Bob’s Going ‘Nuts’

Well 1st squad of Americans, probably a bit overstretch for the Ardennes but 12 done.

Keeping with my premise of using what paints I had and what was easily available, Having g checked what colour Amerian Army Greatcoats were, and could be anything from a Brown to Olive Green according to who made them, went for them bei g green, so greatcoats  and non white Helmets were done I  a base GW Creed Cammo, contrast.

The odd bits if trousers were done on Militarum Green Contrast.

Webbing and Gaiters were done in  GW Death Guard Green.

Boots were done in Contrast   Wyldewood,

Wpn Stocks Aggarros Dunes.

Metalwork was again Speedpaint Enchanted Steel.

Faces swith Falscrimjager,  but to give them an unshaven more haggard look, I re-applied a thinned coat of Gulliman flesh over jaws ans lower face.

The bodies were then given a thinned out wash og Agrax Eartshade, and later I pin washed any bits of Webbing g that the original wash didn’t pick out.

And again for Lloydy.

Well thex1st squad is done, and may I say I really enjoyed pai ting these and the Americans ( next update as waiting for snow effect paint to dry)

On the whole I used GW Contrast paints, as I am more used to them, plus with the Wathammer shop only 10 mins walk from my home they are easiest to get

All the Figures started with a white base coat.

Then they got an all over wash with Apothocary White.

For Variation , Forage caps  some jackets where done in of all things Akelian Green, which to me is more blue.

Boots and Webbing were done in wyldewood.

Wpn stocks In Aggaros Dunes

Faces were thinned out Gulliman Flesh with detail done in Fleshtearers flesh highlighted with my own mix of army painter barbarian flesh lightened down.

Wpns we’re done in Speedpaint Enchated Steel , and misc kit on Webbing we’re doe on SpeedPaint Cammo cloak which does a good Fieldgrey.

And for the Lloydy’s amongst us.

Well with the Bulge starter set, it was time to Dust off my late War Project which never really got off the ground.

I have looked at the starter build guides, but decided instead to stick to the actual toe for the units, and have I intially built a Standard squad of Falscrimjager,  and a 12 man U.S Infantry Squad, OK I accept that was probably unlikely that either force would be at full strength, but it is a start.

For the Germans I’ll probably build the recommended Command , unit and some snipers, likewise the remaining Americans will get Bazooka Teams etc.

My American Force is beefed out anyway, by the box of Warlords metal Winter Americans, which at 19 men I can use for my force of Grizzled Veterens

Added to this I have based my Warlord Britsh Winter squad brought at same time.

This will give me the incentive to build my Rubicon Comet I brought at Salute 2 years back, I already have 95mm Howitzer Churchill built but needing . Having Dug it out I found the Maultier I built for project!

I made a trip to Questing Knight in Wellington , Shropshire, and picked up an Easy 8 Sherman ( I’m tempted to name it ‘Slightly Miffed!’) To round off my Americans, and of course brought a Humber armoured car, for the Brits.

But whilst there found a copy of V for Victory which I will give a whirl, will be interesting to run same scenario, with those, ‘Nut’s  and Bolt Action.

Well With Bolt action 3rd Edition and a spur of the moment buy of the Bolt Action Starter box, My   very back burner Winter WW2/What if 46 project is back on . The starter box although not probably enough for most full Bolt Action game, is very much on for ‘Nuts’ and ‘V for Victory ‘ When it comes out .

So over the next few weeks I intend to paint up a squad of Winter Falscrimjager, , a squad of Winter Americans and a Squad of Winter British ( the metal set from Bolt Action that I brought over a year ago :

British Infantry section (Winter)

All being well by the weekend I will be doing a ‘Nuts’ Battle report , a very much a lets play as I get my self into what is a unique game system though Infinty players will be familiar with some of its concepts.

NOTE PHOTOS OF PRAS NOW ADDED BELOW:

To add to the Normandy part of project I decided I wanted to Paratroopers for the 3 factions, but didn’t want to buy whole boxes of figures, so I scanned e=bay and was able to pick up the relevant sprues, The Brits and Americans got 2 and the Germans 1 (I thought they were rarer) .

The Americans were the 1st to be completed, and a they were fairly easy.

