Wacht am Rhein schimmwagen crew

 

 

I took a set of "A Day Out" crew and converted the driver and commander to make a pair of SS crew in a schwimmwagen as seen in many Battle of the Bulge pictures near Malmedy/St. Vith. All in all this took about a month to do during the evenings and I was pretty pleased with the results. I hope to be able to have these cast some time in the future - they're just a little late for the 70th anniversary of the "Wacht am Rhein."

 

These are more Murawski Miniatures Duchy of Warsaw Retreat from Moscow March Attack figures converted with extra blankets, jackets and scarves for use in Russia 1812. These are beautiful sculpts and a LOT of fun to paint.

Another Retreat from Moscow vignette

 

 

Here is another vignette for our "Retreat from Moscow" game based upon the movie "The Duellists" and featuring Perry Miniatures. The seated figure is converted from an artillery figure, the figs at the front of the cannon are from their wounded/dead set, the cannon was a gift from my friend Don Perrin and the gun equipment was scratch built. This was almost as much fun as the first vignette and considerably easier to make!

 

Painting War: Season 1, Issue 2 - an excellent magazine, even better than the initial issue.

 

General d'Espagne - a sculpt by Mike Broadbent, exclusive for this magazine.

 

Standard painting color recommendations - three pages are devoted to standard uniform colors, thereby allowing more detail to be added to the pages devoted to painted miniatures. This is essential given the wide variety of colors worn by the French Napoleonic Armies.

 

An example of a painted figure page - the standard uniform colors are listed at the bottom of the page allowing two additional color recommendations to be added to the page. Brilliant!

 

 

These figures from Murawski Miniatures are beautifully sculpted by Paul Hicks and are a blast to paint - you can see the shako details under the hat cover on the shooting figure on the lower right - simply amazing! They are definitely "gotta have" figures if you are gaming the "Retreat from Moscow" period.

COMING ATTRACTIONS! Company B Japanese Heavy Gun and Crew

The heavy gun and crew is perfect for Pacific island and jungle fighting. The officer, loader and assistant gunner were conversions of other Company B figures; the seated figure is from one of the 20mm gun sets. I've always wanted a heavy gun and crew; these figures fit the bill perfectly. And, as the base is designed around the same dimensions as the AA gun and crew, they will fit nicely into the two emplacements that I built earlier in the year.

Note: I bought a large steel washer that fit the emplacements and have used it as the template for the searchlight and heavy gun/crew - if it can fit on the washer, it will fit into the emplacement.

Japanese WWII Emplacement #2

 The original photo that formed the basis of this emplacement.

 

 Basic form with reinforced sides.

 

 A bargain from the Dollar Tree = $1 for an almost endless supply of "bamboo logs."

 

 Bamboo logs in place.

 

 Initial coat of spackle.

 

 I noted the spackle would not lay well as high as I wanted it to lay. I added some "shelves" made from scrap cardboard and glued them at the level/height I wanted.

 

 A much better look to the walls around the gun emplacement.

 

 "Sandbags" made from ProCreate added after the spackle dried overnight.

 

 The blast wall, inside and outside views (this wall would be a separate piece). The basing material is already on the model - a more fine type inside the emplacement and a rougher style on the outside.

 

 



 The finished emplacement. Note: the area between the sandbags and the bamboo logs was covered with extremely fine basing material to represent sand.

 

The final painted emplacement by itself, with a searchlight and with a 20mm AA HMG in place. I was very pleased with the final result.