Fallschirmjager Squad One

Drum roll please......

At last the first Fallshirmjager squad completed. Ten figures with a MG34 team and a MG42 team. All figures from Artizan.

The squad leader is the figure in the tropical trousers. A veteran of North Africa or Italy maybe?

 I only gave this figure the tropical trousers to make him more identifiable on the table top. I can honestly say that painting German splinter camo is a bitch. I did try and make the green and brown pattern small so it would be more authentic, but the figure looked to fussy. In the end I decided on painting large(ish) geometric designs (the brown pattern larger than the green), to give an illusion of the pattern and which left more of the tan base colour showing through. For the 'rain' I eventually settled on using GW's Orkhide Shade, which is a nice dark green and a 'OOO' brush plus a steady hand (and sometimes not so steady).

On to the next squad. Hurrah!

A few more Fallschirmjager

A quick update on the progress of the Fallschirmjager. A few more completed.

I decided to go for the 'lazy boy' approach to these and not paint camo smocks. The trousers on the rifleman have been painted using the Foundry 'Storm Green' palette. The MG34 gunner I used for his trousers, GW Charadon Granite, highlight, Vallejo German Field Grey and finally Foundry Storm Grey the mid colour only) as the final highlight. I'm happy that both colour schemes give that late war field grey effect.

Even attempting to paint them quickly by cutting down the complexity of the paint scheme, each figure is about three hours work. Having usually on average about hour to an hour a half painting time a day (and then not every day), means it takes me a while just to get a squad done, but I'm getting there. As usual figures from the excellent Artizan range.

Another Fallschirmjager

Yet again a test figure;

This is another Artizan Designs Fallschirmjager, but this time I've painted the smock in the traditional grey/green. I've used Foundry's Granite paint pallette, which I'm quite happy with. These is plenty of contemporary photographic evidence that Fallschirmjager were still wearing these smocks. Osprey Publishing Men-at-Arms No 139 'German Airborne Troops 1939-1945, on pages 30 and 36 has photographs of paratroopers in both Italy and Normandy wearing these smocks in 1944. But other than coloured drawings, I had never seen (or not that I can recall) a colour photo of this style of smock.

That was until After the Battle No 152 arrived on the door mat. This issue has articles on the Liberation of Rome in 1944, but begins with the German seizure of Rome in September 1943, after the Italian armistice. On Page 3 is a colour photo of Fallshirmjager of the 2nd FJ Division, taken in Rome, and the majority of paratroopers in the photo are wearing the grey/green smock. I used this photo as a colour guide, and I think the Granite pallette is not too far out. The German attack on Rome and the sporadic fighting with Italian forces would make an interesting and different wargame scenario(s).

The helmet on this figure I have painted dark grey and then sponged on desert yellow again. I knew I had seen a colour photo of this scheme but could not recall where. Until I remember this: Trigger Time, Mark Bando's site for the 101st Airborne Div., scroll down the page on the link and hey presto FJ helmets. Interestingly I was closer with my first attempt in painting the base colour Vallejo Field grey (which is a dark green).

Now I must decide whether or not to adopt the 'lazy boy' approach to these FJ and paint a batch in grey/green smocks, which will be quicker than doing the splinter camo smock. Then add in figures in camo smocks later, to build up the force?

Fallschirmjager

Well after a bit of a hiatus, I've finally got round to doing some painting. Ta-da.......

My first ever Fallshirmjager. As always a test figure first, so I can decide on colours and techniques. This model has been mainly painted with Foundry colours, from their palette range. Some Vallejo and GW colours used as well. The uniform/smock is all Foundry. The trousers are 'Late WW2 Field Grey', which came out a more blue/grey colour, for the ammo pouches and haversack I used 'Early WW2 Field Grey' which is a more Green/blue/grey. Neither were quite what I expected. The smock is painted in the 'Splinter' colours. The helmet I painted in Vallejo 'Field grey' which is a more green/grey colour, and then sponged on desert yellow, to represent the sand colour sprayed onto late war FJ helmets.

Overall I like the foundry range (this being the first time of used it), and will be buying more colours. I haven't been entirely accurate with colours, e.g. the ammo pouches were a more darker grey, as should be the base colour of the helmet. But I figured late in the war, shortages and all.

Anyway, plenty more to paint. Once the camo smock is done the rest of the figure is fairly straight forward. At present I'm still concentrating on WW2, with the intention of splitting the painting between US and German Airborne, vehicles and terrain to keep the interest going.

The figure is from the excellent Artizan Designs range.

More Trees!

