And Back to Three Colour Germans

A platoon of sdkfz 251/1D halftracks to carry late war panzergrenadiers. Three of these are Plastic Soldier Company models, one is Quality Casting. They're all pretty darned similar once you paint them up. Anyway, first platoon of third company makes its debut:

Something Different

Just for kicks. My son bought a clix figure that had a deformed head, so we attached a pumpkin to make:

The much-feared leader of the rebellion, Tricksy O'Treat.

More Steel Beasts

Still on a roll with the 15mm WW2 stuff. This time we have 8 Panther tanks, 3 from Plastic Soldier Company and 5 from Battlefront (Panther A boxed set).

Size-wise, the models from the two companies are a very good match; detail-wise, they're pretty good - the BF models have "busier" engine decks and spare road wheels for the turrets, the PSC models have plenty of track links and storage boxes.

Two of the PSC models have the early production hull MG plate, rather than a kugelball mount. Evidently this unit has a couple of survivors of the 1943 battles.

If Brookhurst ever deliver the Peter Pig Panthers I ordered, I'll add them to the mix for comparison.

More German Armour

This time we have three Jagdpanzer IV tank hunters. Battlefront models.

And three Wirbelwind anti-aircraft vehicles, again, Battlefront models:

And, because quad 20mm is not powerful enough, three Ostwind SPAA vehicles:

Lastly, we have a lone Panzer IVH from Plastic Soldier Company:

Big Cats

After some frustration with Battlefront and pathetic quality control, I purchased some Peter Pig Jagdpanthers from Brookhurst Hobbies. Brookhurst sent me a Panther G with IR system instead of a fifth Jagdpanther. Oh well.

The models are very nice, need almost no clean-up and paint up nicely. Voila.

The Magic of Simple Green

And here is the Harlequin troupe after their bath.

All shiny clean and ready for new uniforms...

Lunar Soldiers

Back in the old days, the Lunar Empire of Glorantha had certain, er, similarities with the Roman Empire. That's all changed now that Greg has uttered profound pronouncements about Mesopotamia and Media and stuff. Yeah, right.

Anyway, Warlord Games have some nice, reasonably priced figures that work well for our 1st Edition Runequest games.

Here we have test pieces for heartland corps heavy infantry, pre-rune level in bronze and rune level in iron. No similarity to Romans, no sir, not at all...

And now, back to Eldar.

And Off We Go In A New Direction

The "what shall I paint today?" dilemma was once again rearing its head when, riding to my rescue came our local LGS. Someone is about to run a 40K escalation league. Now, I've never played 40K and have often poked fun at it but, curse them, GW make some cool models for the system and quite a lot a few may have "accidentally" found their way into my stash, so this seems like a good time to pull them out and get them painted.

About ten years ago, I collected a small force of Eldar Harlequins, cos they were cool and dynamic and had a really funky PDF army list. Back then, they were dressed in yellow, orange and green clothes, all of which have a shimmery, irridescent coating on them which the camera cannot pick up, but which is visible in the flesh. We are no longer in the 'noughts and fashions have changed; the Eldar may be staid and aloof but even they pick up on such things eventually. So, say goodbye to:

as they prepare for a plunge into the Simple Green bath.

Sadly, the Solo is no longer allowed to fight, which is a shame because he was pretty scary from the little I remember. He will have to watch from the wings as the Shadowseer steps into the performance.

And so, off they go...

Reaper Warriors Meet Paint

Whilst carefully avoiding painting models that might accidentally lead to the completion of any given army or collection, I have been grabbing figures from the Reaper collection and adding colour to them.

These four will end up being used to represent some heroic types in an ongoing Runequest campaign (ongoing since about 1985).

First up we have a hero of the Lunar empire:

Our hero started with a black primer coat and was painted using Humbrol enamels (flesh, red, white), Model Master enamels (leather, spear shafts) and Humbrol acrylics (metal areas). the Humbrol acrylic metallics are really nice paints.

Our next mighty warrior is a Storm Bull, hence the helmet and the runic decorations on his shield:

Again, a mixture of enamels and acrylics. This lad is supposed to be from dry and dusty plains, so I wanted to give him a darker skin tone.

He has a friend, who evidently uses his shield as a weapon some of the time:

And lastly, a more refined and northern type, with richly decorated armour and a certain dragonish theme. For those who are familiar with Runequest/Glorantha, this will either get him killed on sight or possibly leave him in a calm zone approximately a mile in radius...

I was disappointed with the way the Model Master enamel did not cover well on the first application over Humbrol enamel red, but then I looked at it from a couple of feet away and thought "that's a fairly cool fire effect".

Marksmanship Competition

I've had a handful of the older GW Empire plastic handgunners lurking in the corners of my workspace for some time (two, three years. Maybe a bit longer). There weren't enough to make a unit, so they have become mannequins for Empire finery and frippery. They've also been refresher pieces as I've pulled out long-unused tinlets of Humbrol enamel and bottles of Model Master military paints.

Anyways, on the firing line and squinting against the bright sun to see their marks, we have representatives from Hochland, Nuln, Ostland, Reikland and Altdorf:

Some of these figures started with dark primer, others with white. The paints ended up being a mix of enamels and acrylics from Humbrol, Vallejo, Model Master and GW. I used Humbrol acrylic metallics for the arquebusses; I'm impressed with how well these work and how smooth and shiny they are when dry.

The Evil Empire Calls To Me

Yep, I'm being seduced by GW again. The release of the new High Elves army book is what did it. Pretty new models, shiny toys, the Everqueen rereleased with a new sculpt...

...so I gave in to the craving and pulled out a couple of old figures to mess around with potential colour schemes. I like the High Elves in their white cloth robes and bright armour. I like the fluff for Avelorn and Alarielle. So, here we have white and shiny Elves with green and red tertiary colours to represent troops from Avelorn. I wanted bright greens for fresh growth and a bright red shading to pink for Alarielle's influence.

A pair of spearmen:

and a pair of archers:

I liked the old Empire figures that looked a lot like landsknechts. I like the Kislev range; I have lots of Kislev units and decided to make an allied contingent for the Kislevites with the gaggle of Empire figures I have. Ostermark seemed like a good provincial choice - shared border, shared foes (chaos), interesting colour scheme. So here are a pair of handgunners decked out as Ostermark state troops: