Wednesday was German Day

I've decided to paint up a platoon of  early Germans to fight my Russians.  I always try to do 2 sides of any project, just to make sure if someone disappears I'm not left with only 1 side of a war.  Ive been burned by people before, and i decided then I would not let it happen again.

 I've inherited some extra Bolt Action/Warlord and and crusader early German leftovers from my friend and gaming colleague  Dave Hoyt .   I also picked up the 50mm mortars on a recent trip to London, Ontario. so yesterday i decided to paint them up.  So far i only have enough for a  1 squad a platoon command, and 2 50mm mortar teams.  but i should soon have in the mail  enough Crusader Germans to round my meager force out to 3 full squads, a platoon command, a Recon squad, , 2 50mm mortars and an HMG team.

Bolt Action Early Germans

Crusader Early German Platoon command 

and 50mm mortar teams

Also last Friday,  while in London, I picked up  an Black Tree Designs Russian Maxim team from Imperial Hobbies. Sadly, this was the only Russian support team he had.  He did have a ton of regular BTD Russian riflemen, a few packs of SMGs and 1 or 2 each of Officers and character packs. BTD are hard to find these days, mostly because they withdrew from retail distribution, and then became unreliable with filling orders.  this is unfortunate, because I think they have the most complete WW2 Russian line out there.

 

 Russian scout squad and Maxim HMG team 

by Black Tree Designs

So Saturday I painted the Maxim, and a couple of russian scouts I had kicking around. the scouts are in the camo smock so i decided to do them in the autumn amoeba camo scheme.

Closeup of Maxim team from the other side

I'm still looking for Black Tree Designs Russian support teams. I'm looking fro pretty much everything but 76.2mm AT guns.  if you have any you'd part with, Drop me an email at crucible_orc AT sympatico DOT ca. I have various 28mm Warzone (Sci fi)Epic 2nd ed Eldar vehicles, and a few other items kicking around to trade.

I need some help guys!

Ok,  I'm trying to identify the manufacturer of these 28mm German figures:

I spent the last 2 hours searching for them through all the 28mm figures lines i can think of, with no luck. They seem to be similar in sculpting style to BEF miniatures, but the poses don't quite match up.

The figures standing upright(like the 2nd from the left) are 27mm sole-to-eye or 29mm to the top of the helmet.  They are very nice miniatures.

any Ideas?

Busy Few Days.

Well, Since Tuesday I've been busy.  Yesterday, I painted 2 squads(25 figures) of Russian infantry.  It took me about 6 hours all told.

These are mostly crusader with a few assault group minis mixed in.  I was quite surprised how close the 2 are in size.  I collect a lot of modern, which is almost entirely from TAG.  I always thought them bigger then most other companies.  the crusader minis to me are on the small side. 

Left to Right: Crusader, Crusader, Crusader, TAG

Wednesday I painted a squadron of 10 Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders for a friend. This is an interesting army, because it's very much modeled on WW1 style of troops(with sci-fi weapons of course).  They are painted a little dark and drab for my personal tastes but my friend chose the paint scheme(the 5th Siege Regiment) from the Imperial Armour books, and then approved the test scheme.

Some people wonder why I jump back and forth between projects, sometimes without even finishing a unit(re the Baden hussars from last weekend).  I like to keep 2 or 3 small side projects on the go, so if i get bored of my main project I can switch gears and remain interested. at the moment however, I've just finished painting all my FIW stuff(which was my main project)  and I have not decided which of my side projects will become the primary one.  So sa a result I've been jumping from project to project more then usual,  following my whim  at the moment I sit down to paint.

at the moment, my in-progress side projects are(all 28mm):

WW2 Russian platoon ( 50% done)
ECW parliamentarian army ( 25% done)
Napoleonic Baden Hussar regiment ( 25% done)
Skirmish Eastern Renaissance Polish & Turkish  (10% done)

I suspect  the eastern renaissance will be the next primary project .  I have a few 40K items to paint for some friends however, and I want to finish them before i get back to a big-ish project(which the polish are).

28mm WW2 Russian test scheme

Well this morning I decided to try my hand at painting a few 28mm Crusader WW2 Russians.    I've never
 painted Russians before. In fact, I've only ever painted late Germans  in Wehrmacht Gray.



