Go Go German Sherman!

'Operation Midnight Panzer' has continued and five more hulls roll off the assembly line... they were assembled during the painting challenge,... but at the end of the evening, when I had had enough of painting for the evening, I'd spend the last 20 mins or so, of the night, assembling one of these tanks... and so on...

They are 15mm scale Panzer IV Ausf H, one of the later models of the Panzer IV with the long barrel high velocity main gun, and sporting side armour Schurzen skirts...

They are plastic kits from Plastic Soldier company, which I continue to find easy to assemble and cost effective... and once again painted in a late war 3 tone came pattern. No airbrushing, just block painted, shade wash and drybrush. A little detail work picking out tools etc. Do the tracks... a little HB pencil to denote worn parts on tracks, some drybrushed weathering, a little rust effect on the exhaust.. and finally decals.

Now I know the turret numbers are not sequential so these are not from the same platoon. This is because the first time I put turret numbers on the first PzIVs I got, I had not understood their significance and went with a mixture of assorted numbers. Thankfully I found the left over decals so have started to bulk out the original formation with the 'missing tanks'! If you get my drift?

So that's 10 Panzer IVs ready, and the plan is to complete one more box of five PzIVs, featuring a few commanders peaking out of their hatches, and that will give me three combat platoons plus the HQ panzers... enough for a horde of 'German Shermans' to confront the allies, ... perhaps in the Lorraine region...? Hmmm, wonder what list I'm looking at?  :)

German Panzer IV H: (FOW)
FA6, SA3, TA1.
Main gun, range 32", AT11, FP 3+
Co-Ax and Hull MGs
Side Armour Schurzen, and Protected Ammo.

Kiwi (Fernleafs) Casualties, finished.

Managed to get the 10 Kiwi Casualties finished today.

Apparently, New Zealanders were not referred to as "Kiwis" back then, they were called "FernLeafs", hence the post title!

These were metal figures again and this time fully formed all the way round, so there was no getting away with only painting one side on these!

Three different poses, and I decided to vary the shirt colour between them.. as from what I have learnt, at the time of the attack, the troops were ordered to attack in shirt sleeves, so their tunic jackets were not worn. The troops had also by this time received clothes parcels from home so many were wearing differing coloured shirts, with anything from off white to light grey and light blues, hence the variety.

I left the pants the typical dark khaki colour.

The webbing I followed the painting instructions and did them with the light GW 'nuggling' green... (thanks to Roly for loan of his pot for this!) with a shade wash. I was a little curious at this colour choice though as most of the colour examples for this show it as a yellowy/tan colour...?

The other chaps were wearing off white braces.

Finally these guys being casualties, I ummed and arred about adding some subtle blood effects to their wounds...in the end I decided to add just a little... the pose to left of top picture I didn't add any, as there was no obvious wound site. The centre pose is raised up on one elbow clutching his side with other hand. I put some blood effects around the clutching hand, though he's lying on it so there's not much to see. The last pose is a little more overt... and this pose also had an oddity... no left ear! Not sure whether this was deliberate or a casting error... and if the latter, my green stuff skills are not up to sculpting ears!

So I decided he's been hit twice... one shot has taken his ear off, the other has hit him in the hip, so I put some blood effects on the missing ear, and round the hand on hip.

So that's my efforts concluded for this project. 50 figures done, which was 10 more than I anticipated.

Its been an honour to be involved with this project and I for one can't wait to have a look at it, once it's all done.

I'd also like to extend my appreciation of all the other folks who answered the call and picked up their paintbrushes, for a good cause. Well done, one and all.

Hopefully the display will last the test of time, and act as a permanent reminder of what our forebears endured, all those years ago... as ever... We will remember them...

Mustering the Troops

Last Turks finished...

Painting continues apace here at 'Bowman Towers'... My last batch of Turks finished tonight... I got these done in just under a week... thats pretty damned quick for me, but I don't feel my butt has left the painting table... other than to sleep, and go to work!

... again I went with that 'on-campaign' mix of shades and tones...

That's 40 figures I have managed to get done so far now, ...I just need to finish the 10 kiwi casualties I have left to do, and hope to finish those over the weekend...

Taking a break for rest of tonight, have hired The Hobbit - Battle of Five Armies on DVD for an evenings family viewing and a return trip to Middle-Earth :)

The last command...

I got my last batch of Anzac Diorama figures for painting from Sam on Friday night...

10 more Turks; 5 in charging pose with kalpak cover hat, and 5 with trail arms pose and a simple round hat.

Plus 10 more casualties, this time Kiwi's... These will be the first Anzac troops I will have painted so I'll have to get my nose back to the painting guides...

Now Friday night in the Bowman household is usually a relaxing evening, enjoying a family movie or DVD together, with a few tasty nibbles and a little vino for the grown ups...

But not wanting to waste any spare time, now that the deadline is getting real close... I decided to press on with the filing and trimming, and gaze at the TV from afar... but I wasnt going to miss out on my friday night tipple... and rather than get the glass all covered in the metallic dust from the filing, wifepoos came up with a solution...

Red vino through a drinking straw? Needs must at times...

