From JohnB: Sinews of War 1/43? Corgi Cameo Trucks Requisitioned for the War Effort (60 points)

Well my planned entries are slipping behind - story of 2024/25 it seems. Anyway I got in my now usual toyshow trip for inspiration at Yuletide. Except it was not the big Doncaster show, as my lift was unavailable, instead we made it to York in January. And it seemed very slim pickings - all 1/72 plastic kit stuff was £10 or above (some of these kits are available on the high street for £6!!!!) - zero bargains. The railway bits and bobs also failed to move on my money. Then I found in quick succession three old style trucks and somehow paid £3 for the lot as I was inspired by a logistics moment.

They are Corgi Cameo range grain trucks and apparently scale at 1/43 - but you will know if wargamers are quirky on scale its no different in toy car land. So my minion will need to rule if its 28mm or 20mm or something else. I have opted for 20mm as I think they will work whereas the 28mm figures will look too big?

Compared to my Nexus Space Warriors these guys needed just a prime (white - so I could see the detail) black undercoat and then Vallejo MC096 Camoflage Olive Green. A dry brush of MC124 Iraqi Sand finished the bodies.

I made a timber load area base for the truck missing its grain load - just biro lined card overpainted with Citadel Nazreg Yellow Colour Contrast. The Grain sacks were painted in a Yellow Ochre and again overcoated with Nazreg Yellow.

In true logistics confusion the lorries are returning fully loaded - which way to the front lads? No Dante Comedy aspect this time and I am struggling with greed at the moment. Hey Ho. Points are 3x15pts for 20mm trucks = 45pts with 0 Comedy contribution.

I had hoped to dodge the scale bullet, but dam**, here comes John. Ah well. To get the awkward part out of the way first: if the cars are 1/43 scale, that would translate to approximately 40mm. Obviously, that's to big, considering the size of the figures next to them. Now it is difficult to judge from the photograph, which is very nice by the way, as the figures are on bases and the trucks are not, but I think they actually might work with 25mm figures. I found an online dealer stating that the Cameo vehicles varied between 1/45 and 1/76, and that they classify all as 1/60 for ease of storage.  That seems sensible, and 1/60 roughly translates to 25mm. Therefore, I will score them as 25mm vehicles, and 60 points it is. Then the fun part: I really like your idea of repurposing these trucks, and I think they came out very well. The timber load is a nice little detail, and the finished vehicles look very good. Well done, John!

Martijn

From TeemuL: Three Passengers (12 points)

I am one of the volunteers of a local Scout Movement group and it would be boring, if there would be no fun for adults. So yesterday we had one of the fun evenings only for adults and we practiced painting miniatures... The organizer had bought some scale railway miniatures, which were available in Finland. She ordered some actual scout minis from UK, too, but the difficulties of Royal Mail are still unsolved. These are from the Preiser set "Passengers, passers-by,travellers", which in in 1/43 scale, very close to the O scale of railway models. These were white plastic and mostly one piece, the suitcase of the gentleman required gluing. They were not primed, just straigthly painted over the plastic (this might horrify some of you), but were nice to paint. I used my own Citadel paints and even some washes on the skin and other areas while others used some acrylic paints from tubes. These three were painted in one and half hours while trying to give some hints to the others, so they are by no means neat. There's an event next week, where these (and others) are hidden here and there and one activity is to locate them. I don't know much of that, yet.

The gentleman and elderly lady have a blue scout neckerchief painted on them, but the lady on the right doesn't. It just didn't look good on orange dress and green hair. The green hair is intentional to give a message that scout movement is for everyone and it is not any old and conservative organization.

The models are roughly 28mm in scale, but they lack the bases, so I suggest 3*5 points for the models and -3 bonus points for not having bases, making it 12 in total.

Minion Miles: What Model Rail Roading creeping into the challenge - BLASPHEMY!!!!!  Well maybe not, I'm thinking of something Scale next year