25 January 2016

2nd AHPC VI submission: 15mm US Airborne force for Battlegroup and additional pics

Today my second entry for the 6th incarnation of the Analogie Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Finally the kitchen is completed (well, almost... you know how this works) and I'm back on the brushes. So this week sees me submitting a few American Airborne in winter clothing for use with the Battlegroup set of WW2 rules. I'm planing on using them for the Battle of the Bulge and maybe Hürtgen Forest using the lists from Operation Overlord. Iron Fist are to release a dedicated book (softcover) for Battle of the Bulge sometime soonish but as of now the lists will be taken from Overlord anyway.




The miniatures and tanks are all from Battlefront Miniatures. While some of them are nice or OK sculpts, only suffering from bad casting, others are absolutely awful. The six Sherman M4A4's are from the original 'Open Fire' starter set and some of the worst plastic tanks I had the displeasure to deal with to date. To make them look a little less like ugly toys I added some stowage from Battlefront. The platoon leaders got reinforced armour in form of sandbags to the sides. Unfortunately I didn't have any US markings in 15mm at home so only the mandatory stars (taken from 28mm decal sheets) were added.


First Platoon


Second Platoon
Here's some close ups of individual tanks:





They were painted using the US Armor Camouflage set from Ammo of MIG Jimenez. As I quite liked how they came out I decided to not whitewash them but in hindsight I should have done that little extra step. Originally the tracks were intended to look muddy but as so often with pigments the results were quite different from what I had intended. For some reason the pigments dried out whiteish and I had to go over them with several layers of brown wash. Thus ruining the wet/ muddy look completely.



The crew for the .50 cal AA HMG were probably the worst miniatures ever. Despite having a set of three and taking only the best figures, they were just rubbish. Almost no detail, lots of flash and badly cast. Especially for the price BF are asking for their offerings, it feels like robbery to get such bad castings.


Sniper


60mm light mortar


.30 cal medium machine gun


Bazooka

Overall I really enjoyed painting in a smaller scale than usual and am quite happy with how these came out. I still have to adapt my painting to 15mm but as I'm slowly running out of storage space, and really like how fast one can build a sizable force, I'll probably switch the most part of my painting to this scale.


BAR
Together with miniatures I painted earlier that gives me a well sized starting force of three not fully equipped platoons for Battlegroup. I still have/ want to bolster it out with some more stuff like trucks, halftracks, jeeps and scout vehicles. First though, I'll probably start on the Germans in order to get in a game some time soon.


Airborne Squad
To conclude this rather lengthy post a pic of one of two AT-guns and its support base, I painted up before the challenge:


I hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by.

15 comments:

  1. Amazing work on them! Really lifts the battlefront offerings onto a higher level. You've been able to pick out amazing amounts of detail from minis which are average even on the best Battlefront lines. And those Open Fire Shermans are definitely horrible, never had a plastic model with such a bad fit in my life.

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  2. Stunning work... its hard to paint 15mm minis!

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  3. Stunning work there Nick and huge points bomb! You need to bring these along next time! Time to get back on my brushes before you leave me behind!

    Christopher

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  4. Since you mentioned in an earlier post that you were going to be painting these, I have been looking forward to seeing them finished and it has been worth the wait.

    Superb painting even with material that didn't come up to standard. I would find it hard to find the enthusiasm to paint something that didn't look good to start with in the bare metal or plastic but you have done a fantastic job and the wet muddy tracks still look good to me.

    I can see the attraction of gaming in a smaller scale (I fancy WW2 20mm) but don't give up painting your 28mm, they have to be some of the best painted in the hobby.

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    1. Nick, I tried emailing you again but it still comes up invalid for some reason.
      You can try emailing me if you like at my wife's address. www.kerstinsmith@ntlworld.com
      Pat.

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  5. Stunning work, what an amazing entry!

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  6. Excellent painting and basing - you can feel the cold!

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  7. Superb work - very atmospheric!

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  8. Loving these, very nice work.

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  9. Superb work! Excellent painting.

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  10. The weathering on your tanks looks great!!! What kind of pigments do you use? I just got some Tamiya Weathering Master kits to use on my Millennium Falcon but have zero experience using them so a lot of experimenting lies ahead for me.

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    1. I'm using mostly Vallejo and old Forge World pigments. Never quite found out how to use them though... most of the time the results are more or less hit and miss.

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  11. Outstanding painting on such tiny miniatures! I love the colour choices a lot! Only the snow is way to coarse for that scale...

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  12. Nick,
    Just to let you know that I am not ignoring you, I have sent you a couple of emails this weekend but I am not sure if they have got through, it might be because of pictures being attached?

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