Undercoating some vehicles: [28mm. 1/56] M3 Lee, Tiger I and King Tiger

Making full use of the spray can to its last spluttering gasp I managed to cover three of my 28mm AFVs (see below, the US M3 Lee Warlord Games sprue sale bargain at £12, well worth waiting for): 

The mighty King Tiger (see below, I know it is totally overkill for Chain of Command but for £12 in the Warlord sprue sale I could not say no to my inner teenage school boys' "yearnings". It still is a beast!): 

Side by side you can see the "huge" difference in size, but remember their combat introduction/debut was but two years apart (see below, 1942 for the Lee, and 1944 for the Tiger II):  

Finally the spray-can's splutter finished in a timely fashion over the Tiger I (see below, again another steal from the Warlord games sprue salem guess what £12):  

I am please to say that the vivid green dries to a dull, dark, camouflaged dark green. 

Note To Self: Late War German WWII Infantry - Victrix (Painting Guide)

Victrix Late War Miniatures Painting Guides: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xvqv96qQ1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ooQ15k9Ihg

Looking forward to painting these!

More 28mm WWII Undercoating - US Infantry, US Paras, 1940 BEF Brits and French, Japanese

Just to complete the full story (or is it?) of the "Spray Can Day" event!

Wargames Atlantic British 1940 BEF and a few (6) Imperial Japanese Infantry from Warlord Games: 

Wargames Atlantic French 1940 Infantry:

German Late War Infantry - Warlord Games: 

US Paras - Warlord Games: 

US Infantry - Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games: 

Left with empty spray cans! Job well done!

Been making some 28mm Kits

For my Chain of Command 28mm British Infantry the welcome sight of a Sherman Mk I (see below, the ubiquitous Western Front armour support): 

She came up nicely, less parts in 28mm than most 20mm kits (see below, looking ship shape and ready for battle): 

Keeping with the 1944 theme, my Crusader originally bought as a Western Desert AFV had a course change and became a AA D-Day+ addition to the British Armour inventory (see below, the Crusader had an extended career with the various specialist functions it found itself in): 

The Western Desert armour support was provided by the Valentine Mk II/III variant (another nice Rubicon kit). I did briefly toy with the idea of a Soviet version but decided that could wait for a 6pdr later variant (see below, 2pdr and 3 inch turret options shown):  

Assembly of 28mm kits is faster than 20mm! Painting might take longer though!

Wargames Atlantic - 28mm BEF Figures - Reference Material

I think Wargames Atlantic have surpassed themselves with their 28mm WWII BEF kit. I am bowled over with their quality and the ease at which things fit together. Brilliant, the variety too is brilliant. The classic LH and RH numbering system for the arms works really well! Although no printed "instructions" (look at the pictures) I found the additional Internet resources invaluable for me (see below, otherwise I would have doubled up on the entrenching tools): 

https://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/bef-infantrymans-dunkirk-1940-uniform-set.html

Other people have shared their opinion and interest in BEF 1940 in the battle of France:

https://iagsmgm.blogspot.com/2019/06/bef-platoon-28mm.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m0oShxuMc4

Knock, Knock, Knock! No you cannot come in I am a T-34!

Every early war German infantry platoon needs to be confident in having an effective anti-tank capacity to stop enemy armour. Naturally the Pak 37mm AT gun is perfect for the job of stopping German Armour (Marks I to IV) but please don't ask it to worry a Matilda, Char B1 Bis or T-34 (see below, an optimistic German PAK crew pose for a Signal photograph): 

Crew  (bodies) and gun from Rubicon, but the crew heads are Warlord Germans head-swaps in- which look far better than the smaller Rubicon originals!

