From BurkhardS: 28mm WWII British Universal Carriers with Crew (110 points)

From Burkhard:

After painting a lot of infantry for my poor bloody infantry, I felt they needed some transports to make sure they would not be so foot sore. So here are some Universal carriers for them. All the models are from Tamiyas 1:48th scale range. The tracks, tanks and flamethrower for the Wasp Carrier are from Gasoline. Now I really like these models. Very nicely detailed, robust (our dog stole one while drying and chewed on it without any damage that could not be repaired within 5 minutes) and completely accurate. And there was a time when you could get these off eBay dead cheap. 

I had some fun weathering them. So far I have mostly worked with just some basic airbrush work on my WWII tanks, but I wanted to go a different route on my Brits. So these were primed with Vallejos Bronze Green primer applied with an airbrush. Up next I slapped decals (these came with the kits), sealed with Solvaset. Again the markings are for the South Lancs to match the Infantry. Afterwards I went for a wash of Dirtbrown by Modelmates. 

This was only to be a test since I had never used them, but I was impressed with the results. Now you do not only apply this wash, but it is meant to be partly removed again in a second step. Hard to explain, but in the end you get a nice color variation in the large areas and shadows in the recesses and near the corners. The next step was a first for me as well, as I did highlight everything with Faded Allied Green pigments from MIG. Never did that before, but it was great. The end result after the wash had been darker than what I wanted, but the pigments took it right where I had hoped for. Marvelous! Up next a coat of varnish, painting of details and another weathering with artists pigments to dirty them up. Crew added and another coat of varnish and they were done.

Now the mini are from Victory Force. James has always believed in his range to be compatible with scale models on the market. So when a couple of customers asked for crews for Tamiya's Universal Carriers he sculpted them. (I can claim some credit, since I donated one of my assembled Carriers so he had the measurements.) And he did a great job, providing minis that really fit the models. 

They even fit the cramped passenger compartment. Just not on all my Carriers, since I had been stupid enough to stuff two of them to the rim with ammo crates. so one one of them, the passenger actually has to ride said ammo boxes and is sitting higher. ;-)

Wow, you've done a beautiful job on these carriers Burkhard. I've always been a big fan of using larger 1:50 and 1:48 scale vehicles with  28mm figures. The vehicles just seem to have that much more presence and impact on the tabletop than the 'standard' 1:56 scale offerings. You've also done a brilliant job on the carrier's crew, the little details like their shoulder flashes are a great finishing touch. 

These five Universal Carriers and their crews will give Burkhard 110 points. A wonderful group of models, bravo!