I have 3 full squads( sgt, LMG team, 2 PPSH, 7 riflemen) as well as one squad with all rifles, and a few extra riflemen.  I figure if i pick up another pack of Crusader PPSH and LMGs I can finish off 4 full squads.

Anyway, I'm interested in comments and Suggestions on the colour scheme, so feel free to post.

Baden Hussars Test Paint

I finally got back to painting a few Napoleonic figures this weekend.  Yesterday I painted half a unit of Perry hussars up as Baden Hussars. I had conflicting information on whether the fur was black or brown, so I went with black(looks better I think)

This is my first foray into Perry Plastics. These figures are gorgeous.  They easily meet the quality  am accustomed to when dealing with metal Perry miniatures. The detail is clear and is easy to paint. I have 16 of them(my french Dave gave me his command sprue) that allows me to complete 2 units of 8.

once i have these done, i will have my Baden cavalry contingent complete.  After that I just need to assemble 1 battalion of Baden Guard, 1 unit of jagers and  and 3 artillery batteries to finish them off. when done, I'll have the first 3 regiments of infantry, jagers,  1 dragoon regiment, 1 hussar regiment, the Garde du Corps, the Guard battalion, and 3 gun batters(1 horse).

18th Century Civilians & Painting Rut Broken

well, it looks like i *may* have broken my painting rut.  This afternoon I painted 7 18th century civilians for my Sharp practice FIW  Project.  3 are Front Rank civilians, and the other 4 are part of the Blue Moon "Duelists" collection. My personal favourite is the one with the lantern,  Fantastic figure.  these are not quite finished. I have to paint the sand on the base and then flock it.  might take 30 minutes tomorrow, before i head down to the Club.

Hopefully I can now get back to painting. I need to finish get my Perry Hussars done. that will bring me 1 step closer to finally finishing my Baden  army.

Acheson Creations Log Barriers

While at historicon, I picked up A few items from Acheson Creations.  Among these items were  14 Log barrier sections(10 straight, 4 corners).  These look fairly simple and do not appear to have much detail when seen unpainted. they have fairly thick bases(as do the other items I have from Acheson designs). But hen you paint them some subtle detail comes out and they look much better. they are about 2" long , 1" wide, and just under 1" tall.  each piece cost cost only $0.50 USD($7 for the whole lot).

Notice the difference between the original base and the final product. I used a Dremel tool  and sanded down thick base to a slope.I also glued 2 sets of 2 together to have 2x 4" pieces.

Here is an enclose using all the painted sections. for Size Comparison, I've included a few 28mm TAG Renaissance polish. The wall of the enclosure us 9"x7".  once I finish the last unpainted piece, the enclosure will be 11"x7" with a wider gap.  I also have 2  half-inch ends I've made to taper off the base on end pieces so it's not an extreme elevation change.

Acheson Creations has all sorts of  these 2" wall sections for .50 cents.  I don't think  they can be beat for the price.

The only items I now have left to finish, that I bought at Historicon, are a 28mm WW2 Russian platoon and a 16 28mm Perry Hussars(going to be Baden hussars).

Architects of War and Modern scenario setup.

I've been in a painting rut since i got back from out west a few weeks ago. I've been building a bit of terrain for teh Club, but that's about it.

Firday night I Decided to pull out the 2 small Architects of War terrain peices I bought at historicon.  I finished them in about 2 hours.   The figures are Front Rank Napoleonic Bavarian modified and painted as a Baden command stand
.

Then this afternoon I was intending to run a play test of my  28mm Modern scenario using Disposable Heroes and the modern supplement. No one showed up and played, so I left it set up for next Friday.  I'm planning 4 games For MIGSCON this year in hamilton ontario. For mre information, click HERE. 

One British Platoon is pinned down by insurgents. the other 

must make their way to the 1st platoon and save them.

Close-up of some Insurgents 

(TAG Fedayeen)

Close-up of Land Rovers 

(TAG Land Rovers, modified by me)

Incidentally, if anyone is in Hamilton(Ontario, Canada) Area and would like to participate in playtesting any of the scenarios I'm planning for MIGSCON, Email Me  and we can arrange something.  I'm looking to play test with 4-6 players, and I never seem to get more then 1 or 2 players at a time.