Ludi incipiant!

I hardly have touched a brush since the end of the challenge, thus I finally took the opportunity to take some pictures of miniatures I already painted last year but didn't come round to post.

First will be my small collection of Gladiators.

remember to click for a bigger picture

Miniatures are from the superb Crusader Miniatures range and were a real joy to paint. I even took the chance to try to hand paint the shields. I'm rather chuffed I have to admit.
In my opinion Gladiators also offer the perfect chance to try out some recipes for different skin colours.

I still have some more of these in the painting queue but these will have to wait till I feel a little more like painting again.

Till next time!

Some 15mm for a change

After having painted a sizable US Paratrooper force for the Battle of the Bulge over the last two years, I decided it was about high time to give them some opponents...

... oh well, bugger that.

No, in fact I started work on some US Army guys ready to invade Tunisia/ Sicily/ Normandy. Figures are the current Battlefront plastic offerings. I got them for a steal which meant instead of painting up some Brits for a change, I was stuck with US... again.
The figures are OK-ish. Better than most of their metal ones but still there's the odd miscast in the mix.

Bring on the armour!

Having had a few days off this last week I decided I'd would probably make best use of it by painting up some of the armour, that was sitting unfinished on my shelf for months now.
While I generally like painting armour I need to be in the right mood for it, as firstly I actually quite hate airbrushing and secondly I'm always worrying about overdoing the weathering.

Soviet Tank Rider Squad

Who would have guessed? Three consecutive entries in just as many weeks. Seems like while the challenge slowly but surely is drawing to a close my hobby boat is finally taking up some much needed steam.

This week sees me back at a project I keep returning to time and again, but never quite seem to have the stomach to see it through. 

Fallschirmjäger Support & Volksgrenadier with ride

Just a token submission today as life has once again got rather busy around here. I won't bore you with the details as I know you all will be familiar with such moments in your hobby lives.
After having just recently made the switch from Bolt Action to Chain of Command -and not having regretted it for a second- I felt the need for adding a few items to my Fallschirmjäger force.

SCW Milicianas & Milicioanos

It's almost been a month since my last entry, which is a shame as I had the miniatures for this submission sitting almost finished on my desk, for the best part of two weeks.
Real life got in the way and thus I only came round to take pictures this week.

Condor Legion 8.8cm Flak

We have a saying here in Germany: "Mit Kanonen auf Spatzen schiessen", literally translated as "To shoot with cannons at sparrows", meaning something along the lines of cracking a nut with a sledgehammer.
And that in my opinion sums up the 8.8cm FlaK, when used in an anti-tank role in a Spanish Civil War setting, nicely. Shooting high velocity armour-piercing rounds at targets with paper thin armour could be considered something of an overkill by some, but that's just what happened.

Tropas Regulares de Marruecos

This entry definitely was a close run thing. Just as I type this I'm waiting for a colleague of mine to pick me up for work. I still have to pack my stuff for the week, so I better make this short.
Well, todays entry sees the first few Moroccan Regulars for my ongoing Spanish Civil War project.

Reinforcements for la Legión

My first post in the new year and I'm back to a project from last years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Back then I started what was to become my main project for the whole of 2017, i.e. a force for gaming the Spanish Civil War. I settled on starting with the rather fetching Spanish foreign legion but it inevitably became two forces as I simply couldn't pass by all those lovely Republicans on offer from Empress Miniatures.
Still, I'm back to reinforce la Legión in order to finally get in some games using Chain of Command from the TooFatLardies.

A hump for DaveD

At Crisis in November I had the chance to not only meet our honourable host Curt, but also had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of co-challenger, fine fellow and all-round gentleman Dave D. The state of the hobby was discussed, a few beers were had and all in all it was a wonderful time out.

From left to right: DaveD, RobP (behind), ChristopherS, JakeK, Jerry Miller and his wife Christine, myself , Curt and MikeF