BlackHawkHet

KG Klink in Barbarossa, Fight #2

2025-10-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

All,

Alright, here we go, time for the second fight of KG Klink's Operation Barbarossa. Following Captain Tausch's failure to 'blitzkrieg' through relatively light Soviet defenses in the last fight, Captain Ginter, commander of the 2nd Grenadiere Company, is now having to deploy his troops against a much stronger and better prepared enemy defense line than originally anticipated.

A pre-game event was "Leaders are on Top Form!" for the Germans, so I threw in another overall commander to help with rallying/keeping the troops moving. The story is, after the failure of one of his company commander's to get the job done, the Battalion Commander, Major Freitag, is on hand to keep an eye on Captain Ginter and ensure everything goes according to schedule.

Overview, north is up, Germans are pushing west to east, Soviets are dug-in from the center line right. At left center is some marshy land that slows infantry and can bog vehicles; once again the area is dominated by two hills, Hill 95 (center) and Hill 90 (top right), with fields and hedges strewn throughout. At bottom right is a Collective Farm.

The opposing forces, Soviets on the left, Germans on the right.

The German force:
Commander: Captain Ginter, 2nd Grenadiere Company Commander, Iron Cross 2nd Class

Observer: Major Freitag, Schutzen Battalion Commander, Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class

2nd Grenadiere Company

1st Rifle Platoon under 2nd Lt Orstens

2nd Rifle Platoon under Sergeant First Class Aust, Infantry Assault Badge

3rd Rifle Platoon under Staff Sergeant Imhofe, Infantry Assault Badge and Iron Cross 2nd Class

4th Rifle Platoon under Staff Sergeant Arndt, Infantry Assault Badge and Iron Cross 2nd Class
*Each rifle platoon is understrength due to coming under intense artillery fire crossing the Line of Departure and is down to two rifle squads

**Each rifle platoon has a 5.0cm mortar and Anti-Tank Rifle (ATR) as part of its command element

Supported by:
Sgt Kapp's Panzer III
Cpl Kroner's Stug III
Cpl Sondland's MG-34 team
Sgt Drexler's (Iron Cross 2nd Class) brand new Pak-38 Anti-Tank Gun (ATG)

The Soviet force consists of:
1 x Commanding Officer

3 x Rifle Platoon (one full strength, two missing one rifle squad each due to German preparatory fires)
*Each rifle platoon has a 50mm mortar and Anti-Tank Rifle (ATR) as part of its command element

2 x BT-7 Medium Tanks

1 x Ba-10 Armored Car

1 x 45mm Anti-Tank Gun

1 x 76mm Regimental Gun

1 x 82mm Mortar

The German starting positions: 1st Platoon is on the far left (left), with Cpl Sondland's MG team below them, then 3rd Platoon, the two armored vehicles, and 4th Platoon on the far right. Captain Ginter is on the German left (far left) and Major Freitag is on the German right (just below Ginter).

The Germans push forward on a broad front.

The German reserve, one rifle platoon (SSgt Imhofe's 2nd Platoon) and Sgt Drexler's ATG.

The Soviet positions, which are a bit awkward. They've got a pretty steady line running north south from Hill 90 (top right) down through the fields on the back side of Hill 95 (center), but they've pushed their tanks ahead of their infantry (top center), one one side of the marshy divide (left), and they've put their best anti-tank in front of their infantry atop Hill 95...

The Soviet left, with infantry dug in, the regimental gun dug in near the Collective Farm (center), and the Ba-10 just hanging around, waiting for trouble (bottom right).

The Soviet center, where their CO is sitting with their ATG atop Hill 95 (left).

And the Soviet right, with troops dug in atop Hill 90 and their mortar team set up down below.

The Soviet tanks are visible amongst the trees at top right (Hill 90 is just off camera to top right).

The fight begins with the dug-in Soviets taking the first shot: their riflemen on the north side of the road (right top) open fire on 3rd Platoon (top left) while their 76mm Regimental Gun (bottom right) opens fire...

The fire is devastating: the low-velocity 76mm shell arches over the battlefield and crashes into Sgt Kapp's Panzer III, while 3rd Platoon is pinned down (far left) and is taking casualties!

This is immediately followed by the Soviet ATG atop Hill 95 (bottom left) opening fire on the German armor (top center right)...

Busting open Cpl Kroner's Stug!

Then the Soviet BT-7s (bottom center) open fire with their 45mm guns and MGs on 1st Platoon (center top)...

Pinnning them down and knocking out Lt Orstens' command element!

The Soviet mortar team then goes to work...

Targeting the German far right, pinning down 4th Platoon and knocking out one of their squads!

The German machine gun team (bottom center) and 1st Rifle Platoon (left top, with Captain Ginter at far left) open fire on the 45mm ATG, pinning its crew and the Soviet commander (top center).

As SSgt Arndt gets 4th Platoon's 50mm mortar into action...

Knocking out the Soviet anti-tank gun atop Hill 95!

Major Freitag wades into the inferno in the center and begins shoving men back into the fight.

The Germans take advantage of a lull in the fighting to push EVERYONE forward.

And they bring their reserves on (2nd Platoon on the top edge of the marshes, Sgt Drexler's truck somehow makes it right through the center of the marshy terrain.

The reserves promptly dismount, ready for action.

The Soviet commander (atop Hill 95, bottom left), is getting a bit nervous with two German rifle platoons at the base of his hill, while his tanks move up (top right), playing a game of cat and mouse with Sgt Drexler's anti-tank gun (far left).

The Soviet CO signals his mortar team (top right) to open fire as he falls back (bottom right, from far left).

But the 82mm HE rounds fall harmlessly into the swamp between 2nd Platoon and the anti-tank gun (1st Platoon and Captain Ginter are just off camera to far right).

Back on the Soviet left, the Regimental Gun (bottom right) resumes pumping out 76mm shells.

They bounce a low-velocity HE round off Sgt Kapp's panzer (bottom left), which promptly returns fire, burrowing a 37mm round into the gun's protective sandbags...

But then the Soviet armored car decides to stick its nose into the fight (center, from bottom right)...

And Sgt Kapp's gun (bottom left) roars again...

Rapidly putting several 37mm holes in the Soviet armored car!

Over on the German left, one of the Soviet BT-7s breaks cover and SFC Aust's anti-tank rifle team engages, stunning the crew!

There is another lull in the fighting, and the Germans once again take advantage, with their 1st (far right, with Captain Ginter) and 3rd Platoons climbing over Hill 95.

And 4th Platoon moving up on the far right (bottom right, from bottom left, with Major Freitag at center and Cpl Sondland's MG team at top left).

SFC Aust leads his platoon forward (top left, from center), looking to get into close combat with the stunned Soviet medium tank.

The other BT-7 dashes up to protect its stunned comrade, allowing it to rally...

And then reverse out of trouble!

As the Soviet infantry fall back to consolidate their positions behind Hill 95 in the face of the German thrust in the center (1st and 3rd Rifle Platoons coming down Hill 95).

Meanwhile, the duel in the south between the Soviet 76mm gun (bottom left) and Sgt Kapp's Panzer III (top right) continues...

But it's one 'clang' too many as Sgt Kapp's veteran gunner is finally able to knock out the enemy gun!

The Soviet mortar team (top right) targets the target rich environment of Hill 95 (bottom left)...

But somehow miss!

Multiple Soviet rifle squads (from bottom left to top right) concentrate their fire on the encroaching German infantry atop Hill 95, but it's ineffective (not a single score on 6K 6S!!!)!

But then the Soviet tanks join the fight: the first tank (bottom center right) targets Sgt Drexler's PaK-38 ATG (top left), sending them 'men down.'

While the other BT-7 engages SFC Aust's 2nd Platoon at point blank range, causing them casualties and pinning them down as well.

But now ANOTHER lull in the fighting occurs as the Soviets aren't sure what to do; they're tankers don't want to go charging into the German rear all by their loneseome, and their infantry have proven pretty ineffective so far...

But that's all narrative; in real life, the Germans just rolled their 4th or 5th 'Scurry' of the game. And the Germans know exactly what to do with this 'lull!'

A series of close assaults by the German 1st, 3rd, and 4th Rifle Platoons absolutely crush the Soviet main line of resistance! 4th Platoon crashes into the Soviet left flank...

Defeats the entrenched riflemen before them, then continues their charge into a nearby suppressed rifle squad in the fields.

They move up (far right bottom) as 3rd Platoon moves into close combat (left)...

They win, then continue their assault on the Soviet commander and one of his subordinate platoon leaders.

Crushing them and moving up.

As Captain Ginter and 1st Platoon move into close combat.

But disaster strikes as Soviet riflemen atop Hill 90 fire into the mass of German infantry below...

Knocking out Captain Ginter's company command element!

Which forces one of 1st Squad's rifle squads to fall back, suppressed (far left, from center right)! But Corporal Schiff's 2nd Squad remains in the fight, going to work with grenades, submachine guns, bayonets, an entrenching tools!

They win the first fight and advance into a second close combat...

Winning that one as well, but halting rather than attempting to climb Hill 90 and take on fresh Soviet troops!

On the Soviet right, SFC Aust and 2nd Platoon (bottom left) look on helplessly as the BT-7s fall back (top right).

The tanks continue falling back, joined by the last remaining Soviet rifle squad and their mortar team, ending the fight!

So, that was... interesting. I dunno what it is exactly, but it wasn't all that fun. I know it's not the rules themselves, I'm certainly not souring on 5Core. Yes, it was quite a bit flukey with the Germans rolling up four or five 'scurries' (the Soviets rolled four of them in the first game, which is what allowed them to escape), but that's still not it. I know there's a micro level issue and a macro level issue. The micro level issue is, I think, that I'm not enjoying 5Core with this many units on the table, and that's my fault, you're not supposed to have that many units on the table. In this game the Germans had 18 and the Soviets had 17 individual units/stands on the table, and it's just too many for 5Core. From my perspective, it would be okay if a Scurry affected a part of the battlefield, like left, right, or center, but not the whole battlefield when I've got that many units on the table, it just doesn't feel right. Similarly, it doesn't feel all that crazy when you've only got five or eight units on the table, all involved in the same piece of the action, it just doesn't feel right when you've got essentially three different fights going on (left, right, center) and all of them are affected by this flukey thing. But again, that's my fault for putting too many toys on the table, and if I want to have that many toys on the table I need to use a set of rules that's built for that many toys on the table.

The other problem, the macro-level issue, is just the scale of the endeavor. I'm following a tremendous amount of named characters through what is essentially a war without forseeable end. It's way too many characters (a battalion of infantry with three companies of four platoons of three squads, with characters all the way down to squad leaders, a company of tanks with four platoons of five tanks with characters all the way down to vehicle commanders, a Recce Company with three five-vehicle platoons with characters down to vehicle commanders, and a Schwere Company with MG, Mortar, Infantry Gun, Anti-Tank Gun, Light AA, Heavy AA, Assault Gun, and Panzerjaeger Platoons, all with named characters down to team/vehicle commanders. Yeah, I counted 132 named characters, it's just too much, and I'm spending way too much time just trying to keep straight who is in charge of what, what campaigns they've fought in, what awards they've received, and who replaces them when they get killed/wounded... I'll publish the Kampfgruppe roster so you can see what I'm talking about (if anyone is interested).

And with the Eastern Front, when does it end? Even just Barbarossa up to the Soviet counterattack (Operation Typhoon) is June to December of 1941, how many company-level fights can/should you get in to represent that? It's killing me, it's too much, and it's what's kept me from jumping into this for five years, it's like being in quicksand. I hate to say it, but I think Kampfgruppe Klink ist tot. The only possible way I see forward with it is if I were to hone in one rifle platoon or company and follow them through the rest of the war. It's something I shall be pondering, but KG Klink as we've known it just can't go on, I'm sorry to say.

V/R,
Jack

KG Klink in Barbarossa, Fight #1

2025-10-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

All,

After many fits and starts, I've finally gotten back to some games with my beloved "Kampfgruppe Klink," finally starting Operation Barbarossa. I am quite astounded and embarrassed to say that I last played and posted a real batrep for KG Klink on 30 April 2020, more than five years ago! In that time I have attempted to re-start the KG Klink saga, now moving to the Eastern Front (after having done Greece, France, and Poland), a half dozen times, with different rules and in different scales, but nothing has seemed to work, I just haven't been able to recapture the magic.

I resolved to give it another shot, so I busted out my beautiful 15mm troops and went back to the well, back to where it all started: 5Core Company Command. Lo and behold, I had a good time!

The battlefield, north is left. The KG will be pushing from bottom to top; the concept is that infantry, supported by massed air and artillery, have made the initial breakthrough, and now armored and mechanized forces are flowing through to wreak havoc on the enemy's rear areas before he can find his balance. The KG's mission is to brush aside any resistance and press east with all possible speed, by-passing enemy strongpoints and putting as many Communist troops in the bag as possible. The terrain is dominated by two hills: Hill 105 at center and Hill 100 at top left, with scattered woods and fields.

The German force:
Commander: Captain Tausch, 1st Grenadiere Company Commander, holder of the Infantry Assault Badge and Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class
1st Grenadiere Platoon (3 rifle squads): 2nd Lt Haas, Iron Cross 2nd Class
2nd Grenadiere Platoon (3 rifle squads): Sergeant 1st Class Mader, Iron Cross 2nd Class

3rd Grenadiere Platoon (2 rifle squads): Staff Sergeant Kandler, Iron Cross 2nd Class

*Not shown, each rifle platoon has a 5.0cm mortar team and anti-tank rifle team as part of the Platoon's command element.

2 x 7.5cm infantry guns
2 x MG-34 MG teams
2 x Panzer III (led by Sgt Graebner, Iron Cross 2nd Class)

The enemy force consists of:
1 x Commanding Officer
2 x Rifle Platoon (1 x PC stand and 3 x rifle squad, with each rifle platoon having a 50mm mortar team and anti-tank rifle team as part of the Platoon's command element)

1 x 82mm Mortar Team

1 x T-26 Light Tank

The German baseline, stacked for the assault. 1st Gren Plt at bottom left (with one Pz III attached), one of the Infantry Guns (IG) limbered, 3rd Gren Plt with MGs and the other IG in/around the house, and 2nd Gren Plt at top right (with the other Pz III attached).

