From the Shed: Boer War British.

One of the tasks I set myself a while back was to start a Second Boer War skirmish project. Well the first part has been completed: a good number of 20mm Strelets plastic brits.

I painted them in two batches using contrast paint for the main colour, this meant that they were a quick job but I do think that the overall effect is quite good.

Here is a close up of one each of all the poses.

Now all I have to do is find the bag full of Boer figures I know I’ve got somewhere in the shed….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Late War Brits.

One of my 20mm projects was to do a platoon of late war Brits. To be a bit different I’ve gone for a platoon’s worth of figures in the Windproof 2 piece camo suit (mostly beccause my gaming friends have standard Brits….)

I’ve just finished up a test section of figures to get my colours down.

The figures are all from AB bought here.

Right now I’ve got those done I can work on getting the full lot done.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: 20mm British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) from Under Fire Miniatures.

I got a few sample of the recent BAOR range from Under Fire Miniatures and have got some paint on them.

An a close up of one of the miniatures (with some gravestones)…

They are really nice figures and I’m reliably informed that there are expansions to the range in the form of support weapons on the way.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

From the Shed: bits and pieces (WW2, Science Fiction and Terrain).

Some more from my shed- some assorted bits that I had lying around finally finished, all in 20mm too…

 

Firstly:

 

A set of WW2 British Commandos, these are from Wartime Miniatures (seemingly defunct now). These ones are wearing the Denison camo jacket, a similar pattern to the airbourne one, making them emminently suitable for a game set on Walcheren Island as part of the operations to clear the Schelt esturary. Shame that it looks like more poses with different weapons won’t be forthcoming.

Sticking with WW2 we have these:

A small group of Honved (Hungarian Army) from this set of plastics. I did these as paint testers for a bigger Crossfire/ Megablitz project, more of which later. Not the best sculpts in the world but they paint up very nicely.

Staying with plastics I have done these:

A set of figures by Dark Alliance inspired by the popular S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC games. I’ve got several of each pose in the box so for the first lot I picked out a few poses to do with a winter theme (I’ve a fondness for winter basing at the moment). Not sure what I’ll do with them but they make their way into a game some how.

 

Sticking with PC games I made this:

A set of firing range targets after seeing similar ones in the co-op shooter Insurgency that I played with friends a while back. Bits of foam, ground texture and scrap from the bits box went into making this. Should be good to suggest a camp or base somewhere in MENA.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

From the Shed: 20mm WW2 AB Brits.

I’ve just finished up these figures from AB (now sold by Euerka in Australia and available in the UK from Fighting 15s).

They are wonderful sculpts; lots of character has been put into the faces. They were fast painted with my usual Vallejo acrylic paints.

I’m not a big collector of WW2 Brits as both Evan and Bill have extensive collections, still it is nice to have a few about here and there.

There is a Bren, a 3″ and a 2″ mortar as well as lots of SMGs. It should add to my modest collection well.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

The latest additions to my 6mm (1/300th) Cold War forces.

I’ve been busy in the shed expanding my Cold War micro armour collection in preparation for a multiplayer game of 5core: Brigade Commander that I am planning.

First up with have a mix of US Army vehicles: A Command stand and a company of M1A1s plus extra ATGM, mortars and Vulcan AA cannons mounted on the ubiquitous M113 chassis.

To give the US some air support I painted up a A10 Thunderbolt II aka The Warthog. Probably THE close air support aircraft for the Cold War period.

For the Brits I have done a Harrier GR3, for a change I decided to do it in the winter camo scheme often seen sported during deployments to Norway.

Also for the Brits I’ve painted up a SEPECAT Jaguar, one of my favourite Cold War era jets.

All the models are from Heroics and Ros apart from the infantry that are from Irregular.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

British vehicles: Old and New

The old and new bit referring to the age of the models not their places in history….

First up with have the venerable Matchbox Sherman Firefly (although this is a more recent Revell reissue. The commander is from Battlefield/ Blitz and stowage from various sources.

Next we have some recent (i.e. last decade) Airfix trucks made with modern CAD.

I had a few technical problems painting these: the oil wash that I put over a gloss varnish to define the recessed details took and age to dry and even then remained tacky until I hit it with a matt spray. For future models I’m going to remix all my washes with higher quality turps and use a better gloos spray and hopefully that should solve the problem.

Cheers,

 

Pete.

Some more Elhiem figures- 50s Cold War Brits, Soviets in Afghanistan and a MENA sniper….

Been getting on with some painting, trying to reduce the lead mountain and more importantly those many boxes of figures I’ve got lying around which are started but not finished. I seem to have developed a habit of cleaning, prepping, basing and undercoating figures then leaving them sat in that state in a box for months. Tidying the shed found lots of abandoned projects in that state today. Additionally the take up far more space than if I’d left them in their packets in the bare metal… any way I digress, on with the pictures.

First up is a generic insurgent sniper for the Middle East/ North Africa region. I made a little scenic base for him to fit into too to add a bit more interest.

I painted his trousers in a Russian camo pattern, you can just make that out hopefully.

Armed with the ubiquitous SVD sniper rifle.

I’ll use this idea for other figures too as well as trying a rural base.

Here we have 8 Soviets with a mix of small arms wearing the tropical uniform as seen in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

I’m getting drawn by the retro appeal of the 1950s to gaming the Cold War in that era. I painted up a three squads worth of Brits. They are suitable for that short window of time after the introduction of the SLR but before the WW2 still uniforms were withdrawn; so 1954- 1960.

NCOs have Sterlings the section LMG is the 7.62mm version of the Bren the L4. Section AT weapon is a bazooka (one is slungg on the back of the figure on the left.

One each of the Rifleman poses in the three squads.

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

 

Assorted vehicles and terrain bits.

I’ve got these finally finished off since the new year (I’ll also do a looking forward/ looking backward post tomorrow) so I thought I’d do a big photo dump of a post to get them out there:

First up- a 6mm sized ruined factory made from bit of resin I got from a private seller on the Lead Adventure Forum.

A small house from Leven miniatures, again in 6mm.

A barricade from S and S model scaled for 20mm. I’m tempted to give the bus some more weathering.

A Armourfast 1/72 Valentine converted to a Bishop with an S and S aftermarket part; the short coming of the Armourfast suspension are evident in the photo more than in real life. I may yet do some remedial work on them.

A cheak FAI 1/72 diecast repainted and decaled into a Finnish scheme.

A trio of 1.72 Rhodesian Bush War vehicles from S and S.

A Rhodesian SAS conversion of a Unimog,

 

 

An armoured lorry.

Another Unimog conversion; this time a mortar carrier. I’ll add the crew at a later date.

Three diecast 1/72 BTR60PBs.

Firstly a simple repaint.

One converted into a command variant BTR60PAU, conversion kit by S and S.

Repainted with infantry seated on the outside Afghan style (they considered mines a bigger risk than snipers). Infantry by S and S again.

Cheers,

 

Pete.