Operation Squad part 11 wip update

There has been a hiatus in painting this past week and a half due to a couple of landmark birthdays and a ‘not a mock, mock Ofsted’. Finally picked up the paintbrush on friday night and made good progress on my 20 Panzer Lehr grenadiers.
I prefer to paint in bulk  rather than batch painting as even though seemingly each individual figure takes longer to complete, once one is done all are done and the complete force is ready to take to the field.

The bulk are now ready for several coats of varnish, then basing after a few touchups, (always finding bits I have missed doh!).

Also this arrived from OG games, I decided to future proof my germans as this will allow me to put together a Bolt Action starter force if I decide to go beyond the squad level games of Operation squad  or if i use the vehicle supplement rules.

Plan is to have Panzer Lehr force based and ready to play by Friday as im off to my flgs to hopefully run through the game for the first time! 

Operation Squad part 10 WIP Wednesday

Just a few shots of my two test models for my Panzer Lehr grenadiers for Operation Squad.

Quite pleased how they turned out after, touch ups, washes and highlights added  Just need to paint and flock bases and add a few coats of varnish and only 18 more to finish!

Operation Squad part 9

Quick update today, good progress last night, have most of the base colours on my Panzer Lehr grenadiers just ammo pouches and webbing to finish plus a few touchups before I start applying some washes. Loving these Artizan sculpts and really nice to paint. No progress tonight as the in laws are round for mother in laws birthday supper!

Operation Squad Part 8

As a player of skirmish games you become familiar with using tokens to indicate wounds, ammo status or whether a model is hidden etc. These tokens inevitably are cut out from paper or card and if not done well can clutter a well laid out table full of beautiful minis and scenary and make it a mess. Whats worse if someone walks past or even breathes near said tokens,  they develop a life of their own and you are left wracking your brains at which wound token belongs to which mini. Operation squad  is a token heavy game and to get around this I have taken inspiration from   http://christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/operation-squad-game-and-report.html?m=1. Christopher has made scenic tokens based on euro 1 cent pieces…genius! So I have borrowed/stolen his idea and made my own based on 1 pence pieces. The beauty of this idea is that the tokens blend in with the table and are heavy enough not to move of their own freewill!
Activated
Just plain grass X24

Hidden
Added some tufts, to hide behind! X15

Pinned
Helmets on the ground, seemed apt as when pinned you try to get as close to the ground as possible! X8

Wounded
Blood splatters on grass X15

Out of ammo
Weapons lying on ground, need to roll 3 number’s the same so have made 4 of these should be enough!

Spotted Marker
A pair of binoculars, only need 2 of these, one for each side.

Ran Marker
I literally ran out of ideas (and bits) so indicated with discarded shovels and picks X8. (Well you wouldn’t want to be carrying these if running! )

Now to get back to painting my Panzer Lehr grenadiers…….

Off the wagon

Forgive me readers for I have this week fallen off the wagon and my plastic krak addiction has relapsed. I had aimed to buy no more miniatures and vowed to give salute a miss this year as I seriously needed to get a grip on my mountain of lead.  Yes I am expecting my AvP kickstarter goodies to arrive in May but that was purchased last year so doesn’t count in my new years resolution to paint what I own before buying more!
My first lapse was on Thursday when going to get my hair cut I stumbled upon Toymaster in Sudbury having a 50% off everything sale due to going into administration.  I knew from previous experience that they had a limited range of GW so decided to have a look. They had about 30 warhammer and 40K boxes left amongst which I found these two

2 boxes for 35 quid and another 10 termies for my Deathwing project Result!
Then Thursday afternoon I saw a tweet for OG Games, clearence sale on bolt action, up to 40% off! So I went online, just to browse you will understand and came across this:

3 hanomag apc’s and 30 grenadiers rrp £65, clearence price £36! Bargin, and perfect if I wanted to expand my Operation Squad forces to Bolt Action, plus Hanomag’s are good for Secrets of the Third Reich.  I promise I tried to resist but when 1 of 2 boxes remaining sold I caved in and placed my order…..

Project OS part 7

Cross of Iron

‘Steiner, is a myth, but men like him are our last hope and in that sense, he truly a very dangerous man.’
From its opening credits, a series of nazi propaganda newsreels and footage of combat juxtaposed with the German kinderleid ‘Hanschen Klein’  this film stood out,  head and shoulders,  from the rest as a truly great war movie. Firstly its focus wasn’t on a battle of note (like Battle of the Bulge, Tobruk, A Bridge Too Far or The Longest Day to name but a few) but on a small squad fighting for survival and an aristocratic officers quest for the medal of the title that ultimately endangers all. Yes it is historically set in the German retreat from the Taman peninsula in 1943, but that was largely irrelevant, it was Steiner and his squad you were journeying with and their fate was what you cared about.  Secondly the hero was a German and the enemy they fought the allies, in the guise of the Red Army. It is important to note Rolf Steiner is not a Nazi, In fact the only Nazi party member is Zoll and he meets a suitably unpleasant end (I shall not give it away in case you have not seen it, but lets just say it makes male audience members wince). Steiner is a common Landser of the heer whose loyalty is not to his superiors or a party but to the men of his aufklarungs
zug. An enigma, a man admired by his men and feared by his superiors as the suffering Captain Kiesals quote at the top of this piece illustrates. Steiner is not a cold blooded killer, (efficient but not without remorse), he saves a young russian boy soldier from execution, he is a man of principle despising the glory hunting Hauptmann Stransky for stealing a dead mans glory, ultimately he is a dangerous and troubled man.
Anyway why am I rambling on about a 36 year old war movie, well a couple of years ago I picked up the Steiner Set (Cross of Iron) of miniatures from 1st Corps. The sculpts are nice, clean and eady to paint, my only criticism is the legs are a bit chunky. I finally got around to basing them last week and I intend to write a ‘Steiner Aufklarungs’  OOB to be used with Operation Squad.

Unteroffizier Feldwebel Rolf Steiner

Unteroffizier Kruger

Unteroffizier Karl ‘Schnurrbart’ Reisenauer

Soldat Zoll

Gefreiter Kern

Soldat Schutze Maag

Soldat Anslem

Project OS part 6

Just a quick photo update of my workbench progress, currently working on 20 Panzer Lehr grenadiers for Operation Squad. A proper post later today on my Steiner Squad from Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron. Being half term hoping to make some real progress on this project and further inroads into my mountain of lead!

Project OS part 5

Finally finished my US airborne with my Browning M1919A6 .30 cal machine gun team

Quite pleased how they turned out…

Decided to be adventurous with the base, with the team resting their Browning M1919A6 on a fallen tree rather than use the bipod.

The Browning M1919A6 was used by airborne forces as it had a bipod and stock rather than the traditional M1919A4 which had no stock and a more cumbersome tripod mount

A shot of the Browning M1919a6 in action.

Below a final shot of all my completed ‘Band of Brothers’ now its onto the opposition and ‘Ze Germans’

Project OS part 4

My ‘Band of Brothers’ is coming along well, 16 out of 18 now done only the .30 cal team to finish, starting to put a small dent in this mountain of lead……

Project OS part 3

Have been busy over the past weekend with the old paintbrush and as a teaser to a post later today/tomorrow a quick shot of my US airborne……