Sunday 14 February 2021

The army of Hrvatska

 Last weekend I industriously took photos on my work supplied phone. Excellent quality, but alas due to aol changing email settings, they were stripped out from the email attachments. Attempts to upload from the phone were scuppered by security protocols.....sometimes I hate technology!

After wasting time trying to correct, it has had to wait until now for me to revert to using the tablet. Hence, three posts on Valentine's Day!

I present a parade of the army of Hrvatska (envisaged as a sort of Saxon-Polish theme with hints of Hannover and the Baltic):

Guard Cavalry


Line cavalry and Uhnlan lancers 



Army and Corps commanders



Infantry






Militia and Pandours


Massed artillery



More Israeli Sherman

 As noted in a previous blog post, I had started work on more Sherman conversions, this time using 47 degree hulls. Progress so far:



The M-50


The M-51



Start of the Jordanians

 As most of the Jordanian army in 1967 used equipment supplied "as standard", most vehicles are available from Roco (M48, M47, Centurion, M113 and "Long Toms" with appropriate fully tracked tractor) or Wiking (landrover) in 1/87. Jeeps and trucks will be  US pattern, 25pdr from ERM. What's missing are M-52 SPG as used in the 40th and 60th armoured brigades (along with M-42 Duster SPAA). This vehicle has been neglected in most scales, Archer used to do a 1/76 version, and I saw an expensive resin 1/87 version once upon a time but neglected to buy either when the opportunity was available (along with similar opportunities for AMX-13s). I could wait for a 3D print version to become available or scratch-bodge my own. I opted for the latter.......

The model uses an M-41 Walker Bulldog hull with the tracks having one end cut off, reversed and glued to the opposite track to give the parallelogram shaped running gear. The turret is from the M-59 SPG with rear plate removed and cut in half down the middle to reduce width. Various bits were removed  and added to mimic the shape. The mating of the two was assisted by the M-41 having had a turret ring cut out with some work was able to accommodate the original cut down lower plate of the M-59.

I was greatly assisted by a 360 degree walk around set of photos on the net (of the ex-Jordanian M-52 in Israel's armour museum I believe). Having cut, hacked, filed, filled something into the rough shape, I realised it was too short. Initially I thought "good enough", but it kept nagging at me. In the end, I relented and retro-fitted an extension to the rear using surplus M-59 turrets. The turret is slightly too tall and the shape is a bit off, but it rotates and the gun even elevates, all be it minimally! It awaits storage and painting. The copious liquid green stuff is to smooth out some of the rough joins. 

They may not be pretty nor win prizes, but they are mine!





New (old) *secret* project...

To elaborate on the somewhat confusing title......I have been busy with a *new* project; that is an *old* project but with a new twist.........