The Analogue Hobbies painting challenge.

With 4 days to go until I embark upon my first Analogue Hobby painting challenge I thought id best update the old blog!

I thought id jump in this year, as a few members of my club regularly take part and seem to get a load of stuff done every year. So thanks to Dave Docherty, Martin Cooke and James Macmillan.

I have a ton of stuff that needs painting, a lead and plastic mountain that just seems to grow bigger every year, despite my best efforts to keep it under control!

So the plan.. in no particular order....

15mm WW2, halftracks and crews from Forged in battle. Also there are a couple of late war MG42 teams.

Just sat behind them are 3 Shermans from Plastic soldier company that still need priming.

Next I have some 3d printed market stalls that I picked up at the excellent battleground show last month, to go with them are 6 perry miniatures arab civilians.

4 games workshop savage Orcs and a couple of goblin spider riders, to be added to my SAGA age of magic Warband.

24 GW rohan warriors and a 3d printed character from medbury miniatures.

7 Riders of Rohan from GW.

16 wolf riders from Oathmark, I use these as Warg riders in my LOTR games.

A great big Balrog, ive had this one for quite a while, should be a real challenge to paint up!

A bunch of Primaris Marines, ive had these for a couple of years now, very expensive miniatures... about time I actually painted them methinks.

Finally, I plan to use the challenge to kick start my new project, The 100 years War in 28mm. These are all Perry miniatures and are a mix of plastic and metal models.

The whole lot. That should keep me pretty busy over the next few months, although im sure more will be added !!

Cheers!

Steve.

German Vehicles

Now then,

I sat and finished these vehicles off last night, mostly just basing but the trucks in particular needed a bit of work on the camo.

First we have a Panzer IIf.

I tried a dark wash on this one, it has turned out a bit dark, but works ok I think, It just looks a bit dirty....

Next I have a Sdkfz 250/3 command vehicle with a bedstead antenna.

(This is the battlefront "grief" model)

Here I have my Schwimwagons, These are forged in battle models and are very nice.

Again Ive been experimenting with different washes, some are darker than others......

I really enjoyed painting these, with the little drivers and passengers.

Last up I have some trucks, pretty bog standard and boring to paint (id rather be painting tanks...)

These will be used to transport my Panzer grenadiers in the lorried Battalion.

I shall have a proper update tomorrow,

Cheers for looking,
Steve

StuH42 G

Now then,

I have decided to paint up my last Stug as an assault gun to support the Infantry, and help dig the soviets out of their foxholes and bunkers.

The StuH 42
(From Wikipedia) In 1942, a variant of the StuG III Ausf. F was designed with a 105 mm (4.1 in) howitzer instead of the 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/43 cannon. 

These new vehicles, designated StuH 42 (Sturmhaubitze 42, Sd.Kfz 142/2), were designed to provide infantry support with the increased number of StuG III Ausf. F/8 and Ausf. Gs being used in the anti-tank role. 

This is a battlefront model, however I have removed the original commanders cupola using a sharp knife and a lot of filing, and replaced it with a spare Forged in Battle 1 piece cupola with a commander. As the barrel is a lot chunkier than the FIB models I have been painting recently I was able to drill out the barrel and muzzle brake.

The StuH 42 mounted a variant of the 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer, modified to be electrically fired and fitted with a muzzle brake. Production models were built on StuG III Ausf. G chassis. 

The muzzle brake was often omitted due to the scarcity of resources later in the war. ~1,299 StuH 42 were produced by Alkett from March 1943 to 1945, the initial 12 vehicles were built on repaired StuG III Ausf. F and F/8 from autumn 1942 to January 1943.





This is my last of my WW2 German stuff for the time being. I have a few bits and bobs to paint up for my Soviets, but they will be waiting for a bit.

I will be painting something completely different next.....Zombies!??
Cheers for looking,
Steve

Pz IVH Platoon, Forged in Battle

Now then,

This week I have finished off the other 3 Panzer IVH for my battlegroup Kursk German forces. I now have a platoon of 3 and 1 extra tank to support them.

Panzers advance across Russian farmland

Command tank.

