The wheels and tracks of the Afrika Korps

I almost called this blogg post "Dune buggies". Anyway here are the Afrika Korps vehicles I did for the convention this easter.

My platoon commander and his second in command.

 If you missed the infantry just go to the previous post or click here.

A captured Bren Gun carrier in gerrman service.

More pictures after the break.

The Might of the Afrika Korps

I have finally got around taking pictures of my Deutsche Afrika Korps force I painted for the easter convention.

Platoon commander, 50mm mortar team, AT rifle team and the platoon sergeant.

To be honest they are not 100% completely finished; when taking the pictures I noticed some stuff I forgot to paint here and there, and the bases really needs a unifying drybrush to tie them together. I have used textured paint from Tamiya and Vallejo and they differ slightly in shade despite both of them being called desert sand. The vehicles could use a dusting with pigments and perhaps a few decals, but by and large I'm calling them table ready. (A proven fact since they have been used on a gaming table!)

The rest of the figures behind the break.

DAK Hanomag WIP

I couldn't resist picking up a Warlord Games Hanomag at Gothcon last month. This is a plastic kit of the famous german halftrack, Sd.Kfz 251 (the funny little letters just mean special motor vehicle) ausf. C (the third version which was used roughly between 1941 and 1944). It features a riveted hull which was later changed to being welded which makes it more suitable for the earlier period. This is perfect for using with my DAK which currently lacks any transports.

The shape is accurate enough, but the details are a bit crude.

Building Brutish British

Confession time: I hate painting.

No, no, no I don't, actually. But I like building more. I love building. Converting, carving, glueing, trying out different poses on miniatures, adding details like stowage or battle damage on vehicles. So when I bought the first box of Perry desert rats I quickly built all of the figures, and then painted a handful of them. And lost interest. Same thing with the Deutsche Afrika Korps; built every figure; painted five or six of them, and lost interest. By juggling painting projects around, switching between different subject I can usually keep my interest up a bit, but then another problem appears.

I was so bored painting figures I bought a Tamiya model kit. Of course, now that it's built I have to paint it. Doh!

When I'm steaming ahead I usually manage to build the figures to the wrong organisation, with too many submachine guns per platoon, or not enough light machine guns, or just plain using the wrong bases. With the desert rats I built two figures per squad with tommy guns but Chain of Command specifies only the NCO has one, and I have realised that not every player can discern big men by their equipment, so I needed to rebase the leaders on hex bases. So I ordered another box, of course. I can use the extra figures for dismounted scout squads and crew figures for support weapons.

Is it just me, or do they look like badly shaved gorillas? They look better IRL though.

At the same time I ordered a box of Bolt Action late war British Infantry. Since the Perry box is quite low on extra equipment I'm going to nick a few weapons and backpacks from the Warlord box, and I have plans for a special character using parts from both boxes. Although I already have a platoon of late war brits from Crusader Miniatures it's the bare minimum of figures, so the rest of the Bolt Action figures will be reinforcements for them.

But I have painted some stuff, among others the 2-pounder I bought from Perrys.

Blogging is not painting

Ooops, nearly two weeks without an update. Well I've been busy, painting and visiting Stockholm for a work course, among other things.

The great Henry Hyde has some tips about blogging in his Battlegames magazine, which says you should update often and be brief. Well I'm just the opposite, I don't update if I don't feel I have something to say or show. And when I do, I can't keep it short. Anyway, lots of WIP stuff, but nothing finished, or rather, I have no photos of finished stuff, because that involves me getting the camera out, setting up the light booth, etc.

But I have a couple of things to show you. First work is progressing on the kubelwagen and captured carrier I wrote about earlier. They are about 90% done including crew, just small niggling stuff like details, some stowage and weather. No pictures though, except for this one.

Perry 28mm kübelwagen with Tamiya 1/48 scale jerry can.

You see, I decided I needed some extra stowage on my vehicles, and perhaps a couple of fuel drums and what not to make some Jump Off points with. (Jump Off points are sort of deployment markers for Chain of Command, marking points on the board where you can deploy your troops.) So I picked up a Tamiya Jerry Can Set in 1/48 from my local friendly hobby shop.

I went in to buy a Jerry Can set, nothing more. And look what followed me home.

I also, somehow, managed to pick up an armoured car, oh dear. I have no idea how that happened. It seems that the British forces will have a numerical superiority at the convention though, so the armoured car will come in handy.

Even the sun has its spots

To supplement my Perry plastic Afrika Korps, I decided to buy a couple of their metal packs. At £7 for six figures they are not exactly cheap, and three packs cost as much as a box of their plastic figures. But I decided it was worth it, to get some different poses not possible to build from the box, and also because I really like the Perry twins' sculpts. In my experience metals are always better than plastic if all other things (like sculptor) being equal.

Perry Miniatures. Excellent sculpts, not so good casts.

I was in for a surprise though. The surface of the figures was quite uneven, with pits and even tiny holes were the metal hadn't filled the mold completely. Several rifles and one smg barrel were unformed, there were a lot of flash between legs on some figures, and the equipment on the back of some figures had big lumps of metal underneath. The figures are not unusable, but the quality is definitely not up to scratch. Either the Perry metals are extremely popular and have already worn out their moulds, or their caster is not up to scratch. A shame really.

