Friday 16 January 2015

From KevinH - Lt. Winters and more Bolt Action US Airborne (28mm) - 60 pts

I've been participating in the 2015 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  This was my entry for January 14, 2015.

For today's post, let's continue the "US Airborne" theme...




First off, the Limited Edition "Lt. Winters" figure.  I really liked this figure!  I have to look into this, but I think Warlord commissioned Paul Hicks to sculpt this figure, and it just looks awesome.  It's not quite so easy to see from my pics, but "in person," it looks to me as if the face even looks a bit like Damien Lewis from the "Band of Brothers" series!

My only gripe about this figure is the "dog tags."  They were cast in metal, and that makes for a very HEAVY figure!  I wish they had cast the dog tags in resin, to cut down the weight.  I might have to pick up another of these models, so I can do one on a "groundwork" base, to match my other figures.



Next up, Lt. Winters gets a Radio Operator, to keep in touch with Command.  I had to replace the barrel on the Carbine, as it was about ready to break off anyway.  A bit of fine brass wire, and a bit of Super Glue to mock up a muzzle, and we're done.  Also added a nylon paint brush bristle for the radio antenna!


This round, sees the addition of a 60mm Mortar team for the Airborne force.  I'm not really a fan of modelling a group like this on separate bases, but some rules require this sort of thing, so there you go.  And this way, I can always use the guy with the binoculars as an Artillery Forward Observer (watch this space for further developments on that idea!)

Carrying on, we have two Sergeants with Thompson SMG's.  I don't think this line has one, but a running figure with a Thompson would have been nice, to model Lt. Spears from "Band of Brothers!"

 I also completed a few more Riflemen models to start fleshing out this force.  Here are two kneeling models.

 And here are three standing models.  I really like the running figure in this group - a really nice 'dynamic' pose, and and the animation of the posture is spot on.


And just to recap, here's a "group shot" for this round - 12 models for a grand total of 60 pts. 


And last up, a shot of my Airborne force so far.  A Lieutenant with two Riflemen; a Bazooka team; a 60mm Mortar team; two seven man Rifle squads, with one squad including a Medium Machine Gun team; and an M4A3 Sherman tank.  I think I might just have enough to start playing modest games of Bolt Action!


Thanks for looking!



From KevinH - Fortnight Challenge - Victorian - Steve Saleh's Ratcatcher

Here is my entry in the "Victorian" Fortnight Challenge for the 2015 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.


Amongst the figures I bought from my friend's Estate sale, was the beautiful Wargames Foundry, Limited Edition "Victorian Ratcatcher" model by Steve Saleh.  Wow, this is a great model!  Nice, crisp detail, great proportions, cute "character."  It's a bit bigger than most 28mm's (maybe a "29mm" if you like), and sort of a bit more "heft" than most 28's, but those things don't harm this model at all.  When I found it among the figures I'd picked up, I knew I wanted to paint it for the Challenge - then, I noticed "Victorian" was one of the Fortnight Challenges!



I like the little rat poking it's head out of the cage, and the one crawling up over the shoulder.  I was tempted to start Googling pics from the movie, "Willard" but decided against that.  When I started cleaning the model earlier this week, I was thinking about clipping off the cast base, and sculpting a "sewer" base for this guy.  Then I noticed the one additional rat on the ground, between his feet.  Rather than trying to cut around the rat, and maybe risk ruining the rat, I decided to just glue the figure to a GW base, and do basic Liquitex Resin Sand groundwork instead.

This was a pretty straight-forward paint job.  I was a bit rushed on it, as "Life" threw me a curveball today, but I think it turned out OK.  I stumbled on a nice trick for the gold buttons and top hat buckle - I base-painted those items with a "dark yellow" (basically, the colour of  WWII 'Late War' German armour).  I'm never quite happy with how Gold paints onto a model - often the paint itself is a bit thin, as it's really just "carrier" with Gold flecks.  The dark yellow base colour helps unify those flecks, and I didn't get the "streaky" Gold I usually get!  Maybe this isn't something new to most of you, but it was something I tried on the spur of the moment, and it worked great!  I'll have to try using a Grey base for Silver and Gun Metal paint next!



When I was poking around for some "rat catcher" reference pics to give me some inspiration, I came across this old illustration (surprisingly, there seem to be very few pics of the miniature out there on the Internets!).  So for my final pic of this post, I added in a couple of dog models my friend had painted.



I think it makes for a nice grouping!

Thanks for looking!

Sunday 11 January 2015

From KevinH - Fortnight Challenge - Mounted - Sergeant Preston and Rex

From KevinH - Fortnight Challenge - Mounted - Sergeant Preston and Rex

In last year's Challenge, I did Sergeant Preston for "Favourite Character."

So, for this year's "Mounted" Fortnight Challenge, I decided to do Sergeant Preston and Rex, his horse.  As some of you will no doubt recognize, this is from the Pulp Figures "Sgt. Preston" pack.  (Observant folks out there, will notice the 'dismounted' figure in this pack, is NOT the one I painted last year - but I think the figure I did paint as "Sergeant Preston" makes a better Sergeant Preston.)



I found this old puzzle box art, which was really handy, and I was planning to paint the horse Chestnut!  (...Oops!)



Pretty straight forward painting on this figure - just match up with last year's figure, and the puzzle box art.



Lastly, a shot of last year's figure with this year's Mounted version.



Oh, and I put away the photo booth for the time being.  I found a couple of decent swing-arm desk lamps at "Wally-mart" and some good old, Incandescent bulbs to light up the scene!  In my mind at least, they look much better than my previous pics this year.  I'll need to get some tissue paper to cover the lamps for better diffusion, and I might still need a third lamp for "fill" light from the camera area, but I'm much happier with how these shots turned out - and pretty minimal Photoshopping to get them ready!


Thanks for looking!