Leichte Pionierkompanie HQ

This is a small update, but still another step forward in my early war Flames of War German Light Pioneer company. This is the company HQ stands (two command stands) and their transport, two motorcycles with sidecars. I had three motorcycles in the package so I painted them all up. I'll use the third as transportation for one of my platoon squad commanders.

In addition to these finished stands I also have completed painting up the drivers and crew figures for all of my 'Panzer Pops' vehicles. Completing this has allowed me to continue on that project. In that effort I have also added a full detail wash to all of those vehicles to accent the panel lines and other details. Once that has dried for a full 24 hours I'll continue my working on them with dry-brushing, detail painting (tracks, tires, tools, etc.) and decal application. Hopefully one or two more sessions on the painting table will provide me not only with transportation for my company, but a couple of platoons of support assets.

Below are two more photos showing detailed views of the motorcycles and sidecars. I've based them to look like they're traveling down country lanes and farm cart paths which I think would be the preferred cross-country method of travel for them.

Leichte Pionierkompanie Platoon

This is the first combat platoon for my early war 'Blitzkrieg' Flames of war company, a Leichte Pionierkompanie (Light Engineer Company). I've started with only two squads instead of the maximum strength of three. I've done this for two reasons: 1) at 600 points I need the extra points for other troops and 2) I made this unit from available mid-war figures, removing any figures inappropriate for early war from the pack. I did this by cannibalizing a mid-war pioneer blister and a mid-war infantry blister. What I came up with was enough figures for two squads. The second full combat platoon and the extra squad for this platoon will have to wait until Battlefront releases early war engineer blisters.

For now this mechanized Platoon is without transportation. I'm still working on the vehicles for them. See my earlier 'Panzer Pops' post for more information on the progress on that. Eventually they'll receive a staff car for their command team, a truck for the engineers and a supply truck filled with barbed wire, mines, etc. All the toys these guys like to use.

Next up on the workbench is the company command along with their transportation; motorcycles with sidecars! Also planned for the company command is a Panzerbefehlswagen command tank which is part of my 'Panzer Pops' WIP. More updates to come soon as progress continues.

Panzer Pops

"Would you like some candy little Johnny?"
"No daddy, I want a Panzer Pop! They come in all my favorite flavors, Opal Blitz, command car, AA half track, PanzerJager I and Panzer I command."

That's all I could think as I was gluing all these early war vehicles on sticks so I could spray them with their base colors. I got a chuckle out of it so had to post it. These vehicles are a WIP as part of my Flames of War early war Pioneer company. More photos of other progress on this force will be posted soon....I hope.

Update - See image below for the after shot with base color sprayed on. Next steps will be dry-brushing the base color, detail painting (tires, treads, weapons), decals and installing crew as needed. All of this is on hold until I finish painting up the crew figures along with my company command stands and motorcycles. More to come on this project soon.

Sargent's Massachusetts Battalion

I've been feeling very guilty lately when looking at my painting totals and viewing the solitary '1' in the 'Painted 25mm Figures' column. As a change of pace to the 15mm ancients and WWII I've been painting lately I thought I should go back to my roots and paint up another unit of AWI figures. Since I'm trying to finish up my Saratoga armies I picked Sargent's Massachusetts Battalion. Lately the scenarios I've been hosting with my AWI armies have been using a lot of my generic troops to pose as Massachusetts troops so this was a primary motivator to paint up another dedicated MA unit.

I've painted this unit up as regulars. By the time of the Saratoga campaign they were receiving regular continental pay and I've uniformed them as such. This is a stark contrast to Giles Allison's excellent rendition of this same unit that he featured on his blog. For the flag I couldn't find any specific references to what this unit carried so I selected a suitable standard using a Google search for 'AWI Flags' and then with a little Photoshop magic rendered it as a two-sided image which I printed out on plain paper. This is my first attempt to replicate the awesome techniques that the Flag Dude uses on his flags. I'm still falling short of his excellent product, but for a homemade attempt it's not bad, save the few flecks of static grass that stuck to it during the photographing session.

