Terrain Tuesday: Battlefront 15mm Command Post

It’s always a struggle for me to allot my painting time to figures vice terrain, but as my friend Mr Hot Lead (formerly the artist known as Rabbit Man) likes to say, any time invested in making the war-games table look better is time well spent.  Thus, I’m starting a new blog feature designed to motivate me to better efforts, so every week on Tuesday I’ll post some piece of terrain that I’ve either finished or am working on, and you, dear readers, can help keep me accountable to this goal.  I hope you’re ok with this weighty responsibility I’ve dumped on your shoulders.

To start this feature, here’s a resin command post from Battlefront that was included in a British WW2 mid-war rifle company set, back when BF made metal figures.   Since the new TFL/Reisswitz Press rules O-Group place a large emphasis on command and control at the battalion level, it seemed worth moving this piece into the painting queue. 

Not much more to say, really.  It will work for any setting in Europe, but I’ve dry-brushed the ground to suggest lots of dust, making it appropriate for my Sicily 1943 project.    I’ve pained the half-profile signaller in Vallejo British Uniform since it is supposed to be a British HQ - now I need something like this for the Germans/Italians.

 

Speaking of terrain, I’m still shaking my head at the quality of work displayed in this video from @Joe_Wargamer, it’s stunning and clever.    I may try something like it the next time I buy some MDF buildings.

Blessings to your tabletops!

MP+

 

 

Little Landsers: Getting Ready for OGroup

I suspect that like a lot of people in the Too Fat Lardies community that are excited about the release of David Brown’s O Group rules for battalion sized battles, I have gone back to the 15mm WW2 part of my lead mountain to see what I could find.  There is a LOT in my 15mm lead mountain, some of it dating back to the release of Flames of War.   I decided the first thing to do was to increase the number of my early war Germans - a useful force, as I already have a massive number of 15mm Russians for them to contest the steppes with.

The figures are a mix of Battlefront and Old Glory that I bought in a mass order with some friends some years back.  The OG figures are, frankly, a mixed lot, some downright ugly, but they mix well enough with the BF figures.  I filled up enough painting sticks to do several platoons of generic Heer infantry with supports and command.  I put two man LMG figures on separate small bases to stretch the number of figures, so one LMG stand, with a five man infantry stand, is more or less a section.  Seems legit.

The figures were mass produced, and with a “good enough” attitude towards the final outcome.   I am not ashamed to say that I bought a can of Army Painter Field Gray spray primer to give me a base coat, and then picked out the flesh, weapons, helmets and gear.  Everything got a final wash of Windsor and Newton Nut Brown ink, a trick I saw from someone who uses it as a wash for 6mm Napoleonics, and I was happy with the end result.  The bases are coloured FOW size bases from 4Ground, covered with a blend of model railroad turfs.  I'm a slow painted, but I raced through all these figures in about five one hour sessions.

Two tripod mounted MG sections, a tank hunting team with ATR, a sniper team, a 50mm mortar, a section of combat engineers should cover most support options for smaller scale actions using TFL’s Chain of Command.

Finally, I had enough senior figures to make two command stands suitable for company or battalion level.  The fellow with the fancy overcoat has ben dubbed General Von Klinkerhoffen, in tribute to the late Hilary Minster of Allo Allo.

That should be enough for a decent sized engagement.   It’s pleasant to work in this scale again and not be too overly fussed over mistakes on a single figure.  I have a company of Battlefront Commonwealth infantry in the queue as I have become quite excited about 1st Canadian Division in Italy, but that’s another story.

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Panzers Marsch! New German Tanks

 School work really beat me up in a dark alley this week, but I have a few moments today to post pictures of the four 15mm panzers I’ve recently finished.  Tonight they are in action on my games table (except for the Tiger) and none of them have blown up yet.

 

Battlefront 15mm Tiger Mk 1 driving over some Battlefront resin roads - which explains where those resin tank tracks came from.  The lighting here is rather dreadful, but hopefully its sufficient to show my attempt at using  pigment pigment to show mud gathered on the road wheels and lower tracks.  Hmmm, that turret doesn’t look like it’s seated properly.  :(

 

The Tiger crew takes a selfie.   Obviously this wouldn’t do for combat to have the driver’s head sticking out, but I liked the look of it.  These pictures don’t really show it, but I used a little Vallejo Armour Aces Rust and did some chipping around the seams and edges, though for 15mm scale this effort borders on work wasted.

 

Pz MkIV in the livery of 12th SS HJ Division.   I am not a Nazi fanboy but my late war collection focus on the first days of the Normandy campaign.  The numerals on the turret skirting are from Dom Skelton, the 12thSS and German cross decals are from a BF set.  The model itself is a resin model from Gaming Models, which make decent and inexpensive product.  Slightly smaller than Battlefront stuff, but not noticeably so.  With the advent of Plastic Soldier Company, I’m not sure if Gaming Models are as much of a bargain as they used to be, but they don’t have to be assembled and they do a lot of stuff that PSC hasn’t got to yet.

 

Two Gaming Models Panthers, also in 12th SS livery - same decals.

 

 

 Cats always have a way of showing you their butts, with more pigment.

 

“Look Kelly, a Tiger has only one weak point, that’s it’s ass."

 

 

 

General Rommel’s new command vehicle, the KampfKampingWagen Westfalia Mk 1, tours the  panzers ready to repel the invasion.

These figures bring my totals completed this year to:

28mm Mounted: 7

28mm Foot: 20

28mm Artillery: 1

15mm Vehicles: 4

Kilometres Run: 157