SS scout platoon

For long time my primary interest in wargaming was into Napoleonic period. Lot of rules, lot of miniatures (mostly plastic 1/72 from various companies)... then I was sucked in Warhammer for a while (just 5 years, nearly not enough for anything but a couple of armies... a lot of fun, by the way, and a very big improve in my painting skills...). After Warhammer I was got in Flames of war. That's eight years ago, and from then, I've collected and painted a lot of platoons (mostly germans), I've had a lot of games (much more fun than WH, indeed), and some tournaments too... I like tournaments, but only when they propose axis vs allies match. I really hate to hear: "Ok, we have both germans... let do it's a drill...!" or worst: " I really like your panzerlehr list. But it's a little bit weak on AT, what do you'll do if you'll meet a Koenigstiger?".
Anyway, I have more shelves devoted to FOW on my cabinets than any other period/scale/system...
I hope to show everything on these pages, but it will take some time.
so, Lets begin with some SS scouts on schwimmwagen, a very nice and charming platoon, but really small to be really useful and, being Fearless Veteran SS, too expensive too!
By the way, they are useful also as Tank-hunters... and this is the role I've depicted them in.

 Schwimmwagen!

 I've tried to match each car crew with a base

 as you can see, I spend a lot of time on bases, as I think they have to be really eye catching at this scale in order to pop out from the tabletop

 It looks like late summer in France...

 ... I've tried to give the impression of a wet morning...

 c'mon yanks, come closer with that bloody M10...

 Ah... what a lovely sunset in t he countryside...

SS in ambush!

 oops, I wasn't aware of that glue blob on the tree... lets paint it on...

Ship of the Line (2)

This week I'm happy to show you some pics of my last 74 gun french ship of the line.
The base model is a 1:1200 74 gun ship from Langton napoleonic range, with masts, and PE ratlines and sails (but I'm not so fond of the latter... maybe I'll spend some consideration on this matter later...).
Painting was done in few hours with (mostly) GW and Vallejo acrilics.
Rigging (that is the most time consuming part of the job, but its also the funnier) was done in 4-5 hours with cotton threadbare. Unfortunately, I've not found a suitable syntetic thread yet, but I'm still looking as cotton thread is quite difficult to work with.
I'm not full satisfied of the resin base paintwork... maybe I'll touch it soon or later...
Enjoy!

As you can see, brass photo etched sails looks good, but its quite difficult to achieve a natural feeling with them... next time I'll try with white metal version of sails.

Yom Kippur (1) - Israeli armoured brigade

As you know (or, if you don't, you should!), I'm going on a quite new project involving the gorgeous 1/285 micro armor models from GHQ: a tabletop refight of 1973 Yom Kippur war on sinai.

I really can't spend enough words on the minis. They are perfect. much more detailed of several 15mm equivalent I've here around.

Crisp, well proportioned, a lot of stunning details. If I really have to point out some cons, I can only regret about the barrels of both guns and mgs. They easily bent and it's difficult to keep them in a straight shape.

But it's a minimal problem against a lot of pros.

Painting these model is a very fun experience. It's a quick and rewarding job. Only decals are extremely annoying. So tiny and fiddling you cannot even spot them against the blue paper they are presented on. And after few second in the water, you have to handle them with care or you'll lose them on your finger.

Anyway, soon after completing these, I've ordered many more models from Magister Militum. I'm definetly IN micro armor syndrome.

here come the models:

a couple of M60A1 (or Magach 6 for IDF) companies in 1:3 scale as per Fistuful of Tows3 rules.

And now some M113 for a mechanized battallion:

enjoy!

Ships of the line (1)

I'm sorry for such late in updating this blog, but I've got some issues with my camera. It refuses to take good picture of my minis. It was just keeping transforming a lovely painted piece of art in a kind of blurry-shiny-wrong lined piece of something… I nearly gave up.

Almost…

Actually, I'm more than happy with results of my new S4 integrated camera so I can keep this blog on his way…

New topic: 1:1200 ship of the line from the wonderful Langton miniatures production…

In a couple of years I managed to finish just a couple of them, more due to my own laziness than complexity.

Here comes some pics form a late stage of work on it. I've already painted every part of it with a suitable paint scheme for the period (a lot of research in it, even if there are just a fistful of different patterns and colours from which you can choose… but, alas, I'm a damn button counter…)

As you can see, as Langton ships come with photo-etched brass sails, I've painted them still on their sprue. It's easier than doing it on the model.

Soon you'll get the completed model pictures. Stay tuned.

By the way, at The Club, we are considering doing Trafalgar with these small beauties and we are, compulsively, buying GHQ, Langton and other manufactures' ships for this project. 

We think to give a try to the WH Historical's Trafalgar ruleset, as it is known for being a very enjoyable game, but I'd like to give a try to Kiss me Hardy from Too Fat Lardies as well.