Late War German infantry

 Being on this Inter War/WW2 painting spree at the moment I've been sorting out/finding unpainted figures from my last WW2 period. These figures are spread all over the place so...

Found about 40 assorted Germans - these were already undercoated green so I've just used this as a base. Most elements there but a bit short of MG34/42s.

Enough officers for now. The kneeling figure is obviously suffering from the Russian winter as his fingers seem to have gangrene.

1 each mortar and tripod mg, probably should increase these numbers and finish painting the mortar crew. Style generally is very basic - webbing, etc, I've pretty much ignored because when I did start painting them up... I couldn't see any difference on the table!

Only one of these guys so a definite future buy!

Meanwhile, also found some packs of British and Russians - mostly FAA, some Platoon 20, some unidentified. FAA are now based in the US, Platoon 20 are owned by East Riding Miniatures who have declared that they are closing down as of 17/5/21!

What's up with everything?

 Firstly, Blogger. Normally click on Reading List on the (command page?) and it brings up the list of updates on blogs I follow. Stopped doing that, now it's just showing blogs from blogger itself plus I can get to individual blogs from a 'manage' button. No way I can find of getting the original setting!

Next Paypal going funny. Ordered some stuff from Frontline, invoice listed as pending - Paypal won't let me confirm payment! Click on pay now, message flashes on and off - think it's saying that it will open in a new screen, but if so it doesn't. Just going around in circles! Tried Paypal Help - it doesn't help in the slightest! Nothing I can find helps me sort the problem. I'll have to try sorting things out in the morning.

I hate machines!

Been in the attic 3 - past remnants

 Although I didn't find a lot of the figures I was looking for, I did come across one box of (mainly) plastic figures that mostly go way back to the 70s.

All sorts of things visible - some early Warrier Greeks, Airfix Roman archers, etc, etc

Concentrating on conversions, I had a couple of completed units of 'cataphracts', though only ne was actually finished. Horse armour is simply loo roll.

Greek and Macedonian cavalry conversions - none of these made it to full units, though I did have a unit of Macedonian Phalangites made from Airfix Romans.

Another experiment - seeing how well Airfix Romans would work as Sarmations. On the table, better than the photo suggests!

Somewhere I should have a lot more of these - at Uni and about to go on industrial training for 4 months I needed a lightweight army. So in 4 weeks I painted and converted 40 cavalry - 20 standard javelin cavalry, 10 'Trajanic' horse archers using the top half of the Roman armoured archer, and 10 cataphracts, see above. Already had 100 or 150 legionaries plus the heavy archers. Also, 40 auxiliary infantry, half like this, other half archers made from the Robin Hood set.

Remember when the Robin Hood set figures were green rather than creamish? Still a few lying around...

Finally, did dig out a few Japanese, just not the mass of Airfix ones I was looking for.

Been in the attic 2 - Bellona

 More things I should be using - though they need a bit of work.

A couple are unassembled/unpainted.

 

The others have been sprayed earth. This fort is U-D12, Ancient hill fort. Now painted...

U-D10 is a Roman marching fort. A second one of these is hiding beneath the unpainted hill fort.

I have one sheet of the palisades and gates for the marching fort but think I'll try something a bit more substantial than these vacu-formed pieces.

Finally I have an example of U-D13, an American civil war log fort. This piece is missing it's log cabin.

And this is the quickly painted hill, fort!

Time was I had quite a bit of bellona - still got a few pieces lying around - let's face, when Bellona came out there wasn't much else!

Been in the attic 1 - the fort

Basically, know I've got loads of Airfix and Matchbox Japanese lying around so thought I'd have a mooch in the attic to see if I could find them. Didn't but 'found' lots of other things... 

And to start off:

Don't know when I made this matchstick fort. Quite a while ago.

Of course, one advantage of just using natural wood to make a wooden fort is that you can get away with not painting it!

The one problem with the fort is pretty clear from this view. As the walls dried they sort of bent... so there is a definite 'not straight' look about the walls!

Hasn't been used in years but two things are obvious: Must use it, must make more of my own forts.

Second Japanese squad.

 Is now finished.

Nothing else to say about it - same as first squad.

Though have also done a machine gun.

Next squad has separate heads - not happy with that but...

Japanese Type 98 Tank

 This just about completes my Interwar Japanese tank 'needs', though haven't got any of one I want - my first Japanese 'tank' was a converted Type 92 tankette following the Airfix magazine article of long ago (must dig that out sometime - still got it!

Must admit I prefer this colour scheme with strictly limited amounts of yellow. Still not very good on the flag insignia.

As with all Frontline tanks, basic and the odd bit snaps off, but they are fine for wargaming, easy to put together and cost half as much as many other companies!

Currently working on the second EWM infantry squad. I've got one more but it has separate heads - not liked by me! For the future, I've put in what might be my last 'big' order for a while - German WW1 infantry to act as Interwar Freikorps, few other infantry supports and artillery, plus the Frontline bridge - wanted something like that for a while, both for WW2 type battles and Newhaven.

Japanese infantry squad

 More on the Interwar pulp/etc type forces - though obviously the Japanese have a lot more uses!

15 man EWM Japanese infantry, wargames standard. Nothing else to say about it really.

Ford Model T Reconnaissance section

 Continuing with the various Christmas present figures, a couple of vehicles from Frontline Miniatures.

Liked the look of the WW1 Model T reconnaisance vehicle so decided a couple would serve nicely as a reconnaisance unit Interwar...

Unlike the others I haven't given them any markings - for wargames id I have painted numbers on the underside. Again, as for all my WW2 types, they are painted to a purely wargames standard.

Sparta! Early hoplites G3

 Between not doing a lot of painting recently and the amount of time it takes to do large units of G3 this lot have been a long time coming!

I realised that, although I had two G3 Spartan units already, they were both 24 figure units. So I decided to do this lot as a 1x48 or 2x24 figure unit.

I painted the Lamda insignia as a plain inverted V instead of outlining it in white.

I've also based the last G3 unit. The Tetrion is a slightly different green - difficult to mix exact shades so I only make limited attempts at trying!

Must admit, the more I see of this shield pattern the more I like it.

British Interwar infantry

 Continuing the Interwar/Pulp Army based theme, more Christmas figures just completed.

Figures are by Early War Miniatures. The force consists of 2 10 man sections with Lewis gun, 1 10 man infantry section with Bren gun, and 2 officers. Basic war games standard paint job, the force is sufficient for most of my purposes (with heavier support - machine guns, etc) - certainly for pulp actions - though may be increased for more normal war actions - such as an imaginary war with Japan.

Japanese Type 97 TE-KE light tank.

One of the armies I'm revisiting from the past is my Japanese WW2 army - an army that had it's genesis in the 60s with Airfix Bren Gun Carrier conversions (long gone!), lots of scratch built artillery and, later, plastic and carved balsa tanks. Currently I'm using this army as a good birthday/Christmas option. Some tanks already acquired, some painted.

 

Type 97 TE-KE, as usual with my WW2 stuff it's a much cruder paint job than many WW2 gamers manage!

However, it does the job and looks OK on the table. The varnish was supposed to be a matt finish...

 

Out for the day

Well, a few days ago really. Went to Pensthorpe Natural Park.

Of course, can't resist looking through those 50p/£3.50 for 10 pocket money toys that some stores sell..