Last Sprue Plastic Warlord Game Russians Assembled - Yippee

Dilemma. Well I have the basic Russian platoon  formation in Warlord Game figures for (early war to at least 1943) Russians [Stalingrad and the basic Chain of Command OoB] but I was left with a sprue of eight men. I had to urge to "clear the Russian project shelf" so rather than make some 'basic rifles' I wondered what to do with them. In the end I went for the following mix - an observing prone "officer type" with binoculars, two LMG teams [as the latter part of the Stalingrad campaign seemed to be pushing them into OoBs] and three SMG's - two of which were "Tank Hunters" with a short life expectancy (see below, my last Soviet raw plastic ready for the 'paint shop'): 

The same but posed for Pravda camera shot (see below, "Defenders of Stalingrad drive the Fascists Back into the Volga") :

Job done :)

Albeit with painting to follow! 

Soviet 28m Reinforcements

Assembled in the factory, Warlord Games Russian Infantry than accompanied the Warlord KV1 (with insane KV2 turret option), heading towards the painting department (see below, however we all know of the unexpected production delays associated with the painting department): 

They have at least received their primer and mandatory Vallejo dipping in dirty Brown Wash (see below, pre weathered before the first true lick of camo paint arrives):  

The arms folded posture of the driver is probably because he has just been told he is destined for the streets of Stalingrad in a Chain of Command campaign!

Some 28mm things that were recently "fettled" (courtesy of the Warlord Wargames sprue sale)

First their came a sprue that was supposed to be in the back of a German 251 half-track (see below, Fritz and Hans are having fun with an 81mm mortar): 

Then came a merry bunch of AWI 28mm artillery crew with an excited General Officer and "Mo;;y Maid" (see below, if truth be told I found out that I have another two to be made too, already "in the loft"!): 

Finally the supporting arm (artillery) to my strange 25-28mm Malburian "late horse and musket" period army (or should that be plural) I have acquired (see below, I liked what I saw so much from these folks I put a second order in to Warlord for some more to "finish" (ha, if ever) the OoB off): 

Slowly eating away at the 28mm plastic pile of stuff needing to be put together before its wargaming destiny can be fulfilled.

Netflix: The Liberators - WWII Small Unit Action (US GIs in Italy)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZaIZgkCcXQ

Saw the first episode and I am already hooked (although I had an issue how they knocked out one Panzer III in particular). Also have the "urge" to start making and painting 28mm American GIs for a "Chain of Command" platoon - which cannot be a bad thing, can it? (I do already have them unmade, unpainted and feeling unloved in various Warlord Games boxes).

Footnote: Really impressed with this mini series .. it soon became a story rather than a procession of kit .. the trauma (and story) came through very well.

My 28mm WWII Soviet Infantry for Chain of Command

Russian Forces: My main force of Soviet 28mm Chain of Command figures are the highly detailed plastic Warlord Games (Winter Infantry and the ones [10] that came with KV1 tank kit), some flame-throwing and LMG specialists from Black Tree, but as a supplement I bought the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) infantry range (which means I have the same figure molds in 15mm, 20mm and 28mm). The 28mm allow for some conversions with spares left over from the Warlord Game sprue (see below, the sharp stereoscopic end of a Soviet 28mm Chain of Command sniper team): 

The Soviets always seem short of a few basic rifles .. so rather than been drawn into the "just another box" syndrome I converted some PSC SMG boys into basic rifles (see below, a Soviet NCO demoted to a private but remembers his heroic pose past): 

A couple of basic PSC 28mm rifles heading for Stalingrad (see below, primed in classic Airfix Acrylic primer, waiting for base texturing and "brown wash dipping" before painting):  

Working through the process before a factory style assembly production line begins (see below, the soldier on the left is a prototype and the one on the right a "wanna-be" soon to be):   

You can never have too many soviet infantry - no matter what scale ;) 

The German Army's "Door Knocker" - 37mm of projectile fun!

Well even if nothing more than morale support facing the waves of dreaded T-34's in deepest Russia the PaK 36 AT Gun is waiting to be made for my 28mm Chain of Command early war German Infantry (see below, good luck Hans as Ivan is coming in a tank): 

It is looking earnestly from the safety inside its Rubicon packaging and wants a bit of the action.  

