15mm Brits

This side-project was done a while ago, 15mm Forged in Battle WW2 British infantry and PSC Churchill tanks. I have more Churchills and Cromwells as well, they are buried in the plastic pile.

StuGs

After breaking up the 3-day interval between posts again, this time because I've ran out of painted stuff, here are five Plastic Soldier Company 15mm StuG models: one early and one late variant, plus one StuH and the two remaining ordinary, sad little StuGs because they did not receive anything special except schurzen.

I primed the models white, then used VMC German Orange Ochre as a basecoat, over which I added a primitive ambush camo, blended in with a black wash and a gentle drybrush with VMC Buff, which highlights the edges of the hull and works as an all-round weathering material for lazy people like myself.

I've also glued dried tea filter stuff on some vehicles, and paper pieces for tarps on others, so they're quite diverse (as a German force should be in terms of vehicle variants). 

Soviet heavy metal

I have completed the PSC IS tanks, four of them with the IS-1 hull and 122mm gun, and one IS-2, most likely to be used as a command unit.

I used three shades of olive green plus a wash to get this weathered look, they are dark but not as dark as it seems on the photos. The five StuG IIIs are also assembled and ready to paint, but distractions arise... they will be finished later, though. 

WW2 Hungarians

A snapshot of my freshly painted and based Battlefront 15mm figures and the Zrínyi II in action, as part of the first ever game on my 1,5 by 2 metres table. 

They were bought during the Black Friday sale, and the Zrínyi had been on back order for two months before it finally arrived. I used photos of the one stored at Kubinka for reference on the camo and added dried tea stuff to simulate a net or simply leaves left on top of it. 

I completed 38 infantry in total, then found some more left about, but only a group of 20 plus support appeared in this game. 

Fireflies

A pair of British Fireflies from Forged in Battle. The hulls are cast together with the base from resin, the turret and accessories are metal. 

As you can see, I've put a lot of scrap on the models to get that 'used' look. 

Painting was standard block-shade-highlight, I mixed the olive colors. They're actually much brighter, it's the bad setup that makes them look this dark.

15mm Sci-Fi: Finally Fighting

While we played with Lego models before, this was the first outing for my 15mm sci-fi forces. We fought two battles: one, a Stalingrad-type game that was a bloody win for the Darwinists against the Rebels with Orc weaponry (the DU had one artillery unit remaining on the entire table).

15mm Sci-Fi: Medium mechas

Put together this pair of scratchbuilt mechas. They're very menacing. One is Beta and has a death's head on its shoulder armor, the other is Lambda and has a very threatening blue flower.

They serve in the Darwinist Union's land forces. A medium mecha is very useful in Easy Sci-Fi because it has good firepower, defense and two or three hit points. Its hindrances are its low mobility and firing range. The Union uses them as support for their heavy mechs.

Anybody who can identify three or more parts (other than plasticard) wins two Internets. The little circular things on top are especially risky, so I can tell they're made of wood.

During the last week I was pretty much dead with a swollen throat that first infested my lungs, causing a bronchitis then my left ear, so now I'm eating antibiotics that could purge all of the bugs on an elephant. The exams continue. See you soon.

15mm sci-fi: Tree Monsters

This is the army that was effectively made with no cost. I went out to the woods and collected a bunch of dry twigs. Based them, washed them with green and added a coat of PVA for protection and extra ugliness.

They are for 'Easy sci-fi' and are grouped as such:

Left corner - Medium 'mechas'

Center - Heavy 'mechas'

Right corner - Artillery

Middle row - four pairs of 'tanks'

front row - infantry teams.

The siege of Pyotyograd

A few shots from the game - at least as far as we got - concerning the capture of the key city of Pyotyograd in our 'Wild East' campaign.

15mm ground targets, fences and ruins

The WW2 campaign is rolling on, and here's some neat stuff to bomb to pieces. First a cruiser/destroyer (depending on scale) and two 152mm howitzers.

