Thank you Mr Patten

It may not be too evident from my blog but I am a big fan of Dark Age history. I have quite a collection of Viking, Saxon, Arthurian miniatures plus books etc. I must admit mostly unpainted. But recently I have been picking up the odd figure and painting it for fun, with every intention of returning full time to the period.

So earlier in the year I discovered that Colin Patten the man behind the original 'Gripping Beast Miniatures' (with his brother Duncan), before it was took over by Andy and Darren and became the monster we all love, had launched a new company called Saxon Miniatures. I took a look and the figures are as per usual, in my opinion, excellent. So I ordered the Warlords Deal, and why not! 

(Photos from Saxon Miniatures)

About a month had gone by and nothing had turned up, but the site does say it could take that long for delivery so I was  not concerned. But then I had e-mail from Colin explaining there was a delay with casting and did I want to wait or have a refund. I chose to wait, no contest really. Colin did say he would reward my patience due to the delay.

The figures arrived and are lovely and are sitting in the painting queue at the moment, I'm afraid. I was happy and thought no more about it. Then on Friday a 'Jiffy' envelope arrived and inside was a very pleasant surprise.

These are from the new Arthurian Knights range. Very nice too! These will probably get painted first. I've being in the process of building an Arthurian army since the WAB days. Then I bought Dan Mersey's 'Glutter of Ravens' rules.

and then, several years later, the TooFATLardies rules, 'Dux Brittanniarum'

I have enough Early Saxons completed to use with 'Dux', so I will (by the end of the year, hopefully) have a Romano British army to use with both sets of rules for fast play games. So a project I probably started 10 years ago will be completed or at least part way!

So a big thank you to Colin. I'm sure you like me have other stories of the good service received from the many companies which support and provide for our hobby. But this time I decided to mention this kind gesture.

Here are a few Vikings I painted recently just to prove I have been painting Dark Age figures. From Gripping Beast and if I'm not mistaken sculpted by Mr Patten!

So there you have a rare glimpse into the clutter of my painting desk. The figures in the background may give an idea as to what is my main focus at the moment.

That's it for now more to follow....soonish...

Tanks & Trifles

No its not the title of one of those dreadful but strangely compelling movies you can get on the Sci-fi channel. But some work I did earlier, and have managed to combine two hobbies together...well sort of!

Ta-dah ....The mother of all trifles......

I'm not really what you would call a dessert man. But one dessert I have always enjoyed is the humble trifle, but have never made it. So today I popped my trifle cherry....oh err! This monstrosity was scratch built with sponge, swiss roll, jelly, custard, cream and strawberries. The pink sprinkles were my youngest daughters idea...honest. Okay it may look like its jumped straight out of some 1970's recipe book, but I can tell you it tastes good. Yum, yum.

(The 1/72 tanks are just for scale purposes and not to be eaten)

Meanwhile on my other workbench...

Progress is well under way on a third dwelling for my OIF project.

Thats it for now. More to follow....    

No, my son didn't help me with his homework!

So about a month ago my lad came home from school and announced he had to build a model of a WW1 trench or at least part of it. Aha! I thought I can help with that. So I gathered some off cuts of wood, suitable pieces of polystyrene and set about helping him make the model. At least that was the plan. It quickly became evident that he had every intention of letting me build the model and he would keep an eye on progress.

With the deadline fast approaching I managed to finish it with a day or two too spare.

Overall the lad is pleased with my efforts, and is going to present it to his teacher tomorrow. Of course I have got to instruct him on just how he built it and all should be fine.

Most of it was built and painted over the last week. The wood is balsa and matchsticks suitably painted. The sandbags are made from Milliput as usual. I could have added more detail but since it's meant to have been made by a 12yr old, and its not my homework I decided to keep it simple. The figures are from Great War Miniatures and were a joy to paint. So I'm hopeful to get at least a B+ for this; fingers crossed!  

German Artillery Crew and Grenadiers

Completed a few figures for the German defenders of Brecourt Manor.

Artillery Crew

Grenadiers

The artillery crew are Warlord and the grenadiers are Artizan. I used different colours for the gun crew uniform, more as an experiment. The grenadiers are all painted in pretty much the same uniform colour scheme.

I intend to post up progress on painting these figures by having what will really amount to a photo diary. More for my benefit so I will have an idea how long it takes to paint them all. So apologies in advance for some future boring posts.

Thats it for now more to follow.

Workbench for Brecourt

So here we have the obligatory 'workbench' photos. First up a lot of grenadiers plus a few US airborne...

These figures are all mounted on 2p coins, and represent the last few US Airborne I need to complete and the German Grenadiers I will need to play out the Brecourt Manor scenario. Or potentially will need. I have enough models to represent the infantry who are mentioned as supporting the guns and should be able to replace the gun crew figures with a suitably armed equivalent should it be needed. Next up gun crew and friends.....
    

