Airborne, Step-by-step

I've been meaning for a while to get a step-by-step run through up on how I painted my Brit Paras, and this week I finally found the time to do it.

British Airborne, in action between tea breaks!

Before I start, it's worth taking a quick look at the iconic feature of the British Airborne, the Denison Smock; a handy starting point is the rather good page about it on Wikipedia.  In short, there seem to have been two major variants used during WWII.  At 1/72 I'm not going to worry too much about the cosmetic differences involving buttons etc, but it is useful to note the difference in colours, with the earlier smocks (which would be more suitable for North Africa and Italy) on a sand coloured base and the later smocks (used in Northern Europe and appropriate for D-Day and Market Garden) on a more olive green base.

On to the painting then.  The aim of the game here was to produce minis that I'd be happy to use of the gaming table rather than miniature works of art, so I was aiming to get a convincing look without spending too much time fussing over the detail or shading and highlighting.  The figures used were all from Italeri, the sten gunner from the 'Anti Tank Teams' set and the rest from the (former Esci) 'British Airborne'.  Paints were a mix of Vallejo and GW (although I'm not sure what their equivalents would be in the new range).

back row: German Camo Medium Brown, Reflective Green, English Uniform, Russian Uniform, Black Grey, Khaki Glossy Black

Middle row: Mournfang Brown, Mechrite Red, Gretchin Green, Tallarn Flesh, Leadbelcher

Front Row: Badab Black, Devlan Mud

After priming with GW Chaos Black, I started with the basecoat.  VJ English Uniform for the battledress, helmets in VJ Russian Uniform, webbing and gaiters in VJ Khaki, boots VJ Glossy Black and weapons in Mournfang Brown and Leadbelcher.  Two of the models had the smock basecoated using GW Gretchin Green and one in VJ Green Ochre, to represent the earlier smock.  Painting is pretty rough at this point, as later coats will tidy it up, and I haven't painted all of the webbing, as some will inevitably get painted over again when doing the camo.

The first camo colour is done first, using VJ German Camo Medium Brown.  The earliest smocks were allegedly hand-painted using mops, and the pattern continued through the war, so I went for big, bold patches of colour and didn't worry about being neat. The 'stripes' on Denison smocks run in all directions, so I tried to avoid it looking too neat.

Green patches next, in VJ Reflective Green.  Again it was put on it quite bold strokes, trying to cross patches of brown at angles.  It doesn't matter if the paint is a little thin either, in fact it can be helpful, as on the real smocks the colours do seen to show through one another to some degree.  Once the green was on I tidied up the webbing in Khaki.

Everything is looking a bit bright and, to be honest, a bit shoddy at this point but this is where the washes come in.  Shading was a simple matter of a wash of GW Badab Black for the guns, which was followed up with GW Devlan mud over the whole figure.  I've not tried the new washes from GW, I only hope they work as well as these ones do!

Once the wash was dry, a quick highlight was achieved by simply using the original base colour on any raised detail.  The helmets had a quick drybrush with khaki to bring out the netting, and the boots a rough highlight with Black Grey.  I didn't try and highlight the smocks; it's a ridiculously time consuming thing to do and, in my opinion at least, the camo should stay quite dark so that the webbing and other details don't get lost.

So there you have it, how I've been painting Brit Paras.  Do let me know below the line if you've found it useful (or, indeed, if you have any suggestions on how I could improve the next batch!).

Tally Ho!

Xmas X-Wings and Gaming Gifts

A bit late, perhaps, but I'm going to cast my mind back to the heady days of 2012 and reflect on what the Christmas period brought along to join the Slippery Slope.

It would be fair to say that whilst I didn't quite have the Christmas I'd planned, it was still a pretty good one, and surprisingly productive from a gaming and modelling point of view.  The original plan was that Mel and I would spend Christmas with my folks down in Dorset (South West England to those not so familiar with the UK).  However heavy rain and flooding across the country soon put paid to those plans, as we watched the updates of cancelled and delayed trains mount up online (you know those people you see on news reports being passed hot cups of tea by well meaning volunteers whilst having to spend the night stranded in some community centre somewhere?  Well, I didn't want that to be us!).  At one point it looked like we'd be spending Christmas on our own, until Mel's sister took pity on us and made room for us to join them and the rest of Mel's family just down the road.

Well fed and rested, and with the flood waters receding, we finally headed south.  I think I've mentioned before that much of my interest in modelling came from my Dad who, in a burst of nostalgia, presented me a with a rather lovely little pre-painted kit of an X-wing to assemble, bless him!

