A a better update on these chaps than last time. With them now all on the bases and just a last few finishing touches before they get put away and I start the prep for the Tabletop Commanders Miniature Modelling Mayhem (TtC MMM) Challenge starting on the 1st of April.
So, just to jump straight in, these were the first German troops I've painted - other than a few surrendering Peter Pig models. I found that they were a little tricky because of all the colours on them. There were a lot more colours than the British uniforms of the period. This also made highlighting interesting - especially the camo!
Speaking of camo, I'm quite please with how these look, although the pictures do them very little justice!
This is my attempt at Heer splinter camo. More effective at a distance, but these pics give an idea.
And a few pics of the unit laid out on the painting table:
So that's number 1 platoon done. I've another 2 Infantry platoons to do, one of which will be Peter Pig mini's from Lee. Unfortunately after soaking the bases to try and get the minis off, and then handling the minis while trying to get them off the bases, a lot of paint has come off from them. I'm going to try and repair them and highlight them up the same as I have with these guys!
After a bit of restructuring the 'randomly regular' weeknight paint and chats are going to be hosted by a new Group called Miniature Modelling Mayhem, while the more 'formal' Paint and Chats are going to remain under the Tabletop Commanders banner.
As a way of launching the new group we are having a small Painting Challenge!
The aim is to paint a number of units in April and May - the number you pick is up to you, which units you pick are up to you. Basically we want to encourage people to take part in the hangouts once or twice in the months - use the hangouts to keep your motivation up, talk about what you are working on, talk about the unit and it's history, if you hit a problem with your painting then ask for help or advice. Or just tune in and see what everyone else is doing. Some of the chats will be live and recorded for upload to YouTube, others will be just visible to the people in the hangout and will not be uploaded to YouTube.
For those of you who have not tried using the hangouts, it's a really great way of talking about history, toy soldiers, painting and modelling, etc, while getting some models painted and talking to fellow hobbyists. All you need to take part is a Google account and a mike if your are on a PC or Laptop. You can also use a webcam if you wish. There are apps available via the App Store on the Ipad and Iphone (Called Google Hangouts) which makes the process of joining in easy and use the Iphone or Ipad mike and camera (you can turn the camera off).
Whether you join in for 15 minutes or 3 hours is fine - or for the live ones you can just watch 'live' via youtube.
You can find an example of one of our hangouts here:
So the challenge involves:
1) Picking a number of units you want to paint, either over one or two months. Any unit size, any period or scale. I'm going to aim to do 3 units a month which is a push for me.
3) Join or Watch our paint and chats, talk about what your working on and generally use the chats as a way of keeping yourself motivated.
4) Post your progress on your blog on YouTube channel, let us all see what your doing!
And:
5) Finish a month of focused hobby work having gotten a unit or two (or more!) that you've been staring at for a long time done and out of your painting queue!
And example of what one of our contributors will be working on can be found here:
Feel free to leave a comment here if your are interested. I'll update the post with links to the various Google Plus and Facebook groups once we have everything set up!
A productive week for me, with a focus now on getting my first German Platoon finished and some basing done. The plan is to re-base the figures donated by Lee and also base the Battlefront platoon built from the figures purchases at the York show.
30 figures have been primed and main colours blocked in. I got a lot of work done after I took the picture - including an attempt at Heer camouflage. These guys are now close to being washed and highlighted.
It's been a bit of a slog for me as painting infantry is not my favourite part of the hobby and I am aware that this is the first platoon of many. I'm also unfamiliar with the figures and colour choices. I'm certainly unused to my paint pallet having so many varied colours on it!
Some close up pics will follow, but as usual it seems to be the paint and chats which are helping me keep up the pace. I've a small order to arrive from Wayland (*sigh*) and then the Germans should be done other than minefields and MG nests. I also ended up with another pack of Late War Grenadier models as the pack I picked up at York was missing enough machine guns. However, these models are horrible... they will make a recce platoon as well as providing the MG teams I am missing for #2 platoon.
In other (allied) news, my new pack of 3" M10's arrived - so the finished M10s will need some work to swap the guns, remove the crews and add armoured roofs!
