Open Fire - German Grenadiers

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets. So, here we are hitting mid-February and we are fresh off the best storm of the current season…although many would ay the first actual snow storm of the season. We had an excellent amount of snow fall the other day, and in some areas with the blowing snow, we got to walk up to 1 to 2 feet of snow. Good news…we have the chance to do a repeat of this tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that.

The year so far has been fairly steady, and I have been trying to push through the Open Fire German grenadiers…following off my recent work on the US Para’s that came with the box. I had been looking at doing 1 platoon of gren’s based for Force on Force and then another for Flames of War. If I’m totally honest, I’m not really impressed with these plastic figures…so I am having some motivational issues with getting through them.

I’ve completed a first wave of the figures…and have started another batch. In between that time, I did see a post on Reddit where this fellow said that he uses 15mm FoW figures for Bolt Action. I think I can get behind that idea and ditch my plans for making a FoW platoon out of these figures…I think some more for Force on Force or 15mm Bolt Action might be a bit of motivation that I need to help me out.

Anyway, here is the first batch of Grenadiers…I’m looking forward to getting the rulebook for Bolt Action to see how that goes…and hey, 15mm Bolt Action.

Enjoy the pics. 

The group overall…mix of leadership and grunts…SMG’s and riflemen.

A couple of MG42 crews…they’ll work as part of a Grenadier section or standalone teams.

Tried my hand at splinter camo as well…it has been a while.

Another group shot, you can see the Officers and NCOs up front…these would be a platoon HQ or company HQ stand for FoW formation.

…a little Kate Bush love…

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200          

15mm          23    

28mm+       

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +23

US Airborne Troops

Hello everyone,

Merry Christmas to one and all, happy New Year around the corner as well. I wanted to throw a quick post up of the last Battlefront US airborne troops that I've gotten painted up before the end of the year. While I am building my US Parachute Company for Flames of War, I also took one of the platoons and painted them up so I could use them in other rulesets...although, you can still use FoW based troops, they just need a little accounting work.

Anywho, I was thinking of doing some WW2 gaming using Force on Force so I ended up basing these guys accordingly. As well, it gave me the chance to try an alternate paint scheme, so I ended up trying to capture the D-Day and prior uniforms. I ended up with a platoon of about 30 troops and can easily swap in some of the HMG stands that I have already done.

For those inclined, here are the pics. I hope you enjoy!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4

15mm         214, +30 (US airborne)

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24 

Progress   +240

Geronimo!! More US Airborne for FoW

Howdy everyone,

I hope that the winter is treating everyone well, although with today’s weather, it is a lot less like winter and much more like spring. Anywho, I wanted to put up a quick post with my progress on my US airborne troops. I had previously finished the plastic platoon that came with the original Open Fire box, HERE.

This next platoon, and extras, come from the old US Parachute Company box that included 3 platoons worth of troops as well as company HQ stuff (i.e. snipers). 

There was definitely a difference between the plastic molds and the metal figures. The plastic ones look really good and have some pretty dynamic and expressive poses. While not as dynamic, the metal figs always feel good to paint. They’re also much easier to manage the detail with in terms of flashing and there area few spots where the plastic sculpts are chunky and lack that dimensional feel. I’m thinking mostly of the webbing and equipment like that where you are left with extra bulk where a space would normally be, and then you end up having to try to hide with the paintjob.

Regardless, it feels good to get some 15mm painting in and to finish up pieces that have been sitting around for far too long. Enjoy the pics.

Brand new platoon painted and good to go…2nd Platoon; standard platoon is 7 teams including 1 command team; 1 bazooka team, 1 mortar team; and 2 optional hmg teams and 1 optional extra bazooka team. For this platoon, I ended up using VJ Brown Umber on the edges for easier identification; as well, I ended up making tree stumps out of plastic offcuts to further identify the platoon as a unit.

Close up of a HMG team…

Close up of mortar team and command stand…

Some of the extras from the original box…snipers and pathfinder…and a couple of company command stands.

The company as it looks right now…2 combat platoons…I’ll have to paint up a couple of HMG teams and an extra bazooka team for the 1st Platoon…and then on to support platoons.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4

15mm         184, +50 (US airborne)

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24, +12 (beyond mig alley aircraft and another MiG Alley box) 

Progress   +210

Red Dawn Objective - Wonalds...ish

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well as we crest past a far too warm Halloween. This is just a quick post to showcase another completed element from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Air Assault Battalion Starter Set. This fabulous box came with a Red Dawn (1984) inspired unique objective taken from the movie stills showing a few commies posing it up for mommy in front of a distinctive/iconic fast food establishment.

Battlefront elected to go with 'alternate' branding inverting the yellow arches into a W...in my haste to unpack the box and look at the goodies and then ignore them for a random amount of time before hitting the work bench...I inadvertently lost the decals to declare my objective as Wonalds.

So, adapting and overcoming...I instead took inspiration from the fact that any given small town in the Canadian Prairies is home to its own Chinese food restaurant. This of course is due to the reality behind the internment of folks who were of Japanese or Asian descent and living on the western coast of North America during World War 2. This happened in the US and certainly in Canada and resulted in the aforementioned proliferation of small-town Chinese restaurants. Having lost all when they went into internment, these folks had to adapt and overcome (with much much more at stake than missing decals) and provide for their families.