1st and 3rd Grenadiere Platoons move up on each flank with their supporting panzers, while 2nd Platoon and the heavy weapons stand overwatch.

The two flanking spearheads continue to push ahead.

Captain Tausch (bottom center) nervously scans the terrain for any signs of the Red Army.

And there they are! The Soviets are well dug in, with both rifle platoons forward, their CO and light tank in the center, backed up by their 82mm mortar team (bottom right).

The Soviets on the left silently allow 2nd Gren Plt to advance up the road.

While the Soviets on the right do the same for 1st Gren Platoon.

The Soviet commander (in field at left center top) signals the tank commander...

The 45mm gun barks, the little Soviet tank (bottom right) sending a solid AP shot at the encroaching German panzer (top center left)...

Sgt Graebner's panzer is immobilized, pinning and suppressing nearby German infantry.

The Soviet tank quickly, and cleverly, motors backwards out of sight (center, from far left), as the Soviet mortar team (bottom right) goes to work.

Targeting 2nd Gren Plt, though the 82mm HE rounds fall wide of their mark.

Back on the Soviet right, riflemen open fire on 1st Gren Plt at point blank range.

Knocking out a German rifle squad.

In the center, one of the German infantry guns (bottom left) opens fire in support of 2nd Gren Platoon (right, on road).

Knocking out one of the Soviet emplacements and suppressing a nearby position!

Sgt Harms' Panzer III rotates and opens fire, but it's 37mm gun has no effect on the dug-in troops.

SFC Mader leads his men off the exposed road (top left), drawing enemy fire (bottom right).

Mader and two of his squads make it to the safety of cover (left), though one of his squads is pinned down in the open (bottom right).

In the German center, 3rd Gren Platoon and the MGs open fire in support of 1st Gren Platoon (far left).

As the Company Commander dashes forward under fire (far left, from center bottom) to rally 1st Gren Platoon.

Nearby dug-in Soviet infantry are unfazed, laying fire into 1st Gren Platoon.

One of 1st Gren Platoon's rifle squads manages to get going, moving up into the cover of a copse of trees before opening fire on the nearby Soviets.

The Red Army soldiers, feeling their oats, let out a vicious 'Urrah!' and charge the German rifle squad!

But the veteran German troops make short work of them (bottom right), moving forward to occupy the Soviet position (far left)!

The Soviet mortar team re-lays its tubes, not focusing on 2nd Gren Platoon atop Hill 105 (top left).

But again the Red mortars miss, falling long of their target!

As the T-26 waddles over to the left, helping to rally some pinned down comrades.

Though it draws the attention of Sgt Harms' gunner (bottom left), who promptly launches an AP round their way (top right)!

Sgt Harms' round misses as the Soviet riflemen and platoon commander rally!

And the Soviet tankers return fire! The round clangs off the German panzer, stunning the crew.

As the Reds bring up a 14.5mm anti-tank rifle!

The Soviet ATR (bottom left) fires on Sgt Harms' tank (top right), to no effect!

Sgt Harms screams at his crew to reload and fire!

This time they brew up the Soviet light tank.

As the German infantry gun at the house (bottom left) again pounds Soviet defensive positions in support of 2nd Gren Platoon (atop Hill 105 at center).

One Soviet defensive position is suppressed (bottom right), but SFC Mader's platoon (top left) now finds itself in a firefight with the other defensive position (center right).

3rd Platoon and an MG-34 continue firing in support of Lt Haas' 1st Gren Platoon (far left, with SFC Mader's 2nd Plt at top right).

Sgt Vigerte's 2nd Squad, 1st Gren Platoon (bottom left), having already defeated one Soviet squad in close combat (bottom right), now finds itself in position to pour enfilading fire into the next Soviet position, looking to turn the Soviet flank.

With Sgt Vigerte's squad holding the flank and representing the limit of advance (far left), the rest of 1st Gren Plt (bottom left) and Sgt Graebner's immobilized panzer all fire on the next Soviet position (top right), affecting the Soviet commander as well (in the field behind them).

And with that, the Soviet commander (bottom right) decides he has done his job delaying the German advance, time to start falling back before his force is annihilated!

But his men are in no shape to move, almost every single unit is pinned or suppressed! A lull in the fighting occurs and the Reds take advantage by rallying their men back into fighting shape.

The Germans take advantage of the lull, too, pushing men forward, cautiously, pushing heavy weapons to the far end of the line (far left) to gain fire superiority in order to ensure they can turn the Soviet right flank.

3rd Gren Plt moves up in the center (left, from bottom right).

But Captain Tausch has been too cautious, and the entire Soviet line collapses in on itself, falling back into the concealment of the corn fields.

On the German left, Lt Haas' platoon gives chase, but they're not really in position to influence the enemy, they can't catch them and they don't have line of sight for their heavy weapons (bottom left). Sgt Vigerte pushes his squad hard to get up on Hill 100 (left, from center), where he might be able to see the enemy amongst the fields.

In the center, SFC Mader pushes most of his platoon forward, up to a nearby treeline (far left), while Captain Tausch rallies Mader's previously suppressed squad and pushes them forward (center, from bottom left) and Sgt Harms pushes his panzer up on the far right; running into enemy infantry in a cornfield is no place for a tanker!

One of the infantry guns and machine gun teams (bottom right) catches a glimpse of some fleeing Soviet infantry (top left) and opens fire...

Eliminating a rifle squad and suppressing their platoon leader.

As Sgt Vigerte's squad makes it to the crest of Hill 100 (far left).

But a nearby Soviet rifle squad (bottom right) opens fire, pinning them (top left)!

SFC Mader pushes 2nd Gren Plt forward, up to the edge of the fields (center, from the treeline at bottom center), but he's feeling like it's a trap and doesn't really want to go sticking his head too far in, as Sgt Harms pushes his panzer forward (top right), but again, not too close.

The Soviet commander (bottom left) ineffectually engages 2nd Gren Platoon (top right).

While another Soviet anti-tank rifle fires on Sgt Harms' panzer, stunning the crew!

Captain Tausch senses an opportunity here and dashes forward under fire to rally Sgt Harms' crew (bottom right) as a nearby rifle squad from 2nd Gren Plt (bottom left, with the rest of 2nd Gren Plt at top left) opens fire on Soviets in the fields (top right).

The two sides keep trading fire in the fields, while the Soviet mortar team (bottom right) fires another sheaf of 82mm HE rounds.

Which are still long, though close enough to suppress SFC Mader's command team!

And good enough to keep the Germans heads down so the rest of the Soviet force can withdraw!

Captain Tausch wistfully ponders the ass-chewing he's about to take from the XO about not by-passing enemy strongpoints and moving with all possible haste to ensure the Soviets weren't able to delay and escape...

Well I'll be doggoned, that was a lot of fun! A little back and forth, a lot of drama, some narrative worked in, not simply a walkover of the enemy, very interesting. More to come.

V/R,
Jack

KG Klink Operation Barbarossa OOB

2025-08-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the Table of Organization for KG Klink for the Campaign in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941. The plan is:

22 June - 9 July 1941 - Minsk
10 July - 10 September - Smolensk
23 August - 26 September 1941 - Kiev
30 September - 21 October 1941 -Vyazma/Bryansk (first snowfall 7 Oct)

The patriarch, founding father, patron saint, original member, and Colonel of Panzer troops commanding the kampfgruppe (following the campaign in Greece, rumors abound in Berlin that the good Colonel's wife is half-Jewish on her mother's side, and so the despicable Nazi leadership has decided that Colonel and command at the kampgruppe level shall be the upper limit of Klink's career, despite his demonstrated tactical brilliance in the previous campaigns. When the XO, LtCol Schultz, queried a mentor and confidant on the General Staff about it, the General replied "it was all I could do to keep him in the field, thank your lucky stars he wasn't sacked for it!"), now sporting the Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross, the Iron Cross 1st Class, and the Iron Cross 2nd Class for his exemplary combat leadership during the campaigns in Poland, France, and Greece:

Colonel Klink

Date/Location: Soviet Union, June 1941

Legend: IAB: Infantry Assault Badge
PAB: Panzer Assault Badge
TKB: Tank Killer Badge
Orange Highlight ("Poland"): Sort of a campaign ribbon to show where he's fought.
Red Highlight (with number): Shows the number of tanks knocked out by that Panzer crew.
Green Highlight ("KC, "IC1," and IC2)" Iron Cross holder, either Knght's Cross, 1st or 2nd Class.

CO: Colonel Klink (IAB, WB (1), KC, IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa,
XO: LtCol Schultz (IAB, WB (2), IC2)
Poland, France, Barbarossa,
Operations Officer: Major Bohm (PAB, WB (2))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
Adjutant: 1st Lt Wolfe

(Barbarossa)

Schutzen Battalion Commander: Major Freitag (IAB, WB (2), IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

Combat Engineer Plt PC: SSgt Hafl (IAB, WB (1), IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Dilbertt (IAB, TKB (1), IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Sgt Reiswitz,
France, Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Jagla
(Barbarossa)
4th Squad: Cpl Hufner
(Barbarossa)

1st Grenadiere Company Commander: Captain Tausch (IAB, IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

1st Rifle Plt PC: 2nd Lt Haas (IAB, IC2)
Poland, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: SSgt Lehmkuhl (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Sgt Vigerte
France, Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Neumayer
(Barbarossa)

2nd Rifle Plt PC: Sergeant 1st Class Mader (IAB, TKB (1), WB (1),  IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: SSgt Nader (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Orel (IAB, WB (1))
France, Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Tobias
(Barbarossa)

3rd Rifle Plt PC: SSgt Kandler (IAB, IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Hackl (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Weber

(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Schneider

(Barbarossa)

4th Rifle Plt PC: SSgt Osswald (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: SSgt Dorn (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Schafer
(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Fischer
(Barbarossa)

2nd Grenadiere Company Commander: Captain Ginter (IC2)

Greece, Barbarossa

1st Rifle Plt PC: 2nd Lt Orstens
Poland,  France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Steinkamp (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Schiff
Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Angerer
(Barbarossa)

2nd Rifle Plt PC: Sergeant 1st Class Aust (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: SSgt Creuzburg (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Rishel (IAB, WB (1))
France, Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Torsten
(Barbarossa)

3rd Rifle Plt PC: SSgt Imhofe (IAB,  IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Axthelm (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Becker
(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Koch

(Barbarossa)

4th Rifle Plt PC: SSgt Arndt (IAB, WB (1), IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Lutz (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Wagner
(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Richter

(Barbarossa)

Motorcycle Company Commander: Captain Klugmann (IAB, WB (1), IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

1st Motorcycle Plt PC: 2nd Lt Distler (PAB)
Poland, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Obst (IAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Rau
France, Greece, Barbarossa
3rd Squad: Cpl Dallman
(Barbarossa)

2nd Motorcycle Plt PC: Sergeant 1^st Class Behrendt (IAB, TKB (1), IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Cpl Klostermann (TKB (1), IC2)
Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Wustlich

(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Olaf
(Barbarossa)

3rd Motorcycle Plt PC: Sergeant 1st Class Gradl (IAB, WB (3), IC1 and 2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Sgt Visner (IAB, WB (1), IC2)

France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Kolzig
(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Schopp
(Barbarossa)

4th Motorcycle Plt PC: SSgt Wilhelm (IAB, IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
1st Squad: Cpl Wallon
France, Greece, Barbarossa
2nd Squad: Cpl Dittmer
(Barbarossa)
3rd Squad: Cpl Gottlob
(Barbarossa)

Attachments:

Pz Company Commander: Captain Loeb (PAB, WB (3), IC1 and 2) (5 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

1st Pz Plt (Pz II x 5) PC: 2nd Lt Kleiber (PAB, WB (1))
Poland, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: SSgt Keck, (PAB, WB (2), IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Sgt Zedler (PAB, WB (2))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Cpl Rausch
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V5: Cpl Leno
Greece, Barbarossa

2nd Pz Plt (Pz III x 5) PC: 2nd Lt Fahrmann (PAB) (2 TK)
Poland, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: Sgt Graebner (PAB,  IC1 and 2) (4 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Sgt Mayer (PAB) (1 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Sgt Harms (PAB, WB (1))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V5: Cpl Progen
France, Greece, Barbarossa

3rd Pz Plt (Pz III x 5) PC: Sgt 1st Class Friessler (PAB, WB (3))  (4 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: SSgt Oberlander (IAB, IC2) (2 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Sgt Fittzbaum (PAB, WB (2),  IC2)  (3 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Sgt Geiger (1 TK)
( France, Greece, Barbarossa)
V5: Sgt Kapp
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

4th Pz Plt (Pz IV x 5) PC: 1st Lt Weider (IAB, IC2) (3 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: SSgt Mangold (PAB, WB (1)) (2 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Sgt Jurgens (PAB, WB (2))
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Cpl Gruden
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V5: Cpl Neuer (WB (1))
Greece, Barbarossa

Recce Company Commander: Captain Wehner (IAB, TKB (1), WB (2),  IC2)
Poland, France , Greece, Barbarossa

Armored Car Plt PC: Sgt Edst (PAB, IC2)
France ,Greece, Barbarossa
V2: Sgt Fasbender (PAB)
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Cpl Moen
Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Cpl Lausberg
(Barbarossa)
V5: Cpl Goring
(Barbarossa)

Heavy Armored Car Plt PC: SSgt Pichler (PAB, WB (2), IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: Cpl Boxleitner
Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Cpl Hamann
(Barbarossa)
V4: Cpl Zwiener
(Barbarossa)
V5: Cpl Unger
(Barbarossa)

