Stuck at Home; Keeping myself sane

So at the beginning of November we entered a second lockdown, and I decided to use the time to try and paint as much of my grey army as possible.

Week 1

We entered the first week and I started off quite well, getting a good start painting a range of 15mm vehicles for both Flames of War and Team Yankee.

Team Yankee Brits

So where do we start, well artillery of cause. In this box there are two MLRS (Multi Launch Rocket System), a devastating piece of kit. One afternoon during the ground war during Operation Desert Storm, a battery of these had pulled in behind our M109 battery without us realizing it until they fired off a rocket salvo. The sound of them launching was frightening enough without being on the receiving end. We all looked at them in absolute awe, an absolutely devastating artillery kit. I’d definitely advise adding some more of these to your army.

Next, we have some REECE units in the form of a Fox 4-wheel drive armoured car, these guys are very fast and agile on the battlefield. Armed with a 30mm Rarden Cannon which gives it a nice punch. Added to that are the Scimitar/Scorpion light tanks, you have the ability to make either option. These are excellent nippy tanks that can zip around the battlefield providing reconnaissance while denying your enemy the opportunity to identify your defenses.

Next, we have a couple of Warriors, when some of these first arrived in my unit everyone was really excited. They replaced the old 432, which were slow and cumbersome. The warrior is a whole different beast, its fast, and I mean fast. On top of that it’s armed with a 30mm Rarden cannon, which I know the Stafford’s used to great effect on trenches during the Gulf war. Add a Milan missile system to your Warrior suddenly has tank hunter capability which gives it an added jab of the battlefield.

Finally I made a start on the real stars of the Brits the Challenger and Chieftain tanks, these are perfect for adding a nice left and right punch to your army.

Flames of War

I spent this week adding to my German force with elements from the SS starter set. Though I don’t plan to field them as SS buy as regular German military. I was particularly pleased to ad an additional Tiger to my Tiger unit. On top of that the starter set comes with 5 Panthers, which is an added bonus, along with a couple of 88’s. Which will give my force a nice armoured punch.

On top of that I painted up a Puma and some 250’s which will add some Reece units to zip around the battlefield and sting the opposition.

Week 2

As the second week of lockdown started I made a start on painting some Bolt Action, in the form of some late war German grenadiers. I painted these with a mix of uniform colours, to make them a little rag tag. As I suspect by the end of the war, supplies were low due to the allied bombing of German industrial areas.

I also added some Brits for my 8th army LRDG/SAS force, one of which I painted up as a Sikh soldier. Along with these I also painted some very bright pink Space Marines. I didn’t manage to get anything else painted during week 2.

Week 3

This week was mainly spent painting a large bust of a Strigoi Vampire. It’s been awhile since I’ve painted a bust and it made a pleasant change from painting 28 & 15 mm wargame miniatures. It requires a different approach to painting this scale compared to miniatures for gaming. On the figure was a badge sculpted on to his leather jacket, so I decided to paint a CND peace badge as I thought this would be some what ironic considering he’s a blood sucking evil vampire. Other than this I managed to also paint up some skeletons in 28mm for future Mordhiem and dungeon crawling games.

Last Week

I didn’t really get much painted this week, apart from a medieval archer and a modern apocalypse survivor armed with a bow, ideal for taking down zeds. I also painted a couple of building for 10-15mm gaming, these were done really fast with a limited palette.

Overall I didn’t paint anywhere near as much as I did during the first lockdown, which was 200, but I did get 55 minis painted in the end.