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Test 29 SEP 20 1950
Finished a Platoon of German WWII Infantry in Winter Kit
Many moons ago, my friend Greg game me a couple of extra sprues of German WWII infantry in winter dress. It was enough to make two squads. So, I ordered a box from Warlord so that I could make a full platoon. As with all these plastic sets of Germans, there are never enough rifles and too many assault rifles and submachine guns. I wanted the Germans to fit from 1941 to the end of the war.
I had barely enough rifles to make four normal ten-man squads, and I had to use a couple of semi-automatic rifles that will mostly go unnoticed on the tabletop. I also used a few extra rifles from the later war Panzergreandier set. Each squad has one machine-gun, a squad leader with a submachine gun, and an assistant squad leader with a rifle or submachine gun. The rest of the men are riflemen.
There were enough figures and parts to make three more machine-gun teams. So for late war, I can swap out two riflemen in three of the squads for a gunner and his assistant gunner. As the quality of their infantry deteriorated, the Germans sometimes put extra machine-guns in their squads to compensate.
Some of the heads came with cloth covers on the helmets, so I painted them in white.
I have a bunch of Russians in winter kit for my Winter War games, so I am looking forward to putting these on the table when the plague subsides. I also have a couple of squads of American infantry in greatcoats, so there might be a 1944 Western Front game in my future as well.
WWII Germans in Winter Kit (WIP)
I have begun working on a platoon of Germans in winter kit. These are for mid- to late-war. The problem with most of these plastic kits is that they come with WAY too many submachinguns and assault rifles and not nearly enough standard rifles. I had to work hard to fill what I think are reasonable squads. Since they are in greatcoats, they will paint pretty fast.
Depending on which pictures I looked at in different books and on-line, the color of the greatcoats varies greatly. I did two painting tests to decide which color scheme I liked best.
The figure on the left was sprayed with the darkest of the Krylon green camouflage paints and then dry brushed with Howard Hues field gray. The one on the right was sprayed with the lighter green camouflage paint and then washed with Agrax Earthshade. I decided I like the one on the right better.
I was gone last weekend at the beach with a high school buddy and our wives, so I haven’t picked up a brush in a week. I am going into withdrawal symptoms. I sprayed the platoon of figures the lighter camouflage color. I block painted the flesh. Most of each figure will be block painted with an Agrax Earthshade wash at the end. I will post pictures when I complete them.
Johann Wehyn von Rambo, Der Mann ohne Namen
I have been working on some German Panzergrenadiers from Warlord. This is half of the batch I am painting. The other half of the batch will have the camouflage smocks.
Toward the end of assembling this box of figures I had a bunch of weapons left over, so I decided to make a figure that is D&D meets WWII. I picture this soldier riding on horseback at the Russians with the reins in his teeth, firing multiple weapons. I call him Johann Wehyn von Rambo, Der Mann ohne Namen.
Duck!
The most recent issue of Miniature Wargames magazine came with a sprue of free dwarf figures for some over-the-top gothic fantasy game. I cut off some of the more egregious bits and replaced the dwarf heads with duck heads. Here are the results.
The set come with ten dwarf figures and two war dogs. I decided that the war dogs will be the squad leaders for these ducks. As I have begun adapting Wars of Ozz for general fantasy (calling them Wars of Orcs and Dwarves — although the game will not be limited to those armies), I hope to get them on the table soon.
Recent Plague Painting
While on house arrest due to plague panic (you can’t call it quarantine, because you quarantine the sick, not the healthy), I knocked out a few more figures this week.
“Scratch Built” Star Wars Building
This weekend I started re-watching Rebels. I had a partially completed building since a year or more before my move that has been taunting me, so I decided to turn it into something for Star Wars games using Combat Patrol(TM). The original skeleton was something called War Core. These were black-core foam board shells that you could assemble and then decorate. This one had been sitting on a shelf all black and lonely for at least two years.
I 3D printed some sci-fi doors and windows and some Star Wars Legion greebles that I found on Thingaverse to cover the windows and doors. I also printed the metal uprights.
I filled in the cracks and gaps in the original shell with sparkle and then sprayed the whole building with a Krylon texture paint. The paint was the brown color you see. I then printed the decorations black and dry brushed them with sliver.
These kits come apart to reveal interior floors.
I think War Core is now defunct, but I have one more kit left. I use several of these kits to make buildings for my pulp games set in Granville. I will keep the other one in the bag until the muse strikes me or I need a specific building for a game.
Later Weekend Accomplishments
To finish out the weekend, I knocked out more ducks, because you can never have enough ducks. This was a set I found on Ebay. I already had this set, but again, you can never have too many ducks.
Then I painted additional figures from the Pulp Figures Dangerous Dames Kickstarter. These, like all Pulp Figures, are fun to paint.
Early Weekend Accomplishments; More to Come
This weekend is the first in a while without a lot planned. Our regular D&D Zoom game was cancelled this week, so I took my wife to the rifle range and dinner. Last night, the house across the retention pond and loud music and louder people keeping the neighborhood awake until 0500. So, I got up early and did a little painting.
The first were two Panzerschrek teams from Steve Barber. I block painted these and then washed them with Agrax Earthshade. I think the Howard Hues Field Gray works really well for German tunics with the Agrax Earthshade over them. The Germans are pictured in front of a Terrain4Games building.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that my kids got me some Albedo Combat Patrol vehicles and stowage from Sally 4th. When the ordered them from Sally 4th, Chris Abbey threw in a pack of the new equine-headed soldiers. I painted them up this morning to match my earlier EDF forces (see the fox). These are pictured in front of the armored car, also from Sally 4th.
Additions for Sea Lion
I recently ordered a couple of kits from Empress Miniatures. I plan to use them in my Sea Lion games. The first is the Cardon Lloyd carrier (smaller than a Bren or Universal carrier). I think this is a neat kit because of the “caisson” and that it is pulling a 20mm ATR.
These will make fine additions to a Sea Lion game if and when we are ever allowed to have another convention.