Armored Carrier Plt PC: 2nd Lt Neuner
Barbarossa
V2: SSgt Barkstrom (IAB, WB (1), IC2)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Cpl Kloden
(Barbarossa)
V4: Cpl Kircheisen
(Barbarossa)

Schwere Company Commander: 1st Lt Ost (IAB, WB (2), IC2)

Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa

Machine Gun Platoon:
Machine Gun1: Sgt Junker

France, Greece, Barbarossa

Machine Gun2: Sgt Coulver
France, Greece, Barbarossa
Machine Gun3: Cpl Steinmetz
Greece, Barbarossa
Machine Gun4: Cpl Sondland
Greece, Barbarossa

Machine Gun5: Cpl Rauer
(Barbarossa)
Machine Gun6: Cpl Bohler
(Barbarossa)

Mortar Platoon:
Mortar1: Sgt Salz, (WB (1))
France, Greece, Barbarossa
Mortar2: Cpl Graehme
Greece, Barbarossa
Mortar3: Cpl Saucen
Greece, Barbarossa

Mortar4: Cpl Schieffen
Greece, Barbarossa
Mortar5: Cpl Soren
Greece, Barbarossa
Mortar6: Cpl Worrack
(Barbarossa)

Infantry Gun Platoon:
Gun1: Sgt Kallmeyer (IAB)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
Gun2: Cpl Gerdt
Greece, Barbarossa
Gun3: Cpl Grun
Greece, Barbarossa
Gun4: Cpl Stehle
(Barbarossa)

Anti-Tank Gun Platoon:
Gun1: SSgt Kallenbach (IAB, WB (2), IC2) (2 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
Gun2: Sgt Drexler (IAB, IC2) (2 TK)
Poland, France, Greece, Barbarossa
Gun3: Cpl Groen
Greece, Barbarossa
Gun4: Cpl Everestt
Greece, Barbarossa

Light Anti-Aircraft Platoon:
Gun1: Cpl Kluge
(Barbarossa)
Gun2: Cpl Hesse
(Barbarossa)
Gun3: Cpl Nowitzki
(Barbarossa)
Gun4: Cpl Haupt
(Barbarossa)

Heavy Anti-Aircraft Platoon:
Gun1: Cpl Claudius
(Barbarossa)
Gun2: Cpl Pechstein
(Barbarossa)
Gun3: Cpl Steffen
(Barbarossa)
Gun4: Cpl Ullrich
(Barbarossa)

Assault Gun Plt PC: 2nd Lt Hinkle (IAB, WB (1))  (1 TK)
Poland, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: SSgt Kulle
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Cpl Holdtstaat,
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Cpl Jorgensen
Greece, Barbarossa
V5: Cpl Kroner
Greece, Barbarossa

PanzerJaeger Plt PC: SSgt Dittrich (IC2) (2 TK)
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V2: Sgt Wagner (WB (1)) (1 TK)
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V3: Cpl Halstenburg (1 TK)
Greece, Barbarossa
V4: Sgt Hamburg
France, Greece, Barbarossa
V5: Cpl Hager
Greece, Barbarossa

28mm Ultramodern BPRE Good Guys

2025-06-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

All,

Okay, so you've seen all my 28mm WWII stuff; well, at least everything that's painted and ready to play ;) I've also delved into some other areas; I've got a decently-sized Vietnam collection (US Marines, US Army SF, ARVN for early and late war, CIDG, VC, and NVA) in various states of readiness, I'm pondering the Korean War (definitely going to do USMC at Chosin Reservoir, just waiting on someone to come out with reasonably priced Chinese), and then I've gotten into some 'Ultramodern' stuff.

There's a series of graphic novels called "Black Powder Red Earth" (BPRE); I've looked a few of them, not really my thing, but they created their own line of 28mm rules and figures, and that's where things got interesting. They're pretty expensive, and they're a pain in my @#$ to build (I've tried four different types of glue and none has brought me joy, they just don't want to stick together in a hurry, gotta hold them for an extended period), but my Goodness are they fantastic looking!

For clarity's sake, I've broken my BPRE figures down into "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys." The books are about a Private Military Contractor (PMC) company vs bad guys in the Middle East, which consists of Middle Eastern Irregulars, Middle Eastern professionals, and North Korean advisors. To be fair, the bulk of BPRE's 'good guy' PMCs are Middle Eastern professionals with former US-SOF advisors. So here are my 'Good Guys,' bought from several of their box sets (I believe it was two of the starter sets and one of the augments with CQB weapons, another LMG, and grenade launchers).

These guys were all painted up using Contrast paints.

The whole 'Good Guy' mess: I built ten of them out as PMCs or government SOF working in civilian clothes, ten as government types wearing OCP/MTP camouflage, and ten wearing US Marine desert MARPAT camouflage. I have another team assembled and based for the arctic, but haven't painted them yet.

Here are the guys in civilian attire. Man the poses, proportions, and the detail on weapons and equipment are just amazing.

A closeup of one off the leader types. All the rifles are different M-4/16 variants (I believe this one is known as "Block 300"), carry sidearms (right hip), wear NVGs, have comms (looks like MBITRs on their backs, you can see mic on his face), and display chemlights for recognition. In reality these would be IR, but I painted them up in neon green so they'd look cooler, IR chemlights are rather dull to look at withtout NVGs ;) In keeping with BPRE, and just 'cause I think it looks cool, I painted their eyepro and everything electronic red.

Another look, from the front. I tried painting on some tattoos but couldn't get anything to look right.

Another look. You'll notice all the rifles are suppressed.

The team's machine gunner.

Again.

Once more.

A pair of grenadiers. The guy on left has his in a holster on his right hip, using his rifle, while the guy on the right has dropped his rifle (it's slung on his left side) and is about to fire the grenade launcher, which appears to be an M-320.

Personally I don't understand the switch back to a standalone grenade launcher, I was completely in love with the M-203 and believe it was a fantastic weapon, wouldn't want to carry anything else.

Reverse.

Front.

A couple breachers with suppressed MP-7s.

Front.

Opposite.

A pair of 'regular' riflemen (I forget what they term them in their rules).

Good grief, these poses are awesome!!! I'll be honest, it's tough getting my boys into WWII now, all they want to play with are these... And wait until you see the terrain I've got for them!

Opposite.

A pair of scouts (their rifles and packs are configured slightly different to the 'regular' shooters, but damned if I know what it means; that is to say, yes, I can see these guys M-16s have different optics on them, but I don't know/understand how or why they're different from the other guys).

A look at those differently configured packs.

Opposite.

The 'temperate' team wearing the OCP/MTP camo.

The team leader.

Ha, now that I see these guys up close I am reminded that these were not painted in Contrast! I tried but it didn't work, so I had to go back and use acrylics. But the other two teams (PMC and Desert MARPAT) were done in Contrast paints.

Front.

Rear.

The team's machine gunner. If his barrel looks funny it's because this one was broken off in shipping and I couldn't find it to glue it back on, so I had to grab a piece of sprue and glue in it's place...

Reverse. A strong 'assault fire' pose.

A grenadier (left, with grenade launcher holstered on his right side) and a breacher (right, with MP-7).

Reverse.

Front. I love how the breacher (right) has his weapon canted.

A pair of scouts. I think the guy on the left is actually my favorite BPRE pose, he just looks cool to me, very dynamic, realistic.

Reverse. This painting technique for OCP/MTP is the same I used on my 15mm guys; I think it looks alright, but looked better on the smaller guys.

Front.

Guy on the left (another pose I absolutely love) is a rifleman, guy on right is a scout.

Reverse. Aside from the optics, you can see the rifleman's (left) pack is flat, while the scout's looks almost like a camelbak ;)

Front.

Another pair of riflemen. These are probably my too least favorite poses. Not that they're intrinsically bad, I just don't like how the guy on left seems to be too far out over his feet, and they guy on the right is just kinda boring (though perfect for stacking on a door).

Reverse.

Front/side.

And, of course, my favorites, wearing Desert MARPAT.

The team leader.

This was surprisingly easy to paint up:

1) prime in light gray
2) toss Skeleton Horde on the whole thing
3) hit the rifle, pistol butt, and radio antenna with Basilicum Gray
4) go over the helmet, body armor, and gear with dark gray acrylic then go over it with Aggros Dunes, hit the skin, eyepro, NVG and optic lenses, and chemlights with white acrylic then go over them with Gulliman Flesh, Baal Red, and Tessaract Glow, respectively
5) do the boots with Snakebite Leather
6) apply the camo with Gore Grunta Fur

Way easier than it even sounds.

Front.

Opposite.

The team's machine gunner. His suppressor also broke, but I was able to find it and glue it back on, albeit not at the perfect angle, apparently ;)

Front.

Reverse.

Grenadier (left) and breacher (right).

Reverse.

Front. Awesome!!!

A scout (left) and a rifleman (right).

Reverse.

Coming at ya.

Wow, these figures are just amazing. I wasn't even thinking about doing Ultramodern stuff, but then I saw a couple of these painted up on someone's blog and I just HAD to have some.

A pair of scouts. A good look at a couple flashbangs under the guy on left's arm.

Reverse.

Front.

And a pair of riflemen to finish this off.

Reverse.

Front/side.

So, even if Ultramodern isn't your thing, you can see how absolutely amazing these figures are, just too cool. It's dangerous even making me look at these guys again, it's making me want to drop WWII for a bit and bust these dudes out for some close-in, shoot some bad guys in the face-type gaming!

More to come.

V/R,
Jack

28mm JJG Print 3D Ultramodern French Foreign Legion

2025-06-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

All,

So here's my 'other' force for Ultramodern fighting. It's no secret that I'm a crush for the French Foreign Legion, so I just had to get some. Whether it's some real-life stuff in Afghanistan or Mali, or back to Perplakistan, I wanted to get some cool French dudes to go whoop some butt with. I searched around on the internet; I was going to go with Eureka Minis here in the US, but they're perpetually out of stock, so I ultimately find this guy over in France: https://www.jjgprint3d.com/boutique A little pricey, but not too bad, and really great minis. I picked out enough for a team or two and put in my order, received it less than a month later, and they're fantastic little minis.

As always, they were painted using Contrast paints. The camo was super easy: Militarum Green and Gore Grunta Fur over Skeleton Horde (over light gray primer), while the gear and helmets were Aggros Dunes over dark gray acrylic.

The whole mess, eight Legionnaires, consisting of a team leader (with HK416), a designated marksman (with suppressed HK-416), two machine gunners (with Minimi LMGs), and four riflemen (with FAMAS).

A rifleman with beret.

Reverse.

Another.

A bareheaded rifleman.

Fore.

Aft.

A rifleman in baseball cap.

Fore

Aft.

A rifleman with helmet, NVGs, and FAMAS.

Fore.

Aft.

A machine gunner with facemask. I tried painting up the skull on the facemask but couldn't get it to look right...

Fore. One of his bipods snapped off.

Aft.

The other machine gunner, with baseball cap on backwards.

Fore.

Aft.

The team leader, bareheaded and bearded, with his HK-416.

Fore.

Aft.

And the designated marksman, with spotting scope and suppressed HK-416, facemask under his helmet with NVGs.

Fore. This is an incredible sculpt; 3D printing has truly arrived.

Another look.

Side.

Aft.

And another look.

So, pretty doggone cool, right? Bad news update: my boys were screwing around and dropped the box holding these guys, buncha stuff snapped off, still figuring out what I can fix...

V/R,
Jack

28mm Ultramodern BPRE Bad Guys

2025-06-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

All

Well, if you're gonna have good guys, ya gotta have some bad guys for them to beat up on, right? So here they are. More troops from the folks at Black Powder Red Earth, and though they couldn't possibly be as cool as the good guys, they're still pretty damn good figures, with great poses and detail on weapons and gear. Let's get right to it.

My bad guys: I've got some Middle Eastern irregulars (in accordance with the books), which I painted up in all black, a la ISIS. Then you've got some Middle Eastern professionals in the center; they're wearing Ghorka suits, so it didn't make much sense to me that they're ME pros; they're Russians. Then, at right, we've got some Asian professional advisors, which the books say are "Hongbin Mercenaries" from North Korea. Again, let's not screw around, these are Chinese, they were just scared to say so (just like the Red Dawn re-make; North Korea invaded the United Stats, eh?).

The ISIS types, fifteen riflemen with AKs and a PK machine gun team. Sure wish there were some RPGs in there somewhere, but whatever.

The ISIS machine gun team. So here you get to two issues: first, I don't understand the headgear thing, haven't really seen anything like that before. I know the BPRE wargame is set in the fictional Arab nation of "Awbarri," but the bad guys in the book don't look like this. Second, my color choice of orange for the bad guys' goggles and optics may not have been the best idea...

In any case, well sculpted figures, pretty hefty dudes. I don't love the assault fire pose here; PKs aren't known for being particularly easy to control, but perhaps that is the point. You can certainly find countless videos of untrained irregulars firing PKs like this... and not hitting anything.

I like the A-gunner with the rounds draped around his neck and the bag holding a couple spare barrels.

Front.

Then they made three guys that are in different poses than the rest; nothing special about them, just different poses, and they're not even way different poses, pretty slightly different if I'm honest, but I suppose I could use them as team leaders or something, if necessary.

Yeah, I really went lazy on the bad guys' uniforms. Just slosh Basilicum Gray all over them, do the equipment Aggros Dunes, and call it a day. Hey, they're bad guys! ;)

*I know that's going to come back to bite me, I clearly have spent a considerable amount of time on painting other bad guys' uniforms, so please bear with me, it was just a joke and doesn't mean I'm some sort of closet supporter of some horrible people just because I spent a lot of time on their camouflage uniforms...

Front.

Then you get to the cannon fodder, which is twelve guys in three different poses. Here's the first pose.

A closer look.

The second pose.

A closer look. That's Fireslayer Flesh for the skin and Gore Grunta Fur for the wooden furniture and magazines.

And the last ISIS pose.

Closeup.

