The Tale of Historical Wargamers Season 1, Month 3 (August completed, September WIP)

[DarkAngelsG]

Alright, well, editing my post didn't really work. It's not quite 1/10th, but then I painted more than 1/10th last month, so I should be good. Plus I made some terrain to make up for it.

This month: Panzergrenadiers and their Sdkfz 251/1 Halftrack
Background: While the 25th Division did not actually have Halftracks (they used softskins), I already had the models but I still really wanted to do that division so there is a slight historical inaccuracy. 251/1s were also known as "Hanomags", after the company that produced them. They had light armor, only 6-14mm thick, but good enough to stop small arms. They were typically armed with two MG34s or MG42s, and could go at a top speed of 52km/32mph, which allowed them to get across the battlefield at the speeds that were needed. Unfortunately they were not made until fairly late in the war, and most Panzergrenadier divisions did not have any, relying instead on less sturdy softskins such as the Opel Blitz.
Minis: All Command Decision.
Paints: All GW paints and washes.
Highs and Lows: For highs, I seem to be getting a little better at painting infantry, even under poor lighting, and I also have a slightly different style I'm currently trying out on my next infantry. For lows, the stripes on the Halftrack are... Not very well done. I'll have to go back and make them a little neater. Also, my glue cut out on my halfway through making the terrain, so I couldn't glue all the foliage onto the trees. >_<

[f2k]

Good news: I've finally completed the Stuka. It's currently drying after the final coat of varnish. I won't be home until very late tomorrow night so don't expect any pictures until Friday.

Man, I’ve just got too much on my mind. But that’s nothing unusual. In fact, the Stuka’s been waiting on that final coat for nearly a week – just never got around to doing the final touch-up and varnish.

Oh well, better late than never I guess. I’ll be back with pictures and comments later...

[sigur]

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing the missing stuff crop up soon.

As for September's stuffs - I'm very well on the way I'd say. Almost finished, woo!

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Wellsirs, hate to say it but:



Looks like I have to Joker this month. I've been too busy preparing for a big move, and just never found the time. I'm getting settled in in my new residence, so I'll try to post WIPs of the gladiators that will make it on to next month's goal though, and maybe (although I don't make any promises) I'll squeeze two months' worth into the next goal and have 4 gladiators to show off. We'll see.

[f2k]

Well, let’s get some comments down.

@Xazil: nice looking infantry you’ve got there. I really like those bases too – I have to try that technique some day.
@C-Coen: Lovely Romans once again. Didn’t know that they used bows, but that’s the fun of this tale; learning new stuff...
@emperorpenguin: Nice looking guns. Did you dip the gunners? Something about the heavy shading and shiny...
@sigur: Looking good there. I love the variations on the horses. Have you gone crazy painting all of them yet...?
@Hakkapelli: Love the contast between the grey and the red.
@DeadInTheHead: I like the subdued colours and the differences between the individual men.
@DeadInTheHead: And WW2 as well... Oh my... What scale are those soviets?
@Codsticker: Like those archers. Wait... Did one of them just shoot himself...?!
@Eternal Hatred: Vikings and... Indians...? Nice paintjob though...
@DargAngelsG: Pics are a bit blurry, but I’ll give you extra credit for doing a bit of terrain as well...

Right, and with that done, on to last month’s models...

[f2k]

Let me start of by apologizing for posting such a long post (so long, in fact, that I'll have to cut it into smaller pieces). But the talk about masking got me fired up enough to do a small side-project that’s been on the to-do list for a while: Russian decoy tanks.
I was planning on doing a hard-edge camo on it so I thought I might just as well take a lot of pictures of what I was doing, turning it into a sort of impromptu tutorial. Hopefully it will be useful to some of you – if not, feel free to ignore it...

Now, on to the topic of this tutorial: a captured Panther G in Russian service.