As is my current custom, I've painted this unit up as two formed stands and an additional skirmish stand. This will allow me to use the figures in several different scales in Volley & Bayonet, as well as allowing me to use the figures in Carnage & Glory and British Brigadier! as well. The figures are all Old Glory brand, most of them from my favorite pack of theirs: 'Continental Firing Line'.  Next up will be a big push into early war WWII for the recently released 'Blitzkrieg' rule and army list book.

Blitzkrieg!

Flames of War released their new early war rule and army list book entitled Blitzkrieg this past week. Gordon from Adler Hobby is starting an escalation league at his store as soon as enough lead is made available for people to build their 600-point starting forces. Since there are some mid-war figures and vehicles that are valid for use during the early war period, some of us are getting a jump on things as we can and starting to work on our army lists and even painting up some figures and vehicles from the currently available choices. Those who choose to start with a core based on one of the already available boxed set are definitely getting the jump on the rest of us.

Gordon held an open house for the escalation league this past Saturday which I attended. I was able to pick up the new rule book and because Adler Hobby has such a huge stock of Flames of War figures I was even able to pick up two of the support platoons for my early war company which will be a Leichte Pionierkompanie (mechanized pioneer company). My other Flames of War force is my late war Finnish infantry company, so I wanted to choose something for early war that had more 'toys' in it. The mechanized pioneers have that in spades: light tanks, StuG A assault guns which are in early war nearly the Tiger is for mid-war, panzerJager SP AT guns, half-track mounted light AA guns, Stukas, 88s and a motorcycle infantry recon platoon. The only difficulty is choosing which toys to take! Well more on that after I finish my current WIP, a unit of 28mm AWI figures. Until then enjoy the photos below showing Gordon's excellent store and the new Blitzkrieg book cover. Note Adler Hobby has so much Flames of War stock I couldn't even get it all in one photograph!

15mm Paint Shack Commission (2)

Kent over at the 15mm Paint Shack has posted another update on the commission job he's doing for me with photos of second completed pike block. I asked Kent for this block to look like less affluent working men with unbleached linen armor and plain colored tunics. I also asked for white shield foregrounds with red Macedonian stars. He's matched my request to the letter and done a fantastic job with the figures. I'm very excited to get these on the table. For more photos see Kent's blog using either of the links above.

Overnight Kent posted the last unit of my commission to his blog: a unit of 12 Xystophoroi cavalry. They're for my Attilid Pergamene alllies for my Roman army, but may also serve in a pinch in other roles. With their smart purple tunics they can easily pose as other companion type heavy lancers.

I've been very impressed at the quality of Kent's painting, the high level of communication and the attention to detail he's put into this job in regards to following my requests for uniform colors, etc. Money very well spent in my opinion. My current WIP is a unit of 28mm AWI figures. I've been working 10-12 hour days at work lately, including weekends, so I haven't had much time to work on them, but I hope that will change soon.

15mm Paint Shack Commission

I had been corresponding with Kent over at the 15mm Paint Shack blog about doing some painting for me. After saving up some of my pin money I finally was able to send him a couple of pike blocks for my Seleucid FOG army and a unit of Xystophoroi cavalry for my Atillid Pergamene allies for my Roman army. Today when I logged in I noticed a new update on his blog with photos of the first completed pike block. To say I'm happy with the work would be a total understatement. These figures look FANTASTIC! No only are they exceptionally painted, but Kent has been fantastic in his communication and has fulfilled all of my requests and succeeded my expectations as far as the quality of his work is concerned. Well done Kent! I can't wait to see the second pike unit.

I've also been discussing having Kent paint up some 28mm AWI figures for me as a future commission. Kent offered to paint up a sample figure since I was already shipping figures to him. The figure I sent him is a 28mm British officer from Old Glory. Kent's blog entry included photos of the completed sample figure, one of which I've shown here. As you can see the "15mm Paint Shack" definitely isn't limited to 15mm painting. This figure is stunning. If you were considering sending your figures to China for painting, you might benefit from sending your figures to Kent in New Zealand instead.

Seleucid Elephants (2)

This is the second battle group of elephants I've painted for my Seleucid army. The first was posted in my first seleucid battle groups post. Since the first battle group was made from Essex figures, I thought it was a good idea to stick with fine Essex lead for this second battle group. Elephant models vary widely in size between manufacturers and I feared switching to another manufacturer would cause me problems with this.