The same thinking seemed to have somehow infected my sister, who provided more modelling material in the form of some Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IVs (I know what one of my next projects is going to be!)

As if that weren't impressive enough, we even managed a bit of gaming (sort of...).  At this point it's important to note that my Mum is a fanatical watcher of TV soaps (even over Christmas) which the rest of us find pretty tedious, so we planned ahead with some games to distract the rest of us.  On a whim, I'd picked up 'Zombies!!!' already, and Mel retaliated with Lego Creationary (think Pictionary, but with Lego).  Lego won the toss and much hilarity and confusion ensued as we all tried to guess at the increasingly disastrous (and possibly alcohol fuelled) attempts to build something even vaguely recognisable.

Mr 'Dad' demonstrates traditional west country 

ceremonial costume, complete with flashing ball

Much fun was had, brussel sprouts were consumed, and wine flowed.  But all good things come to an end, and we slogged back to Derbyshire with the intention of having a nice quiet New Years in, just the two of us.

Yep, you guessed it, that didn't quite go to plan either...

A bit of a family crisis instead saw us hosting Mel's sister and our two little nieces (it seemed only fair, as they'd taken pity on us the week before).  This is where 'Zombies!!!' comes in again.  In a surprise twist, the elder of the two, Isobel (10), turned out not only to be quite comfortable with the idea of the undead roaming the streets, she also turned out to be a proficient and distinctly devious board game player, who proceeded to win time and again against the (so-called) grown-ups!

Things look 'dicey' for Mel's survivor

For anyone after a simple, 'beer and pretzels' type game I can recommend 'Zombies!!!', it even got Mel quite hooked, and she's not normally much into games.  The rules take a couple of run throughs to get used to, but once you have they're pretty simple and don't get in the way of the fun.  The objective is simply to be first to the helipad to escape, with each player taking it in turns to move and fight with their character and then move a random number of zombies (the game comes with about 100 zombies of two types).  Straightforward enough in concept but the random map (each player draws a new map tile each turn until the helipad one turns up) keeps things fresh for each game, while the event and item cards positively encourage back-stabbing and underhand tactics throughout.

Never trust a 10 year old with a chainsaw and hand grenades, that's all I'm saying...

Normal Service WILL be resumed

Just a quickie to remind everyone (including myself) that I'm still about.  Work, life and continuing computer troubles have kept me from doing much more than making the odd comment for a while, but I'll be trying to get some posts in and updating shortly.

Meanwhile, I've finally found time to paint something!  Here's a couple of not brilliant pics of some Airfix Afrika Korps painted up in fieldgrey.  With a bit of a squint they'll do fine for Ost battalion troops in Normandy, and add a bit of variety to my German Infantry.

The chap on the bottom left appears to suffer from the "Curse of Airfix German SMGs", and is carrying something highly improbable, in this case what looks like an MP41 (which was never issued to front line troops).  I suppose I can squint at it and pretend its the German manufactured version of the Beretta, or maybe not.

Also, many thanks for all the kind words said in response to my last post about the British paras.  To those of you who asked if I could do a step by step...

Now I just need a day that's not freezing cold and a howling gale to get the undercoated!

Back online with some Red Devils

Right, new laptop purchased, backup restored as best I can, point me at the web!  Probably a few posts to come as I catch up with myself, I'll also be catching up on my reading and commenting on the great work my fellow bloggers have been getting up to during my time in Limbo.

First up, some test models for British Paras.  This initial four are from the Italeri Anti Tank Teams set and are really nicely sculpted, if at the larger end of 1/72.  For the Brit paras, the Denison smock is the iconic bit of kit, so I wanted to make sure that I could paint it successfully before embarking on any more, hence starting with these four as a test.  If successful, I have another set of Italeri paratroopers waiting in the wings (I'd love to add the Esci 'Red Devils' set to this list, but they seem to be as rare as hen's teeth).

 

I've tried out two variations on the camo, which you can see above.  On the left I started with a GW Foundation Paint Gretchin Green basecoat for the smock, the right started out as yellow ochre.  From what I understand, the early denison smock was quite yellow, but became a more olive colour later.  From that point of view I think the left hand version is more appropriate for Normandy onwards, but I'd be interested to hear what others think.  I'm quite please with how the brown and green patterns have turned out, it helps that the smock pattern was originally just brush strokes of thin paint!