The two Russian teams. I did one in a straight up everything is green (Militarum Green), and the other in an everything is yellow (Aggros Dunes), except the web gear.

A couple riflemen with AKs and crazy optics, one-eyed NVGs.

Reverse.

Great detail. Not sure how long you're going to last wearing that suit in the 120 degree Fahrenheit Awbarris desert, but whatever...

Another pair of riflemen.

Reverse.

Front.

Then we've got two guys with some sort of AK-looking suppressed weapons (tiny magazines, is that 9mm?).

Reverse.

Front.

Then we get to the desert dudes.

Reverse.

Front.

Next set of riflemen.

Reverse.

Front.

And the two guys with suppressed weapons.

Reverse.

Front.

And then the Chinese. These are the guys I dislike the most. They're great sculpts/figures, but part of what aggravates me is that, if you thought those Arabs were big, get a look at these Chinese (yes, I've seen some big Chinese, but c'mon). The real reason I don't love them is because I tried twelve different paint schemes and just didn't like any of them (trying to use a scheme that differentiates them from the Good Guys, ISIS, and Russians); finally I just settled on a brown color (Snakebite Leather, and they're all wearing scarves, which I painted red) that looks okay, not realy happy with it.

A couple leader types; tell me those aren't some bad-ass sculpts! The figures look great, the paintjobs, meh...

It's funny that these guys appear to have two-eyed NVGs, while their troops have monocular NVGs.

Side.

Other side.

Then they've got some grenadiers, with UGLs under their AK-type rifles.

These two look different because I tried priming in white (left) and light gray (right) ad didn't fix the one on the right after deciding to go with white.

Reverse.

Front. I love the grenade bandolier around their waists.

Two more grenadiers. The Snakebite Leather didn't flow well over these guys, just kind of smeared around. I think it's because I tried too many different paint schemes, re-priming multiple times.

Reverse.

A pair of riflemen. Anyone know what those things are under their muzzles?

Reverse.

Front.

And the last two riflemen.

Reverse.

Side.

So, plenty of available targets! I actually have some more Chinese to paint up, as well as some guys for the Arctic. I'd like to get some vehicles as well, we'll see.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Soviet Vehicles

2025-06-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

All,

Greetings, and welcome to my collection of Soviet heavy metal! I painted absolutely zero on this force, it's all bought from other folks. Everything but the three trucks comes from my buddy Dustin; the trucks were off a guy on Ebay. Soviet stuff is generally pretty easy, right, just throw some green on them, but they did a great job with decals and weathering. I noticed that some early war stuff was done in more of a forest green, while some others and the later war stuff was done in more of an olive green. I think everything but the trucks and Su-76s (which are 3D printed) are from Warlord/Italeri.

The whole mess: two IS-2s, an Su-85, an Su-122, a KV-1 (with separate turret to make it a KV-2), two T-26s, two BT-7s, a 1940 model T-34, two 1942 model T-34s, two Su-76s, a Ba-64, a Ba-10, and three Studebaker trucks.

First up, the two Su-76s. My only complaint is that there are no crew figures inside, may have to remedy that.

The Ba-64 armored car.

The Ba-10 armored car.

A pair of T-26s.

The three trucks.

A pair of BT-7s.

The two later model T-34/76s.

The early model T-34/76, looking awful clean.

The Su-122.

The Su-85.

The KV-1.

And his big brother, the KV-2.

And the two IS-2s, veritable monsters.

I think they look nice, and overall I think they'll see me through pretty much any scenario. I'm a wargaming megalomaniac, so well enough is never enough; I've got a pair of T-60s on the way, and I'd like to have some T-34/85s, probably some Lend-Lease stuff too, at least a Valentine or two, maybe a 'Coffin for Seven Brothers.' ;) Oh, and I have an M3 scout car that I've primed but haven't painted; not too worried about jeeps, motorcycles, or halftracks for the Soviets, though I do have some cavalry waiting to be painted. Not vehicles, but I'd also like to get my hands on some paratroopers, partisans, and naval infantry. Ugh, it never ends...

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Summer Soviets from Warlord

2025-06-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

All,

For those of you that have been patiently awaiting the Red Horde, wait no more, they're here. The vast majority of these are from Warlord Games, but there's a few 3D printed models thrown in here, and there's a field gun and crew from West Wind, which is actually very nice (I'd never seen them before, had heard that they were smaller, but they fit right in to me). The vast majority of the infantry were bought in two decent sized lots off of Ebay, already painted. The first lot I bought didn't have any submachine guns (!!!???), so I got on the internet and bought me some submachine gunner, as well as some Maxim machine guns, ATRs, and engineers, all 3D printed, and a pair of 45mm guns from Plastic Soldier Company. Then the second lot of infantry came up on Ebay and I bought them; there were definite differences between how the two lots of infantry were painted, so I spent some time painting to try and make them look a bit more 'together,' and the second lot wasn't fully based. The bases were sanded and painted a dark brown, but that was it, whereas the first lot's bases were flocked and had clump foliage affixed to them, though quite a few of the bases had suffered substantially from use and shipping, so I set about working on them to make them a bit more uniform. Then I had to paint and base the 3D printed models and the guns/crew from PSC, so even though I bought a lot of stuff painted, I feel like I've got some sweat equity in this force as I had to spend quite a bit of time to get it looking like it currently does.

As almost always, the ones I fully painted were done with Contrast paints, and I did something a little different. This time I primed with khaki, then did the uniforms with Aggros Dunes, trying to get something decent for the Soviet uniform. Not perfect, but looks okay, I think.

The whole mess: seven HQ types, 41 riflemen, 10 automatic riflemen (SVT-40), 15 submachine gunners, seven light machine guns (with two dedicated assistant gunners), two sniper teams, two 50mm mortar teams, two 82mm mortar teams, two Maxim machine gun teams, three anti-tank rifle teams, two 45mm guns, and one 76.2mm gun.

The HQ types.

A couple bosses, with Makarovs.

A couple Lieutenants.

Another officer-type (right), not sure what the guy on the left is supposed to be, maybe a mailman? ;)

And looks like supposed to be a medic type? Haven't heard of them wearing blue pants, but I'm no expert on Commie stuff...

The submachine gunners. The eleven in the back are the 3D printed ones I painted up, the four at bottom right came in the second lot off Ebay (the first had ZERO submachine gunners for some reason).

Two from the second lot.

And the other two.

Now into the 3D printed guys. Not much on them in terms of equipment.

Next.

Very slightly different pose to the one above.

Crouching down.

And one more.

From the front, they've got good proportions, well rounded, well fed Commies.

The automatic riflemen.

First pair.

One of the guys did blue collars on a few of the guys, hadn't seen that before. Anyone know the significance?

Next pair. These were early Warlord plastics, meaning the weapons weren't molded into the hands/arms, so you had to figure out which arms worked best with which model, then fight the bastard to get them into place in something approaching a natural look. I didn't do these guys (thank Goodness), but I've had to do some others, and it's a pain in the @#$!!! So I'm very thankful to have bought these already assembled, and you just have to get over the fact that some of the weapons holds don't look perfectly natural (like the guy on the right). You don't even see it on the tabletop, just in these insane closeups.

One standing his ground and one advancing.

A couple copping a squat.

The light machine gunners, with DP-28s. The two guys at far right are dedicated A-gunners.

A pair of gunners on their feet.

And the five prone machine guns.

Closeup.

Again.

The two assistants.

The horde of riflemen.

A trio of dudes with Molotov cocktails, pretty cool.

Couple riflemen, one with scoped Mosin-Nagant (right).

Quite a few guys with these short rifles (carbines?), not really familiar with them.

Next pair.

Couple guys tossing grenades.

Two dudes sporting 'pilotka' caps.

Couple guys kneeling with grenades.

It can be a bit difficult photographing these guys because of their long rifles and bayonets.

A couple more shorties.

Then we've got some engineers, with metal body armor.

Pair of flamethrowers.

Tossing grenades.

Pair with DP-28s.

And a pair with panzerfausts.

A couple sniper teams.

Closeup.

The three anti-tank rifles.

The ATR painted by one of the other guys.

And the 3D printed ones I did.

The 'Crash-Boom' from West Wind, very nice model, very nicely painted, was so happy to find this on Ebay.

Again.

A pair of 45mm guns from Plastic Soldier Company.

Closeup. I used Creed Camo on the guns, looks okay I suppose.

Again.

3D printed Maxim machine gun.

Again.

There are four mortar teams by Plastic Soldier Company that came painted in the first lot I bought off Ebay. Here is a pair of 82mm mortars.

And a pair of 50mm mortars (I believe the Germans called them 'potato tossers'?).

So there you go, my non-snow covered Soviet infantry. Very happy with how they turned out, and at the quantity of them ;)

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Winter Soviets from Warlord

2025-06-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

All,

You've seen my summer Soviets, now check out their winter brethren. Like the summer guys, these were bought in two different lots off Ebay. The first lot was actually from the professional painter, Kings Colours, whom I've bought several sets from. The other lot is actually the same one I referenced in the summer Soviets post; I basically took half the guys from this lot and finished them for summer, and the other half for winter. Ultimately I ended up with only one anti-tank rifle team for the winter group, but I had a couple ATRs from Plastic Soldier Company lying around, so I did them up to add to this force.

I didn't do any real painting in this force, just touching up the paintjobs on the guys in the second lot, and finishing their bases.

The whole mess, with guys from Kings Colours at left and the second lot at right, minus the engineers at bottom center, which are 3D prints that I purchased and painted.

Four HQ-types from Kings Colours.

A pair of officers.

A medic, with casualty.

Again.

And a comms guy.

Five automatic riflemen with SVT-40s.

Closeup.

The other three, two with panzerfausts.

Fourteen guys with submachine guns.

First pair.

Next. A lot of guys have PPsh-41s, of course, but I'm not sure what the one on the right is, it looks slightly different, like one of the Finnish submachine guns.

Another pair.

Next pair, one with Molotov Cocktail. As mentioned previously, I really like how this guy dry-brushes them white to get a really frosty look, but I'm scared to do that, afraid I'll over-do it and completely ruin the paintjobs.

And the last pair.

Four light machine guns.

A pair with DP-28s, pretty standard.

But then there's this cat, who's picked up an MG-34 and fancies himself a little Johann Rambo.

Twenty-two riflemen with Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifles.

A couple guys advancing, one with grenade.

A couple popping a squat.

Three in a sort of firing pose; a nice touch is that they're hands are bare, with their gloves hanging down off their coats.

A pair of two very cold looking comrades.

Two kneeling in the snow.

Two advancing.

Another pair.

Even a couple with those short bolt action rifles/carbines I mentioned in the last post.

A maxim machine gun team. I plan on getting another of these.

Reverse.

An 82mm mortar team, can probably live with just one, but would buy another if it popped up for the right price.

Again.

PTRD (or PTRS, not sure how to differentiate) anti-tank rifle.

Now we get to the guys from the second lot, four men with submachine guns. At bottom left you can see another of that odd looking duck I referenced above.

I swear that's Uncle Joe on the right.

The other two.

Three guys with SVT-40s.

Closeup.

A pair of DP-28s.

Twenty-two more riflemen.

Good mix of overcoats and the quilted suits.

Ahh, an SVT-40 snuck in here (left).

Couple more charging.

Urrrrrrah!

Dashing ahead with scoped rifle and taking a knee, chilling.

Two more. The guys with greatcoats in this set have some huge boots on. Just looked at the pics, the guys from the Kings Colours lot do too, I just didn't notice for some reason.

Two men working their way up.

One of the ATRs from PSC that I painted up.

And the other, looking awfully unbothered by the sub-zero temperatures...

A six-man team of engineers.

A flamethrower and DP-28.

And a dude throwing a frag while his buddy pops a panzerfaust.

So, pretty cool, but more work needs to be done. I'd love to have another machine gun, and I absolutely need some guns to go with this force, be they 45mm or 76mm (or both, like the summer force). I also want to get some M1927 short 76mm guns for summer and winter; once I've got all that I think I'll be set.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Winter Germans by Warlord

2025-06-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

All,

So, here we are at the first (of several) forces I did not build and paint myself. This entire force was built and painted by "King's Colours" on Ebay. He does great work and I really didn't feel like painting and basing snow troops so I splurged and bought these (as well as Soviets and Americans in the snow). It's all Warlord stuff from one of their Army boxes, and it's built in what you'd need for a rifle platoon, and it's painted and based very nicely. My only complaint is that there are a number of panzerfausts and Stg-44s, making it suitable only for late war, so I am going to have to buy some infantry types and paint and base them myself in order to have enough troops to run early/mid-war rifle platoons. But that is not the fault of the guy I bought them from, that is just an issue of personal preference. All in all I'd say it was money well spent, and I'll just flesh these out with a few packs from Nick at Northstar (either Artizan or Crusader).

The whole mess: we've got a few HQ types, three NCOs with MP-40s, three MG-42 teams, ten riflemen (with Mausers or G43s), six men with Stg-44 assault rifles, six guys with rifles and panzerfausts, a sniper team, a flamethrower team, a panzerschreck team, an MG-42 on tripod, an 80mm mortar team, and a Stug III with long 75 and sideskirts.

Aside from more riflemen, it's on my mind to get an ATG and another MG team.

The HQ types, with two officers and a medic carrying a wounded soldier.

The officers, very nicely cast in metal, very nicely painted.

Reverse.

The doc and wounded soldier.

Reverse. I love how he drybrushed white all over them to get them that frozen look, but I'm too scared of ruining the paint jobs to do that!

The three squad leaders with MP-40s.

Again.

The six soldiers with Stg-44s.

A closer look.

More.

The guys with panzerfausts.

Closeup.

Again.

The three MG-42 teams, gunners and assistant gunners.

The three gunners; again, no possibility for firing poses in this set.

The A-gunners, with ammo boxes and spare barrels.

A look at some riflemen.

I do love the pose carrying the mine.

A couple more riflemen.

The panzerschreck team.

The flamethrower team.

The sniper team.

