15mm Plastic Soldier Company German Infantry.

We had our first game of I Aint't Been Shot Mum a couple of weeks ago, and I must admit that I was very impressed.

We tried out the first scenario from the book using my Afrika Korps and Indians to play the game. It's all well and good but James and Mark are looking to play some later games set in Western Europe. Mark is painting some Germans and James is painting some British, but I thought I had better chip in with some troops too.

We played the Gazala Campaign a few weeks ago at Triple Helix and I picked up a box of the Plastic Soldier Company 15mm WW2 Late War German Infantry to paint up for myself.

The sculpts are very nice, but some of the detail is a bit difficult to distinguish. The mix of troops is quite good, in the box you get 5 sprues of figures, enough to make:

• 10 Junior Officers and NCOs with MP40
• 90 Grenadiers with MP40 and Kar98
• 15 two-man light machine-gun teams with MG34/MG42

My criticism of the mix is that it would be nice to get some troops armed with PanzerFausts, PanzerSchreks, 50mm mortars or tripod mounted MG34/MG42 but at 130 figures for less than £15.00 you cannot complain too much.

Last Sunday, I cleaned up the first 40 figures and stuck them onto 'tongue-depressors' with PVA glue. A light blast of Halfords grey primer and a wash black paint later they were ready to paint.

I opted for a really basic scheme as follows:

1. Paint pretty much overall with Vallejo German Uniform
2. Paint the helmets, ponchos and gas capes in Vallejo Green Ochre
3. Add camouflage to the helmets and ponchos with Vallejo Flat Green and Saddle Brown
4. Paint the rifle butts, entrenching tool handles and Water Bottles with Vallejo Saddle Brown
5. Paint the gaiters, bread bags and MP40 magazine holders with Vallejo German Camo Beige
6. Paint some helmets and MG34/42 ammo boxes in Vallejo German Grey
7. Paint the gaiters and MG34/42 ammo belts with Vallejo Khaki
8. Paint the flesh Vallejo Basic Flesh Tone
9. Paint the boots, MP40, MG42 and Kar98 barrels, webbing, etc. with Vallejo Black
10. Give the whole thing a light dry-brush with Vallejo Pale Sand
11. When dry was with Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink.

The first batch of 40 was really quickly done so I cleaned up the rest of the troops to complete the company* and got on with painting them.

When they were all done, I stuck them onto bases. Each rifle section was based on one Warbases  medium mdf Flames of War base and two Warbases small mdf Flames of War bases. The Big Guys were based on 20mm or 25mm round mdf bases, again from Warbases .

Once stuck down, the bases are coated in a mix of Vallejo Pumice Gel and Vallejo US Field Drab, one pot of US Field Drab stirred into a pot of Pumice Gel is enough to do hundreds of bases. When this mix is dried I give it a light drybrush with Vallejo Pale Sand and then give the base a liberal coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash.

Once dry the bases are decorated with Silfor tufts and the whole lot sprayed with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcote - which sadly now seems to be unavailable in the UK.

The bottom of the bases are magnetised with 0.4mm Self Adhesive A4 magnetic sheet from Abel Magnets which is a bargain at £4.99 for three sheets including postage.

I reckon that I spent less than eight hours doing these, so, all in all, about 90 figures done at about five minutes per figure. Not my best work, but a quick set of quickly deployed reinforcements for our I Ain't Been Shot Mum games.

Enough waffle, on to the pictures of the troops:

Full company of Grenadiers.

Company HQ with two big guys and two MG34/MG42 medium machine-gun teams

First Grenadier Platoon

Second Grenadier Platoon

Third Grenadier Platoon

Spare Big Guys

Big Guy close-up

Another Big Guy close-up

Grenadier section close-up

four man Grenadier half section close up

MG34/MG42 MMG team close up

* eagle eyed readers will note from the first picture that I did not actually paint enough troops for a full company and am actually a two figures short. Bugger!

Well there were 130 figures in the box so I still have about 40 spare so not too much of a hassle.