20mm Fallschirmjäger and Firefly

First off fthis time is a 20mm 3D printed Sherman Firefly by Arvernes Miniatures. Having painted two regular 75mm Shermans for my Canadians previously I felt the urgent need to add a Firefly for that little bit of extra punch. The stowage is mostly from AB Figures as is the tank commander.

This is then followed by a Squad of 20mm Fallschirmjäger, also from AB Figures. They're a mix of regular Heer figures, mainly with Zeltbahn, and Fallschirmjäger with head swaps as I was aiming for a very late war feel. So these should be more suitable for those battles following the German defeat in Normandy. A time when the Fallschirmjäger were a mere shadow of their former strength. I don't like the hype that surrounds some of the supposedly 'elite' German units and having this hodge podge of grizzled veterans and raw recruits is just my thing.

Thanks for viewing and have a nice day!

Autoblinda 43 - SdKfz 203(i) - 3D print

My first forays into 3D printing are starting to pay off. I found the file for the Italian AB 43 armoured car over on Wargaming 3D and thought it'd be perfect to see how 3D printed models would work in 28mm. I have a few minor niggles with the spare wheels not looking like the real thing and there not being a choice for open or closed hatches being the biggest of my issues. Also it's lacking a few minor details like the antennae and headlights but other than that it's a very nice model and considering the file is available for free makes it a real steal. I added a few details (antennae, stowage and headlights) from my bits box and must say I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

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.

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.

Even more Red & Green Devils

While I'm rather productive at the moment as far as painting is concerned, I've become quite lazy when it comes to posting the results of said productivity. Painting wise I felt like continuing with my Italian campaign WW2 project. First off is a command group for the Red Devils

The eagle has landed

Only the shortest of posts as I don't have much time to spare currently but wanted to share my latest progress nonetheless.
I'm still in painting mood and still trying out my new camera. I'm getting quite comfortable now with all those 'auto modes' but am still struggling with the finer points of such niceties like ISO, shutter time and so on...

Final Fallschirmjäger installment... for now

I would never have guessed it when I (re-) started work on my Fallschirmjäger force for Bolt Action, but I actually managed to paint up all the figures I had sitting in the lead pile for this particular project. Well, the white metal ones that is. I've not yet decided if I'll go down the plastic way for future reinforcements or if I'll bite the bullet and stay with heavy metal.
At the moment that doesn't matter that much though, as the force is at about 1600 points now and as such more than fully playable.

As mentioned in previous posts I'll be using the Fallschirmjäger Theatre Selector from 'Duel in the sun' for this force and as such there were several choices I still needed to round out my force.

Panzer IV Ausführung H

With the the next incarnation of the AHPC (a well known acronym for Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge) already looming on the horizon I thought it about high time to start paying my debts from  last years challenge.

Fallschirmjäger advancing under cover of a Panzer IV - Italy June 1944

More Fallschirmjäger support weapons

Despite some rather busy weeks at work I've still managed to continue work on my my Fallschirmjäger platoon in the form of some more support weapons. The Fallschirmjäger list released in the "Duel in the sun" supplement for Bolt Action doesn't allow for support in form of vehicles and heavier anti-tank guns than the odd 3,7cm PaK 36 or schwere Panzerbüchse 41. Thus when wanting to field this list I'm rather limited when it comes to anti-tank capability. At least till the new Armies of Germany supplement for Bolt Action 2nd Edition is released in November that is.

3rd Fallschirmjäger Squad

And again another squad of Fallschirmjäger is ready to join the ranks and defend the rubble strewn streets of Italy against the allied juggernaut.

More Fallschirmjäger - 2nd Squad

With the summer rather unexpectedly having returned to middle Europe work load increased significantly. The combination of work and sweltering heat led to a drastic drop off in painting mojo. But I got a second eight man Squad for my fledgling Fallschirmjäger Platoon off the painting table.

More Green Devils incoming! - Heavy weapons

Following on from last weeks 'sPzB 41auf Gepanzerter MG-Träger Bren 731(e)' I've done up a few more Fallschirmjäger which now are awaiting their first deployment.

I don't know what it is but WWII, especially Germans in WWII, always gets my creative juices flowing. So I made the most out of it and immediately got going on some heavy weapons to go with my other stuff.

Green Devils on the prowl

As some of my regular followers might remember during last years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I (re-)started an old pet project of mine: Fallschirmjäger.

As it's always the case it has taken me a while to get back to that project but finally I got in gear and added a little something I wanted to do for a long time already.

Picture taken from beutepanzer.ru

Green Devils on the prowl

As some of my regular followers might remember during last years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I (re-)started an old pet project of mine: Fallschirmjäger.

As it's always the case it has taken me a while to get back to that project but finally I got in gear and added a little something I wanted to do for a long time already.

Picture taken from beutepanzer.ru

3rd AHPC VI submission: 'Let it rip' - Defensive Terrain Bonus Round entry

Meant to post this a lot earlier but work got in the way. Nonetheless the poll for your favourite interpretation of 'Defensive Terrain' is still open, so make sure you head over and leave your vote.

It was a close run thing but I finaly got something in to the bonus rounds. With a little more time at hand and a head full of ideas I enthusiastically dived head first into the preparations. At first I was planning to do a little WW1 diorama but, while having the right figures, lacked in the skill and patience to pull it off. Than, while rummaging through the attic, I stumbled across some old Warhammer 40k terrain which would have fit the bill and instantly set to work to pimp it up. When finished, but before painting, I actually realised that terrain isn't really the focus of the challenge and I'd need figures to go with it. Running short on time and not really feeling like spending crazy money on some Forge World Death Korps of Krieg miniatures (which I would have liked to use for the particular piece and am eyeing for some years now), it was now time to turn to plan C: the ever trusty and highly popular (at least with me) World War 2 plastics by Warlord Games.

The figures are from the newish plastic Fallschirmjäger set converted using cutting, gluing, offensive speech and some pieces of the older plastic sets. I can't actually put my finger on it, but the Fallschirmjäger set left me a little unimpressed. I'm not exactly sure on why that's the case, as except for the detail, which is a little soft, it's in no way worse than the last sets. Maybe it's me comparing them to the older metal figures which have waaay more character. That said I hated the bad casting quality on the metal figures.

Using crates and some other paraphernalia from the bitz box I created a suitably 'defensive' looking base to go with the figures. To add a little interest to the otherwise still quite bland stack of crates, I added a camo cover made from tissue paper. A trick I already used in one of the last challenges. In order to be able to remove casualties, the loader was magnetised.

This entry should give me 20 points (10 for the miniatures and another ten for the crew served weapon) for the Bavarian challenge and an aditional 50 points for my over all target.

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

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.

Step by step: Splinter pattern camouflage

A few people have asked me to do a quick tutorial about my approach to WWII splinter pattern or officially "Buntfarbenmuster 31".