Finished: WW3 Team Yankee Dutch project

Hi folks,

As mentioned in my last blog entry, I've finished all the units I had in the paint queue for my Team Yankee Dutch. As I swapped my only other painted army (my 10mm ACW) for other figures, this now becomes my only completed force!

These are 15mm Battlefront models (for the most part, with a couple of resin 3d prints from Butlers Printed Models). 

Well, completed at the moment. Time will tell whether I add any of the extras from the newest NATO Forces book. 

The finished project leaves me with a full Mechanised Infantry company, a Leopard 1 company, a Leopard 2 company, all the various support assets and a Recce company (which needs tanks from one of the other companies in order to be fielded). I've also added some earlier Dutch wheeled APCs, and some anti-tank jeeps. West Germany is represented by some air support and Roland Marders. 

It was mentioned by the guys when I was taking the photos at the end of the club games day in October (I have limited space now at home for pics like this) that there is a lot more varied tone to these models when seen in person than the photos of the finished models show. A mix of the lighting and the way that the weathering product I've used shows up on camera I think. 

I've now moved onto other bits and bobs - avoiding large planned projects for now in favour of clearing some low hanging fruit collection wise, and painting some of the odds and sods I have had outstanding for a while. More on those bits soon!

Finished: 15mm PAH Anti-tank Helicopter Flight

Hi folks,

Chipping away at my 'Modern' Dutch force. Thankfully the end is now in sight... until the new 'NATO Forces' comes up in the next month or two and adds more options. Unfortunately, as I look upon the dwindling number of models still to finish, my motivation is also dwindling. 

Still, one of the outstanding units had been some West German helicopter support for my Dutch. I'd been helped out again by Dave, who'd used his airbrush to lay on the camo pattern on these. I was really unsure about painting these, but had fun doing the Tornados so thought I would bump them up them up the queue. 

Armed with up to six Euromissile HOT missiles, these Helicopters entered West German service in the late 1970s and only retired in 2016. They were also widely exported and served in the armed forces of a huge number of nations in a huge number of roles. 

These particular models are Battlefront 15mm plastic kits. From memory, they went together pretty easily. The main rotor assembly has been magnetised to allow easier transport, and the flight bases have also been magnetised. Decals came from the box. I may revisit the glass on the cockpit at some point, and add some more detail. 

I've not done any weathering on the decals of either these or the Tornados, but I may revisit that in the future. I like the aircraft looking a little more pristine, I'll have to see how it looks on the table. 

I also accidentally discovered a way of easily pin washing these models (without mucking about with enamels, etc), something I'm keep to experiment with going forward. Basically, painting some water onto an area would then give the qualities needed to have the wash flow as required. I think this might work even better with acrylic thinner. 

And just for the record, here's my tracking sheet as it stands. Peach represents built models, with shades of yellow, orange and green used to track progress. The light green entries are models that are currently WiP. 

 

Finished: 15mm 'Dutch' TOW and 106mm RR Jeeps

Hi folks,

Another couple of units for my Team Yankee/Cold War Dutch project. This time in the form of some '2nd line' anti-tank units. I wanted some options to go along with my YPR-408s, and figured that the Battlefront sets of Israeli/Iranian TOW and 106mm Recoilless Rife jeeps would fit. 

These jeeps each have a crew of two. The crew wear similar helmets to the Dutch, and have similar webbing. So with the same paint job they look fine. 

I based these as per my other TY bits. Thankfully not a lot of room on these for decals, so I skipped this as well. 

Finished: 15mm Team Yankee Dutch Mechanised Infantry platoon

Hi folks,

Another long gap between blog posts, mainly brought to you by a distinct lack of painting mojo on my behalf. I normally seem to suffer a bit of a slump post AHPC, but this year I struggled to shake the doldrums and was distracted by computer games and TV shows. 

I did manage to assemble all of the Leopard 1 models for the TY dutch project... 

Aside from building some tanks, I had slowly been chipping away at the infantry for my previously completed IFVs. These models are 15mm Battlefront metal casts, and were nice and easy to paint. No camo, limited range of colours and some nice poses. 

The pack contains enough models to also build the formation command team, and with two radio operators I was able to easily mark out which of the infantry teams would be the HQ. 

In total there are four GPMG/LAW teams, three Carl Gustav teams and two Dragon ATGW teams. Then the formation commander on the small base. 

They look the part with their transports. 

I've not gone for any flower tufts on the bases, mainly to separate these out from my WW2 stuff, but also as my perception of a cold war landscape is one with a lot less 'wildness' to it. I do have two shades of grass tufts, just for some texture and variation, although they don't show up well on my (poor) photos. 

I'm unsure what's on the painting table next - possibly another vehicle unit just to make sure I can replicate the same look as the IFVs.