British Paras, BEF JoP's and a building

Today an a little diverse diverse mix as I'm trying to tie up some loose ends before the 10th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge starts in a matter of days.
Work-life balance is a little difficult at the moment as I've only just started a new job and thus am constantly away from home for the foreseeable future. So there's precious little hobby time to be had.
Be that as it may, I've actually managed to paint up a few things.

Let's start with a demi-squad of British Paras:

TooFatLardies are about to release an Operation Market Garden supplement for Chain of Command some time soon, so these chaps will come in handy at some point. Figures are from the venerable Foundry range and were a joy to paint. These are Perry sculpts from back in the day when they still knew how to sculpt figures you actually enjoy to paint...
Albeit a little more heroic they scale well with the old Warlord Games metal Paras sculpted by Paul Hicks.

Next is something I've been neglecting for far too long. Jump Off Points for my BEF:

And last but not least I have my brothers FDM-printer on loan, so set about printing me a hand full of buildings. The first one I actually painted up already:

You can still see some minor striations but for a terrain piece I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out. There are a few more sitting on the painting table, so I actually might paint them over the course of the challenge.

So, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by and have a nice week!

1940 BEF - 25mm Hotchkiss anti-Tank gun

To counter the threat posed by German Panzers I wanted another anti-tank gun to support my BEF. As I already have a QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun my attention turned to another piece fielded by the British at the beginning of World War II: The French made 25mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun.

1940 BEF - 2nd 2" mortar, additional riflemen & Platoon Sergeant

One thing I came to recognize in our last games was the effectiveness of the British 2" mortar when deploying smoke. So I swiftly decided to paint me up another one as a support option. I also needed another two riflemen to bring up all of my four sections to the 11 men required for a 1940 Regulation BEF Platoon. And last but not least, as I'm rather a stickler for WYSIWYG,  a Platoon Sergeant armed with a rifle. All models are Warlord Games.

Additional crew figures for the leIG 18

Continuing from last weeks leIG 18 I needed some more crew figures to make up the numbers required for Chain of Command.

7,5cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 - le.IG 18

For our ongoing 'There Are Many Rivers To Cross' campaign mate Chris (aka Axebreaker from christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.com) wanted a Leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 to give him some additional punch against infantry. While not particularly keen on having to face that rather nasty piece of equipment I quite like the look of that stubby nosed little gun. So I set to work on the Early War model of the gun by Warlord Games. That said both gun and figures would be perfectly suitable for the entire conflict. Only the gunner on the left of the gun is a figure from the PaK 38 set by Perry Miniatures with a spare head from Warlord.

Vintage car

Just a short post today with a little terrain piece for the gaming table. A vintage car I printed with my 3D printer. Unfortunately the print wasn't 100% perfect so I decided to turn it into a terrain piece with the addition of a dust cover draped over it to hide the flaws. A cat lounging on the bonnet rounded things off nicely. Should make for nice piece of scatter terrain in games set in the SCW and WW2.

MG 08/15's and British Para

One option for a German force in the 1940 Blitzkrieg handbook for Chain of Command is the use of the iconic WW1 vintage MG08/15 for lower quality troops. As there's currently no manufacturer out there doing Wehrmacht figures armed with that venerable piece of equipment I had to resort to WW1 Germans from Renegade Miniatures. Great War Miniatures also offer a set with beautifully sculpted MG08/15's with crew but these are unfortunately sporting putties instead of jackboots unlike the Renegade ones. So being neither skilled nor patient enough to pull of greater works of conversion I settled on the Renegade figures. They received simple head swaps and most of their telltale WW1 equipment was filed off and replaced by bits from various plastic German sprues by Warlord Games. Good enough for gaming purposes.

1940 BEF - Bofors 40mm gun

Despite their use in France in 1940 for some inexplicable reason there's no entry for the famous Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft autocannon in the Blitzkrieg 1940 handbook for Chain of Command. Still I rather fancied to get me a model of this iconic gun for quite a while already. And even if it's just as an off-board marker for having purchased an AA-asset. Now having recently ordered some reinforcements for my BEF from Warlord Games I included their version of the Bofors gun as it was in use in 1940. Well, the kit has some issues, especially where historical accuracy is concerned, for example the NCO is carrying the later P-37 entrenching tool, but still is rather nice all round.

Ferrea Mole, Ferreo Cuore - M13/40 tank

This "beast" has taken me quite a while. Several changes in real life (tm) and a general lack of hobby MoJo kept getting in the way of its completion but now it's finished I'm rather chuffed with how it turned out.

The tank itself is by Warlord Games with some stowage made from Green Stuff and from Rubicon Models and Tamiya. The tank commander was sourced from Perry Miniatures.

There Are Many Rivers To Cross - Game 1: The Village

Thursday, 6th of June 1940 just south of Veckring, France. The morning mist has just dissipated and it promises to become a warm and pleasant day. The forecast says 20°C and a little windy. You can hear the thunder of artillery and the drone of bombers in the middle-distance. Everybody is edgy, something is in the air.