Flames of War: M18 Hellcats

Quarantine has meant many things to many people. One positive I've seen in the modeling community is folks getting to work on shelved projects. In that spirit, I've recently completed a platoon of M18 Hellcats. These have been sitting around for quite awhile waiting to get painted. As they still don't even have rules in Flames of War V4, I found little motivation to get them finished.

Completed Platoon

I decided to NOT use modulation on these. Partially because I was feeling lazy and partially because I wanted to try something new. These were painted in the "classic" style: basecoat, drybrush, wash. I used a lighter color than on the 1/56 scale Hellcat I was working on at the same time. I've learned smaller scales look better with brighter colors.

Comparison of new miniature (left) with older one one I painted (right)

Decals used on these were a combination of Battlefront and I-94 Enterprises. Dirt streaking was down using AK Interactive's Afrika dust effects. I find this one works best on 1/100 scale due to the lighter color.

Platoon leader. "Sir, you should probably get down..."

Another comparison shot

Finnish Fokker CX

In anticipation of Battlefronts new MW  book for Finnish forces I've been slowing building up a Finnish Army. To kick things off, I painted up a pair of Fokker CX biplanes.

Battlefronts resin airplanes have always been frustraiting to assemble. It gets even worse with biplanes. Trying to align all the metal support struts for the wings and landing gears was particularly tedious. I ended up using a tiny piece of green stuff, rather than superglue for many of these. I found this gave me the working time and tackiness I was looking for.

I also tried a new camo technique on these. The black camo was applied using two passes of Nuln Oil over the green base. The theory is that this will allow a subtle shading effect to show through.

Other lesson learned: If you are going point yellow, paint it white first! I should know this my now, but I tried to mask and apply the yellow directly onto the camo scheme underneath. 

There were several other frustration this one:
1) barrel of rear MG broke off on one plane.
2) masking tape pealing off the paint on the upper wings. I was able to reapply the paint. This was my fault. I should have given the undercoat more time to dry.
3) One of the upper wings was accidentally set down on a dirty surface while still moist with sealant.
4) I nearly sealed one of the upper wings before realizeing I hadn't cleaned up with pin wash.
Overall, I felt like I was in a hurry to get these done for some reason. Need to slow down and just enjoy the process next time.

I may add scenic bases at some point. I'd like to do a few test bases first and figure out what the whole force will look like. They may need another coat of flat coat too...

These snow bases actually belong to my West German Helicopters.

I'm still not sure if I like the black or white background better. Here's some white.

Bolt Action: M18 Hellcat and M8 Greyhound

This has been sitting in a drawer assembled since late 2013. During the lock down, I've finally gotten around to painting it in a effort to complete my Bolt Action army.

M18 Hellcat by Company B. When I bought this, it was the only option for a 1/56 scale Hellcat. I believe War Lord Games has a plastic kit out now which is probably better.

I also finished up an M8 Greyhound. This is the older resin miniature from Warlord.

Bolt Action force is finally completed. Another lockdown project compete!

Christmas 2019

Every year I paint up another house for my wife's Christmas village. This is the 5th one. 2019 was little busy with a new job and moving so I didn't finish this until just recently.

This was is the "Beacon Hill House" from California Creations. I base coated in light grey this time (not black).

I did some subtle shading effects on the front porch to make it pop.

The brick surface started as grey. I mixed about 4 or 5 different shades of color and painted in random bricks, leaving the grey color in the recesses. Finally, I lightly sponged on the lightest and darkest of the colors to give the bricks a rough surface.

One problem with these is they are a very chalky plaster. There was excessive damage to the porch on this one. I just tried to paint it up as wood-rot.

Flames of War: 21. Panzer

A while back ago, I posted a showcase of my 21. panzer army. For whatever reason, the pictured ended up being distorted and low quality. I decided this was a great opportunity to try out my new lightbox on some older miniatures. Battlefront also released a new 21. Panzer book for 4th edition so I've been thinking about how bring this force up to V4 standards.

Several things are no longer available to 21. Panzer in the newer book.
1x King Tiger
3x Panzerwerfer
2x 8-rad [maybe run these as Sd Kfz 234 with 2cm guns?]

The inventory is that can be used in V4:
7x 7.5cm Hotchkiss Assault Gun
4x 105cm Hotchkiss Assault Gun [can only field three in a Unit in V4]
1x Observer Hotchkiss [could field as the Sd Kfz 250 observer]
2x Armored 2cm AA half-tracks
7x MG teams [used for all sorts of infantry units]
4x S307 half-tracks [Counts has Sd Kfz 251]
3x 155cm Lorriane Schlepper

Several others may see use, but probably won't...
5x softskin transports
2x command teams [can be used as panzergrenadier company commanders if I add another infantry Unit in the future]
1x staff team & radio truck [Make it into a third objective marker?]
2x observer teams [not sure what to do with these]

Command vehicles. In V3 you had the option to replace the command 7.5cm Hotchkiss with an observer armed only with an MG. I guess I can still use this as a Sd Kfz 250 observer.

7.5cm Hotchkiss Platoon. These form the core of the force.

7.5cm Hotchkiss Platoon. These were done in a different camo scheme to help tell units apart on the table.

105cm Hotchkiss. In V4 these only available in units of 2-3 and went from ROF 2 to ROF 1 with Slow Firing. If  that weren't painful enough, there also the change in rules to Brutal and stat changes to assault. OOF. Wouldn't have been so bad if they were cheaper. At least they picked up HEAT.

8-rads

Armored AA half-tracks.

First objective using the hotchkiss hull I stole the treads from.

Hiding out and waiting for rescue.

Objective B. I used this as a test piece for the camo patter on the Lorraine Schleppers.

Scorch mark effect is simply airbrushed on with black paint as the final step.

Pioneer half-tracks. These are actually not in V4. They are S307(f) half-tracks - not U304(f). The main difference is they are "full size".

Panzerpioneer platoon.

Hail to the king baby. Silly putty was placed over a green basecoat, then sprayed dunkelgelb. Next I spread the putty out just a little, and sprayed brown. This is how I got those nice, thin lines.

My favorite unit. I love how the camp pattern on these turned out.

An all-round view of these. I used small bits of masking tape for the camo pattern on these.

Panzerwerfers. These are not available in V4 yet and may not ever be available for 21.panzer.

 Some things have ended up being useless in V4 so far.

I created the extra crew option (from V3) as separate bases. This made them optional.

Transports for artillery spotters and command teams along with the pioneer supply vehicle. I suppose these can be used as softskin transports, if you're into that sort of thing.

Spotters, command, and staff teams. The staff team and radio truck could be converted into a objective I guess.

Team Yankee M113s

M113 armored mortars and an Observer M113.