April Paintings

Aside from doing a bit of work on the UltraModern Armoury. I also managed to paint up some WW2 infantry this month.

First up were seven USMC, the Ceramcoat Sea Green airbrushed on as a color base very nicely, and was able to be touched up by brush. German Camo Beige web/canvas gear, Leather Brown boots and holsters, and helmet covers of Khaki with Camo Olive Green and Mahogany Brown spots washed over in Khaki. Weapons are Gunmetal and Mahogany Brown; base is Iraqi Sand.

But that is a lot of white folks. I think one of the things that has kept me from historical WW2 games is the segregation of US Forces. So one of the things I decided was to integrate my units. There was some integration of combat units, notably K Company of the 394th Infantry Regiment (coincidentally a Pittsburgh unit) after the Battle of the Bulge; I have decided to fudge the dates and have my platoon, based on K/324th, integrated while the unit was fighting in North Africa. It's ahistorical, but I don't care... so much of the hobby is ahistorical... I'm changing this one.

So here are my first Army guys:

Housekeeping

Slight overhaul of the blog design yesterday. It seems the template I use is not fully supported anymore, particularly the wallpaper has been discontinued. So a quick modification of the banner and a drop in of the Delta Green web-kit background have brought things back to a look i am content with. the delta green background is particularly fitting, I think, as this blog was started six years ago as a campaign chronicle and web-supplement for my Delta Green campaign.

I also painted up an 18th miniature last night - he was all I got done yesterday. I wasn't feeling great yesterday morning, so after dropping the kids at school I laid down for a two hour nap that ended when my daughter came home from school. Anyway, a Copplestone Casting's biker from the Future Wars line to go with the one I painted last week.


Oh and happy news yesterday that Copplestone Castings sales and ordering will be managed by Northstar from the 14th of this month (which is the day before payday, woot!). This puts most of my favorite lines (Northstar, Artizan, Crusader, and Copplestone) in the same online shopping basket. Woot!

Eleven Minis Painted and Counting...

I've actually gotten some painting done. Six old west minis (mostly Foundry and an Artizan) that were actually started back in Pittsburgh at one of our paint nights... what... three years ago? Four? Well they are finished.

I also finished five Copplestones (I think the biker is one of his Grenadier sculpts from EM-4/SG mirlington) from scratch. In the background are two 1/55th scale cars... the Unimog 1500 is from Siku and was picked up on Ebay last fall... the Honda CRZ is from Majorette and was one of two I picked up at the supermarket two weeks or so ago.

I've got about a squad's worth of WW2 US Infantry from Artizan cleaned and mounted, and a platoon's worth of Copplestone Casting's Chinese troops that will be painted as WW2 Royal Thai Army, all waiting for dry weather to be primed.

Or maybe once a month...

January was a pretty quiet month hobby wise.

I did decide to get into Bolt Action - mostly because of Facebook conversations with my friends back in the States; particularly Lee (the man behind CIA games, and an annoyingly good professional miniature painter).

So last month I took advantage of a free shipping and free model deal at warlord Games - indeed because of the efficiency of Royal Mail's international delivery - I often seek out distributors in the UK over US and even Australia based ones.

The Warlord stuff (D-Day Firefight Starter set and the Italeri produced M4 Sherman Medium Tank in 1/56) came along rather quickly. The starter set included 20 US infantry, 12 German infantry, 1 Hanomag halftrack in 1/56, a smaller format version of the basic rules, plastic ruined farmhouse terrain piece, 10 D6s and 10 order dice (five each of black and olive).

I got busy building a US BAR gunner and soon confirmed that the Warlord produced minis are not to my taste. I had expected that, and already had an order in for seven packs of Artizan US infantry figures, as well as an order in for applicable Vallejo model color paints from Volks in Osaka. Interestingly, despite being ordered on the same day, the Artizan shipment from the UK beat the Sagawa transport shipment from a shop 4 hours away by car. I love Royal Mail.

Writing off the plastic infantry is a bit of a waste, but given the two vehicles and dice and book... i think I would have spent more on them separately (20 for a PDF of the rules (the cheapest version), 20 for the M4, 17 for the Hanomag, 16 for the farmhouse, and about 10 for the dice... so 83 pounds total for the 70 I spent) so I have no compulsions about sending them off to the parts bin or more likely gifting them to a friend who would use them. Also, although I like the Italeri kits... future vehicles will probably be Rubicon... they are just cheaper and I think a shade nicer.

Now, with figures and materials in hand... I've decided to set the goal of having my American reinforced platoon table ready for my trip back to the States in August to table against Lee - who's notoriously unlucky with dice - heheheheheh.

In other news, I am waiting for the sealant to set on the first 6 painted minis of 2016, and the new house. I'll post them when I get the bases finished.