As I now find that I need a few extra British figures I choose to buy another box of plastic figures instead of metals. Too bad, because Perry's metal British have long trousers instead of shorts and I wanted some variety but I do not dare to order them now.

Hugh Jarce, sculpted by Richard Ansell for TooFatLardies

Speaking of long trousers I recently found the Hugh Jarce figure that Richard Clarke commissioned for those who pre-ordered IABSM 3rd edition. He was buried in my lead pile under a bunch of Bushido miniatures. I originally planned to use him with my early war British, but now he gets to lead my desert forces instead. Armed with a drum magazine Tommy gun he's ready to bag the hun.

Bit of a disappointment and bit of a delightful surprise.

I'm slowly working my way through my backlog, but I can't resist adding to the lead and plastic pile now and then. As I needed some more riflemen for my DAK I ordered a bunch of Perry metal figures to accompany the plastics I already have. However, the order were processing for two weeks and only just got sent; in this internet age of instant gratification I naturally lost patience and bought something from my friendly local hobby shop to keep me occupied.

I decided to plonk out on a set of Italeri 1:56 German infantry. You can never have enough germans, right?

Perry Miniatures DAK Kübelwagen Review and WIP

I decided to shape up and actually start painting some stuff for this years convention game, so I turned my attention to Perry Miniatures' Kubelwagen in recce role. For those who didn't know, the Kübelwagen was the German equivalent of the Jeep and also the first Volkswagen model.

The little kübel and it's crew.

The kübelwagen was used on all fronts both as personnel transport and as a reconnaissance vehicle. It could go as fast as 80 km/h and had good cross country performance even though it didn't have four-wheel drive. Some 50.000 were built during the war, and even an amphibious version called Schwimmwagen was made.

You can see the rough texture and flash on this picture.

The model looks the part, capturing the particular shape of the kübel. The model is mostly a one piece resin affair, only the windshield and folded roof are separate metal parts. Also included are three crew which is nice, and some stowage along with two jerry cans, a tropical helmet, a mauser rifle and an MP40 to further customise it. (All these items are separate though) The crew are all individual sculpts in lifelike and realistic poses, but I feel the stowage could be more thought out. We get some weapons and two helmets, yet all the crew are wearing their helmets. A couple of water bottles and gasmask cases would have been better.

"Hans, I vant to go zat vay!"

I feel that the model would have benefited having more separate metal parts, the wheels and shovel for example could gain a lot by being separate. Now the details of those are a bit bland and the shovel is misshapen and I fear the handle is going to break off any time. The headlights and notek light are also parts that could have been better detailed if they were separate items. The cast is relatively good but with some flash and a bit of a rough texture here and there.

"I'll race you to Tobruk!"

It looks a bit on the small side, but on the other hand the kübel was a small vehicle, so I think it's ok scalewise. It's always hard with vehicles for 28mm figures because they are bulkier than regular people. The two gerry cans though look a tad bit overscale, I suspect that they simply copied some 1:48 bits. If you compare it to the Warlord kübelwagen the Perry model is slightly more expensive (£15.50 vs £14.00) but as you only get a driver with the Warlord model I think the Perry one is a better buy.

I'm a bit hesitant about how to rate this one. I like the sculpt and the fact that you get three crew figures is a plus. On the other hand I feel that the quality of the sculpt is let down a bit by the cast, both the metal and resin were not top quality really. I was surprised by this because Perry Miniatures WW2 range is quite recent, so the molds should still be ok.

I give Perry Miniatures' Kübelwagen 3 out of 5 stars.

Last ditch of 2014 painting part 1 -- Deutsches Afrikakorps

So, these final trembling days of 2014 one should reminisce, spend some time with your loved ones and maybe think of the coming year. Not me. Now's the final chance to get some painting done to try and better the painting tally somewhat. More specifically I'm trying to finish all those nearly completed figures that been lying untouched for some time. It turned out to be a bigger task than I thought, but here's finally some german Africa Corps.

"Drive Tommy into the Nile! Schnell, schnell!"

More pictures after the break.

Dipping disasters! Secret Santa Surprises! Tentacle Terror!

So the end of the year is coming and I'm desperately trying to finish all those nearly-there figures. Last night I was putting the finishing touches to a bunch of Perry's Desert Rats that I started just befor summer but have been virtually untouched for six months.

As the previous Desert Rats had been painted using Army Painter Dip I decided to try dipping the Stranglers from Shadows of Brimstone too. When I opened the can I noticed that a thick crust had formed on the dip, apparently I had not closed the lid properly. Getting rid of the hardened layer I stirred the dip, noticing it had thickened quite a lot. Using an old wash brush I dabbed it onto the first Perry figure. It went on ok but a bit thick, and as it wasn't as runny as normal it didn't really flow into all the crevices. Using the brush I managed to smear it around so it looked ok.

