Viking warriors for Tony

This week I've finished a dozen Viking warriors that shall be returning to the UK in the new year to join Tonys' collection.

I started painting these months ago, six of the warriors had been base-coated and washed while still in the UK, they crossed the Atlantic with me and languished on the painting table for ages before I finished them off last week. The second six were done in a much more timely manner over the past few days.

The first four are Shieldwall Miniatures Viking beserkers.

The next are all Gripping Beast warriors and leaders.

Finally four Gripping Beast axemen, one converted to carry a banner, this is a Little Bigman Studios Raven Banner.

For next weeks update I shall be back on mt El Cid forces, more Black Guard and hopefully my first few Andalusians.

Fall Blau Painting Update - 11th December 2016

This week I've finished another 14 figures for the Fall Blau project, this time a bunch of Crusader Miniatures Germans and a 37mm PaK36 from Northstar.

I've added three more LMG teams so that I can either field a second Grenadier platoon - what with the number of figures I already have painted - or field the platoon as PanzerGrenadiers with two LMG per section.

Again, I've used the mix of uniform colours that I used in the earlier batches so it's not all Field Grey, there is a bit of Luftwaffe Blue and German Uniform in there to break it up. I quite like the effect and I think it gives a more 'on campaign' look.

The Pak36 is a lovely resin model from Northstar that is dead easy to assemble and paints up a treat. The crew are all from the Crusader Miniature range, but like the earlier Soviet one I requested extra models so that I can field it with a full five-man crew.

The crews are all individually based and fit into recesses I made in the basing material for easy casualty removal. I also did this for the Soviet one but never photographed it un-crewed.

The final three figures are an officer and a couple of spare crewmen for the gun that may get re-purposed at a later date.

The last shot is a quick snap of my painting area, we no longer have a studio since moving to the US, So, I now paint - and store my figures - in the large closet in our spare bedroom / den.

It's a really comfortable are to work in, I just open the doors and everything is there ready for me and I can shut the doors on it and nobody sees my mess.

Battletech Arbalest and Raptor II

During the GameHoleCon convention I had a browse around the traders and one chap was doing a buy-one-get-one-free offer on some Battletech blisters, so I picked a couple that I liked and bought them home to join my stable.

I've not read up on the 'history' and it may be that adding these two to my lance is an anachronism but I picked the models more based on how they looked rather than for reasons of back-story or battlefield effectiveness. Which truth be know is why I paint most of the stuff I am painting these days.

Both have been painted in the WWII Soviet scheme that I used on the previous Dragon II I bought to use at GameHoleCon.

The first model is an Arbalest a 25-ton mech with a pair of LRM10 and a pair of medium lasers. Checking Sarna this one is suitable for use in 3073

The second is a Raptor-II a 40-ton mech with a SRM6 and two medium lasers. Again I checked Sarna and this is a 3077 model so useful with the Arbalest.

Here are all three units of my nascent lance. Unfortunately, the Dragon II is a 3099 model so a little later than the other two, I'm not too bothered though, I bought what I fancied painting rather than for any backstory or effectiveness reasons.

Stuff the Turkey - Crack on with the Soviets instead

It's been 9th October since I last posted an update on this project! What with a business trip to Europe, What-Khan, family visiting and GameHoleCon time to get on with painting has been sparse.

I really planned to have the Soviets finished by the end of November so that I could start gaming with them, so, with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching and with it having little cultural significance to me as a Brit in Wisconsin I took the opportunity to get cracking.

A lot of the figures in this update were painted during the lean times described above, just nothing was complete and ready for photographing. For fourteen of the Assault Group Soviets it was just a matter of finishing the bases, for the rest they were done from scratch over the weekend.

In all, this update I added 20 more Assault Group Soviet infantry this update, lovely characterful figures that paint up really well, but I'm having a little buyers regret. I planned to play these games during the Fall Blau operations of 1942 and these Soviets are definitely uniformed for much later in the war. The Germans I have done are definitely for a much earlier period.

I'm seriously considering selling these and replacing with Crusader Miniatures ones, my daughter visited from the UK last month and bought with me a small order from Northstar and I picked up a pack of the Crusader Soviet Infantry to give a test.

I'd already painted one of their Maxim M1910 and the figures are nice to paint and do suit the period I plan to game much better. Here is the pack of Riflemen with Pps-41.

Some of the support weapons are covered in neither the Crusader Miniatures or Assault Group ranges and I needed a 5cm Mortar to make up the platoon. Fortunately Warlord Games do one in a pack with a flame-thrower. Unfortunately they use their bloody awful separate head system that never seems to work. I've painted plenty of the Gripping Beast WWI French with separate heads and they go together nicely, not sure what Warlord do, but they never look that natural.

Also in the order from Northstar was a rather splendid resin 45mm anti-tank gun Nick obligingly supplied a couple of crews so that I could field it with a more appropriately sized five man crew and had another chap spare.

I based on a 2mm plywood base and textured the filler so that the crew can be removed as casualties, I quite like how this came out.

Here are a few more close-ups of those lovely Assault Group Soviets, as mentioned earlier, I have mixed feelings about them and may end up painting another platoon with models more suited for 1942. If you are interested in buying 45 painted late WWII Soviets get in touch and we can discuss a deal.

Having finished off all the Soviets I have it was a good opportunity to get them all out and have a look at the final result, I think they look quite formidable and I'm looking forwards to playing some Chain of Command with them.