Light Tank Sweat Shop

As with every new book, come new ideas and experimentation when it comes to building a list, buying new models and painting an army. Clearly with all the work my Light Tank Company list is burying me in, I should have re-evaluated which direction I wanted to go when Devils Charge was released. I was excited about adding to my expanding arsenal of Australian and German forces. My last project was my PAK-40's a month ago, so I had a clean hobby area that was ready to take on a new project. I had my eye on the new Chaffee platoon, they're a light tank with a serious anti-tank punch that should bring some serious opposition to anything that can be tabled against them.

After cleaning them up, I had 15 new tanks to assemble and paint all in the few weeks before our club heads down to Petawawa for a tournament on the 25th of November. None of the chassis had any major issues and the casts seemed to be pretty good for the most part. The tracks took a little longer to prep than what I have been used to in the past, but with this many Chaffees on the go at one time, I had to expect it. The one good thing about painting US tanks, is that they are one color....green! I also decided they looked a little too plain, so I started experimenting with mud! I came up with my own mix of white glue, a very small grain of ballast and paint. I mixed about 1-2 oz. of this muck and applied it to my primed Chaffee, and M-10 Tank Destroyers. After an application of varnish to harden the mud, I let them dry overnight. You can see the changes being made in the pictures below.

First coat of paint!

Muddy and freshly varnished.

Mud/Varnish dry, fresh dark wash applied and drying.

 

 

 

 

 

Just have to work on the dry brushing, adding some decals, antennae and they'll be ready to take on their next opponent. The hull mounted MG was giving me a bit of an issue and the particular turret you see in the picture has an issue with the .50 CAL mount on it and can not take a gun without some careful repair or messing around. Once the wash had dried, they really make the hull details pop and bring out the definition of these great casts from Battlefront. The M-10's that will be complimenting this army on the table are the new ones with the plastic tracks. They actually have plastic .50 CAL pieces as well, and this is the first boxed platoon that I have opened that has stickers included. An easy set to glue, crew and paint! I'll be sure to get some more pictures up once the entire army is ready to hit the table and take on all comers this weekend.