The Panzer V “Panther” tank was the German response to the increasing numbers of Russian T-34 tanks. Envisioned as a highly mobile medium tank with well-sloped armour, it was (as usual with the German tanks) plagued by mechanical issues from the beginning. Once those had been sorted out, however, the Panther became a formidable tank and it was the chassis used for what was arguably one of the best tank destroyers of the war – the Jagdpanther.


Crew: 5
Length: 6.87 m (8.66 w. gun)
Width: 3.27 m (4.42 w. skirts)
Height: 2.99 m
Hull armour: from 80 mm @ 30 degrees slope on the glacis plate to 40 mm @ 60 degrees slope on the rear
Turret armour: from 100 to 110 mm (ausf. a to ausf. G) @ 78 degrees slope on front to 45 mm @ 65 degrees slope on the side and rear
Armament: 7.5 cm Kwk 42 L/70 and 2 x MG 42
Weight: 43 t to 46.58 t (Ausf. d to Ausf. G with steel road wheels)
Max speed: 55 km/h (on road at 3000 rpm)
Range: 200 km
Suspension: dual torsion-bars
Track width: 66 cm
Engine: Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12, four-stroke internal combustion



Just as the Germans used captures Allied tanks, so the Allied used captured German tanks. And thus, a few Panthers found their way into Russian service. There weren’t many and there’s not much info to go on in regards to colours, markings, types, etc., but since when has that ever stopped me...?



In Flames of War, these are represented by a Decoy Tank company, equipped with a mix of Panzer IV, V, and VI. To add to the fun, these tanks can infiltrate and the enemy cannot fire on them before he’s gotten close enough to positively ID them as enemy tanks. I’ll have three, please...


As the basis for this model I used a Battlefront Panther G with zimmerit.


The box

The box contains the hull and turret in resin as well as the tracks, hatches, barrel, front MG, skirts, cupola, exhausts, and extra track links and road wheels in metal.


The contents

The skirts are a tale unto themselves. Each of them has two tabs on the inside, the purpose of which I have no idea. They might be remnants from the casting process but they seem too deliberate for that and, on the ausf. d, they actually fit so that they can be used to fix the skirts in place. However, on the ausf. G there is a rail running along the side of the tank that looks like it was designed to hold the skirt – a rail that’s missing on the ausf. d. I think that rail is indeed supposed to hold the skirt but then the tabs no longer fit the hull and with no instructions as to how the parts are supposed to fit together...

In the end I removed the tabs completely, cut the skirts up to simulate battle damage and carefully glued the skirts in place, suspending them between the rail and the tracks.


The tabs


How the skirts would be placed if the tabs were left in place

Sadly, such things are all too common with Battlefront models. No instructions, poor fit, poor casting, high price...

Oh well, let’s try to assemble the tank.


The fully assembled tank

Assembling the tanks is a true trial of patience and fine motor skills. Nothing fits; the barrel was too small for the mantel and required pinning, the hatches were way too big and had to be sanded down by a millimetre on each side to fit in the holes (which were, by the way, not particularly well cast), and the front/side skirts took several tries to get glued to the hull. And even now I’m kinda nervous about them – they’re bound to fall off sooner rather than later...

Once assembled I mounted the hull and turret so they were easier to paint.


Mounted and ready for painting

I then gave them a thin undercoat with a mix of 1 part Foundation White and 2 parts water. Once that was dry I gave the turret a coat of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Russian Green, and 3 parts water. The hull was given a coat of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Middlestone, and 3 parts water.
Finally, both were given a thin coat of matt varnish and then left to dry overnight.


Undercoated and given the first coat of paint

Then the fun began...

I started masking the tank by completely covering the road wheels. I like the look of mono-colour wheels so I don’t want to get any colour on those when I paint the camo. I then cut out small stripes of masking tape and carefully stuck them in place, using a sculpting tool to push them into all the nooks and crannies.

Top Tip: unless you use special masking tape, designed for painting models, you’ll probably want to take a bit of “stickiness” out of the tape. This is easily done by sticking it to your shirt or pants and ripping it off some three, four or five times, depending on just how sticky the tape is from the beginning. You’ll want the tape to have just enough stickiness to hang on to the model while you paint the camo – nothing more.