I went for the earlier tan version of the jump suit which made painting a fairly easy variation of the U.S Infantry

1. Army Painter Skeleton Bone base coat
2. Uniform painted GW contrast Skeleton Horde
3. Helmet done in GW Contrast Miltiarum Green
4. Belts and packs given light coat of GW Sraphim Sephia shades as online photos showed them having a slightly green tint
5. GW Snakebite leather Contrast  for boots and wpn stocks
6. GW Leadbelcher for barrels mags and metal work
7. light coat of GW Gulliman Flesh for faces and hands
8. Detail on faces picked out GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh , and Army painter Wilding Flesh and Barbarian Flesh

The Fallscrimjager were very much a trial and see how it went, but after slight failure with my original attempts at Grenediers went as follows

1. Army Painter Skeleton Bone base coat

2. Tourser painted a mix of 2 parts GW contrast Space Wolves Gray and one part Militarium Green,  this was the slightly failed mix on my 1st batch of Grenediers, but was right for the Falscrimjager.

3. Camo jacket done with a mix of GW contrast Mitarium green , Agaros Dunes and Creed Cammo

4.Boots done in Basilicum grey

Everything else done pretty much as the Ameericans

The British Paratroopers were done pretty much as for the British Infantry othe than the Denison smock, which I have to say was helped by the OTT’s  Bolt Action Boot camp videos on ~You tube particularly the one and the Denison smocks.

World War II Kit: British Paratrooper

The main difence to the British Infanty is that I only did the 2nd 2 coats of Seraphim Sephia to the Upper part of body covered by the smock then:

1. Blotchs of GW Contrast Militarium Green avoiding webbing
2. Blotchs of GW Contras Creed Cammo avoiding webbing
3. block painted rifles boots etc as with British Infantry
4. Berets done in Baal RED
5. Thinned out cat oa GW Arax Earthshade about 50/50 water over most of upper torso apart from faces.

It’s only took me best part of 12 months to upload those photo’s !!!

I did the 1st sprue I did as pretty much standard GI’s   but as I built the 2nd sprue, I decided to theme on the lesser known Charaters from the film. I wanted a more dynamic , LMG firing version of Crapgame   so using the wolly hat helmet version  head and using a spare 30 cal from the U.S. Paratroopers sprue. Willand (played by Harry Dean Stanton in movie is again a conversion, using any bits of belt ammo I had on various Sprues.

One of the lesser characters who did have a fair amount of speaking parts was Cowboy  , did wonder how to portray him, and decided ‘Cowboy’ would be firing a pistol. The sniper Watowski, was basically the use of the Springfield Rifle arm on the sprue with a bit of tube stuck on it for scope. Private Jonesy who drops the big bag og grenades and explosives in German HQ is represented by a figure throwing a Grenade.

And here the whole squad.

As initially said sort of fell into this, I finished the long forgotten Oddballs Sherman brought at a Salute when they were 1st released, which was built with one other Sherman  and a Hellcat which in itself was sort of  Spring Clean to to go with some painted Rangers and GI’s I paint ted way back which were a mix of Battlehonours and Blacktree Designs.

So the above have been painted , I decided to plump for 2 standard M4’s rather than 2 more Oddball types as in move, as they are a lot cheaper , and more accurate, as Oddballs Sherman was an odd typed issued to Yugoslavia at end of war , which was were most of movie was filmed.

I then dug through some slightly battered Corgi and Soledo Halftracks that had been brought to be a British Infantry Platoons vehicles of Ebay, They have been repaired and touched up paintwise to match roughly the ones in the movie , the 105mm version being the heavily repainted Soledo one.

I only need some jeeps but there was a sheer lack at Salute so will have to order them

(I know they were not in final battle but what the hell, may help balance scenario anyway)

Well funnily the last figures I’ve finished actually finishs the 1st full faction to my Normandy faction. I actually painted in the end 13 figures for this , as initially I wanted to add spare figures for the mechanised squad for Piat and Mortar.

It then struck me that with above I had effectively done enough for a Carrier squad (from Carrier platoon) something I had started ages ago and had only completed the 3 carriers.

Painting

1. The figures were given a base coat of Zandri Dust
2. one coat of GW Serpahim Sepia was given to all but wpns faces and hands
3. 2 x coats more of Above was carefully applied to uniforms and not folliage on helmets
4. faces and hands were painted base GW Ushanti Bone (IIorginally tried white but this made later stage blotchy.
5. Wpns stocks and entrencing tool handle GW Contrast Snakebite Leather
6. Boots done in GW Basilicum Grey Contast
7. Wpns and metal work GW Leadbelcher
8.  Overall was ofGW Agrax Earthshade  wash Contrast
9. Faces detail done , I do do eyes.
10. Nuln oil was to Metal work
11. Bases done overall GW Militarim Green Contrast having put some scatter on bases before base coat.
12. Tufts of various types put on base
13.  a bit of Green grass scatter put on bits on bases to break up any flat bits left over on base.