Just a quick post. Haven't got alot done over the past 7-10 days, work, family , blah. blah! You get the picture. But I did get these finished.

More trees for my 28mm games, or these can be used for 15mm. Again based on 60mm hex bases, from Warbases. These were pre-made trees and I had purchased them for use in FOW games, but they will work well for 28mm. This gives me a further fifteen bases to use.

I did start my 28mm Fallschirmjager, or a test figure at least but just not happy with the way the camo smock came out, so I too embarrassed to show it (damn pride). Will start again when I get back off a short break.

Tools of the Trade-MIG Filters

MIG Productions filters have become my one of my favourite products, for enhancing the appearance of model vehicles, and I've only used them so far on two different tanks.

I purchased the Allied and German filter sets after reading several reviews on the 'net', all of which spoke highly of this product. So far I have only used the Allied filter set. I got mine from Antenocitis Workshop. They are not cheap at £15.99 a set, in which you get three bottles. But I think worth the investment.

The filter should be applied after the initial base coat(s) have been applied and 'is used to enrich, unify and cause variations in the tone of a base colour'. And that's basically what they do. I just followed the instructions supplied in the packaging, and away I went. On the M5A1 I used just the BROWN filter for dark green and applied three coats. After the first coat I didn't notice any appreciable difference, but by the third coat you can see the filter taking effect, altering the tone of the paint. On the M4 Sherman I applied two coats of GREEN for light green and then one of BROWN, to slightly darken the overall effect.

The instructions recommend, 3 to 5 coats of the filter and allow at least two hours drying time between coats (it's worth it!). One aspect I struggled with initially with the filter is the idea it is not a wash.The filter should be applied with a damp brush, do not flood the model. Now on the Sherman I experimented with applying the GREY filter for bright green, on select areas, but I loaded the brush to much which resulted in 'pooling' and this looked messy when dry. I was able to re-work this, but was glad it was only on a small area. So far on each model I have coated the whole model (except tracks of course), but will experiment no doubt on future projects but adding successive coats to specific areas to see what effect this has on the appearance of the model. For example, using a couple of coats of GREEN filter overall, and then using the BROWN filter on parts of the tank, were the paint fading may not be so distinct (areas under shade).

These products are aimed at the 1/35th scale model tank society, but can obviously be applied to any scale. For further articles which can provide help, advice and inspiration look to Missing-Lynx and Armorama. Looking forward to trying out the German set. (I wonder how the German BROWN for dark yellow would work on an Allied green.....?).    

M4 Sherman

A second edition to support my US Airborne. A late production M4 (welded hull with a cast nose and wider gun mount).

The M4 or Sherman is probably the best known of all of the Allied tanks from WW2. Over 40,000 (including variants) were built. It may be dismissed, by historians (both professional and arm-chair), it may not have been up to the standard of some of the German and Soviet designs (particularly late war designs), but there were lots of them and it was reliable, easy to maintain (unlike the German Panther) and the up-gunned versions (in particular the British Firefly), gave it a little bit more of a fighting chance against it's opponents. This version is mounting a 75mm main gun, 2x .30 cal machine guns and .50cal machine gun for AA defence.
    

This model is from JTFM and once again I picked up my copy from Wargames Command Post (incidentally Bob from WCP has posted today on TMP that he will no longer be stocking JTFM products). This M4 is originally a Chieftain models master, and the detailing is superb. The model is resin, and only the .50cal on the turret is metal. You get the hull, turret and tracks. The tracks have a lug which fits snuggly into the hull. The commanders hatch comes as a two piece cast, allowing it to be modelled open or closed and this is my only gripe with this model. The two pieces did not fit very well, despite there being  a lip on the inside of the open hatch hole. I had to cut a small piece of circular card and place that inside the opening, glue the hatch covers on top of that and then used 'green stuff' to give it a more secure looking fit. The kit comes with about twenty pieces of resin stowage, none of which I used you will notice.

This beauty has been painted/weathered in much the same way as the M5A1. Except I also sprayed Tamiya Khaki on it but only on select areas to give the appearance of faded paint. I also used two of the MIG filters on it, which resulted in a greener/brighter appearance (I'll put up separate posts soon about the filters etc. for those who are interested). The aerial is a plastic broom bristle.

I did not put any stowage on the model because I wanted to paint it first and then add the stowage. I did the same with the M5, then painted and glued on the stowage. But after completing the Sherman I quite liked it 'clean' so left it as you see it. I may add stowage in the future, but not just yet.

Here is comparison shot of the M4 and M5 to get an idea of size.

Both of these models are 1/56th scale.