Wednesday Workbench 14 April & Podcast

 

I've taken things slow and steady on this batch of US Paras. I finished painting them this afternoon; they'll be varnished tomorrow.

Next up will be a rifle squad from the 2nd platoon.

Podcast

I have kept forgetting to post a link to the most recent episode of "Seven Idiots Rambling", so it's about time I did. We recorded the next edition on Monday, which should be published on Friday.

The plan, now that lockdown is easing in the UK, is to switch to two-weekly recording with occasional specials recorded and released in-between. I suspect that the first "special" will be a discussion of the changes to ADLG in the 4th edition, once we have all received our copies.

Finished: US Para Rifle Squad 2

So, that's another  twelve figures finished in quick time.

Squad Sergeant:

LMG Team:

There seems to be a casting issue with the LMG assistant. On this one, the left foot seems to have been damaged; on the one from the other pack the left side of the face was miscast. I didn't notice the foot on this one until I came to paint the boots.

Rifle Team:

With the HQ Team, 60mm Mortar Squad and two Rifle squads painted that makes the whole of the first platoon, so here is a photo of them all together:

Before I move on to the second platoon, I've decided to paint up some support elements:

The front row are a tripod MG team; the back row includes a medic & casualty as a Jump Off Point marker, a sniper, a medic, an engineer with demolition charges and a radioman who will be a Forward Observer.

As it's my birthday today (the second in "lockdown") I'm taking things fairly easy and I won't have this batch of figures finished quite as quickly.

Finished: US Para Rifle Squad 1

Well, that was quick. If I keep painting these at this rate, I'll have them all done two weeks from now.

Squad Sergeant:

LMG Team:

Having checked the US Para platoon list in the Chain of command rulebook, the rifleman (the chap pointing with his left hand) should actually be in the Rifle Team. I've just checked some photos and realised I made a mistake on the cartridge belt - the strip should be cloth, so I'll have to go back and repaint it.

Rifle Team:

 The uniforms for this batch have come out a bit lighter. That is down to one or both of two factors - I think there was less Brown Violet in the basecoat and I was also using Buff instead of Sand Yellow to mix the highlights.

I've started on the second rifle squad today.

Finished: US Para HQ and 60mm Mortar Squads

 

Well, that's the first batch of 12 figures finished. If you are wondering about the delay, I decided to take Sunday and Monday off. I will be adding tufts to the bases later on, once all the figures are painted.

HQ Squad

Lt, 2LT, Staff sergeant and 3 riflemen

60mm Mortar Squad

The chap on the square base is the squad's Sergeant (a Junior Leader for Chain of Command).

The next batch of 12 are already on the table - the first of two rifle squads for the first platoon:

Since taking the photo above, I have got the flesh done and added the base coat for the uniform. 

Doug asked in the comments to a previous post if I would post my paint scheme. So, here goes.

Flesh - Beige Red; Flesh Wash; Beige Red + Basic Skintone; + Basic Skintone

Hair - various colours

Beanie caps - Brown Violet; + Sand Yellow; + Sand Yellow

Uniform - Brown Violet + Middlestone; + Middlestone + Sand Yellow; + Sand Yellow

Painted Metal - USA Olive Drab; + Brown Violet; + Sand Yellow

Helmet Scrim - drybrush Desert Sand

Webbing - Green Brown; + Sand Yellow; + Sand Yellow

Leather - Flat Brown; + Cavalry Brown; + Cavalry Brown + Sand Yellow

Wood - German Camo Black Brown + Mahogany Brown; + Mahogany Brown; + Sand Yellow

Gunmetal 1 - Black; + VMA Gunmetal; + VMA Steel

Gunmetal 2 - Black; Grey Green + VMA Gunmetal; + VMA Steel

Wash - AP Strong Tone diluted 1:2 with Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver

Base - Flat Earth; drybrush Tan Yellow

Paints (all Vallejo Model colour unless indicated)

Beige Red - 70.804

Flesh Wash - Game Wash 73.204

Basic Skintone - 70.815 (now called Fleshtone)

Brown Violet - 70-837 (now called US Olive Drab)

Sand Yellow - 70.916 (alternatively use Buff 70.976 or Beige 70.917)

Middlestone - 70.882

USA Olive Drab - 70.889 (now called Olive Brown)

Green Brown - 70.879

Flat Brown - 70.984

Cavalry Brown - 70.982

German Camo Black Brown - 70.822

Mahogany Brown - 70.846

Black - 70.950

Gunmetal - 71.072

Steel - 71.065

Grey Green - 70.866

Paint Table Saturday 03 April

 Hah! I have once again remembered to do a "Paint Table Saturday" post on a Saturday. Now, don't fret yourselves - I'm sure my normal slipshod approach will return in due course.

As mentioned yesterday, I am currently working on the first batch of 12 US Paras.

I'm much happier with the lighter shade on the uniforms:

I should be able to get the remaining items painted tomorrow, or Monday at the very latest. I'll then varnish them (and the test figures) before getting the next batch out for painting.

US Paras - Test Figures

 I've finished painting the first few US Paras to test out my paint scheme. I made one adjustment along the way - the initial colour of the helmets wasn't quite dark enough.

I'm happy with most of the colours; it's only the uniform that I will need to change. It has come out too dark and a bit too green. However, the shade on these test figures would be fine for after Normandy. As I probably won't need BARs and Bazookas for New Guinea, there's no reason for me to strip and repaint them.

Edited: Now, if anyone is thinking "but the M1942 jump suit was Khaki/tan coloured, not green" well, according to at least two sources I found (NB - must remember to make notes of links in future), it was actually issued in two colours - Olive Drab #3 and Khaki. The 82nd Airborne were, it seems, issued Khaki as they were going to be operating in North Africa and Italy, but the Airborne troops in the Pacific theatre were issued OD #3 which is a yellowish-green. The OD#3 was known to fade to a tan colour.

The reason for the edit is that someone posted comments querying this. Well, what they actually did was to copy-paste tracts they'd found with no comment. Had this person opened their comments with "I'm sorry, but I think the information you have is incorrect" I would have published them, but they didn't so I deleted the comments. They then decided to post a snarky comment, which I also deleted.

Now that I know where I need to make changes to the scheme, I can crack on with the rest. I'll be working in batches of 10-12 figures. The first of these batches is now on the table:

I've started on the flesh since taking the photo above.

Wednesday Workbench 31 March

With the 6mm ACW finally out of the way, I've turned my attention to other projects. Over the weekend I had cleaned up the extra US paras and got them glued onto bases. While I was doing that, I remembered the Polish paras I'd bought several months ago and glued them onto bases as well.

Yesterday I added "gunk" to all the bases, which took a couple of hours. Today I primed all the figures.

Polish Paras

US Paras - 1 platoon plus SF-MG team

US Paras - 2 platoon (minus 2 figs), bazooka teams, BARs and specialists

It turns out that I am still short two riflemen, for the HQ squad of the 2nd platoon. I also need a couple of figures to go with the engineer to make a team for Chain of Command. However, there's no great rush to buy them - painting this lot should keep me busy for a few weeks.

Tomorrow should see me starting on the US paras, testing out paint schemes.