Plastic possibilities

Metal figures are great, but they are what they are. The availability of plastic multipose figures in 28mm means you can have suit yourself and have all sorts of possibilities, including conversions. I got hold of a sprue of late war German grenadiers from Warlord.

I want a sniper team for the table so I've chosen one standing figure for the spotter and the kneeling figure for the sniper himself, who is going to be an officer.

The sniper will have a Gewehr 43 with a scope, and the spotter is there with his binoculars.

The scope is just a basic representation fashioned from stretched sprue and kind of carved and scraped into shape. And here is the finished figure. I had a go at erbsenmuster (pea dot)pattern on his trousers. I think this pattern was reserved for the SS, and this is not an SS figure, but maybe it's all they had in his size...
I always tend to mark knuckles out in a very obvious way when painting hands, which looks a bit OTT come to think of it. Must stop doing that.

I decided to do a very simple conversion on the spotter figure, so he can have both hands on his binoculars. There is a good selection of arms on the sprue with open hands in varying positions, so it was easy enough to come up with something acceptable. A bit of filler in there and Bob's yer uncle.

Just a few more bits to paint now; his other arm obviously, bread bag and water bottle, and a map case. The sniper is just carrying his side arm, separated from the MG42 toolkit pouch on the picture higher up. Plastic is great (except when it's floating in the sea) and so is the humble scalpel!

The sniper's mate is done. I know what you're thinking, neither of them have gone for the concealment thing which is traditional for snipers, but they will have some tall grass on the base.

Indirect fire

Adding a bit of punch to the Heer infantry capability, the 81mm medium mortar GrW34. Once again from Warlord Games. It's a nice little model. I hope I've done it justice! Slightly confusing this one, seems to be described as 8cm and 81mm bore, depending on where you look. There can't be two so I assume it's the same weapon.
For more information I looked around the web and found this -
 www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=301

I've got the Stug bug

Widely used throughout the war, and one of the classics of the German defence of the Normandy invasion, the Sturmgeschutz III, or Stug assault gun. Not technically a tank, if you want to be pedantic it's self propelled artillery. Anyway, it's one of the most recognizable German armoured fighting vehicles of WW2. I understand it scored more hits on enemy tanks and AFV's than any anything else fielded by the Germans.

This is a cracking kit, the first 1/56th vehicle I've built despite doing my fair share of Esci 1/72nd (remember those?) and of course those 'big beasts' 1/35th kits from Tamiya.

Nostalgia. I had one of these...

Dived straight in to this one, and once again an old skool approach, no airbrush. Did they paint real tanks with an airbrush? Brush, use a bristly stick dammit! Undercoated black and then layers of dry brushing in a lightish base green/stone. Sometimes using my phone camera, so colours might look weird due to the light bulb, sorry.

I try to replicate the hazy edges of air brushing by using very thin paint, almost wash thin. If necessary I build it up, almost like doing a watercolour picture.

Just realised I've gone to all that trouble painting the sides, and of course they won't even be seen once the armour skirts are fitted. Oh well. Tracks on. Crisp parts mean easy assembly and a straightforward build, thus far.

Painting on the hull is going quite well, got the basic camo scheme done.

Most of the heavy lifting is done in terms of painting and assembly of the hull, it's been quite a quick build. Next thing are the skirts. I'm going to do a bit of mangling on these, starting with scratching and roughening them up with sandpaper.

I took the scalpel to the skirts to separate one of the plates, so it can be hung at a slightly jaunty angle.
Also melted some scores and dents into them with a heated sculpting tool, and turned the edge of one of the plates out a bit. Looks like one of those nasty collisions with something large and immovable in Tesco car park. It's a lot of extra work, but the schürzen are taking the brunt of the incoming. It was always part of the plan on this build, so at least I can say I stug to the plan. Geddit?

A small photo because I'm handpainting markings instead of using decals and they're a bit shaky.

They nicked some plates off another Stug with a different scheme.

Okay,  the Stug is finished, and I did cave in and use some decals. I wasn't happy with my effort at the Lehr marking, it looked like a demented GBP sign minus something. Also used some numbers. Not absolutely sure if Lehr ever fielded a Stug numbered 153, I just like the numbers. Anyway, for what it's worth, here it is.

Home made scenery

Aside from the figures, simply buying everything for gaming can get very expensive. Model making should be about making things, so a wargames table is a dream to a Womble like me. I see potential in everyday objects, which can with a little imagination become scenery. Okay, buying scenery means you can get ultra realistic, perfectly scaled and immaculately detailed buildings, trees, walls, etc, etc, but where is the joy? I love the challenge of turning rubbish into buildings, or collecting lichen and moss to make trees and hedges. Old roofing felt cut into any wiggly shapes you want serves very well for tarmac roads.