Slaughterhouse Eastern Front

Another 'last stand' sort of battle, this time during WW2, using house rules. The Germans are defending a small village in the Ukraine. There are some stationary defenses (walls) and they can set more up before the game (sandbags). The Soviets are arriving from the thick forest, determined to take the village.

15mm Sci-Fi: buildings and vehicles

A quick post to let you show my latest paint works (OK, the dreadnought was done months ago, I just kept forgetting to include it in a blog post). Some miscellaneous buildings, a Matchbox tank and a WH40k dreadnought that will be used as a heavy mecha. The infantry guy is there for scale.

The buildings are rather simple. Some boxes, tins and whatnot glued together and painted. The bullet dents on the tin are actual bullet dents, and the rust effect was achieved with an umber wash over a gunmetal surface.

The Matchbox tank was a lucky find I believe and the paintjob is acceptable. With the dreadnought I had some problems but in the end it looks acceptable. It was bough on ebay, originally a part of the Assault on Black Reach starter set and it was comparatively cheap (and a one time only sort of acquisition).

Painting diary XXXII.

Hello and a late Merry Christmas to all the people of blogland. During the short (for me) holidays I had not been idle and completed this bunch of stuff that I posted earlier. 

This is the Ortosilian artillery train with two Gribeuval guns and a multi-purpose cart.

Giant Murder Mecha

You could see spoilers at the end of the previous post - now here the great murder mecha is in all its clockwork glory! I had asked at a previous scratchbuilt what you thought it consisted of, but this time it would be too difficult I believe - so I would like to grab the opportunity and tell in detail what I've used for this model:

15mm sci-fi: Darwinist Union Battlegroup

I have had some spare time and lots of unused models so I built a human force for One Page Sci-Fi. These are going to be part of a large campaign (hopefully), when all enemy factions are done, to test the campaign rules I have written. I've gone with a blue/grey pattern on everything: like the ships, the flyers have a blue main colour while ground units are mainly grey.

Forged in Battle PaK 40 and PSC 45mm Soviet AT gun

The anti-tank capabilities for both the Soviets and Germans are finished. The FiB metal kits were a little bit stiff to put together (lots of trimming on the barrels). The primer also peeled off at some places, but I guess that's the paint's problem and not the models'. 

Used a sepia wash on the Soviet crew and a black glaze on the Germans for a quickshade.

The 45mm gun was a PSC single sprue bought on ebay. It was confusing because it was stated that the item is new, in original package. Now how can you get a single sprue without opening up the 5-gun pack, I have no idea. The price was still OK so no complaints.

Battlefront Grille K

In the arms race to complete my 15mm WW2 forces I wished to acquire a German Grille SPG, so I did. After a long and tedious search I have found one on ebay that beat the manufacturer's price.

The Battle of Medvenka AAR

This game was played on the 2nd day of Christmas, but other content for the blog kept it waiting. Here appears a full force of both Germans and Soviets, and as we are still imited to a 4x4 foot table, the battlefield is kind of packed.

As part of a German offensive on the East, a strike force, after a previous recon misson, was sent out to shatter the defenses of the Russian village Medvenka.

German OOB

3x Elite Tiger tanks

5x Panther tanks

1x SS squad with Hanomag

3x Infantry platoons with two squads and MG support

Air support: 1x Ju-87, 1x Fw-190

4 artillery barrages

Soviet OOB

Heavy tank company, 1x KV-1 HQ, 2x KV-2

Medium tank company, 3x T34/85, 3x T34/76

2x Bunkers with 85mm turrets

3x Infantry platoons with LMG support

1x BM-5 Katyusha

PSC 15mm Panthers

Second part of the Christmas lot finished last year. I have used an ambush camo with the regular method of black undercoat, Dunkelgelb block painting, first blobs of reddish brown and dark green, then a black wash, highlights and the little dots. I think it worked.

PSC 15mm German infantry, second batch

These 40 figures have been painted in a rush before Christmas to be added to the arriving German force. I'm now through more than half of the box and this lot includes MG teams (walking and lying) too.