The MG-42 on tripod.

Reverse.

The 80mm mortar team.

Reverse.

And the Stug, in whitewash.

Pretty doggone cool, just need a few more troops to fill them out for the entire war and they'll be set.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Italians from Wargames Atlantic

2025-06-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

All,

As always, I go all in, way too far, buy too much stuff, and there's no better example of this (for my particular situation) than having an Italian force for the Western Desert. I don't have any particular desire to play battles with Italians in the desert, I just feel compelled to have them because they were there and I have British and Germans for fighting in North Africa. I did the same thing in 10mm and 15mm and have yet to play a campaign where Italians featured; I think I've played a grand total of one game that involved (a few stands of) Italians, buttressed by Germans, in Tunisia.

But it doesn't matter, I've got them if I need them ;) So here they are; I got a good deal on some Wargames Atlantic Italian infantry, so I started there, then I bought some vehicles off my new buddy Scott on Ebay, then I bought a 3D printed anti-tank gun, then I decided I needed another squad so I bought it painted off Ebay but repainted it, then I decided I needed some light weapons and bought them from Warlord. The Wargames Atlantic guys are nicely sculpted and proportioned, though they are a bit fiddly (compared to most Warlord figures) to put together, while the Warlord weapons figures are one piece models made out of resin, which I hadn't seen before, but they're well done.

As always, I went with a nice, simple paintjob using Contrast paints, which didn't take long at all.

The whole mess: four rifle squads, a few senior leader types, a machine gun team, a mortar team, an anti-tank rifle team, a Brixia 45mm mortar team, a sniper team, some dismounted tank crew, a 47mm anti-tank gun with prime mover (both deployed and towed), three M13/40 tanks, two Semovente assault guns, an AB40 armored car, and an AB41 armored car.

The commander (right) and his senior NCO (left).

Reverse.

Another couple of officer/senior NCO types. The guy on the left is one I bought painted off Ebay then repainted; you can see I didn't do a good job and so the tone of the uniform is different to the rest of the force.

A couple men with submachine guns.

And a couple more, with different headgear.

Last one.

A pair of light machine guns.

And two more.

A total of 24 riflemen.

A pair tossing grenades.

Three firing from the off-hand position.

Three with bayonetted rifles leveled.

Three moving up.

The machine gun team.

Reverse.

The mortar team. I believe I stole the mortar from a Plastic Soldier Company set of Soviets, while the assistant just has a grenade in his hand.

Reverse.

The anti-tank rifle, from Warlord.

The Brixia mortar team.

The sniper team.

The 3D printed anti-tank gun set, with crew and prime mover.

The gun, set up for action.

And being towed into action.

These came from my buddy Scott, some dismounted Italian tank crewmen.

Again.

As did this guy, though I'm not sure what he is or what I'm supposed to do with him...

Reverse.

The pair of armored cars, AB40 (armed only with machine guns) at left and 20mm cannon-armed AB41 on right.

The pair of Semoventes.

And the three M13/40 tanks, ready to get thrashed by the Allies.

So, a pretty cool force, happy to have them, just gotta make it worth it by actually getting them on the table. Hopefully I'll get my Indian platoon (you'll see them soon) blooded soon against these guys.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Early War French from Warlord

2025-06-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

All,

Well what do we have here, it's another force I bought off Ebay from King's Colours, of course! I must admit, whilst I enjoy painting, it's pretty damn cool to get a box in the mail, open it up, and pull out a force that you're immediately able to jump into a game with. Now I just gotta get jumping into games with them!

This was definitely an impulse buy; I'm not really that crazy about Fall of France, can't see myself really playing it out, over and over. As a matter of fact, when I decided to do it with my Kampfgruppe Klink it was the first time I'd ever considered playing Fall of France, and when KG Klink was done with it, I figured I was too. But I saw these guys on Ebay for what seemed a reasonable price, and I'd been collecting early war Germans, and it seemed like you could pit these guys against some early war Germans for some pretty balanced games, and I immediately began picturing my boys going at each other in some Fall of France games, with me umpiring, so I couldn't help but pull the trigger. Then, to top it all off, another gentleman on Ebay just happened to be selling several light tanks for a very reasonable price, so I scooped those up, too. I even ordered a 3D printed armored car, though it's languishing on the painting table, primed in green...

The whole mess: four HQ types, four 11-man rifle squads, an MG team, an 81mm mortar team, a 25mm anti-tank gun, a Char B1 bis heavy tank, and three Renault R35 light tanks.

A couple metal Warlord figures, NCO on left and officer on right.

Reverse.

More metal figures: medic on left, comms guy on right.

Reverse.

Now we get to the plastics. We have two squad leaders with pistols; one of the squads consists of Colonial troops, or however the French phrased that.

And two with submachine guns.

Four light machine guns of the FM 24/29 Chatellerault variety.

Four assistants for the squad machine guns.

There are three NCO-looking guys.

Four men with grenade launchers.

Three guys throwing hand grenades.

Three firing their rifles from the off-hand position.

Four taking a knee.

Four cautiously advancing.

Well... four more cautiously advancing ;)

The machine gun team.

Reverse.

The mortar team.

Again.

The anti-tank gun. 25mm gun, so cute! ;)

Reverse.

The leviathan, the Char B1 bis tank.

Reverse.

And the three Renault R35s.

A closeup of the tank commander, color scheme, and decals.

All in all a great deal, ready to hit the table. I'm pumping these posts out as quickly as I can so I can actually get some guys on the table!

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII US Vehicles

2025-06-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

All,

I wanted to show you my US Army vehicles for fighting the Axis powers in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and the European Theater of Operations. Not a lot of vehicles here, but what there is should suffice to get me through the stuff I want to do and, unlike most of the other vehicle sets, this one was mostly painted by me.

I wasn't really sure how to go about painting 28mm vehicles, and I started out using Contrast paints. It worked okay for some of my British vehicles and the one German tank I did, but I wasn't elated with the results, so I took to Youtube to see if there was a simple method that I might be able to follow, and lo and behold, I found something I'm happy with. It's actually designed for painting 15mm tanks in a hurry but, from my perspective at least, it worked fine for 28mm, and it was quick and easy, and hell, even kinda fun (while I like painting figures, I really do not enjoy painting vehicles).

So I spray painted everything black, then set to dry brushing. Started with Oak Brown, then Dark Green, then Brown-Green (dammit, it's a Vallejo Color from the US box but I can't think of the name, did up the tracks, tools, and machine guns (some wood color, black, then highlighted with silver, then hit with a dark wash), then Iraqi Sand. I'm very happy with the results.

The whole mess: a Jeep with M2 .50-cal HMG mounted, an M8 armored car, four M3 halftracks, an M3 Stuart, an M10 Wolverine, three M4 Shermans (one with 76mm gun), and an M3 Lee or Grant.

The jeep, a plastic model from Rubicon. It had more figures but I stole them for the halftracks.

Again.

The M8 armored car.

Reverse.

The M3 Stuart.

Reverse.

The M10 Wolverine (with some 3D printed crew off Ebay).

Again.

Three of the halftracks, the ones painted by me.

Closeup.

Another.

And one more.

The Shermans.

Closeup of War Daddy.

Another look.

And a shot of the 76mm-armed Sherman.

The fourth halftrack, which was painted by a guy on Ebay. I didn't need this model, but it came with the M3 Lee/Grant, and I needed that.

Again.

The M3 Lee/Grant; oh hell, let me look it up. This is definitively an M3 Lee, and I now know that the British tanks I have are M3 Grants (I'm going off the turret shapes).

Reverse. I intend on using this for US support in North Africa and Australian support in New Guinea.

And there you have it, my US heavy metal, ready to go whoop some ass! Gonna play me some Haunted Tank with one of the Shermans ;)

V/R,
Jack

Edit

28mm Warlord WWII Late War Waffen SS

2025-06-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

All,

You saw my uniformly dressed Waffen SS force for early war, all outfitted smartly in summer Oak Leaf pattern camo, now take a look at this rabble! I did my best to make this force match up to photos I'd seen from the fighting in Arnhem during Operation Market Garden; gone is the uniformity, this is a veritable cornucopia of mis-matched uniforms brought on by a supply chain at the end of its tether, smashed day and night by Allied bombers and about to be overrun from both east and west.

These are plastics (and a few metals mixed in) from Warlord Games. I bought these off Ebay from a gentleman in the UK, already painted, for a very reasonable price (also bought some painted British Airborne and Soviets from him, coming soon). They were painted as regular Wehrmacht, but I already had regular Wehrmacht, so I set about converting these to late-war Waffen SS (specifically to face off against those British Airborne). So all the flesh, weapons, equipment, and field gray you see was painted by the other gentleman, all I did was the SS camouflage, of which there is a quite a bit. I did my best to mix it up as much as possible, so you'll see summer Oak Leaf, fall Oak Leaf, summer Plane Tree, and Pea Dot camo on uniforms and helmet covers. One problem I had was that, originally built as late-war Wehrmacht, there are a lot of guys wearing shelter-halves/ponchos; I'm no expert on SS uniforms, but I wasn't really familiar with them wearing shelter halves and, if they were, what sort of SS camo it should be. So I didn't bother myself too much, just painted the shelter halves in Plane Tree camo and moved on.

The whole mess, really just a rifle platoon with a panzerschreck team and a few officer/forward observer types.

Four MG-42 teams, including the dreaded "please liquify my brains by putting that damn thing on my shoulder and letting rip" pose.

The plastic infantry don't come with this pose, the gentleman I bought them from created it himself, so I give him high marks for creativity ;) The gunner is in pea dot uniform with summer oak leaf helmet cover, while the A-gunner is in field gray uniform with fall oak leaf helmet cover.

Reverse.

Another team, A-gunner with pea-dot and gunner with summer oak leaf.

Next team, A-gunner with summer oak leaf smock and no helmet cover, gunner with plane tree shelter half and summer oak leaf helmet cover.

Reverse.

Last LMG team, A-gunner with plane-tree shelter half and fall oak leaf helmet cover, gunner in field gray, fall oak leaf helmet on his back.

Reverse.

Fourteen riflemen with KaR-98s.

First pair, guy on left with a couple panzerfausts; I later learned that panzerfausts didn't have slings so you couldn't strap them to your back like this, but apparently I'm not the only one that thought you could) ;) Guy on right has a bayonet on his rifle, that looks kinda weird for some reason...

Two more ubers...

Another pair, guy on left has rifle grenade.

More panzerfausts.

Six guys with MP-40s.

Throwing a grenade and blazing away.

Officer type on left with field glasses and map, dude short-stocking his MP-40 on right.

Another dude with field glasses.

Six guys with G43 carbines. I don't mind the weapon, but their barrels are frail and tend to snap off...

The panzerfaust pose is really well done, I think.

Two more riflemen.

Seven with Stg-44 (or MP-44?) assault rifles.

A closer look. The guy on the left is what my plane tree is supposed to look like; the guy on the right is what it looks like when you get tired of stippling (those dots get pretty doggone big) ;)

Two more, one an officer-type.

Another officer.

The panzerschreck team.

A cool little radio operator, though I just noticed the early war national ensign decal on his helmet. I don't think the SS wore those...

Another cool little model, using the scissors binos.

Reverse.

I'm super happy with how these turned out, they look perfect (to me) for Market Garden work.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII US Army for Winter from Warlord

2025-06-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

All,

You've seen my Winter Germans, so time to see my Winter Americans (and soon you'll see my Winter Soviets). I didn't paint or assemble a single thing in these pics, these all came from "King's Colours" on Ebay. He does a great job building out a rifle platoon that's pretty close, if not exact, to the TO&E, and he does a great job painting and basing the troops, weapons, and vehicles. I'd love to buy more stuff from him, but I just don't have any more big forces that I need to buy from him...

The whole mess: we've got four HQ types, four with submachine guns, three with BARs, nine with M-1 Carbines (turns out it's ten, had one hiding out with the M-1 Garands), eighteen men with M-1 Garands, an 81mm mortar team, a machine gun team, a bazooka team, an M8 armored car, and an M10 Wolverine. I'm showing these two vehicles here becuase they 're whitewashed for the snow, whereas I have a bunch more US vehicles to show you in a separate blog post.

First up, a couple HQ types, a Doc with litter and a sniper with Springfield '03.

Reverse.

And two with radios, one the venerable 'walkie-talkie' (left), with the guy on the right carrying some (relatively) long-haul comms.

Reverse.

A couple guys with Tommy Guns.

Reverse.

And the other two, one with Thompson and the other with the venerable M-3 Grease Gun.

Reverse.

Nine men with M-1 Carbines.

A pair; the guy on left is a Warlord metal figure, the guy on right is a Warlord plastic figure. You can see how much bigger the plastics are then the metals, which kinda drives me nuts. I would be one thing if these were different manufacturers, but these come from the same folks...

Reverse.

A couple more with M-1 Carbines (metal on right, plastic on left).

Reverse. You can see the white drybrushing on the figures, which gives a great affect, but I'm too scared of ruining the paint job to try something like that.

Two guys advancing with M-1 Carbines.

Reverse.

Another pair with carbines.

Reverse.

This dude is moving fast with a carbine in his left hand and a Colt M1911 .45-cal ACP in his right.

Reverse.

Two of the Browning Automatic Riflemen.

Reverse.

And the third.

I'm definitely going to buy a couple boxes of these to build a USMC platoon for Chosin Reservoir; I'd have done it already but I can't seem to find any reasonably priced Chinese (Warlord's are metal and come in packs of 10 to 12 troops for around $35 (to put it in perspective, Warlords' plastics are usually about $45 for thirty figures), and that ain't gonna cut it, I need too many of them. I've priced them as cheap as I can find them and it's coming to about $450 to get around 75 infantry (rifles, SMGs, and LMGs) plus a couple MG teams, mortar teams, and flamethrower teams. Not gonna cut it, I need someone to do some cheap plastics or 3D printed guys that will come in much cheaper.

Reverse.

