Franco-Prussian War French Line Infantry

As some might have noticed, Sören of Black Powder Games blog fame has anounced the start of a new company specialising in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 - 71. If not you definitely should pay a visit to his blog and see for yourself.

Some last miniatures before the challenge begins...

... well, to be precise, the frenzy that is 'The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge', has already begun.

By this time I wanted to be ready to go and to have cleared my painting table from any back log. But as every year I'm late and as I'm still in no real painting mood. I only finished the last miniatures while the challenge actually was already on for several hours.

Fallschirmjäger Colour Guide

It has taken me a while to finish this and frankly I'm hardly doing anything on the hobby front lately.
Nonetheless here's my Colour Guide on how I do my Fallschirmjäger.

Step 1: As before the figure was undercoated using Vallejo Black Surface Primer.
The trousers were done using my recipe for Feldgrau as detailed in my 'Late War German Colour Guide'. For the Jumpsmock I used:

A VMC German Field Grey + VMC Green Grey (~2/1)
B VMC German Field Grey + VMC Green Grey (~1/2)
C VMC Green Grey
D VMC German Camo Beige

Nous sommes unis - Nous sommes Paris

Mid War German Panzerkampfwagen III Ausführung L

I really don't know what it is that fascinates me that much about the Panzer III. Maybe it's the fact that it's often overlooked by gamers in favour of the later big cats or the Panzer IV. Or maybe it's just its shilouette which somehow looks mean and menacing, especially when compared to the design of Sherman tanks and the like. Or maybe it's the fact that it soldiered on during the whole conflict (albeit in ever diminishing numbers) despite beeing more or less obsolete since the Wehrmacht encountered the T-34 in Russia.
No matter what the reason is, the moment I saw Warlord Games releasing a plastic Panzer III I knew I had to get my hands on at least one of these beauties.

Late War German Colour Guide

Over the last few months I've recieved some requests as to how I'm painting my WW2 stuff. As it seems like there's quite some interest I've decided to write colour guides for my various armies. Please keep in mind these are not meant to be exhaustive or overly historically accurate. It's just the way I like MY miniatures to look.

The main problem concerning historical accuracy in my eyes is if you're going 100% accurate the miniatures might end up looking too drab on the table. So I'm generally going for brighter/ richer colours than might be 'true'.

Beeing a pot painter and having mixed most of my paints years ago all percentages given for colour mixes are just rough estimates and should be adjusted to individual needs/ preferences.

I'm working heavily with black lining using the black undercoat as some sort of darkest base colour. This certainly is no must but in my eyes helps to distinguish different albeit quite similar colours like for example VMC Fieldgrey and VMC Russian Green.

Step 1: To start things off I've already finished the base and given the miniature a thorough undercoat of Vallejo Black Surface Primer.

German Fallschirmjäger Squad

These guys were sitting in my mountain of shame for far too long. Actually they were the first historical miniatures I ever bought but after some more or less unsatisfactory goes at Splittertarn and/ or Sumpftarn I abandoned the whole project.

First Greyscale French Paratroopers for Indochina

Finally I've pulled the finger out and got going on the Paratroopers for my French Indochina war project in Greyscale. To be honest it really proofed to be a quite daunting and especially different task to try to emulate camo patterns in Greyscale compared to the rather straight forward Viet Minh.

German 8cm Granatwerfer 34

I've been meaning to load these pics up for a while now but sadly my Cam seems to have lost some of the photos (together with some of other on going projects) and I only now came round to take new ones. So here it is for you to enjoy, the German 8cm Granatwerfer 34 (kurz). Miniatures and decals by Warlord Games again.

The 8cm Granatwerfer 34 was the standard German heavy mortar of WW2. Its developement began in 1932 at the Rheinmetall company in Düsseldorf and was introduced into the Wehrmacht arsenal in 1934. From 1940 on the 'kurze 8cm Granatwerfer 42' was developed and put into production in 1941 as a replacement for the 5cm Granatwerfer 36. Weighing about half as much as the 'lange' (long) version and hence beeing more mobile it was primarily meant to be used by the Fallschirmjäger Divisions but was adopted later by the Wehrmacht as well.

