Curtgeld - Oberst Kurt Steiner from 'The Eagles has landed'

As usual I've been keeping one of the most important entries of the painting challenge for last:

The entry fee 'Curtgeld' miniature

Last but not least a couple of twins:

Both version of Col. Steiner side by side

British Para Reinforcements

It must have been twenty year ago when I first watched 'A Bridge too far'. Since then this movie influenced me and my wargaming hobby. Years ago I had 20mm Red Devils. Firstly Revell plastics and later Britannia metal miniatures. A while ago I stumpled over Warlord Games's range for their Bolt Action game and fell for their republished BAM figures. After a longish break I painted the second batch last week:

First two leader figures. Actually they're meant to be officers but I decided to use them as sergeants for my paratrooper sections.

Then a couple of riflemen wearing berets and a small 2" mortar. I have no idea whether I'll really need him but probably I won't harm to have one.

Last but not least four more careful troopers wearing the Mk. 2 Airborne steel helmet with some camouflage on it.

As you see I have to finish the bases but I wanted to take some pictures before varnishing the boys. For the DPM smock I used the same colour combination as for my earlier Red Devils. Although it looks too greenish on the detail shots the general impression on the table is rather satisfying to me. Especially because they combine well with their earlier painted chaps.

Only ten men but a large step to my initial 500 points army for Bolt Action. Only twelve men to go!

For now please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Enjoy your weekend!

28mm Horsa Glider - A huge and excellent blog of resin...

The last two weeks were quite here. I've been working on many different miniatures but didn't produce anything finished. Simultaneously I had some busy days at work and some efforts for the 1812 ruleset I'm taking part in. Many irons in the fire. Maybe too many...

Anyway I didn't want to bore you with daily WIP-shots. For the next week there'll be some more Vikings, the FIW British for BfC and some more 1812 French and allies.

But now for my entry for the recent fortnight bonus round of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. The theme was 'vehicles' and I decided to prepare a 28mm Horsa Glider which I need for the Pegasus Bridge project.

The eagle has landed and the Red Devils disembark.

For this bonus round I painted a British Horsa. This glider was used by British and allied airborne troops to be carried into combat during Word War II. Its most famous employments were the invasion of Sicily, the airborne landings prior to D-Day and Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The Airspeed Horsa glider measured a length of 20 metres and wingspan of 27 metres. It had no engine and was drawn into the air by a larger towing aircraft like the Handley Page Halifax or the Douglas DC-3. It was capable to carry 25 fully equipped soldiers, a jeep or a 6pdr antitank gun.

The huge model is about 30cm (about 12  inches) long.

This actual model here is a 28mm Horsa by Grand Manner. It's a hugh model. A solid blog of resin from Dave Bodley's gifted hands. It shows all important characteristics and was assembled very quickly. The only thing I improved were the supports of the main wings. I substituted the white metal rods with solid brass ones since I thought it might be slightly too heavy under the hard circumstances on the gaming table...

 For painting I used my old airbrush and Vallejo Model Colours with suitable thinner. All in all it was an interesting experience to paint such a great model. Merely the tail seems to be a bit too short. Although I didn't paint the white and black stripes too broad I wasn't able to attach the transfers on the side correctly. Therefore I attached them slightly forward. It looks fairly alright to me but for the next Horsa I would repaint the tail with thinner stripes...

Wingspan nearly 36 centimeters (more than 14 inches).

However I'm glad to have this piece finished. Another step for my Pegasus project and another fortnight bonus round passed on the painting challenge. With around 260 points I'm nearly half done with my 600 points target and I'm rather confident that I'll be able to collect the missing points with the remaining fortnight bonusses and the other stuff on my workbench.

By the way Fran Lee won our 600 points race! Congratulations!

Therefore I owe him a painted miniature as well deserved price. Drop me an email mate to talk about the what when and how.

Pegasus Bridge unboxed

Lately I received my copy of Warlord Games' huge Pegasus Bridge set. It was a bit like Christmas when I got the large, heavy parcel and I was really curious what the boys from Nottingham boxed.

