After a long break... a Konigstiger

I don't know what happened, i just got tired of painting. The house needed alot of work and the garden needed (and still does) alot of work, my son needs alot of work, i just didn't have the energy to start something, let alone finish something. Until this week...

I finished the second of 4 King Tigers. This one in a more Normandy 44 kinda-camo and you know what? I used Vallejo Middlestone for dunkelgelb on this one and it never looked better. Those 6 Panzer IV's will be sprayed in the same manner. Pictures below...

Second, I also finished my first Eight Army infantry platoon, still need to base them. Shouldn't be to hard to do, it's "just" sand :-)

And third, i finished my SS Heavy Platoon. So my SS-army is 99% complete. Pictures of those will be posted later. I'm getting good feedback from my gaming buddies, i sense a little jealousy there :-)

On with the pictures! Panzer March!

Argh! It's him again! and he brought his baby-brother!!

At last...

A Flames of War book about a battle in my homeland, one of the greatest battles of the Western Front during WW2. I always liked the way the Bulge started, the mighty German panzers roaring through the Ardennes, scaring the hell out of the Americans. I love it! ;-)

SS-Rocket Artillery Battery

Nebelwerfer 41 Rocket Artillery ist bereit!

Only the 2 kubelwagens for the observers i still need to finish. Tomorrow will be a big test for a 1750pts SS-Army list...

Anybody know if you can mix Turning Tide with Grey Wolf. I can only field Fearless Trained Nebels in Grey Wolf while the SS-kompanie from Turning Tide can field Veteran Nebelwerfers...

SS-Panzergrenadiers

Finally finished these little bastards! A quick post to show some badly taken pictures... not too happy with the basing but don't feel like doing them all over.

 Now time to finish my Nebelwerfers, all they need is some base-lovin' and then it's MG42 time...

Sometimes you just gotta paint a Konigstiger

"Sometimes you just gotta paint a Königstiger..."

Myself, April 2012

 

While searching for the correct Dunkelgelb i came across some WW2 Tank Sets from Lifecolor. Not too pricey so i ordered them directly from eBay. About 17€ each. I purchased them because they had a strange approach to the Dunkelgelb, it was very, very light. Considering everything I tried before was either to dark or to greenish I was very, very eager to try it out.

Königstiger (Henschel Turret), Poland 1944

Keeping in mind that it was a light-yellow colour i picked up one of my Königstigers, picked out a camo-pattern and started spraying like a madman! Thinned the Lifecolor with Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner (yes, you read that correctly) and like magic ... it worked!

I tried something like the pattern in the picture above. Used some new weathering techniques and i think, to be honest, it's one of my best pieces of work yet. A medal for me! Huzzah! No really, i like it alot, i have 2 more to paint and then its on to paint set number 2. I'm gonna use that to try some Bulge work...

Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think!

A lone Sharpshooter...

This is not a tale of a lone sharpshooter, this is just to show what happens when one gets tired of waiting for some new paints to arrive and when one gets bored of painting SS Oak Leaf uniforms...

I was really fed up with painting those little 15mm guys in those annoying-to-paint uniforms so i took a small break. Since we decided to postpone our first 28mm ACW battle again, i'm gonna try to squeeze in my skirmishers. 14 figures to paint, one done, which was more of a tester.

The most famous of Union Sharpshooters is of course the 2nd US Sharpshooter Regiment led by Colonel Hiram Berdan. They had all green uniforms payed for by Hiram Berdan and the rifles they used was the Sharps Rifle. Some men brought their personal rifle with them. They fought on almost every field of battle in the East and became famous while defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Enjoy my little "tester" :-)

Dunkelgelb!

What is the correct colour to use for German Dunkelgelb? 

Maybe the most asked question next to what is the meaning of life?

Nobody seems to know the answer... at least, thats my assumption. While we have gazillion amounts of information on the internet about world war II, millions of bits & bytes worth of discussion about this period... still, nobody knows the answer to this rather simple question. Is it really that hard?

To be honest, my search for the correct Dark Yellow or Dunkelgelb ended where it began...