I decided to try and dilute what was left of the dip and tried first Thinner, but it didn't mix properly. I then figured I could try Future Floor polish (that I have been using when making my own dip) and first it looked like it would work. I didn't dare try it on one of the beautiful Perry figures, instead I gunked it onto a Strangler.

The ugly, the ugly and the ugly.

As you can see from the pictures it didn't work as well. While the dip was a bit less thick, the paint itself glooped together inside the varnish/dip mixture and didn't flow at all. The middle figure in the picture above was the first try. Not perturbed by the horrific result I tried again, this time wiping most of the gunk away with a cloth moistened with thinner. Slightly better result on (on the right) except that the thinner took off the base coat as well in some places. I gave up and binned the can of Army Painter and mixed my own wash, which I used on the left strangler.

So what happened to the Perry figures?

The scale conundrum

No this isn't a previously undiscovered Sherlock Holmes novel, it's just the matter of which scale our small figures are? I will ramble a bit, do some math and then reach a surprising discovery in the end.

This whole scale creep issue is annoying, but the whole thing is muddled because when we talk about our beloved wargames miniatures we are talking about  a size, not a scale. (I will assume you do know how to calculate scale, if not then read this first.) As a metric person I can't understand why stuff aren't in easy scales like 1:100, 1:50 and so on. The blame lies partly with the imperial measurements. Dare you read on, fellow gamers? I promise there are some shots of miniatures after the break.

Perry Miniatures D.A.K. progress

About a month ago I showed you some WIP shots of my Afrika Korps figures from Perry Miniatures. Today I'm proud to show the first finished figures.

The first of my mighty Afrika Korps, a half squad and their platoon commander.

I haven't been working on them for a while really, because the 20mm US paras for the upcoming convention are taking precedence. Yet I keep returning to the DAK figures to get some variation. More pictures after the break.

Waka Waka (This one for Africa)

No this has nothing to do with Shakira, although I hope I get a gazillion extra hits due to the title. Sneaky eh? Instead I want to show you some finished and some WIP shots of the Perry figures I'm working on for North Africa.

You've seen these guys before, but I like them so I'm showing them again.

I finished these two for a speed build between christmas and new year's eve.

Some mould lines there I didn't notice...

The official designation was Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys. I just call it a BFG!

And then it's on to the dastardly hun...

A squad plus a mortar team. I built a full sprue of figures at once but I only paint five or six at a time. 

I had to convert a MG team to that infamous "over the shoulder" pose.

Painting has begun. I try to vary the appearance but use similar colours on all figures to tie them together.

The squad leader naturally has an MP40, or Schmeisser as it's incorrectly called.

The DAK has more stuff to paint than the desert rats, like arm cuffs. Also I missed a mould line on the right guy's arm.

The platoon commander. "Vorwärts, männer!"

This project is coming along nicely. Expect a painting guide when I've finished the first figures. I'm already thinking of what to buy next, despite having more than sixty figures left to paint. These are destined to be used with Chain of Command where you start with a platoon and then add some support. So a heavy MG team on both sides is on the to-buy list, as is some vehicles. Maybe a carrier for the British and a half track or an armoured car for the Germans.

But here's the rub; Do I go 1/48 scale and use all the nice plastic models from Tamiya and others, or do I go the resin 1/56 scale that is supposed to be correct for 28mm figures? Price-wise it's a toss-up, they cost about the same. The kits are fiddlier, but I like building model kits so it's not really a down-side. On the other hand there are more vehicles available in resin as 1/48 scale is quite new for armour models, and Copplestone do a nice 28mm Rolls-Royce armoured car in metal.

And I have always wanted a Rolls...

And the winners are...

...being revealed in just a little bit. But first I want to show you the results of applying the Dip to the Perry Desert Rats.

The Dip working it's magic.

This is truly the lazy painter's magic solution: the dip has beautifully picked out all the details on the figures, from the pockets on the tunics to the faces. I say again, these figures were just block painted and then had Army Painter's Strong Tone applied with a brush all over. After 24 hours of drying time they were hit with two light coats of Tamiya flat spray varnish.

Now on to the results of my giveaway!

Test-painting Perry's British Desert Rats

I've been meaning to try and get some paint on the very nice Perry Miniatures British figures I bought and reviewed a while ago. I'm no expert on the desert but I had a bunch of paints from the Coat d'Arms British paint set that looked like they could be useful, namely Desert Yellow, Pale Sand, British Khaki and Faded Khaki.

Have at'em boys!!!

Perry Miniatures Desert Rats review

Being a devout follower of the Cult of the Shiny I was excited to learn that the Perry Twins were going to do 28mm world war 2 figures. I fondly remember the WW2 miniaures they sculpted for Wargames Foundry and in my opinion the majority of GW's best figures are also sculpted by them. I don't really game WW2 in 28 mm but I already have a bunch of Foundry, Artisan and Crusader WW2 figures, so I figured what the heck. I got to have them. Who cares if they are desert rats and everything else I have is geared towards the invasion of Britain in 1940?

A Bren Gun team laying down supporting fire under the direction of an NCO.