Here is the next Grunt of my US Marine Platoon:
Again an Empress miniature. The face has to be redone though looks a bit like a Zombie up close.
Another Grunt
Month: July 2019
The beginning of my first squad of a US Marines platoon , Vietnam1968
As you can see here and here I started using the new Games workshop Contrast paints on the new Vietnam war ranges of Empress and Gringo 40.
As I am on my summer holiday now I took a few figures with me and will paint them up over the coming fortnight.
Here is the first figure finished. Grunt No I , a Empress miniature sculpted by Paul Hicks:
Next one tomorrow. The Uniform equipment and skin was done in Contrast paints the rest conventionally.
Das Boot in 1/300 for Cruel Seas
I did some more work on the Typ VIIc U-Boat lately. added the deck and the conning tower. now only a few little bits like the diesel exhausts and the deck fittings and the anchor are missing then it goes into the moulding process.
More to come!
Auxiliary Gunboat finished
I finished the coastal freighter as a auxiliary Gunboat. The weapons are as always from the Warlord and Heroic & Pos weapons sets. VP 1037 is a Vorpostenboot as it was very often used in the channel , north sea and the baltic during the second WW. It was used for escort duties for small convoys , or for escorting U boats back to base through the biscay sea.
And a size comparison with a E boat:
You can get a Auxiliary Gunboat here.
U-boat typ VII C for Cruel Seas in 1/300
The Type VIIC was the workhorse of the German U-boat force, with 568 commissioned from 1940 to 1945. The Type VIIC was an effective fighting machine and was seen almost everywhere U-boats operated, although its range of only 8,500 nautical miles was not as great as that of the larger Type IX (11,000 nautical miles), severely limiting the time it could spend in the far reaches of the western and southern Atlantic without refueling from a tender or U-boat tanker. The VIIC came into service near the beginning of the war and was still the most numerous type in service when Allied anti-submarine efforts finally defeated the U-boat campaign in late 1943 and 1944.
Type VIIC differed from the VIIB only in the addition of an active sonar and a few minor mechanical improvements, making it 2 feet longer and 8 tons heavier. Many of these boats were fitted with snorkels in 1944 and 1945.
Armament was 5x Torpedo tubes ( 4 to the front 1 facing aft), They carried 14 torpedoes. 1x 88mm naval gun with 220 rounds and various anti aircraft guns ( depending on conning tower typ).
Why, do you probably think, a submarine for Cruel Seas? the rules don’t include real submarine warfare as written. And Yes you are right but the “Boot” is so iconic for WWII naval warfare that i had to do one. I use rules proposed by David Manley in his rules for coastal warfare ( Action Stations). They can be incorporated or combined with Cruel Seas.
So there are quite a lot of U Boat models in 1/350 ,like the one below made by Revell, but they are not waterline and basically to small for my taste.
So I started building one from a 1/400 paper model. I enlarged the size with a photocopier to 1/300 and started cutting and gluing strengthen it at the same time to make casting resin copies possible.
The basic hull parts
the skeleton glued
adding the deck
and the sides. Here alongside the waterline 1/350 model by Revell.
You can see clearly how much longer and wider the model is in comparison .
Next step is to do the upper deck and the conning tower. I will build the tower version as on the Revell model but there will be other types of conning tower later ,too. There will be a Typ IX Boat too in the future!
Fireforge Games Northmen Cavalry
Over on Wargame News and Terrain you can find a nice review about the new cavalry figures by Fireforge Games. Have a look here if interested.
Auxiliary Gunboat VP1037
I did some more work on the MS Louisa as a Auxiliary Gunboat. Named VP 1037.
Here are some pictures of the build and primed model:
The weapons are as usual from Warlord and Heroic&Ros.
More to come when painting is finished. If interested in a copy ,I Will list the ship here when ready.
Next up will be a Typ VIIc U Boat….
Citadel Contrast paint test, part II
So i finished the test miniature. It took me about 20 minutes to do , excluding drying times. I think it is a good table top standard. Definitely not for a painting competition. But can be used for one as a base or starting point. I tried this to see how quick I could get a new army painted by using mainly Contrast paints.
In my summer holiday (two weeks of) I will try to paint as many as i can. Aim is to paint a complete squad of US Marines for Vietnam. Lets see how much I can manage in 2 weeks!
Citadel Contrast colours, a test
I got some of the new Vietnam War US Marines by Gringo 40 and by Empress.
Both wonderful 28mm sculpts. You can use both ranges together. the Gringo 40 ones are a tat larger so I cut the metal base of . Then they fit quite good.
Now to the test. I not only got those new miniatures but also a few of the new Games Workshop Contrast colours.
I wanted to test these on one of my new miniatures. The contrast colors are not really colours in the pure sense they are more like a heavy wash. A bit like the vallejo washes. The difference is that you get more shades. They seem to have more pigments then the washes i am used to. So what I did I used vallejo sky grey as a base coat and applied the washes as they are without thinning them .
Here I painted one of the green contrast paints on. The photo is taken right after application of the color so still a bit wet.
Added a skin tone ( Gulliman flesh) quite dark. This is only one coat. Next time I would thin it down a bit. By the way you shouldn’t use water for thinning these contrast colours. There is a medium to thin them available at Games workshop too. I haven’t tried the wash medium i normally use to do my washes with on these colors.
The flack vest done in another green. As you can see after drying completely they are still a bit shiny. I will do the pouches etc in jet another green and at in the details with vallejo colors in the next days.
I will show the finished miniature then.
Don’t fear my Cruel seas friends there will be more ships in the future , too!
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