Monday 14 September 2015

More Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army, and a Firefly.

A slightly delayed blog update again this week due to work commitments. I've had some time to do painting but not enough time to blog. Still, at least I have got the painting done. :)

Carrying on from last week, I have been painting more Secrets of the Third Reich British, and also a Sherman Firefly tank. I have managed to paint 23 infantry and a tank. The infantry were much the same style as the last batch, but they included two Officers, a Medic, another weapons team, two Snipers, as well as four Sten Gunners and ten Riflemen. All of the miniatures were painted in the same World War Two style paint scheme.

The Sherman Firefly was bought from Warlord Games rather than West Wind. They do produce a Firefly, but I bought the Warlord Games tank as an impulse purchase from a (relatively) local model shop. I bought a Sherman Firefly as in World War Two it was a British conversion of an American made tank which was fitted with a bigger British gun. The Firefly was one of the few allied tanks which could take on German Tiger and Panther tanks, and so I thought it would be still around in a Weird War Two genre.
 
Enjoy :)
 Infantry and Tank.
 Commanding Officer with Pistol.
He is from the command pack, and has a seperate head from a special command head spure.
For those who are more familar with World War Two, I painted the Officers with regulation brown boots!
 On the left, an Officer with Sten Gun.
Right is a Medic.
 Anti-Mech gun team.
This model is designed to be a portable anti-mech gun team. The model seems to be based on the real lfe Boyes Anti-Tank gun, used in early in World War Two.
Snipers.
I like theses two miniatures, the have a lot of character and the camo cloak look good. The heads are from both the command head sprue and the sniper head sprue. 
Two soldiers with 'Packed 30 Calibre Machine gun'.
This seems to be a 'sawn-off' verson of the American made 30 Calibre machine gun. I like the pose of both of the miniatures, looking mean, and meaning business.
Two Sten Gunners.
Two more Sten Gunners.
Ten Riflemen.
These are all armed with the Lee-Enfield Carbine. They are the standard four sculpts from the basic Trooper pack, with one exception,the Soldier waving his arm in the background. He is from the Command pack.
Close up of a couple of the bases.
Mostly I have used the model 'barbed wire' and bricks, and a few pieces of model plastic fence (as above on the right) or painted match sticks.
Sherman Firefly.
This resin model (with metal barrel and headlights) is from Warlord Games, and was fun to paint. It is a good quality sculpt, but I was a little disappointed with the prep work needed (as detailed below).
I painted the Sherman Firefly in standard World War Two colours, and will probably add some number detailing a little later.
The odd swirley pattern on the tip of the gun barrel was used in World War Two to disguise the end of the barrel and break up it's outline in an attempt (apparently successful) to convince the Germans that it was an ordinary Sherman Tank. This was because normal Sherman stood little chance of destroying the German Tiger or Panther Tanks, but the Firefly could, making it a priority target.
Front view, with a British soldier for scale.
The tank came with a metal turret commander as well, but I decided not to use him as it meant messing about with a head swap to give him a gasmask head.
The main disappointment with what was a nice kit was the post casting sprue pieces on the front of the tank. They were very thick, and close to some important front details. It was only because I have a thin bladed saw that I managed to remove them successfully.
Although I like the model, it does put me off buying any other resin tanks from Warlord Games.
...and finally another Weird War Two Space Ork, painted up in World War Two colours. I did give him a little more of a technological feel with the display panels on his left arm. 
He is the Citadel Rogue Trader LE1 Space Orc miniature from 1987. 

Next weeks update will be the last of the Weird War Two British. I have thirteen nearly finished, including a Bazooka team, Piat's, and Assualt Bren guns. I also have another twelve Riflemen to assemble and paint.

4 comments:

  1. Nicely done stuff but 2 things-
    1 Lets see some 50 strong Orc units.
    2 Very let down with the FireFly, i was expecting a space ship.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, glad you like them.
      Sorry to disappoint you on the Orcs but I am not planning on painting any of them any time soon. Some more fantasy Great Goblins/Gnolls maybe.

      I think a lot of us are waiting for that particular Spaceship to return! :(

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  2. A really cool project. These boys look great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you,
      I am pleased with how they are turning out. :)

      Delete