Flames of War in Plastic

So I have "finished" my project for two Flames of War armies done using the Plastic Soldier Company range. Neither of them fits too well inside a force organization chart but they both give me lots of options.  The Soviets, which I have already shown close ups of, have: one 23 stand Rifle/Mg platoon, 15 stand Rifle/MG platoon, 15 stand SMG platoon, 10 T-34 76/85, Shturmovik air support, and 4 unfinished Katyushas and some trucks. So not fully done, but done enough to play with.

Full Army

Battlefront Flamethrowers, the only metal.

Full size Strelk Platoon

SMG's

Never mind those unpainted Katyushas I snuck in there.

Tank Support

The Germans are really the core of two company's Grenadiers and Panzer IV's but can draw on each other and the rest of my collection for support.  

Battlefront 8-rads only metal german models

Grenadier Platoon

Pioneer Platoon

Panzer IV's with Decals!

Full German Army

Gepanzeret Panzer Grenadiers

Opposing Forces

Close up of MG team

 

Space Ork Cowboy, Tuff Git

     

Ork Outlaw and a French Chateau

I have finished my model for the DeathSquads Prisoner Exchange 2012.  The bounty hunter Bruiser Crotchburner is ready to go out an get his man (or alien).  This is the most time I have ever but into a single model and while I think it shows in the end result I think I am going to stick to tabletop quality until I have chipped away at more of the Plastic and Lead mountain.    

I also assembled a french chateau I purchased as a souvenir from the War Museum in Paris.  It is probably too small to be used as 15mm terrain but would work for 10mm and might make good background for 15's.  

Back to the brush: CowOrk

Despite my last two posts I have actually been painting a bit and have made some progress on my Deathsquads prisoner (pictures here) as well as some PSC half-tracks and some Battlefront 8-rads, hopefully I will have pictures up for them within a day or two.  I'm not sure why I made the choice to have them transporting crew but they are proving a pain to paint and will probably end up being done to a fairly low standard.  Any ways pictures of the Outlaw Tough Git, now with washes and highlights.  I was at first really disappointed with how the highlighting on the poncho turned out since I thought it looked overdone and clumsy but it actually looks ok in the picture so maybe I am being overly hard on myself.  The jeans however really improved with a wash of devlan mud and now look like a pair of faded grimy Levi's if I do say so myself.  

     

Zvezda Stormovik and a CowOrk

So unfortunatly I did not make it down to Vancouver for the Trumpeters Convention.  I'm sure it would have been a great time but I am still feeling a little burnt out from travelling and didn't want to face the 12 hour drive down and then back.  So instead I have made slow progress on a couple projects.  I finished my 1:144 Stormovik to provide some airsupport for my All Plastic Soviets.

I also started painting my prisoner for the Deathsquads Prisoner Exchange 2012.  Below are some conversion and in progress painting pictures (sorry I cannot figure out how to rotate them so you are just going to have to tilit your head.)  The ork is obviously inspired by Western movies, particularly True Grit and the Outlaw Josey Wales.  I had prievously not worked with Greenstuff very much at all and I learned a few things trying to get this guy how I wanted him.  Hopefully I will finish up painting him in the next couple days.    

 

Various Projects.

So rather than starting to document my travels I have instead jumped into a couple little projects.

The Deathsquads Prisoner Exchange, is where you convert and paint a model and then send it to a participant somewhere else in the world.  In return another random participant sends you one as well.  Some people are going over the top with multi-model dioramas and such.  I am aiming lower and hoping to do one well executed conversion with a nice paint job.  My plan is to do a cowboy themed Ork "hired gun."  I feel like the hired gun is a good call since it can be used across multiple squads.  I still need to decide on whether I want to try and mold a poncho for him out of green stuff. 

The Black Ork Nob has lost his topknot and received a hat and spurs.

I decided I wanted him to have both guns aimed forward, so I had to cut up an axe arm and re-equip it.

 I am also starting to try to convert my Warhamer Empire army to be a useable Renaissance force for Fields of Glory.  I bought some pikes off the internet and have had a go at cutting their spears away and drilling their hands out.  It hasn't worked out very smoothly with bit of spear left behind but from a distance I think they are starting to look all right.  The small sizes of FOG Renaissance units doesn't help with letting my poor conversions blend into the crowd. I will probably convert around 24 of them to pikes which will give me enough for 4 small pike and shotte units.    

I was hoping to be able to dip my Soviet and German infantry but it is still too cold and too much snow on the ground.  I'll also start writing up some museum/battlefield reviews this week, as soon as I find my motivation.

Test Paint Scheme for Death Squads

So instead of doing important life things I painted up a test mini for my Imperial Death Squad.  The camo pattern is supposed to resemble the Cadpat camo currently used by the Canadian Military.  Not sure why I decided to do a brown gun.  I'm also not certain on whether I want to keep the dark green body armour.   

  
For more info on Death Squads a fan made Warhammer 40k Skirmish game go here.
http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/