Bolt Action - Fallschirmjäger (Nick)

I only finished the first of my Aussies just the other week, but with the 75th D-Day Anniversary fast approaching surprise, surprise yet another change of tack from me and one of those other projects that I mentioned was calling to me at the end of my last post!

Once again another miniature that has been waiting over two years to see completion, however on this occasion not even so much as primer had been applied just cleaned up and stuck on a base along with some buddies ready for the painting to start.

This is a project I started to join in with a Bolt Action campaign when a last minute Axis place became available, and I specifically needed something suitable for Normandy which I didn't have.
As time was of the essence and generally preferring metal miniatures when practical I plumped for the original Fallschirmjäger range from Warlord Games, wonderfully evocative sculpts as ever from the talented Paul Hicks.

The campaign (which never really got going) would have required my core troops to be regular rather than veteran Fallschirmjäger, however a quick chat with my good friend, and font of WW2 knowledge, Andy Singleton followed by some Googling and I would be portraying the Fallschirmjäger 3rd Division, in particular the newly formed 9th Regiment.

I struggled for quite some time deciding how best to paint this one (probably the main reason I stalled so long), in particular the Splittermuster B (splinter pattern) camo and the colours to use for this and all the equipment.

In the end I used a culmination of information found in articles by the afore mentioned Mr Singleton (link) (link) of Volley Fire Painting Services, Stuart McCorquodale (link) of Great Escape Games and the go-to Mick Farnworth (link) and his Artizan Designs painting guides.
I also found this excellent blog as my final inspiration to get started (using the same minis too), as well as the colours suggested in the relevant Vallejo paint collection from Warlord Games - always a good reference.

Many of the Vallejo colours I ended up using were in fact Model Air equivalents of Model Colour paints I didn't have, but applied with a brush.  However this isn't much of a problem as they work really well especially on small, intricate areas like the camo scheme where having the paint slightly thinned is an advantage anyway.
Basing was deliberately finished to match the 101st Airborne I completed in January.

Hopefully I can follow this up quickly with the other FJ's that are primed and ready to go, so that Carl and I can get some games in based around Hill 192 and St Lô in the historically authentic June and July period - then Operation Cobra maybe!

Bolt Action - Austalian Jungle Division (Nick)

Well it's been a while but finally the second actual miniature of the year is finished, with several stalled attempts/projects in the meantime - and while it may look like I'm still doing better than Carl he just hasn't managed to blog his progress yet and is actually miles ahead of me!

This time the first of my Australian Jungle Division for Papua New Guinea from Warlord Games and the chance to try a few new ideas.

This is another one that has been part painted for over 18 months, being just base coated with ultra quick pva/brown ballast basing for a new release display/demo at The Other Partizan back in August 2017 - thankfully the rather poor lighting in the darkest depths of the hall saved many blushes on the day!

The good news this time is that a load of his buddies are also in the same part painted state, so I could in theory have 500pts up and running in no time.

 

I followed what are commonly suggested colours for the uniform, especially the recommendations from Bryan Cook in the FREE Australian Bolt Action pdf (with him being a bit of a guru for all things Australian and WW2 related,  and an Antipodean himself) which is also at the core of the even more excellent Campaign: New Guinea supplement for which this range of figures was released.
Although I did substitute Vallejo Game Colour 64 Yellow Olive for the uniform as I didn't have any Model Colour 888 Olive Grey to hand at the time and they are near identical, and for some reason that escapes me the helmet started as Brown Violet rather than Russian Uniform but it 'all came good in the wash' as they say and we all know campaign uniforms aren't an exact science anyway.

This particular mini has been a bit of a personal battle for me as for some reason it just wouldn't go right, a mix of old and new techniques and impatience to get it finished being the culprits I think - in the end I had to keep walking away and coming back for another go until it took me a week of 20mins here and there to get a result I was happy with.

One of the biggest issues seems to be the areas of exposed skin, I think maybe the detail is a lot softer than the previous US Airborne figure and I had to do more work with the brush in this instance rather than the sculpt doing the work for me.

The basing was a chance to try out the Fine Base Render from Warlord Games/War World Scenics as it was something I obtained at a similar time as the figures were released and wanted a chance to compare against my usual Basetex from Colour Party - at the time I was also trying to keep everything Warlord for the demo force.

It worked pretty much as expected although seemed grittier and less compliant than my usual, however this could be down to storage and is easily overcome with a small amount of water.

Another product I've been waiting to try is Puddles by AK Interactive (which I picked up from the excellent PK-Pro at Tactica Hamburg, a superb show in Germany which I was fortunate to visit 2 years ago) and the often 'very' wet conditions of the New Guinea Jungle floor seemed an ideal opportunity although I didn't want to go too mad.
Before I dived in and applied it to my finished model I checked out a few clips on YouTube, especially the one from AK themselves: link definitely something I would recommend especially as it showed that although pre-coloured the finish is essentially clear unless you add extra colourisation of your own.

