More 28mm Afrika Korps - 88mm Flak from Perry Miniatures

Here's a Flak 88 for the Afrika Korps... as everybody knows, this was the ultimate anti-tank weapon when pressed into that role by the Germans, and they developed some very clever tactics with the 88 in the Western Desert. Obviously a must-have for a DAK table-top force.

So clearly I needed to build and paint one... and there are several available. Rubicon makes one in 1/56, and there are various metal kits about in "28mm" scale as well. I chose the one from Perry Miniatures for several reasons: it was described as a "resin kit" of only six pieces (I still have trauma from the 1/48 Bandai 88), Perry make a metal crew for it, and I needed some other models from them anyway. Done!

However, while I'm happy with the result, the model itself didn't thrill me. First, it's 3D printed (in resin), not a cast resin model. This is OK I guess, but when paying top price for a kit (18 pounds sterling!) I don't want to deal with print lines and such. Second, it's freakin' tiny. And third, did I mention it cost 18 pounds and didn't come with crew?? But to be fair, I think the Rubicon one is comparable in price (about 21 pounds) and comes with carriage parts and an early-war European theatre crew, but there are over 200 parts in the kit, and I've BTDT. 

So I went with Perry, and it worked out OK, after straightening out the warped trails. I'm also patting myself on the back for magnetising the crewman seen above aiming the gun. I used 5mm magnets, one attached to the body of the gun and the other to the seat mount on the crew figure.

Speaking of the crew, they're great - typical Perry stuff. Anatomy and faces are first-rate, but it should be noted that they're fairly slightly built to match the plastic DAK models; these aren't "heroic 28mm" figures by any means. You get 8 of 'em in the pack and a couple shell crates for 8 pounds, which is pretty good if you don't have to have them posted to you.

Here's that gun aimer. You can just see the disc magnet at the left.

And here's some beauty shots of the gun itself. In hindsight I maybe could've used a lighter yellow to paint it but it's weathered and done now. Not one step back!!

As I said earlier, the trails were a little warped and wouldn't straighten with hot water, so I had to screw around a bit with mounting it to the base - basically had to put a spacer in the middle and superglue the pads at the ends of the trails to the base, and clamp them down. It worked in the end, but was a royal pain.

So I guess I would say that if I had to do it over, I'd order the gun from Rubicon, pocket the Rubicon crew, and get the DAK crew from Perry. Two hundred parts is a lot for this model, but you do get the carriage parts - the DAK was known to put these guns into action straight from the carriage, and that would look cool on the table. Anyway, it's done now and that's the main thing, I'm on to the rest of the infantry platoon and a Blitzkrieg Pzkpfw. III, watch for those soon.

New Project - WW2 Western Desert, Perry Afrika Korps

I posted these models on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog about two weeks ago, but also wanted to post them here as kind of a record of my new project - the war in the Western Desert. First up is a 10-man section of Perry Miniatures DAK infantry.

The models are from the Perrys' plastic box, of course. I usually shun multi-part plastic models like a social disease, mainly because of the time and fiddliness in assembling the models. However the Perry stuff is only moderately time-consuming and fiddly... they come with head, torso and legs as one piece, and you stick on arms and weapon (usually as one piece), field gear (also one piece), and headgear. That's it, unless you need to assemble a machine gunner or NCO, then you need to also stick on a tool pouch or MP40 ammo pouches. So not a ton of work, and they're way more cost-effective than metal or even the Warlord/Bolt Action DAK box.

You can pick headgear from three variants - the early sun helmet, the steel helmet, or the iconic "Afrika" peaked soft cap. It's a good idea to trim a bit off the top of the model's head (ouch) before sticking on the cap, just to help it sit down a little lower over the eyes.

