Bob’s Going ‘Nuts’

Well 1st squad of Americans, probably a bit overstretch for the Ardennes but 12 done.

Keeping with my premise of using what paints I had and what was easily available, Having g checked what colour Amerian Army Greatcoats were, and could be anything from a Brown to Olive Green according to who made them, went for them bei g green, so greatcoats  and non white Helmets were done I  a base GW Creed Cammo, contrast.

The odd bits if trousers were done on Militarum Green Contrast.

Webbing and Gaiters were done in  GW Death Guard Green.

Boots were done in Contrast   Wyldewood,

Wpn Stocks Aggarros Dunes.

Metalwork was again Speedpaint Enchanted Steel.

Faces swith Falscrimjager,  but to give them an unshaven more haggard look, I re-applied a thinned coat of Gulliman flesh over jaws ans lower face.

The bodies were then given a thinned out wash og Agrax Eartshade, and later I pin washed any bits of Webbing g that the original wash didn’t pick out.

And again for Lloydy.

Well thex1st squad is done, and may I say I really enjoyed pai ting these and the Americans ( next update as waiting for snow effect paint to dry)

On the whole I used GW Contrast paints, as I am more used to them, plus with the Wathammer shop only 10 mins walk from my home they are easiest to get

All the Figures started with a white base coat.

Then they got an all over wash with Apothocary White.

For Variation , Forage caps  some jackets where done in of all things Akelian Green, which to me is more blue.

Boots and Webbing were done in wyldewood.

Wpn stocks In Aggaros Dunes

Faces were thinned out Gulliman Flesh with detail done in Fleshtearers flesh highlighted with my own mix of army painter barbarian flesh lightened down.

Wpns we’re done in Speedpaint Enchated Steel , and misc kit on Webbing we’re doe on SpeedPaint Cammo cloak which does a good Fieldgrey.

And for the Lloydy’s amongst us.

Well with the Bulge starter set, it was time to Dust off my late War Project which never really got off the ground.

I have looked at the starter build guides, but decided instead to stick to the actual toe for the units, and have I intially built a Standard squad of Falscrimjager,  and a 12 man U.S Infantry Squad, OK I accept that was probably unlikely that either force would be at full strength, but it is a start.

For the Germans I’ll probably build the recommended Command , unit and some snipers, likewise the remaining Americans will get Bazooka Teams etc.

My American Force is beefed out anyway, by the box of Warlords metal Winter Americans, which at 19 men I can use for my force of Grizzled Veterens

Added to this I have based my Warlord Britsh Winter squad brought at same time.

This will give me the incentive to build my Rubicon Comet I brought at Salute 2 years back, I already have 95mm Howitzer Churchill built but needing . Having Dug it out I found the Maultier I built for project!

I made a trip to Questing Knight in Wellington , Shropshire, and picked up an Easy 8 Sherman ( I’m tempted to name it ‘Slightly Miffed!’) To round off my Americans, and of course brought a Humber armoured car, for the Brits.

But whilst there found a copy of V for Victory which I will give a whirl, will be interesting to run same scenario, with those, ‘Nut’s  and Bolt Action.

Well With Bolt action 3rd Edition and a spur of the moment buy of the Bolt Action Starter box, My   very back burner Winter WW2/What if 46 project is back on . The starter box although not probably enough for most full Bolt Action game, is very much on for ‘Nuts’ and ‘V for Victory ‘ When it comes out .

So over the next few weeks I intend to paint up a squad of Winter Falscrimjager, , a squad of Winter Americans and a Squad of Winter British ( the metal set from Bolt Action that I brought over a year ago :

British Infantry section (Winter)

All being well by the weekend I will be doing a ‘Nuts’ Battle report , a very much a lets play as I get my self into what is a unique game system though Infinty players will be familiar with some of its concepts.

NOTE PHOTOS OF PRAS NOW ADDED BELOW:

To add to the Normandy part of project I decided I wanted to Paratroopers for the 3 factions, but didn’t want to buy whole boxes of figures, so I scanned e=bay and was able to pick up the relevant sprues, The Brits and Americans got 2 and the Germans 1 (I thought they were rarer) .

The Americans were the 1st to be completed, and a they were fairly easy.

I went for the earlier tan version of the jump suit which made painting a fairly easy variation of the U.S Infantry

1. Army Painter Skeleton Bone base coat
2. Uniform painted GW contrast Skeleton Horde
3. Helmet done in GW Contrast Miltiarum Green
4. Belts and packs given light coat of GW Sraphim Sephia shades as online photos showed them having a slightly green tint
5. GW Snakebite leather Contrast  for boots and wpn stocks
6. GW Leadbelcher for barrels mags and metal work
7. light coat of GW Gulliman Flesh for faces and hands
8. Detail on faces picked out GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh , and Army painter Wilding Flesh and Barbarian Flesh

The Fallscrimjager were very much a trial and see how it went, but after slight failure with my original attempts at Grenediers went as follows

1. Army Painter Skeleton Bone base coat

2. Tourser painted a mix of 2 parts GW contrast Space Wolves Gray and one part Militarium Green,  this was the slightly failed mix on my 1st batch of Grenediers, but was right for the Falscrimjager.

