Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Rebasing

Looks like I didn't the rulebook very closely.  APPARENTLY, Flamethrower teams aren't mounted on a small base, but are based on a medium base with their escort and 2 or 3 other figures.

Worst of all 6 lber AT Guns are mounted on medium bases, longwise and not large bases.

So I have some rebasing ahead of me for these 5 stands (1 Flamethrower team and the 4 6 lber stands)

grrrrrr

Oh well, it will help make the AT Guns a smaller target at least

Also should be able to post the Heavy AT Platoon (17 lbers) this weekend.  They at least are on the correct bases  :-)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Para Assault Platoon Finally!

Just finished them up...actually finished them twice.  Wasn't happy with the first round of basing on the new plastic rubble bases so I went back and redid them.  I chickened out and didn't do any cobblestone streets this go around. 

I really wanted to to capture the rubble feel.  Looking a bunch of color pictures of rubble from Gaza to urban blight and demo'ed buildings one thing I noticed was the mess had a greenish grey brown tone to it and I wanted to capture that.  I primed the bases in black For the Main rubble mix I basecoated them in Field Grey (830). I semi heavy hilite of German Camo Beige (821) and a little lighter hilite of Testors Gull grey finished the next step.  Then I did a thick wash of 6:1 water:German Camo Medium Brown (826). Then I picked out all the rocks and bricks and black washed that.  A final hi-lite of German Camo Beige (821) again and finally hiliting the bricks and stones and wood.  The greenish tone doesn't really show in the pictures sadly, but in person it is there. :-)






Platoon Leader





PIAT Team




Light Mortar




Flamethrower




1st Section




2nd Section






3rd Section





Next up:  Heavy AT Platoon........17lbers baby

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Para Assault Platoon delay :-(

I had hoped to get the buggers done and posted over the weekend, but wasn't able to do so.  Looks like a week delay at best.

I blame my weakness for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Assassins Creed Revelations coming out within a week of each other...and add to that I had epidural injections in the back and neck...slowed me done for 2 days as I let magical medical goodness settle in and due its stuff.

I am back on track and should have them done by this weekend.

One little l thing that tripped me up with BF's Rubble Bases is the extra space in the holes once the fig is placed in side. Not much of a problem for the true rubble bases...just added white and grey pumice to fill the gaps and it blends in quite well.  The cobble stone street bases are what are tripping me up right now.  I try real hard not to let the fig bases show and it is proving troublesome here.  First is the cover plate to cover the 5th hole in the stand for an infantry team....you can see the circular ring around the insert.  Going to cover that with and ammo can and a newspaper for the most part.  I am trying to fill the other stands with a mix of pumice to extend the dirt/rubble into the street and some Woodland Scenics' grey ballast...small little rocks and PVA (Elmer's) Glue for the others.  Not too bad so far....doing the highlighting and touch up now.  Worst part is when a little stone flakes off as I am painting.  Once I varnish it all it wont matter.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Unit Ids

Every have that situation in a game where units are all mixed up and you don't know which platoon they belong to?

Well silly, if you identify all the teams in the same platoon with a unique marking you would know right?

I have seen some folks use common terrain (rubble, street, grass, mud, etc...) to mark platoons.  I have even seen bushes/rocks in common locations like a corner to mark a platoon.  All of 1st Platoon have a bush in the lower right hand corner.

Tanks give you another way to mark that is historical...by using that nations/unit you are modelling historic method.  Like the Brits using circles, triangles and squares, Americans nicknaming their vehicles so all of A company has names that begin with "A"...and the old bumper number A-11 (1st tank, 1st Platoon, A co)

Since by now you know I am building a Brit Para force I don't have many Tanks to have to use that method.  I instead prefer to use a color code marking system for my teams. I paint markings on the back of the base in 3 sections.  The left most section IDs the Company, the center IDs the Platoon, and the right IDs the Squad.  The Company section gets 1 stripe and the other 2 receive 2 little stripes.  The Company Marking is reserved only for the Company Command Section (and that is the only marking they get), and Divisional Support Units, who would get markings in all 3 sections.  Did this because of the Field Artillery Battery really.and I wanted to separate the 2 firing platoons from the Battery HQ and Staff Team.  Also gives me more options if I expand to build a second Para company (Yay!!!!  more Denison smocks to paint!)

A pictures are worth more than the words I types above so...

The Color Code System for my Brit Paras:


Now for some examples (you might have seen these before in my earlier posts and wondered what was going on):

Company Command CiC (Notice only 1 Stripe)

Company Command Section PIAT

Para Infantry 2nd Plt, 3rd Squad

MG Plt Platoon Leader Section (Notice only 2 Stripes in the center)

 MG Platoon 2nd MG Section

  1st AT Platoon (White/Yellow) 2nd MG Section (W/W)

 Mortar Platoon 3rd Section

Using stripes to ID the squads might not have a REAL purpose in the game, but it helps me in organizing them before a game and in storing them.