Some Volksgrenadiers with home made trees. Real bits of branch with blobs of lichen glued on. En masse on the table they look pretty good. The section of wall is made from DAS clay, of which I have a large block open at the moment, so I'm working on a longer stretch of wall. Theoretically there will also be a house with interchangeable ruined bits. 

Some of those DAS clay wall sections.

I had lots of little unused 40x20mm figure bases kicking about in a box, which I put to use as bases for the walls. Just a little bit of work involved, sticking them together and adding some groundwork.

Then you get this, below. If you're thinking it looks a bit wobbly, it's just the camera distortion, and also it is really just a bit wobbly. The individual sections just link together. There will be some destroyed sections too for troops to pour through, or Stugs to sit in, obviously.

Scouring pads are wonderful things, especially for washing dishes, but when they get worn out you can make them into hedges! Convincing hedges? Well, convincing enough for a US paratrooper to hide behind. I pluck them out a bit and paint them up. If you want to spend the time I suppose they could be textured with different colours of scatter, but as a representation of the Normandy bocage I think it's okay. If you screw your eyes up.

Look out Spongebob, or as they say in Normandy, Bob l'eponge!

My youngest daughter is a crafty type, and if I ever get to the stage of playing a game she will be be my opposite number. She gets involved making the trees and little dugouts, and will be in charge of an Airfix Typhoon for air strikes at some point down the line.

Here is some of her handiwork, an Airfix Zero. (the canopy being the only part I helped her with) and below, felted fire and smoke markers!
Not bad for one who, at the time of writing, is only 11 years old.

Shmoke and a pancake!

Continuing with the scenery from junk theme I had some off cuts of insulating board in the shed, thick enough to keep a very small house super cosy, or ideal to make some low rent hills with. My daughter and I got to work with the kitchen knives and spent a couple of hours making a right old mess in the garden.

Sheds are great because there is so much stuff in them that you had forgotten about, like this tin of aerosol stone effect paint. The colour is a bit light but it was the texture I wanted, it's rough and sandy, giving a great base to start from. Darker browns will be sprayed over this and then the usual static grass, rocks and scatter added.

I got some brown spray paint for a base colour, and I think it looks okay. The process of dressing it is next; rocks, grass, scatter and so on. Maybe a rocky escarpment made from flakes of slate pushed into the material. The tops of the two smaller hills are relatively flat, so trees should perch nicely. The bigger hill has a nice flat top, so it is going to take a house.

My daughter was busy again today on the hills. She collected some scraps of slate together, and broke them up to make a rocky, outcroppy, cliff face thingy. Good work!

How I paint... Volksgrenadiers

Since coming back to the hobby a few years ago I have been both awe inspired and slightly intimidated by the standard of some figure painters out there. I have tried to change my technique, desperate to emulate that smooth, clean and punchy style I see on modelling forums and websites (and the back of the boxes) but it just ain't happening. In the same way that Usain Bolt is better than me at running, I guess there will always be those who are better at painting. I do what I can.

In spite of buying an expensive set of Foundry acrylics a while back I just can't get to grips with them. I use enamels and white spirit, hence the tired brushes. Chalky drybrushing still works for me! So here it is, I'm laying bare my rather shabby efforts at some @WarlordGames Volksgrenadiers. This is the last guy on the bench from the squad of ten metal figures.

Not painted by me (but a very nice job!)

The first stage is to paint his head. I always do that first because then I feel that he has a personality, as well as eyes that somehow seem just a bit too big. 

1. Black undercoat, then a flesh tone and some light brown wash.

2. Dark wine lips and biiiiiig white eyes.

3. Over paint to reduce the biiiiig white eyes and stick in a pupil.

4. Muck about a bit with lighter flesh tones on nose and cheeks, or a 5 o'clock shadow or such like.

5. Grey cap, pick out eagle and buttons in black.

6. Highlights on cap. White eagle and silver buttons.

I always undercoat in black, as I often line out with black later, so it can save me a bit of work. This guy will be in splinter pattern camo,  so I use a fairly light stone colour as a base, otherwise I find the pattern can get lost at 28mm.

Next stage is applying the pattern. Mid brown geometric sort of random shapes, with some leaf green infilling and the best effort I can manage with the 'rain' overprint. These are just very thin green lines, which need a steady hand.
Trousers get a general smudging of gray.

Belts, webbing and equipment get blocked in with black. Over brush the trousers with a lighter gray (which isn't really showing in my photos).

Start detailing the belts, webbing and equipment. His arm with the MG42 is somewhere getting the same treatment during all of this.

If you want to get ahead, get a head. Glue on his head. More detailing, highlights, tidying up, etc.
Not quite finished yet!

Complete!

A Mötley Crüe indeed...well, half of them anyway.

And the other half. Sadly I got a doubler in the pack.