Back to the 28mm Germans and Long Grass

I’m making one last push to get the Black Tree Design 28mm Germans finished this weekend.  So far it looks like I’ll get the full platoon done by Sunday, this post however isn’t about the Germans but more about the bases they’re um based on.

I wanted to put some tufts of long grass on a few of the bases to help break up the flat look the green flock I’m using causes.  I was looking on eBay when I thought I probably should do them myself.  I tried this method a few years ago and it turned out crap.  Back then I blamed the technique for the bad results, unfortunately the current results prove that it was my implementation that needed improving.

I had an old brush laying around that was gunked up with glue and had the right looking bristles for what I wanted.

Cut a small length of around an inch or so.

Fold it in half, this takes practice and the first few lots of bristles shot our of my hand and across the table.

Twist the end nice and tight, dab a small ball of super glue on the end and wait 4-5 seconds.

Then simply put it on the base of the miniature.  I’m just using the cheap superglue you get in packs at $2 and I find I can stick the tuft on the base and in about 10 seconds I can use a toothpick to move the bristles around and they stay where I want them.

Tomorrow once they’re completely dry I’ll use some small scissors or nail clippers to cut them to the lengths I’m after.

One nice effect you can see in the photos at the top of the post is that the superglue makes the base of the bristles go white when it oxidises.  I’ll subdue that somewhat later with a green/yellow ink wash.  For some bases I’ll try putting little dabs of paint on the ends of the bristles to make them look like they’re flowering.

More photos of the Germans themselves once they’re done.

Taking Stock: 28mm WW2 Germans

Here are the Germans, I can only manage three squads if I field a command unit but I think with the addition of a heavy MG42 team and a recon squad full of MP40's the firepower evens out somewhat.  The recon squad can also be deployed as a Pioneer squad with the addition of a few riflemen and a nice crispy Flammenwerfer-41.  The infantry gun crew are dressed in DAK uniforms as I can't find all the original crew that came in the package.

I really need to order a pack or three of odds and ends to help make the platoon a little more flexable as far as options go but with my recent purchases I don't think it will happen any time soon.  And there's also the fact that I'm not sure I can handle dealing with Black Tree Designs again any time soon, I might have to look into some of the alternatives out there.

Taking Stock: 28mm WW2 British

Ok so I'm on a roll today, I've done more painting, building and sorting in one day than I have in weeks.  Anyway with the 28mm terrain coming along nicely I thought I really should sit down and work out:

1. What I've got.
2. What I can use.
3. What I'm likely use.

So after going through the British supplement for Disposable Heroes, "Go Forward Together" I've come up with the following rifle platoon.  Pretty much everything is available (scenario pending) with the exception of the second sniper team which shouldn't be there and I'm only able to field up to two of the company support units (sc1..4).  I can easily field this as a motorised platoon if/when I can source a heap of trucks and or halftracks, read that as: not any time soon.  It will be fairly unlikely that I'll field all these miniatures at the same time, if things are getting that big then we'll probably drag just out Blitzkrieg Commander.  With that said though I can see me buying some more of these soon so I can field a unit or two of engineers and SAS squads.

What I'll do now is create some cards with all the relevant information, points, min/max and game stats.  Should make building a force pretty straight forward and will be useful when playing.

Next... to sort out the Germans.

28mm Platoon in a Day - The Theory

I have this theory, and it goes like this: if one had 30 odd miniatures already prepped, cleaned and based.  And one also had the paint scheme sorted, with sufficient paints and brushes handy.  Then one could, in theory, with the use of the Army Painter product could paint 30 odd miniatures to completion in a single day.

They'd be no Golden Daemon award winners for sure but they'd have to look a whole lot better than this:

I have a day home next week and I'm planning to put this theory to the test.  So I need to decide, do the US Paras or Fallschirmjagers?

Bada BOOOM!

I've been pretty busy with work latley so I haven't had a chance to do too much with my Black Tree minis. I did manage to put the three guns together and if I can get all the gardening done quickly I may even have time to get the airbrush out and give these a base coat.

Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.

Black Tree Getting Closer

Some more of my Black Tree arrived today, all I'm waiting on now is the Flak38 and the crew for the Pak40. So I can add these to the silver mountain:

• Fallschirmjager Platoon (30)
• Fallschirmjager with MG42s (4)
• Fallschirmjager with MP44s II (4)
• Wehrmacht Officers (2)
• German le IG18 75mm Infantry Support Gun
• 2 x British 6lb Cannon & Crew (1)
• U.S. Para Bazooka Team (2)

*sigh* Three more guns to work out how to build, they really should come with instructions.



