Monthly Archives: April 2011

A quick guide to painting Bolt Action’s 28mm British Infantry: updated 08/05/11

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As you may know, Chris and I are preparing to play the WWII skirmish game NUTS using Bolt Action Miniature’s 28mm figures.  So, whilst I park my FoW T34s, I thought I’d shame Chris into painting his dastardly pea-dot camouflaged SS louts by writing up a quick guide to British infantry.

Now, once again, this isn’t going to be a guide on how to paint the best, most ‘Kevin Dallimored‘ inspired figures :) .  This will be more a ’first-foray-into-28mm-figures-since-I- painted-up-some-Chaos-Space-Marines-for-my-step-son-last-Summer kind of a thing’.  I want it to be quick because I’ve got tons to do and time is short.  I plan to use a variant of Army Painter’s 4 Step system:

  1. Undercoat,
  2. Base Coats,
  3. A dip in ‘Dark Tone’,
  4. A spray of Testor’s Dull-Cote’,
  5. Basing.

Doh!  That’s 5 steps and done (hopefully).

There are a few guides available for painting Tommies in 15 and 28mm:

At this stage, I’m going for the following:

  • Helmet: 094 Russian Uniform,
  • Webbing: 101 Green Grey,
  • Skin: 021 Medium Fleshtone,
  • Other straps, ammo pouches: 115 Khaki,
  • Gas mask case: 082 Olive Green,
  • Rifle: 135 Beige,
  • Boots: 169 Black.
  • Mug (can’t forget the mug!) : Off White 004 with Oxford Blue 049 trim :)

This might changes if it looks wrong at this scale.

Step 1: Black Undercoat.

I’ve airbrushed on a thin coat of Vallejo 74.602 Black Primer.  Despite saying it can be sprayed directly through your airbrush, do dilute it with thinner and be prepared to clean your airbrush very carefully – it’s a buggar to get out.

Step 2: Base Coats.

I’m going to apply a range of flat base coats starting with Vallejo 141 English Uniform diluted in a ratio of about 3:1 with Vallejo thinner and sprayed on with an airbrush for speed, economy and coverage.  Make sure you get into all the nooks and cranies.  It’s at this stage that I realised that I hadn’t removed all the mould lines which are easier to see now the paint is on.  A sharp scalpel is called into play, but this oversight slows me down.  A second coat of English uniform ensures good coverage:

With all the base colours painted on, I’m ready to apply Army Painter Strong Tone.  I’ve cheated a little and added some highlights to the faces by applying 020 Sunny Skin Tone to the forhead, cheeks, nose and chin.  Otherwise, as you can see, everything is pretty flat:

After Army Painter’s Strong Tone liberally applied with a large soft brush:

As I said, they’re not going to win any awards but they are getting done.  Next, the decals and dull-coting.

 

Building Tommy Space Marine

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On my free day-off courtesy of Her Majesty’s off-spring (don’t get me started…), I undercoated my first section of Bolt Action Miniature’s 28mm Late War British infantry. I’ve found these quite fiddly to make, but reasonably good fun despite cutting my thumb open at least once. The models themselves are very versatile and you learn alot about what is, and is not, possible as you go along. It’s kind of like an elaborate 3D jigsaw. You start off with an ideal pose in mind, perhaps derived from a photo you have, and then you see what you end up with when all the pieces are glued together.

For the benefit of other builders, here’s what I’ve initially come up with (apologies, black undercoat doesn’t photograph well):

Looking at photos from the period, I realised that the GS shovels and pickaxes were lodged behind the small packs. Fortunately, because the plastic is easy to work I could cut a semi-circular groove on the top and bottom of the packs relatively easily. This enabled me to glue the picks and shovels in place. The EMA glue I use dissolves a thin film on each surface, welding the pieces together before quickly evaporating. enabling me to cut away the respective pick or shovel’s shaft to fit the pack neatly to the figure’s back. Easy, even for a cack-handed person like me!

The only downside is that some of the parts are quite fragile, so be prepared for mishaps and, in my case, meltdowns when you spill a full pot of glue all over your workspace!

Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy video beta AARs: updated

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Battlefront have posted 2 very exciting  video beta AARs from Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy:

Barkmann’s Corner – a sole panther tank lead by the eponymous tank commander joins with a battered remnant of a much larger German infantry force to hold a vital crossroads attacked by multiple tank platoons.
Closing the Pocket – a panzer grenadier company, supported by a section of panther tanks and a marder platoon, assaults a commune near Falaise in an attempt to delay and counterattack allied forces which are attempting to encircle friendly forces in the greater area of operations.

The third features the innovative ‘Quick Battle’ system that allows you to pick’n'mix your forces and battlefield.


Release date indicated to be end of April.

Salute 2011 2/2

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Baueda is an Italian developer of  wargame accessories and miniatures. Their latest endeavour is 1-48 COMBAT, a WWII skirmish game set in Stalingrad.  As the name suggests, each player commands a squad made up of small number of uniquely sculpted 1/48th scale figures, each with a range of distinct abilities determined by the type of weapon they are equiped with.

The game is attactively packaged with German or Soviet starter sets of 4 figures that can be ‘reinforced’ by individual blisters. Blisters ship with a resin display stand that doubles as terrain piece in the game.  Packs come with a set of markers, a ruler and a printed copy of the rules (which incidentally are downloadable for you to try at home :) ).

Unsuprisingly, I chose the Germans and duked it out with the game’s designer over a 2′ x 2′ board enhanced by 3 pieces of a modular factory. Each turn, you have to choose what you want your men to do.  Each of their actions requires a token.  The more tokens you have the more things you can do / do better. When you run out of tokens your turn is over.

Our game opened with my sniper, Kurt Maler, aiming (1 token), then shooting (a second token) his Soviet counterpart who, after being wounded, was finished off by a supporting rifleman (another token, and so on).  Desultory retaliatory fire ricocheted off my sandbagged defences. Whilst my LMG chappie was pinned by a blanket of suppresive fire, Kurt snuck up and took out another Russian with a head shot (double 1).

A few turns later and it was all over for the Soviets without even so much as a scratch on my squad’s proverbial Square Heads (I think my opponent was being generous!).  A game over in less than 45 minutes? A Model Dads record!

1-48 Combat was another sorely tempting option for my moth-eaten wallet, but I managed to resist.  Whilst more expensive than it initially appears, my positive experience of this great introduction to WWII wargaming is echoed by the comments on 1-48 Combat’s Facebook page. Highly recommended.

Dodging the outbreak of zombies, daleks and cybermen, I made my way over to the South East London Wargames Group’s epic Kursk game:

Very encouraging to see lots of young faces fighting it out over an inspired teddy-bear fur painted steppe:

On my way back for some retail therapy at PeterPig, it was ressuring to hear at least 1 FoW gamer throwing his toys out of the pram as a desert dispute over Concealed and Gone-to-Ground threatened to derail a bemused Afrika Korps offensive.

As my day drew to a close, I swung past the Battlefront stand to check out their amazing Gallipoli board and the 3 participation games:  Tropic Lightning (not my cup of tea, but liking those helis), Early War Poland (lovin’ those lancers) and Open Fire Normandy:

All good things must to come to an end and as I boarded my train to faithfully rejoin wife and child, I reflected upon the epic mound of figures and scenery I’d yet to paint.  Surely those new blister packs of British radio men, bren gunners, Volksturm and Great Coated Germans wouldn’t put me too far behind schedule?

** sigh **