Masked and ready for camo

[f2k]

I wanted to do a three-tone camo so I carefully airbrushed brown and green colours onto the tank: 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Reflective Green, and 3 parts water for the green and 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Chocolate Brown, and 3 parts water for the reddish-brown.


Job’s a good ‘un

I then, very carefully, peeled off the masking tape.


Job’s not a good ‘un

And here we see why the varnish and removing some of the stickiness is so important. Perhaps I didn’t clean the skirts properly before undercoating them? Perhaps I didn’t undercoat them properly? Perhaps I didn’t give them enough varnish? Perhaps the tape just wanted to spite me...?


Eeek...!

Notice how the paint has come straight off the metal.

Thankfully only the skirts were affected so a bit of patching up with the airbrush and some chipping should hide it just fine. But it’s annoying anyway.

While the repainted patches on the hull were drying I returned to the turret. No camo here, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the colour. I wanted there to be a bit of contrast between the hull and the turret but there wasn’t really much difference between the Russian Green and Reflective Green so I gave the turret a wash of Thraka Green. That should darken the overall colour nicely and, as a bonus, provide a good start to the shading process.


Green iz good!

Once all of that was dried, I started on the details.

The MG and tracks were painted with Gunmetal Grey. I tried to be somewhat neat with the tracks and avoided getting metal paint on the road wheels. However, I saw no need to get everything completely covered – a fair bit of it will be covered by weathering later anyway so why bother?

The same goes for the rubber on the road wheels. They were painted with German Grey but, once again, I didn’t care overly much about getting every last bit covered.

Top Tip: keep the paint very thin when painting road wheels. As the hub is slightly raised a thin paint will run around the hub by itself, sparing you the trouble.

As for the rest of the details, the tools were picked out with Beige Brown/Gunmetal Grey and the exhausts with Cavalry Brown.


The Devil’s in the details...

Then it was time for yet another wash. The zimmerit on the turret was given a thin wash of Thraka Green to darken it even further and the hull was given a complete “magic wash” with a mix of 1 part Nuln Oil, 1 part Seraphim Sepia, and 3 parts water. Adding to that was a wash of pure Nuln Oil in the space just above the tracks.


Final wash

Top Tip: it always pays to keep the interaction between varnish and washes in mind. When applied directly to paint, a wash acts as a filter, changing the colour of the underlying paint. But when applied over varnish it flows a bit more freely and will more readily run down into and along panel lines, lessening the filter-effect. I used a matt varnish as I wanted it to act mostly as a filter - a satin varnish would have had it flowing more freely into the panel lines.

Once all of that was dried, I gave both hull and turret a coat of satin varnish, partly to prepare for the weathering but mostly to protect the basic paintjob.

Before I started the weathering process, however, I had to apply some decals. It’s better to add them now, before the weathering, as that will help them blend into the overall paintjob rather than standing out as a sore (and crispy clean) thumb.

There is, as far as I can figure out, no rhythm or reason to the markings used by Russian tanks. Indeed, according to some anecdotes I’ve come across, the Russians had figured out the numbering system used by the Germans and took pains to not make the same mistake. In general, there seems to have been a fair number of slogans (which might be explained by the fact that most of the surviving pictures were taken for propaganda purposes) as well as numerical markings but not many red stars, except on lend-lease equipment. In any case, the main points seem to be less-is-more and keep-it-random.
I therefore settled on just two markings: a slogan on the left side of the turret and a white star with red outline on the glacis plate.

Fun anecdote: apparently, slogans were always painted on the left side of the turret as a photo of the slogan would then show the tank to be moving west, towards Germany. Don’t know if it’s true, but it’s a funny story.

The slogan was applied directly to the side of the turret with a bit of care and judicious use of Micro Set/Sol to get the decal to confirm to the contours of the zimmerit. Once dry, I brushed on a coat of satin varnish to protect the decal.


”For victory” – I’ll take them on their word regarding that translation...