Once the dudes are assembled, it's time to paint 'em... I stocked up on shades of khaki for these guys. The trousers are all painted GW Zandri Dust with an Agrax Earthshade wash and re-highlight with Zamesi, and the jackets and caps are a variety of shades, including Vallejo Khaki and Yellow-Green, GW Rakarth Flesh, AK Deck Tan, etc... the webbing and helmets are Zandri Dust and breadbags are GW XV-88. Rifle stocks are GW Mournfang Brown highlighted with Skrag Brown, as are the wool covers on the waterbottles. 

Most of the poses are pretty good. In a few cases I had to do some greenstuff work around the joins between the arms and torso, but most were good.

The one-piece field gear is good too, there's a water bottle, breadbag, gas mask canister, entrenching tool and bayonet all attached. The tropical boots are cool too - I painted them with GW Doombull Brown and Vallejo German Uniform as seen here. The bases are made with a new technique - I glop on the Golden Coarse Pumice Gel as usual, but then sprinkle some fine sand on while it's still wet, to give a bit more sandy texture in fitting with the desert theme. After the models are primed and painted, I finish the bases with Steel Legion Drab/Zandri Dust/Rakarth Flesh. 

With this bunch done I've fully succumbed to temptation to start a new WW2 period. The DAK and Eighth Army will join my 28mm NW Europe British/Canadians, British Commandos, BEF/Home Guard, US paratroopers, US winter infantry, winter Finns, Soviets, German Heer, German Waffen-SS, German Fallschirmjagers, and early-war French in the cabinets. 

And since these dudes were painted I've finished another "unit" - a Perry 88mm Flak gun with eight crew. Blog post to come soon on that. Plus some tanks arrived from Blitzkrieg yesterday, as well as a couple of 6-pounder guns from Bolt Action today, so I'm set for painting for awhile yet.

Heia Safari!

More (Much More) Star Wars Legion - Hoth

Soo... haven't been posting much in the past couple months but I have been painting a bit, so I'm gonna vomit up a huge lot of painting in this one post.

The subject, of course, is Star Wars Legion. As noted in a previous post, I'm trying to minimize the insanity of the new project by concentrating on a bite-sized chunk - the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. I've already posted about the first squad of Rebel Veteran troopers and my 3D-printed characters, so now we're turning to a Rebel heavy weapon and the first of the Imperial assets. 

This is the 1.4 FD Rebel Laser Cannon Team - or as Star Wars grognards would know it, the Radar Laser Cannon. 

Like all of the Legion stuff I've painted so far, it's a fantastic model, well-sculpted and easy to put together. The only difficulty I had with it was remembering what paint colours I used on the crew.

The base might be a bit oversize but allows for some diorama-ing. Plus you'll likely only have one on the table at a time anyway.

The equivalent Imperial heavy weapon is the E-Web Blaster. I was a bit less enthused about this model owing to the bendy plastic used for its parts. The barrel had a warp and would not straighten no matter what I did - boiling water quenched in ice water didn't even help. I complained to Asmodee but two weeks later received an email saying "not our problem, complain to the retailer you bought it from." Well, in this time of Internet shopping that ain't gonna happen, is it? So I straightened the part as best I could and carried on. 

Looks pretty good as long as you don't study it too closely.

The crew looks awesome too, which brings us to...

...the first squad of Snowtroopers. You get seven in the box, each a multipart model made of hard-ish plastic. No sprues though as the parts are all in baggies and cleaned up ready for assembly.

The squad leader looks pretty cool.

Three troopers firing - the middle one has some sort of heavier blaster.

Trooper on the left is carrying a flamethrower, which I think looks awesome.

Back of the squad leader. I love these models and they're super easy to paint too.

I also picked up the Imperial Specialists box and General Veers (centre). The Specialists box includes the officer at left and comms trooper at right, as well as a medical droid and astromech droid (not yet painted). 

General Veers looks pretty cool. I like his camo green helmet and body armour.

Maybe not dressed exactly for the weather but I think they look fine on snow bases.

Quite the comms rig on Jimmy there!

Lastly, what would an Imperial force be without Lord Vader?

