You ain't seen me, right! German Recce vehicles

One of the things that any Flames of War army is incomplete without is reconnaissance. There are a number of options available to the German Army and SS troops, from motorbike troops to armoured cars and even some light tanks. In the end, I decided to go with what I wanted to paint!

Schwerer Panzerspähwagen Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)

Huzzah.

So 15 months after I last managed to finish the painting of a model, I have finally completed the Word Bearer. Huzzah.

He is not perfect, but I am really happy how he came out. I would of liked slightly more of the darker brown-red to have remained, and been a bit neater with the hello high lights, but I can work on that. Not sure on the eyes, think they may need a bit more yellow. The base was meant to look like grey dust and ash from a dying city (Imperial Palace of Terra :) ) but the weathering powders I used came out darker. Again, I can work on it on future models.

The axe is very meh.mi was trying to give a purple sheen but it didn't work. Not really sure how to fix it, and tbh, have little enthusiasm to. It's something that can be fixed later. The shoulder lad has the chapter symbol. The chapters are named after star constellations, and I thought this looked sort of space. Kind of think it may be the way a more primitive people might depict they Eye of Terror. Now, I know from First Heretic, the Word Bearers had no idea what the Eye of Terror was, but the old faith may have an ancient understanding of it. Haven't got a name for the chapter yet though. Chapter of the Golden Eye, Chapter of the Gods Eye? Not sure.

Like the axe, the knife was an experiment gone wrong. It's supposed to represent a tainted weapon and I wanted a natural looking weapon, like stone, again, have little energy to go back and work on it at the mo, so will be done at a later date. Another thing I want to work on is my small scripts looks messy but I am sure I will get better as time passes.

Ready for painting

Finally got round to finishing mr Word Bearer, adding some personal touches to the model, such as parchment and candles, and tidying up some of the conversion work.

The legs are from the Mark IV legion set, with the left foot heated up and straightened, and the right leg moved backwards to give the impression of walking. The torso, left shoulder pad, and head both come from the Word Bearer upgrade set. Being on of the new kits it was perfect, no flash, no mould lines, and hardly any resin, making it easier to prepare for use. The arms are from Mark IV despoiler set, both straightened into a more natural poses the axe comes from the Sons of Horus command set, and the left hand is from the plastic chaos aspiring champion. You can't see in this picture but he is holding a knife. The pouches and grenades are from the Tigrus pattern bolt gun set. Everything else is green stuff.

The model has been given extra hight using 1mm plasticard, which I have inserted on the thighs, on the waist, and on the knock. This is to give the models a slightly more imposing look, and to tower over human models, as the background describes. Unfortunately I was a bit sloppy on the thigh area, hence the need to use green stuff to repair some damage.

I am looking forward to painting this model, but first I have to bug some red paint!

A Modelling Pilgrimage

So no painting recently, due to a teething baby who decided to throw her bedtime routine out the window for a week and general apathy. Last night I shook that off and decided to build something. This is a continuation of my search for a project I can stick to, as well as using some impulse purchases from some of Forge Worlds new upgrade kits.

He still needs a lot of tidying up, the left hand doesn't quite fit, and the right hand needs some work. I also want to add some devotional parchment and purity seals, and some other bits to finish the effect. Will this be the project for me? I have a few more ideas I would like to explore, so we will see.

StuG G Platoon

Having successfully painted the first of the StuG Assault Guns from the Open Fire! starter box, I set about finishing off the platoon by tackling the other two.

Here are the finished results. The only difference is that I used a darker paint for the green on the following two StuGs. Let me know which one you prefer 9assuming you can see the difference!), as that will form the scheme for all of my German vehicles.

I've also added some MIG Pigment and Citadel Typhus Corrosion to the tracks, track wheels and lower hull areas to add a bit of dirt and weathering to the miniatures.

That's all for the StuGs, next up we'll take a look at some Shermans I think!

Painting the StuG G - Part 2

Here's the link to Part 1, in case you haven't seen it:  Part 1

Thanks for coming back! When we left it in Part 1, we had applied the 50/50 mix of Chocolate Brown and Middlestone. The next job is to 'feather' on pure Chocolate Brown (Vallejo Model Color 872) in the centre of the brown camo areas, creating a gradient of colour.

After this we add the green in the same way. I've used a 50/50 mix of GW Moot Green and Vallejo Model Color 882 'Middlestone', followed by pure Moot Green. I wasn't convinced that Moot Green was the perfect colour to use; it was a toss-up between Moot Green and the darker Warpstone Glow (I don't have any of the equivalent Vallejo greens... blame the Dark Angels for that!).

 

Painting the StuG G - Part 1

I recently started collecting a 15mm German Army. Apart from a few test stands of infantry, the first models I tackled in a serious way were the German StuG G Assault Guns from the Open Fire! box produced by Battlefront for its Flames of War game.

The StuG G in history

The StuG G, or the Sturmgeschütz III Ausführung G as it is more properly known, was the most widely produced variant of the Assault Gun class of German Armoured vehicles during World War II. Over 8,400 StuG G's were produced between 1940 and 1945 (out of a total of ~11,000 StuG III and StuH models), and they served extensively in all theatres except North Africa; 90th Light Division had a mere 2 StuG D assault guns in its 288 zbV Regiment at the Battle of Gazala in June 1942, an although more StuGs were sent to Tunisia in the closing days of the fighting in North Africa, they were never present in large numbers.

Allied Army List

In the last Flames of War post we looked at the German Army list I will be making, so this time we will focus on their adversaries, the British! The basis for the list are the miniatures contained within the Open Fire! starter set. For the British these are:

 - 6 Sherman V tanks
 - 2 Sherman Firefly tanks
 - US Parachute Infantry platoon

Market Garden

At first sight this may look a little odd. Why are US paratroopers being sold alongside British tankers? However, if you think about Operation Market Garden, it all becomes clear. Market Garden was General Montgomery's plan to move the British sector of the Allied front 64 miles from the Dutch border all the way to Arnhem, securing the most important prize: A bridge over the Rhine.