28mm KV1 (or KV2) - "The People's Heavy Tank"

I put specific boxes on my "computer desk" eye-line to taunt me into "reminding me they are still here". The Warlord Games KV1/2 pack is a case in point. I have already assembled (but not yet painted the infantry) but the beast of a tank remains. On the back of "how easy it was to put together" the Sherman V I though, "Well it's time!"  (see below, I particularly like the strident pose of the tank commander, trucking no doubt in the defeat of fascism): 

The KV1 has an ugly sister, the quite frankly ridiculously looking "land battleship turret" of the KV-2. The Mannerheim Line bunker buster for the Russo-Finnish war. Just fire facing a frontal target or god knows what will happen (see below, freakish and frightening at the same time): 

I still have to get a bog standard T-34 in this scale, early war preferably - although there is always a place in my heart for the T34-85 post Kursk! 

VE Day Celebration: British Sherman V in 28mm

The Warlord Games British Sherman V (I originally bought it as armour support for my US infantry only to find out it was "the wrong type" [not used at all by the US] so I decided rather than "take it back" I had to go get some British Infantry to make as well - that is a current WIP project) has been luring on the shelf for far,far too long. Being bigger than my normal 20mm area of expertise, I suspected it was going to be a harder to make .. flashbacks to those 20mm Airfix Shermans of my youth perhaps .. but no it is a perfect low fuss wargame build (I was fearful of the Tamiya 1/35 fine scale modeller syndrome to be honest too). It reminds me of a PSC style build and only after I completed it did I notice the Italeri association (see below, the kit as per build instructions, I went for the basic Sherman not the Cullen "bocage strimmer" that could be useful in Chain of Command): 

Looking long and hard at the box art and some internet photographs (of a wargaming nature), plus several conversations with fellow 28mm wargaming Chain of Command friends who know far more about British Armour of WWII it was decided that the .50 calibre turret mounted HMG had to go. The clincher for me was more for aesthetics (using the HMG seemed ergonomically awkward - scenes from the battle of Caratan in Band of Brothers showed the, albeit US tank commander, standing on the rear engine deck firing the .50 cal HMG) and practicalities of painting the commander figure. There were  (see below, the Sherman V, minus the HMG-AA, but with ease of access to the tank commander for the paint brush): 

My eye now falls on the KV1 Russian tank which could come in useful at the up and coming (post-lockdown) restart of the Battle for Stalingrad Chain of Command campaign. 

My "last" set of 28mm WW2 Russians?

Again the 28mm assembly line is churning out the assembled figures, akin to a Space Marine factory with all the "snipping off the sprue". It does wear on the fingers and thumbs though and is best done in short bursts. A squad a time so to speak. One of my completed projects (or so I thought) was my Stalingrad Russians. Now looking closely at the early orders of battle, at the outset of the battle the Russians had eight riflemen to their squad (much in alignment to the rest of the world's armies), but soon as attrition set in this came down to six (as per the "Two Fat Lardies" order of battle anyway and who am I to argue). Looking as this hole in my collection I spied the Warlord Games KV1/2 pack that came with a useful sprue of eight little Russians so a perfect match in heaven was made (see below, Ivan and his friends, all sturdy run-of-the-mill riflemen of the Soviet Union, no sexy SMGs to be found here):

Could this be the end of the Russian infantry component to my 28mm collection (a collection I remember swearing never to start on several years ago)? I suspect not as there will always be little add on extras (my fellow wargamers laughed at me when I announced this). It was also pointed out to me that the official roster at the start of Barbarossa had "ten" Soviet riflemen to a squad. Have I a need for a second KV1/2? I wonder, but I think there are other nationalities I need to consider first!

28mm LRDP or SAS

These came from a Wargames Illustrated "free" sprue of figures with the magazine and have been lurking around for some while now. Seeing as I am in 28mm assembly mode they passed through the production line quite quickly (see below, balaclava and Arab headdress a plenty):

The only trouble as such with the free sprue was that they did not fit int the 8th Army collection I was assembling which was from the Perry's 8th Army pack. Warlord figures are just so much chunkier and bigger than the Perry's equivalent models. The solution is that these troops serve in different sections and don't mix in my order of battle.

