Tuesday, February 3, 2015

RADIO CHECK, Over... ( NAP, SYW, WW2, Modern Project Updates! Lots of Pics!)

It's been awhile blog fans but that doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on here at SOUND OFFICERS CALL....

For starters, there is a ton or a half-ton of lead on my workbench at present.  Winter weather has both cursed my current gaming, and also blessed my current painting efforts - if that makes any sense.

Anyways, many projects started a couple months back have finally seen some light.  (some were quite necessary as well).

My French Napoleonic Brigade for Black Powder:

Class photo.  4 Battalions, and quite a large battery.  Obviously only 1 stand of guns for my Brigades, unless I was to "brigade" them into a grand battery of some sorts.  My as of yet unflocked Italian battalion is in there, as well as *shock* *horror* a battalion of French in Bicornes.

Finally finished another French officer.  Mental note- need to buy actual French Generals.

Grand Battery.

The Italians


Need to add their colors.  Which I have on hand!
The Napoleonics front has had slow progress.  It takes me quite awhile to paint up 1 Battalion of infantry given the complicated array of colors and uniforms.

Here's my Seven Years War Prussian Brigade or "Division" commander, Lieutenant General Prinz Ferdinand, famously commanding the Prussian Infantry Corps I am currently painting up (Anhalt, Braunschweig, Quadt v. Wickeradt, Hulsen Regiments, as well as Grumbkow Grenadiers, and the Zastrow Artillery).

Prinz Ferdinand!



Okay now onto the WW2 front.  More forces for World War 2 Battlegroup - first up are Russian 45mm AT guns (but these may be a higher caliber - substitution is the name of the game!)  Assembling and painting these were easy.  Light olive, black wash, then a buff dry brush.  Until I figure out how to properly use my wife's camera, you're stuck with these photos that don't do these guns any justice.



And the crews, of course.


Next up - "the great experiment" using "Comrade Davidov's" Vallejo Paints he gave me for Christmas, I finished up an additional Soviet SMG squad for Battlegroup:


It's worth mentioning that I've been in the dark and have refused to use Vallejo for years but I really like how they go on the figures, and of course the end result.

Next up, my stalwart Canadians who still need many details added on.  I am going to be painting the entire bag of them and that still may not be enough.  Anyone out there know - did the Brits/Canadians use their LMGs at the squad level?  If so - were they the top-feeding Brens?  (did I just answer my own question?)





I finally got around to painting up some of my Game Model units and the results were a disaster.  Luckily I only completely destroyed the Panzer IIIs and the rest of the models are still in good shape.  Here's my PAK-40 with a battlefront crew, hand camo, acrylic wash, and dry brush applied.  No flock yet.











Okay and finally for you moderns fans, here are my 15mm Bundeswehr conversions (from 15mm CD Vietnam range).  For those not up to speed, I am making a 15mm Bundeswehr platoon for my Modern Battlegroup games. (Battlegroup REFORGER as I like to call it).  Platoon will have a mortar, MILAN, and of course their APCs in support).

mortar section and some infantrymen

Carl Gustav, and some quality castings Israelis...  

Battle hardened NCO pointing at the enemy.  The helmets are from my CD WW2 US paras.  


MILAN section, with the missile tube ripped off of one of my Roskopf Jaguars.


And finally all the rest.  As you can see, I have my work cut out for me!
Clockwise from upper left: SYW Austrian Field Battery, Napoleonic Battalion and some French Voltiguers, more WW2 Soviets (command and Paul OG's command element), more WW2 US, and SYW Prussian Artillery.

Austrian SYW Battery in progress.

More French!!!  

First batch of tanks for my Sherbrooke Fusiliers in various stages of completion.  2 Sherman V's from the BF Open Fire box, and 2 x M10 TDs.  Only the TD with decals is finished.  The God-awful bright green will be toned down significantly by my Army Painter wash.  By the way, let me add that the Shermans from the Battlefront Open Fire box were an absolute pain in the a** to assemble and no matter how much plastic I shopped off, the pieces would not fit together properly.
Looking to have a very small game soon - using some "old school" Charles Grant Battle rules or possibly Bolt Action with some house rules mods.  Stay tuned!

6 comments:

  1. So many things! Love the Nap' French troops and the PAK 40!

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    1. Thank you, Phil. It's my own fault for not posting updates sooner - the good side is that there are lots of pics to peruse!

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  2. So many great things being progressed - in multiple genres no less! Very impressive. And very excited to see my Ivans making the WIP list too - thanks indeed :-)

    And you are far more sensible that I, doing all your periods in one scale...

    Yes British and Commonwealth forces used the top loaded Bren as the section automatic weapon in all theatres, as these chaps show in the Western Desert:
    http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=11244

    and here demonstrated in the jungles of the Pacific:
    http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=4214

    WW2 Commonwealth Infantry forces used the organisation of 3 sections (of 9 men) per platoon, with 1 Bren per section:
    http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/structure/army-detailed-structure/

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Paul!

      Most helpful - I realized I didn't have any LMGs in my Canadian sections - then I realized Old Glory wants you to purchase a separate bag of them. So I may purchase a Battlefront infantry platoon to supplement my Canadians and get the appropriate weapons spread out amongst the sections.

      I wish I could say I've been sensible - I just happen to be working on 15s at the moment ;) A friend once told me to try and limit my scales to only 2 - which sounds easy in theory but in practice is another story. Looks like my "2 scales" of choice are 15mm,1/72 and a little 10mm thrown in for fun!

      I'm still planning a quite large "Bloody Buron" scenario inspired by "Sparker's" blog (available on my links on the right) featuring the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and Sherbrooke Fusiliers being ambushed by Kurt Meyer's HJ fanatics from the 12th SS. I have all of the Germans I'll need, but will need a shed-load more Brits/Commonwealth troops. I've already got the armor covered I think... I may need to purchase 1 or 2 more Shermans and a Firefly.

      Anyways, this would be a great D +1 scenario that I'd like to play around the first or second week of June this year.

      Your Ivans are about 50% now. Still need to do the officer.

      Stay tuned, I'm planning on playing the 9th Panzer's attack around Bityug to outflank Ponyri next during the Kursk campaign. This was, in reality, a very large tank battle and I've not yet played a "big" tank on tank battle with BGK.

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  3. Not a bad effort all around Steven. I am still laughing about your comment concerning Vallejo Paints.

    Good skills.

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    1. Thanks Paul. It's honestly my first time ever using them and I really liked the quality of the paint and the colors. Eventually I will phase out my entire collection of craft store acrylics with VJ but that will be a long process!

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