More Red Devils

Just managed to finish off most of the remaining WIP minis on the desk before the end of April. Still far from my goal, but at least now I've got most of the special weapons and command done. I also bought two more boxes of of these guys as they were 60% off at a local store. So at least I have enough figures to take these to full strenght and beyond for Chain of Command. And I've still got one rifle team that has been trying to make it's way from England to Finland since the beginning of February.

All in all 29 Red Devils and 55 101st painted so quite a good effort considering that I've been away from home for over a quarter of the month on holidays.

The first two minis are a medic and an officer from Warlord games.

These 5 guys are from Artizan designs. Excellent sculpts with a lot of character. The faces are maybe a bit cartoonish with very strong jaws. A few casualty figures and paras with German equipment to add a bit of variety to squads. The two officer figures are also brilliant, with the umbrella toting officer really living up to the cliche look of an English officer.

The rest are from Warlord again. Sniper, Flamethrower and 3 inch mortar teams.

I also had a few minis that I just didn't have time to finish. Hopefully getting them done during the weekend. The two recon jeeps still need stowage and weathering and the AOP needs identification stripes and windows done as well as some minor weathering.

Red Devils Vickers HMG team and PIAT team

Finished up the next few units for the Red Devils. A Vickers HMG team and a PIAT team. And at the same time I noticed that I actually don't have a 2inch mortar team, but two PIAT teams. I guess I have to go shopping a bit. The horrors of life I guess :)

I got some good tips for basing from Lead Adventure forum, though I haven't implemented anything yet :D I need to visit the local crafts shop to get some thin brass rod to make shell casings on the bases and then add some broken glass and torn newspapers and propaganda posters. Any good tips for where to find some posters that the Germans had in the Netherlands would be welcome!

The bases are Sarissa weapons team bases to allow for casualty removal as I'm not that big of a fan of dice as casualty markers. They come in three sizes of which these are the smallest with two removable bases. Too bad the Vickers is modeled like it is as it doesn't really allow for the loader and gunner to be separated, so that base only has the team leader as a removable model.

Progress on all fronts

Well I didn't manage to finish the next batch of minis before going off for Easter holiday. I've been lagging behind painting schedule now and watching the final season and the first playoff games of NHL hasn't really helped. I guess I have to speed up a bit if I want to have any chance of achieving my goals for April.

Anyways I've been simultaneously working on a HMG team and PIAT team for the red devils and a mortar platoon and an air observation post for the 101st. The red devils are nearly finished with only the last details on the bases needing paint and the miniatures needing a wash on their uniforms. The mortar platoon has only the basics done with the first few layers of the uniform painted along with the ground and scenery. The AOP has just the base colour and a highlight applied with my airbrush at the moment. It needs a bit of masking to paint the recognition stripes before I can continue with it. Though my two thirds of my artillery platoon are still trying to make their way to Finland so there's no hurry with the AOP.

Airborne April

With the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge done I need to figure out I thought I need to line up some suitable target for my painting to get projects done.

Therefore I'm declaring next month to be Airborne April! Two scales, two nations, one war. Let's see if I'm able to focus on just these for one month as I usually have issues with focusing on one project for even a week :) But at least I have two scales and two different armies to variate between when I get bored with something.

Red Devils in 28mm for Bolt Action
I bought the Red Devils box originally when Bolt Action came out as a way to get into the game, but it never really got further than a few test minis as nobody played Bolt Action at the club. Now the Winter War kickstarter has changed that so it seemed like the perfect chance to get this project going forward again. I have roughly 1000pts of minis lined up for this project from Warlord and Artizan designs.

• HQ team
• Medic team
• Forward observers
• 2 Airborne squads
• 6pdr anti-tank gun
• 2-inch mortar team
• 3-inch mortar team
• Flamethrower team
• PIAT team
• Sniper team
• 2 Recon jeeps

I'm going for a city ruins basing style with these to have some change from the normal bases that I do. Mostly based and ready for paint. The weapon teams still need some work, but most of the infantry is pretty much ready to go. The pic is missing a few minis that need to have paint stripped and one rifle squad that has been trying to find its way in the mail for over a month now.

101st Airborne in 15mm for Flames of War
The other airborne project are the support sections for my 101st Airborne to finally finish them and allow me to stop playing with just undercoated minis :) If I have time I'm probably going to try to paint a few extra rifle platoons too to allow me to field the force as a full infantry company without the armor attachments that I'm now using.

• Mortar platoon
• 57mm Antitank platoon
• Jeep recon platoon
• Glider Field Artillery battery
• AOP post
• Company HQ
• Rifle platoon