Saturday 6 November 2010

An Impulse Buy At Colours

A last minute impulse buy at "Colours" on the 11th September 2010 has resulted in me painting more miniatures in a couple of months than I can ever remember having done before. True, they're my first 'true' attempt to get to grips with the world of 10mm as opposed to my usual 28mm miniature world, but by my standards I've 'slapped a lot of paint on metal' these past couple of months.

The purchase in question was a £20 bag containing a "World War Two German Winter Army Pack" by "Pendraken Miniatures" (pendraken.co.uk). I've always had a hankering to refight Stalingrad but never managed to get the project off of the ground. This time though I was determined to see the thing through. It took another week for the popular 10mm World War Two ruleset "Blitzkreig Commander" to drop through my letterbox, and another couple of weeks for the 'reinforcements' I needed from "Pendraken Miniatures" to arrive, in order for me to be able to field both a 1,000 point German Early Eastern Front Battlegroup and a Russian Early Eastern Front one as well. In addition I also purchased some resin Russian Village buildings, trees and decals from "Pendraken Miniatures". As you see I don't do things by halves.

I've currently made three of these areas of woodland, which for the purposes of "Blitzkreig Commander" will be Impenetrable High Area Terrain. The bases are 1.5mm ply wood movement trays from Fenris Games (fenrisgames.com) with a selection of PNTR1 Deciduous trees 35mm high, PNTR2 Deciduous trees 48mm high and PNTR3 Deciduous trees 50mm high stuck to them with 'green stuff'. The bases were then flocked using some 'sand' I bought elsewhere at "Colours".

Ordinarily I simply base my (28mm) models with "Games Workshop" sand and after a coat of PVA glue to ensure it remains in place, I leave it at that (having added some clumps of static grass). However, having been so disappointed with the the dour effect I'd previously experienced simply gluing “Games Workshop” “Citadel Snow” directly on top of “Modelling Sand” I went just a bit further and actually painted the sand with Chaos Black. I then drybrushed the bases with Dark Flesh and Dheneb Stone, before treating them to a wash of Devlan Mud. Once protected with a seal of PVA glue, I then applied 'drifts' of “Citadel Snow” to the base (as well as to parts of the trees).

This resin building is PS42 WWII Russian wooded village hall and proved a joy to paint simply (and hopefully effectively). The main wooden structure has been painted with Calthan Brown, whilst the window and door frames were painted with Dark Flesh. Both areas were then treated to a wash of Devlan Mud. The thatched roof was first painted Iyanden Darksun, then washed with Devlan Mud before being drybrushed with more Iyanden Darksun.

This 'second' building was painted in exactly the same way, and is PS40 WWII Russian thatched barn with wooden walls. Both buildings were then based using the same technique as used for my areas of woodland.

Having compiled an 'infantry-heavy' initial 1,000 point German Battlegroup, I still found the points to 'get in' some armour. These are GR77 Panzer I, GR186 Panzer Ib and GR196 Panzer III E/F 37mm gun. I do plan for some of my future armour to have camo patterns but for now 'i just want to get them on the table', thus I went for a simple 'field grey' look. The tanks were initially painted Adeptus Battlegrey before being given a wash of Badab Black. I then drybrushed them with more Adeptus Battlegrey. Their tracks were then 'picked out' with Boltgun Metal, before being washed in Badab Black.

These three units of Waffen-SS are made up from the mixture of miniatures found within the World War Two German Winter Army Pack. As the majority of my infantry units were to be Heer, I wanted these 'bases' to stand out from the regular troops, so gave them all 'field grey' helmets and simply stuck four miniatures to a base, as opposed to the five (which seems the 'BK norm'). Their winter uniforms were simply painted Astronomican Grey before being drybrushed Skull White. Their helmets and the odd piece of field-kit was 'picked out' with Adeptus Battlegrey and washed with Badab Black. Their flesh was painted with Tallarn Flesh, and their rifle butts with Dark Flesh. Both of these areas were then washed with Devlan Mud. Finally, any gun barrels were painted with Boltgun Metal, and washed in Badab Black.

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