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.

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.

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.  

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)

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 ;-)

Wave 1 Complete

There it is, my first wave of Flames of War British done.  I had enough spare minis in the box to add the extra couple of teams needed to give me options on infantry platoon (just about -1 man I think), their half tracks are this weeks assembly target.

The tanks are almost done, waiting on decals then last bit of weathering (over decals) and they will be complete.  I have 4 3 tank platoons done (1 Firefly in each) but have some spare tanks to build for options.  The M10's with 17 pounders are on the list for next painting binge.

Tanks glorious tanks

Tanks are almost done.  Need a final light highlight and then the weathering and they will be ready for decals.

A different kind of Brit

So the 15mm WW2 project moves steadily on.  Been in York for a chunk of this week so a bit behind.  However had a hobby binge today.

Tanks and turrets were first base coated using a spray.  This saved a huge amount of time.

Likewise, the infantry was also sprayed as a base coat.  The plan was to then add all the first layer colour and then shade before bedtime.

So the infantry are all fully base coated and shaded.  Highlights will be applied tomorrow and bases finished (hopefully)

Next it was the tanks turn to be shaded.  The next task for them was the tracks.  I got halfway through but had to call it a night as couldn't keep eyes open lol.

New Project

Started my new project. 15mm WW2 Brits.  So far assembled tanks and infantry.  M10s, Stuarts, and half-tracks to go.

The M10s in the pic are for my friends US force (in case you think I have gone senile)

First lot of based Brits

As promised here is a pic of the based Brits so far completed.  I ran out of both paints used last night, so no more done until shopping lol.  Tufts are gamer grass and others from eBay.

Work is Progressing

Big painting binge last night.  Got lots done (Yay!).  Hoping to get the little buggers ready for the weekend is still a huge pressure though lol.

The next stage was to paint the guns and to paint the guns and the trim/cuffs.  In this stage metal work on the swords was also done.  The trimmings were based blue, to match my other brits, all ready to be shaded.



After the base coat was dry, both the gun, and the blue trim were shaded with inks ready for the next part.  


The next stage will be to paint the water bottles and scabbards.  Once this is done it will be time to highlight the blue where required, and neaten up the white areas, and do the lace trim on the blue. After all that it will be the skin, hair and hat.


So here we have the water bottles and strapping done.  I also highlighted the leggings, as I had forgot about them lol.  The blue highlighted too.  I have decided it is more sensible to finish off the white, and give final touch ups to the red after everything else is done.  This way I can ensure the unit is neat read for the game.  I will hopefully have time to sand the bases, though as yet I am undecided on how to base them exactly.


The last stage for one night (as I am absolutely fecking knackered lol).  I gave a light highlight to the bater bottles and straps.  At this point I noticed the bottle tops, so I will do them when I do the waistcoat buttons towards the end (yes I also remembered them at about the same point lol).  The last painting for the evening was to base the hats, boots and banner poles black ready for tomorrow's painting session.

Time for bed I think lol.

Yet more Brits

More Painting done today (well Last Night actually!), though not as much as I would have liked.  I got the highlights done on the white areas.  Needs a final layer, but this will be done when the white is put on the trim of the jacket (whatever it is called).  Next stage to be done is the gun, metallic parts, and water bottle.  Hopefully get them finished by the weekend ready for a game, though it may be a little tight.

Another day and more painting on the brits

So here we are, bank holiday Monday and I had to work :-(.  I was looking forward to a whole day of painting to get the lions share of the work on this chunk of Brits done.  Still, with the help of some daylight bulbs I got more done than I thought I would.



First job was to base coat all the areas that are going to be white.  This is one of my favourite early stages, as the white contrast helps reveal what the model will finally be like.  A long way to go yet though.  

The next stage was to base coat the leggings grey.  A few minis have extra gaiters, these will be picked out in a different colour at a later stage.














The last stage for one evening was to use dark ink to shade the areas basecoated this evening.  This will add some nice contrast, and allow me to highlight the areas up later in the week

Red Jackets Done!

Well, sorry to get your hopes up, but I meant that literally.  I have shaded and highlighted the Jackets on the Brits today.  I realised I don't like painting red anymore lol.  After the AWI is finished, it may be a long wait before I do the Napoleonic Brits.  I may paint some Rifles for use in SDS, as I think I can cope with dark green lol.   May expand it to a rifles force for use in Muskets and Tomahawks, for some of the TV style skirmishes.  Will see how that goes, but lets finish this project first lol.

Anyway, this morning I shaded the second lot of brits.  It was then house tidy time unfortunately.  I made sure to get them all inked before, so when I got some time afterwards they would be dry and ready to go lol.

I have ordered some movement trays for round bases, so I can move the units around easier (after the last game it became apparent this may be useful, especially for the larger units).  I have ordered some from Sarissa Precision and some from Sally 4th, so I can see which ones I like the most.  Then I will get some for each unit, and a few odd ones in case of emergency as it were.  Both do them in many sizes, but Sally 4th have irregularly shaped ones for skirmish troops as well.  I have ordered a few of these to give them a go as well.

