Ancient German 15mm DBA Army

While Normally I pride myself on painting my own armies, recently I realized I simply have more lead than I could ever hope to paint, so I farmed some out to the talented paint brush of Paul Potter for painting.  I asked Paul to leave them un-based so I could match my own style.  Besides basing, I decided I wanted to pretty up some of the shields with Little Big Man shield transfers, so there is a nice mix of original painting and transfers in the army.  So without further ado, here is the result:

WWII 105mm German howitzer emplacement - Bolt Action

This is the German 105mm Howitzer set with a few additional pieces for the sandbag bunker and storage by Baueda.

I entered this set in the painting contest for the historical category at the Siege of August this past January.  I was sure that if I won anything it would be with the limber in my previous post, but surprisingly, this set won a first place prize and the siege bucks given as a prize were quickly spent on some Testudo 28mm knights for a battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) project. Had a great time at Siege by the way so come visit Augusta Georgia if you can next January!

Lots of nice accessories are included in the Bolt Action set - everything but instructions.  I searched their site high and low but there were no instructions to be found for this piece, though I found instructions for about everything else they make.  Hopefully I got it put together correctly!

Feuer!

Bolt Action Germans Second Squad

 This is my second squad of Germans made from 28mm Wargame's Factory plastics.  These are an improvement over the first squad, as I used a lighter khaki as the base coat of the camo jackets which helped tone down the green overall.  I also like the option of adding a combat leader in a fatigue hat rather than an officer's cap.  I think the squad leader of the third squad will be in a helmet.

WWII German Fallscirmjager

I thought it might be a nice diversion over Christmas break to work on something other than DBx type figures, so I brought out some Fallschirmjager from WWII that I have been slowly collecting. My good friend Baxter Key from Wargames Inc manufactures these FAA figures, so every now and again I pick up a pack, especially when I'm feeling guilty for making him work on a Saturday so the rest of us can game. I also finally painted an Italieri King Tiger that has been primed in my ready box for quite some time. I've been thinking of trying the WWII skirmish game "Nuts", and now I'm ready to do so.

1/72 model kits can be a little hit and miss, but this one was quite a nice kit, and included the two drivers and tank commander which was a nice bonus. I gave the airbrush a rest on this one, as I have never really gotten very good at using it, and just brushed on the paint. I tried to keep the paint nice and thin, but heavy enough to provide good coverage (I used Polly S paints as they have great pigmentation even when thin), and the end result was pretty good.

I also painted up a Dragon kit of a jagdpanzer IV. This is a great kit, but I never did get the gun at a nice elevated level and the paint job was a bit to dark and heavy, but all in all, an acceptable job. I like to think of it as a well distressed model.

FAA Fallschirmjager engineers. I bought this pack thinking it was a rifle squad, but oops. I'm still glad I have them though and they are some really great figures in different and nicely animated poses.

The grunts: Three packs of assorted riflemen. Once again some very nice figures in great poses.

Heavy and medium MGs. The MMG in the prone position I based on two separate halves of an oval to facilitate taking casualties.

Pak 38 anti tank gun. It took a while to get this little booger together but the end result was good. I've always had difficulty gluing the pieces of FAA figures and guns together. I'll have to ask Baxter if he uses a special release agent or something. It could also be that I'm just lacking in patience. This was a fun diversion, but now on to the serious business of the Prussian 1806 Gendarmes of the Guard for DBN!