Comrade! (Part 16)

Shamefully I missed all last week's opportunity to post up. Rotten of me for sure. I blame a combo of soggy weather making picture-taking conditions non-existent and Thanksgiving escapades. But enough on that. 

Some painting has commenced since my last post - firstly my Medium Machine Gun team for my WW2 Soviet Bolt Action army. The wheeled Maxim machine gun (I think from WW1) was still utilised by the infantry as a reliable piece of kit and so I present it here for you. As my previous post mentioned, the sculpts for the crew were rather crap, therefore most facial details had to be painted on so please excuse the crudity of my freehand. (These are Warlord Games sculpts)

Friday 25th also happened to be my very good friend Gregg's 42nd birthday and as my gift to him, I decided to paint up this dragon. He seemed happy enough with it, so job done. (Though I did mention that he is not at all allowed to plonk it on the table as a monster for us players to face in any future rpg session!) I have no idea who produced this mini.

Horrid focus on this one, apologies. Rain was starting up again and so was taken hastily!

Also about this time last year another gaming friend, Steve had asked that I paint up this cute Fox. A simple effort, I am most chuffed over how his eyes came out - shifty, like a sly fox should have!

And with extra time to myself and whilst watching the Oakland Raiders do their best to once again lose a game I went on to start work on the final two pieces for my WW2 Soviet army. Since these pics were taken the crew to the AT gun were completed and it's base started on. I might well have it finished by this weekend!

And.... I'm spent. Christmas is coming up and a gaming opportunity or two could be on the cards if I can wrangle spare moments between incoming family and friends' visits next month. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate - Ciao!

Comrade! (Part 15)

This weekend I was lucky enough to have the house to myself for an extended period of time. I watched Grosse Point Blank, the second season of Dark Matter and finished off my GAZ-67 jeep and GAZ-6 truck for my 28mm Soviets.

Keeping with the Winter theme I've attempted a whitewash effort and applied a similar mud/snow effect as shown previously on my BA-64 to make sure they matched. In all honesty, my mud effect is painstakingly long to apply and by the time I'd gotten to putting the snow on, I was out of patience with the whole process and so apologise that these two don't look as good as they could or should.

Wanted the Whitewash to look like it was hastily slapped on with some sort of locally sources household paint. 

Left the windows without snow effects - it's a clear-skies kind of day I guess.

Trying to spread the textured stuff and then paint it brown during the muddying step in all those wheel arches and nooks and crannies almost killed my desire to paint for the res of the year!

Overhead shot to show the truck bed - kept it deliberately simple so that minis placed in there won'd bugger up the work.

GAZ-67 jeep knock-off was a cool little motor. The Soviets didn't actually make that many of them cos the Yanks had sent a massive amount of regular Jeeps through Lend Lease. Still, I like how chunky it looks in comparison to the Western version. (Driver here with gloves painted on as it's obviously cold as heck driving open-topped int he snow!)

I tried unsuccessfully multiple times to cut out some clear plastic to fit in the window frames, but the frame is pretty damned flimsy (It arrived folded three ways! >_<) so just imagine that this fellow drives with his eyes open against the frosty breezes.

The snow gathers even in the back seat. Wet trousers for whoever decides to plonk their derriers in the rear.

I also got started on my Maxim Medium Machine Gun team. This is another Warlord Games set, though not at all up to the standard of their other metal sculpts. The details are so soft (!!!) that I'll have to get rather creative during the detailing phase. As well, base coated my tank with Soviet Green so that I can slap on Winter Whitewash.

Still lots to do, but Base colours and initial wash are done. Next up are the fun parts.

With my transport vehicles done and the soontobe finished (above) MMG team painted up, that'll leave only my T34/85, ZIS-3 Divisional artillery gun and mounted Tank Rider marker to paint up and then call my 1000 point WW2 Soviet list fully painted! Pretty excited to be honest. :)

Used up a 3MMRPC Joker during their Halloween sale (They advertised their WW2 Soviet line 40% off) and purchased a squad of Soviet Scouts to add a fourth infantry option for my army. I really like these SMG armed sculpts as they are all in full hooded overalls. This means I'll be able to paint them up all white and test out a new White painting recipe I have in mind. Something for after I finish the main list.

Cheers.

Comrade! (Part 14)

Lots of time found for painting this weekend, which gave me ample opportunity to finish off my third and final squad for my WW2 Soviets. These guys are the "free" Inexperienced chaps that Soviet players get per their National rules. All armed with rifles and Anti-tank grenades/Molotov Cocktails.

With these done, I can go on to start work on my vehicles (More on those below) and final weapons teams. If this pace keeps up, I'll actually have a fully painted army before Xmas!

Lots more uniform looking fellows to this squad. Wanted them to look "Fresh out of basic training" with as much uniform gear as possible. 

I also kept their bases specifically bare of grasses or bushes to make them more distinctive in order to be able to tell them apart from my other squads all the easier. 

Squad leader pointing the way. Shite pic though as I couldn't get the phone camera to zoom in well enough. O well.

Firing Line - the mass of grey greatcoats and green helmets looks bloody cool to me.

With these finished I got going on the squad transport, a ZIS-6 truck. It's painted up to a basic tabletop level and I could just go and play with it as is, but to match the Winter theme I'll apply whitewash and weathering at the same time as the other two vehicles in my list (Tank and Jeep).

Model is a Resin and Metal effort by Warlord Games. Took a little warm water treatment to twist the truck bed straight and a little trimming of the cab room, but otherwise went together well and was relatively fun to paint up. 

Just a quick spray of varnish and it'll be ready for the next step.

Work was also started on my little GAZ-67 Soviet jeep. Not much left to get it up to the standard of the above truck.

This thing's got a drive too who is also on the list. 

Hope to have lots more done this weekend as I'll have the house blissfully to myself for most of the time! :)