Early War German Kradschützen Squad

Today I added the finishing touches to my German Kradschützen Squad. These were sitting in my drawer for some time now but somehow I always found another excuse why I had to paint up something else before.

Late War German Infantry Squad

Progress at last! These guys were sitting on my painting table for the better part of two months and finally they're done. Somehow a combination of the almost unbearable heat here, listlessness and painting blockade conspired against me to get these buggers off the table.

Best Birthday present ever!

Last year in September I had my 30th Birthday and ingenious like my beloved Missus is she gave me a very special Birthday present which I finally was able to enjoy on friday.

Some of you might remember an earlier post of mine about the "Alte Tante Ju" making sightseeing flights over some German towns (for those of you who don't here's the link). From that day on every time I heard the distinctive sound of her engines from above one could see me standing on my roof-deck or tightly pressing my nose to one of the roof windows like a little child. As the Missus finally had enough of cleaning the windows of nose and finger prints she thought it fitting to bestow such an flight upon me for my Birthday. To tell the truth it didn't really stop me from continuing my obsession and even now having enjoyed the trip of my life I'm running for the windows as soon as I hear her fly over.

So without much further ado here's some selected impressions I took to share with you:

here she is in all her splendour as seen from the gate

Sherman M4A3

In our last game of Bolt Action my friend Chris (aka Axebreaker of christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.de fame) was fielding the Germans and (so my impression) was a little reluctant to field 'real' German armour as all my Americans were able to put to the field was a M8 Greyhound.
So I felt I had to adress the matter.

The General

Dear chum Curt of "Analogue-Hobbies" fame and me have a little miniature exchange program running (well, shuffling would be a little more appropriate judging by our two glacial speed) since last challenge.

It all started when he asked me if I'd paint some figures for him. I had to refuse as my painting output is barely enough to satisfy my own need for painted lead. So we agreed on another arrangement which sees me painting a figure of his choice for him in exchange for a figure he does for me.

Last year I took a little short cut as he wanted me to paint a Aella figure from Footsore Miniatures (Then Musketeer Miniatures). At the time I was hoping to pick up one with Commitatus Figurines at TACTICA in Hamburg. But as Commitatus didn't show up I sent him the Aella I had painted for last years challenge. I still have to get me another Aella for my own Saxons...

So this year Curt wanted me to paint up General Suvorov from Lead Adventure Miniatures for him. Having never painted one for my own need I actually had to paint up a figure exclusively for him.

It took me a while to get hold of him but finally here he is in all his dark splendor.
The figure was a real joy to paint and little clean up was required.

I tried to match the basing Curt uses for his other Post-Apoc miniatures but I leave it up to him to decide wether I succeeded or not.

Somehow I doubt it was the last Lead Adventure miniature I painted...
Maybe a little detour into some apocalyptic future might be in order.

Well, that's it from me for now and I hope Curt he'll serve you well on the gaming table.

1940 BEF finished...

... for now at least.

BEF Vickers Mark VIc light tank

To give at least some armoured support to my fledgling BEF force here's the Vickers Mark VIc light tank.

3rd BEF Section

Oh well, it has been a few days since my last post but real life... I think you know where this would end?
So I'll spare you (and me) the monologue and come straight to the reason for this post.

20mm modern Bundeswehr - 1. Fallschirmjägergruppe

Over the last few days I've been working away on some 20mm modern Bundeswehr figures by Elhiem and terrain for a middle eastern, or more probably Afghanistan, setting.
While most of the terrain is still far from presentable my first Fallschirmjägergruppe is ready for combat.

Fallschirmjägergruppe

17th and final submission to the challenge: More Zombicide survivors

With some stressful days behind and still a few more ahead I call it a day and present to you my final entry for this years challenge.

16th submission to the challenge: 28mm 2nd BEF Section & Captain Campbell (55 Points)

With this years Challenge slowly coming to a close I'm rather proud to have reached my personal target. With this submission I've surpassed the goal of 80 painted miniatures I set for myself by 6. This means I've already painted 25 miniatures more than last year (61 + 1 AFV) and still there are two weeks to go.
But don't expect me to do much more for the last few days. I'm trying to avoid the 'painters burn out' I suffered from last year and therefore will be reducing my output drastically.

