German Early War Battalion

I've finally found some time to write up on my projects. Real life and the renovation of my old apartment have taken up too many hours of the day for me to blog. Still, I've been painting steadily and my early WWII German battalion is finally complete. It's been complete for a while now, but SWMBO has had other plans for my time. Kitchen appliances, bathroom fittings, you get the idea. Anyways, back to the figures. I used classic Esci and Revell for these. The Esci figures (reboxed by Italeri) were as perfect as when I used to buy them in my (very early) teens. The Revell stuff had a lot flash. I did not remove all of it, lazy sod that I am. After lots and lots of Feldgrau they were ready.

  Here are all nine platoons. The figures mix well together and have great detail as all of us know. There are still enough figs left over for another two companies or so.

 

The machinegun platoons were Esci and Zvezda. Zvezda are a bit more accurate with their sustained fire tripods but I like the old-fashioned stuff as well. 

  

Mortar platoon is Zvezda. Great little kit, not at all fiddly.

  

And  finally the command stand. All Esci. Radio man, officer (for once showing some common sense and wearing a helmet) and NCO.

This was a surprisingly pleasant experience. I thought that I'd be bored to death after all this feldgrau, but it was very zen in a way. No worrying about what design to paint or which colours to use. Just plain old field grey. Eventually all of these guys will get transport. I'm thinking about a mix of 251's, trucks and motorcycle combos. With the crisis in Greece its getting difficult to find a lot of stuff so I'm stuck with only 2 Opels, one for the battalion AA (a 20mm gun) and one for the AT battery (one door knocker). Still, better days for styrene are bound to come.

This is all from the Greek Geek household and a pleasantly cool Athens evening.

Immortals Complete

Sorry for not posting in almost a month now, but real life has kept me too busy to shoot photos and type. Needless to say, I've kept up with my painting and some of the projects that I decided on for 2012 are well on the way to completion.

 

 I finally completed my first base for Basic Impetus Persians. A total of 10 figures, half being archers, half being armed with melee weapons. I chose to portray the Yellow Regiment of the Immortals, that's why most figures have a yellow-purple tunic. As much as I tried, I could not paint the delicate patterns on the back of the Zvezda box. Even this took a respectable 15 hours to complete. I have another 6 bases of Persians to complete, but I expect only the two bases of medium cavalry to be as much of a hassle.

That's all for now from the Greek Geek household.

By Your Command

Sunday night was always a bummer when you're a kid. But for a while at least we had Battlestar Galactica to take the sting off. I always used to watch it before dinner and talk about it with my friends in school come Monday. I found that Studio Bergstrom had some great BSG miniatures so I ordered some about a year ago. With my usual glacial pace, it took about 4 months I think until I finished them, although the castings are sublime and real easy to paint. Here is a Cylon Basestar from the original series with some Raiders. I chose 1" starfighters as I can use them both as squadron tokens and starfighter games). The Basestar is excellent but needed quite a bit of glue. It's hefty too. I went for a light gray color with red lights on the landing bays and light blue trim. I could have done a better job with Raiders, but I'll live with those.

Hopefully I'll have some more Basestars and Battlestars (with associated fighters) on my bench before spring is out. Until then, these will have to do for my playtesting for Song of Voids and Stars. That's all for now from warm and sunny Athens.

Pike Completed.

Say what you want about Airfix, they sure build them simple. Only took a total of 4 hours of work and my JS-3 is complete. Trumpeter and Roden may have newer and more detailed models, but you can't beat this old warhorse when it comes to simplicity. I decided to go for a simple Russian Tank Green scheme. I've used everything from Humbrol 30 to 117 (116 and 90 included) in the past but I used 117 in this case. Mix of brown and black wash, drybrushing, dustying with British Dark Earth and voila, she's ready. Did some work on the crew and added some simple red stars from the spares box. If you have spare 122mm barrels, by all means get one. Cheap, fast and easy. Makes for a perfect date.

That's all for now from Athens, where winter just doesn't want to give up.

