US Airborne, Roads and some Tanks

I haven't posted in a while, how unusual I can hear you all say, well I have been busy.  I've managed to get quite a lot done in between games of Bolt Action over the last few weeks.

US Airborne

Painting the Fallschirmjagers has slowed right down as I'm yet to figure out how to paint a good looking splinter camo so like all good wargamers I switched to another (easier) project.

A couple squads of US Airborne laying around in the sun.

So far I've managed to finish:

• HQ Squad including (Lieutenant, Medic, Radioman and Forward Observer).
• 2 Squads of 10 men including NCO, 2 Bar and a mix of SMG, Rifles and Carbines.
• 30 Cal LMG team.
• 50 Cal HMG team.
• Sniper team (upright and prone).
• Light Mortar team.

There's probably another 30 miniatures in various stages of completion which I'll probably get done this weekend (maybe *crosses fingers*).

Terrain

Roads, I cut these out of 5mm MDF and glued sand onto them and then painted them with a latex paint.  Nice and easy, maybe and hours work all up.

 

I've got some "wobbly" river pieces cut out just waiting for some attention but I'm just trying to find and easy way of building the banks up a little so they don't look so flat.

Tanks and Vehicles

Just a teaser shot of the tanks I've finished: Sherman M4 Sherman, M4 Sherman 76mm, Stug III Ausf.B, Tiger I and a Warlord Sd.Kfz 250/1 Neu Halftrack.

 

I'll get some more photos of these up in the next couple days, but I must warn you now that the decals may not be accurate for a vehicle operating in North West Europe and the camouflage has been completely made up.

Anyway I'm off to go play another game of Bolt Action.

A Crazy Thing Happened This Morning

A crazy thing happened this morning: I sat down to put together one of the model kits I've had laying around for a few years now and I just kept building.  Sure there were interruptions and I even had to shuttle my wife around for a few errands bet every time I came back to the kitchen I picked the glue back up and continued to stick stuff to other pieces of stuff.

This almost never happens but I'm glad it did. 

L to R: M4A3, M4 and the Pz. Kpfw K-V2

Both the M4 and M4A3 kits came with options for alternative turrets but the M4A3 came with enough parts to actually build both.   I haven't looked into what the differences between the two are (if any) but it never hurts to have options even if they are purely cosmetic.

I don't have any Bolt Action stats for the KV-2 but it shouldn't be too hard to translate something from Disposable Heroes or Victory Decision.

I've put quite a bit of paint on the Warlord minis and have even built some terrain pieces but haven't managed to take any photos of them, I'll try to get that corrected some time tomorrow.

Up next a Jagdpanther and a pair of Fw190's.

28mm 101st Airborne Decals

I've been busy working on my Fallschirmjager minis and with a little luck and even less sleep I should have most of them finished by the end of the week.  So like all good wargamers I'm already thinking ahead to my next project: the US Airborne.

They're a much simpler model to paint so I'm hoping to get them finished in the first week of the holidays.  While reading some posts on the Warlord forums I noticed a few posts talking about 28mm insignia and rank decals.  I had thought about painting this stuff onto the minis in the past but it's a lot of very fiddly work and my brush skills just aren't up to scratch so I wandered over to Company B and bought a sheet of these for $6.40US including postage.  They can't be much more painful than putting 1.5mm roundels onto 1/600 aircraft... can they?  Well time will tell.

If these go well I think I'll have to grab a sheet each for the Germans and British minis.

Vallejo Paints

I've been trying different paints on and off for a while now and while I love my Tamiya paints they are just a huge pain in the ass to work with.  Great finish, a great range of colours and the price cannot be beat but the actual process of using the paints, the smell and the fact that some colours tend to react violently with others makes them unfun to work with.

The Vallejo range has always been on my radar but I've kept away from them, mainly due to cost but since I needed to get some more paints for the Fallschirmjagers I figured I'd just bite the bullet and get some.  I really like the idea of the dropper type bottle and the fact they mix well with GW stuff is a bonus.  And given the range of GW and Mr Hobby stuff I have I shouldn't need to get much more of the Valleo range until the other stuff runs out or dries up.

So I grabbed the following colours from Gus at Zepnix Wargames based on the following painting reference I found on the Warlord Games website.

German Grey (Vallejo 995): Uncovered helmet
Black (Vallejo 950): Webbing, pistol holster, rifle ammo pouches, boots, bayonet scabbard
German Field Grey (Vallejo 830): Trousers and breadbag
Luftwaffe Uniform blue (Vallejo 816): Luftwaffe tunic, field cap, officer's peaked cap
German Camo Orange Ochre (Vallejo 824): Canteen
Middlestone (Vallejo 882): Panzerfaust
Camouflaged jump smocks and helmet covers (Beige 821, Green 823, Brown 984)
Military Green  (Vallejo 975): Mess tin and gas mask container

Gus even threw in a bottle of the Army Painter strong tone Quick Shade ink which is fantastic for a few reasons: firstly it was free :), secondly my GW inks are running low and thirdly I've heard good things about their ink range and have wanted to try it out.

So I'll probably start painting the Black Tree Fallschirmjager models either tonight or tomorrow night, photos will follow as soon as I have something worth sharing.

Ok since I just couldn't put you through one more boring post without photos I thought I'd share some of the not so blurry photos of the church in action last Saturday night.

I just love my Zuzzy matt, the texture here while not totally appropriate just looks amazing.  The British had the upper hand for a while and managed to force almost half of the German forces to retreat into this this scorched earth garden.

Ok I'm off to undercoat my first squad of minis.

10 Hours and 39 Minutes

I just received an email from em-4 miniatures stating that my order has been shipped, after being placed only 10 hours and 39 minutes earlier today.  This is just amazing service, almost unheard of really.  I'm used to an order sitting in the "processing your order" queue for around a week or two, or longer... yes Black Tree I'm looking at you.

To be honest I buy my dice, tokens and bases from em-4 simply because their prices cannot be beaten, now I can add amazing service to the list.