The riflemen, armed with M-1 Garands.

A couple guys moving up, guy on left with rifle at the ready.

The next pair, also advancing.

Two dudes cautiously creeping forward.

One scanning and one taking a breather.

Two double-timing to the front.

Two more advancing, one on left has a grenade in his right hand, but it kinda doesn't look right. It may supposed to cocked back, ready to throw? Hard to tell and I don't know since I didn't build them myself, so I don't know how they fit together.

Another pair of riflemen.

Two kneeling, not sure what is in the left hand of the guy on left.

Two more, one trudging through the snow and one kneeling, shouting a warning to someone.

And finally, one dude actually shooting at someone! ;)

The 81mm mortar team.

Reverse.

This one aggravates me (not the guy who made them's fault, this is Warlord's fault); instead of providing the standard machine gun team with gun on a tripod, they give us this nonsense... I guess he thinks he's Terrible Tony Stein; I'm sure some folks dig it, but I don't, not at all, just give me the gun on a tripod, please...

Reverse.

The bazooka team.

Reverse.

The M8 armored car, white-washed.

And the M10 Wolverine, white-washed.

All in all another good force, but I want to get a 'regular' machine gun team, and I also need an anti-tank gun to top these guys off. Then I'll get to my Marines for Korean War ;)

V/R,
Jack

EDIT

I was asked how I’m storing all this stuff.

Here’s where all the various 28mm forces are (the plastic containers). Vehicles and terrain are… scattered all over

And just for reference, here’s my 15mm forces, including vehicles. Terrain is scattered all over the place (you can see the chateau atop one of the stacks of plastic boxes, trees behind it), with most of it under my 8’ x 6’ table (I only use 6’ x 4’ because there’s always crap scattered over the other half, and I don’t really have enough terrain to cover the whole thing).

28mm WWII Early War German SS from Crusader

2025-06-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

All,

This is from the wonderful Mr. Nick over at Northstar, who hooked me up with a platoon deal to serve as the core of my early war Waffen SS force. Specifically, these are metal figures from Crusader, and they're lovely. Nice and hefty, great detail on weapons and gear, great proportions, and though I love my Warlord plastic figures, it was such a blessing to not have to build all these guys!!!

I bought a regular rifle platoon, then augmented with some weapons teams and engineers. I wanted the early war force to have a uniform look, so I painted the rifle platoon and some of the supporting weapons teams in Oak Leaf pattern camo, and I painted the engineers and ATG crew in Plane Tree camo, just to set them apart a bit.

These guys were NOT done using Contrast paints. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do SS camouflage using Contrast paints (not sure if it's possible or not, but I didn't experiment with them as I've done quite a bit of SS camo and I know exactly how to get what I'm looking for with acrylics, so I was looking to use Contrast paints for everything except the camo smocks and helmet covers, but then I messed it up when I was doing the base layer of the camo smocks and helmet covers (got it all over the place, on stuff I wasn't supposed to), so rather than go back and fix all of that in order to be able to use Contrast paints, I just charged ahead and used acrylics for everything but the flesh. What can I say, it was NOT a pleasurable experience. I'm so used to how quick and easy Contrast paints are that it was really a pain in my ass going back to acrylics; I'm sure some of it is just in my head, but I'm telling you, it takes so much more time. With Contrast paints you just open the pot, dip the brush in, and lay it on the mini. With acrylics you're having to shake them for quite a bit, get the on the pallet, get them mixed to the right consistency, brushing them on (a lot more time brushing than with Contrasts, which you just drop and pull), having to do multiple coats because certain colors won't cover over certain other colors, paint on the pallet and on the brush getting gummy, wiping it out, re-shaking, re-shooting, re-mixing, cleaning the brush, painting, and then getting to go back over all of it with a wash. I love my Contrast paints! Give it a quick shake, dip it in, slap it on, and done.

My only complaint on the models is that the MG-34 LMGs don't have bipods molded on; it doesn't really bother me that much, but the early war Fallschirmjager are done the same way and several people commented negatively on it. And I broke a barrel off, somehow...

The whole mess: a rifle platoon (with 50mm mortar and anti-tank rifle), MG team, mortar team, ATG, and some engineers.

Platoon leadership types, the Lieutenant on the left and his Platoon Sergeant. Pretty happy with how the camo turned out.

Reverse.

Six dudes with MP-40s.

First pair.

Reverse.

Next pair.

Reverse.

Last pair. If the guy on the right looks like he has an M-3 Greasegun, it's becuase that's the barrel I broke off, and I tried to replace it with a piece of plastic sprue, but it's a little too long and doesn't have a sight on it...

Reverse.

Three MG-34 LMG teams.

The gunners. As mentioned, no bipod.

And the A-gunners.

Twenty-four riflemen armed with KaR-98s.

First pose.

Next.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Seventh.

And last.

The ATR team.

Again.

Another.

And one more.

The 50mm mortar team.

Again.

Another.

And once more.

MG-34 on tripod.

Again.

Reverse.

And once more.

The 80mm mortar team.

Again.

Another.

And once more.

The PaK-36. This is the plastic gun from Rubicon, and all four crew members are plastic from Rubicon as well.

Again.

Another.

Closeup of the Plane Tree camo. Much faster/easier than Oak Leaf...

First two engineers, one on right has the flamethrower. I have no idea what the dude on the left has in his hand; is it a flare pistol of some sort? It looks like a pistol with a rifle grenade attached to it...

Reverse.

The other two engineers. Dude on left looks to have a plunger for explosives, dude on right is sweeping for mines.

Reverse.

Pretty cool little unit. And if I've got early war SS, then you know what's coming next.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII US 101st Airborne from Warlord

2025-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

All,

Hello everyone, come on in and take a look at my US Airborne from Warlord. These guys are painted up (decal'ed up) as being members of the 101st Airborne Division, as opposed to my guys from Artizan, which are painted up as members of the 82nd Airborne Division. This is one of the first forces I built and painted; I wasn't sure how to do it but I saw a guy on Youtube with a very simple solution. Spray prime the guys a dark gray, then cover them in "Aggros Dunes," one of the Contrast paint colors. They're not beautiful paintjobs, but I'll tell you that I was able to knock these guys out in record time. I just slathered Aggros Dunes everywhere, then went back and did the weapons (Gore Grunta Fur for wooden furniture and Basilicum Gray for metal), slapped Creed Camo on the helmets, then did up the flesh (hit is with matt white and then Gulliman Flesh), and they were done. But I was kinda embarrassed about how plain they looked, so I went and actually decaled every single one of these guys with US Ensign and division patch (some with rank, as well). So, I'd say they're a decent tabletop standard, and again, it was lightning quick.

My only real issue after I had them finished was the troops themselves, which is actually what drove me to go get another Airborne force from Artizan. The more I looked at these guys the more I was unhappy; they're just kind of plain. The poses are kinda dumpy and vague, very vanilla, not particularly dynamic. I don't mean to run them down, it just seems like they were Warlord's initial proof of concept on plastic figures, and everything since has just gotten better and better. I guess Warlord agrees with me on these guys because they just released another plastic set of US paratroopers, and it's taking every ounce of discipline I have to not go out and buy some more ;)

The whole mess: I've got four HQ types, four with BARs, eight with M-1 Carbines, a whopping twenty-two with submachine guns, twenty-one with M-1 Garands (yes, more Tommy Guns then Garands), a 57mm anti-tank gun, a 60mm mortar team, an 81mm mortar team, two M-1919A6 machine gun teams in action, one machine gun team on the move, two bazooka teams, and a flamethrower team.

Two metal leader types; not bad figures at all, but noticeably smaller than the plastic figures.

Reverse.

A medic with litter and a radioman.

Reverse.

The guys with M-1 Carbines. Right off the bat I think you can see how the poses are pretty 'samey.'

A closer look.

Again.

The four men with Browning Automatic Rifles. These are not good; I've noticed that Warlord tends to make all the BARs too long, but then these have the guys holding them like it has a pistol grip (it does not).

A closer look.

And because the weapons are too long they had to make the non-firing hand/arms WAY too long...

There aren't enough M-1 Garands in the box so you end up having to give half the guys Tommy Guns...

Some guys with Thompson elevated, either pointing or reaching for a new magazine.

Some more guys pointing, Thompson in different attitudes. The set really just needed more arm/weapon options (though, bizarrely, there's some sort of Mad Max-looking giant meat cleaver included), there just weren't enough so it all kinda looks the same.

Some dudes firing their Tommy Guns. The firing option is pretty good, I think.

We've got the obligatory Mohawks. The guy on right has a Grease Gun from Warlord's regular 'leg' infantry set.

Another couple guys with Mohawks.

The riflemen with M-1 Garands.

Some guys standing and firing. I stole some arm/weapons combos from the regular 'leg' infantry box and they seem to look okay, but these from the Airborne box just look kinda off to me.

Some guys moving forward at the double time, but not really looking particularly dynamic.

And again, because of the lack of arm/weapon combos, we've got a lot of pointing going on. On the plus side, the guy in front does have the patented Dick Winters look; the problem is, there should only be one of those ;)

More pointing and grabbing clips.

Two guys kneeling and firing; the guy on left has the Airborne arm combo, the guy on the right has the regular infantry arm combo. The one on the right looks a lot better to me...

And especially when you turn it around (Airborne on left, Regular on right). Again, the Airborne non-firing arm looks too long, and isn't holding the weapon in a natural spot/manner.

The metal bazooka team, these guys are tiny, almost thought they were 20mm dudes.

Made another team out of the plastics.

The flamethrower team; the flamethrower guy is metal, his assistant is plastic. Look at the difference in the size of the heads and helmets.

Reverse.

Again, I tend to make some goofy poses because I'm also a skirmish gamer. I needed an MG team on the move, so I had to make it with what was available. The gun comes molded on the arm, so this was the only way...

Reverse.

I made four-man gun teams since I had so many guys. Pretty good looking.

Reverse.

The 60mm mortar team. Tiny.

Reverse.

The 81mm mortar team. The dude dropping the round isn't too bad, but the other two guys are absolutely tiny.

Reverse.

The anti-tank gun. Tiny little metal crewmen.

And reverse.

So, I hope I didn't come off as too whiny and/or bitter; they're not terrible, and I'm sure as hell going to use them, happily. As usual, the stuff I'm moaning about won't even be noticeable on the tabletop when you're playing a game, it's just the stuff you notice when you're examining them up close and taking pictures that are blowing them to three times their real size. So they're going to work like a champ for Normandy and Market Garden, and I'm happy to have them, just a little aggravated that they could have been even better but, as previously discussed, Warlord is already on it.

And just to see if anyone actually reads these damn things, it’s June 6th, 81st anniversary of D-Day. I’ve been promising to get some toys on the table and roll some dice. I’m still not exactly sure what I’m going to do, but I do have the table set.

6 June 1944, left is north. So we’re a bit inland; not sure if I want to go with Airborne dropping behind enemy lines looking to take out a strongpoint guarding a bridge or battery, or with leg infantry that are pushing inland off the beaches, working to reduce a nearby enemy strongpoint. Not sure if I want to do squad, platoon, or company level, or what rules I want to use.

I know I want to get my two sons playing, and I know I don’t know how to set up a 28mm WWII table! That probably sounds horribly stupid, but this was the first time I’ve actually set up a 28mm table, and it felt really weird. Everything is so big! And, as you see, I got a new mat; I love my ‘usual’ teddy bear mat, but it’s just so dark, and the fur is so long, so I hit up War Sigil and got this one, which is much brighter and shorter haired. BUT… it’s also much smaller, a true 72” x 48”, whereas my other teddy bear fur mat is much bigger, drapes well over a 6’ x 4’ table. What that means is I won’t be able to put elevation under the mat anymore, I’ve got to use hills that pop on top. That was a bit of a shock, I’m going to have to get this figured out quickly. For now, this table is flat as a chessboard…

Looking south at the German strongpoint.

Looking north at the French village.

So not sure what, but we’re going to be getting up to something here soon.

V/R,
Jack

28mm Warlord WWII Hermann Goering Division for the Med

2025-06-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

All,

So, if you've been following my blog for any amount of time you know I've got a penchant for doing my own, odd thing, stuff that probably doesn't make any sense to anyone else. This is another of those situations ;) I found myself with some leftover early war Germans, Afrika Korps, and Fallschirmjager models from Warlord Games. Not wanting to let anything go to waste, and wanting to diversify my collection even more, I decided that having Afrika Korps and Fallschirmjager for Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy, wasn't enough, I was going to build some Hermann Goering Division troops just for this as well. They've always been interesting to me ever since 1) I read "Drop Zone Sicily" as a child, and 2) saw Germans in camo in the Kasserine Pass sequence of the movie "The Big Red One," also as a child.

I like doing Hermann Goering division troops because I get to do some cool camo and some mix-and match uniforms; not sure if it's real or not, but people on the internet are claiming they wore SS-type oak leaf camo and that's good enough for me! ;) I did it in 15mm, too... Then I really went out on a limb, found some guys on the internet that said some HG Division troops even wore the FJ helmet, so I couldn't help but mix a few of those into this force as well. I'm sure it's all apocryphal, but it will be okay.

The whole mess, just an rifle platoon and an extra MG-42 team on tripod, figured I could borrow mortars and ATGs from Afrika Korps, FJ, or 'regular' Wehrmacht.

The boss, in fall oak-leaf pattern smock.

Reverse.

A couple prone MG-34s.

Reverse.

A couple MG-42s moving up.

Reverse.

Two more machine gunners moving up.

Reverse.

A machine gunner with MG-42 kneeling and pondering life.

Reverse.

A couple assistant gunners.

Reverse.

Two more.

Reverse.

Next two.

Reverse.

And the last one.

Reverse.

A couple squad-leader types, dude on left has an FJ helmet on.

Reverse.

Two more with MP-40s.

Reverse.

And two more, go on right has a satchel of some sort under his left arm.

Reverse.

Two guys in a hurry with their SMGs.

Reverse.