After the afternoon of tidying the house, it was time to build up some red highlights.  By the end of this I was almost red blind.  It is like snow blindness, only everything takes on a strange red hue.  I wanna paint WW2 camo lol.  These bright colours are tricksy.


As you can see, these models will make up another block of men, this time they will be 36 Line Infantry (possibly with 'Elite' tag points allowing).  I have also used models from my spare command frame to build a few more officers.  I noticed from a few games that these are very useful in M&T, the +1 Reaction and the ability to give extra actions with the 'Forward Boys' card is really good (having been on the receiving end of a lucky card streak giving regulars 5 actions in a row (which were fire, reload, fire, reload,fire!)  I am never going to underestimate that lol).

More Brits

So on with the next part of painting the Brits.  I have at this point realised I bought FAR to much for Muskets & Tomahawks (Worked out to be 1200+ points of British, oops) .  This does however allow me to run big multiplayer battles, so not too bad there.  This is the next stage to be done.  As you can see they are all assembled and spray based red.

The second wave consists of:-

36 Elite Line Infantry
2 Officers

and when it is done, will leave me with the Dragoons, Dragoon Officer, Mounted Officer, Queens Own Rangers, Ranger Officer, and a 6 Pounder Artillerypiece to go ;-)  These are mostly Perry Miniatures, with the exception of the artillery and mounted officer which are from the Warlord Games box set.

As you can see, I have made use of the beautiful (if rare) sunny day to spray these blighters ASAP lol.

They will be inked then batch painted as before over the next several days. and more pics will be uploaded at the end of each painting session (or probably the day after in work, truth be told!)

Once this section of Brits are done it is back to the rebellious Continental forces.  I have 24 Continental infantry, 10 Light Infantry, a bunch of Militia and Riflemen and a Cannon.  So not too much more to paint lol.  After all that is done, I will probably make an Indian force as well, just for some variety as it can be added to both the Brits and the Continentals.  A friend of mine is painting a 400 point Continental force (Line Infantry, Officers and some Minutemen I think) and 400 points of Hessians (Grenadiers, Jaeger, and an officer or two I think), so we should be set for some large club games, and a variety of smaller games as well.  Looking at the Sharp Practice v2 ruleset as well for bigger games, as we haven't tried a really large Muskets and Tomahawks yet.

American War of Independence Project

So here we are, my first of the new style hobby projects.  I will post better pictures in the gallery when they are all done.

The plan used is to batch paint in stages.  It may work, or it may not, who knows at this stage.  The first task is to acquire some minis.  This was achieved by purchasing some Perry minis from those nice chaps at Firestorm Games.  Armed with my first purchases (a box of Brits and 2 boxes of Continental Infantry) I started the project.  The plan was to do a 400 point force for each faction before going back and expanding both of these up to 600 points.  The first to be assembled was the British.

On assembly I spotted the error in my plan.  I had forgot the Perry Miniatures box contained 36 Infantry and 2 Casualty models.  This meant that I was a model down (Requiring 36+ Officer).  This was quickly rectified as the Perrys allow for individual frames to be ordered, so an extra command frame was bought.

Then on to the assembly...



So here are the British troops all assembled and eager to be painted.  3 Units of 12 Light Infantry, and an Officer to lead them.

Things were looking good, as it took an evening to prep and assemble them.  The plan was to then Spray them the next day, and try to do one or two areas of colour each night.  For example, get the red jackets done, then the flesh and muskets and so on.  This plan worked quite well, as it allowed the models to be painted in quite an efficient manner.  Hopefully it will work well when I get to the continental troops as well (the observant will have noticed from the tenses used that I have actually completed (mostly) the British at this point.  I was going to add to this post after every stage, but I was too eager to get the painting done.




Stage 2 and 3.  Firstly a red spray.  When this was dry, ink was applied to shade the red, and areas to be painted darker (hat and gun) were based in black.  Stage 3 was then to highlight the red up to a nice smart red that the King would be proud of.


The next stage was to base all the areas that are to be painted white in a light grey.  It was at this stage that the models started to look like "proper British" soldiers.  Sorry for the rubbish casts on the pictures, the lighting in the room is quite terrible, and my wife had taken the painting lights.


Some white detailing has now been applied, and the dark blue trim on the jackets.  Really starting to look the part now.

My excitement for the project at this point was greatly increased.  I thought at first that painting them would be a chore (I am not used to painting such bright colours over so many models), but it proved me wrong, and I had already started looking towards my next purchases at this point.  However, due to a promise to my wife to finish painting task before starting another I remained determined and carried on with the project (I was going to get a stack of Dragoons from the Perrys, they will be got, as a reward when I complete the Continentals).  I have ordered a stack of basing materials (tufts, shrubs etc.) but will probably get both the starter forces done then have a basing binge.



The (mostly)finished Brits.  As mentioned, the bases still need doing.  The flags really bring out the unit, and I love the red-coat vibe.  I want to add some Napoleonics to my schedule now ;-)

Time to start the Continental force, I will post again when they are done (or maybe if I get the time in work, I will post as the project progresses).

When both are done, I will try to get some of the terrain from Renedra painted and put up a Video.