But first of all I weighted the box and with about 4.6 kg or more than 10 lbs you get a lot of bang for your buck:

After opening the box my expectations were completely fulfilled. There are four bundles of laser-cut MDF parts for the bridge itself, the Café Gondrée and the pillbox near the bridge approach. Additionally there are the appropriate construction manuals, some resin parts and a couple of figures:

More precisely there are enough sprues to build up twenty German soldiers, a 55mm gun, a MG-42 team and thirteen twelve British paras and the exclusive Major Howard miniatures which is only available with the Pegasus Bridge battle sets:

The figures are from Warlord Games' usual range and have the well known quality. Especially the metal miniatures are excellently detailed, slender and depict lively poses. The casting quality is appropriate. There is little flash and no major faults. In fine: I like those Red Devils a lot.

The Germans look very well too. The metal miniatures bear the same qualities as their British counterparts and are as good as these. The plastic reinforcements are multi-part miniatures. That make them very flexible on the one hand but requires some additional work for cleaning several parts and glueing them together. Although I'm about to turn away generally from platics for this reason, the late war Germans from Warlord Games look very well. A lot of interesting head and weapon options and the advantage of easy conversions.

Additionally there are some resin parts for entrenchments. A gunpit for the 55mm gun and two sandbag pieces for the MG-42 nest. All three in excellent quality but unfortunately the gunpit has a large sprue bush on the bottom side. It'll cost some work to remove this...

One thing I waited for excitedly was the special figure for Major John Howard. Besides Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Johnny Frost and Major General Roy Urquhart he was kind of hero of my younger days since I first watched "The Longest Day" where Richard Todd re-enacted him. All too well I remember the heroic assault on the bridge and his "Hold until relieved" order.

Anyway Warlord Games made a really nice figure of him. At first glance I was a bit disappointed because I irrevocably envisioned him with a beret but after a closer look on the painted model I like the dynamic pose more than I dislike the helmet:

All in all an excellent set which promised to become a real eye catcher when well assembled and painted. I have no idea how large the bridge will or how long it'll take to build and paint it. My goal is to have it finished for June 2014. I'll start with the pillbox rather soon because it seems to be the easiest of the three kits. Hoepfully a good chance to gain some experience with mdf kits since it's the first one for me.

Red Devils approaching!

Actually this week had an excellent start with "Trooping the Colour" on Saturday. This ceremony is closely connected with some of me earliest memories of English military tradition which sat the headstone for my livelong affection to the United Kingdom, its army and military in general. So I was highly motivated to get some British on my workbench finished. A perfect opportunity to put the final brush marks on the Red Devils I started to paint some time ago.

But unfortunately weather turned bad. Some hot air from Africa turned our part of Germany into a mixtures of oven and steamer. To be honest I like typical British weather as much as tea, biscuits or some nice fish & chips. Thus that subtropical sauna weather was just terrible to me. Even thinking of work made me sweat... Under those hard conditions it took until yesterday evening until I finished the first squad:

The whole squad

Miniatures are from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range and as usual I used nearly solely Vallejo Model Colours:
1. DPM smock:
Basecolour: VMC #70.823 "Luftwaffe Camouflage Green"
Camouflage 1: VMC #70.818 "Red Leather"
Camouflage 2: VMC #70.824 "German Camouflage Ocre"

2. Trusers:
VMC #70.921 "English Uniform"

3. Webbing:
VMC #70.821 "German Camouflage Beige"

4. Skin:
Formula P3 "Khardic Flesh" and Citadel "Elf Flesh"

5. Wooden Parts:
VMC #70.940 "Saddle Brown"

6. Blackened metal parts:
VMC #70.995 "German Grey"

Afterwards I painted some Armypainter Quickshade Dark Tone on the figures and added some final highlights after drying.

I know I adumbrated the DPM only but I like the result. It complies with my humble skills and gives an idea of the DPM even at wargaming distance.

Here are some detail shots of the boys:

Two troopers kneeling down and watching the surrounding area eagerly.

Corporal Williams throwing a hand grenade at a German MG-42 position.

Private Miller providing protective fire while Private Atkins is advancing.

Bren loader Private Jenkins catching up.

Lance Corporal Johnson rushing forward.