Now I really need to get painting.

P to the A to the K... uhh, um 40

As promised here are some photos of the Black Tree Designs PAK 40. It took a little research to work out what pieces went where but I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's a sizeable model for a metal kit so ot makes me wonder how big the Flakvierling 38 is going to be.

So here it is, shown with Afrika Korps crew (Wehrmacht crew should be here any day now with the rest of the order).

I think I'll give this the night for the glue to set and I'll attack it with the paint brush tomorrow night. Unless the Artizan cowboys turn up in which case I'll be puttin' on the spurs and paint me some hombres.

Black Tree Wins... Almost

Some of my order from Black Tree Designs arrived today, part shipment from the US, more to come from the UK soon.

Only four packs:
WW2192 - Fallschirmjager Characters (4)
WW2058 - P.A.K. 40 & Crew (1 & 3 Crew)
WW2066 - U.S. Para HMG Team
WW9028 - U.S. Para Snipers (2)

The PAK-40 that arrived was actually WW2173 - Afrika Korps PAK 40 with Crew but the crew from WW2058 should be arriving witht the rest of order from the UK.

I'm building the PAK now so I'll get some photos up when it's done. To help distinguish the weapon types on the table I've decided on the following basing sizes:

40mm round - LMG/MMG and Light/Medium Mortats
60mm round - HMG and Heavy Mortars
95mm round - Guns and Artillery.

The larger sized bases for the guns and artillery has plenty of room for the larger minis and also allows me to stretch those diorama muscles. Photos to come.

A New Order To Black Tree

No you read that correctly, I placed another order with Black Tree Designs even after all the hassles with my orders in the past. Why? Three reasons really:

The first is price, discounted prices compunded with free international postage is hard to pass up.

Secondly, in the past I've been kind of eager to get the minis into my excited mature age gamer hands. This time, putting the excitement factor aside, I don't need this stuff right now to play a game, I can wait.

Just on the amazing off-chance that my wife is reading this: no seriously I can wait, and by "I don't need this" I meant I'm happy to play games without all the miniatures I need to fully appreciate the... OK I'll stop, I'd probably just be getting *that look* right about now anway.

Thirdly is that I love their minis. The sculps are great and they have the widest range I've seen and some of them have around 20 individual poses. What more could you ask for from a mini?

Anyway getting back to the point of the post, here what I ended up ordering:

1 x WW2291 - Fallschirmjager Platoon (30)
1 x WW2192 - Fallschirmjager Characters (4)
1 x WW2133 - Fallschirmjager with MG42s (4)
1 x WW2208 - Fallschirmjager with MP44s II (4)

1 x WW9034 - Wehrmacht Officers (2)
1 x WW2058 - P.A.K. 40 & Crew (1 & 3 Crew)
1 x WW2138 - German le IG18 75mm Infantry Support Gun
1 x WW2197 - 20mm Flakvierling 38

2 x WW2103 - British 6lb Cannon & Crew (1)

1 x WW2066 - U.S. Para HMG Team
1 x WW9028 - U.S. Para Snipers (2)
1 x WW9027 - U.S. Para Bazooka Team (2)

I'll put up photos when they arrive. This may just be the incentive I need to get the minis I already have painted.

Well You Ain't Got No Legs Lieutenant Dan...

My last order to Black Tree Design was a pretty big one, the only problem is that the box wasn't so big. Figures were densley packed and most were bent, few like the two below were so bent that they broke when attempting to straighten them out. Thankfully (?) the ankles were thin so the break was clean with virtually no distortion to the legs or feet.



Step 1 was to take my pin vice and a 1.0mm drill bit and carefully drill holes into the calf of each leg. I went in about 3-4mm deep which should give a nice surface for the superglue to cling to. You have to be careful when starting the holes, I slipped a few times starting each leg and once the drill bit slid up under my thumbnail! No blood or tearsbut there was more than a little bit of cursing.

Insert some 0.9mm wire, I find it easier to glue in pieces of wire around 1-1.5cm in length as they're a lot easier to handle.

Drilling on the second mini

The two completed stilt-men. Now onto the bases. Drill one leg first, fit the mini and find where the last big of wire wants to go. You need to be close but not exact, you can alway bend the wire to fit.

Test fitting the holes. I guffed this one up when drilling and the side of the hole tore away. Once glued in place I'll cover it over with a bit of green stuff.

Here they are glued and free standing on their own two legs.