The star took a bit more work as no such star can be found on the decal sheet. There are, however, stars in both red and white...
So I took a large red star and applied it to the glacis plate, once again using Micro Set/Sol to get it teased into the cracks in the zimmerit. When that was dry, I brushed on a bit of satin varnish. Once that was also dry, I carefully applied a small white star in the centre of the red star. I, once again, used a bit of Micro Set/Sol, but not too much this time as I didn’t want to run the risk of any of it getting through the varnish to the underlying red star and damaging it.
Finally, I brushed on yet another coat of satin varnish to protect the completed star before moving on.


The red star


A smaller white star completes the decal-work

[f2k]

With the decals in place and the varnish dry, it was time to move on to the weathering.

I strippled on a mix of Cavalry Brown and Deep Yellow on the exhausts, going over them several times, adding more yellow into the mix every time. This helped break up mono-colour on the exhausts and made them look a bit more like rust.

I continued the stripling with a slight bit of London Grey around the hatches and especially on the skirts.

The area around the track was then given a very heavy stripling with Brown Sand, working it up onto the skirts as well as the lower hull of the tank itself. This was supplemented by a stripling of Leather Brown around the same area, keeping the colour a bit lower and on the inside of the tracks.
The net result is a combination of colours representing dried mud on the upper part of the hull in general and newer, still wet, mud around the track and on the lowest part of the hull.


Scratched paint and mud

To help blend in the star on the glacis plate I made sure to get a bit of the Brown Sand up onto the upper glacis plate.


Yet more mud

Finally, a bit of Gunmetal Grey was lightly brushed onto the raised areas of the track where the mud would be worn off by the motion of the tank.


Uhhh... Shiny mud!

The turret was stripled too. The sides of the turret were given a very light dapping with a bit of torn-apart foam with some Russian Armour on it. This created the illusion that a bit of the logo was getting scratched off. I also stripled on a bit of London Grey as with the hull and some German Grey on the very tip of the barrel to simulate residues from the gun being fired.


Scratching the paint...

With the tank done it was time to start working on the base.

I took a standard large Flames of War base and covered it in greenstuff. Messed it up a bit to create an uneven surface, gently ran a wet finger along the bottom of the tracks, and then pressed the tank into the base to create the impression of track... Ummmm... Tracks...?


Building up the base

Once that was dried I airbrushed it with the same primer as the tank itself. Nothing serious – just a thin layer to help the next layers of paint stick a bit better.

I then painted the whole thing Leather Brown before giving it a rough drybrushing with Brown sand, mimicking the weathering on the tank itself.

Finally, I painted the sides of the base Black.


The painted base

With that done, it was time to get some greenery on the base. I “painted” it with a 1:1 mix of white glue and water, stuck on a few clumps of flowers and tufts, and then used my applicator to spread some flock onto the remaining base. Gave it a good upside-down shake and left it to dry.


Springtime!

All that remained now was to glue the tank onto the base with a bit of superglue. But once I had the tank glued down I realised that I wasn’t entirely happy with the flocking on the base. During the handling of the base I must have flattened the grass a bit, so some of it was now laying flat on the ground rather than sticking up as proper grass. So I went back and plucked the grass with a par of tweezers, removing the worst offenders, before gluing some of my homemade grasstufts on top of the remaining grass.

Once that was dried and firmly stuck together I gave the whole thing a quick airbrushing with matt varnish to take the shine of the tank and complete the final sealing of the paintjob.


The finished tank

And there you have it. A Russian decoy tank, painted with a variety of techniques.

Is it historically accurate? Well... Probably not...

The inspiration for this was a drawing of a Panther that supposedly served, as I recall, with the 8th Guards Army and had a mono-colour yellow hull with green turret. As the Russians typically repainted captured tanks one might suppose that this was an example of a turret from a previously captured tank being mounted on a newly captured one, possibly due to breakdown of the original tank. The mono-colour hull is a bit of a mystery though, as the Germans would usually camouflage their tanks once they arrived at the front. So why mono-colour yellow? Didn’t they have time to paint it before going into combat? Was it captured during transport? Who knows? In any case, that’s all pure speculation on my part...

