Clever Hans (Part 5 - SS triple threat and some random scatter terrain)

Last weekend was a somber affair. The previous Thursday, my mother-in-law finally succumbed to the cancer in her poor system so the whole household was in an understandable funk. Mom picked a good time to pop her clogs though as it was President's Day on monday, so we all had a long weekend to get ourselves back out of the miserables and get back to work/school.

Staying at home for so long also allowed me to distract myself from feeling down and get some more painting done on my Winter Germans.

These three fellows are more members of my planned 7-man SS-Grenadiers squad, two of which allowed me to practice some more on "scary" german camo schemes, in this case Autumn Oak Leaf Pattern, which was not nearly so labour-intenstive as the Pea Dot camo I previewed in my last post.

On the left, this bloke is about to let fly with a carefully placed Panzerfaust Anti-tank shot. As well as a standard feldgrau jacket, he is sporting some Oak Leaf camo trousers. Centermost is the squad's Machine Gun support specialist who is a bit more canny where "Winter camo" is concerned and so has a white-washes helmet and some snazzy white trousers. His jacket is in Oak Leaf camo. Last fellow to the right has some Pea Dot trousers and a greatcoat, also sporting a whitewashed helmet. This Winter's fashions for you.

Obligatory SS bums.

And a group shot of the infantry that've been painted for this force thus far. Not a bad looking turnout I think.

The title mentions some scatter terrain, and who ever wrote that wasn't lying. I also randomly picked up a plastic Dumpster (By Reaper Miniatures) for my modern zombie survival project and painted it the ugliest green I own, which is close enough to the actual Dark Green that I see them painted up as in real life. The lid is designed to be able to be opened, but I glued it down. No need to risk zombies climbing inside when I'm not looking.

You'll also see to the right of the above pic that there's some sort of blurry sandbag+crates wall that I was also working on. Thought the pic was fine, but I guess it's completely out of focus. O well.

Still two SS troopers to go, watch for an update on those. Also this weekend I am playing in a Market Garden huge game that I'm pretty excited for, so hopefully I'll remember to take some pics of how that went and post them here.

Cheers.

Clever Hans (Part - 2)

Little painting has gotten done since my last post – Mostly due to my bloody neck, again.

Still, I managed to get a little paint slapped on a few minis last night as you’ll see below.

*please forgive the photos – I have run out of Testors  Dulcote, so the minis below are still awaiting flat varnish and some nice moisture-free daylight pics! (Go away rain)*

First is my first go at painting WW2 German uniforms for my Bolt Action Winter 1944 Eastfront project. He’s not perfect by any means, but he’ll do just fine for gaming and will match up well against my already previewed Winter Soviets.

You can see it on his left arm but this bloke is marked up as the squad leader - a sergeant or Corporal or something. He'll be leading my squad of SS-Panzergrenadiers. Whilst he's in Winter whites, others in his squad will get some Oak Leaf and Pea Dot camo garments here and there. 

I painstakingly researched all the correct colours for late war Winter German uniforms. Then promptly lost all my notes...       -__- So pretty much painted all of this in whichever colours I thought looked cool and seemed at least somewhat appropriate.

Next up are another pair of zombies for my contemporary setting. Once again, these were painted very simply – prime, base, wash and a slight highlight here and there. Have to say I really like these plastic kits – lots of well sculpted detail allowing for different racial make-ups, etc. My only complaint would be that there are not enough fat zombies – how am I supposed to represent Zombified Contemporary America with only skinny undead???

Can't see it very well in these pics, but the chap on the left seems to have been eviscerated in some fashion, whilst the lady on the right is waving what looks to be a Fibia in front of her.

Zombie bums

(Along with my Undead, I've also begun painting the Sarissa Precision mdf buildings that came with the Project-Z "Lock and Load" set. Only base coating so far, but these well designed pieces should add immeasurably to my games once done. No pics at this stage as there's still a long way to go on them.)

After I finished up the zombies, I got working on yet a different project, my Bolt Action Early War Commandos. These two will be my Lieutenant and Adjutant. Just WIP pics right now, but they are coming along very nicely and this is the first time I've attempted to paint a Denison Smock. Camo in general intimidates me, especially when it's historically based, so one should at least attempt to paint the scheme as close to records as one is able. Am hoping after some simple highlights and pictures in some far less harsh lighting that it'll stand out a bit more. 

The Commando on the left is by WargamesFoundry and a really nice sculpt - except (!!) his eyes. He looks like he is suffering from a horrible case of hayfever and has gotten all puffed up!
The Officer on the right is by Black Tree Design and is actually a Paratrooper mini. I chose him as my platoon leader because #1 I liked the mini and #2 the original Commando regiment was made up of volunteers from all branches of the Army, so I figured a former Paratroop officer would "Choose" to wear his Paratroop Denison smock to show his love for his previous regiment or some shit. It made sense at the time of purchase... At least his beret is proper Commando Green.