The gun crew are mounted on 1p coins. I normally use the 2p coin to base individual figures for skirmish games but decided that placing the figures around the gun itself would be easier if they are on smaller bases. The other figures are the MG42's and crews in sustained fire role, for the MG nests. Plus US Airborne .30cal teams in deployed mode. The latter are not really necessary but I believe it will be nice to have the option replace the moving teams with bases representing the MG's deployed. The MG teams will be mounted on suitable larger bases once painted. Whilst on the subject of .30cal teams....

I've used two different colour schemes for these teams. The team on the right is painted in the 'Green Ochre' scheme. The one on the left in  a scheme based around 'US Tan Earth'. Both are Vallejo colours. I originally used to paint the US Airborne M1942 uniform in a scheme based on GW's Desert Yellow. When that colour was withdrawn I changed over to Vallejo Green Ochre which I think is quite a good match for the old GW Desert Yellow. But following a recent suggestion from one of the forum members on LAF, I tried US Tan Earth as an option.

  
I like both and plan to use both colour variations to represent the M1942 uniform. But what do you think?

Quite a bit of painting to do. So that's it for now more to follow.  

  

Brecourt Manor......Part 11

A short update to highlight only a small amount of work completed on the boards. I've added Woodland Scenic's; Coarse Turf and Foliage clusters plus Silflor; Grass Tufts and Flower Tufts to the edge of the hedgerows.  

The intention is to make them a bit more interesting and add a splash of colour. I'm hoping they will make the foliage appear more natural, rather than a blanket colour across the whole boards. I've not gone mad with the tufts and such like, just enough .

The 'gateway' between the fields I've added some tufts to the central ridge of the track way. I was going to use static grass, but decided on using Silflor tufts, mainly because I do not have a applicator for the static grass which apparently should make it stand up better. If anyone has used such an item could they let me know their thoughts, is it worth the expense, does it make a difference applying static grass?

I've also added a small amount of coarse turf to the main board areas just to break up the bleakness of the grass.

I'm probably going to concentrate on cleaning up and basing the figures required to play out the scenario. So may be a slightly longer pause until next update.

That's all for now more to follow.    

Brecourt Manor....Part 8

The boards have been painted.

I've airbrushed the earth colours on and then gave them a final light dry brush with a Home Base emulsion 'Soft Pebble'. The rocks/stones have been painted too.

The grey of the 'stones' is really there to break up the brown. Since this is a field used for agriculture having large groups of boulders scattered about the area may not be entirely accurate but adds another feature to the boards. I've also weathered the boards in the gun pits and trenches.

I've used weathering powders to dirty up the flooring. My initial application may have been slightly over zealous. I used the Forge World powders, and used the earth colours finishing off with the Dark Sand powder. Between each application though I sealed the previous one with MIG Pigment Fixer, applied via the airbrush. I've restricted the weathering to the outer part of the boards, to represent were the crew would stand. To illustrate;

I've also dirtied up the sandbags a little more but I'm not too happy with the colour which has resulted. In fact there are two things which I'm not happy with at the moment;

• The sandbags which I'm really considering re-painting. 
• The roof of the command bunker has warped slightly. I'm putting this down to the use of DAS clay which when it has dried has contracted causing the warp in the plasticard base. The roof is still useable but may need to be re-made.

I've pretty much convinced my self that I will add further sandbags along the edge of the trenches. Not many but enough to add another feature.

So thats it for now more to follow.  

Building Brecourt Manor ...Part 7

More of a general update, this post. The sandbags have been painted;

At the moment they are probably 'nearly' finished. Once the ground work is completed I will see how they look and maybe add some more detail, to the colour. I airbrushed the airbags which speeded up the process; first Vallejo Air, 'Khaki Brown', then 'Sand Yellow'. I then applied a wash borrowed from Forge Worlds 'Modelling Masterclass Volume 1'. This consisted of mixing Vallejo Flat Brown (substituted for Scorched Brown, which I have run out of), with Brown and Yellow Ink. The book does not give a ratio so a did roughly one third of each*. Then added Klear floor polish (so beloved by aircraft modellers, for use on their aircraft not their floors!*) to thin it out. N.B. Klear is now called Pledge Multi Surface Wax in the UK.

Never used the original 'Klear', but this new version works just the same; dries clear with a slight gloss finish. Its basically a cheap gloss varnish! Don't worry about the nice fresh pine smell that wears off once it has dried. The sandbags were then drybrushed with Vallejo 'Dark Sand' and finally a glaze of 'Flat Earth' was applied over them. The glaze was to pull the colours together. The base area around the sandbags was tidied up with the base colour to hide any over zealous airbrushing.

The ends of styrofoam which will serve has the base for the hedge row banks have been capped off.

I used thin plasticard cut and shaped to fit. I did have to slice away a thin piece of the styrofoam to fit the plasticard. Which was glued in place and then filler applied to hide gaps and act as another adhesive. I should have do this earlier, but had hoped that covering the ends in filler would protect them from wear and tear but was not entirely happy with that option.