Anyway, I found that scheme to be a bit boring so instead I painted the hull using a pattern found on a Jagdpanther serving near Grafenwöhr in October 1944 instead. Although, truth to be told, the mono-colour yellow hull might actually have provided a better contrast to the turret. Oh well... I’m not redoing the whole thing now so...

If you’re still reading, I applaud you and hope you found a few useful tips along the way. Questions and comments are always welcome...

[f2k]

In addition to the decoy tank, I finally managed to get my Stuka done. Man, what a fight that was...

The unit: A Junker 87B “Stuka”. Well, actually an 87D cleverly masquerading as an 87B...

The models: A combination of the Battlefront and Zvezda kits. The main fuselage is the original Battlefront Stuka (as that is way more detailed than the Zvezda) as are the small bombs under the wings, but the large bomb in the central cradle and undercarriage are from the Zvezda kit (the bomb is missing entirely from the Battlefront kit and while the undercarriage is not as detailed as the Battlefront metal variety, it is much lighter). Final details such as airbreaks and the support for the elevator were made with a combination of plastic sheets and greenstuff.

The paint: The Stuka was airbrushed with a thin coat of 1 part Foundation White and 2 parts water as a primer. On top of that I airbrushed two colours: Pale Blue for the belly and Olive Grey for the top, both in a 1:1 mix with water. This was covered by a thin coat of gloss varnish that acted as protection for the underlying colours during masking.

So far, so good...


The top of the plane...


...and the bottom of the plane

And then everything started coming apart...

My original plan was to mask the entire upper part of the plane and airbrush a camo-pattern of very dark green on top of the Olive Grey base colour. However, I then decided to head for the desert instead. So what do I do?

I spend some time googling various camo-schemes and finally came up with a mix of patterns that would be usable with the dark undercoat.

I carefully masked the wings and fuselage with small patches of tape. Once done, I gently airbrushed a mix of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Dark Sand, and 3 parts water on the upper part of the aircraft. This was immediately followed by a very (and I do mean VERY) careful airbrushing of 1 part Pale Blue and 1 part water, building up the colour along the flanks of the fuselage and on most of the tail. Not until that was done did I remove the masks.
The end result was that the original green colour was now showing as small patches overlapping both the yellow and blue colour.


Took me a bloody hour to mask it all!


The masks falls...

Once that had been allowed to dry thoroughly, letting the paint bond fully with the undercoat, I then, again very carefully, airbrushed the same mix of water and Pale Blue along the entire rim of the wings, using a piece of stiff cardboard as an impromptu mask.

Why?

Because I wanted the pure blue colour of the underside of the plane to bleed up onto the sides of the wing. And, as I wanted the colour to be pure, I did this after removing the masks for the green. Thus, both the yellow and green would be removed by the blue.
I used cardboard, rather than tape, for masking as I wanted a soft edge like that along the flanks of the fuselage where I simply airbrushed it on. By using cardboard I allowed a slight bit of fading along the edge as the seal wasn’t tight, thus creating the soft edge I was looking for.

Man, lot’s of careful, nerve-wracking, and time-consuming airbrushing there...

The main paintjob was now done and all that was needed was to add the details.

The cockpit glass was painted with Luftwaffe Uniform. And let me tell you: that was, by far, the worst painting of this Tale so far. The Stuka’s windscreen is made up of lots of tiny panes of glass, each having to be painted without getting any paint unto the metal part of the windshield. I didn’t get into all the corners (the cast was too rough and uneven for that) so I gave each individual pane a “magic wash” to help define it. I then went over the metal parts again, correcting any overpainting that I had done.

The bombs were painted Reflective Green, the wheels were painted German Grey, and the machinegun was painted Gunmetal Grey. The engine exhausts and the panels on both sides of the cockpit were picked out with Black (a bit of a challenge, really, as the exhausts were so badly cast as to being entirely unrecognisable). Finally, the propeller was painted with two colours: Olive Grey for the spinner and Black for the blades.

