On the road to Tobruk

Once, a long time ago, I had plans to build a 20mm DAK army. Sadly this petered out, as it was just two of us interested in WWII gaming and we both had full plates. Then, a few months ago, a few friends got back into wargaming, initially just Gaslands, but soon WWII and the Battlegroup rules came up in conversation.  Now one friend is building a Russian Army, the second a British/Commonwealth army (I think) and Johan will attempt to build OPFOR for all of us. Which is only right, as he dragged us into this whole thing! :D (Plus he is mates with the maker of the game and the Plastic Soldier Company, who distribute it, as well as a load of kit for it.)

I have dug out my DAK stockpile as well. On the Dutch Battlegroup Facebook group, Johan has been running a monthly(ish) painting Challenge. In August this started with "Recce": Take two choices from the Recce section of your chosen Battlegroup theatre book and finish them before the end of the month.
Guess what I just finished? Only a month and a day late, for me that is making good time.
Last month's challenge, that has been extended for October as well is "Defences", I'll see if I can figure something out to make before the end of the month and maybe I'll get caught up with the challenges.

My recce choices were two SdKfz 222s, partly because I rather like the look of these little armoured cars, but also because I had these already built from when I last was active on my DAK...

Here they are:

I added in a Kubelwagen, as I already had it built, and used them as a test for my airbrush, to see how indercoating WWII vehicles would go with it. The final drybrush is a bit heavier that I would like, but I'm not complaining.
Here's some more piccies, as well as a shot including the other recon car I have painted:

Next in line are a couple of defences (still to decide which) and ofcourse the whole Necromunda project. I had to stop working on the scenery for that a bit, as I hurt my back last weekend and have to take a rest from larger/heavier items and working outside in the cold (where, at the moment, I need to do my airbrushing...). Hopefully I can pick that project up again soon.

See you next time!

And now, for something completely different...

Well, so far you've seen mainly fantasy and sci-fi miniatures from me. Oh, and zombies*. All in 28mm.
Not this time...
Yesterday, the third day of Christmas (a.k.a. the Thank-Cthulhu-it's-finally-over-Day) I painted a batch of 20mm Deutsches Afrika Korps. They're a project I haven't worked on for nearly a decade, but my recent introduction to the PC game War Thunder has rekindled my interest. Plus they form a nice breather for my (currently main project) fantasy stuff, as they paint up quickly. This whole batch was done in a single day (including drying time for washes and sleeping in a bit), where I take at least two days, or more, for a batch of fantasy figures a quarter this number.

Here they are:

In case you're wondering, the minis without bases, and the one on the big, untextured base are parts of LMG teams. I've kept them apart to acces all the nooks and crannies while painting. Once all members of a team are done, I'll glue them to their base and texture + paint it. The metal on the guns is left flat grey for now, once the whole platoon is done, I'll rub them with some graphite (in other words, pencil) to give them a metallic sheen.
They're on the piece of paper to keep them organised, as I'm painting the basic infantry of the platoon and its command group combined over several batches. Each figure needs to go back to it's own squad after painting!
The reason I'm doing mixed batches like this, instead of a whole squad at a time, is because I custom mix several colours and highlights each time. As a result I get a natural variance in the exact tone of colour in each batch. By spreading the batches among all infantry, I use what would otherwise be a hindrance to replicate the effect of all uniforms bleaching at different rates and in different manners, making the units as a whole seem more realistic. :)

Here's a close up of one of the command group members checking either his tactical map, or the assembly guide for his Ikea flat-pack summoning circle:

(The mini is based on a 20mm washer, for size reference. So the above picture is several times life-sized, depending on your monitor size and resolution.)

What are my plans for this? Well, I have this platoon of infantry to paint, plus assemble and paint their Protze transports. And there is the rest of the box I've collected nearly a decade ago, which includes the remaining vehicles of a small recce group (consisting of a Sd.Kfz. 232 (8rad) Funkenwagen, two Sd.Kfz. 222s and a looted Humber), some PaKs and 8.8s plus tows and some Blitzes to haul supplies. A leichte and mittlere Panzerzug (I already have the Panzer I to function as the command vehicle for the leichte Panzerzug) are on the wishlist to add sometime, as well as a Diane or two.
And I want to add some Weird War war eventually as well ([Edit: Some text here has been removed, due to reasons. ] I have a 1/72 Maus that I can add a turret or two to, making it a "Panzerlandschiff".) But that is still far away, I'll need to get the basics done first. Hopefully it'll take less than 10 years....

See you next time!

*: Which could be classed as modern, post-modern, sci-fi or post-apocalyptic/peri-apocalyptic. ;P

They dwell beneath...

Over the last couple of days, as a counterpoint to the ever increasing Christmas Frenzy and Enforced Cheer, I've been taking little breaks to paint a bunch of goblins from GW's the Hobbit range.
I won't be using them as goblins, though, but rather as degenerate deep-cave dwellers, á la Morlocks or the creatures in the Descent movie. They'll also double as degenerate navite mutants in games of Inquisimunda or similar.
To reflect the role I have chosen for them, they've been painted in a sickly, greyish skintone:

As I needed to get 18 done before Christmas, and they're meant to use in hordes anyway, they got a quick, serviceable paintjob.

As a test, I've photographed them against my Frostgrave wall markers, but it ended up a bit monochrome as a result. In a way, they're a bit too well adapted to their surroundings...

A few mates have also tempted me into giving the PC game War Thunder a shot, and I've been enjoying myself plonking around in wee little tankies (and generally getting shot to bits). Which, in turn, has reminded me of my small(ish) collection of 20mm Afrika Korps that have languished in Mons Plumbum for near to a decade. When I originally worked on them, I stalled out on the painting the platoon of infantry I had, after having painted only one tank, two armoured recce cars and maybe 6 infantry (and a converted Weird War walker)... Not the most auspicious start.
Rooting round the stash, I found I also had an M3 Grant for some reason. So I quickly assembled that one, with an eye on maybe playing some quick tank duels with the Panzer IV I had already finished. So that one is now on the pile of minis ready for primer.

Anyway, that's all for today, have to go do seasonal stuff.
Merry Christmas everyone!