CV-35 tankette (Hungarian army)

Last month was pretty busy - sadly busy in real life, not just having huge line of models waiting for painting. Worse luck next 2 months don't seem to look any better because of some shit job I got involved into, but I guess Mighty Universe wouldn't give me a quest I'm not able to deal with 🙄

Anyway a month ago I dealt with 39.M Csaba for upcoming Hungarian project and just yesteday CV-35 tankette rolled off the painting station. Just like the previous model it's printed (that works great for vehicles) except for the commander. This dude comes from Warlord's tank crew set. The driver is nothing special but there was no other opcton and the idea was to make tankette bit more unique - in case I ever want to get the second one for the Axis ally.

Painting was fun - not sure the camo pattern is what I wanted to achieve but working with Blu Tack on such a small and kinda busy surface was problematic (contrary to Hetzer and Toldi). So here it is - ready to stop soviet invasion on Budapest:

The tank crew set contained models standing on ordinary bases (ready to add them to infantry squad or something) and some to be placed into hatches. Again - to make model more unique (and even more properly Hungarian) I replaced original German tank comander with the Hungarian. It's slightly smaller compared to original model, but it can be barely noticed from a distance, It's only gaming model after all: 

39.M Csaba (Hungarian army)

Bolt Action is on a roll at the beginning of 2026!

After dealing with two entries for painting contest (infantry squad and vehicle) I decided paint one more toy for VERY slowly growing Hungarian army. 

At first it even wasn't second army project - I simply liked camouflage pattern (nice change after painting US stuff olive, olive and olive) and some weirdo Hungarian vehicles. But during the painting contest on Strategie.net.pl I spotted some printed entries - which were remarkably cool! 

So I got 3 models, which means this with 38.M Toldi and Hetzer makes the armored platoon full... 

In new edition of Bolt Action we can field more vehicles then in the previous one. Hungarians have many rather cheap models available (absolutely most expensive is Hetzer from Axis support: barely over 200 points) so I plan to field full armored platoon: 5 vehicles. Battle experience clearly shows cheap, mostly anti-infantry vehicles are much better investment then expensive, fat über-tank.

For this one I tried another version of ambush camouflage. It's much more "vivid" compared to previous models, because during painting I ran out of olive green and the only color available was light green from Vallejo line. I didn't want to wait for delivery so it was mixed with bronze and violet to make useful base color and all in all final result is acceptable. Maybe not enough dirt for my taste, yet still cool. The turret got magnet to secure it from falling off (this resin or whatever it really is) is quite fragile and I do not want to risk breaking the barrel.

Apparently I f#cked magnet inserting, becuase the gap between turret bottom and hull seems to be just too large. Might put it on hobby station to fix it.
And add more dirt... 😁

And below - new Hungarian ride together with it's tracked cousin 38.M Toldi and Hetzer from German support. Warlord Games sells Hungarian tank crew to I hope to get this set and replace officer in Hetzer:

German winter squad

After dealing with the captured IS-2 I decided to support that thing with some basic infantrymen: tanks operating without infantry are nothing but easy prey for enemy anti-tank squads. I don't play German army but last year (almost exactly one year ago surprisingly!) I got Foliescu's Hetzer, together with some test prints. Among them - few winter Germans.

Must admit I haven't painted any human miniatures designed by Foliescu so far, but these are just frigging brilliant. Detail quality is awesome, also proportions are much better then original Bolt Action models. They also seem to be slightly taller, but I guess it's because models were created in proper 28 mm scale.

Models below come from different sets: ordinary infantry and vehicle crew, but painted similar way they look great as squad of eastern front veterans. Especially the two about to engage in hand to hand combat. Models are light (prints after all) so just in case I ever get more of these - base got magnets, just like soviet assault squad. The guy carrying MP40 Schmeisser is from Stoessi's Heroes line - it's slightly smaller compared to his comrades, yet the sculpt is also damn cool and fits the squad. 

Deadly combat with United States G.I.s is about to start!

And yeah: I DO NEED winter themed photo backdrop... 🙄

Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Foliescu"

I definitely needed a break after dealing with zombie dragon, and there's no better break from painting stuff from cutie fantasy range then visitig dirty fronts of World War II. A while back I had a chat with Propylene Foliescu about designing and producing models from WW2 range and long story short I got test print of new Hetzer tank destroyer to paint.

It's actually the third Hetzer I've been working on (the previous one was painted for my never-to-be-started-Hungarian-army) but one is pretty unique. I don't mean some casting flaws (it's test print as mentioned before) but it's 1/50 scale instead of 1/56 used in Bolt Action. That means it's sligtly larger and beacause of this it's just brilliant. Until now I didn't ralize how much underscaled official Bolt Action models really are. So much, I'd surely consider switching models I have to 1/50 scale - If I only had too much time and $ to waste.

I was asked to paint it historically accurate. Sadly I am only "gaming" painter, so what you can see below it's another modest attempt to paint winter camouflage. Must admit I had lots of fun painting ambush camo and then covering it with white paint. Working on models is usually messy but you can see results pretty quickly so it's just very motivating.

So here it is. Looking forward to see more Foliescu's stuff on the painting desk sometimes:

And some scale-comparison pics - Italeri's "official" version is significantly smaller:

Bolt Action bunker

After dealing with Slaanesh cavalry I had to take a breaf from painting ping, purple and other disguisting colors of God ov Forbidden Pleasures. Some time ago my buddy brought me a souvenir from his trip - which surprisingly turned out to be Warlord's bunker. 

The model was assembled like 1,5 year ago, but since our  gaming kinda dropped, there was not much motivation to do anything with the piece. Until now: solid chunk of dirt and reinforced WWII concrete was great material material from painting fantasy stuff.

In order to provide better view for the bunker crew (and also to make model look better on the battlefield) I put it on a hill. Hill couldn't be steep, so infantry models can be placed on it without walling, so during the process it grew kinda more then initially planned. In fact it was so big painting it on hobby station was just impossible. See?

I didn't want it to be just a sand dune, so static grass was applied on top - we play our battles in European was theatres. The grass turned out much flatter then I expected - I assume it's because of applicator I use, which is home-made device. Apparently I should invest in better hardware before starting works on the next terrain piece 😁

Some scale shots - that thing is just one big line of sight blocker!

Some scale shots with other terrain features:

And the cherry on top: some high class special effects:

And the applicator - looks like some kinda gretchin torture device 😁

Next stop: converted exhalted champion of Chaos (hopefully).

Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Gulash"

Howdy,

July is nearly over so I'm glad I was able to boost painting statistics by one more model:
Hungarian tank destroyer - Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Gulash".

After 38.M Toldi it's the second unit for my (veeery slowly) growing Bolt Action Hungarian army. It's more painting than gaming project actually. Because of trying to relocate to Big City and some other life issuses, I don't have enough spare time to paint another infantry swarm. But I have just enough time to practice Hungarian ambush camo and slap some paint on Warpainter's candies... 😊

It's the second Hetzer I've painted during my hobby career. The previous one was painted for my brother almost 4 years ago (sigh!). That one was Warlord's model - it was simply horrible sculpt and cast (sorry...). The new one is Italeri's production - clear, sharp, absolutely no complains.

Once again I gace a try to painting some camo, which was such a relief after painting all those US vehicles! I am even more happy I managed to resist the urge of applying mud - every time I open the pot I get berzerk  and ofter ruin the paintwork.

Hope you like the paintjob. 

Some more heavy support from Warpainters foundries should come next... 😎

And my whole Hungarian force at current state. Almost 300 pts ready for battle! 😁

Laterz!

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!