US infantry (winter war) #4

It's winter here (or rather: supposed to be) so it seems to be good idea to paint some more infantrymen for my Bolt Action winter themed force. Especially there's XXIX edition of painting contest on strategie.net forum running, which always works motivating. After dealing with Slaanesh force for Warhammer Fantasy painting some olive green was just breath of fresh air. Plus it's good warm up before painting ordinary G.I.s.

The proper entry for the contest is plastic infantry I got at the beginning of the year. For a long time I prefered metal models over plastics, but Warlord did really great job on this set. I especially like faces which are way better sculpted then faces of most Bolt Action models I have. But last year I also got US headquarters set on Road to Berlin 2025 which is supposed to command winter Bastogne offensive and which you can see below.

Painting scheme is well tested color combo backed with Citadel artifical snow. That white goo makes great contrast to olive and green and therefore infantry looks just more interesting on battlefield. I added magnets to all freshly painted models from Bolt Action range to makes transporting models easier and safer - it's the tip I spotted on Road to Berlin events - definitely recommended!

The HQ set contains officer, medic and forward observer. There's always something to do for additional NCO so there's never enough of them. Medic on the other hand has never paid off during the game but since I painted one quite a long time ago - now I can field a team. Not mentioning the fact model with stretches looks just so cool! Dude with radio is the observer - not sure I am brave enough to call an airstrike on the battlefield, but it can surely work also as an artillery spotter - indirect weapons are always good choice.  The one with white helmet is old spotter from Black Tree Designs range but with head swapped for plastic. It's the third time I am painting this specific model and help me Satan - the last one.

Right - time to start painting some cannon fodder for Battle of the Bulge campaign... 🫡  

As you can see spotter brought dark grimoire instead of military maps:

...which allowed the team to beat gravity!

Doomriders (undead cavalry)

Apparently bunch of skeletons left the closet!

And not only skellies but their meaty mounts as well! That means Army of the dead just got some fast unit (if we can really call anything fast in Undead army). Models you see below are deaders from Black Tree Design line. I got them long time ago so it was high time to see if there's anything going oin in their graves - and there was: boys sure wanted to take a ride...

Painting skeletons is always fun. Too bad these riders have only one version of mount. Sure it's oldchool and has lots of Oldhammer vibe, but painting another version of the very same sculpt is just boring. That's why I gave them different tones - just to make the team bit more interesting looking from over tabletop. Not mentioning the fact in old army books there were colorful zombies (green, yellow or even blue) - not total "grimdark" like nowdays... 🙄

I am big fan of metal models but after dealing with these guys I am pretty sure plastic or resin would be better material. Since everything is metal I didn't manage to pin bits together so there was only superglue used to bring them back to life. And that's the problem - I am pretty sure those heavy shields would be the first to fall off in case of any accident. 

Oh well - at least I don't play WFB anyore so it shouldn't be an issue... 😕

To lead them to battle there's mighty wight lord (painted also this year) and Leopold the Exhumed - which I got no idea how and when (most probably by accident during miniature swap ages ago). On the very bottom of "undead jar" there are some broken parts of skeleton horsemen staggering - I should check if I can assemble any complete models using those bones, 'cuz right now they become part of bases - just like Great Unclean One's...

Hope you like them anyway. Time to decide which models should be next saved from the depths of oblivion.

Some more Bolt Action GIs

Hello again,

This time it's just quick update about last preparations to coming edition of Road to Berlin: Bolt Action two days long gaming on march 30-31!
Last year it was just big success:
that event was just friggin awesome! I was taking as much pics as I could between giving orders to my trusty US army and rolling dices - definitely worthy visiting.

This year armies are 1200 pts strong so to fulfill the requirements I had to paint few more infantrymen and one more transport: Dodge 3/4 (a.k.a. Beep).

For uniforms I used olive combo, working really fine on US models.
New thing was using pigment binder - which turned out weird:
see that white spot on the bases with leaves? That white stuff revealed like day after models were sealed with matt varnish.
I think the reason was varnish was applied before binder was totally dry, but it's just a thought: haven't used dedicated pigment binder ever before.