It all started with the Flames of War forums, searching through endless and endless pictures in the gallery of painted Panthers & Tigers. I had Ernst Barkmann in his Panther and 5 Late War Tigers on the workbench and i really wanted them to shine so i looked at thousands of pictures. I quickly came to the conclusion that Vallejo Green Ochre was the right type for me. Mixed with some Windex and drying retarder i sprayed away. I was a happy man!

But then things turned bad...

German Tritonal Camo became my worst nightmare ever. Vallejo Model Air, which i have alot of, is literally Airbrush Hell. clogging, clogging and then some more clogging. Evening after evening i tried and tried but nothing helped, so i started searching for a simple solution. Some people pointed me towards a japanese word, one simple Japanese word: Tamiya.

Tamiya has a small range of Acrylics based on Isopropyl-Alcohol. Thinning of these paints is easy. Just buy some Isopropyl-alcohol and you're set. It's that simple. Mix 50-50% and spray away!

Grabbed me a Tiger and sprayed some XF-60 Dark Yellow, Red Brown and Olive Green. It turned out nice but not nice enough to be honest. The brown and green were good but the dark yellow was just too ... well, dark. I tried again. Mixing Dark Yellow with XF-57 Buff for a ratio of 70%-30%. Sprayed the same camo pattern. Nope, still not what i wanted... I then sprayed a new model with Vallejo Green Ochre and used the Red Brown and Olive Green from Tamiya, which gave an odd result. For some reason those 2 brands don't like each other colour-wise The pattern just didn't 'match'...

Next test : Vallejo Middlestone; What the hell was that. It's just not my colour :-) didn't bother continueing with the camo. Tried in the past, one of my first tanks was painted with Middlestone. I remember looking at it at my bench ad thinking to myself; "Meh".

Next up was DOA Dunkelgelb: Too yellow, really TOO yellow. Like a fellow-blogger describes on his blog: DOA are good paints to spray but are just too dark, way to dark if you ask me. 15mm models need light colours imho.

In the end i came to the conclusion that i was the most happy with Vallejo colours. My Stugs turned out okay and they were painted with Vallejo. If only i could solve the clogging problem. Reading all day about people with the same VMA problems, i decided to try a new product (yeah, i know). Liquitex Airbrush Medium. Most people call it a MUST for Vallejo paints to work well in the Airbrush. Gonna order it today and pray, pray, pray to the Gods of the Airbrush.

Dunkelgelb! After all, Dunkelgelb is your choice! Not some guy who thinks he has found the correct mixture of colours, thinners, mediums and flow improvers to paint the correct Dunkelgelb on his tank only to show some pictures on some forum taken with a million-dollar camera with the wrong indoor-lighting settings! i like 914 Green Ochre d*mmit. It's easy. it looks okay and it's damn cheap too :-) 914 is my number!

Have a nice week :-)

Re-Action 2012. Part 1

Yesterday was fun. We went to the Action 2012 Wargaming Convention @ Rheindalen, Germany and we returned with lots of goodies.

A 90-minute drive and a wrong exit (I hate GPS-devices; I prefer the "put the road-map on the hood and start looking" way like any decent commander would do) and we arrived at the checkpoint where I had to open the trunk and the hood for inspection. After some directions from the bloke at the checkpoint we headed for the registration-office to get our car-pass. After that, it was on to the convention!

Lots of tables, though not as nice as the previous year tbh. Some good traders and a very nice, relaxed atmosphere! We hope this convention continues in the next year but future is looking grim as the Military Base is almost certain to close in the following years.

Part of my Flames of War treasure hunt; A Jagdpanther Platoon, Ernst Barkmann and my next Flames of War project; A British Airborne Company!

I was also looking for some Hetzers but at 10€ a piece i quickly restrained myself from buying. Either Maelstrom Games is getting my money or I'll try the Forged in Battle ones. Only thing that's holding me back is the bases on those. Maybe try trimming them is an option...

Next post will be about some other purchases i did over there... can't wait to paint those up!

A Day of Mouring...

Yesterday at Eleven in the morning, our country came to a stand-still for one minute. We honoured and remembered those children and teachers who died in the horibble bus-crash in Switserland last Wednesday.

I know this has nothing to do with wargaming but i have a need of writing this. As a father myself i hope this will never happen to me. Parents aren't suppose to bury their children, it should be the other way around.

I'm having trouble reading all the stuff they are writing in the papers about it, i'm even having trouble looking at the pictures. My heart broke when i saw the class-photo's from the 2 schools, knowing that at least in one school, the entire class will never return and be the same...

My feelings go out to everyone involved...

for those interested, follow the link

Stug III's ready for battle!

Phew!! Finally finished these guys. Actually, not 100%, one still needs the commander in the copula but i consider them done.

I tried all kinds of techniques and stuff on these tanks. Maybe a little too much. They all look very battle-worn, maybe a little too much battle-worn :-) Also, i had my time with Vallejo Model Air. It's all going in the bin! I'm switching to Tamiya. I had good (compared to Vallejo Model Air; excellent) results with those paints so i'm switching and not looking back. The only thing i need now are some empty dropper bottles with some ready-made-mixes of Tamiya paints with thinner. Maybe i can empty some of those droppers from Vallejo ;-)

Mixed in with the Assault Guns are my first SS-Panzergrenadier figures. The Company HQ with Panzershreck option. I painted some figures from the Pak40 gun crew that i mistook for the Panzershreck loaders. Damn, those Pak40 shells looked big compared to the Panzershreck's shell :-). The second team is coming with the first infantry, which i'm gonna paint next.

This Saturday we are gonna pay a visit to Re-action 2012. A wargaming convention in Mönchengladbach, Germany. It's small but very nice. Good atmosphere thanks to the location. A British military base better known as JHQ Rheindalen. Check out the link!

Stug III Platoon

Finished my first Stug III a couple of days ago. I considered it "a tester" for the rest of the platoon. I think it turned out rather nice. It's painted for the West-front around '44. I tried to give it a battle-worn look which in the end, also turned out very well i think. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or something.

The rest of the platoon is still on the factory floor getting finished. They will be completed in a few days if i can stick to my schedule. Only thing left to do after finishing the tank is paint the schürzen. They're already primed black and are also awaiting the finished paint coats...

After that it's infantry time! and after the infantry it's Nebelwerfer time!! I'm so looking forward to painting those :-) Enjoy the picies...

Panzer Marsch!

Like i promised, pictures of my Panthers...

I worked about a week on these, using Tom Wise's Painting Guide i had no trouble finding the correct colors. Only difference is that after painting and varnishing i used some MIG-washes. 

Painted as 5th SS Wiking in Poland 1944. I'm gonna use them for my Eastern Front SS-Company of course.

They're are 5 of them, enough to field a complete platoon in any Flames of War list. Cost a little less then 1000pts for your army but they are killer! With it's front armour of 10 and an AT-rating of 14, the enemy has to bring alot of heavy firepower to kill these beauties.

One the waiting bench are 5 Stug III's and 5 Tigers. Also got 4 Konigstigers all glued up but i got some bad luck with these. The boxset in which they came got some missing parts like side-fenders and mudflaps. I mailed Battlefront Support but no reply yet...

I also got my HQ Command Team finished, painted in SS Oak Leaf camo... pictures of those later. On to the Panthers now.

Bring out the guns!

It's been a while since my last post. Alot of stuff going on... My ACW is finished for the time being. Flames of War version 3 is out and we had our second Battledays @ Winxel. Normally we had to play our first game of ACW but due to circumstances we postponed it until mid-april, but i'm still looking forward to it! We played some v3 FoW instead :-)

Another thing to look forward to; Action 2012 @ Rheindahlen Wargames Club. A small but oh-so nice wargaming event. Lots of nice tables and traders. Click here to go to the homepage. I have some small purchases to do; Pickup some Dystopian War, possibly the v1.1 rulebook. Buy some Plastic Soldier Company Half-tracks for my SS-Panzergrenadiers and i need a Jagdpanther Platoon. 

