progress on BA British

Here's a little update on the Bolt Action British.

A couple of views of the armour.  The starting point for these was when I borrowed a spray can of Army Painter's Army Green from a friend at our club.  It was brilliantly quick and provided a great staring point. I'll definitely use these sprays in the future.

There then followed some highlights and dry brushing, then some washes. On the pictures, the Firefly at the top left was washed with soft tone, the other Sherman remains without a wash at this stage. The bren carrier was given a black wash and turned out a bit too dark. The Stuart had a mix of tones. I reckon the soft tone was best and I'll use it on the other Sherman.  I'll probably add a bit of black shade to line hatches and the like, just to give a bit more depth.  

The transfers went on. The Firefly is intended as the Scots Greys of 4th Armoured Brigade, the Sherman as the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, the Stuart as the recce units of 11th Armoured Division and the bren carrier as the Black Watch in the 51st Highland Division. 

And a couple of shots of the infantry. At this stage they just have an airbrushed coat of Vallejo brown green. I then quickly splashed some green on the helmets. This would allow the figures to be used in game without looking too stark. 

And another brighter shot. The chap in the blue at the bottom is the RAF forward observer and the blue was a first try at getting a decent base for the RAF blue.

Meanwhile, painting continues on the Napoleonic British and the next batch of infantry are nearly completed. I'll try do pictures for next time. 

Bolt Action British underway

Over the Christmas and New Year period I've been gluing bits to other bits and to my fingers. But I've made some progress and yesterday I got a whole bad undercoated white.

The first picture shows gluing in progress. The two standing figures on the left without heads are the command figures. One is standing holding a mug of tea and the other is advancing  and will have a brolly in his left hand. The brolly is a little homage to the irrepressible Digby Tatham-Warter at Arnhem. And the tea drinker is there just because we're British and it's what we do.

At this point I want to give these characters Tam o' Shanters to represent the Black Watch, but the metal heads I bought from Warlord seemed a bit over scale. I decided to cut the bonnet from the heads and then attach them to the plastic heads. It was a bit of work but I got there in the end. 

Undercoated infantry. There are now 3 sections of 10 men.

And the undercoated others. At the left are the figures for the machine gun team. At the top left are the spotter team, including a rather spiffing looking chap in the RAF uniform. I could try to paint him to represent a good friend who served in the RAF, but the metal figure is a bit slimmer.  :)   

I've also changed the Tam o' Shanters, putting them only on the tea-drinking commanding officer and his sergeant-major escort. The more junior officer with the brolly has a camouflaged helmet.

At the right of the picture are the figures for the vehicles.

And a closer look at the command figures. I think all these deserve names and any suggestions are welcome. At the moment, the CO is Colonel Sir Archibald Bogle of Auchtershoogle and his escort Tavish McTavish. 
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And the vehicles so far. I left the front off the bren carrier because after several dry runs, I found I couldn't fit the driver into the vehicle at a later stage if this was glued in place. And I wanted to paint the figures separately from the vehicles.

More later. I'm hoping to do a spray session on the infantry this afternoon.

British Light Dragoons

I got these finished this week. I had hoped to complete them by the end of the year but other stuff got in the way.

These are all Men at Arms, Napoleon at War 'big' 15mm figures.  There are three units in all, with facings of red, yellow and crimson.

I've almost completed the British forces for a friend. The remaining 3 infantry are well on the way and that leaves 2 artillery batteries. Hopefully I'll finish everything this month, but we never can tell what new game fads may distract us from targets we may set.