Still like the team - they all look really good together with rest of my infantry:

As for the Dodge 3/4 painting was even easier. In fact, I've found painting the driver more challenging than rest of the model:

base colors were applied with airbrush, chipping medium was very helpful in getting worn look, dirt was painted with oils and thick mud on wheels is ready-to-use Vallejo stuff. Voila!

My invention was the machine gun: according to the rulebook Beep can be armed with mmg or hmg.

I prefer light version - additional 5 shots to support advancing infantry. The gun is spare mmg from M3A1 halftrack mounted on placcy stick (which actually is piece of zombie banner pole).

Gamewise I am actually considering getting one more transport like this:
regular and armed with mmg costs about 40 pts only (cheaper than static machine gun section). It can carry only 8 men but it's just enough for shock squad like full team or engineers or some veteran infantry (carrying 2 BAR and 3 smg). I guess it'll take some field testing before I write a letter to the Santa...

Herr Carstein has just arrived

Hello again,

It's been a while and I really missed posting. And painting.

But recently reality has thrown 'uuuge lump of shit into my life fan so hobby had to wait.

Anyway the previous post was about idea of building 2500 pts 5th ed Undead army. Since that time I've managed to paint ~530 points, which are:

- a skeleton (8 points)

- zombie horseman (28 points)

- vampire lord (495) - 5th edition rules after all.

For marketing purposes - here's current state of the main unit: (in theory) unbreakable tarpit of rotting flesh and bones. These should actually be skeletons but I think I'll mix skellies with zombies to make whole block more interesting. And heavy.

Freshly painted toys stand in the very middle:

my favorite vampire model from the back days and trusty skeleton champion emerging from below the ground:

I've always loved this sculpt: 100% member of Carstein family.

It's centerpiece of the army so decision had to be made which color scheme would fit it best: "official" night blue was really nice but I liked striking red published in 'Eavy Metal armies painting guide much more. 

But again - that would be the only such a colorful model in the whole army...

So looking for something in between Mr Carstein was painted rather simple and "believable":
since other vampired already wear violet / purple robes (funeral elegance...) this one also got similar outfit with some bright gems and healthy, dead-white complexion for contrast.

Looking at the pics now I think I should've added something on the black part of cloak- more than mid-grey highlighting...

It's sure fine for gaming purposes and I ain't going for Golden Demon (or anywhere else) with the piece, but leaving such a large area simply dark is kinda waste. 

Yeah... I'll definitely try to do something about it and take better photos: without filter on lamp minis cast shadows and raw photos seem to be "burnt". Thank Satan for GIMP...

As for the vampire's little buddy - it's my solution of the cloak problem:

model sure looks nice standing in the wind (maybe casting spells? or summoning storm? or whatever else) but that fucking cloak makes placing model between rank and file deaders pain in the ass.

There were several ideas about dealing with the problem:

- placing it on larger base: interesting idea for modeling purposes but idea was to make it gaming piece,

- using unit filler,

- not using cloak at all,

- something else.

I chose the last option: luckly there were some random bits of skellies in my bits box, which allowed to convert deader responding for vampire's call...

Convertion took like 10 minutes and I've finally found use for metal champion's head: I remember original owner used to fall because of head's weight.  

The army I am planning to assemble also contains cavalry:

not as main unit, which I used to field back days, but rather flanking group and / or mounted necromancer's cache.

A while back I got mysterious zombie rider (which actually turned out to be "Leopold the Exhumed" - Citadel C21 Undead Cavalry, sculpted by Bob Naismith, 1987) but it came with standard placcy skeleton steed instead of original one.

While looking for replacement for the mount I found Black Tree Designs skeleton cavalry: total Oldhammer! 

Models are simple but definitely fit oldschool army. There are 5 different skeletons riding zombie ponies, which is exactly what I need for the army.

Here's the first one - skleton horseman champion:

When the vampire's cloak is redone I'm starting skeleton chariot...

