Total Pageviews

Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Friday 23 November 2012

Somua endstate...

Heller Somua done and dusted:


For mid/late war on the Eastern Front, where, apparently, there were still some two dozen in the line as late as December 1944.

I took the opportunity to continue the dunkelgelb quest by trying the Xtracrylix dunkelgelb. In its undiluted, unwashed, unfaded form it looks like this:


As you can see, it has that greenish cast that may well have been characteristic of dunkelgelb. I took the Flames of War advice which is that this sort of greenish version is good for well-worn kit. I must say that I am no clearer in my mind which shade I prefer, as I do like the more ochre look, but, then again, this greenish version has its merits. And, of course, once the additional disruptive colours are added, and the whole thing is toned down, it looks less stark. 

The Somua is a one off in my little army, but I think it will go nicely as part of a late war kampfgruppe, which could well include odds and sods, such as my FD (L). So, these two French vehicles may well see each other on the table top:


The Traction Avant is now suitably war-weary and dirty, and, as I hoped, all the dust of active campaigning hides many flaws:


12 comments:

  1. Looks very good.

    Cheers, Dave

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Dave. I intend to try out the other dunkelgelb variants - with the Famo half track, then the Elefant. I not sure if I like this greenish version - too green?

      Delete
    2. As you know, I like the ochre end of the spectrum. But this looks fine to me, especially in a scheme with fairly heavy application of disruptive camo - seems to accord well with some of the Normandy plates in my copy of Restayn, which definitely have an overall greenish tinge about them.

      Cheers, Dave

      Delete
    3. Yes, I'm with you on the ochre - I'll be returning to that for the Elefant. Given what you say about Normandy front, I wonder if there was a difference between the typical base finish on the Eastern and Western fronts?

      Delete
  2. Splendid film noir vibe car. The top tank is excellent,a case of Somua over the rainbow by it's cammo scheme.I never knew there were any in use in '44.
    I do really enjoy the idea of other armies using other people's kit - recycling of a sort I guess?
    Did the German tanks etcetc get recycled at the end of ww2 at all, does anyone know?Or is this a daft question...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Alan. The only thing I can think of, off the top of my head, is that both the Israelis and some of the Arab armies (Syria? Egypt?) used French and German stuff in 1948/9. Some was left over from the war in the middle east, but I think some tanks were bought from Europe. I wonder from whom/where exactly? Someone will know....

      Delete
    2. Swedish Hetzers?

      Cheers, Dave

      Delete
    3. Almost all of those were newbuilds by the Czechs after the war, though the first few were part-finished at the end of the war and inherited by the Czechs.

      Delete
  3. Excellent! You got a Liebster award. Check out the details at http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/liebster-blog-award-chain.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul - that was very decent of you! Many thanks indeed. I'm chuffed. I'll carefully read the instructions, and do some Liebstering myself!

      Delete
  4. Very nice, great work indeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Al. It's funny, but the Somua looks odd in the German camouflage. It sort of calls out to be rumbling around with a bulls eye roundel on its turret!

      Delete