Painting, doing lots of painting

A busy month clearing out a back log of uncompleted projects. For some reason I'm finding I can paint faster than I used to, I think this has more to do with having settled on a style of painting and somehow this has made me more productive. I don't know what it is, but I do know it's a good thing.

So I've been working in 28mm for a Medieval project and in 20mm for my WWII Chain of Command units, mainly focussing on finishing off my Americans.

I bought some Perry plastic Agincourt sets with the idea of dabbling with Lion Rampant and trying to see if that would spark any interest from my younger son. That, like all my attempts to interest in him in miniature gaming proved fruitless and so the project stalled. However I revived it and have put together an English retinue for Lion Rampant and the start of a French retinue.

These are all Perry plastics with most from the Agincourt English Army box with additional Serjeants from the Agincourt French Infantry box. So two dozen archers, twelve serjeants and six men-at-arms.

The spearmen can be used for either French or English and so I've completed the rest of the figures to make up numbers with an eye to having two opposing retinues. While doing that I threw in a few more men-at-arms including one with a banner from Battle Flags.

The first of the French were crossbow men and they were painted up with the remaining English archers.

These joined the English retinue in a game of Lion Rampant (you can read the AAR in this post).

Having painted up most of a 20mm US platoon for Chain of Command I had become distracted and as a result there remained several support units that required finishing (even starting in some cases). With the 29 Let's Go campaign in mind I finished off two 3" AT guns and a 57mm gun. The first of the tanks were also finished - an M4, an M4A3(76) and an M5A1.

I have a number of American vehicles that need crews but I had only bought the crew figures for hatches and so I needed to order more of the full figure crews. The first project finished is the M10 which is based on the Amourfast Achilles kit and all I've done is to replace the barrel and add a 50 cal MG. The Armourfast kits are quite basic but with a little attention can make a perfectly acceptable gaming model.

I've also completed a M4A1 (76mm), this is one from PSC with a crew figure from AB.

I'm not very happy with the bow machine guns in the PSC models. While they are robust for gaming purposes they are way over scale and so I've bought some metal 30 cal barrels from Sgts Mess and I will replace all the bow guns in the PSC kits over the next weeks.

As I had an order in for the AB crew figures I thought I would pick up a few extra bits and pieces. No harm having an extra bazooka crew.

The AB German casualties were a nicely sculpted set and I intend using casualty figures to illustrate the images in the AARs on this blog. As I've said before, I've often taken a picture of the space where a unit or leader used to be if they were wiped out or killed, now at least I can fill that space with casualty figures that should help with the narrative and make for a more meaningful picture. As with the Germans I've painted these avoiding any gore as I don't think it really adds anything and the figures as they are get the point across without the need to over dramatise.

I continued to paint up the AB figures I've collected to replace the plastic PSC figures in my British platoon and this last section now means the core platoon are all AB.

Part of the project has also been replacing the PSC gun crews and so this PSC 6 pounder is now crewed with the AB 6 pounder set. At the same time I've rebased the gun on a smaller base so that I can fit it into terrain in a more practical way as I have done recently with my Russian guns.

I ordered the British command set because I wanted a figure with a radio and an officer to represent a forward observation team. However the set includes some rather nice figures that will work as platoon and section leaders and these were the first to be painted.

These join two other recent AB leaders from the core platoon that come with the platoon section sets.

I have a Bofors gun to make up and while that is yet to be started I've used this painting spell to get the crew ready plus put some paint on a few remaining tank crew figures that have been awaiting paint for far too long.

The Germans haven't been neglected and with an eye on the 29 Let's Go campaign I've needed to add a Marder to the German arsenal. Once again AB provide the crew for this PSC Marder III. The pictures make the muzzle brake look even bigger than it actually is and while it is no doubt over-scale it doesn't look quite this ridiculously large to the naked eye.

Looking at historical photographs it appears the Russian Maxim MG was often fired with the gunner prone yet for some reason many figures created for these guns have the gunner seated. From what I can see that is not the usual position and unless the gunner is prone the gun shield offers very little protection.

I've never liked the seated gunner that comes with the PSC gun and so I was pleased when AB released this Russian set which will now become the default MMG for the Russian platoon.

A busy few weeks, but pleasingly productive. Long may it continue.