Zee Germanz!!! (+ zee zombie dragon)

Heyah,

Once again I've managed to slap some paint on toy soliders, this time it German tank destroyer: Jagdpanzer 38(t) a.k.a. Hetzer.
It's special piece because this sneaky bastard it birthday gift for my brother - painting that is, the model itself arrived a while back.
Anyway I wanted to paint it so the color fits brother's Heer infantry. Most of official patterns I found in the webspace is fancy camo but I went into something similar to german uniform / feldgrau (based on mix of olive and greys).
Everything was more-less fine until I started adding chipping and mud. All in all now it looks almost like my US vehicles. Next time I think I'll give a try to pure grey as base tone, maybe with nazi flag laying on armour for contrast. Plenty of time for planning 'till the next birthday.

Hope you like it:

 

Because my short "holiday" is over so I decided to get remaining 4 models painted, to get basic US army detachment fully painted. 

Sure, there's still plenty work ahead, but it's just basic ~1000-1200 pts.

Remaining models are 3 Black Tree Design riflemen and West Wind Productions BAR operator. They are all cool: models are more-less same size as my fav Artizan pieces so they all look great as crowd / squad. Besides my infantry constantly remains 100% metal =]

Painting is nothing spectacular: the same color palette as before to keep whole infantry coherent. Backpacks and ammo belts of the shooters were painted with VGC camouflage green, which nicely fits olive uniforms. 

If I find more models with backpacks I hope to build 8-men strong engineer squad: 2x BAR and flamethrower in a single unit sounds just sweet! (and smells gasoline + burnt flesh...).

Field "hospital" in the back (or rather camouflaged ammo storage as my opponent claims...) is adopted spare piece from Rubikon Models US truck I got recently. I was hoping to get more striking colors using chalks, but all in all it didn't turn out as planned. 

Red Cross is another experiment - more successful this time. I wanted it look like soliders painted it in the field, so I prepared simple stencil and used sponge for applying thick layer paint. Some unpainted areas were left on purpose so whole thing looks more realistic (hopefully...). I also hope to paint some camo on next tank (Sherman 76mm or Chaffee) using sponge. Results might be interesting.

And last thing 'bout BA this time: since the last post we've also managed to play some Bolt Action games - improving the matches a bit. 

First improvement is aerial recon. General idea is:

battlefield is set up at least few days before the game and players can find in mail boxes (mail, not e-mail!) photo of the field so the best forces can be chosen. Usually some partisans gets killed to provide such materials for the commanding officers:

Nice, eh?  And below - the actual battlefield.

All in all it's not much effort but lots of fun getting true letter these (modern) days.

Another upgrade is grass: 

until now we played of simple board painted green but last week proper gaming mat was found and suddenly everything looks WAY better. Kinda brings back memories of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 5th ed. reports. Almost pro.

All I have to do now is somehow force the opponents to paint their minis. Or at least spray undercoat, so the battle photos don't look like US army faces bunch of T-1000...

And last but not least: Photobucket recovery series.

This time I'm bringing oldie Zombie Dragon painted on February 2014. 

The model is quite old and for me it's still one of fav miniatures from Warhammer Undead army. I think I should give it new pictures next time I get it cleaned. 

And maybe finally assemble Dieter Helsnicht...

Since we're around Oldhammer - recently I found oldie chaos champion model in the back of glass case. Sadly I have no use for it so decision was made to find new home for the piece.

If you think it might feel better in your place - let me know (here or via FB), for gaming purposes I can remove the plinth and replace it with standard base.
Some more pics in the proper Facebook Oldhammer Trading Post thread.

Till the next time!

Mini exchanged Gorkamorka dude (+ some Bolt Action)

Hey again,

Once again there's not much I can share but at least it's something rather unusual: Gorkamorka ork. But let's start from the beginning.

Short while back our old Chest of Colors painting group has been gathered again. I was rotting in the office when I spotted mysterious link sent from CofC admin: invitation to slack messenger. I clicked it aaand...

TA-DAAA...!!!