L Also finished my Recon force of M5 Stuarts , I had one resin one done a few years back and the 2 new Rubicon including the unfrocked one. This was a unit I originally did in 20mm , that I got at the old Northern Militaire, It was nice to re-relise them in 28mm

The original had been done with a dark umbra base and dry brushed GW catachan green if I rememeber rightly .

The new were

1. base coat of Army Painter Army Green spray
2. Nuln oil wash
3. Dry brush army painter  Army Green
4. 2nd Dry Brush GW Morghast Bone
5. White for Periscopes and headlight lens
6. GW Leadbelcher for Tracks and light overall dry brush for weathering
7. GW Tallaser Blue on periscopes and headlight lens
8. 8 Nuln oil Tracks

t this point I put the xfers on, before I added any stowage on the non resing models, I find decals a pain, often they curl up no matter how hard  try to avoid it putting them , or plain disapear. or move when you are not looking, so the late addition of stowage can cover up any cock ups

Then stowage is painted and added using varous Contrast paints.

They are Ultramatt varnished and then give a dry brush Zandri Dust , over low half of model, for more weathering .

Well its been a bit since I updated this, mainly as the project is morphed into a bunch of subprojects, resulting from the various odd Wargams Illustrated freebee figures.

The original part was to paint up above and add to make full single squads for Normandy campaign WW2 starting with British ,German and U.S infantry based on the freebies, to this I added a squad of U.S & British Paras, I had one sprew of Fallscrimjager and left it at the single sprue of them .

The 2nd add on project stemme from the fact I had one Sprue of Germans with Greatcoats, and from that a Bulge force developed and I made above into full squad and added British , and American Winter squads , plus a Churchill and then a box of Winter Russians, which is not yet  started.

The 3rd project and nearly finished, is as I was building the 2nd sprue of American Infantry I decided to personalise some into some of the lesser characters from Kellys Heroes , which developed into I wanted to the final battle of movie…. so lots more Cannon Fodder Germans (mainly the Afrika Korps figures I had from Bolt Action Bootcamp and never finished) another Tiger to make up the 3 (2 painted long ago. IIn addition I had  long forgotten Aintsy Kelly’s Heroes figures which I added the Warlord ones at Salute. I was working on Oddballs Sherman and brought two more standard Shermans ( I  will explain reasoning  later).

The 4th project is an add on to the Bulge project, and was just really an excuse to get the Rubicon models, a what if late 1945 the Russian dont stop, and a mixe force of Brits/Americans and Reequipped Germans try to hold them back with 2x Centurions and another Comet. Using bits from all of the above.

Well having done something old as in forgotten WI sprues and Tanks , I got a free morning so started something new.

I wanted my British Force to be a recon based force , I like liked the look of Rubicon range but hadnt really dabbled. On reading a review realised one of the M5 Stuart kits had the unforced version minus the turret and was sold, so purchased two one with and one without ( This will give me a troop as I already have a Warlord resin Stuart) One of the upside of purchase was it gave US decals which I can used on my two US Shermans.

Fairly easy builds.

I wanted to make my Infantry full squads , but didn’t want to buy full boxes of figures , so looked at ebay to see if they had single sprues, which it has, but whilst looking spotted they had sprues of Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lear, so got a couple of them.

Sundancer was a bit confused how this was a Spring Clean.. as their was a battle report..

Basically my Spring Clean is to not only go back to paint some forgotten minis but also rules , in this case Two Hour Wargames ‘Nuts’. ,and this was helped by the weekend game (and report) were I got to remember and re read the original Chain Reaction rules on which Nuts are based.

Any way I’ve now started , mainly American to start with, firstly I dug out the models I had assembled some time ago .

Above is a Warlord Resin Hellcat, there is also a M4A1 Sherman and Oddballs Sherman which are sitting on priming table.

Having built Half a squad of Americans, Germans and British from my collection of Wargames Illustrated Freebies. I started o  the Americans.

