"Falke, hier Adler - Kommen!"

Over the weekend I´ve been trying to get some paint on figures that have long been sitting on my paint rack to get rid of some of the figures in the painting backlog. My rack is still filled with a lot of stuff that needs to be done, but little by little I´m churning through the pile.

This weekend I picked some 20mm minis and terrain to finish up.  Pics will be appearing here throughout the next week.

We start today with an NVA Funker (Radioman) by Elhiem who was sitting around with a basecoat. I took him, smushed over a thin brownish wash and rebuilt the colors from there - very basic paintjob, finished in a short period of time. 

Random Mix

A quick overview over the results of last weeks work. A very random mix as I just worked on what I liked most.

First: Tanks in various stages of production.  The foremost T55 is the most advanced stage, the others are lagging several steps behind. 

The T55 are pimped in support of my East Germans, now finally getting prepared for some Cold War Hot action.   Again, still WIP and missing the essential highlights, so they´re looking rather dull right now. Add the wrong camera focus and you get a less then impressive pic:

On the sculpting front, I took the time to base the recent productions  - two Bundeswehr Riflemen and a US M249 gunner. 

Also working on a US Team leader to get the second fireteam finished before I send in the next lot.

For those of you who haven´t noticed:  I also put the figures from the last batch (SAS, Insurgents, US & Taliban) online, anybody who wants to grab them can do so - they´re just missing pretty pictures as my time to paint them up is a bit limited and when I do paint my focus is elsewhere at the moment.

That´s it for now... work is holding me back, but unfortunately I can´t eat miniatures ;)

A Figure a Day - Day 15: Ulrich

Last East German for a while:

And as promised, the entire group:

Let´s see about tomorrow, I don´t know yet which figure I shall present. I´m running low on finished figures I fear...

A Figure a Day - Day 14: Sebastian

New day, new figure:

The second RPK-Gunner!

Last East German tomorrow, together with a picture of the whole crew!

A Figure a Day - Day 13: Frank

A bit later than usual, sorry I kept you waiting. I got carried away renovating my old Taliban (the first 20mm Figures I ever painted).

So this is our East German Assistant RPG-Gunner:

I´m a bit shocked that it´s day 13 already. Seems like I have to get started with more figures, there isn´t much left...

Two East Germans left, you´ll have to wait until the other day!

A Figure a Day - Day 12: Peter

Another day gone by :(

East German RPK-Gunner (Schütze, LMG-K)

Seeya tomorrow!

A Figure a Day - Day 11: Holger

Here we go with another assaulting East German, firing from the hip.

And a little bonus picture for today: A new, shiny reworked M16 Master.
I believe I have to shorten the magazine ever so slightly, but even so it´s much better than the old version.

A Figure a Day - Day 10: Ralf

You know the deal by now - another figure!

East German soldier firing from the hip
I just noticed that I need to fix the boots... but that´s minor work ;)

Another East German tomorrow!

A Figure a Day - Day 9: Gerhard

New day and we´re changing themes again. With my stocks of R4 running low I´m presenting more East Germans throughout the next few days, until I can hopefully continue building up other ranges with fresh supplies of R4, FN FAL, AK and the likes.

East German RPG-grenadier ready for the shot.

More pictures tomorrow!

The Monstrosity

After dreaming some seriously weird stuff last night, I set out to sculpt something different, completely unrelated to modern warfare or the usual stuff I do. The dream sparked an idea, and the idea sparked this little Monstrosity:

If the idea doesn´t get lost (or my rather my interest in it) you might see some more of that kind of sculpting in the future. The Monstrosity is not completely finished, some detailwork on the fangs and legs is required. It´s 20mm Scale and about as tall as a man, so a REAL monstrosity for 1/72 figs or smaller. Slightly less so for 28mm heros, but still not trivial.

