Poor Bloody Infantry

I finished painting (except for the dipping) and glued to the bases (but have not yet based) my German infantry.  The Soviet infantry has also been glued to bases.  I am really not looking forward to basing all these guys and they will probably all get a very similar sand and static grass base.  The one hiccup in all this is that I stupidly glued all the soviets down with white glue not plastic glue so some have been falling off.  I contemplated ripping them all off and doing it all again but can't handle that right now.  Hopefully the glue and sand will help secure them and any who fall off after that will get plastic cement.

For Flames of war the Germans make up 3 grenadier platoons and 1 pioneer platoon with a company HQ. 

A Grenadier Platoon

A basic paint job.

4 Platoons

The soviets are one full company of 3 platoons and one short company of 2 platoons. Also 10 SMG teams to either be swapped into the infantry platoons or to be used as tank riders, though the rules for them have changed in the latest book so not sure if they will get used as tank riders much.

Should have spaced them out into platoons, but you get the picture

 
The most time consuming part of the Germans was actually doing the equipment on their back which you can't see in the pictures and is hardly noticeable in real life anyways.  Another reason not to get too detailed at 15mm :)  Not sure whether I am going to start basing next or start painting something else. Or I could always assemble something.       

Panzer IV's

I have been focusing on my 10 panzer IV's from PSC for the past little while and they are now all done except for the decaling.  I have currently misplaced the sheet of decals I purchased so both my Panzers and my T-34's are standing by until they can be relocated.  I am quite happy with the panzers.  The camo pattern isn't exactly what I wanted, but it looks decent in my opinion.  Half of them have a more striped pattern and half have a more block pattern.
    The edges of the camo swaths are cleaner than I think many people get with an airbrush, and the feather edges is something some tutorials recommend copying with a brush but looking at pictures I am not convinced that this is any more of a realistic pattern than a defined and clean edged camouflage.  I was particularly happy with how the tracks turned out.  This was my first attempt at the red rust/ iron oxide look and I think they turned out fairly well although you can't see it in the pictures.
    The basing of the Russians is also on hold and I am making slow progress on the German infantry.  For something totally different I assembled a Space Marine battle barge and reassembled after they came apart it's accompanying escorts.  Maybe one day they too will face the brush.       

The one on the right has been washed in Devlan Mud and is the final product.

Black Friday Reinforcements

So taking advantage of the Black Friday sale at The Warstore I tried to purchase all my hobby needs in one fell swoop.  I got some german half tracks, air support for Soviets and Russians and bases for all my PSC infantry.  I also picked up some additional German units to round things out like 8-rad armoured cars and some tank hunter teams. Also some Katyushas and a bunch of trucks for Germans and Soviets.

Ze Germans are coming.

To battle my Soviets and support my Fallschrimjager and Schwere Panzer Company some Grenadiers and Pv IV's are starting the painting process. I was waiting on some fieldgrey paint after buying german grey by mistake, but the Panzers have progressed farther than these pictures show.  I primed them with the same bleach bone spray as my soviet infantry and then basecoated GW Desert Yellow over that.

 

Tank Support

No work in progress shots of these guys, although I guess technically they are not yet finished since I need to apply some decals but the painting is done.  Again, very basic but that is how I roll.   I really like that plastic soldier company provides the two turret options, much  more cost efficient.  I have ten T-34's to support my Strelkovy now or perhaps form the core of a new tank company...   

Mass Production in the Motherland

So I have not been updating this regularly but I have made some progress on my Plastic Soldier Company Soviet Flames of War Army.  The infantry are done except for being dipped and based, and I think the dipping is going to have to wait for warmer weather.  So that is 260 minis which are currently being based. They are not, and never will be display quality but from a tabletop view I have to concur that quantity has a quality all its own.  And hopefully dipping will help them out a little.   

Soviet Infantry

"Oh look! plastic 15mm miniatures they are cheap and good quality."
"Don't you already have a ton of unpainted models?"
"Well yes, but these ones are different."
"Fair enough."


This is the conversation my mind had which lead to me purchasing the core of a Russian Strelkovy company and German Grenadier Company for Flames of War, all from the Plastic Soldier Company.  I purchased them online from Woodrows war store in Canada since I thought they had everything I wanted in stock.  Turns out they actually didn't so this project is starting two weeks later than I had planned but it doesn't really matter. 

First up is the Soviets still in their boxes.

And their German opponents.

The soviets will be first since I don't yet have an allied army.  Also I hadn't actually planned on doing Germans since I already have a Fallschrimjager and a Tiger Company.  But then I thought the tigers could use some Grenadier support and then the Panzer IV's were released and they looked good and would also be a good support choice and then another box of Panzer's would let me make a panzer company.... you get the point.
  So, two armies and only limited time before winter comes and I can no longer prime anything because of the snow.  In order to get the Strelk done fast I found this excellent tutorial on speed painting soviets.   With this in mind I clipped off and assembled all 260 figs and glued each pose on its own popsicle stick, ready to be sprayed.  I found the figs that had to be assembled quite annoying even though it was mostly just guns and heads, but no worse than cleaning off mold lines.  

After they have all been sprayed.

Next will be on to the actual painting.