Skirmish Campaign: On The Lamb Part 1

After the loss of Lieutenant Hughes, C Troop still had a mission to complete; getting the wounded tanker back to friendly territory. Word was received that an ambulance jeep would be waiting at a destroyed farm (hex 6-4).  

The farm is still in disputed territory so the meet up will have to take place at night. A flock of sheep has drifted in to the area, as has a patrol of Germans. In the dark it is impossible to tell the sheep from the wolves.

A detachment from A troop stands watch. A machine gunner is dug in at the side of the field and a sniper is perched in the attic. An officer waits to give them their next assignment.   

The survivors of Troop C aren't out of the fire yet.

A Sprue Too Far

After sitting on my bench in various stages of completion for far too long, my British Airborne squads are now table ready. I will not say they are finished because I am not too happy with them and never stop tinkering with my models anyway.

Dragon's Red Devils kit. Another wash would bring out more details. The PIAT gunner will boost the firepower available to my Commonwealth forces. I plan on treating it like a grenade launcher as far as rules go. Please feel free to comment below with any suggestions on that. 

Dragon's 2nd SAS in France kit. I loved these sculpts. They went together very well. I feel I may have ruined their look by adding face paint, but that can be fixed with two coats of flesh tone and a wash.

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Currently on the bench are a few members of the 91st Recon getting a touch up. Many of my American Infantry were built and painted before I developed a little more skill. Also I purchased a package of 1/35 weapons that add some variety to my squads. 

It appears Cpl. Wood has had some contact with the First Special Service Force, during which he acquired a Johnson Light Machine Gun.

My "Up Next" pile. The Japanese will shape out my Pacific Theater figures while the others will finish off my Italian Front collection. I hate to say it but it looks like my WW2 Wargaming collection is almost finished! 

Allied AFV's

Although the Ponte della Morte campaign has been mostly an infantry affair,  my 1/35 WW2 collection does include some AFVs as well. 

The 91st Recon Squadron's trusty Jeep. The .30 Browning  is removable and the windshield folds. Tamiya hit a home run with this kit. 

Another Tamiya kit, the M8 Scott packs a big punch in a small package. 

I magnetized the .50 cal machine gun and super glued pieces of wire in the ring mount so the gun can be attached in four positions.

One of two New Ray Shermans. These kits are dirt cheap and durable. Not the most detailed, but strong enough to handle anything in storage or on the table. I painted this one in a nonstandard "sand and spinach" camouflage similar to British patterns in North Africa 

Another New Ray kit, this time an M3 Lee. I have not gotten around to painting this one yet. It will need some modification. The 75mm gun will not rest in any position except all the way elevated or depressed. Maybe a system of magnets could fix this. 

Fix Bayonets!

I finished work on a squad of British troops today. Outfitted in Mediterranean kit, they will work well for both North Africa and Italy.

   

The commander, the Bren gunner and a rifleman. Maybe the 91st Recon will run across this squad somewhere in Ponte della Morte. They are in need of reinforcements and a morale boost.

Now for the misfits! Every squad has them. Pvt. Andrew Connolly refuses to wear any headgear except for his battered cap. His commanding officers have learned to let him be as he is a wonderful soldier in all other respects. Cpl. Roland O'Bryan, on the other hand, developed his skill with a Thompson Gun in the Irish Revolution. He's now a wanted man in his own country for desertion. The way he sees it, Nazi's are a greater evil than the British.

Edit: Blogger seems to be having a hard time displaying my photos. If someone could leave a comment below verifying all 4 pictures are displayed, it would be much appreciated. 

The Perfect Base in 5 minutes

Continuing with the Italian Officer from my earlier post here, I thought I would show my basing method as well. I start with paper board but any base could be used. If plastic or resin bases are used, a stronger glue may be required but that would be the only change. After cutting out the desired base from a piece of paper board, I superglue the figure to the base.

Next, after the superglue dries, I use a plastic water color brush to apply an even coat of  Elmer's School Glue. Any PVA glue works at this step.

I use model railroad ballast to represent sand, dirt and whatever else I need for the first layer of the base. I keep it in a plastic tub and sprinkle it over the base while holding the figure over the tub. After the base is completely covered, I tap the figure until all the excess ballast falls back into the container.

After the glue dries a little, I coat the ballast in the same Elmer's School Glue as before.

Using the same sprinkle, tap and shake method, I apply static grass over the ballast.

These simple steps can bring a figure to the next level. Ballast and static grass seem to last forever If you continue to save the excess from each base.

8 Steps to a Stunning Paint Job Using Only Craft Paints

As a budget conscious hobbyist, I try to keep my budget manageable.  One way I do this is to only use inexpensive craft paints. Brands like Anita's and Americana can be used for a very good result with only a few steps. 

To demonstrate these techniques, I painted this Tamiya 1/35 Italian Officer. He is a crisply detailed figure and very easy to work with. After building the figure, I trimmed any excess glue. 

Step 1
Instead of priming, I give the figure a base coat in either black, grey, or white. This base gives your other paints a better surface to hold to, but also serves some appearance purposes as well. The black adds a darker tone to whatever color you put on top. White does the oposite of this and grey is more of a neutral base.  I chose matte black for this figure because of the grey colored uniform. Your base coat doesn't have to be perfect! I missed some spots on the lower legs of this model. What is important is that you only use one coat and let the molded details show through.

Step 2

Next I paint on what ever color the majority of the figure will be. Two thin coats does the trick nicely but make sure you give the model time to dry between coats. This gives you the most detail retention possible. Obviously the black shows up under the first coat but the second coat provides a nice overall color.

Step 3
After the main color is dry, I move to the skin tone. After applying one thin coat you will start to doubt that this model could ever look good with these paints, but have faith!

Step 4
While the skin tone is drying, I move to the other colored details on the model. For this officer it was a Sam Browne belt and black leather leggings over his boots.

Step 5
After the first coat of skin tone is dry, I put another thin coat over it. while this dries I continue working on the other details of the model. Here I painted the piping on his cap, browned his boots and tidied up his collar.

Step 6
Here I finish up any little details left to be done. Hair, buttons and touching up any mistakes are what I did here.

Step 7
This can be the most challenging step, giving the figure a wash. After it dried,  I gave this figure two colors of wash; a brown wash on all exposed skin and hair, and a black wash over everything else. Take a few milliliters of water and mix one or two drops of paint with it. Stir it till it has an even consistency. It should be very runny. Apply this mixture with a brush and absorb any large areas of excess by touching them with a paper towel.

Step 8
For protection I varnish my figures in an ultra matte varnish. Tabletop miniatures endure all kinds of abuse either in storage, transit or on the game table itself. The varnish will look very glossy at first. but as it dries will preserve the original look very well.

Here's my completed figure. The washes bring out the uniform and face details and show just how well sculpted this figure is. When I started the hobby, painting seemed so intimidating.  Hopefully this little tutorial helps someone see how simple painting a nice table ready miniature can be.