This weeks update includes completion of the 32 ambulance wagons as shown below.

These vehicles have been issued to the four Medical battalions in the army under construction. The whole army group now has a full compliment of 96 such vehicles. In addition I have completed the two Field Artillery battalions  as seen in the photo below.

With the completion of these two battalions I have reached a milestone in that I now have a total army strength of 40,136 soldiers. That means my third army is now about 65% finished. Given that each soldier is painted at least 5 times and in some cases either 6 or 7 times depending on rank, that means I have carried out around 225,000 painting operations on my screw soldiers alone, I wonder how many tins of paint that has taken !!!!!!

I have just started working on yet another Infantry battalion as mentioned last time and have this week also started the lengthy construction of the last of the 18 Cavalry regiments.  Additionally I will be starting another Quartermaster battalion. In respect of equipment construction, I have made a start on another batch of 35 GS wagons.

Although it may seem to the reader I have achieved a lot this week, in fact I have not had that much modelling time. It will be another couple of weeks at least before the units now in hand are actually finished.  I like to have a number of elements of work on the go at any one time otherwise I can find myself literally watching paint dry !!!!!

This week has not been as productive as the past few weeks but nevertheless I have managed to finish the Infantry battalion which was only 60% complete when I reported last week. In addition the two Field Artillery battalions have been fully painted and now only require the two coats of varnish with which all soldiers are finished. I have also now started yet another Infantry battalion. The heavy GS trailers have been finished and issued to the four Medical battalions and two Quartermaster transport companies. Work on the 32 ambulances has continued. As seen in the photo below the remaining work comprises painting the red crosses on the flags, fitting the horse harness and painting the wheels.

With my wife on poppy selling duty again this past week, once again I have enjoyed a lot of "play" time. Therefore much has been done this week including completion of the previously mentioned Pioneer battalion, 60% completion of yet another Infantry battalion and a good start made on two Field Artillery battalions. As mentioned before, I tend to build Artillery battalions in pairs because the low number of troops in each battalion makes it more productive to do two at once. In addition the batch of 32 limbers has now been completed. They have been issued to units and the article on the construction and painting process was published earlier. The batch of 24 heavy GS trailers mentioned previously are now complete except for having the spare wheels painted black as shown below.

These vehicles are made exactly like GS wagons except there is no shaft for horses nor towing hook. Instead there is a towing eye. These are made of 30 swg hobby wire which I source from the local garden centre. The wire is cut into lengths of about 50mm and wrapped round a small round file and twisted to give an eye with a tail. A small hole is made in the front of the wagon and the hook pushed in. A drop of glue secures the eye. I hope this arrangement can be clearly seen in the photo below.

I have also built a batch of 32 ambulance wagons to equip Medical battalions. The photo below shows them with metal parts and flags primed and bodies painted olive drab. The next step will be to add horses, which are being painted at the same time as usual, and then complete painting. Construction is the usual for house bodied wagons being a block of balsa 15mm wide and 30mm long  cut from a 12mm thick plank. There is no towing hook but ambulances each fly a red cross flag, which idea is based on US Civil War practice. Other medical vehicles have a small red cross painted on the vehicle side as they are not usually in the front line like ambulances. In all other respects the painting follows my normal practices.

The reader may have noticed that I seem to have been productive this past week . Apart from writing the posts on flags, light GS trailers and organisation of the armies I have also completed the Medical battalion previously mentioned and as seen below. To date this battalion has yet to receive the 3  medical supply GS tandem wagons or the  8 ambulances needed to complete the battalions equipment.

I have also completed building and painting a batch of 30 light GS trailers and am also well advanced with painting a Pioneer battalion as well as having just started painting another Infantry battalion.  In addition I am continuing to work on a batch of 32 limbers, which I will soon make the subject of a post detailing the construction and painting techniques and have started the build of a batch of heavy GS trailers. All of this activity is because my wife was out selling poppies last week and will be again this week leaving  me home alone with nothing to do except play !!!!!!!!!

Construction and Painting of Light GS Trailers

These trailers are based on my standard 15mm square trailer body but are distinguished by having a canvas tilt cover exactly like GS wagons. The construction is exactly the same as described in the article on building GS wagons. The only differences are clearly the use of a smaller screwed up piece of toilet tissue and a smaller square of brown paper. I would caution the reader here that with the smaller size of the body comes a greater risk of getting hot melt glue on the fingers. During the making of this batch I ended up with one vehicle actually stuck to my finger !!!!!!  It really hurts and I commend you to be more careful than this clumsy blogger !!!!!.
Having completed the tilt, the next step is to fashion and fit the trail. This has also been described previously in the article on utility trailer construction. The photo below shows a batch of 30 trailers at this stage of construction.

The next step is to apply sealer to the end grain, when dry, sand smooth and add wheels as seen below.

Having completed construction we can move to painting, the first such task is to prime the wheels. Don't forget to prime any areas of glue that are visible.

Painting of the body is next, I think this is the stage they start to look like real models. The reader may also notice that, just like GS wagons, the pattern of creases on the tilt is quite unique on each vehicle. This  can be seen clearly in the photo below and I think gives a very realistic look. The last task is of course the painting of the wheels and the vehicles are ready for issue to units.