The Humberstone Militia Have a Brand New Shiny Thing

Yes indeed the Humberstone Militia of Leicester with the help from the Leicester City Council have been awarded for all their hard work and dedication to the defense of Leicester and the fact that they are the closest Militia force to the Duke of Rutland's Edwardite forces, a lovely and recently decommissioned, now brought back into service, Vickers MkII Medium tank. Still in its ex employers, the British Army, camouflage, this help them to carry on giving the Duke a bloody nose and bringing the fight to him. The only thing left to do is to find a name for this beauty with such names of "Richard III" and "Dicko" being mentioned but the Humberstone Militia commander wants to name it after his wife Marjorie Paget. Well here is the beauty.

This is the first tank, real tank that is, for my VBCW game, yes the arms race has started. To me it is the very VBCW tank, a pop gun, paper thin armour and the size of a house. It even has a full size door on the back of it. I forgot to say the tank is from Reiver Castings and its a heavy beast, being a resin body and metal turret and tracks.

A Couple of Carden Loyds

Here is the latest painted additions to the Humberstone Militia or The Duke of Rutland's Royalist forces, a couple of Carden Loyds from Reiver Castings which are a bargain at £10.00 each and they come with an armoured cover, which I have mislaid. These are great little models with nice crisp sculpts, but there is a little damage or mismoulding on  one of them, but nothing too much and liveable that's for sure. I have enjoyed painted these little buggers in the British Army camouflage pattern of the late 30s, early 40s, but finding the greens has been a pain and I have had to mix them to get the colours.

The Carden Loyd tankette came about from an idea started, as a private project, by the British military engineer and tank strategist Major Giffard LeQuesne Martel. He built a one-man tank in his garage from various parts and showed it to the War Office in the mid 1920s. With the publicization of the idea, other companies produced their own interpretations of the idea. One of these was Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd, a firm founded by Sir John Carden and Vivian Loyd and later purchased by Vickers-Armstrongs. Besides one-man vehicles they also proposed two-man vehicles which turned out to be a more effective and popular idea. Vickers-Armstrongs manufactured and marketed vehicles of the latter type worldwide.

Considered a reconnaissance vehicle and a mobile machine gun position, the Mark VI was the final stage of development of the Carden- Loyd series of tankettes.

The Carden Loyd tankette was the prototype for the Universal Carrier.

Its been a while

Yes its been a little while since I last posted but events have taken over me a little. The last few days have been a nightmare and I am glad that they are over now and I can get back to painting. Talking of which here is the latest addition to my Humberstone Militia. It is a die cast Matchbox steam truck which I have had knocking around for a while. Y have repainted the thing in that lovely olive green that the British used for there armoured vehicles and I think it works rather well. Fitted in the back is an artillery piece  naval I think, to make it a mobile artillery platform to give the enemy merry hell. I have some crew to paint up and add to the back, but it might be a time before they see the light of day or paint come to think of it. So here it is.