And another pair on the move. Man that's a lot of automatic weapons in these HG squads!

Reverse.

And one more, moving up, having a smoke while reloading.

Reverse.

Ahh, some riflemen.

Reverse.

Couple guys moving up, looks like I missed a photo (of their front sides).

Another pair of riflemen, and that dude on the left should have been up higher with the a-gunners...

Reverse.

Pair of kneeling riflemen.

Reverse.

Two more.

Reverse.

A couple guys I messed around with and 'kit-bashed' a bit. The one on right, I just took one of those ammo cases that come with the 50mm mortars and put it in his hand, but on the left, I took a panzerfaust and tried to turn it into a hafthohlladung, a hand-held (and hand-delivered) shape charge for knocking out tanks.

Another look.

And one more.

The machine gun team, with MG-42 on a tripod.

Again.

And one more.

Pretty cool, I'm happy how they turned out, and plan to use them in some skirmish games where troop quality varies (i.e., can show/use these guys as a cut above the 'normal' Afrika Korps in Tunisia).

And then, because I forgot to photograph these earlier and I’m not sure now where to put them, I’ll just tuck them in here:

Some German anti-tank guns: a Flak-36 88mm dual purpose gun (the dreaded “88”), a Pak-40 deployed and a Pak-38 being towed.

The 88. I bought this off EBay from a guy in China for $45, painted!

Again. A very nice model.

And the other two guns. The Pak-40 is from Artizan or Crusader; I love their models because they are simple to put together and look nice. The Pak-38 is from Warlord; it’s very pretty, but very complex and I have a hard time putting a lot of their metal guns/mortars together.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Indians, and a few Australians, from Warlord

2025-06-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

All,

You've seen all my British forces, so let's go with some "Commonwealth" troops ;) I was reading up on some of old Joe Legan's batreps from his "Platoon Forward" website and I really got engrossed in having an Indian platoon. My cliche'd concept was going to be a spoiled, white British officer missed the Fall of France and is absolutely dying to get into the action, couldn't be happier when he receives orders to the Middle East, but gets assigned to command a platoon of Indian soldiers. He pisses and moans at first, but once they get into action it changes his opinion of them. They fight the Italians and then the Germans, all the way through Tunisia, then hit up Sicily (need to confirm Indian units saw action in Sicily) and Italy, then get pulled out and sent to the Far East to fight for their homeland (Kohima/Imphal) against the Japanese. So, nothing to do but buy another box of 8th Army troops and build a platoon of Indians. Had some spare duded left over and decided to make me a few Australians in bush hats, too.

The whole mess: three HQ types, three platoon weapons teams (2" mortar, Boys ATR, and PIAT team), six guys with submachine guns, four Bren teams, and 18 riflemen.

Our protagonist, the young Leftenant, with Webley in one hand and whistle in the other.

Reverse.

His Platoon Sergeant (left) and batman (right).

Reverse.

On an admin note, I do wish I had these guys in long pants. And I know the headgear is not supposed to be white, but I wanted them to stand out, and my apologies to everyone, but if I'm not able to find suitable models in 28mm then these guys are going to have to stand in as Arab Legion troops when I get back to my "Sword of Gideon" fights.

The section leadership, with Tommy Guns.

I figure these are the Corporal section leaders.

And these are the Lance Corporal assistant section leaders.

Four Bren teams. I really only needed the three teams, but I wanted to have at least one team prone in the firing position.

The 'regular' Bren gunners, on the run.

The prone Bren team.

Again.

The three assistant gunners. The 8th Army box doesn't have ammo boxes or anything, so I gave these guys pickaxes to stand out.

Three riflemen kneeling and racking a new round into the chamber.

Three riflemen in solid kneeling firing positions.

Three riflemen standing and racking a round in.

Three riflemen moving up.

Three riflemen firing from the offhand position.

Closeup of a one-off pose, moving up.

Another one-off, rifle leveled.

And another, firing from the offhand position (different body then the pose shown previously).

The 2" mortar team.

Again.

The Boyes anti-tank rifle team.

And there's the problem, if you want to make the mortar and ATR teams you don't have enough poses to go around for prone Bren teams.

Again.

And the PIAT team. The PIAT comes from one of the old NWE British infantry sets (long sleeves). I figured I need it for Italy and India.

Reverse.

My small unit of Aussies, only eleven of them, but the plan is I can field a platoon of Australians where most of them are helmeted, from my 8th Army troops, with these eleven mixed in to make it look more Australian. Or maybe I'll buy another box and make all of them in bush hats ;)

Two leader types, an officer with Webley and an NCO with Tommy Gun.

Again.

Once more.

A Bren gunner and another Tommy Gunner.

Reverse.

Two diggers popping a squat.

Two more, firing, one while on the move.

A prone Bren team.

I know what you're thinking; "you just complained about not having enough prone guys for Bren teams for the Indians." Yes, but even with this team I would have still been one short.

Reverse.

So, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out, a pretty cool little project that I'm proud of and really looking forward to getting into the fight.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Afrika Korps by Warlord

2025-06-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

All,

Greetings, hope all is well! You've by now seen a bunch of Germans out of me, so what's a few more between friends? ;) Here are my Afrika Korps troops from Warlord, plastic multi-pose infantry with metal crew-served weapons teams; I have a number of vehicles as well, which you'll see in a separate post. These figures are really great, easy to put together, great detail, good proportions, plenty of options, just really cool figures, but... some of you shall no doubt soon be muttering "what the hell was Jack thinking?" under your breath. I've grown to love them, but the color scheme is sure to throw some of you. What happened is I did up my British 8th Army troops, very simple khaki colored force. Then I did my Italians for North Africa, very simple khaki colored force. When I got to the Germans all I could think was, "it would be really easy to do these guys up as a very simple khaki colored force," but I wanted them to stand out, so I started experimenting with different Contrast colors and finally settled on a light green. As I understand it, the Afrika Korps uniforms actually were a green color (or varying shades of green, depending on time/location of manufacture, much like their Field Gray), which often quickly faded to varying khaki, brown, or olive colors. My guys are definitely bright, brighter than I imagine most of you would accept on your table, but for my part I don't even notice it once they're on the table.

The whole mess: six leader types, nine with MP-40s, twenty six riflemen, seven MG-34s, two anti-tank rifles, two 50mm mortars, one PaK-36 37mm ATG, one MG-34 on tripod, and one 80mm mortar team.

The leader types; the Warlord set comes with quite a few sun helmets. I only used one, for the guy at far left, who for me is a senior NCO of some sort (Sergeant Major, company First Sergeant, etc...). The rest of the guys will be in regular soft caps or steel helmets, minus a few officers in barracks covers (the top three guys).

A couple officer types, with your first glimpse of the paint schemed.

Reverse.

The senior NCO, in sun helmet, and another officer, with MP-40.

Reverse.

A couple spotters/forward observer types.

Again.

The submachine gunners.

Couple dudes chucking grenades.

Again.

MP-40s leveled.

Again.

Moving up, reloading.

Again.

And a few one-offs.

Again.

The riflemen.

A few guys reloading.

One of my favorite poses, dudes double-timing forward with rifle slung and grenade in their hand.

Couple more riflemen charging ahead. Very good poses in this set.

Again.

Some guys double-timing up with ammo for the machine guns.

Again.

Good looking couple of off-hand poses. This whole set really takes me back to the Airfix Afrika Korps troops that I spent so much time with as a youngster.

Again.

Classic German toy soldier grenade pose.

Again.

More off-hand shooting poses, slightly different than previously see (have to look at the legs).

Again.

More guys humping ammo. Love the guy on the left with the cigarette in his mouth, grenade in his belt.

Again.

More ammo bearers!

Again.

Couple guys hunched down.

Again.

Kneeling and reloading.

Again.

Couple one-offs, moving and sighting in, the other getting ready to fire a signal shot? ;)

Again.

The machine guns, with a couple prone A-gunners thrown in.

Five prone MG-34 gunners, Airfix style!

A closeup, even has the leg cocked.

More.

And another look.

The assistant gunners.

Not a pose that I'm happy with, looks pretty stupid really, but's it's all my fault. The problem is, the MG-34s only come as arms molded to the weapon for firing in the prone, but I'm often skirmish gaming, so I need a pose where the gun is being moved, not just being fired, so, you get this rather clumsy looking pose...

Again.

The anti-tank rifles and 50mm mortars.

Closeup of the ATRs. Pretty happy with the pose, stole the sandbags from the 8th Army box.

And the 50mm mortars.

The (non-organic) crew serves.

37mm anti-tank gun.

Reverse.

MG-34 on tripod.

Reverse.

80mm mortar team.

Reverse.

And just for reference, one of the Afrika Korps soldiers on my desert mat. Not so bright, just a greenish tinge to differentiate from the British khaki.

Well, I hope you like them, and if you're looking for some 28mm Afrika Korps troops, I can't recommend these guys highly enough, really fun set to build and easy to paint up.

V/R,
Jack

28mm Warlord WWII Late War Germans

2025-06-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

All,

You've seen all my Fallschirmjager and my early war Wehrmacht, so here is my late-war Wehrmacht, denoted by MG-42s, a plethora of shelter halves being worn as overgarments, a few Stg-44s/MP-44s, and panzerschrecks and panzerfausts. As (almost) always, these were done by me using Contrast paints. I did the base uniforms in a dark gray (Space Wolves) rather than the field gray (mix of Basilicum Gray and Creed Camo) I used on the early war Germans, only because I did these first and wasn't yet aware of being able to make a mix to get to field gray. The camo uses Skeleton Horde as a base and then Militarum Green and Snakebite Leather over it. I have a 7.5cm field gun that I painted in Dark Angels Green; it should be a dunkelgelb (dark yellow) color (or even camo) for late war, but I wanted to be able to use it for early war and so painted it dark green and will just roll with that throughout the war.

The whole mess: 42 infantrymen, a panzerschreck team, the field gun, and an MG-42 team. I actually have another MG-42 team that I need to finish, and I'll just use the flamethrower team and mortar team from my early war troops with these guys. The gun crew for the field gun is separate from the gun's base, so I can use them for this or any ATG I might want/need.

I've got four MG-42s; not bad poses, but you can't really build a firing pose, and there aren't any prone bodies in this set.

Moving up, carrying a stick grenade.

Reverse.

A Lance Corporal (I think?) with a gun, belted ammo lying over it, MP-40 slung, glancing at a map.

Reverse.

Moving up, camo shelter half over his uniform.

Reverse. This set, specifically doing the camo on the shelter halves and helmet covers, was what convinced me that I could actually use Contrast paints for my WWII stuff.

Heading up front, gun over his shoulder.

Reverse.

A group of guys with MP-40s.

Leader type with field glasses.

Submachine gun leveled, helmet strapped to his back.

Another guy advancing with MP-40 at the ready.

An officer-type with barracks cover.

Fifteen riflemen with KaR-98s.

Good looking-panzerfaust pose.

Again.

Kneeling firing position.

Moving up with panzerfaust.

Moving up, rifle levelled in the direction of trouble.

Firing from off-hand pose.

Slinking forward behind the hedgerows.

Reverse.

An assistant gunner.

Another rifleman advancing, this one with G-43.

Ten men with Stg-44s.

A really good looking kneeling position.

Moving up.

Firing on the move.

Chucking a grenade.

Moving up.

Steady standing position.

The panzerschreck team on the move. Again, not bad, but I'd like to see them shooting at something.

Reverse.

MG-42 team with gun on a tripod.

Again.

The 7.5cm infantry gun.

Again.

Pretty cool little force, much easier to paint up then I expected, and not too bad looking ;)

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII British Airborne from Warlord

2025-06-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

All,

Here we go, this is what you came for! I don't know anyone that doesn't love a big bunch of Red Devils! If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place. I need to get more into Pegasus Bridge and other operations by British 6th Airborne on/after D-Day, but let's be honest, these guys are promised to one, big thing, and that's 'A Bridge Too Far.' Battles at The Bridge, in Der Hexenkessel, Stens and Brens stuttering, PIATs busting open German tanks and assault guns, Vickers chattering, one could game nothing but that for the rest of their life and be happy. Not me, of course, I'm too much of a wargaming butterfly, but a smarter 'one.' ;)

So, these guys are not (mostly) painted with Contrast paints, because I didn't paint them! Well, at least mostly I didn't paint them. I bought these guys in two different lots, about half from a guy on Ebay and the other half (used) from Noble Knight Games. I re-did the basing to make them (mostly) match, I re-did all the flesh to make it match (and look the way I like it), and I re-did the berets to make them a bit brighter (the way I like them). I also pulled all the troops off the crew-served weapons bases and re-did the basing to fit into how I've been doing all my other weapons. But other than that, I didn't paint these guys ;) You will get a chance to see my version of British Airborne using Contrast paints when you see the casualty figures I did (but not pictured here, unfortunately).

The whole mess: one HQ type, six Bren gunners, two PIAT teams, twenty guys with Sten guns, twenty nine riflemen, a 6-pdr anti-tank gun, a 3" mortar team, a 2" mortar team, a Vicker MG team, and a flamethrower team.

Here's all the Sten gunners. I'll give you a few closeups.

Charging, Sten at the ready. Still not sure how I feel about bayonets on a submachine gun... Nice 'stache, though! ;)

I love this one, leader-type dashing forward, directing troops under fire despite being wounded in the head. I'm not generally a fan of figures with visible wounds, but in this force, absolutely. Having said that, he's the only one...

With Sten and field glasses, shouting orders to someone.

Another man of authority.

Moving up.

I thought it a bit funny that one of the guys's lots had all the tin cups (on pack) painted red. Is that normal?

Taking a knee, weapon at the ready.

I've got six Bren guns, way more than I need, but not as many as I want ;)

Handsome chap, with weapon leveled at the enemy.

Another, this time in helmet.

Kneeling.

And charging into the fire.

You'll notice that the guys that built and painted these guys didn't put the bipods on; wonder what kind of outrage that will draw ;)

A whole slew of riflemen.