My entry for the 'Hot' themed bonus round

Totally forgot about this entry, so here it finally is:

I was thinking long and hard about what to submit for this bonus round but in the end I decided to go with the rather nice Artizan range of figures once again.

As there's hardly anything 'hotter' than the desert to fight over and having more than a mild interest in the North African theatre I enjoyed doing this little vignette a lot.

The signs were made from plasticard and hand painted.

14th submission to the challenge - More 28mm Greyscale Viet Minh (31 points)

I'm still recovering from a nasty flu which knocked me out for over a week. While being quite pleased with my progress over the Challenge so far I find it always rather hard to get the juices flowing again once I hit the proverbial wall.

13th submission to the challenge: 28mm First Indochina Viet Minh in Greyscale (67 Points)

First of all my apologies for not having commented on your blogs lately. A nasty flu has knocked me out cold and while I was following your progress I simply didn't feel like trying to make 'clever' sounding comments while the eyes hurt and the head spun.
But the flu has ebbed away and I'm back at the brushes again and I'll comment on your blogs again like the complete smart ass I am ;-)

Furthermore I haven't posted my latest progress on the challenge so here's my last submission:

12th submission to the challenge: 28mm German Support Weapons & HQ (38 Points)

I'm still adding to my Blitzkrieg Germans and this week saw me finishing two more Support Weapons teams and some HQ selections. All figures are Warlord Games again. Beeing metal figures they originally feature heads from Warlords 'Seperate Head System' but as I didn't like them, due to their over exaggerated facial expressions, I used left overs from my plastic Blitzkrieg Germans.

My entry for the 'Myth' themed bonus round

The latest Bonus Round of this years Painting Challenge is in full swing. This time it's all about 'Myth'. To make sure you don't miss out on many fantastic interpretations of the topic make sure you head over and cast your votes. The poll is only open till sunday so no time for hesitation!
Curt has changed his way of publishing the submissions so now you can comment on each individual entry if you wish so.

10th submission to the challenge: 28mm BEF Support Weapons (30 Points)

A less productive week this time but progress nonetheless:

9th submission to the challenge: 28mm WWII Pak 36 & BEF Infantry Section with Command (90 Points)

Somehow I totally forgot to post my latest submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Not really a points bomb the scale of some of you guys are capable of but for me it comes pretty close. This week I was lucky to have had some spare time and so I got some figures done.

First is a 28mm PaK 36 for my early WWII Germans.

My entry to the 'Victorian' themed bonus round

For the latest themed bonus round over at the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog it was all about the Victorian age. There you'll find some very creative interpretations of the theme and the poll is still open so make sure you'll have a look and cast your vote(s) for your favourite(s).
As always below you see my submission to this round:

7th submission to the challenge: Zombicide Survivors (30 Points)

Below you'll find my 7th submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Doing some necessary renovation work at home the last week left me with little to no time to paint. But as today is a holiday in this part of Germany I made good use of the free time and finished the six survivors from the 'Zombicide Season 1' game.

We're all Charlie!

Normally I try to keep this blog strictly related to little toy soldiers but following yesterdays events in Paris there's no way for me to let this be uncommented.

Across all borders this is to our french brothers and sisters:

You're not alone!

6th submission for the Challenge: 28mm Crusader Crossbowmen (40 Points)

Totally forgot to post my other Wednesday submission to the Challenge:

For my todays second submission I visited the hot lands of Outremer again to add some retinue to my Monsieur Jaufrè de Montalban whom I entered for the 'Mount(s) & Rider(s)' Bonus Round.

5th entry to the challenge: 28mm Blitzkrieg German Pioneers (40 Points)

The first of my two latest entries to the Challenge over at the infamous Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:


With the Challenge already on full steam I had to finally pull out my finger and get going. So here's the first of two submissions for today. Here we have eight 28mm Pioneers from Warlord Game's superb "German Pioneers" boxed set. 

  

Good bye 2014 here's 2015!

It's a nice habit throughout the world to use the arrival of a new year to cast a doleful eye over the goals and achievements of the last year and make new goals for the year ahead.