So all in all progress this year is somewhat pedestrian for me (nothing new there), and the bad news is that the last 2-3 weeks have seen me changing project more than half a dozen times before anything stuck just long enough to see its way onto and off the painting table as finished - even now with the next of these Aussies in progress other things are calling to me!
It seems I'm doomed to a life as the worst of hobby butterflies, there is no hope anymore... we'll just have to wait and see if any more beautiful butterflies emerge from this extended period of gestation and cogitation, but don't hold your breath.

Pin Markers (Nick)

Do these count as completed miniatures? ...I don't know to be honest, but I'm going to count them anyway just don't tell Carl shhhh!

I first made these as bespoke Pin Markers while playtesting Rick Priestley's 'Warlords of Erehwon' fantasy rules, released just a few weeks ago by Warlord Games!
Originally developed under a different working title, these are an adaptation of the 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' sci-fi rules and affectionately referred to as 'Fantares' during the early stages.

Pin markers are a way of showing a unit's level of attrition and combat efficiency during the game and was first introduced by Warlord in their best selling Bolt Action WWII game.  Whilst very appropriate in the games where firepower and artillery bombardment are prominent and often represented with small explosion tokens like the red plastic ones Warlord Games sell it didn't sit quite right with me.  I wanted something that seemed more in keeping with the fantasy/medieval setting we were gaming, and they could easily be used as more traditional wound markers or even a turn counter.

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These are the first two prototypes I designed from scratch in Tinkercad as files for 3D printing on my Wanhao i3 plus filament printer, and thought it was about time I painted them up ready for battle.  There have been several changes in design to tweak certain elements as well as trying both PET-G and PLA filaments, however they all functional for my own games until I settle on the final design which I may put into production.

The first design spins on two 3mm neodymium magnets to show numbers from 1-10...

...whereas the other has a 3mm peg as part of the design instead:

Not sure which ideas will win out, but I may just paint them all up as easy wins and tabletop eye candy... oh and I might just have to paint some more minis too!

Bolt Action - US Airborne (Nick)

So just 6 days into the New Year and I'm one down already, and while that's not a miniature-a-day it is two months sooner than I was able to show anything in 2018 so definitely a step in the right direction!

This is another one of those minis that's been 95% finished for over 2 years - just waiting for insignia, matt varnish and basing in this instance ...this one's been 'screaming' at me for ages, so really glad to finally see him complete :)

This is a test piece for my US Airborne force in Normandy, especially St. Mere Eglise and Carentan as a project some time in the future so is wearing the m1942 uniform and is one of the excellent metal range from Warlord Games - these are fantastic sculpts and the detail almost paints itself.

The base uniform colour is often the subject of much conjecture, probably not helped by the quality of the material and abusive battlefield conditions it was subjected to.  For my own taste, based on the information I could find I knew I wanted a green tinted, sandy colour and finding a base colour I was happy with proved elusive until I found the Russian Uniform spray from Plastic Soldier Company which proved just the ticket.

One of the reasons this particular miniature has been on hold for so long is my indecision between 101st 'Screaming Eagles' or 82nd 'All American' divisions and therefore the shoulder patch I would apply (I was also planning the Stars and Stripes patch for the right shoulder but recently discovered this almost certainly wasn't worn by the 101st in Normandy).

Both have their merits with the 82nd badges being more colourful against the green/grey and 'All American', but as I really wanted to use the characterful 'Mohawk' pathfinder models associated with the 101st and also have models for Dick Winters and Lt. Spiers not to mention the aforementioned battles of St. Mere Eglise and Carentan it really did sway the eventual choice of 101st Screaming Eagles even though the 82nd featured heavily at St. Mere Eglise (maybe I'll add some units of those too when it comes to recreating that particular battle?).

Overall I'm really happy with the result and can't wait for a chance to paint up some more... maybe for Warlord's own D-day 75th Anniversary campaign day in June?  Although I do have to question my own sanity for adding shading to the Screaming Eagle decal before sealing with matt varnish, but it just popped too much against the drab uniform and just didn't look part of it... much happier with it now, and maybe just a 'little' OCD?

Now onto the next minis to grab my attention... need to keep the momentum going, but also not loose sight of the new project I started putting together in November with the intention of gaming and expanding it throughout 2019.

2018 - a year in review (Nick)

Well 2018 didn't quite go as planned and the miniature-a-day ended up as a total of 50 finished rather than 365 for me.  A sudden change in my work pattern meant the second half of the year was more overtime and/or sleep rather than hobby time, but now things have settled down again I'm determined to have a more focused start to the New Year.

However I did say I wouldn't worry about the final total too much and it's still progress, even if I only got to keep 16 of those minis for myself... and some of those projects that didn't get finished last year could become easy wins this time round as I tentatively look again at that goal of finishing a mini per day.

I know Carl's probably done better than me, but how much we'll have to wait and see as I know some haven't made it here yet even though they are finished - the opponents to my Age of Sigmar Stormcast in our Skirmish campaign for a start.

Anyway onwards and upwards, let's see what 2019 brings?