This month's themed attempt to diminish my mountain of metal, plastic and resin models will once again have me setting my sights upon my collection of 15mm World War Two Germans by “Battlefront Miniatures”. Rather embarrassingly I've been chipping away at my 50-point strong “Flames Of War” German Beach Defence Company for well over a year, so really need to get the Panzergrenadiers' armoured support and anti-tank teams finished.
Fortunately, I've found my interest in both the period and range of figures to have been significantly re-energised by my recent purchase of "The Fields of Normandy" rule-set by Mike Lambo. Admittedly, the temptation to build some bases in order to specifically represent the Sixth Royal Scots Fusiliers for the solitaire wargame is somewhat strong. But I still have a fair few Panzer IV tanks and support infantrymen to complete first, as well as some extra reinforcements to bolster my company up to 75-points.
Alongside this 'final push', I am also busy trying to achieve a target total of 500-points in the Thirteenth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC). As a result I have finished/submitted another 28mm scale Cybermen sculpted by "Big Mr Tong" which I produced using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer.
Strongly influenced by Eric Saward's incarnation of the Mondasians as first seen in his March 1982 "Doctor Who" story "Earthshock", the miniature was undercoated in "Citadel" Abaddon Black and given a double-helping of "Vallejo" Gunmetal. It was then shaded using "Citadel" Nuln Oil, dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Gunmetal, and had its hand-weapons' power cylinder 'picked out' using "Scalecolor" Speed Metal and "Citadel" Flesh Tearers Red.
In addition, I have my eye on a year-long project to fight the Battle of Hastings in 10mm using the STL (Standard Triangle Language) files found inside the Hastings and Stamford Bridge Battles Pack by "3D Breed Miniatures". This particular period/genre has come completely out of the blue, and has predominantly been inspired by my purchase of "Battles Of Medieval Britain" - another of Mike Lambo's solitaire wargames.
The paperback book contains twelve battles, including all three contests concerning King Harold's forces in 1066, and my idea is to print/paint the relevant forces required for an individual scenario on a monthly basis. This should ultimately lead to me building up quite a substantial collection of Saxons, Normans and Vikings throughout the year, and give me plenty of units to field when the time comes to shift over to a different rule-set (quite possibly "Hail Caesar" by "Warlord Games") which will allow me to use them all at once...
I am glad you have your mojo back for WW2 painting as your FoW forces look amazing enmasse. More cybermen is always nice to see and those teeny tiny Saxons look amazing! Fabulous detail in such a small scale. I cant wait to see what they look like when finished.
I'm very proud to say that my granddad was on one of the Royal Navy ships bombarding the Germans on D-Day :-) Your troops look great as always, and the Cybermen are just outstanding, you've really captured the look of the 80s metal monsters.
Another nice Cyberman mate, and you 15mm Germans look good all laid out like that.
But the star for me has to be the 10mm Saxons, I thoroughly enjoyed doing my 10mm Wild West stuff the other year, and have to admit I've a bit of a hankering to do some more 10mm stuff, so look forward to seeing how you get on with these.
Cheers Roger.
Plenty of cool looking projects to keep you and this blog busy Simon! Looking forward to seeing how they all pan out as the year progresses.
Good luck with the target on the 15 mm Germans, and the AHPC, the cyberman looks great. and shall be interesting to see how the 10 mm adventuring goes.