Two German Sections - 20mm WWII

Just squeezing in under the deadline for The Guild's 2012 group build - this is my task two. It consists of German opponents for the platoon of Brits I painted for the last task - two sections of infantry (18 men) and one Tiger 1 tank.

The figures are Italeri, from their German Elite Infantry set. I've painted them with what I hope are passable representations of the various camouflage patterns used by the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS.

And some shots of the Tiger:

Infantry Platoon Finished

This was supposed to be my task one for the group build on the guild, but hey.

Figures are all Revell, painted with the Dip and based on pennies. More detailed images, WIP shots and a tutorial can be found by scrolling down.

Scythes of the Emperor Sternguard

I'm restarting my Scythes of the Emperor army. These models are the first two men of a Sternguard squad, which is admittedly an odd place to start. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make sternguard from the awesome Dark Angel veterans kit.

The robed bodies are a nice way of differentiating veterans from ordinary tactical squad members, and the all plastic kit lends itself to conversions much better than the metal Sternguard kit does.

The only drawback is the sheer amount of Dark Angle iconography that is present - to the extent that the kit contains no plain shoulderpads and most of the weapons require trimming.

Scythes of the Emperor players will also note that I've gone for a non traditional colour scheme, the traditional one featuring lots of bright yellow. I decided that it was a very 90's look, and so have gone for a bone/black colour scheme. I've also used the more modern double scythe emblem, rather than the original single scythe.

That shoulderpad says 'Sotha', the homeworld of the Scythes.

More pictures:

Lastly, for anyone wanting to know more about the Scythes of the Emperor, I can recommend this site.

Next up from my stash is my finished platoon of British Infantry, which are awaiting basing.

Tiger 1

My latest work is a repaint of a DeAgostini diecast. These were on sale about two years ago for £2, so I picked up four.

The tank is painted in a generic way, with no markings apart from the turret numbers and the balkan crosses, so that I can use it as any formation I wish.

The colour scheme may or may not be correct for Normandy, but once again,  I'm not too bothered.

In my 20mm WW2 collection, I've been going for a fairly drab and realistic look in my models. This model is an attempt at a more brown shade of dunkelgelb, rather than the bright yellow I've used in the past.

I've also got a new camera, hopefully allowing me to take better pictures. The manual focus certainly helps, since most of my previous photos were focussed on the model's base.

Lastly, here's what it looked like before repainting:

Painting British Infantry for WWII: mini tutorial

This is a short tutorial on how I paint the figures for my WWII Normandy project, which has been displayed here recently: link.

Paints needed 


GW Khemri Brown
GW Kommando Khaki
GW Bleached Bone
Revell Aqua Leather Brown
Revell Aqau Flesh
GW Catachan Green
GW Boltgun metal
Revell Aqua Black

These are the colours I used, feel free to substitute equivalent colours as you like.

Other Materials needed


Basing material/paints/sand
Army Painter Strong Tone
Matt varnish

Method:

After priming, basecoat the figure in Khemri brown, and paint the flesh with flesh, then the webbing with a 50/50 mix of Kommando khaki and Bleached bone. More than one coat will probably be necessary for the flesh and webbing to get an even colour.

Paint the rifle's wooden parts with Leather brown, and the metal parts with Boltgun metal. The helmet needs painting with Catachan green, and the boots with black. At this point the actual painting of the figure is done.

A rear view showing the figure at this point. It will probably look like utter crap.

Then apply the dip with a brush, being careful not to let it pool, and let it dry for a day.

After that, apply a coat of matt varnish to dull down the shine, and base to taste.

In the end, the figure should look something like this.

This method is fairly quick to do, especially if like me you basecoat with spray paint or an airbrush. That said, taking the time to paint the figure, especially the webbing, neatly makes it look so much better.

The Second Infantry Section (+ PIAT team)

More figures for my british platoon - I still have to do the third section and the platoon HQ.

Once again, these figures were painted with the Dip. I will have a tutorial up within a week or so, I've taken the pictures, but they need editing and sorting into a coherent post.

The PIAT team. The loader figure is one of my favourite figures from this set.

More pictures below:

British Infantry Section (20mm WW2)

I've now finished my first section of infantry for my platoon. I'm going to leave them for a week or so until January, because they'll form part of my 2012 group build over on The Guild. (link) A post will be forthcoming explaining what this is, but if you're a member of the guild, it's here. (link) If not, I strongly recommend you join, because it's an amazing community of gamers - probably the best wargaming forum out there.

All of these figures were painted with the Dip, from Army Painter. I went in to a bit more detail about it in my last post.

The ten man section includes this three man Bren group, six riflemen, and a Sten armed Corporal.

The figures are all plastic Revell 20mm. They're nicely sculpted, but an absolute pain to clean and prep.

WW2 Brits using the Dip

 I love Army Painter's dip. (Strong Tone) These chaps took less than 20 minutes each, painting individually. Batch painting should bring this down to about 15 minutes at most, which means I actually have a shot at finishing a complete platoon before this time next year, which is what I intend to do.

Sadly, the effect of the dip is fairly subtle, so they don't look great when photographed, but rest assured these figures look nice to me.  I've already started prepping another batch for paint.