With that done, I went over the whole plane one last time, correcting small errors and touching up the paint job. Once that was done, I airbrushed the plane with matt varnish to protect the paint (most of the shine from the gloss varnish had already been taken off by the yellow and blue overspray so that was less of a concern at this point in time).

So this then, is the finished Stuka. About time, I’d say...!


All done


A top-down view to show the camo


Basing: This one’s a bit of a conundrum. First I wanted to keep it clear. Then I decided that it would blend better into the battlefield if I painted it so I gave it a good sanding to roughen up the surface to help the paint stick to it. Then I figured I might as well just leave it clear anyway, except now it isn’t clear anymore...

I’ll probably end up going back and doing a proper base at some point. Probably...

Downs: Having taken so long to paint a single 1:144 scale model. But work and my obsession with details constantly got in the way...

Ups: Finally getting the Stuka done.

[Codsticker]

@Codsticker: Like those archers. Wait... Did one of them just shoot himself...?!

Possibly, but I imagine he has been shot by the enemy.

Your work on the captured Panther is a Log in itself!

[DeadInTheHead]

Comments:

Xazil - Nice work, I love the bases - they fit the North African theme well.

C-Coen - Great wolf pelt and lovely work overall. Romans is one of those armies/periods I'm desperately trying to resist getting into, and you ain't helping :-)

emperorpenguin - good paint jobs, can't wait to see them based (hint hint :-D)

sigur - great work on those TYW troops, your 15mm painting puts my 28mm stuff to shame

Hakkapelli - a great looking tercio you have yourself there

Codsticker - Really love how you did the whites and other light shades

Eternal Hatred - Beautiful stuff, a special mention must be given to Harald himself - just beautiful

DarkAngelsG - Nice terrain and paint jobs.

f2k - Not sure what's more impressive, the paint jobs or the p log

And thanks to all for the kind words - the Russians are 28mm (it's just my painting that makes them look <= 15mm)

No WIP shots this month, the Pike block are so close to being done that there isn't much point taking photo's, and the T34 is pretty much in the opposite state, just not feeling it for getting the painting done.

[f2k]

Your work on the captured Panther is a Log in itself!

f2k - Not sure what's more impressive, the paint jobs or the p log

Thanks guys.

I might have gone a bit overboard on the Panther tutorial. But once I got started with the pictures one thing led to another... I do hope that there was something useful in there.

I was actually considering using it for a new tale: Tale of the Masters - a place where people could post all kinds of tutorials like that one, showcasing a variety of models and techniques. But it ended up here instead.

As for this tale, I've sadly been stuck all month. I've pretty much run myself ragged at work and so have had little energy left for painting. I’ve got a few tanks with the base-coats down but have never gotten around to doing all the details. Seemed to be too much trouble...

I’m hoping that I might get some painting done this weekend. That is: if I don’t have any more work to be done...

[DeadInTheHead]

By all means carry on with the extended posts, for me these tales are as much about improving as they are about getting things done.

[Xazil]

Comments, sorry for running late on them.

C-Coen - Nice looking models. Like the colour schemes and the wolf pelt cloaks came up very well. The archer unit looks nice and cohesive without being too same-y. Nicely done basing too.

emperorpenguin - Nice looking cannon and loaders, just needing the bases to complete them.

sigur - Love the masses of troops and am impressed on the horse colours, such a nice variety while keeping looking natural. The detailing on 10mm size only makes me more impressed.

Hakkapelli - Nice units and bases. Good bases on making them look like individuals and props on great looking unit flags.

DeadInTheHead - A nice looking series of cavalry units. Nice colour scheme matching between the infantry and cavalry. Also like the soviets, hand painted stars on the helms?

Codsticker - Nice additions for your archer unit, like the irregulars vibe from them.

Eternal Hatred - A very nice set of primative combatants. Good job on the war paint and shield for Harald.