Stress Relief

Apparently painting the Persians is a bit too much stress for me these days. Considering it takes about 90 minutes to finish one figure (and that this particular base has 10 figures on it) this is understandable. I visited my usual haunt in downtown Athens to see the new Airfix stuff that's available. I picked up a box of the new Airfix Brits (not too bad, but could have been better) and a JS-3. An old mold but an interesting subject.

The kit was put together in less time than it takes me to paint one Persian. I changed the barrel (perhaps the only weak point of the kit) from a spare 122mm gun from the Italeri ISU-152. The machinegun came from the Matchbox T-34. Not entirely accurate, but looks better than the kit one. I also added a crew member from the Orion set. Some more corrections were made and so far, the only thing missing is the retaining straps on the spare fuel tanks. I'll add these tomorrow from some Tamiya tape and the "Pike" will be ready to hit the paintshop. Hopefully it will be ready by Monday.

This has been a pleasant break so far. After all, this is supposed to be fun and not work. That's all for now from the Greek Geek household.

This is Sparta!

My first unit of Spartans for Basic Impetus is completed. I went for the 8cm frontage and 10 figures per base for the phalanx part of the army. All the figures are Zvezda Spartans, but I think I will add some of their older Ancient Greeks on the following bases.

I've also completed my first company of early WWII Germans (who will doubtless see action in later war battlefields as well). After the glorious colors of the Spartans and the kilts of the Highlanders, these seem kinda boring, but at least they are easier to paint. All are Italeri (ex-Esci) and Revell.
And for something more vibrant, here are the first of my Immortals. The Spartans have to have someone to fight (although Thebans will eventually be added to the list). I think after the German battalion and Immortals are completed, I'll do some vehicles just for a change of pace.
That's all from chilly (for once) Athens. Oh, I almost forgot. Blogger has been acting up and I can't post on other people's blogs, or even my own for that matter. Am I the only one with this problem?

BEF: Black Watch Battalion Completed

It's been a while since I managed to post, mainly due to lack of a working camera. They make the damn things waterproof, shockproof, probably bulletproof, but I haven't come across a kid-proof model yet. If you do please let me know. As a result of the young Master being left unattended for about 90 seconds, my wife's old camera has the lens knocked out of alignment and is currently in the shop. I got a new Cybershot (ever since they came out with 14.1 megapixel cameras the 10 and 12 megapixel ones can be had for a song) so the learning curve is evident in these photos.

I finally finished my Black Watch battalion for Blitzkrieg Commander. The nine platoons came from HaT's excellent WWI Highlanders and the mortar platoon from the venerable Matchbox WWII British infantry set. I wanted something different for the machinegun platoons and the command element, so after much searching at Plastic Soldier Review and debating whether to make do with plastic or spend some money on metal, I bought a box Revell's Scottish 8th Army. It comes with a bagpipe-playing miniature, a pretty good commanding officer and three Bren guns on anti-aircraft mounts (strangely employed on the sustained fire role). I would have loved some Lewis guns (more in the spirit of the BEF) but I couldn't find any that I liked. Perhaps not totally realistic (these guys would have to carry a lot of spare mags and barrels), it looks different and fun.
So my Scots are finally done. Took about a month but I hope that the Germans will be quicker, at least in terms of infantry. No plaid (as poorly as it may have been done). Now, as breather from all things khaki, I'm working on my Basic Impetus project: Greeks vs. Persians. For the Greeks I chose Zvezda's Spartans. This is perhaps the best ancients miniature set I've ever seen. Ever. My only problem is the lack of much variation in shield decoration (too many scorpions) but the miniatures themselves are excellent. Sculpting, proportions, detail, casting, all are top-notch. If you have to buy and paint one set of ancients this year, this is it. Here is the (incomplete) first base.
In the background, faintly visible is a weirdly painted Fallschrim. This is young Master's first miniature. Admittedly orange, yellow and red would be suitable for Mars only (if eventhat) but his brushwork was pretty good. That's all for now from strangely cloudy Athens and the Greek Geek household.