My, there's a lot of you!

Spent the day with the missus bouncing ideas around for her essay. A perfect time for hobby stuff that does not require focus, such as cleaning and assembly. Result:26 Warlord Celts. These really are lovely figures. Easy to assemble, lots of character, dynamic poses and easy to mix and match to get variation.
Now for the difficult bit, getting them all painted.

WIP it, WIP it good

For them as did not get the reference in the subject line: Devo

Work continues on the Krad and the figures that will surround it. The Schwimmwagen is now complete. It will have a lot more bits and bobs added once I figure out how I want to base it and get a crew for it, but it's basically complete.

Schwimmwagen

The Krad team, work continues

Butterfly or Schwimmwagen WIP 1

No, I have not finished the Krad. I just felkt like building rather than painting so I dug into the "Projects for 2013" box and came up with an Academy Schwimmwagen. It's from their Airfield Vehicles set and was a gift from Daniel, same as the Krad.

The Schwimmwagen before assembly. Not full interior, but everything that will be visible on the finished model is there.

The assembled vehicle. I painted the interior before glueing the top on, but of course I forgot to paint the inside of the top half!

Next to it is another piece from the Airfield set, a bomb cart. It will be useful in our upcoming LRDG games.

Work party!

Jocke, Icke and I met up today for a "work party", a day spent building terrain, talking and drinking cola.
A goos time was had, we some nice terrain was created and some lessons were learned from creating some not-so-nice terrain. I know the next batch of reeds I make will look better, because they cannot possibly look worse!

Big Man, Big Bike WIP 2

Laffe suggested that it would look strange with two people pointing and I think he might be right. I had a look through the toy chest and found another mini, very similar to the intended pointing officer, but not pointing.

Here is what it looks like with him standing there just looking instead of pointing:

And as I said, the bike rider is getting cammo trousers. You can't really tell from the pics, but it's going to be some sort of oak leaf pattern:

Big Man, Big Bike WIP 1

In my favourite WW2 game IABSM leaders are called Big Men and are divided into four different levels. To make things easier for the players, we put a number of figures corresponding to the level of the Big Man.
The figures are from CP Models, the Krad is from Academy and was a gift from my buddy Daniel.

Concept shoot. The idea is that the guy on the Krad is from the Recce troop and is reporting something to the company commander and his runner.

The figures so far. Both standing men will be wearing winter smocks, perhaps with cammo trousers, while the rider wears a regular Feldgrau jacket. He will surely get cammo trousers to provide some colour. As these are Tony Boustead figures, if you look close enough you can make out the actual cut of the clothes and tell what is a winter smock and what is not. My suggestion is:don't. I'll paint it the way I like it.

The Krad is currently loaded with fuel cans, perhaps I'll add more stuff hanging from the sides such as a back pack for the rider, or maybe I'll just go to town with the mud and snow mix I have planned for the base and make it look like an Enduro bike.

Suggestions are welcome!

LRDG WIP 5

Some chipping and some highlights added, and a layer of MIG African Earth pigment.

Now what? Do I add more dust and dirt? Put a layer of shade on the pigment, since the red earth is more sub-Saharan than North Africa? Put a layer of matte varnish over it, call it good and move on?

"You mean... CELTS. They drink the blood of their dead. "

My very first Warlord figure, but judging by the quality certainly not my last.
He is from the Celtic Warriors set from Warlord. I got this set as a gift from my good friend Jocke and intend to use them as Mercenaries for my Dux Gondorum campaign.

Very quick and easy paint job:block paint, drybrush on the pants, Army Painter Soft Tone wash on the flesh, drybrush on the flesh, AP Dark Tone all over. I think I overdid it there, next one I'll try with Strong Tone to finish and see what difference it makes.

LRDG WIP4

Just one thing added, a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, slightly watered down. Two minutes work, but I thought I'd document it as it makes a lot of difference to the look of the vehicle. Next up:patching up some details, then chipping and after that it's pigment time!

And if anyone notices anything I've buggered up or painted in the wrong colour, now is the time to speak up, while it can still be fixed easily.

LRDG WIP 3

Work continues. Still trying to figure out how to paint the sand ladders hanging on the side. The jerry can is marked with a white cross, I read somewhere that this was used to indicate cans only to be used for water. True or not, it adds a bit of colour.

EDIT: it was indeed true, and I was indeed wrong. Thanks to Jocke for pointing it out and for providing this excellent pic of what it should look like. I'll get it right on the next one I build.

LRDG WIP 2

Work continues. Looks even more naff with highlights on some parts and not on others.

I have good feeling, though. I think it will turn out rather nice and if it does not, at least I will learn a lot from painting it and the next one will be a lot better. We shall see.