The above have been primed GW Skeleton Bone as thought it a good base for the -Day U.S Infantry Uniform

PWill do a step by step later, but this initial half squad was a bit trial and error.

After a few modifications I’m quite pleased with them.

It was as very much a suprise that I got a practice session of the rules system at the weekend. Keith had invited me over for a weekend for a Sharps Practice game…. but on reading the rules the night before suddenly realised that they were set at higher level than the Skirmish level game he wanted…plus he couldn’t find another set in his collection that might cover it…. I rembered that Two Hour Wargames had a freebie version of their Chain Reactio system, so downloaded it and adapted it on the fly to cover the game.

And boy did it… luckily my force of Royal Navy Matelots wasn’t due to come on till later, which left me free to run the rules whilst Keith ran the scenario and run the French. All the other players playing the Allies.

Apologies for no in action photos, but generally I was busy running the rules or laughing at what was a very funny game.

The scenario was a Spanish ‘Lady’ disguised as a French Cantinari , had been travelling the area mapping and plotting all the Frech deployments. She was willing to give this to Wellington  who had dispatched a squad of Light Infantry in disguise to pick it up. They had only a vague description of who the spy was and the officer who was fluent in French (very alo alo French) and Spanish would endeavour to find. In his pick of men was a certain Sgt who was not adverse to permanently borrowing anything that wasn’t nailed down. Wellington had also contacted the Local Spanish Guerilla leader and asked him to set up a diversion in the town, to cover the approach of a Royal Navy Skiff ( my command) who would pick up the Light Infantry at 10am that morning. They though had no idea of the British presence or what they were up to.

What followed eleas a often liberious series of events as the British officer approached various civilians in the town to find out who the spy was, not helped by the fact that the Inn was having a Fiesta and half the town was,  shall we say merry.

The Guerilla’s leader had decided that the best diversion would be to blow up the nearby French hospital ( no pesky Geneva Convention) and had dispatched his best man to that task.

Chain reaction ran most of the combat situations really well, so much so that I got fair no of congratulations for running them so well, plus all liked the system, and we got a conclusion of the game easily within the day

For those wondering what happened . The Spy was eventually after some fairly hilarious incidents with the British Officer,  the Hospital blew up , but a good few minutes after it was fused for, the French Garrison was pretty much wiped out in the ensuing chaos , quite a lot of the local found much of the Town valuables had gone missing. They had watched a Britisg warship arrive on town and pick up a party of brewery delivery men and bugger off, leaving one of the number dead ofrom a firefight with a French Sentry.

Over the years I’ve A few of ‘Two Wargames Rule’s based on their Chain reaction system, although I was originally anti its concept I have developed a real liking for how it works when you get used to it. One of the biggest gripes had been the rules layout and sometimes appalling editing. A quick glance at the latest copy seems to have most of my gripes covered.

On addition I don’t intend to overtax the system and play very much Infantry Squad level games with the occasional vehicle.

I do already have a fair amount of 28mm  figures and Vehicles  painted (mainly British and German) and a small collection of American shame, tanks built but not painted including the Warlord Oddballs Sherman, so this little project hopefully see them completed.

The whole idea sprang into being when last week I found a single Sprue of Warlords latest British and Commonwealth Infantry for late War. I remembered I had a Sprue of American GI’s if I can find it.

Anyway digging today I found the GIs , a Sprue of late Germans and a Sprue of Winter Germans. I also found the partly painted Half Track Maultier Armoured Car from the Bolt Action Desert War bootcamp, and the Unbuilt 233 armoured car. Which with the American Vehicle finds should keep me busy.

And just  after I started this project was begun, Warren announces the Spring Clean Hobby Challenge…. and as this is bringing life to old , but very forgotten figures and models ( with the W.I. freebies more didn’t even know what I had got) and some odd new additions why not add it to that challenge.

As my initial inspiration my British Infantry Squad will be based round a motorised Infantry squad from my old Favourites the 11th Armoured Division , in this case The 8th Regiment the Rifle Brigade.

Why?

A few years ago Corgi did some really nice painted M5 halftracks, which although maybe slightly out of scale were close enough. The base paint job was nicely painted and weathered , they only needed a crew, and the stowage shaded which I did way back. So my base squad already has its vehicle.

My 1st German Squad won’t be quite so elegantly equipped, but wiil be using the very Forgotten Maultier Half Track that I built at the Bolt Action Desert War.Boot camp.

Still need a lot of work , but at least it’s a start.