I've also added in some more tree bases. These will be for the Woodland Scenic tree armatures approximately 2-3" in height to give variety. The cuts made in the styrofoam have been filled and painted with the base colour. Finally all the boards have been pretty much covered in watered down PVA glue to give them protection. I say pretty much, since the only pieces not covered in it were the sandbags and the crates/boxes etc..

   
It has left a 'shine' on the boards still painted in only the base colour. But this is not evident on the board which had been airbrushed. Not sure why? Not that it really matters, since more paint is to be applied. The PVA has left a sheen on the wooden boards which were not made from balsa.

I can only guess the balsa being more porous soaked up the glue better. Again not that it matters, I intend to do some more detail work on the trench floors and sides. So that its for now, more to follow.

* This mixture made a dirty yellow/green colour. With hindsight I should have added more brown to darken the colour and make it a richer green. The effect is to create a moss like colour which you can see on old sandbags left to the elements.

*Maybe they do use it on their floors aswell. I don't really know!
 

Sandbagtastic!!.....Brecourt Manor Part 6

I slight dip in productivity over the past week since I've been adding the milliput sandbags to the boards. Never a chore always a pleasure!

Having reached 136 sandbags on Gun position 4 and the two MG nests, and they were still not quite finished I stopped counting.

I found it easier to build the levels one row at a time which meant I could shape each sandbag individually and then leave them to dry before putting on the next level. They also got slightly smaller over time, as I became more comfortable and proficient with the process.

Though I did use sculpting tools, it eventually became easier I discovered to use one's fingers to shape the little rascals. By using a suitable piece of old cloth, in my case an old t-shirt, each milliput bag could be moulded accordingly and fingernails are great for pressing in folds to the putty (pressing through the old piece of rag of course).

Consideration was given to adding a small number of bags along the tops of the trenches but if I'm truthful at this moment in time I'm all sandbagged out, so that will have to go onto the 'to do' list for the future. Next will be to paint the sandbags and then the rest of the boards.

More to follow.      

Dog Company

Inbetween painting and building the boards for Brecourt Manor I have been painting a few figures. First up are some US Airborne who will represent Dog Company, who came to the aid of Easy Company during the attack.

Dog Company was lead by Lt Ronald Speirs, who was a platoon leader, during the assault. Speirs arrived with five men and they captured the final gun. During the action, Dog Company had one man killed and one wounded (source; Winters) or two men killed (source; Ambrose). The entry on Wikipedia makes reference to two men killed, and one wounded in the assault of the fourth gun. What they all agree on is that one of the men who was with Speirs and lost his life that day was Sgt Julius 'Rusty' Houck, of Co. F., II/506th. In memoriam; Sgt. J. A. Houck .

In his book Winters makes mention that Sgt Bill Guarnere took part in the assault on the final gun with Co. D.; or at least alludes to the same. This is not mentioned by Ambrose or Koskimaki. Unfortunately I do not have Guarnere's memoirs and the material on Mark Bando's site Trigger Time appears to make no reference on this subject. This is unusual since Mr. Bando does seem to like to point out Mr. Ambrose's errors or potential errors.

The figures are from Warlords excellent Bolt Action, US Airborne range.

Building the Brecourt Gun Battery Part 5

Finally I've started to paint the boards. Had a little bit of trial and error before settling on a method which I'm comfortable with. The boards have been given a base coat of Sandtex Exterior paint 'Bitter Chocolate'. In to that I mixed in sand, grit and powdered filler. Then sprinkled on more sand and cat litter onto the base coat. I have then applied another coat (roughly) of the Sandtex paint alone over the base coat.

The extra pieces I had painted previously have been added to the boards, literally just pushed them into the originally mix and then applied some more of the base coat around their edges to hold the scenery in place.

The 'paths' which I had applied in filler have been painted with acrylic burnt umber, to give an initial first contrast from the base colour.

I have also started to make and add on sandbags made from Milliput. This are fairly easy to make; I had a go at making sandbags a few years ago to put on a Sherman (which is still not finished!). I followed a tutorial from Amorama making sandbags (remember this is for 1/35th scale) then and now. There are plenty of tutorials out there, including books from Games Workshop and Forge World, who recommend using Green Stuff. I have used Milliput again. I roll my putty out on an old ceramic tile to reduce it sticking, and make sure you have a pot of water nearby to reduce the stickiness, if required. Also, though this is probably common sense, once the sandbag is down let it cure for a short while and then you can go back to it and really push it into more interesting shapes it required. Lots more to do, and I'm going to add them on first and paint before completing the ground colour for the boards.

This board is the 'test' board. I had experimented with drybrushing the ground but was not entirely happy with the result. So I decided to airbrush the ground colour. I'm much happier with the result. The colours are from the Vallejo Model Air range. Airbrushing is more time consuming, but very rewarding. The other down side is the cost of the paint, particularly since I have a habit of going over the area painted just to add that bit more detail/effect. Of course it will be covered eventually in flock. I've also made the roof for the command bunker, which is removable.

Time to crack on! More to follow.