Panzer III's and IV's

Also because I like my gaming aids, I downloaded a card deck for battlegroup Kursk from boardgame geek, whoever designed them has done a great job.

These are designed to replace the counters in the rulebook, so no little counters in a cup, when you lose a unit etc, you just take the top card.

cardboard case.

Loads of cards, with all the special ones in there too, so no looking up in the rulebook, its all on the cards.

So, next im working on my StuH42 G assault gun, then that's about everything I have for my Germans done. Ill be painting something completely different after its finished, with some help from my son James.

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Pz IVH test paint scheme Forged in Battle

Now then,

I have 4 Pz IVH's from forged in battle sat on my painting desk. I have done a test paint scheme on 1 of them before i plunge in feet first and do the other 3. As your probably aware the German army had loads of different camouflage schemes that varied wildly even among tanks within the same unit.

I have decided to go with what I think is a scheme that would work well enough for both the mid war (mainly stripes and blotches) an late war (dots) Nothing quite says late war to me more than dots everywhere!

Anyway enough waffling, here's what I came up with.

Personally Im quite happy with how it came out, and im getting there (finally) with the dip, I have been watering it down more every time I use it.

On a separate note, The Forged in battle 15mm miniatures are great, every tank I have is different, with schurtzen in different configurations etc. Highly recommended.

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Forged in Battle Pz III's

Now then,

A quick update.....I spent this afternoon painting up my panzer III's from forged in battle. Nice models! Although they wont stand up to the T34's except at close range!

So I now have a platoons worth for the battlegroup rules and the Pz IIIN (short barrel) will be a support vehicle for some Tiger tanks when I get them. But first I have four Pz IVH to get done, oh and a Stug G.

Cheers,
Steve

Battlegroup Kursk, support troops

Now then,

A while back I got a load of stuff from Skytrex, support stuff for the German forces on the Eastern front. As I had a week off, I have got round to painting it all now.

First up I have painted up the Opel Blitz Radio truck. This took me ages to paint, not really sure why....

This will be a forward signals unit for BGK.

Stretcher bearers (Waffen SS)

 Stretcher Bearers (Wehrmacht)

Dispatch riders (Waffen SS)

Dispatch riders (Wehrmacht)

While Im on about WW2, I thought I would show you these. I had them made for me by Warbases. They are laser cut MDF, with 2 dials inside numbered from 0-9. 

All I did was create the "covers" on word, print them out and stick them on. Now, these are not necessary to play BGK, but im thinking anything that makes a game easier cant be a bad thing....

As it took me so long to paint the radio truck, I have been experimenting. I managed to paint up this PZ IIIN in about an hour (not including drying time).

All I did was paint it dunkelgelb, then painted on the cam, then painted the whole thing with ronseal dark oak stain/varnish.

once dry I drybrushed the whole thing with a light sand colour.

Done.


Maybe a bit rough and ready, but once I have all his mates done then they will look fine.

On the painting desk are 3 Pz III M's.Hopefully using the same speed painting method as the Pz III N above Ill have them all done by Monday...

As alwaysI have been chipping away at the epic Novamarines too...

 More Whirlwinds!

Land raider company!

And finally, here is them all painted so far!....

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Legio Crusius (Warmongers)

Now then,

I have been busy painting up Muslim Cavalry for my Ayyubid army to take on the crusaders, but needed a break so painted up a warhound Titan, to support my epic scale marines.

The colour scheme chosen is that of the Legio Crusius, or more commonly known as the warmongers. I felt like painting something different, so no blue or red, but lots of white again....


Anyway here it is.

I have another one which will be getting painted soon. Overall I had forgotten how bloody difficult it is to paint black, without it looking grey....

My freehand skills were not up to the task for the Legion badge, so I just about managed the white fist instead, after painting over my failed attempts no less than 3 times.

All my Epic stuff can be seen HERE

Changing the subject slightly, here is the current state of the painting table-

Lots of Muslim Cavalry in various stages of being painted.

And also on the painting table, WW2 German tanks...lots of them.

Anyway, completed Muslim Cavalry next!

Cheers,
Steve