DarkAngelsG - Nice looking terrain, with completed bases come together as a good display piece.

f2k - Great, great tutorial. Love the pictures of how you masked the colours off. Gives me some ideas on pulling off Caunter camoflage later on. The end result is a very impressive tank, well detailed at all levels down to the base. Also congratulations on the Stuka, also a very nice end result.

[sigur]

@f2k: Thank you very much, Sir. In fact I painted the horses for two more units of Cuirassiers along with the first ones already. It was indeed a bit straining on the sanity. Your stuff looks very, very good and it's interesting too. Most of the time you just see German-captured tanks. Also good to see that you finally got your Stuka done. Lovely splinter camouflage on there too. That's an interesting, bright colour scheme. Never seen it before in this way. Hate to be a pain but are you going to add some weathering to the Stuka as well or are you just glad that you got it out of the way?

@DeadintheHead: Thanks very much. In fact, those are 10mm miniatures I'm doing. Shame to hear about your painting. I was looking forward to that Pike block and some more Russians.

@Xazil: Thanks very much. The thing about the better 10mm minis is that they aren't much less detailled than 28mm ones in terms of what's on there. You still have daggers on the belts of miniatures, you have belts, pouches, full bandoliers and so on. Okay, there usually are no details on shoes on infantry models (armoured boots on knights and such usually are detailled) but still lots to be done. But of course you don't have to take as much care with smooth highlighting or something in this regard I find 10mm minis very quick and satisfying to paint even though you need to do some 28mm or 40mm minis in between just so you don't forget what that looks like.

Well, September is drawing to an end and I think that I got satisfyingly much done, probably lots of protestant musketeers of the Swedish yellow and blue regiments, five units to be precise. For October, usually a busy month because I tend to look out for Halloween painting and modelling competitions or projects which are always fun. Along with that there's the problem of me getting sidetracked with Infinity stuff and of course the need to order more miniatures because I would like to have more variety amongst the Swedish light cavalry and should get them and the Finnish light cavalry to look kind of different but knowing shipping times I don't think they'd arrive in time before the end of the month so I guess it will be some imperial pikemen and protestant guns, pikemen and dragoons.

If I should run out of time I'll have to paint up a batalion commander instead of one of those units.

[f2k]

@f2k: Thank you very much, Sir. In fact I painted the horses for two more units of Cuirassiers along with the first ones already. It was indeed a bit straining on the sanity. Your stuff looks very, very good and it's interesting too. Most of the time you just see German-captured tanks. Also good to see that you finally got your Stuka done. Lovely splinter camouflage on there too. That's an interesting, bright colour scheme. Never seen it before in this way. Hate to be a pain but are you going to add some weathering to the Stuka as well or are you just glad that you got it out of the way?

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

Indeed, the Allied use of Axis equipment is often overlooked. And that goes for Flames of War as well. Sadly...

But then again, they ignore most of the captured equipment used. You have the late-war French Beutepanzers used on the western front and you have the option of including a few Russian tanks in a mid-war eastern front army – that’s it. What, for example, about the common use of captured equipment during the desert wars? That seems to have been mostly forgotten.

In fact, I’ve been working a bit on an unofficial briefing on the Beutepanzer units that were intended to be used for the invasion of Malta but ended up being thrown away on the eastern front instead. They’re quite interesting, but there’s just too little information available on those formations to make a proper briefing out of it.


As for the Stuka, to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s entirely accurate – historically speaking. It’s a mix of various patterns used throughout the war.

Weathering certainly ought to be done – decals too. But, in all honesty, I’m not entirely sure how to go about it. My forte really is armour vehicles; weathering aircrafts is a somewhat different thing. I guess I’ll have to read up on it a bit.

But yeah... Mostly I’m just glad to have it done...


And with that out of the way...

The new thread is now up. Sorry about the delay but I was out of town yesterday.

Unfortunately, I will be scrambling to have anything to show for this month. I wanted to get it done this weekend but ended up hanging out with friends instead. So the tanks are still left with just the base-colour on them, needing washes, details, decals, weathering, the whole thing...