Having made the 21st Panzer Division special vehicles for the Too Fat Lardies 'Kampfgruppe von Luck' pint-sized campaign (Link), I have finally taken the plunge to get started on the British Airborne troops for that campaign.
I am not sure it's a great idea but I've cleaned up all the figures and I am going to try and do them in one massive batch.
My Platoon Board for a British Airborne Platoon shows the organisation.
And here are the figures for basic platoon plus: 1x additional support section with extra Bren for the 2-Bren section option; 3x snipers; 3x PIAT teams; 1x Engineer Flamethrower team; 1x bailed-out tank crew; 1x 75mm Pack Howitzer; and, 1x Airborne 6-pdr Anti-Tank Gun; and, various supply canisters and collapsed parachute canopies.
Most of the figures (and both guns) are 20mm from Figures Armour and Artillery (FAA), and now available from Lost Battalion Publishing in the States, with a few Adler figures (now sold by Heroics & Ros). The parachute canopies, and most of the supply containers, are from Empress Miniatures.
So, where are the crews for the guns you ask? Here they are, together with: 2x 2" Mortar teams; 1x Vickers MMG team; assorted casualties; and, a few spare figures (singletons for casualty removal).
As if this wasn't a big enough challenge, I also treated myself to a must-have scenic accessory.
Whether this is all proves too much (just like Market Garden) and has to be put aside for a break when painting fatigue sets in seems pretty likely - but for now I'm going to give it a go.
The collapsed parachutes are a nice touch. I’m sure you can get this lot ready in super quick time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the vote of confidence, but I've already broken the figures down into two groups for painting (sequentially so it still counts as one giant WiP) because there isn't enough room on my painting table to do them all at the same time.
DeleteI have painted many, many British paratroops. Good luck! It is always nice when you finally get to paint the berets.
ReplyDeleteThat bit won't take long as almost all mine are wearing helmets.
DeleteI have a similar project tucked away for El Alamein. I have a few of the British painted up in their khaki shorts, but have not been brave enough to tackle the Afrika Korps yet. All Airfix plastics of course!
ReplyDeleteAs I still use enamels plastics, or at least the soft Airfix soldier plastic, is off the list as the paint comes off too easily. But surely a coat of sand followed by a wash will get them 70% done?
DeleteI've always fancied the field gray jackets with the sand colored trousers, but yes, as you say, should not be hard to paint. The hard part is all of those damnable soft plastic mold lines!
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with an ambitious target, but I would recommend planning a few quick wins by completing one or two smaller parts of it. I find that sense of progress then inspires me to carry on, rather than stall because it all seems too daunting.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I call this a batch, it really means I'm not doing anything else until it's finished. I don't have the space to get more than half the figures on the painting table.
DeleteAs for quick wins, that sort of falls out of my approach to painting as I paint in ever decreasing numbers as they approach completion. In this case, they have all been cleaned and primed but only half have had faces and hands done. Two thirds of those have Denison smocks and trousers done, and half of them have had their webbing done. The four bailed-out tankers have (so simple to paint) already been finished - the first 'win' and probably to be shortly followed by my Vickers team. In parallel I've made up metal kits for a car and three airborne Jeeps - they now need magnets embedded in them (not the car which has the roof up) and the rear-ends of the occupants who are all AB.