These three plastic 15mm miniatures are produced 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 Einheitsmaschinengewehr (Universal 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 the other two infantrymen clearly needed to be in position upon their actual medium-sized base before I primed them all in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. In addition, I actually needed to cut away some of the ammunition feed so as to allow the Reloader to lie upon the ground at an angle so as to stop his feet jutting off the end – something which would really trigger my obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
All three of the models were shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were then ‘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.
This week’s painting challenge, randomly chosen upon the turn of a playing card, is to pigment a single 40mm model, so I have been busy making some additional progress on my plastic Black Widow figure by "CoolMiniOrNot". I’ve actually found the chibi-like sculpt itself to be pretty straightforward, but can’t say the same about the Soviet spy’s pre-sculpted base.
The detail on the Marvel United miniature’s stand itself is excellent, but my difficulty has come in trying to apply a steady band of slightly watered-down “Citadel” Abaddon Black around its rim – as in places this area almost completely merges into the smashed rubble. I simply can’t get the line of the base as straight as I would like, at least not without repeatedly having to tidy up the grey of the rubble, so may well end up having all the stands “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey instead.
Lastly, I’ve been working on a couple of the ten 28mm figures I found myself needing to finish for last week’s self-imposed task. My plan is actually to use this as an opportunity to finish off a load of partially-painted figures by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” which have been lingering in my queue for many a month. However, first-up will be a pair of recently arrived robots from their Heroes And Allies range…
Some great minis in this post. I adore the FoW Germans, great sculpts and great painting. Your marvel heroes look terrific too, especially Black Widow, who is looking superb already. I can't wait to see them done. Those other minis are real blasts from the past! Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica had some great things in them, as well as some dodgy things. I can't wait to see Tweaky done. "Hiya Buck," still makes me smile 😃
Great work on the Germans Simon, and the chibi's are progressing well.
Some very cool figs there this time mate, love the Germans, top progress on Natasha, and Tweely and Muffet are great, I stupidly told my eldest that there was a chimp inside the Daggit suit, from then on every time he saw Tweeky he'd shout "That poor monkey!" even though he knew it was the wrong show just to annoy me!! 😬
Cheers Roger.
Nice job on the MG34 team, Simon! Once again I'm amazed at how you get all the details so well done on such small figures. Black Widow is looking good and I'm pretty sure I recognise those two robots :-)