This is a really nice Vader sculpt, somewhat let down by materials. The saber I had to replace with brass rod as the plastic original was wavy as hell. The replacement looks fine I think, as I chamfered the tip with a file. I've attempted some rudimentary OSL here which I think turned out "OK" but not great. 

Like I said, a pretty cool sculpt.

The duel on Hoth that never happened!

Anyway, that brings us bang up to date with my SW Legion painting project. Next up will be some more rank and file for both sides before I get at the Scout Walker, that'll be fun as well.

Star Wars Legion Rebel Veterans

Well, I suppose it was somewhat inevitable that if one of the Conscripts got into a new Star Wars miniatures game (DAVE V.), I would also eventually get sucked in. I managed to avoid the Imperial Assault quicksand but the Legion models are just so nice I had to take the plunge.

 

The major hurdle I felt in jumping into Legion was the question of scale. Years back, I'd amassed a fairly sizeable collection of the WotC "Star Wars Miniature Battles" pre-painted soft-plastic figures and Conscript Towers saw A LOT of games played with these models. Then along came Imperial Assault in a slightly larger scale, ensuring that no mixing between the WotC models and FFG models could occur, and this helped me resist assimilation.

But now we have Star Wars Legion and the models are soooooo nice that it's practically impossible to resist picking some up, if only just to paint and admire.

I've decided that this is what I'm doing with this project. Conscript Dave V. has amassed a very impressive and comprehensive collection and I can't wait for him to put on a game or two for us. One thing that Dave's very into is the third-party 3D printed model producers, and I made the mistake of taking a troll on eBay a couple weeks ago for Legion 3D prints. I found a really lovely set of Han, Luke and Leia all in their Hoth garb and bought it, and of course thought it would be irresponsible not to also buy some Hoth Rebels to support them. So here we are.

The Rebel Veterans set consists of seven infantry models, including one shown here with a CM-0/93 blaster, and one crewing a tripod-mounted Mark II Medium Blaster. The rest carry A-280 blaster rifles.

There's even a Sullustan Rebel Veteran! Since there's already a "Nien Nunb" and "Ten Nunb", maybe this guy is "Elephen Nunb"? Dunno, but it's cool that FFG are introducing some diversity into the Rebel forces.

The models are cast in a soft-ish plastic that caused me some worry. This will be immediately understood by anyone familiar with the bendy garbage from Warlord Games. Fortunately the FFG models aren't too soft or bendy - they're not as hard as injection-molded plastic models from, say, Games Workshop, but are close.

 

The models assemble very easily and the sculpting is top-notch. Really nice.

There were just a couple of bendy muzzles that resisted hot-water straightening but fortunately they aren't too noticeable.

The section leader is really a great model too. I love the screen-accurate moustache as well.

I really like this set and will probably paint more Rebels for Hoth battles. One of the cool things about the Legion Rebel troop assortment is that even the basic troopers or even Commandos will fit into a Hoth environment by just painting their uniforms in similar colours. The Rebels were a bit of a rag-tag bunch after all, and not everybody need look the same.

So there we go... maybe some snowy Imperials next...?

Star Wars Legion - “Somebody has to save our skins!”

Star Wars: Legion does not have official models for Leia, Luke, and Han as they appeared in the original 'Star Wars' movie (Episode IV: A New Hope).

These recently released figures are three of eight(!) different poses Felipe Manivel created for the trio in ANH (here, Leia in her iconic “cinnamon bun” hairdo and Luke and Han wearing stolen Stormtrooper armour). I love the anatomy and detailing. I purchased 3D prints from Order66 Miniatures and BigFatChefsCustoms, both on Etsy. 

I did my usual black priming with Chaos Black, and airbrushed zenithal highlights with Vallejo greys and whites. I laid in basic tones in acrylics, then used oils for blending, especially the flesh tones and various neutrals and greys for the robe and armour.

I have now painted up four different versions of Luke from the original trilogy.