The Longest Day

Hi guys, similar to my Stalingrad project, in this one I will document my progress on The Longest Day box from Warlord Games.

This one has a great mix of infantry, artillery, vehicles and terrain. Very much looking forwards to getting stuck in!

I decided to take on the US forces first. I had some time off work due to  that virus, so I thought I’d crack on and build and prime the US infantry.

I decided to build 3 squads of 10 men, each with an NCO with a Thompson and a BAR man. Then with the remaining figures I made an officer, assistant with SMG, medic, and then some extra riflemen.

For painting I’m going to keep it really simple. A limited pallet with lots of dry brushing and washes…

An update!

I’ve made good progress with painting up my US infantry.

I used some dry brushing techniques and a good old agrax earthshade wash on them. I was going to go back in and add some highlights but I’ve decided I like the very simple, mat finish that they’ve currently got.

Currently I can only find a few hours in a week to paint so this quick paint scheme suits just me fine!

Finished these two guys today and tested out my basing scheme. I wanted them to look like they were storming a beach but I thought just plain sand wouldn’t be particularly interesting. So I’ve used a mix of sands, grasses and larger rocks. I think it simulates the kind of ground that’s found amongst sand dunes further into shore.

I have finished all the American infantry from the box and they’re ready to storm the beaches!

As you can see I’ve made 3 squads, a HQ team and a medic from the plastic sprues.

I am undecided whether to leave the base rims black or paint them beige brown…hmm?

So here are my finished American causality figures.

I was a bit unsure about these models for a start and I wasn’t sure if the use of the blood effect on them would be distasteful… but I think they serve as a grim reminder about the reality that war games like Bolt Action represent.

Does anyone else have opinions on casualty figures in games?

The German infantry are now ready to try and repel the invading GI’s!

I absolutely love the grenadier kit as it has so much variance with a mix of headwear, weaponry and uniforms. I especially like the figures wearing the Zeltbahn, so iconic from the Normandy battles.

I’ve used quite a few parts from other kits in order to create some cool conversions.

Here are my two finished German MMG teams from the box.

Really pleased with how these turned out! I wanted to make them both unique by giving them slightly different basing. I created the sand bag emplacement with green stuff, couldn’t resist adding a few bullet holes…

Also, I really like the splash of colour that the flower tufts add!

Here is the finished DD Sherman from the box. Pretty interesting vehicle… amazing that, some of them, worked…

I like all the stowage strapped on the back. I didn’t have an aerial recognition decal so just added the normal allied star on the turret.

Also, I’ve included a photo of a real DD Sherman I saw at the Tank Museum!

To conclude the US forces from The Longest Day box, I have built and painted the two landing craft!

One is a classic Higgins boat for infantry and the other is for transporting vehicles.

There was something nice and old school about putting together wooden boats…

For painting a literally just sprayed them grey and added some decals, it does the job.

With the completion of these Pak 40’s, I have now finished all of the German forces from the box!

I made my own bases for these as the round ones supplied in the box were too small and I wanted to do some interesting basing.

I used a bit of a twig for the fallen tree on one of them… which I think looks great!

So I have now completed everything in The Longest Day box!

For this post I’m just going to do a photo dump of all the terrain pieces.

For the concrete anti-tank obstacles I filled them in with air drying clay to give them a bit of weight, so they won’t shift around too much on the table.