AHPC X Day 91 - Twenty-Seventh Submission - WW2 Scatter Terrain

It's the final day of this year's Challenge and I've been a very busy bee. Alongside finishing the painting of my final entry (which should go up in the very early hours tomorrow morning) I have cooked a big batch of chilli, watched eight YouTube videos and acted as minion* for 24 posts. As of 5 minutes ago, I had cleared the queue of all "ready" posts (apart from my own which will get published as the penultimate post of the Challenge) which means I can take a break - I'll let the other minions man the fort for a while.

* a quick explanation of what the minion does. We have to read through the draft posts; reformat them where necessary; enter the post details in the "Spreadsheet Of Doom (TM)";check the scoring; write a comment at the end of the post; check that they have added the appropriate labels to the post; check the title is in the correct format; publish the post; update the points roster table on the Challenge blog. That can take 5-10 minutes per post.

But enough of that, my twenty-seventh entry got posted this morning, some WW2 scatter terrain: [link]

As I have mentioned, there will be one more entry from me - I'll post the link tomorrow when it has been published.

Finished: 28mm WW2 British Para Jeep Crews

That was a quick turnaround. I started painting these yesterday afternoon and finished them this afternoon. I even took plenty of time out to do other things like reading and watching painting tutorials on YouTube.

I used this batch to try out a couple of alternative colours for webbing, camo patches and the berets. I've actually decided to stick with the original webbing colours (but add an extra highlight step) and the original camo patch colours, but have come up with a better mix for the berets - the previous one looked a bit too "pink".

1st Corps Vehicle Crew

1st Corps Vehicle Passengers

Artizan Vehicle Passengers

I made a bit of a mistake when prepping two of these, cutting off the feet, as it means they can only be fitted inside the vehicle. I also need to find some weapons to add into the empty hands - I think I have a few somewhere.

I've removed the pins from all the figures. My original plan had been to leave a few mm of pin so that they could be added to the jeeps without being fixed. I'd even drilled holes into the jeeps to accommodate this; unfortunately not in quite the right positions! The 1st Corps crew and passengers have been glued into place:

I then decided to see how many figures I could fit into the jeeps:

As you can see, five per jeep seems to be about the limit. I might be able to squeeze six onto the Warlord jeeps which are slightly larger (and with less chunky crew figures than the 1st Corps ones). If you think those numbers are crazy (and riders sitting with their legs outside the jeep are even crazier), then you really should loo at various photos and movie clips - I've counted eight paras on one jeep (and a four or five in the trailer behind it).

Tomorrow I'll be making a start on painting the main force. I've split them up by weapon type and the half of each type will be done in each of the two Denison base colours. Once they are all done, I'll sort the infantry into sections, platoons and support teams.

Test Paints - WW2 British Paras #2

I knuckled down today and worked my way through the next batch of test painting. The figures I used were all 1st Corps.

Even while I was painting them I realised that some of my colour choices weren't quite right. After applying the soft tone wash, I concluded that for just about every element I am better off doing a single step of either the base, the highlight or a mix of the two followed by a wash and then highlights where appropriate (either the original colour or a mix of the original and a lighter colour). There were some colours that were too dark and some too light - I'm either replacing those or changing them to a mix for my next test batch.

As for this batch, although they aren't perfect they are good enough. A bit later tonight I will be painting the ground texture on the bases. Tomorrow, I might give them some highlights then varnish them and put them to one side for selling on at some point.

When they are done, I'll re-black the previous test batch and get another batch out to test my new revision of the scheme.

Jeepers! Tanks for the hedges!

A busy day at the workbenches today. I started off by setting up outside (having determined that it was better to get that done before it got too warm) and priming the first batch of hedges:

Later this evening I'll add some basing gunk to them. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll drybrush the gunk and begin flocking them.

With that done, I cracked on and finished work on the Matilda and Jeeps:

Aussie Matilda II:

I know "Adonis" was a tank name in A squadron of the 1st Australian Armoured Regiment, but don't know if it was in 1 Troop.

Airborne Jeeps:

Now I just need to get the crew figures painted to put in them.


I've also been working on the Warbases terrain. Some of it is finished, but other items need a bit more work, so I'll save those until tomorrow when they should all be done.

Friday Update 14 June - Shinies!

Having made some initial purchases on Sunday for a British Airborne platoon for Chain of command, I placed a couple of orders with Artizan (North star) and 1st Corps on Wednesday to fill out the platoon. They both arrived today.

The pack at the bottom right of the photo above was a picking error - instead of a pack of two Para PIAT teams I received a late war British Vickers team.

I decided to take a quick pic to compare a figure from each range:

L to R: Warlord, Foundry, Artizan, 1st Corps

Looking back at a review of the ranges in WSS #74, the 1st Corps figures should be the smallest - clearly that's not the case as they are noticeably taller than the others.

The Foundry and Artizan figures seem to be a very close match; the Warlord figures are a similar height but less chunky although they won't look out of place mixed in with Artizan and Foundry, unlike the 1st Corps figures. For the 1st Corps packs I've ordered it shouldn't be a complete bust as the prone figures won't look as obviously large and the Jeeps will be OK. As that will give me two usable snipers, two 2" mortar teams and two PIAT teams I won't need to order anything else. OK, maybe some more jeeps.