05 February 2020

Hans! Hände hoch!

Another entry to the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge by yours truly:

A last stand you say? Well, if there’s been one iconic last stand in WW2 than it must clearly have been the Battle for Arnhem during Operations Market and Garden. Of course there were others too but this one instantly sprang to mind and coincidentally I'm slowly collecting a force of Paratroopers for it.

Paras on their way to the bridge


It took me a while to finally finish the figures for this location as (rather unusually for me) I simply couldn’t stay focused. I'm used to jump between projects but it's usually only when I've finished a unit that I start on something different. At the moment however I'm pretty much focused on WW2 (as always) but can't, for the life of me, seem to finish a whole unit. So instead of waiting I decided these 5 figures should suffice.


The three British Airborne are Warlord Games Metals while the two SS actually are DAK casualties by Artizan Designs. Given a period appropriate Erbsentarn camouflage they fit perfectly for Arnhem in late '44. At the moment I'm not yet decided if I stick with Artizan DAK for the SS or if I'll use some other manufacturer.


Speaking of the Waffen-SS, it has caused me some headaches but I've finally decided to not use regular Heer as stand ins but collect a dedicated force exclusively for Market Garden. My personal misgivings about the SS aside it somehow didn’t feel right to 'change' history just because I'm not comfortable with one of the forces involved.
Either do it proper or don't do it at all! But one thing is certain, these will be no StG'44 toting Uber-Soldiers.


The prone casualty figure instantly reminded me of the picture below and originally this was the scene I wanted to recreate. Needless to say I didn’t pull it through as the whole bridge and stuff seemed a little too intimidating even if compressed a little.


Haven’t quite finished the basing yet, but for the moment it should do. Need to order me some new tufts first.

10 comments:

  1. That camo...
    SSo damn cool... O_o

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  2. oh! I love the camo! What a masterpiece!

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  3. Another triumph Nick. I was wrestling with similar thoughts when amassing the troops to storm the castle. It was inevitable that they would have to represent members of the 17th SS Div and went for Warlord Games plastics. Far too many StG 44s, but where possible I have left them behind.

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  4. Excellent really excellent and that camo work is spectacular!

    Christopher

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  5. Superb work on that camo, those SS guys look great. I too share your misgivings about collecting and gaming with SS figures but I do agree that if you want to recreate those battles they have to be involved. Similar issues crop up with swastika aerial recognition flags and so on...

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  6. These are incredible! Your painting technique is getting better and better, and that first scenic shot is truly marvelous! What an inspiration!

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  7. Incredible subject matter and superbly executed!

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