 A couple more, this time the PIAT operator is in the yellow ochre base version, with the 'late war' pattern on the chap with the rather nicely done 2" mortar.

Offline :-(

They do say bad luck comes in threes and that certainly seems to have been the case at Morey towers recently, at least where technology is concerned.  The month started with the dishwasher flooding, proceeded on to the microwave catching fire and now, most frustratingly, my MacBook pro has decided its lost the will to live. A trip down to my nearest repair shop confirmed that the motherboard has shuffled off this mortal coil. More alarmingly, recovering the data from the hard disk isn't certain.

I'm managing some limited access to the web via my iPhone, but it's not ideal, and it certainly doesn't see eye to eye with blogger!  All this is a roundabout way of saying that my already poor posting rate will be even worse for a bit! Also to let all those whose blogs I follow that I am reading and enjoying all your posts as usual, but apologise if I don't comment as much Capctcha in particular is problematic from the phone).

I promise I'll have plenty to post about when normal service is resumed, including my first attempts at Brit paras and their Denison smocks!

And last but most certainly not least, a big thank you to fellow blogger Friendly Fire (who has a great blog concentrating on WWII 20mm models) who's nominated me for the 'leibster' award that's doing the rounds. Thank you FF! I'm supposed to copy and paste some info about the award here and pass it on, but that seems a bit beyond my current IT capabilities, do it may need to wait a bit, sorry!

Toodle pip!

Where have I been? What time is it?

My painting and posting rate isn't exactly prolific at the best of times, but it's really nosedived recently.

The reason?

The release by Firaxis Games of "Xcom, Enemy Unknown" of course!

For those of you who don't know (and I'm disappointed in you if you don't ;-) ), this is a remake of the hugely popular 1990's turn based strategy game.  I wasted many an hour with my Uni buddy James repelling the Alien invasion back then and, when they announced a remake, was a mix of excited and nervous.  Would they trash my fond memories?

Luckily, no.  What they've come up with is a game that brilliantly updates the original.  They've kept the 'feel' of the original game nicely, evolving the designs and look of the game well for the capabilities of modern graphics without losing its sense of fun, but it remains as brutal as the original, with operatives biting the dust on a regular basis (new squaddies may as well arrive dressed in a red shirt...).

In some ways its a game of two parts: the strategy side of managing your resources (cash, facilities, research, manufacturing and troops), of which you will never have enough to do everything you want; and the turn based combat when you have to deal with an alien incursion or investigate a downed UFO.

"do you think we've found them?"

It wasn't long before I realised I was basically playing a tabletop skirmish game, but with sprites instead of minis.  And what an elegantly simple system it would make!  Each soldier basically has two actions to take (later promotions and skills amend this a bit, but not by much): move/move, fire, move/fire, action, move/action.  Yet it doesn't feel repetitive or too basic.  Range and cover alter the percentage chance of hitting, and damage is set by weapon, to which critical hits are added with more damage.  It wouldn't take much effort at all to turn this into a basic set of pretty familiar seeming tabletop rules.

One aspect that has given me pause for thought though is the approach to morale.  One thing it isn't in this game is predictable.  Each soldier has a 'Will' score, which defines how likely they are to panic generally, but it's pretty tough to predict when it will actually happen, or how it will affect them.  Some will run, some will hunker down behind cover and whimper (literally!), they might also fire wildly; bad news if there are friendlies nearby but, as on one memorable mission, they might also fire back on the enemy, winning you the mission!  I found myself contrasting this to most tabletop rulesets I know and realising how predictable morale often is in them.  Most will set some clear break point at which morale must be tested (usually something like 50% casualties), and the result is nearly always one of two: run away, or the unit ceases to exist.  Hardly uncontrollable, unpredictable panic, is it?  There's something to be learned here, I'm just not sure what it is yet.  I'll keep you posted...

Now, I must leave you again for a moment.  There are aliens abducting people in New Mexico, and I'm needed elsewhere.  Just put on this red shirt rookie, and don't worry, you'll be fine...

Tank!

SWMBO was off having a girly night out with her sisters this last weekend, leaving me all to my own devices.  What was a lonely boy to do?  Play with toys of course!

I decided to catch up with the exploits of the US infantry platoon from 'Buying the Farm' (blimey, was that over a year ago?  I need to game more often!).  Both sides rolled up the same mission, which meant it defaulted to an 'escalating conflict' mission for both sides, effectively a straight meeting engagement.  I particularly wanted to try out the revised vehicle rules from the beta version of FAD 5 (which can be found through the yahoo group, here), so both forces had some armour to play with.