With those folks in mind, and their contribution to their communities, I present you with appropriate signage for Won's Chinese Food emporium. Complete with BMD-1 at the curb, along with a couple of Ruskies and a sufficiently mid-winter grimy/dirty street to stand in.

Enjoy!

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         134, +3

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +172

Currahee - Flames of War US Airborne

Howdy folks,

Happy October and all that spooky stuff. Fresh off of my last post, and my fantastic ability to get distracted, I thought I would post a progress pic of my Flames of War US Parachute force. Inspired heavily by Band of Brothers and the anniversary of Market Garden (nope, I can’t explain why now), I have finished up my first platoon for the force.

As mentioned last post, this platoon comes from the initial plastic sculpts released by Battlefront inside of their Open Fire turned Hit The Beach starter box. I am currently working through a second platoon of metal figs from the first release of the US Parachute Company box and it has been interesting to see the difference in the sculpts, but also to see how far Battlefront’s plastic figures have come along.

The main con that I have is that the first kick at plastics have some pretty epic “flash” on the figures, particularly between the arms and torso. I call it flash only because I don’t know the plastic equivalent, regardless this plastic excess is really tough to deal with and in most cases (definitely in mine) I cannot bevel it out. The second con I have, and this is for the prone MG figures, they originally came in 2 different pieces for each pose and they went together poorly. From what I’ve seen of the latest release of the plastics, they have gone away from that initial method and gone to a solid singular molded piece. 

The main pro’s…dynamic poses with a great amount of detail on the faces…dynamic poses with arm and leg articulation…and they paint up so well.

Anywho, here are the pics…I decided to go with a post D-day/Market Garden uniform colour.

Take care.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         131, +31 (para platoon including 60mm mortar)

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +168

Red Dawn - Soviet Airborne VDV

Hey folks,

I hope the week has been well for you on our respective side of the internets. Just a quick post to bring in the weekend, I finally got around to finishing up the BTR’s and the troops from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Assault Battalion. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I finished the BMD’s and its a good feeling to get the AAA and grunts finished.

The BTR’s are resin and metal…and I think I preferred the plastic BMD’s…the prep on them felt about the same and the metal figures painted up really well. All in all it didn’t take to much time to get the 2 platoons finished, along with the special Red Dawn command stand, and I think they look great…even with all their berets. I think I would’ve preferred a mix of headgear…but they look really movie cool,so there’s at least that.

The box came with some extra command figs, Officer and radioman, so I did them up as singletons for Force on Force and whatever other modern ruleset I can fit figs into.

Anywho, here goes with the pics…enjoy.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         100, +51

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +137

Painting Update - 15mm Odds & Sods

Howdy folks,

I hope your end of summer is going well. I know some folks are literally wading through a buttload of precipitation and rainfall, so best of luck to them, here’s to keeping dry in challenging times. This is a quick post to showcase some pieces that I was able to get off the painting table recently…and it’s kinda neat because the majority of them are some old-school Battlefront/Flames of War ‘bailed-out’ crew markers/figures.

I was rooting through my bits boxes in the past few months and found a few figures from various US, UK, Soviet, and Germany blisters from the early years of my dip into the hobby. Anywho, given that FoW stopped including bailed crew, I thought I’d paint these up for Force on Force and themed to include Afropia as well as the standard modern warfare settings. 

You can see a few of these figures are sporting Desert Yellow coloured headgear…that’s in line with FoF to discriminate the leaders from the line troops. I think these figs will do great as resistance fighters for WW2 or postwar, criminal elements, or militants for Afropia.

Enjoy the pics…

I had found a couple of random leftover figs…front rank has SMG packing soviet soldat and Commonwealth warrior from Battlefront’s Monte Cassino warrior pack.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         49, +22 

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +86

Team Yankee/ Red Dawn - Canadian Iltis

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well. Just a quick post to show off one of the new units that you can get with the latest NATO book…a Canadian Airborne Regiment Iltis patrol as part of the continental Canadian Army and Force Mobile Command (FMC). The patrol comes as a 4 vehicle blister with 2 x TOW mounted vehicles and 2 x MG vehicles.

I’m not going to lie, I had been waiting for these little delights for some time. At one point, I had been trying to find a suitable maker until Battlefront caught up and made these as part of their NATO release. These were in service with the Canadian Army from the 1980’s up until early 2000’s (03-04 if I remember correctly). These vehicles just seemed to takes constant beating and yet, kept on ticking.

Anywho, in the context of Red Dawn/Team Yankee, these patrols are available to the Canadian commander as part of FMC and the Canadian Airborne Regiment. 

The vehicles were fun to paint up…the only con that sticks to mind, is the finickiness of the figures and trying to work my brush around them to get them painted up. Otherwise, pretty quick build and paint. In my case, I went with the NATO standard camo pattern, and dropped the khaki tones only using green and faded black/grey.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         27, +14 (4 x Iltis and crew)  

28mm+         7 

Bought         8

Progress   +26