I'm really happy with the result, especially since most of my hobby project have a tendancy to turn out not as expected.

It's The Little Things

I honestly thought I was going to finish the Germans tonight, I had it all planned out. I wasn't going to try and paint any details except for the eagles on the shirts and caps. Well... they looked very nice painted up (even when I didn't stay between the lines). So started to think what about the Heer symbols on the collars? Yup they looked great as well. Well now I just had to do the shoulder boards. These were a little trickier than I planned but they can out really really nice.


The minis just look so much more... German.

The work isn't the cleanest I've ever done but from a distance you can't tell the really rough ones from the not so rough ones. I think any extra effort would look great in photos but would get lost on the table.

I'm tempted to try and freehand some eagles on the helmets but I'm really too tired for that now, maybe tomorrow.

Black Tree Painting Update

I didn't know I had so many of these things... and that's not including the platoon and a bit US paratroopers I have in the drawer.

No really big changes here, I've spent the last two nights cleaning up the bases and trying to get all the minis to the same level of completeness. So I'll start to work on minis a squad at a time now.

And here I was contemplating buying some more! And I will, but I may have to rethink things a little. Maybe it's time for some Russians...

Nuts! AAR

The scenario was simple enough, the British were to defend the two house "village" from theattacking Germans. Two 10 man squads a piece with 2 Brens for the British and 4 Mp-42's for the Germans.

I forgot to take photos of the setup and the first two turns but you can see below is the game as of turn three. A German squad with 2 MG-42 have moved into the woods in the top left of the photo and a team in the woods to the top right. Another team is about to come over the hill to the middle right.

Half of the first British squad on the left has already fallen to the MG42's in the treeline. The rectangles in the middle of the table are fields and the remaining British are making an attempt to come around them and get the LMG's within SMG range.



It didn't turn out too well.




No sooner than we would hit the gunner than another would take his place. There's no official rule in Nuts (at least that I could find in the rulebook) for someone to take over as the gunner of a LMG/MMG but we later found some in the Pieper At The Gates supplement.

This is what was left of the British after 3 LMG's and a squad came over the hill. The Bren gun stationed at the corner of the field did an excellent job outgunning and pushing most of the Germans back over the hill but the damage had already been done.

This team spent most of the game getting knocked down, standing up, knocked down, standi... you get the idea.

After this photo was taken the British laid down their weapons and waved the white flag.

Two hours of gaming (and chatting) from start to finish so the rules live up their companies name. To be fair we spent a little bit of time looking for rules (some that weren't actually in the book) and towards the end of the game we were referring to the QRS only sparingly.

A few things we learned from this game:

• LMG's have just as much potential in controlling the enemies movement than they do as outright killing machines.
• Terrain... you need lot's of it in a Nuts! game. Open areas like you see in the photos above are difficult if not impossible to cross without casualties.
• Anyone in cover is dang hard to take down by a Rep 3 with a rifle (read that as not possible), I'll believe the guys on the Yahoo group have addressed this so I'll have to look that up.
• You need a good scenario to keep things moving. In our battle it would have made no sense for the Germans to leave the saftey of the woods unless there was a strong motivation to do so. Eg take the town by tun 5. Simple scenarios like I'm defending and you're attacking isn't really enough. A quick flip through Peiper At The Gates just shows how a game can be enriched with a little background fluff and some key objectives.

I don't know if we'll play Peiper as is but we're going to use it as the watermark by which we play all our future games. Although it probably won't be too hard to just substitute US troops for British and play as is.

I'm very curious to see if the "Focus" test from Chain Reaction 3 makes it's way into the new Nuts! rulebook. Not being able to just pick the most tactically advantageous target every turn will make the games way more interesting and unpredictable. And let's face it: that's why we play Nuts! right? Otherwise we'd just play some *cough*hammer based system.

Going Nuts! Again Tonight

I've got a game or two of Nuts! lined up tonight at BADGA and I'm madly painting and building to get everything ready in time. I don't think the tanks will have much time but with the basecoat they look table ready (for our club at least).

I'll get some photos up of the freshly painted forces before I leave tonight and this time I'll remember to take some shots of the game in progress... maybe if I'm really organised (not likely) then I'll take notes for an AAR.

Going to borrow a few ideas from other games tonight, such as blinds in IABSM and TW&T. I think we'll also make sure there's at least one guy on each side with Rep6 to stop the whole army standstill, that cost the British dearly last game... that and the MP40's.

