Beginning of a US Infantry Platoon

I completed my first lot of US Infantry today. These fine fighting fellows were bought for me by the lovely Lady K, and so I have enjoyed painting them up and sharing the experience with her. 

I am building my platoon to the guidelines in I Ain't Been Shot Mum, so three squads of ten men. These squads are made of two big bases with four men each, plus a small base with two men. As you can see I am a little shy of the full platoon at the moment, the six two man bases are on the desk and getting attention. Once done, I will do a proper shoot of the whole platoon.  

I like the way they troops look and I am pleased with the basing scheme. These chaps will eventually land in Sicily and fight their way through Italy. Of course opposition will need to be purchased, but this project is not very high on the priority list and painting these figures is more a labour of love for me. 

Finnish Jalkava Joukkue Finished

I finished these last night and varnished them this morning. A Jalkava Joukkue (Platoon) for my Continuation War project in 15mm. It consists of four Ryhmät (Sections) led by a Vänrikki (Lieutenant) and a Kersantti (Sergeant). 

I've replicated the basing style I used for my Soviets since the two forces are meant to face each other. I'll need to knock up some appropriate terrain for Karelia soon to fit the setting. 

Painting these took about three days from the undercoat stage. I did them whilst watching films and generally pottering around the house. The method was a simply block, shade, highlight, using Vallejo model colours, which are a pleasure to work with. 

The next phase will be to bring up the force to Company strength, but that will require some more purchases I am not willing to make at the moment. Suffice to say I shall need a bit of armour for both the Finns and the Russians. One positive is that the armour for both sides is more or less the same, since the bulk of Finnish armour was captured from the Russians throughout the conflict.

A quick comment on the miniatures themselves. They are from Flames of War who are one of the few manufacturers who cater to the Finnish collector, but the sculpts vary in quality from some decent officer types, or tank hunters, to some absolute mutants. Still, altogether they look pretty sharp. 

So, these are my first completed miniatures of 2015. They are based on Flames of War bases, but I'll be using them to play Chain of Command and I Ain't Been Shot Mum.

Painted Soviet Strelkovy Company

The whole company assembled.

I think it was Warfare 2005, or was it 2006? In any event, there has been a set of figures which have sat in various stages of painting on my desk or in boxes for the last decade which are finally done. I finished them on the 30th of December, so they fell into my 2014 painting tally. You can see my handiwork below.

My 15mm stuff is intended for I Ain't Been Shot Mum, another set of excellent rules by TooFatLardies. This means I need to bulk out both the Soviet and Finnish forces available to me with specialists and some armour. I suspect several reviews might be making their way onto the blog in the near future.

For the Finns I am inclined to go with Battlefront's offerings, but with the Soviets I have more choice. I suspect that for armour I might end up getting a veritable smorgasbord of figures from various manufacturers to see what I like and don't like. I am particularly keen on trying the Zvezda 1/100 scale kits that Plastic Soldier Company sell, as well as their own plastic kits. Cost is increasingly a concern for me, and I am prepared to make a compromise between quality and price, provided it is a good balance.

That is all for now, hopefully I shall have more to show soon.

Basing 15mm World War II Russians

I've started basing up the Strelkovy Company to fight the Finns in the Jatkosota, or Continuation War. These figures have been painted for some time and have been awaiting completion, and frankly World War II isn't a priority for me. In any event, I did a test model using Polyfilla to build the base up to the metal feet of the miniature followed by Games Workshop's Stirland Mud texture paint and a drybrushing of Steel Legion Drab, and then some flock and stuff for a Autumnal look. Not really happy with the result, which to my mind was flat and just not rich enough. Here is a rather poor photo:

I then did another element using sand, and a base coat of Rhinox Hide followed by a Steel Legion Drab drybrush, and more Autumnal flock. The result is far more to my liking, it looks richer and creates a better blend with the figures on the base:

Once I have built my fabled light box, which might happen on Thursday if I am not in London, then I will post a step-by-step tutorial on how I do my bases with some better photos. In the meantime, please have a look at the photos below and let me know what you think.

The flocking materials I used are Games Workshops ancient green flock, and Hornby Skale Scenics foliage fibre clusters, late Autumn medium and a bag of fluffy yellow flock, also from Hornby. I was inspired by Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic on Youtube when it came to the bases, especially picking out the largely gravel bits in grey to break up the base. I also realised that I really made this harder than it needs to be by painting the figures unbased, and in the future I might just paint the figures in situ like he does. Have a look, I think it is a worth a watch.

 More to come of course.

Carry on.

15mm Napoleonic Austrian Army 1809 on eBay

I finally decided to get rid of my Principles of War 15mm army. I commissioned it several years ago from Principles of War, and then received a package from him a long while after. I didn't actually open the package completely for about a year, and then found that various bits and pieces were missing. Needless to say I was disappointed, and even more so when I found that PoW had gone out of business and I was never going to get those last few bits. It isn't the end of the world, but there are no division commander figures, or a C-i-C, but that is easily remedied.

Anyway, as my earlier posts show, I am a sucker for 28mm Napoleonic, and with the proliferation of plastics it is becoming more and more affordable. Therefore, there is no reason for me to hang onto these figures anymore. They are currently on eBay:

HERE

I hope they go to someone who will get some actual use out of them.

PS Has anyone else been burned by a company closing half way through a job, or before delivering entirely on an order, but after taking your money.