September 2020 – Buck's Blog

Test 29 SEP 20 1950

Buck — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 23:43:17 +0000

Test

Finished a Platoon of German WWII Infantry in Winter Kit

Buck — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 22:54:56 +0000

Many moons ago, my friend Greg game me a couple of extra sprues of German WWII infantry in winter dress. It was enough to make two squads. So, I ordered a box from Warlord so that I could make a full platoon. As with all these plastic sets of Germans, there are never enough rifles and too many assault rifles and submachine guns. I wanted the Germans to fit from 1941 to the end of the war.

A view of the reinforced platoon.

I had barely enough rifles to make four normal ten-man squads, and I had to use a couple of semi-automatic rifles that will mostly go unnoticed on the tabletop. I also used a few extra rifles from the later war Panzergreandier set. Each squad has one machine-gun, a squad leader with a submachine gun, and an assistant squad leader with a rifle or submachine gun. The rest of the men are riflemen.

Another view of the platoon. You can see four squads in the front, three extra machine-gun teams and two leaders.

There were enough figures and parts to make three more machine-gun teams. So for late war, I can swap out two riflemen in three of the squads for a gunner and his assistant gunner. As the quality of their infantry deteriorated, the Germans sometimes put extra machine-guns in their squads to compensate.

A close up view of the squad leader and machine gunner in one squad.

Another view of some of the soldiers.

Some of the heads came with cloth covers on the helmets, so I painted them in white.

The two leaders, two extra riflemen with Panzerfausts, and three machine-gun teams.

I have a bunch of Russians in winter kit for my Winter War games, so I am looking forward to putting these on the table when the plague subsides. I also have a couple of squads of American infantry in greatcoats, so there might be a 1944 Western Front game in my future as well.

WWII Germans in Winter Kit (WIP)

Buck — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:49:58 +0000

I have begun working on a platoon of Germans in winter kit. These are for mid- to late-war. The problem with most of these plastic kits is that they come with WAY too many submachinguns and assault rifles and not nearly enough standard rifles. I had to work hard to fill what I think are reasonable squads. Since they are in greatcoats, they will paint pretty fast.

Back of Box

Depending on which pictures I looked at in different books and on-line, the color of the greatcoats varies greatly. I did two painting tests to decide which color scheme I liked best.

The figure on the left was sprayed with the darkest of the Krylon green camouflage paints and then dry brushed with Howard Hues field gray. The one on the right was sprayed with the lighter green camouflage paint and then washed with Agrax Earthshade. I decided I like the one on the right better.

Howard Hues field gray — my usual go-to color for German tunics.

I was gone last weekend at the beach with a high school buddy and our wives, so I haven’t picked up a brush in a week. I am going into withdrawal symptoms. I sprayed the platoon of figures the lighter camouflage color. I block painted the flesh. Most of each figure will be block painted with an Agrax Earthshade wash at the end. I will post pictures when I complete them.

Johann Wehyn von Rambo, Der Mann ohne Namen

Buck — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 19:05:56 +0000

I have been working on some German Panzergrenadiers from Warlord. This is half of the batch I am painting. The other half of the batch will have the camouflage smocks.

Toward the end of assembling this box of figures I had a bunch of weapons left over, so I decided to make a figure that is D&D meets WWII. I picture this soldier riding on horseback at the Russians with the reins in his teeth, firing multiple weapons. I call him Johann Wehyn von Rambo, Der Mann ohne Namen.

Duck!

Buck — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 13:20:43 +0000

The most recent issue of Miniature Wargames magazine came with a sprue of free dwarf figures for some over-the-top gothic fantasy game. I cut off some of the more egregious bits and replaced the dwarf heads with duck heads. Here are the results.

The set come with ten dwarf figures and two war dogs. I decided that the war dogs will be the squad leaders for these ducks. As I have begun adapting Wars of Ozz for general fantasy (calling them Wars of Orcs and Dwarves — although the game will not be limited to those armies), I hope to get them on the table soon.