So here it is.. in my hot little hands, well done Rubicon. Shame that I am still waiting for the infantry to go with it..(not from Rubicon) it's a ginormous box!
I'm afraid I feel a dose of Late War Empress British coming on... I should have resisted.
UPDATE - the Warlord Games order arrived today, a box each of their Winter Grenadiers, Veteran Grenadiers, Grenadiers in Winter clothing and Winter SS, which together with a spare bloke with an MP40 I had lurking around (actually from the Warlord Fallschirmjager Support group box), and another bloke who will be a FOO (Forward Observation Officer), made up a Volksgrenadier Sturm Platoon.
Green troops but well equipped. In my favoured ruleset (Chain of Command), they are small squads, will be easier to hit and suffer a morale penalty, but they still have pretty decent firepower. Similarly German tank crews of the period were of pretty poor quality, so it makes an interesting equation, superior equipment but inferior training and skills.
Now all I have to do is resist the Rubicon schwimwagen and another Sdkfz 251 in whitewash.. :)
Photo-etch AND full interiors - my goodness, are Rubicon going into the full on, IPMS modeller style of kits now?
ReplyDeleteNot sure whether it's a one off, but it is very nicely done. In my case, I have the 1/48 Bandai kit for comparison purposes, and first impression is that Rubicon have made some components slightly overscale as a compromise. The kit even includes magnets to allow you to magnetism the turret.
DeleteOne other feature worth mentioning is that the hull and side plates provide optional holes for fitting equipment, so for example you can choose whether to fit the moulded towropes etc. Looking at period pictures, it looks like tools could be fitted or not, tow ropes stowed in odd positions, and so on.
Personally I will partly do the driver position and turret interior but not install the engine compartment. I'm visualising that forming a vignette with a hoist and a panzer crewman.
Arthur of the Britons could have stopped anyone with this...
ReplyDeleteLook, I tell myself that having multiple projects in several periods keeps them all fresh, it absolutely doesn't mean I end up with a hundred incomplete projects, no sirree, not me. I'm just enjoying variety, not easily distracted.
DeleteVery nice Doug
ReplyDeleteHopefully you can use it against my Shermans soon 😁
ReplyDeleteShermans and TD. I received my Warlord Games package today as well, so basically infantry in winter gear. It's gone all 'Battle of the Bulge' here. I am eyeing off the Rubicon Schwimwagen and a Sdkfz 251 as well. Then some winter camo, a white mat, and the TooFatLardies 'Bloody Bucket' campaign...
DeleteGot a few books on the Bulge, but never fancied the hassle of gaming it in the snow 😂. Sounds good Doug
DeleteI'm not sure it was a smart move on my part to start doing winter forces, means new terrain and new figures. Ah well. I could do winter Soviets, winter British and winter US. I should really finish my Italians and Fallschirmjager for Sicily, my Japanese and Commonwealth for Malaya, but my inner wargames butterfly you know.
DeleteThe black hole of another period 🤣
ReplyDeleteNot another period, just another campaign in the WW2 period. I mean, I already have nearly twenty platoons for Chain of Command in various stages of completion, some of them even complete, 15mm WW2, (by accident) Colonial French, FPW in 6mm, Napoleonics, in 28 and 6mm, AWI, 1745, WSS in 6mm, a tub of Pike & Shotte 28mm plastics, Middle Ages, Dark Ages, Classical, in 6mm, 15mm and 25mm etc.. a few other bits and pieces.. oh, and the Australian lead pile too.. :)
ReplyDeleteThis will be a monster of a tank when you have built it - look forward to seeing how it goes - or are you back on Highlanders or Sub Roman Brits again now...?! Hope you had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes around.
ReplyDeleteHi.. well Christmas has come and gone, I've almost finished washing up, and there will be possibly three parallel projects on the go. Finish the SRB, keep going with the 1745 and some fun airbrushing tanks etc... I know I have another Sherman kit hidden on the bookshelves from my Pacific USMC project that could easily be repurposed.
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