So all that´s missing now is some Hunters to cut this beast down, right? This could be the revival of the long forgotten "muskets" part of my blog... :)

Now back to the regular business, of course I didn´t just work on the monstrosity, but on a whole lot of other good stuff. Among it the rework of the East German Motor rifles, that is just about finished, with three poses replaced by new figures and the rest reworked with new heads and arms.

Germans - WIP Mix

A few quick and shoddy pictures on some of the results of my working session today. The pictures are not terribly impressive though.

One of the replacement figures for the NVA. Currently reworking the group and threw some of the poses out and started from scrap. The AK still looks too big, will have to get to work with the knife again later on... 

Preparations for more modern Germans... still awaiting a shipment of G36 to arm them! 

And another rebuilt East-German RPK Gunner. There´s more, but this is just a WIP sneak peek to fill some empty space in the blog, remember ;) 

East German Motorized Rifles - Almost finished

Still some work to do, but getting closer to completion fast:
 

Left Flank: Advance!

The subtitles on the pics are not entirely accurat of course, as Warpac doctrine used the Squad as their smallest element of maneuver, so no fire and maneuver on section level as implied here  ;)

Right flank: Covering Fire!

And another perspective:

The whole bunch:

Small steps

And another entry in my WIP diary on the east germans. Took some more time today to build some arms and noticed that I still missed a pouch, so I added it for most of the soldiers (some will have it added later as I didnt want to interfere with half-set putty on their arms)

The other group is also making some progress, but of course still a few steps behind.
These are taking slightly more time than usual, but I really like the results so far, so definitely a worthwile investment of my time. Still looking forward to doing something else for a change once the first four are ready :D 

Den Sozialismus in seinem Lauf...

hält wieder Ochs noch Esel auf!

Why do we need soldiers in that case? erm... 

Yes! Because they look cool! Even in their half-finished, rough state. Maybe I should release them as east german special edition - in a half-finished state, as scarcity prevents their completion? 

Don´t worry, the military was always well funded, so these will be completed ;)
Even the second half of the batch.

More East Germans in the Making

It´s bad weather outside and as you might know by now, this means no painting on the balcony but sculpting more stuff.  I´ve been working on more east germans before the good weather hit and picked them up where I left when the weather deteriorated.

A total of 8 guys is in the works, this post will present the first half of work in progress figures.

Four 20mm NVA soldiers - about two thirds finished

I´ve noticed that working on figures in groups of 4 is much more convenient and motivating than doing huge batches. So getting the first four East Germans done is a priority, I like to have some variety in my projects, not always the same uniform, webbing an weapons for all of the guys, gets boring pretty quickly if you do 8 figures in an assembly-line style.

The figures are still missing another bag, arms (obviously) and final touches on the legs.  Should give you a good idea about the end result though, even if the arms will probably cover up some of the details.

So, more East Germans coming along (the other 4 guys) and after I finish the figures above, I´ll start new Africans or more Insurgents, not sure yet.

Another Small East German

While working mainly on the Israelis lately, I´ve prepared another East German as a sideproject to use up some excess putty I didn´t need on our middle eastern friends.

He´s turned out a little small, which is why the AK looks monstrous in his arms. The weapon itself is slightly too big, the man slightly too small and the result is a strange looking figure :D

It´s not that bad if you view him from the side though.
And at least he´s got his Klappspaten with him:

Now let´s see if that planning tool works and the post pops up sometime tomorrow ;)

NVA Zugführer (Squadleader)

Quick update from the Workbench, my NVA Squadleader is now finished.

I also made a second NVA soldier, but I´m not happy with the result and will probably scrap him and start a new one together with the Heavy Weaponry of the other part of the section. So you´re not getting a photo, sorry.

More Israelis are now being worked on before I return to East Germans or Guerillas.

I´ve also noticed that the latest models have succumbed to scale creep, they´ve turned out a little tall. I´ll try to rectify this "problem" for future sculpts, but for now, the minis shown off are rather 24-25mm tall than the usual 22 or 23.
:(