Note: I also had to use some "too hand" wooden bases (purchased from The Works a while ago) to give them a stable platform.

28mm: 1940 Germans Continued

I seem to be going through a phase of assembling 28mm plastic WWII soldier and painting 10mm WWII soldiers. My thinking may not be quite as joined up as I want it to be. Slowly they are getting assembled, my second platoon for Chain of Command - although I do feel the insane urge to get Bolt Action too (see below, the results of making one pack [which is not quite enough] of Warlord Games Blitzkrieg Germans):

They make three full squads, the HQ [officer ad sergeant] (minus the attached 5cm mortar and crew) plus the MG34/42 with some riflemen for the fourth squad (see below, my fingers are raw with all the snipping done):

I realised I had forgotten to add the German Officer and Senior Sergeant on the previous photograph (see below, Hans and Ruben admire their command):

A brief pause ensued, then as the Warlord Games German Pioneer set was purchased it enabled me to complete the fourth squad for the basic platoon and add 'the spare figures' to the possible support list by making them up in various engineer combinations (see below, the German 5cm Mortar is created from two prone figures and the 5cm mortar parts from the Perry's DAK box - the arms are a little smaller but it is a passable conversion):

The remaining troops are made up in a plethora of engineering combination and specialist weapons (see below, including an anti-tank rifle, a sniper, the 5cm mortar team, a wire-cutter, a mine clearer, a remote control Goliath operative, a demolition expert, a flamethrower, an officer with a SMG, three NCOs with SMG, a anti-tank rifle grenade and five riflemen in engineer garb - note the yellow figures [an AT rifle team are from the Perry's DAK box and although made them up I will not be using them with the Warlord Games figures as the scales don't quite match, they shall be heading for North Africa after all]):

Now it is time to put them to one side for priming and painting, but first I think I will assemble the remaining boxes I have of 28mm kit. As mentioned at the start of the post I have seemingly the urge to paint 10mm and assemble 28mm. Well if it works, don't knock it - but I need to be a ruthless finisher of projects, nit WIP collector!

Fighting the Blitzkrieg in a Universal Carrier

I got it because it was cute .. the British "Universal Carrier" (see below, or alternatively known as the "Bren Carrier" [can anyone tell me the difference as I am too lazy to Google it] with later WWII British Crewmen):

A close-up. I initially dallied with the thought that I could paint it up for the Eastern Front in Soviet colours with a Maxim or PTRD in it, but the temptation to use it as an excuse to build up a 28mm force of Late War British Infantry [PBI] was too great (see below, the only things not attached as yet are the side skirts which will be done after painting):

Chalk up yet another crazy project to do.

Finishing Off those Blitzkrieg Germans

Taking a cue from a friend (Renko) I procures a second box of Warlord Games Early War Germans but this time opted for the German Pioneer set (see below, flamethrowers, satchel charges galore and what looked like to my eyes a "combat bricklayer" to which I was later told was an extremely powerful demolition charge):

This should allow me now to build the fourth squad (the early war 1940 German Platoons sure are big) and a few supports!

Warlord Games 28mm WW2 US Infantry

Seeing as I had purchased a box of Perry's 28mm WWII Infantry (arrgh, I am seemingly fully committed to WWII multi-scale madness now) the June 2019 Wargames Illustrated giveaway sprue from Warlord Games was not so much a no-brainer but rather a compulsory purchase (see below, I made my six infantry men up as 3 x M1 Garand Riflemen and 1 x M1 Carbine [as you can never have too many of these], a BAR gunner and a sniper/marksman with a Springfield rifle - I just to say resisted the trench-shotgun): 

I have so far resisted getting the July edition as I cannot see a need for the Crimean Russian Infantry sprue in my current collection (though let me sleep on that). Given the quality of the Warlord Games figures I think I am destined to purchase a full box of these and the D-Day Rangers for all the extra bits to make the interesting engineer troopers.