Para Support almost done

Painting like a dervish yesterday evening and tonight and the para mortar platoon and HMG platoon are shaded and waiting for bases to be finished and final highlight.  Also finished the other two jeeps, so all the paras are done for now.  Preferring painting the plastic soldier company models to the official metal ones to be honest.  May sell these on eBay and replace them with the new plastic weapons at some point (as that will get me some 6 pounders as well)

Nearly done on the 15mm

Had a great game in club last week.  A large multiplayer open tank type game planned for this Wednesday.  With that in mind I have been painting like a demon.  Also my wife has been helping putting decals on the Brits.  

5 Comets done (also 4 Cnetaurs but didn't take a pic of them doh)

These have now been weathered and are ready to go.  Also nearly done (final highlights and weathering to go when shade dries) on my StuG Abteilung.

 

Just need to do the Begleits and the Fallschirmjäger to go with them lol.

Paras Done

Yay all done. Now to fine tune the scenario :-)

Nearly there

Argh these paras are taking forever!  Curse real life for getting in the way!  

Just some odds and ends ( helmet straps and boots mainly) then shading, highlight and basing and we are done!

Got 2 BattleFoam cases so will see what they are like this weekend :-)

British paratroopers ready for painting

Just finished texturing the base on my air landing company ready for Pegasus bridge.  Inspired by GW texture paint, but alarmed to pay silly money for a small pot, a quick trip to the craft store got some thick brown acrylic (£1.25 for a 500ml bottle) and some sand.  Instant cheap textured paint lol.

This was applied to the base to hide the models individual bases. If needs be, I will add more texture when this is dry.  Models have been base coated English Uniform and are ready for me to start with the camo.

German infantry finished

Finished the German infantry tonight (a day ahead of schedule). Also got the 88's done as a bonus.  Half way through the objectives as well

The bonus 88's still need their half tracks etc but they can be finished tomorrow.

And WIP on two objective markers.

All in all a very constructive day :-)

Pegasus Bridge prep

I am running a large Pegasus Bridge game in club soon.  I therefore have a ton of minis to paint for it (and some rather cool Horsa gliders from Skytrex).  First up is the German grenadiers to defend the bridge while they wait to be reinforced.

Almost done on those, need shading and the base finishing as well as some extra highlights to finish.

3 platoons of grenadiers.  2 will be at the bridge, the other in trucks further in.  I have some more Panzer iv's ready to build for 21 Panzer as reserves, and some Panzergrenadiers.  Also bought one of these beauties but probably won't use it lol.

2000 points German Armour Done

Yay finished (almost) the German tanks.  Some weathering and into the queue for decals now lol.

The StuGs are for the Fallschirmjäger so will be done with them.  Either next or after British para.  In Portugal next week though so plenty of thinking and planning time lol

And now some Germans

I am FINALLY getting to the end of my tank binge (until I get some more lol). I made use of the sunny weather to spray the next batch of German tanks before work.  These are done using the Flames of War Dunkelgelb spray which seems very good.  Much better than some of the GW sprays I have used (and cheaper).  Once these are done it will be time to finish the infantry, then back to black powder :-)

And now some Germans

I am FINALLY getting to the end of my tank binge (until I get some more lol). I made use of the sunny weather to spray the next batch of German tanks before work.  These are done using the Flames of War Dunkelgelb spray which seems very good.  Much better than some of the GW sprays I have used (and cheaper).  Once these are done it will be time to finish the infantry, then back to black powder :-)

Batch done!

After some frantic painting I have got the Brits to the final shading stage.  When this is dry just some touch up highlights and weathering.  Then the huge numbers of decals to apply :-(

The trouble with tanks is...

Tanks are a bit like Pringles.  Once you start, you can't stop.  Here is the last (?!?) wave of British armour for my flames of war force.

As you can see they are all base coated and shaded ready for painting this week. This wave comprises of 5 Sherman tanks (including a firefly), 5 Cromwells and 4 Halftracks for the infantry.  All are plastic soldier company miniatures.  I will give a review of these this week hopefully, as by now I have painted a lot of them lol.

On one note, the Plastic Soldier Company spray cans are awesome.  They made painting the Brits really easy.  They do a good range, and I have so far used them for the British tanks and German infantry.  I have a grey for early war German armour as well, but picked up the Flames of War dunkelgelb in a sale so can't comment on what the PSC yellow is like.  So far all of these sprays have been good though, and it really has made painting these minis much easier (especially Brits with their rather uniform colour selections).

Honourable mention goes to GW's Athonian Camoshade.  Never paint WW2 without it lol.  

Well, back to painting and assembly for me.  If I can get everything finished off we can start up again on some video batreps.  