Plans and achievements in 2014:

What was I planning to do in 2014?

• First and foremost I want to get all the stuff painted I prepared for Curt's Annual Analogue Hobby Challenge. This includes some Fallschirmjäger, British Paras for Bolt Action (500 pts. worth of), some more early Saxons, some republican Romans and some odds and ends. Well, I got quite some stuff prepped but only a little done so FAIL!

• After the challenge I want to add to my Late Romans and the Early Saxons in order to have two well sized forces for Dux Bellorum and later on Impetus. Actually I think I could already field a 32 pts. Roman force for Dux with 5 or 6 points of allied Saxons. Though there are so much nice figures out there... Epic FAIL! I only got a unit of 10 foot and 2 mounted as well as some rebasing done but that's about it.

•  And as my second big goal I'm aiming at completing a Great War Russian Army to fight my Germans. As an aside I want to use the Russians as Whites to attend to Partisan-Con in 2014. That's a small RCW/BoB Con in Mannheim Germany. You can find some nice pictures from the 2013 Con *here* (text in German). Well, this one  wasn't a complete fail as I got some command figures and 10 foot done but it's faaaaar from ready.

So what did I do in 2014 you may ask. Well, there were some things I previously haven't had on my radar. But let us have a look on the numbers first:

Over the year I painted:
28mm:
188 foot figures
5 mounted figures
7 Vehicles

15mm:
32 foot figures

Compared to a years total of 179 figures (all together) for 2013 I can feel quite satisfied I think. Especially considering a big amount of the figures was painted in the last three months of the year. All in all I painted and sold off far more figures than I managed to buy leading to my lead mountain melting like the arctic ice shelves in the summer. We'll see if the same is true for the new year.

But now let us have a quick look at what I really did in 2014 I haven't had on my radar before (only a selected few):

28mm Blitzkrieg Germans:

These really hit me without warning. I always enjoyed the later period of the war but didn't give much thought to the early years. But when I stumbled over the great plastic Pioneers set by Warlord Games I had to get them. And you won't believe it but I really painted up the whole box till sylvester.

28mm U.S. Army:

I came across a nicely painted and fairly priced U.S. Army for sale while browsing and so I made an old dream of mine come true. Of course I had to add to this force as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. This very force also helped me to overcome a lack of enthusiasm which plagued me for several months.

First Indochina in Greyscale:

Maybe the acquisition in 2014 that surprised myself most. I was pondering over the possibility to do something in Greyscale for quite some time but when inspiration finally struck I knew I had to do it.

15mm World War 2:

A topic I was interested in for quite some time but never really started before 2014. The Battlefront plastic U.S. Paras proofed to be a real treat to paint but at the moment their metal counterparts are sitting in my drawer as they're not even half as nice.

So now it's enough of 2014 and on to the plans for the year ahead!

Plans for 2015:

• 'Completing' my early war German force for Bolt Action. This should be pretty straight forward as there are just a few things left to get to a point where I can call this force ready for battle i.e. the Leutnant and his aide, an Artillery or Air Observer, a PaK 36, a HMG and a 50mm Mortar as well as some bits and bobs. Of course a wargamers army is never really completed so I might maybe even add a second box of infantry as well as the odd vehicle, artillery piece to it-

• Starting a British Expeditionary Force to oppose my Germans. In fact the first metal box from Warlord Games is already sitting on my desk right know awaiting the arrival of their missing heads.... why can't I ever get a complete set of figures from Warlord Games?

• Enlarge my U.S. Force. Well no definite plans but I'd like to add a fourth squad and maybe even a second BAR to each squad.

• Something in 15mm. Here I'm not totally certain about what to do. Maybe the Desert campaign?

• Continue with my First Indochina in Greyscale project. Getting all the figures done I already have and maybe some more, depending on the releases from Red Star Miniatures. And maaaaaybe even do some terrain in Greyscale. The Sarissa Precision 'Far East' line of MDF buildings does look pretty decent and using my airbrush they should be quite easy to do.

So with these plans in my head and the firm knowledge that no battle plan survives the first contact with reality, I'm looking forward to the months ahead!