28mm Afrika Korps wearing Greatcoats

One of the things that I remember my grandfather telling me about his experiences in the desert was that as hot as it was during the day, it was freezing cold in the night.

Artizan miniatures include in their Afrika Korps range a single pack of mid war infantry wearing forage caps. Painted up in desert colours, they make a worthy addition to my Afrika Korps force.

The greatcoat was painted with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Green Brown and Citadell Gorthor Brown. This was then washed in Citadell Agrax Earthshade.

Next on the paint tray the first of my Long Range Desert Group.

28mm Afrika Korp Sentries

 

Well the joys of summer holidays painting time continues. Below are a couple of pictures of the latest batch of Afrika Korps to make it off my painting tray.

 

For the first time ever I actually felt sorry for the figures as I painted them... as sentries, I suppose that this hapless little group are forever destined to be killed first by the LRDG figures waiting in the wings.

Next on the painting tray, riflemen in greatcoats.

28mm Afrika Korp HMG team

 The summer painting frenzy continues...

 I have always been happy with the quality of the sculpting of Artizan Miniatures, however there does seem to be a bit of a size discrepancy between the gunner and the loader... It looks like the loader bought his kid to work!

As always, a mix of Vallejo and Citadell paints and varnishes were used.

Next on the table, sentries and greatcoat wearers!

28mm Afrika Korp Mortar crew

 Below are photos of the latest addition to my 28mm WW2 Afrika Korp; a mortar team.
The figures are from Artizan miniatures. I'm not a big fan of basing support weapons and their entire crew on a single base, so decided on each figure and the weapon based separately on 2p pieces.

As ever, the figures are painted with a combination of Citadel and Vallejo paints and varnishes.
The main paints used for the uniform are Vallejo Desert Yellow, Vallejo Iraqi Sand, Vallejo German Field Grey, Vallejo Khaki and Citadell Agrax Earth shade.

Next on the paint tray, a HMG team, Afrika Korp sentries and infantry in greatcoats.

Converting Western Europe to North Africa part 2

Now that the summer holidays have finally arrived, it means just one thing... PAINTING FRENZY!

Below are pictures of  the completed sandbagged guard post that I started months ago... the transformation from Europe to Africa is complete. The model was painted with a mix of Citadel and Vallejo paints and varnishes.

Converting Northern Europe to North Africa

 If you are anything like me, you will no doubt have drawer fulls of terrain and models that have never been out of storage since it was first painted! With my current focus on North Africa (and whilst waiting on miniature deliveries from Artizan) I decided to look through my old terrain pieces to see if any could be converted.

The piece below is a tin roofed, sand bagged check point built against an old fence. It also features a downed telegraph post. I figured that this would look like something found on the outskirts of s French colonial village.

The first step involved soaking the model in warm soapy water, which made the flock come away from the model easily. The residue of the glue can be seen at the base of the telegraph post.

The next step will be to paint the model with a base coat of Vallejo Desert Sand.

More 28mm Afrika Korps

 Here is my second batch of Afrika Korps. I really like the Artizan Miniatures, it is just a shame that it took almost four weeks for the figures to arrive! Whilst waiting for the figures to arrive, I painted n old Solido Puma that had been sat on a shelf gathering dust.

As per my last blog entry, the figures were painted with a mix of Vallejo and Citdel paints and varnishes.

Next on the paint table are 4 NCOs armed with MP40s. I have also ordered a HMG team, an 81mm mortar crew and a first pack of SAS raiders.