Wherever I lay my HAT... and an offer

More parcels!  This time some more reinforcements for my WWII Brits, US and Germans.  The plucky Tommies get some tank riders/crew and some heavy support in the form of Mortars and the Venerable Vickers HMG.

There are also some Armourfast packages on the way; a box each of Cromwells and Sherman Fireflies, and some German Mortars.

I've managed to paint up some of the Brit Tank Riders so far.  My plan is to use the riders to mark vehicles that have passengers (taking them out when not needed).  Each box follows a similar pattern: 4 sprues of 11 poses, usually including two tank crew suitable for hatches and a couple of kneeling poses that could also be mixed with foot troops as officers/NCOs.  The seated models are mostly armed with the standard type small arm for their nationality, plus one support weapon (a Bren, BAR and MG34 for the sets I have).\  Sculpting and detail is good, but the plastic is soft, so I'm a bit worried about peeling paint.  One very annoying feature is that most of the models are attached to the sprue at the head, so separating them without flattening the helmet requires care and some tricky trimming.  These were painted up in the same way as my other brits.  They also look good lazing about, probably waiting for a brew...

And here they are in those Italeri Half Tracks from a couple of posts ago.

Now, I seem to recall I mentioned an offer in the post title...  When I checked the box of US tank riders, I found that I actually had three sprues of US troops and one of Soviets!  The three correct sprues are more than enough to meet my requirements, so I don't have much to gain by trying to get the box changed at this stage.  Instead, if anyone out there could make good use of 11 assorted Soviet tank riders and crewmen, just leave me a comment below and an email where I can contact you, and they shall be yours!  (first come, first served!!!)

Caesar Brits

Nearly finished my first batch of Caesar's WWII British Infantry.  Really nice models, great poses, generally loads of fine detail except, oddly, when it comes to the weapons.  I also have Bren and PIAT Gunners painted up, but they're going to need custom bases made as they're prone, firing their weapons.

Painting was done mostly with the FoW British paint set (basically Vallejo colours, although the FoW branding certainly reduces fiddling around finding the right colours for the WWII novice like me).  Spray undercoated black, then basecoat of British Uniform, with the webbing and helmet picked out in Khaki and Russian Uniform respectively.  Faces were GW Tallarn flesh, boots GW chaos black (has anyone else found that particular paint has horrible coverage on bare plastic?), weapons GW bestial brown and Boltgun metal.  All were then given a wash of GW Devlan Mud wash, then highlights picked out again in the original colour.  I think the bases took longer than the models overall!

40 plus 40 equals trouble

Finished the crew or the Italeri Pak40s.  6 crew for each gun, all in good, convincing poses, half of them hefting ammo about and the rest lining up and aiming.  It looks like they're modelled for colder weather, with greatcoats and parkas, but they paint up nicely in camo (my attempt at the 'splinter' type camo, not great, but at this size and tabletop distance I can live with it) and won't look noticeably out of place on a Normandy battlefield.

Fast build done, um, fast...

Recently picked up a box of Italeri fast build half tracks.  Turns out they do exactly what they say on the tin!  After a spray with FoW US Armour, and picking out some details like the seats and tyres, they went together in a matter of minutes without any need for glue.

I also found the time to do a quick re-spray of one of my die-cast Sherman 105s.  These are pretty good models, but a bit too dark in colour.  Now, I know when I started getting into the Normandy thing I said I was going to keep things simple and not obsess about painting and accuracy but what were the odds of me ever keeping to that!  It's come out pretty well, so I'll probably do the other one as well now (the original colour's on the right, by the way...)

Kampfgruppe Normandy Arrives

A knock at the door this morning turned out to be the daughter of our neighbour across the road bearing a large brown parcel.  It seems my copy of Kampfgruppe Normandy arrived while I was away for a short break in Whitby.

It's certainly a very impressive book, weighing in at 348 pages, and very nicely produced. From a quick glance the rules look simple, but with enough tactical complexity to keep interest, and bear no relation at all to the WFB/40K systems (bonus!).  The activation and morale systems look interesting, and there's scope for suppressive fire and proper use of artillery.  The rules were written by Warwick Kinrade, who also wrote Forge Worlds Aeronautica Imperialis ruleset, another simple set of rules that I really like.

The only bit that looks a little disappointing is close combat.  It looks like it's just an extension on normal ranged combat, with little risk to the attacker, whereas I'd prefer something a little more... pivotal I suppose;  but it should be easy enough to graft something on (maybe more akin to Fast and Dirty's system) without upsetting balance too much.

Now I just need to get a game in to try it out.  In the meantime there's a great review on Warseer.

Leader of the PaK

Couple if quick posts tonight.  Firstly, I've just finished painting a pair of Italeri fast assembly Pak40s.  Great little models, assembly was really quick.  They don't really need glueing, but I have glued the front armour plate and wheels just for security.  The only suggestions I'd  give to anyone about these models is that shaving down the lugs on the main gunshield a bit helps (its easier to assemble and put less strain on the part, I nearly split mine before doing this) and, if you're painting camo, to do it before assembly.  Luckily I did this and it made things much easier.

One of the other great things about this set is that each gun comes with a complete crew of 6.  They're on the painting table at the moment, so I should be able to post them in a couple of days (I'm having camo traumas...).

Next up should be some Italeri M3 half tracks, presuming I can pick them up from the post office tomorrow between meetings.

Painting and Decorating

Been a bit lax with the posting recently.  I blame my lovely wife, who kindly (if foolishly) bought me a PS3 and a copy of Mass Effect 2 for my birthday.  An excellent game, but a real eater of spare time!

However, I do now seem to have torn myself away from saving the galaxy, and found the paintbrushes again.  I'm working on a few more GW Tau, a couple of old Grenadier Dwarfs and a 1/72 German Pak40 Anti-tank gun at the moment but, first up, is a finished building for my WWII Normandy project.

Some of the joints are distinctly rough and below par, but I'm still pretty pleased for something that was knocked up in a evening a few months back.

Now, any suggestions for a shop name?