So I made steady progress, friday night, had an archery lesson with No.1 son on Saturday morning, then pressed on with trimming Saturday arvo and evening...

Sunday saw models getting glued together... the attacking pose again needing drilling and pinning... I had picked some Vallejo Plastic Putty, for gap filling, through the week from Mighty Ape at Sams suggestion and I certainly found it better than the GW Liquid Greenstuff... as it didn't shrink on drying...

A blast with brown undercoating spray, and we are good to go for painting...

10 more Turks

I've got the Turks about 75% base coated so far... and will continue pressing on...

10 Kiwi casualties

Not long to go now, feels like every second counts... so what am I doing here?

Back to the paints!

Mustering the Troops

Panzer III Ausf M

With the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge deadline of 20th March virtually upon us, I managed to sneak one last entry in at the last minute.

I had been waiting for more ANZAC Diorama figures to do, but again there were gaps in the time-frame of the 'supply chain', allowing me to get back to some of my own stuff...

So, here's a platoon, or 'Zug', of five Panzer III Ausf M, in 15mm scale, by The Plastic Soldier Company.

I love the PSC kits, great value for money, and easy to put together.

I have painted them up in my usual three colour German camo scheme, to match my existing FoW forces... I also used GW 'Rust effect' paint on the exhausts... Decals by DOM.

The Panzer III may not be as 'sexy' as the big cats, but it was a workhorse of the mid-war period and was still seeing action later in the conflict, so this platoon will be complimenting my existing Mid and Late War forces...

The Ausf M was just about the last incarnation of the PzIII, and had seem increases in armour thickness, size of main gun to 50mm and addition of Side Armour skirts or 'Schurzen'.

In the game, it has FA6 SA3 TA1, has a range of 24" with main gun and ROF3, AT9, FP4+, plus the usual MGs. That makes it quite a useful infantry support tank, able to knock out infantry, gun teams and lighter armoured vehicles, like half-tracks and suchlike. Its still a threat to the side armour of heavier tanks and will certainly hold its own against most tanks in the MidWar setting...

This platoon has been part of my background hobby work, which has gone under the project name of 'Operation Midnight Panzer'... with me typically ending an evenings hobby work, gluing together one of these little tanks before heading to the 'woodhill'... more of those to follow in a subsequent post...

My second lot of Turks finished...

Thursday night I put the last finishing touch; drybrushing Ushabti Bone on the boots and puttees, of the Turk soldiers to finish this latest batch of Turks...

I like the way this batch has turned out and think the varied tones makes for a good 'on-campaign' look...

Got these wrapped up, bubble wrapped and boxed up, with the first ten that I did, and delivered to Sam at KWC on Thusday night. There were none currently available to collect, so I'll be waiting till the next batch arrves for another allotment...

So that's 20 troopers and 10 casualties painted so far.... and a free weekend to send the brush back towards my own projects, until more figures arrive... though I think the garden is desperate for a little TLC too! :)

We are half way through the month now, with a fortnight to go till month end and the deadline... I'd like to think I could probaby get another 10 figures done, in that time, all being well...

Mustering the Troops

Boromir - Son of Gondor - "Anti-Hero" bonus theme round - Painting Challenge

The final Bonus theme round of the Painting Challenge was entitled "Anti-Hero" and was the theme of this years event.

I wanted to keep to my overall LOTR theme for the year and at first had in my mind to do Gollum... but he struck me more of being a plain old villain really, and after a brief chat with Curt, about what an Anti-hero would really be... it was decided that Boromir's character would make for a good entry...

An Anti-Hero is basically a Hero, but perhaps is not the most, shall we say, 'ethically minded' in how he gets the job done...?

In this case, since Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, having no doubt succumbed in some way to its malign influence, even though he was never a 'ring-bearer' himself,... and albeit with overall good intentions - to save Gondor from the threat of Mordor, by using it himself, or gifting it to his father... he fails perhaps to see the bigger picture and the real threat, that is the Ring itself...

He of course, pays ultimately with his life in the end, regaining his honour somewhat in defence of the weakest members of the Fellowship, when the party become scattered at Amon Hen during the attack of the Uruks of Isengard...

Aragorn's final "Be at Peace, Son of Gondor" is always a very moving moment...

I have painted this model once before as part of my own collection, some years ago now, so this example will be gifted to Curt, as my "Curtgeld" fee for participation on this years Challenge. Hopefully it will find a welcome place in Curts growing collection!

RIP - Sir Terry Pratchett

It was with some regret that when I got up this morning and flicked on my Facebook feed, the first thing I saw was the news of the passing of Terry.

Such a shame, though I understand he had been suffering with Alzheimer's Disease for some time...

I first started reading his novels as a teenager back in the 80's... and just loved the Diskworld setting and characters therein...

His wit and sarcasm were wonderful and his parallels to modern living were priceless observations...

...simple things like a cart getting clamped in an alleyway... or some top hero getting equipped, having heard a fight break out in the bar below, only to topple over with the weight of all the weapons he'd just strapped on, wonderfully lampooning all those classic action movies...

...there's so many more moments spring to mind but I'd spend all day writing them all down...

