These three plastic 15mm miniatures are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s Code GE784 sMG34 Machine-gun Platoon blister for “Flames Of War”. The models consist of a choice of two different Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO), a Machine-gunner, Reloader and the “German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun” itself.
Unlike my other “FoW” German soldiers however, the NCO was the only model I initially super-glued onto a wooden strip, as it appeared obvious that both the other two infantrymen would need to be firmly fixed in position upon their actual medium-sized base before I primed them all in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. With hindsight this was a particularly good call, as the tiny weapon was actually rather fiddly to attach to the figures surrounding it, and in the end I actually needed to snip away some of the ammunition feed so as to allow the Reloader to lie upon the ground in a somewhat angular position without his feet jutting off the end – something which would have really annoyed me.
All three of the models were then shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were later ‘picked out’ predominantly using “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Gunmetal, Buff, German Camouflage Dark Green, Heavy Brown and a series of “Citadel” Shades. Lastly, I pigmented the sMG34 Machine-Gun using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.
With the first of the four sMG34 Machine-gun teams I require for my German Beach Defence Company completed, I have also made some additional progress on the “Battletech” 1:285 scale plastic Jenner by “Catalyst Game Labs” I intend to use as a Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL) class Polish War Walker. Ideally, I’d like to have Poland be able to ‘field’ more than one of the Weird War Two walkers, but until I find a suitable source for single miniatures (or at least one who isn’t charging almost as much as a full 5-figure box for just the one figure) the Mech will simply be joined on the tabletop by some Element battlesuits.
In addition, I have made a tentative start on the first strip of ten Napoleonic British line infantry I recently pre-ordered from “Warlord Games”. Having previously practiced on several of the Nottingham-based company’s 15mm plastic American Civil War miniatures, I am optimistically hoping to get approximately three hundred of “Noseys' men” finished during the next year, alongside some cavalry and cannon.
For this month though I am simply focusing upon how far I can go if I allocate twenty-four hours of my precious hobby-time to their batch-painting, so I can subsequently calculate just how much of a commitment such a large-scale project will be. Currently, I’ve only spent a mere twenty minutes applying my brush-tip to the Second Regiment of Foot (The Queen’s Royal), but have got them primed and the base layer of their trousers down…
Very nice work on your FoW Germans. Very good indeed. Those prone machine gunners present some interesting painting and basing challenges don't they?
I think those Polish mechs and troops are my favourites of that project. I just love the mini designs and paint job so much. Can't wait to see them finished.
Glad to see you have started your Napoleonics. Very interested to see what you do with them.
Great work on the Germans Simon, you seem to be able to crank these out at some pace. The Mech and suits are progressing well, and hope you can find a reasonable supplier for what you're looking for.
Hope the Napoleonic's go well, and don't prove as difficult as the ACW did.