Next to these upcoming purchases i also had some other Flames of War purchases a couple of weeks ago. SS-Mortar Platoon and a complete SS-Panzergrenadier Company. I'm gonna use them for 2 Late War armies. One for the West and the other for the East. My collegue from work is almost done with painting his 101st Airborne. Fearless Vets against Fearless Vets, it's gonna be awesome! We also played our first v3 game last week. It was a crushing defeat for the Soviets. My Grenadier Company massacred 2 Soviet infantry Battalions and we managed to kill 5 tanks in one turn! So far i'm liking the new rules.

Painting is going steady, i'm having an Airbrush-a-thon. Currently painting 5 Panthers (which i will complete today, pictures up soon. I promise!), on the waiting bench are 5 Tigers & 5 Stug III's. The Stug's are for the LW-list. The Tigers are just for fun, maybe i'll need them one day ;-)

Black Powder ACW Casualty Markers

In glades they meet skull after skull
Where pine cones lay - the rusted gun,
Green shoes full of bones, the mouldering coat
And cuddled up skeleton;
And scores of such. Some start as in dreams,
And comrades lost bemoan;
By the edge of those wilds Stonewall had charged-
But the year and the Man were gone.

by Herman Melville, "The Armies of the Wilderness"

As promised, some pictures from my ACW casualty markers. I got the idea from some pictures on the Warlord Games forum. Some guy did the same for his 28mm Romans.

I hope i will not be needing them much :-) They're all wearing the regular blue suit. No zouave or greatcoat models yet. I still need to order those from Redoubt. I just gotta make sure that my zouaves and my boys from ireland leave the battlefield unharmed.

Models are from Perry, colours by Vallejo and tufts and flowers are from Silflor. The dices are from some cheap vendor on ebay.

Winfield Scott Hancock

"No other Union general at Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more completely than Hancock."

We're almost there.

My commanding officer is done, Winfield Scott Hancock. One of my favorite, if you can call it that, Generals of the Union Army. One that didn't screw up like the ones commanding him. He played a big roll in the Battle of Gettysburg, holding the centre...

You can read alot about him on Wikipedia .

Also done are my casualty markers, later this week i'll post some pics, and 1 of my 12-pdr Napoleon's. Only 1 of those 12-pdr's to go and i'm finished for our first battle. It's gonna be awesome, i'm so looking forward to it!

Still have alot of work to do; need to read trough the Black Powder rulebook, paint some snake-fences and base some trees. I'll have to decide with my gaming buddy on the table-size. He has some nice 50x50cm tiles perfect for 28mm games. I think 200x150 should do the trick. The gaming setup will be 4 large infantry regiments, 1 cavalry regiment, 1 Commander & 2 guns.

On a personal note, got a dentist appointement next week, i'm so NOT looking forward to that!

That d*mned Black Hat brigade!

...1863, sometime before Gettysburg. Most of them are wearing their gaiters for the last time. All of them are to gain eternal glory for what they did on that field in 1863. They lost 77% of their men on that 1st July.

Finally finished, my 2nd Wisconsin. Like written above, they all have their Sack Coats & gaiters. By the time around the battle of Gettysburg they didn't have look-a-like uniforms like in the picture. Some wore their Gaiters, some wearing Sack Coats and some Frock Coats but they all wore the Hardee Hat proudly. The Confederates all yelled out when confronted by this Brigade; "That d*mned Black Hat brigade!"

I was thinking of representing this regiment more like a mixed regiment with all kinds of uniforms in it. It should show the diversity of the Iron Brigade's uniform around 1863 but hearing all kinds of delivery-problems with Redoubt Enterprises, and of course the bad moulds, I have skipped that tought. The 'Bad mould problem' should be fixed by now, at least that's what they are claiming on TMP.

I like the look of these soldiers so much that i'm trying to find a decent reproduction Hardee Hat on the net. If anybody has some tips about this, with some decent shippping costs to Europe, let me know!

On to some pictures, I hope you like them, I do ;-)