German Support Weapons

Today I took some photos of the two German Support Weapons that I finished earlier this week.

I don´t have much to say regarding there, not 100% satisfied with the Grenadier - while the AT-Soldier looks quite good in my opinion. The Panzerfaust looks a little warped on the picture above, which is mostly caused by the perspective of the picture - look at the pics below, its not that bad in reality.

If anyone has any idea what is wrong with the Grenadier, I´d by very happy - I cannot quite pinpoint whats the problem with him. My girlfriend says he looks fine, but I feel like something is wrong with him...

African Officer / NCO - Malongos Elite

Yesterday I took another dolly that I had prepared -  the one for my African Teamleader / Squadleader - and decided to give the quicker way with less layers and more rapid work a try. Letting the minis dry and harden for hours really annoys me sometimes, when I´m motivated to get things done but cannot continue. Somehow it worked for this mini - maybe the training and experience is slowly showig its effect. Anyway, I got this guy done from sceleton to head in a few hours yesterday afternoon (something like 3-5h, of course no working all the time). Today I only had to add the beret.

He´s a little on the short side of the scale, pretty much the size of a caesar mini -  so, nothing to worry about, pretty compatible with most 1/72 minis, but maybe a little short considering he ´s supposed to be african and those guys are usually taller. 

His Load Bearing Equipment is inspired by these guys (Congolese Dem-Rep. Soldiers) but he carries a FN FAL instead of Russian Stuff:

Here´s another angle, with a better view on the weapon:

And here´s the last pic for today:

I´m very satisfied with the result and happy that I was able to built him up from the simple dolly in one evening, avoiding the destruction of parts that I had sculpted earlier.

I also progressed on the Germans, the Grenadier is almost finished (just some minor tweaks) but I´m withholding him until the AT-Soldier is ready as well.

I´ve also got a special character in the pipeline, sculpted after a picture that has fascinated me for a while. But more on that later - maybe  ;)

Angry Civilian

As I sideshow, I sculpted a civilian during the last few days, while the putty was drying on the other minis. As it´s a rather simple model, it was finished quite quickly. I think I learned some things with this mini though, sometimes less is more - I´ll try to reduce the extensive amount of layers I used on the last few minis and use fewer layers in the future and do whole parts of equipment at once.
It seems that adding things like pouches and small details onto hard putty is more hassle than sculpting the whole part of equipment in one go, e.g. trousers which pouches in one step - it does require more caution though, as you may not touch the freshly sculpted part at all.

Here is my angry civilian, who could also be used as a popular leader or with some imagination even as a suicide bomber during his last battlecry.

The hands are not perfect yet, thus he looks somewhat like a zombie - he is supposed to raise his fists into the air...

Meanwhile, I´m working on a Modern German Grenadier and an AT-Gunner with a Panzerfaust.

Marines and Insurgents

I finally found my motivation for painting again (thanks to Melvin and his nice Operators, which got me thinking that I should give the plastic minis another try...) and spent some time today working on Insurgents and my Marine Squad, whose last Fireteam was somewhere half-finished and waiting for completion. Here they are:

And from another perspective and with different lighting:

I also finished the first two insurgents, with more almost done but still waiting for some minor steps - most of the first batch of insurgents are conversions from the Caeser Urban Resisters pack, but most converted stuff was head- & torsoswaps or tweaks and modifications to the weaponry.

Nothing presentable on the sculpting front, but the German Grenadier is slowly taking shape.
I still owe you a battlereport from our Campaign, but I´m still not motivated to write it.
I should stop promising and anouncing stuff...   ;)

Anyway, sooner or later I will finish the other insurgent conversions and add Specialists to my USMC-Squad. Painting my vehicles proper is also on the list.

KSK - Part 2

Hey there,

after some obscure silence during the last few weeks, I´m finally in the position to deliver something here again. I´ve been busy sculpting the last two KSK-Soldiers for the German SF-Team that I´ve started a few weeks ago. Now, that they´re finally done, I proudly present the new members of the Team:

Hans Wurst

Advancing while covering his sector

Hans Wurst is joined by Peter Kopf, with his slightly too large head:

Peter Kopf - Observing

And, of course, the final group shots:

In case someone is wondering why the two new guys are using metal weapons - there´s a simple answer.  With permission of Mark from MJ Figures, I´m using his 20mm weapon casts (accessories). Mark has some excellent weapons in stock and with his permision, I am able to save a lot of time by simply purchasing a pack of those and using them. This leaves me more time to focus on the actual figures and provides a uniform look, which is a lot better than fiddling around with weapons for every mini, having varying success and different looks for each weapon I make. I still have to do some finetuning on the weapon (removing the flashes and edges, cutting the weapon down to size to be more in scale with the minis, as some of them are slightly too large, etc.), but I save a lot of effort for a small price.
So, thanks again to Mark for his permission!


Next on top of the list are:
 - German Support Weapons (Panzerfaust 3, already half prepared  + least 1 Grenadier with AG36)
 - African stuff with FALs (not sure if NAM, Mercenaries, or some kind of Rebels?)

I´m not sure which of those I´ll do in immediate succession of the KSK.



Regarding the next campaign update, I still owe you a battlereport... and some news. 

I´m also planning a small step-by-step demonstration of how some of our houserules have reshaped the game, because the experience on the tabletop is quite different than standard FoF, even though the rule changes are small (filling just two pages).

So, a lot in the pipeline - stay tuned!

NAM - RPK-Gunner

And the second gunner is ready, joining the ranks for the National Army of Malongo.
Again, some of the pics are a little blurry, but I hope its not too bad.

Next up, two more KSK-troopers.

NAM - PKM Gunner

First of my two NAM-gunners are ready. The National Army of Malongo now has some MG-capabilities. The second guys still needs arms and his RPK, which I´ve yet to prepare. After that, I´m moving back to my KSK-Group.

The PKM is probably not meant to be carried that way, but I´ve seen pictures with guys holding the weapon on that forward grip and thought this would be ok. He is a badly paid, badly trained African, after all. Hope this guy is not breaking is weapon by carrying it the wrong way ;)

I still have to add the forward part of the iron sights close to the muzzle, and I´ve yet to fix the hand holding his helmet, but I think he is quite presentable already. Hope you like it!

We´re also coming ever closer to a resolution on our latest campaign scenario, which might be up next weekend if things go smoothly.