Green used by the Early IDF vehicles. Good candidate for the Tamiya M1 Super Sherman.

IDF Sand Grey: Colour used by the IDF Vehicles between first 60’s to first 80’s. Ideal for vehicles for the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Those Tamiya and Dragon M51 Super Sherman or AFV Club Centurion Shot will look pretty with this colour. If by any chance Dragon is listening, please release a M48A2 or a Magach 3 (I think is the modernisation with the 105mm gun), they are badly needed.

IDF Sinai Grey 80: Used from last 70’s to middle 80’s. I think is the perfect colour for the Tamiya Tiran 5 and the future Trumpeter Tiran 6.

IDF Sinay Grey Modern: Used since middle 80’s. Spot on for the fleet of Merkavas recently released by Academy, Meng or Hobby Boss.

I cannot judge the accuracy of the colours, specially because i have painted nothing with them yet, but they look quite good and according to the box they have the scale reduction factor, meaning that they are slightly lighter than the real ones.

I conclusion I think is a very useful set and to a certain point a badly needed one, taking into consideration the huge amount of Israeli AFV released recently and  the difficulty to achieve the right colour that lead to  endless discussion in Fora about how to achieve the right mixture.

Looking forward to the Vol. 2, which hopefully will include Egyptian and Syrian AFV colours.

Cheers

I just received the latest book from AK Interactive, Soviet War Colours 1936-1945. I am positively impressed because is a one huge step forward in quality in comparison to the German Colours Camouflage Guide 1945. The quality of the paper is much better and the cover and back cover are double, which adds strength and a nice solid feeling to the book. It has 103 pages and contains more than 180 profiles.

The profiles inside a very nice rendered and the images are sharper than in the previous book.

The book contains an introduction and sections for Light, Medium and Heavy AFV, Light Vehicles, Crawlers and APC, Lend Lease Vehicles and finally photo -references of real vehicles and bibliography.

Each section opens with a very nice art work taken from soviet wartime posters, great idea!

One huge improvement over the precedent book is that every profile, when posible, indicates the date and the location where the vehicle was operating and some small description.

In conclusion, a very high quality book which is a very welcomed addition to modellers and wargamers.

I recently painted a Jagdtiger from Battlefront. The colours are from the excellent AK Interactive Late War German Colours Set. The weathering was done also with AK Interactive Products and the mud mixing AK Earth effects with Plaster.

My first US Paratroopers from the Open Fire Box. A painting guide will come soon.

Finally I managed to finish the first section of the Platoon. Two more to go!

First Section WIP. The wood of the rifles are a little bit too orange and I will tone it down.

I just received a box of the Perry’s 8th Army and due to the numerous discussions on fora about the size, here a picture of them in comparison with another miniatures. They are smaller than other ranges but still usable with 1/48 vehicles.

From left to right: Perry plastic confederate, Perry plastic confederate, Tamiya plastic american, Perry plastic desert rat, Warlord plastic british, Perry plastic War of the Roses. Background: Tamiya 1/48 T-34/76.