[20mm] Soviet Sappers & casualties

Like many other hobbyists, I‘m sure, I‘m a completist. When there’s a option in the force list, no matter how obscure, my brain goes into overdrive and I‘m off to look where to source that particular option from. Luckily enough since my switch to 20mm with my WW2 painting I‘m generally spoilt for choice. But there are still a few things I can‘t find or not in a configuration/ style I like.

That’s where 3D printing really comes in handy. Chance is someone out there has the files for what you’re looking for. Same with these Soviet Sappers/ Engineers. 

Figures are originally 28mm files from mr3DPrint available on wargaming3d.com. I scaled them down to match my AB miniatures and surprisingly enough it worked rather well. Some of the equipment is admittedly a little flimsy and some minor bits broke off as I‘m rather ham fisted at the best of times. But still I quite like them a lot and they painted up nicely. Should maybe get me a resin that’s a little less brittle nonetheless.

Helmets/ heads and hands are somewhat on the larger side, especially when compared with their AB brethren directly, but not more than usual with wargaming miniatures. I’m still quite surprised by the quality my cheapish 1st generation Anycubic Photon is capable of. Good enough for any wargaming miniatures I‘d say.

Next we have a batch of 10 Soviet casualty markers by AB Figures. A little macabre maybe but I love casualty markers. I tried to make the skin look more corpse like and like to think it worked out surprisingly well.

Total points this year so far:

178

[20mm] Soviet reinforcements and a lone Space Marine

The 12th iteration of the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is underway and clearly I had hoped I'd have a little more to show for my efforts today, but alas I fell somewhat short of my self imposed goal. Anyway, I've got a few more figures finished for the 20mm Soviet force I started during last years challenge. By now it has grown somewhat in size and I keep adding to it.

In 28mm it's the Germans I keep returning back to whenever my painting mojo is at a low ebb, but in 20mm it obviously is the Soviets. The first few figures I painted for this force where done using the simple triad method, but by now I'm using as many layers as I'd use on a 28mm figure. There's just so much detail packed into these small fellas.

First off the starting block today is a DShK 12,7mm HMG with five crew. The DShK, it's gunner and the loader are from SHQ Miniatures while the other three figures are AB Figures. I'm not particularly fond of the SHQ castings, but once painted they fit reasonably well with AB.

Next we have a 76mm M1927 regimental gun by Zvezda crewed by AB miniatures again. Zvezda make nice and cheap kits in 20mm and while the figures fit quite well with AB I prefer the latter and if it's just for the later uniforms as worn by AB.

This is followed by a RM-38 50mm mortar. Again this is a SHQ casting, as is the loader. As before I opted to replace the other figure as they're so much nicer.

Also on offer today is a ROKS-3 flamethrower team. A nasty piece of equipment you shouldn't leave home without.

And last there is a tank hunter team armed with liberated Panzerfäuste. Not really suited for Kursk but quite appropriate for Operation Bagration in 1944.

Also there's last weeks figure still to be posted:

Those of you who know me, will also know that I’m not big into Fantasy or SciFi. Painting wise that is, as otherwise I quite like the Warhammer 40k universe. Well, as it was about 20 years ago anyway. Be that as it may, once in a while there‘s an itch to be scratched. While cleaning up the man cave and organising my Mountain of Shame …ahem… Mountain of Opportunity I happened upon a handful of Legion of the Damned Space Marines. I‘m not sure where I‘ve got these from, especially considering I haven’t painted Marines in almost two decades.
So, while I don’t really dig their official paint scheme I quite like the figures (for Space Marines). Thus I‘ve been wrecking my brain ever since as to how to paint these fellas. By chance I came across some pictures of really nicely painted Word Bearers and instantly knew the look I‘d aim for.