Some More British

I'm hoping to have a game or two of Nuts! at BADGA this weekend so I'm made one last push to get the rest of my British painted up. Not pictured below is a medium mortar, a Vickers MMG and a couple snipers which I don't have bases large enough for. I'll try to sort that out today. With a little luck I'll get the British done tonight and then aim to get the rest of the Germans done Friday night.


Yes that's a German MG-42 MMG off to the left in the photo. I might accidentially forget to paint it up for Saturday, let's face it Mick will only end up using it against me.

That just leaves the platoon of US paratroopers to start next...

Painting German Wehrmacht

I've been working on my Black Tree Design German Wehrmacht for a few days and now that the prepping, basing and undercoating is out of the way its time to lay down some colours.

I've decided to go with Field Grey (XF-65) for both the pants and tunic to keep the process nice and quick. The helmets are German Grey (XF-63)

Step 1: Base coat the entire figure in Flat Black (XF-1). I've thinned this with a 5:1 mix of paint and thinners and then painted it on with a nice flat size 4 brush.


Step 2: Paint the base coats on the mini making sure get an even coat, again I thin it down to about 5:1. Paint the flesh areas with XF-15, if there's any areas that needs a bright colour is best to just base coat it white for now.


Step 3: I cover the entire mini in Smoke (X-19) mix, usually this is about 4:1 mixed with thinners in the pot and I add any extra on the palette on a mini by mini basis. I paint this on from the helmet down to the feet, making sure not to let too much settle on the flesh areas if possible. It's very important to let the mini dry completley before going to the next step, I usually leave the minis alone until the next evening.

Step 4: This is almost the same as step 2. Once again you take your base colours and do what I call a wet drybrush. This is the same as drybrushing except you leave a little more paint on the brush than you would for a dry brush. Sorry I can't explain it better, it's really a trial and error thing. Keep brushing the base colour back on until most of the shine from the Smoke is gone. You should end up with a nice blended look. Any shiny bits left will be cleaned up once we spray the mini with a matt varnish.

Step 5: I'm not too sure what to do here so I'm going to throw it back to you guys. I like the green look to the minis at the minute so do I just do a highlight one some of the raised surfaces with a lighter shade of Field Grey or do I go for the grey-green look and use a subtle shade of light grey.

I know I could experiment and eventually find something that I like but I just thought I might draw on the collective experience of anyone out there that has "been there-done that".

Getting Ready To Go Nuts!

I have a game of Nuts! lined up for Thursday night with Mick and I realised that I hadn't even gotten past basing my Germans. My British are in a better state and so I can probably spend and hour or so and get a squad or two table ready but none of the Germans have even seen an undercoat. Well I started to remedy that tonight.

Tomorrow night I'll try to sort out a scenario, at the moment I'm thinking of using something from the Too Fat Lardies Calais supplement. Basically a whole lot of Germans attacking a smaller but well dug in British force.

Some days are better than others

Some days it's just so awesome being a wargamer and today is one of those days. First off I sorted out payment for an auction I won on eBay, a German Focke Wulfe Fw190. I'm so looking forward to putting this one together.

Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.

Then at lunch I head down to the local game store to use the rest of a gift voucher I got for my birthday. There wasn't a lot of 1/48 armour kits its left in stock and I was having a hard time picking something that would play well and look cool on the table. I was about to give up when I was directed to a huge shiny pile of new kits that hadn't been put on the shelves yet. I grabbed two of the kits when I thought to ask the prices, $20 per kit I was told, so I promptly grabbed another two. I was so close to picking up a couple more but thought against it (see Vicki I can control myself).

US M4A3 & M4, German KV-2 754 and a Russian T34. The T-34 was a especially sweet deal as the interior of the tank is modelled as well. It's huge kit with 372 parts over 13 sprues.


Here's a shot of the pile of unbuilt or unpainted kits. I really have to say that I'm so impressed with the Hobby Boss kits. They're not as detailed as the AFV kits but they're way ahead of the Tamiya ones. What's also nice is that the kits come with alternate parts, including complete alternate turrets for one of the M4's.


Pleased as I was with my purchases of the day, I came home to find my order from Black Tree Design waiting for me. I may have looked calm and collected but on the inside I was giggling like a madman. Everything was there except for the LMG teams for the US Paratroopers. At least all the Germans are there because you kind of need them for any WW2 game. Besides I'm more interested in playing the British than the Yanks anyway.


I am so glad I have the airbrush setup now. Painting these all by hand would take me forever, no actually I'd probably never finish as I'd loose focus and just end up playing with unpainted minis for the next decade. No, I will say focused and I will finish these. I'll just have to get myself more organamasized.