8th Army, 1st Motor Infantry platoon (Done!)

This is the final platoon I was able to complete for Saturday's (March 14th) tournament at ConQuest Sac. (A tournament AAR with pictures [shock... horror] will follow in my next post.)

I also managed to get their truck transports done but neglected to photo them before they were packed away for the tourney.

The basing was done in the same format as my previous desert stands, Liquitex Sand Effect Medium, then a coat of Vallejo Middlestone and a heavy drybrush of GW Bleached Bone (Not sure what it's called now in the newer paint range) over the top of that. I also superglued the odd Silfor tuft to add some more to the visual appeal. From a trip that I took with family to Egypt back in the 90's, I noticed that the sand in the Sahara was a LOT brighter in colour than most photos show. Now, this is probably more due to how bright the sunlight is out there, but I felt a less-yellowy sand colour was better and contrasted all the better also with the darker uniforms of the models.

The platoon all arrayed, minus it's 2" Mortar team, that I didn't take in my list. I'll get to it at a later date.

I tried to make each base as interesting as possible and also not double up on sculpts. It worked out... okay.

Platoon Command stand - The one complaint I have about the Battlefront 8th Army range is that there is only ONE NCO pose to use! This has made modelling a little bit boring for my command stands throughout. I did add a Bren Gun trooper as all non-Anti-Tank-Rifle stands in Motor Platoons are MG teams.

Again, I painstakingly tried to freehand the Unit markings on the backs of the bases for easier identification. The solitary red stripe is to show that this is 1st platoon. The second platoon (That I did NOT get painted in time for the tournament.) will have two stripes.

First MG section. Not much to describe here - 5 Tommies advancing through the desert.

The three Boys Anti-Tank Rifle teams. Again, only the single AT rifle pose, but I think I mitigated it's boring-ness somewhat through placement on the bases and pairing with regular riflemen. 

Second MG Section. I had bought a while back the 8th Army Casualties pack from Battlefront. These are really well sculpted with crisp detail that I only wish the regular troops could show. 

Chap at the back is holding his hand out in what I imagine to be a "How can you run on, when Tom and Percy are bleein' in the sand!?" expression.

Third MG Section. I Put a LOT more work into this base, wanting to break up the desert monotony and also adding another casualty fig in an "action-pose".

The 2-pounder AT Gun was something from my Bits box that I got in an Ebay lot ages ago. It was covered in glue and so I had no idea how to use it. Well, the desert areas were littered with destroyed and discarded vehicles and guns from all the running battles in North Africa, so I felt it would make a cool piece for the section to be running past, all rusted and burnt out. 

Top view shows it off all the better I think.

Like I said, after these I went to work on their truck transport section. They look almost exactly the same as the two I painted for my HQ mortars (As seen HERE), so I'll not do a post on them specifically. After I got those finished, I then started cutting off all the remaining infantry figures off their lollipop sticks and glued them on bases so I at least could play with them in the tournament. Of course, being stupidly tired from severe lack of sleep (Trying to get all this stuff painted in time for the tournament.) and so not all that coordinated, I managed to embed my exacto knife deep into my finger. Blood welled up and even got into my then curing Sand medium! So this project really does had my blood mixed right in there.

"Ouch!" 

Next up - my AAR for the tournament that I actually remembered to take pics from!

We Generals Three (ACW Project - Part 1) & Kingforce Completed!

Bit of a quick aside to keep from burning out on painting desert colouring, here the three miniatures that will represent my generals for my 15mm ACW Confederate army.

I have no idea who produces them or if they were even supposed to be Confederate Generals int he first place (As opposed to Union), but they are full of character and were fun to paint. 

These are 15mm on 1" circular bases per the Regimental Fire and Fury rules.

Think this chap is supposed to be regarding his map.

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As you can see, I just couldn't get the rider/saddle to sit flush on this horse.

Tried to show a "Dapple-Grey" effect on the horse's rump.

My least favourite of the three and obviously an inferior sculpt, but damn he sports a nice moustache!

This will be my Cavalry commander, so he gets the light blue trousers.

My fav of the three. Love his dashing facial hair and sash (Looks messy here, but I cleaned up the red since.)

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Tried to make this horse look like a Palomino.

Also got the last of the KingForce Chuchills done! Commander is painted the same method as my other infantry, but the lighting makes him look a lot darker skinned than he actually is. With him done, I've finished painting half my platoons for my Desert Brits, well on target for the next tournament March 23rd (or 14th or whenever that weekend is...). Next up will be my Heavy Machine Gunners!

Looking a bit "extra" sunburnt here. I'll be going back over all my skin shades for this army once I've got them all tabletop ready.

Closeup of poorly done stowage. I really need more boxes of stuff to add too.

And here's the platoon all together.

British 8th Army HQ and others (WIP - part 3)

Last night saw me slapping decals on these and calling them good enough for tabletop. Like my other Desert pieces I'll be returning to these to add a little weathering and antennas where applicable.

*Have to say I am not impressed by Battlefront's decals. Far too big compared to the reference pictures I found and I had a hard time making the blasted things fit on the truck fenders, ending up having to cut them down a little and even then they didn't fit well.*

1iC's White's Scout Car, 2iC's Jeep and the Mortar section's Morris 15cwt trucks. 

At first these weren't fun to paint, but once past the base colours, they became a blast. 

Here's the Commander's stand again and his transport version. Lighting in the pic is a bit pants, but if you look closely you can see his dog in the back of the transport, just behind the driver. Thought that would be a nice touch to key the vehicle in with the HQ all the more.

The first Norcal Flames of War tournament of the year was on Saturday - a 1200 point Mid War Infantry only (No armoured vehicles or Divisional Support allowed). I had an okay time, finished joint bottom (Though missed out on Best Presentation and Best Sport by a point or so.) and realised that British Rifle Company lists just don't work well without those supporting armoured and artillery elements. I also forgot to Night Attack all three rounds.... which was pretty much indicative of my day. No pics as I was too busy playing terribly.

Last bit I wanted to talk about was that the 6MMRPC pledge challenge thingie is almost over. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I kept to the rules and only a couple days ago used up my second and final Joker/getoutofjailfree deal (Bought some ACW infantry...), posted more than required and painted regularly. My mountain of unpainted stuff still doesn't look all that smaller, but I know it is, so I guess that would mean I succeeded at least a little. I think I'll post up a round up of the whole 6 month's work come the start of February.