The scenario was that Lt Robinson and the boys had given the job of scouting ahead to find the enemy, mounted up in half tracks and jeeps, with an M8 Greyhound and Sherman in support.  Unfortunately they are about to run into a small German group heading the other way with intention of setting up an armour ambush.

US forces:

HQ - 4 models, M1, regular, jeep

1st Squad - 1 thompson, 6 M1s, 1 BAR, 'trigger happy' (+1 fire effect), M3 half-track

2nd Squad - 1 thompson, 6 M1s, 1 BAR, M3 half-track

3rd Squad - 1 thompson, 5 M1s, 1 BAR, M3 half-track

Bazooka Team (mounted in 3rd squad half track)

M8 Greyhound

M4 Sherman

German forces:

HQ - MP40s and Kar 98, half track with PAK38

1st Squad, MP40, Kar 98, MG42 and 2 crew, half track

2x StugIII

Sdfkz 222

Kar 98s have the 'bolt action' rule (only roll 1D6 for fire effect) and the Stugs are 'slow firing' (cannot move and fire)

The forces aren't exactly balanced, but to be honest I always like the 'story' side of gaming, so I go with what seems an appropriate force for an interesting game.

Aerial Recon of the battlefield

The US forces approached form the 'south', the Germans the 'north'.  The US approached in two columns, the M8, HQ, 2nd and 3rd squad advancing up the road to the hamlet; with the Sherman and 1st squad advancing up past the farm building towards the centre.  The Germans sent the armoured car and Stugs up the centre, with the infantry skirting the farm on their right flank.

 The US enter the battlefield

 German armoured column advances

The US right flank advanced rapidly up to the hamlet, depositing the platoon HQ and bazooka team in one of the ruins where they could cover the cross roads with fire.  Meanwhile the Sherman nosed into a hedgerow for cover and, as its escorting infantry de-bussed and took to the hedgerows for cover, took a pot-shot at the advancing Stugs, but with more enthusiasm than accuracy!  Fortunately the return fire was little better.

The two armoured cars both raced to contest the crossroads, with the M8 getting the first shot off, writing off the '222, only to get popped by one of the Stugs, which had veered off into cover in the farm, while the other engaged in a ill-fated gunnery duel with the Sherman (who's crew had clearly calmed down and worked out what they were doing) and the halftracks advanced down the right flank.

 Assault gun hide n seek

Aware that their best chance of success was to take out the Sherman, giving them superiority in armour, the remaining Stug risked an advance to the crossroads, placing trust in luck and armour, while the PAK38 equipped half-track advanced to the farm building where it could set up for a flank shot.  Sadly for them, the Sherman crew were now on a roll, brewing up the unfortunate assault gun.  Worse was to come, as the bazooka crew found themselves with a possible shot at the half track and made the most of it, convincingly decimating it and its passengers, despite it being hull down.

Being the only ones left, the remaining German infantry, which had started advancing through the woods on the US flank, decided that discretion was the better part of valour against a combined arms force in good cover and fell back, ending the game.

 Forwards!  Or maybe not...

 Burnt out vehicles at the crossroads

 US Infantry 'encourage' the German withdrawl

 The final state of play (in colour, no less!)

All in all, a very interesting game.  With armour on the table, the infantry pretty much put their heads down until one side had superiority, perhaps not an unrealistic result!  The only infantry unit to open fire was the bazooka, with spectacular results.  Armoured combat in FAD5 is incredibly simple and pretty deadly between matched opponents.  Roll to hit, roll to penetrate and, if you do, it's likely a  kill.  No record keeping of damage points or endlessly shooting different bits off the same tank here!  For me, this seems entirely appropriate for armour clashing in a game that's pretty much occuring in small arms range.

The Stugs really struggled with a having to act offensively in this game because of the 'slow firing' rule but, again, I think this felt right and I think I'll keep it.  It'll be interesting to see how they fare in a more defensive role.  I do think that some using opportunity fire will be needed for these and AT guns to keep them from being too vulnerable to more conventional tanks.

I did find that the vehicles fair zipped around the table.  Was it too much or was this appropriate?  Not sure, Jury's out on that one for now (I could always swap units from inches to cm if needs be).  The temptation to nip about is probably what led to both armoured cars getting themselves exposed and in so much trouble.  It certainly proves why recon units were not supposed to go engaging 'true' armour!

Here's hoping it's not another 14 months until the next installment!