3. Camo jacket done with a mix of GW contrast Mitarium green , Agaros Dunes and Creed Cammo

4.Boots done in Basilicum grey

Everything else done pretty much as the Ameericans

The British Paratroopers were done pretty much as for the British Infantry othe than the Denison smock, which I have to say was helped by the OTT’s  Bolt Action Boot camp videos on ~You tube particularly the one and the Denison smocks.

World War II Kit: British Paratrooper

The main difence to the British Infanty is that I only did the 2nd 2 coats of Seraphim Sephia to the Upper part of body covered by the smock then:

1. Blotchs of GW Contrast Militarium Green avoiding webbing
2. Blotchs of GW Contras Creed Cammo avoiding webbing
3. block painted rifles boots etc as with British Infantry
4. Berets done in Baal RED
5. Thinned out cat oa GW Arax Earthshade about 50/50 water over most of upper torso apart from faces.

It’s only took me best part of 12 months to upload those photo’s !!!

I did the 1st sprue I did as pretty much standard GI’s   but as I built the 2nd sprue, I decided to theme on the lesser known Charaters from the film. I wanted a more dynamic , LMG firing version of Crapgame   so using the wolly hat helmet version  head and using a spare 30 cal from the U.S. Paratroopers sprue. Willand (played by Harry Dean Stanton in movie is again a conversion, using any bits of belt ammo I had on various Sprues.

One of the lesser characters who did have a fair amount of speaking parts was Cowboy  , did wonder how to portray him, and decided ‘Cowboy’ would be firing a pistol. The sniper Watowski, was basically the use of the Springfield Rifle arm on the sprue with a bit of tube stuck on it for scope. Private Jonesy who drops the big bag og grenades and explosives in German HQ is represented by a figure throwing a Grenade.

And here the whole squad.

As initially said sort of fell into this, I finished the long forgotten Oddballs Sherman brought at a Salute when they were 1st released, which was built with one other Sherman  and a Hellcat which in itself was sort of  Spring Clean to to go with some painted Rangers and GI’s I paint ted way back which were a mix of Battlehonours and Blacktree Designs.

So the above have been painted , I decided to plump for 2 standard M4’s rather than 2 more Oddball types as in move, as they are a lot cheaper , and more accurate, as Oddballs Sherman was an odd typed issued to Yugoslavia at end of war , which was were most of movie was filmed.

I then dug through some slightly battered Corgi and Soledo Halftracks that had been brought to be a British Infantry Platoons vehicles of Ebay, They have been repaired and touched up paintwise to match roughly the ones in the movie , the 105mm version being the heavily repainted Soledo one.

I only need some jeeps but there was a sheer lack at Salute so will have to order them

(I know they were not in final battle but what the hell, may help balance scenario anyway)

Well funnily the last figures I’ve finished actually finishs the 1st full faction to my Normandy faction. I actually painted in the end 13 figures for this , as initially I wanted to add spare figures for the mechanised squad for Piat and Mortar.

It then struck me that with above I had effectively done enough for a Carrier squad (from Carrier platoon) something I had started ages ago and had only completed the 3 carriers.

Painting

1. The figures were given a base coat of Zandri Dust
2. one coat of GW Serpahim Sepia was given to all but wpns faces and hands
3. 2 x coats more of Above was carefully applied to uniforms and not folliage on helmets
4. faces and hands were painted base GW Ushanti Bone (IIorginally tried white but this made later stage blotchy.
5. Wpns stocks and entrencing tool handle GW Contrast Snakebite Leather
6. Boots done in GW Basilicum Grey Contast
7. Wpns and metal work GW Leadbelcher
8.  Overall was ofGW Agrax Earthshade  wash Contrast
9. Faces detail done , I do do eyes.
10. Nuln oil was to Metal work
11. Bases done overall GW Militarim Green Contrast having put some scatter on bases before base coat.
12. Tufts of various types put on base
13.  a bit of Green grass scatter put on bits on bases to break up any flat bits left over on base.

L Also finished my Recon force of M5 Stuarts , I had one resin one done a few years back and the 2 new Rubicon including the unfrocked one. This was a unit I originally did in 20mm , that I got at the old Northern Militaire, It was nice to re-relise them in 28mm

The original had been done with a dark umbra base and dry brushed GW catachan green if I rememeber rightly .

The new were

1. base coat of Army Painter Army Green spray
2. Nuln oil wash
3. Dry brush army painter  Army Green
4. 2nd Dry Brush GW Morghast Bone
5. White for Periscopes and headlight lens
6. GW Leadbelcher for Tracks and light overall dry brush for weathering
7. GW Tallaser Blue on periscopes and headlight lens
8. 8 Nuln oil Tracks

t this point I put the xfers on, before I added any stowage on the non resing models, I find decals a pain, often they curl up no matter how hard  try to avoid it putting them , or plain disapear. or move when you are not looking, so the late addition of stowage can cover up any cock ups

Then stowage is painted and added using varous Contrast paints.

They are Ultramatt varnished and then give a dry brush Zandri Dust , over low half of model, for more weathering .