LRDG truck with captured Breda gun

Finally it's off the bench. This addition to the LRDG patrol has taken far too long to finish, and I'm not completely sold on the outcome unfortunately.

My painting got put on enforced hiatus as we were getting the house painted - so at least some painting was going on - but my table was covered up to prevent dust and paint getting everywhere and modelling just wasn't an option for a while.

Afterwards it was a matter of trying (and failing) to get back in to the habit of getting even a little painting done each night, rather than just putting things off.

Offensive Miniatures Chevy, Company B Chevy, Company B Blitz Buggy

Unlike the previous LRDG trucks this one isn't a Warlord model, instead coming from the Offensive Miniatures 8th Army range. At about the same time I picked up a couple of vehicles and some crew from Company B; the crew in the front seat of this Breda armed truck are from Company B.

Size-wise the OM truck is a pretty good fit with Warlord - a bit shorter and a bit wider - but the figures I'm using for infantry are from Artizan and the OM figures are somewhat smaller. While that's not too noticeable on the Breda crew I wanted the front seat crew to match more closely. The Company B crew (sculpted by Paul Hicks) are quite similar in size and style to the other figures I'm using. The stowage is also a mix of the two.

The truck went together very easily, the Breda... not so much.  I ended up looking at as many reference photos as I could find, and concluded that the assembled example on the OM site doesn't actually quite mach the historical images around the sighting bar placement.

The truck, gun, and crew were all primed with Stynylrez yellow primer, and then the truck and gun were basecoated with an overall spray of VMA UK Light Stone, while the crew got VMC Iraqi Sand.

Freehand camouflage was added in VMA Hellblau (RLM65) for the blue, and a 1:1 mix of VGA Pale Flesh and VMA US Desert Sand for the pink.  I should have gone back and checked my own notes and used the 3:1 ratio as the Pink has almost disappeared after the weathering. (Mistake #1.)

Company B LRDG decals were added and sealed, crew, stowage, and accessories finished, and the components assembled.

The whole model was given a sealing coat and allowed to dry before weathering. For some reason I used Italeri Flat Acrylic for the sealant where previously I've been using AK Interactive Ultra Matte. Whether this was the cause, or the hot and humid weather we'd been having I don't know, but the enamels seemed to react a little with the sealant and ended up a bit sticky. (Mistake #2.)

 The truck was weathered in much the same manner as the Marmon-Herrington armoured car using AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand as a filter coat, with AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and areas were dust would build up, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment was added, mostly to the tires...and into some of the sticky areas.  The crew got a half-strength filter coat so they too would have the dusty desert look.

The end result is... OK?  I'm just not as happy with the outcome as with the two previous LRDG trucks, but at least the three are now done, which I suppose means I should get onto the infantry and the other transport vehicles.

Here's all three (with the captured Opel Blitz in the background), and a final size comparison photo.

Left to Right: Warlord LRDG Chevy, Offensive Miniatures LRDG Chevy with Breda, Rubicon Models Opel Blitz.