But the book I enjoyed the most... and cannot help laugh out loud each time I pick it up, is the book he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman; Good Omens...

...which if you haven't read it, is a brilliant send up of the Omen series of movies and the Apocalypse in general... Simply excellent.

You will be sorely missed Sir!

I think it may well be time to start re-reading this classic series of works...

RIP

Riders of Rohan... and the 'Gallop' to the Challenge finish...

As the Painting Challenge draws to a close, there is a frantic rush to get models completed, that have undergone work over the last couple of months...

As has been previously posted, a 'Turkish Invasion' has scuppered some of my originally planned painting output for the challenge... but when a hiccup occurred in the arrival of Turkish reinforcements... it allowed a few days where I could get back to 'my own stuff', and I am happy to have found the time to complete 12 more Riders of Rohan, to add to my growing planned all mounted Rohan force...

I have always liked these models, and they are looking even better en-masse... I usually go with white socks or stockings as they are known for the horses lower legs as this gives a good contrast to the brown... but this time I decided to use much darker tones for a change (dark grey over a black base), as I have seen many horses with darker socks and stockings too... so these will add a bit variety over my overall force...

So that brings my mounted Rohan force up to 24 Riders of Rohan and 6 Royal Guard. But I only have Eomer and Theodred mounted to lead them all, so I am going to have to get a mounted captain done too...

My local Painting Challenge compatriot; Ste, has been getting a load of orcs and uruks done too, as part of his Painting Challenge entries, so we are going to have to have a post Challenge battle and get these forces in the game!

Expect more shoot and scoot tactics from these mobile troops, and once the enemy is at a manageable size, ride in to finish them off... just need to be cautious of any sneaky 'dismounting' spells and abilities...

Back to the Challenge, and these 12 Riders netted me 120 points to add to my total.

The end of the Challenge is in sight and the race to the finish has begun... The Turkish reinforcements finally showed up so I'll need to get these guys done in time to earn a few more challenge points...

Turks - 2nd batch - WIP

Just a quick picture to show progress today on the 2nd batch of Gallipoli Turks... Base colours blocked in...

This time I have gone with a range of varied shades for the hats, tunics, trousers and puttees... using various shades of khaki, drab, canvas colours... GW Deneb Stone and Foundry 7c, 11b, 12b, 12c, 29b, 29c, 31c.
This was an attempt to break away from the brand new uniform look, and go for a more mottled worn campaign look ...
The shade wash will unify these colours.
Rifle stock was GW Vermin Brown... belts, straps and boots were GW Mournfang Brown. The Covered Kalpak hat I used GW Elf Grey.
Metallics were GW Boltgun...

I'll admit these were a little more fiddly to do than the first batch... and I also had to drill and pin the left hand to the arm for each model, then add a little greenstuff putty to make a wrist as the pose didn't quite line up here, it was about 1-2mm out, enough to be noticeable...

The gap in hand to arm

  ...plus the pose with rifle across chest, makes painting round it a bit awkward, but its a classic rifle carrying pose, so just have to get on with it...

Drilled and pinned... greenstuff wrist sculpted on top afterwards.

So next up, shade wash, and highlights... and then on with the 10 casualty figures which should be much easier... no rifle to worry about and only onse side to paint!

Mustering the Troops

Jeeves and Mortimer - Gents with Shotguns for Empire of the Dead.

To break up the slog that has been finishing 12 Riders of Rohan (nearly done now), I have been slipping the odd EotD figure into the painting queue... sometimes you just want to paint something different for a mo'...

So I have managed to get another couple of Empire of the Dead Gentlemen to add to my Sons of Empire Faction; the Pall Mall Patrons... I give you, Jeeves and Mortimer... seemed good names for a duo...

Here they are guarding the entrance to the Cemetery, with shotguns loaded..., one double barrel, the other pump action?

Shotguns are useful in the game as they ignore the terrain cover modifiers for shooting... oh, you're hiding behind that hedge? Boom! Ha Ha!

I only have two more Gents to paint up now... both with volleyguns :)

But they may have to wait... as I have just taken delivery of another shipment of 54mm Gallipoli figures on Friday, and I have recently been reminded, the deadline for completion is actually the end of March! Eek!!

Back to Jeeves and Mortimer, and hopefully these two figure may see me reach my 600pt target for the AHPC, earlier than expected, thanks to the bonus points for the Bonus theme rounds... so I suppose I better add to my target... there's still points to come for the Comedic bonus round, and I hope (or need!) to get 20 more 54mm figures done for end of March, so lets bump the target up to 900pts and see if I can get near it!

Fingers crossed!

Keeping an eye on the various painting deadlines I have at the mo';... 20th March for AHPC, and end of March for Gallipoli stuff... I have decided to try and get my outstanding 12 Riders of Rohan finished off. Finished the paintjobs on Tuesday night and got them all varnished last night. Just basing to do now which I'll hopefully finish tonight. I'm also halfway through doing my 'Curtgeld' AntiHero due by Saturday, so will hopefully finish that off over next couple of days too.

After that, its probably Turks all the way till the end of March... though I may slip the odd thing in, in between... if I have time and inclination!