Commando Company Coming for Christmas

Well, not a company.  More like an understrength platoon, but that doesn’t alliterate so pleasingly.

With the old year drawing to a close, I can boost my painting totals a bit with twenty 28mm WW2 commandos for my Weird War Two project, a mix of Artizan metal and Warlord plastic sculpts.

The Artizan sculpts comprised my first entry this Thursday for the Analogue Painting Challenge V.  I stayed out of APC IV but decided this would be a good way to motivate myself to get some work done.  The Artizan figures were the first I’ve painted from that company, and were a treat to do.  Very crisp, dynamic figures, with just a touch of cartoony exaggeration.  Perfect for the pulp gaming I have in mind.

Artizan NCOs and Bren gunner.  I used the commando patch and rank stripe decals from the Warlord plastics box, fairly easy to put on.

Artizan riflemen.  Given what’s facing them in the near future, they may wish to fix bayonets.

Practising all-round defence to face unnameable horrors.

I had a Great War Miniatures sniper left over from their British Characters pack, and I figured he would work well as part of this team.

In fact, I rather prefer his stocking cap to the berets that the rest of my commandos are sculpted in.  To my mind the berets and regulation battledress and webbing look a little too late war for my tastes, as opposed to the images of early war commandos that have a desperate, rather improvised look about them.

And here are some of the Warlord figures.  I found it quite a chore to assemble these guys.  There are so many parts that I had trouble visualizing where arms and weapons should be in relation to the torso, so some of them look like they are handling their weapons rather strangely.  I originally assembled them in 2013 before my last military move, and ran into trouble when I was priming them with Army Painter White Spray.  For some reason some of the figures reacted poorly, and the spray went on in globs, obscuring some of the detail.  I even had to discard a few figures, something I almost never do.  So, since I was working on the Artizan figures, I decided I should pull the Warlord guys out and bite the bullet.  They didm’t turn out so badly after all

More Warlord figures.  The chap second from right has a broken rifle - the plastic of the weapons is thin and easily bent/broken.  I shall need to fix or replace it.

Some of the Artizan figures are sculpted with bergens.  The Warlord set gives you the option to add bergens, which I did, so with that rope they look ready to tromp through the mountains and scale a cliff or two.  I realized late in the day that the replica commando bergens I saw online were a dark green with tan straps and sewn edging along the tan flap.  For the most part I was using Vallejo Khaki for the webbing and bergens, but was able to make some a little more green with VJ Russian Uniform.

 

Not that the Warlord figures are terrible.   While the weapons are a little flimsy, they seem a little more accurate than the Artian ones.  In this comparison shot of two Bren gunners, I think the Warlord figure on the left has the more accurate looking weapon.

The Warlord figures also have the merit of allowing you to choose which weapons you’ll kit them out with.  I choose to put a knife in this fellow’s hand for the ever-popular silencing the sentry scene, though it looks more like an American bowie knife than the Fairbairn Sykes commando dagger.

Major Macallan, the Laird of Kinch, welcomes the new lads to S Commando and tells them it’s going to get jolly interesting.   If they think they’re trained and ready now, they’ll soon think again once they go trough the S Commando indoc course. Then he’ll find out how tough this supposedly tough men really are.

 

Class shot of all the figures I’ve completed since 2012 for the Allied contingent of my Weird War Two project.  If you are new to the blog and are curious, check out the Weird War Two labelled postings for the background.  This eclectic group includes a ghost, an undercover agent posing as an Oktoberfest fraulein, a padre, a disgraced Oxford don with a heart of gold, a Canadian cowboy and his cowgirl wife, a ruthless Resistance leader, and assorted other characters.   I predict that we’ll meet more characters in 2015 and maybe even see some gaming, though there is lots to think out still.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!  Blessings to your brushes!  MP+

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 84, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 (counting that woods base from a recent post).

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 5, 15mm Foot: 26, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1,086

Thesis Pages Written:  24