8th Army, 1st Motor Infantry platoon (Done!)

This is the final platoon I was able to complete for Saturday's (March 14th) tournament at ConQuest Sac. (A tournament AAR with pictures [shock... horror] will follow in my next post.)

I also managed to get their truck transports done but neglected to photo them before they were packed away for the tourney.

The basing was done in the same format as my previous desert stands, Liquitex Sand Effect Medium, then a coat of Vallejo Middlestone and a heavy drybrush of GW Bleached Bone (Not sure what it's called now in the newer paint range) over the top of that. I also superglued the odd Silfor tuft to add some more to the visual appeal. From a trip that I took with family to Egypt back in the 90's, I noticed that the sand in the Sahara was a LOT brighter in colour than most photos show. Now, this is probably more due to how bright the sunlight is out there, but I felt a less-yellowy sand colour was better and contrasted all the better also with the darker uniforms of the models.

The platoon all arrayed, minus it's 2" Mortar team, that I didn't take in my list. I'll get to it at a later date.

I tried to make each base as interesting as possible and also not double up on sculpts. It worked out... okay.

Platoon Command stand - The one complaint I have about the Battlefront 8th Army range is that there is only ONE NCO pose to use! This has made modelling a little bit boring for my command stands throughout. I did add a Bren Gun trooper as all non-Anti-Tank-Rifle stands in Motor Platoons are MG teams.

Again, I painstakingly tried to freehand the Unit markings on the backs of the bases for easier identification. The solitary red stripe is to show that this is 1st platoon. The second platoon (That I did NOT get painted in time for the tournament.) will have two stripes.

First MG section. Not much to describe here - 5 Tommies advancing through the desert.

The three Boys Anti-Tank Rifle teams. Again, only the single AT rifle pose, but I think I mitigated it's boring-ness somewhat through placement on the bases and pairing with regular riflemen. 

Second MG Section. I had bought a while back the 8th Army Casualties pack from Battlefront. These are really well sculpted with crisp detail that I only wish the regular troops could show. 

Chap at the back is holding his hand out in what I imagine to be a "How can you run on, when Tom and Percy are bleein' in the sand!?" expression.

Third MG Section. I Put a LOT more work into this base, wanting to break up the desert monotony and also adding another casualty fig in an "action-pose".

The 2-pounder AT Gun was something from my Bits box that I got in an Ebay lot ages ago. It was covered in glue and so I had no idea how to use it. Well, the desert areas were littered with destroyed and discarded vehicles and guns from all the running battles in North Africa, so I felt it would make a cool piece for the section to be running past, all rusted and burnt out. 

Top view shows it off all the better I think.

Like I said, after these I went to work on their truck transport section. They look almost exactly the same as the two I painted for my HQ mortars (As seen HERE), so I'll not do a post on them specifically. After I got those finished, I then started cutting off all the remaining infantry figures off their lollipop sticks and glued them on bases so I at least could play with them in the tournament. Of course, being stupidly tired from severe lack of sleep (Trying to get all this stuff painted in time for the tournament.) and so not all that coordinated, I managed to embed my exacto knife deep into my finger. Blood welled up and even got into my then curing Sand medium! So this project really does had my blood mixed right in there.

"Ouch!" 

Next up - my AAR for the tournament that I actually remembered to take pics from!