Moving up, hollering, with bayonet at the ready.

Taking a knee.

About to toss a grenade.

Directing traffic.

Cautiously moving up.

Taking a breather.

Charge!

A good offhand position. His rifle looks a bit slimmer than all the others.

Picking his way forward. Looks like he's sporting a full beard but it's just a mustache and helmet strap.

Another thin SMLE.

Another dude hauling butt.

Looks like parade ground double time!

The first PIAT team.

Reverse.

And the second.

Reverse.

The 2" mortar team.

Closeup of the gunner.

And his assistant. Perhaps I need to dust off some of that static grass...

The flamethrower team.

Reverse.

The Vickers machine gun team.

Reverse.

The 3" mortar team.

Reverse.

The 6-pdr anti-tank gun. I really wish I had more of these bases for my guns, but too impatient to order some and have to wait...

Reverse.

And then there's this guy. No weapon or other implements of war, hands empty, head sort of canted and ducking. Perhaps he's meant to be a medic?

Reverse.

So, super cool, right? These guys look great, so glad to have them, and especially since I didn't have to build or paint them ;)

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII German Vehicles

2025-06-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

All,

Well, like it says on the tin, here's all my WWII German vehicles. I painted some of these myself (I'm sure it will be obvious which!), but the vast majority were painted by others, either by my buddy Dustin, or from unknown individuals on Ebay.

Here's my collection for early to mid-war in Europe, sporting panzer gray. There's a Sdkfz 250, four 251s (one is of the engineer variety), two Sdkfz 222s, a 231, a Marder I, three Panzer Is (one is of the HQ variety), three Panzer IIs, one Panzer IV with short 75, four Panzer IIIs with 37mm gun, two Stug IIIs with short 75, two Panzer IVs with long 75, two Panzer IIIs with long 50mm, and two Stug IIIs with long 75.

The HQ halftrack.

Again.

The regular troop carrier Sdkfz 251s.

Closeup.

Again. You see that Dustin is a good painter, but he mixes in some interesting colors (the helmets and road wheels), and I found out too late he didn't understand the vehicle numbering scheme...

The engineer halftrack.

The Sdkfz 231 armored car, big and mean looking.

Two Sdkfz 222s, from different sources (hence the different looks).

The Panzer Is, HQ model at right.

I like it ;)

Three Panzer IIs.

Panzer IV with short 75.

Marder I, sporting the 47mm gun.

Two Stug IIIs with short 75s (I believe the 'D' model), from different sources.

Four Panzer IIIs; earlier I said they were armed with 37mm guns, but I'm honestly not sure if they're 37mm guns or short 50mm guns. I assume they are 37mm guns because the turrets don't have the extensions that came later when the 50mm guns were added (I think).

Like these two, with long 50mm guns, have. I believe these are 'J' models.

Pair of Panzer IVGs with long 75mm guns. I can't wait to get these prowling the steppes, taking on T-34s...

And the two Stug IIIGs with long 75mm guns.

And how about some kradschutzen? I bought these already painted off a guy on Ebay, but re-based them.

Closeup. They're 3D printed models.

Another.

More.

Again.

And a cool little vignette of a trooper shot off his horse but fighting back with his Luger ;)

Again.

Oh, and I've also got these three little oddities, from a guy on Ebay. I believe these are Czech vehicles, what the Germans called "Panzer 38ts." I think that's pretty standard, but what is throwing me is the camouflage the guy put on them, and no decals of any sort.

I thought about re-painting them panzer gray but decided against it; if I ever get to gaming Poland or Yugoslavia, maybe even Greece, I'll just use these as indig force armor against the Germans.

Again.

And a couple little plastic trucks I picked up off of Ebay.

Bridging to mid-war, how about a Tiger I? I went with just a yellow and green camo (rather than the standard three-color camo you'll see in a minute) as I thought it would look better for Tunisia, while still able to use for later war.

Again.

Vehicles for Afrika Korps and Sicily/Italy. Three stands of motorcycle troops, a Sdkfz 222, a Panzer IV with short 75, two Panzer IVs with long 75s, and three Panzer IIIs.

The Sdkfz 222 armored car, painted up by me. Turned out nice and dirty, but a bit too dark.

Again.

Panzer IVD, also painted by me, just like the 222.

Again.

Then two Panzer IVGs, which were also painted by me but, obviously, using a different base color and wash.

I like these a lot better, but too lazy to go back and re-do the Panzer IVD and Sdkfz 222.

I bought these 3D printed models off Ebay (same figures as you saw above) and painted them myself.

Closeup.

Again.

And one more.

Three Panzer IIIEs or Fs, with short 50mm guns (I think?). I bought these painted off of Ebay; they're really nice, but they're made out of some sort of resin and one of them was absolutely destroyed in transit. I spent a week piecing that thing back together, but I don't think you can really tell.

Closeup.

The tank commander is noticeably smaller than all the other 28mm figures, though somehow the vehicles themselves aren't.

Another.

And my late war stuff (except the two trucks at bottom right, which I already showed you above):a Sdkfz 250, sixSdkfz 251s (three regular troop carriers, one engineer model, a flamethrower model, and a model mounting the PaK-40), a Sdfkz 234 Puma, a Hetzer, a Marder III, two Stug-IIIs with long 75s and sideskirts, two Panzer IVHs with long 75s and sideskirts, a Jagdpanther, a Panther, and a King Tiger. The only thing I painted in this entire mess is the Panther, everything else came from Dustin.

Actually, everything else but the King Tiger, it came from a guy on Ebay. It didn't come with a tank commander and I need to paint one up.

Again.

The Panther, painted by yours truly. Yes, if it looks goofy, it's because I painted it with Contrast paints. It's not beautiful, but it doesn't look too bad, to me. My knucklehead 15-year old son built this for me, but glued the turret down, so it doesn't traverse...

Again.

The Jagdpanther.

Again.

The Stugs.

The Panzer IVs.

The Marder III.

Again.

The Hetzer.

Again.

The Puma. I don't know what it is, but it seems like an extraordinarily popular toy with wargamers. Personally, I think it's goofy putting a long-barreled 50mm gun on an armored car, plus there were hardly any of them made (Google says 101 of them were produced in 1943 and 1944), but everyone seems to love them. I didn't want one but it came as part of one of the Warlord Army sets I bought...

Again.

The Sdkfz 251/22 with PaK-40 75mm gun. I need this for Operation Epsom (hell, actually I need two, right Shaun?).

Again.

The troop-carrier halftracks.

Closeup.

Again.

The engineer halftrack.

Again.

The flamethrower halftrack, Sdkfz 251/16, I believe.

Again.

And the HQ track, a Sdkfz 250.

Again.

So, quite a bit of heavy metal for ze Chermans, with more on the way (a Sdkfz 251/9 with short 75mm gun, and a Sdfkz 250/9 with 20mm gun in a Sdkfz 222 turret). I'm sure something else will pop up, but overall I think I'm pretty ready for whatever may come in 28mm WWII for the Germans.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII British Vehicles

2025-06-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

All,

Figured I needed to show you all my British WWII vehicles, so here we are. I painted a fair few of these, most of them actually, but don't hold it against me ;) Right now they're broken down into vehicles for North Africa and vehicles for late war NWE, though I do have a few early war (Fall of France) and early Western Desert vehicles being painted up and on the way.

My stuff for North Africa.

I painted up three Bren carriers.

And a Humber armored car.

Reverse.

And a Matilda II (those decals on the turret were real bastards!).

Reverse.

And I bought this little bad boy off Ebay.

Reverse.

It came with these Crusaders.

Closeup.

And these M-3 Lees or Grants.

Closeup.

I painted this gun up and based it.

But these came from Ebay (though I did re-base the 25-pdr).

On to Northwest Europe.

Here's my whole mess for D-day to Berlin, most painted by me.

Here are the three things not painted by me.

The Bren carrier came painted, but I had to to up the crewmen and add them.

This scout car came painted.

As did this armored recce vehicle.

I painted up these two Bren carriers.

And all four of these halftracks. One of the halftracks was bought off Ebay, but then I needed more so I bought some 3D printed models off Ebay and re-painted the painted one to match the 3D printed ones... I did all of the figures except the driver in the model I bought off Ebay.

The actual model.

And the 3D printed halftrack. They're not bad, EXCEPT for that dam M2 .50-cal HMG, it's HUGE...

I've got an M-10 Wolverine and an M-5 Stuart. I wanted an Achilles (with 17-pdr) but I got a great deal ($12 with shipping) on the built but not painted Wolverine, so I threw in a British crew member and painted it up as British (already had an American M-10).

Reverse.

A pair of Churchills.

Reverse.

And a troop of Shermans (with Firefly).

Closeup.

All of these British vehicles in olive drab were done with Contrast paints (dark gray primer with Aggros Dunes over it, then hit all the tracks and weapons with Basilicum Gray then Lead Belcher).

The Firefly.

So, whaddaya think? Should be good enough to carry me in both those theaters, right? I wouldn't mind having a Churchill in desert camo for Tunisia and Italy, as well as some Shermans for the desert. Not sure what I should use for Brits in Sicily, probably Shermans, need to look that up. In any case, I'm pretty happy and should be set for all the scenarios I plan on doing in the near term.

V/R,
Jack

28mm Warlord WWII Early War Germans

2025-06-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

All,

Hey everyone, here are my WWII Germans for the early war period, which I'll count all the way up to the beginning of 1943. As usual, they're not strictly historically accurate; I think the biggest problem purists might have is that true early war Germans should have a reed green blouse over stone gray trousers, but I just went and did the blouse and trousers in Field Gray. As usual, I used Contrast paints, with a slight variations; I used a mixture for the first (and perhaps, only) time. I don't recall whom or where exactly (I humbly apologize), but I was looking at 'how to paint' stuff on Youtube and found a guy that was mixing Contrast paints to make Field Gray. He used Basilicum Gray and Creed Camo, in what I seem to remember as 3 parts to 1, but I can't promise, I just don't remember. In any case, I think the uniforms turned out pretty nice, and everything else was pretty basic stuff using other, non-mixed, Contrast paints.

They're really great figures, went together easy, lots of options, lots of combos, and really look sharp, with good weapons and proportions. The only complaint I have about them is that every single one of them has some sort of gear pouch on his chest (EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!). I believe it is to hold a gas cape, but I'm not really familiar with that, and I sure as hell don't recall seeing pictures of early war German infantry units in Poland, France, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Crete, or Russia with those things hanging on everyone's chest. I could be wrong, but I'm just used to the cylindrical, metal gasmask cannister. To be clear, I'm not doubting that it's a real piece of gear, or that some guys wore it on their chest, but every single guy in the unit? How have I missed that my entire life?

The whole mess, with three officer types, six MG-34s on bipod, and one MG-34 on tripod, two 50mm mortars and one 80mm mortar, two anti-tank rifles and one PaK-36 anti-tank gun, sixteen guys with MP-40s (too many, but that's my fault for building them that way), and 18 guys with KaR-98s (not including various weapons crewmen).

The three officer types, two with barracks covers on and one with a service cap (piss cutter). You can clearly see the gas cape carrier on each of their chests...

A close up of one of the officers, field glasses in hand, signaling the troops with the other.

Reverse, showing a map case, pistol holstered, and hand grenade tucked into his boot. What do you think of the paint mixture for that Field Gray?

The next officer, with Luger in right hand and knife-handing someone with his other.

Reverse.

And the dude in the side cap/overseas cap, actually using his field glasses whilst signaling with his other.

Here you can see he's go this steel helmet hooked to his gear.

My bevy of troopers armed with MP-40 submachine guns.

Three leader-types, signaling their men, with a good look at them and their gear.

Another look.

Let's toss some potato mashers.

Again.

Leaning into that recoil.

Again.

Sidestepping while brrrrrrrping...

I like the fella that's lost his hat.

Trundling forward, grabbing a new magazine. I think these arms are from the Afrika Korps box.

Again.

And going away.

Two dashing ahead, one firing and one hauling a few grenades.

Reverse.

A couple more knife-hands. Not my favorite arm in the set...

Reverse.

A couple more one-off poses with MP-40.

Reverse.

A couple taking a knee.

Reverse.

All the riflemen armed with KaR-98s.

Four of them tossing grenades.

Closeup.

Again.

A couple searching and assessing.

Again.

A couple cautiously moving through the wreckage.

Again.

A couple wondering what the heck is going on (at least the dude on the left).

Again.

Moving up with a frag in his hand.

Again.

A couple firing poses, one with scoped rifle (no idea how you fire with a scope that far forward, how the hell do you get proper eye relief?).

Reverse.

Well, I screwed that up, should have paired the dude on the left with the dude on the left from the last photo... Anyway, kneeling dude with a scoped karabiner.

Reverse.

Six MG-34 teams, three running and three prone, with the prone teams having three figures and the running just two.

A running LMG team.

Reverse.

Coming at ya.

Another gunner, sans helmet.

A prone LMG team.

Reverse.

A closer look.

A closeup of an A-gunner.

And a gun team leader.

Another.

A pair of anti-tank rifles (from the Afrika Korps box).

Closeup.

Again.

ATR number twos.

Again.

A pair of 50mm mortars (also from the Afrika Korps box).

Closeup.

Again.

Mortar number twos.

The flammenwerfer team, with red just to church it up a bit.

Reverse.

A metal MG-34 team on tripod, from Artizan Designs (or maybe Crusader, can't remember).

Reverse.

A metal 80mm mortar team, same as before (either Artizan or Crusader).

Closeup of the gunner.

And of the team leader.

A plastic 37mm ATG from Rubicon. The figure at left is Rubicon, but the two at right are metals from Artizan or Crusader.

Reverse.

And there you have my early war Wehrmacht troops, who will soon be getting up to all sorts of no good.

V/R,
Jack

EDIT:

The two soldiers at center top right and top right have gas capes on their chests, the two other visible chests do not.

Lots of visible chests, not seeing any gas capes.