Flames of War Batrep

DSo more or less all painted and we start the game.  Aron taking the Brits and Ceri the Germans.  Aron wins the dice roll and starts the assault... And the failing big checks lol.

The firefly bogs on the tracks. Then...

The M10 blogs on the a hedge (doh)

 And then a Stuart bogged entering woods.  A general advance of other guys takes place before some shooting.

The first shot a rather hopefully shot at long range concealed panthers, which unfortunately followed the same luck as bogging checks.

The rest of the shooting phase was about as spectacular.  Lots of attempts at to smoke no luck.  Aron made a collection of 1's dice to be shunned.

Onto the German first turn (and the last one we will probably take so many pics of lol.

German infantry moved to secure objectives while the tanks (cat and otherwise) moved to secure some shots.

Things look scary for those Sherman tanks

Well, the Germans were slightly luckier lol. The panther bailed and popped a Sherman, and the Tigers and panzer iv's hammered the centre Sherman's, killing the firefly and a Sherman, and the other legged it.

So the Brits continue their advance.  Remounting or i bogging all apart from the firefly that was essential to the plan. The Sherman's hoped for some payback on the iv's whilst avoiding the big cat, likewise the firefly hoped to hurt the other kitties on the flank.

On to shooting...

All that happened was on Panther getting smoked (literally not figuratively unfortunately for the Brits). So on to the German turn.

The only movement needed was a cat out of the smoke and the CiC and 2iC to safety, joining the Panzer iv zug.

Once again the Germans are lucky with 4 blown up tanks (including 2 fireflies) and another British platoon fleeing.  There is only so much stuff upper lip the Brits can muster.  Still the M10s haven't shot, perhaps Aron is being a little too cautious.

British turn, the solo firefly performed a swift Brexit and fled from Germany :-(.  This left the infantry trying their best to assault the Panzers, hopefully with smoke support.

The Stuart's decided to search hard and find their balls, though one bailed out (presumably his balls were outside his tank)

Onto the shooting.  Aron crossed all hit fingers, but as it made dice rolling difficult he had to stop. Unfortunately it didn't work as all he managed to do was bail a Panther and smoke one Panzer.  But assault time. But due to the finest German machine guns the assault was stopped with a loss of 2 stands.  Things were dire now for the Brits.

Another good firing phase from the Germans and the Brits fail a company morale and flee.  Not a good day for Britain.

Finished!

Done with 30min spare for the glue to dry on the basing lol.  Close.

Time is running out

So it is now Friday night, and the game is set for tomorrow.  German infantry is almost ready for shading.  Hopefully can get them shades, highlighted and based before the game (let's hope for no distractions lol)

So the I set the table up tonight ready so I can paint up to the wire tomorrow lol.  It will be a simple introductory game, nothing too complex.  We have British army trying to liberate the town, with Germans counter attacking two road intersections.

Army lists are:

British Armoured Company (Confident Trained)

CiC and 2iC Sherman's

4 X Sherman Squadrons of 2 Sherman's and 1 Firefly

M10 17 Pounder Squadron (4 Tank Hunters)

Recce Squadron (4 Stuart's)

Rifle Platoon (3 squads)

German Panzer Company (Confident Veteran)

CiC and 2iC Panzer iv's 

Panzer iv Platoon (3 tanks)

Panther Platoon (3 tanks)

Tiger 1e

Grenadier platoon with panzerschrek (if I can finish the painting)

German tanks ready for action

All weathered (more or less) and just awaiting transfers.

Panzer iv's Join the Big Cats

So my 5 little panzer iv's are ready for weathering as well now.  Will probably weather them all together after giving ample time for washes to dry.

Next job is the grenadiers.  These will take more time than the Brits I fear due to camo and uniform shenanigans.  Hopefully will get them done by Saturday evening.  Then at least we can start with some batreps lol

Some cats done

So calling the painting here for one night. I at least got the cats (3 Panthers and a Tiger) up to the final highlight and weathering stage.  Looking OK so far, may even be able to get a fully painted battle report done this weekend at long last lol.

Nearly forgot this chap

Oops forgot the RAF choppy that comes with J.O.E.  While the wash is drying on the Panzers I got him up to the final highlight and weathering stage.  Should be able to finish him soon while working on the tanks.

Yes I Have More Tanks

Here is the second wave of British tanks. When I started British armour I never realised it was a "horde" army lol.  These are 4 M10 17 pounders, and 4 Stuart's for recce.  Also J.O.E Vandaleur and the RAF observer.  This just leaves some more Sherman tanks and some Cromwells to go.  All in all I think it is 16 Sherman tanks (4Firefly), 4 Stuart's, 3 Cromwell, 4 M10 and a infantry Platoon. J.O.E is there in case of emergency Michael Caine situations ;-)