Most of CofC veteran painters were there already. It was great surprise for me - kinda like high school class reunion. But better, 'cause from what I know class reunions suck like fucking hell (never been at any speaking of which - there's no need to risk wasting evening).

It was really cool thing to chat again with those guys. Long story short - after exchanging pleasantries mini exchange was mentioned. When I was still in the CofC group there were 6 exchanges - always successful. So the decision was made to have some fun once again.
After secret drawing it turned out I was painting a model for rejven - fresh blood in the group (definitely fresher then mine that is...)

All I knew was rejven was into Warhammer 40k.
Looking for something rather unique in the pile ov lead some excavations were organized and the result was oldie blister containing 3 Gorkamorka ork shootas.

I remember I got them long time ago, maybe 10 years ago, when I was still hoping for:
- assembling Gorkamorka warband, based on original models,
- finding Gorkamorka player.
All I achieved was getting these shootazzz and ork boss...

Mid 90's was the best period in the hobby in my opinion. EE models from that time were just sweet, especially greenskins. They sure were kinda cartoony (just check Orcs and Goblins WFB 5th ed army book) but it was that candy look what dragged me into the hobby.
Gorkamorka models seem to be slightly smaller than 40k greenskins - probably to place more of them on trucks and buggies. They even had special rugby-ball bases!

So the patient has been chosen.
I decided to give him rather natural look, imo much more natural than you could see in the old army books. Painting this lil' bastard was nothing but fun. Since it's special model instead of ordinary base it got resin plinth - it's harder to loose it now. Hope you like it.
But hope much more recipient likes it...

 

Speaking of Gorkamorka - I still have one more painted model from this range:
slightly converted badass ork boss. Picture has been taken long time ago but here's more-less what the dude looks like:

I actually have no use for this little bugger and I am quite sure he'd also prefer to crush some digga-skullz instead of just looking nice behing the glass.
If you'd like to adopt it - let me know, I'm going to put it on market anyway, when I get decent photo. It's provided with display base but I can replace it with gaming base if anyone needs.

What else?
Ah yes! Last week I passed the first exam on my studies so I finally got some spare time to finish anti-tank gun for my US force.
It's another piece of Black Tree Designs toy in my collection and I must say I really like it. Assembling was bit tricky but imho the final effect was worthy all the cursing...

Model comes with 3 crewmen: I decided to attatch only one to the base, remaining guys (those two unpainted bits in the back) got own bases so it's easier to remove casaulties.

Color choice was easy choice - it's basicaly the same set of tones I used on M3A1 halftrack and M18 Hellcat.

There are no pics of Hellcat anymore though, because of new and improved photobucket's policy. 

Fot the love of fuck! I do not mind using paid sites to keep photos safe but claiming cash for pics uploaded for years it's just goddamn blackmail. 

I don't even want to know how much material has been lost because of their fucked up idea. Hope that PB goes bankrupt shortly...

So believe or now - I used similar colors on Hellcat.
Remaining infantrymen will be painted soon.

And that's not all!
Last night we finally managed to meet and roll some dices. Once again brave american buys were facing evil, backstabbers from UK (out "so-called" ally...)
This time roads made by my bro were used for the first time and also we played on pre-set table: a day before battle I sent aerial photo of it so my opponent can choose something proper.
The table was something like this:

I was totally surprised with this piece: my opponent usually fields only light and fast units but last night there was heavy tank and I left my bazookas at home!

 

 

But reinforcements arrived on time: with some luck Sherman managed to stun Churchill's, jam the turret which was enogh to keep it off action for the rest of the match.

 

Brits also had reinforcements:

suddently Bren rolled in carrying 5 badass SAS operators. I had LOTS of luck because they didn't manage to wipe out my infantry squad scattering around ruins.
Moment later unit of my paratroopers jumped on SAS guys: halftrack took out Bren, US paras executed SAS spies. No mercy for the traitors!

 

And the aftermatch.

We had lots of fun with the game, playing on pre-set battlefield was also interesting. I think we'll test it again during next battle. I regret I didn't field the new cannon - it would have great shooting position thank to road corridor.

 

Thats's it for now, take care!