I fancy mine to be Marines of… let’s say questionable loyalty, and with little to no „official“ imperial iconography the models fit just nicely. On the other hand the distinct lack of spikes and other distinctly chaotic paraphernalia also helps to make them more rogues than outright traitors. Apostates maybe…

I‘m not quite sure where I‘ll go with this as Space Marines never really were my thing, but I might just paint up the rest of the ones I already have. They should be enough for some Kill Team sized games. And admittedly painting Marines can be quite fun for a change. All the big, smooth surfaces make for an interesting challenge and are ideal to try out new things. On another note I‘m quite surprised my smartphone camera makes rather usable pictures, without too much fuss. Unfortunately single figures only, so no groups, and not in a photo cube…

As for points it's:

14x 20mm figures (Upright/ Kneeling) = 56 points
5x 20mm figures (prone) = 20 points
3x 20mm artillery piece / crew served weapon = 24 points

1x 28mm miniature = 5 points

    Total: 105 points

[20mm] German & Soviet Support

Well, the last day of the year is finally upon us and the 12th iteration of The Painting Challenge is already well underway. SoI thought it best to finally take pictures of the last stuff I managed to finish before the latter kicked off. There are still a few half finished items sitting on the shelf, but these will either have to wait till after the challenge, or I'll have to bite the bullet and miss out on points. 

Also I want to take the opportunity to thank fellow blogger Airhead from "Take The High Ground" blog, who pointed me into the right direction in regards to my problems with commenting on your blogs. Thanks Airhead!

Anyway, on to todays offerings I'd say.

[20mm] First Canadian Squad

I'm still experiencing problems with Blogger on my Apple devices. Instead of getting better it's getting worse. Somehow I have the feeling they're trying to force me to use their bloomin' Chrome browser as every other browser I've used so far wouldn't work. So apologies (again) to all the fine people on who's blog I failed to comment. 

Todays offerings are my first painted squad of Canadians. I've painted them as PPCLI (Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry) as I want to use them for Italy in the long run. That said I won't be shy and will field them in France just as well.

[20mm] German Support Options

With the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge looming large on the horizon it's about high time that I clear my backlog of as of yet unpublished figures. It's actually not that much, mind. And as I don't even own some of them anymore anyway I can't actually show them all.

Still, my 20mm Germans needed some more support options. So here are the first of hopefully a whole lot more.

More SciFi - Oldhammer Delaque for Necromunda

First of all I do have to apologize to all of you on whose blogs I've failed to comment. For once it's not due to me being a lazy sod, I swear. For weeks now I've been having issues with blogger on my Apple devices. On some blogs my comments simply disappear. I've not quite worked out why, but it seems rather consistent. There are blogs I do have absolutely zero issues with commenting on and then there are those where my comments vanish into thin air... until very recently I thought it had to do with comment moderation and that my comments needed to be moderated first. But alas, no such thing. I'll of course try to work out the issue, but till then all I can do is to apologize to you for not commenting.

With that out of the way, now onto the main reason for this post:

Following on from last weeks Eldar today it's the turn of a few classic Delaque miniatures to have their place in the lime light. Back when Necromunda was first released I always had an eye on the game, but being young and broke meant I never got into it. Looking back it'd probably have made more sense to collect one or two gangs of Necromunda instead of trying (and of course failing) to collect an Imperial Guard army with the meagre means at my disposal. Oh well, the folly of youth...

Eldar Rangers

Once in a blue moon I feel like doing some Sci-Fi stuff, preferably set in GW's Warhammer 40k universe. Even if the chance of me playing one of their rulesets is impossibly remote, I still am quite a fan of the setting. Or at least of the setting as it was about 10 years ago... but that's probably due to me slowly but steadily becoming old and grumpy.

Waffen-SS Eichentarn Winter Colour Guide

Well, OK. I've promised to write this Colour Guide for way too lang already. And in actual fact I already posted it on Twitter way back, but as that's not really the most well suited platform for such a thing, I thought I should finally get my finger out and post it over here as well. For posterity so to speak ;-)

[20mm] Airborne Jeep with German & British Crew

As some of you may be aware, my good friend Curt of analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com fame and I have a miniature exchange ongoing. Not sure for how long but by now a fair few figures have crossed the Atlantic either way to find residence on another continent. For this years figure I was at first at a loss as what to paint, when Curt made a fleeting remark about wanting to do a force for OP Market Garden at some point. And there it was my inspiration. 

Picture taken from https://europeremembers.com

[20mm] 3rd German Squad and some support

Again some time has passed by since my last post. And actuallyI got some more reinforcements for my Germans done. As before these are from the superb range of 20mm WW2 figures by AB Figures.