This battle group has blue blankets on the elephants instead of the brick read blankets that the first group has. Other than that I attempted to keep the crew fairly similar on the off chance that I might want to field them as a group of four some time. This probably isn't advisable in Field of Glory, but could be desirable in other rule sets in the future.

I was suffering a touch of burn out when it comes to figure painting. Between my WWII Finnish project and getting ready for the huge Magnesia game, I put a lot more time in at the painting table this spring than I normally do. I've spent some time since then working on other aspects of this and my other hobbies to help cure that. Starting back at the painting table with this small battle group is my way of easing back into things. Next up on the painting table I think I'll do something else to spice things up. I'm not sure what quite yet. Possible some 28mm AWI, or WWI.

Miss Painting Group - Review

Some wargamers paint all of their figures, some purchase all of their figures already painted and some fall in between. I'm the latter. Even though recently I've been painting a lot more figures than I usually do, I've also been purchasing a lot of painted figures as well. The reason I've been purchasing more figures lately is because I feel there are a few vendors out there right now that are providing a good value for the money. For Napoleonics I've been very happy with GAJO and their grade 7 figures. For ancients I've purchased several quality units from Dragon Painting Service (DPS).

For those who purchase painted figures, Ebay is usually a frequent starting point. Recently I've been noticing a new vendor on ebay named 'Miss Painting Service' (MPS). At first I thought this might be another pseudonym for DPS, but upon further investigation I discovered that it was indeed a new vendor offering painted ancients miniatures. The good thing about this is  MPS is offering new ranges that fill in a lot of the gaps in the DPS range. Encouraged by this and seeing a unit I very much needed, I decided to give MPS a try and purchased the Xystophoroi unit pictured above. I don't usually post photos of purchased figures, but since MPS is a new option for other wargamers I thought there would be value in me posting a review of their service. Playing on their name I'm going to list some 'Hits' and 'Misses':

Hits:

• Painting quality is very high: Two-tone shading on tunic sleeves and capes. Dry-brushing on helmet feathers and beards. 
• Weapons have shaped spear heads and made of steel/brass not lead
• Fast shipping: I got confirmation of shipping the day after I placed my order and received my figures in under 2 weeks. 
• Competitive pricing. I think figures of this painting quality are a good value at the price they're offered at. MPS offers figures at a price point that is very similar to DPS and GAJO.

Misses:

• Packaging could have been better. Although each stand was encased in a soft foam cell, the figures were larger than the foam area. I had 3 riders loose off their horses when my package arrived. All were un-damaged other than being knocked loose.
• Horse equipment wasn't painted separately, but left the main horse color and highlighted by a wash. This might be a nit-pick as the end result actually looks good.
• Basing isn't as good as DPS. My bases were textured with sand and decorated with static grass, but the base color of the sand was black. The only place with black dirt I know of is one beach in Hawaii. A quick dry-brush of brown or tan would have fixed this. Unfortunately after the fact the only remedy I had was to over-paint the whole base and static grass the whole stand. This wasn't that much of a hardship honestly as I do the same for DPS stands so that they match the rest of my army. Others who like the DPS basing might not like the MPS black base color as much.
• My figures had some CA 'hazing' on the horses and weapons. It was obvious to me that these figures were assembled on a humid day. There was a very bad white  haze over the horses and weapons where they were glued on. Had I not known the easy fix for this I would have been severely disappointed. The easy fix was to simply brush on a light wash of clear acrylic medium. Sine it was just the horses I used my lightest figure wash I normally use for my painted figures, but a non-pigmented wash would also solve the problem.  Although this was a simple fix, I feel this problem with MPS is still a major concern. A professional painting company should know better, or should at least catch such problems and fix them before the figures go out the door.

My end conclusion is that I'm going to buy more figures from MPS. I will definitely keep an eye out on the CA hazing issue and also hope that they improve their basing process. Even considering these two issues I'm very happy with my purchase.  Below is a very close-up photo of the figures - click to enlarge.

 

Apologies For Lack Of Posts

Sorry for not posting lately. Life/work has jumped up and got all in the way of hobby time. I'm making a huge push at work to get things done before my vacation and camping trip next week. During the trip I hope to bring some figures to paint so I'll finally have some content to post to the blog.

AJ