Secrets of the Third Reich British: Finished.

A slightly shorter, and yet again a work delayed blog update!

I have finished the last batch of miniatures for my Secrets of the Third Reich British Army force, finishing the entire project. Over the last week and a half I have painted 12 Riflemen, 4 PIAT armed soldiers, 7 Assualt Bren Gunners, a Bazooka team, and (converted) Heavy Mortar Team.

I have enjoyed collecting and painting them, and they have made a pleasant change. Although I don't play West Winds 'Secrets of the Third Reich' game, I like the Weird War Two setting, and the miniatures have a great post-apocalyptic feel blended with a World War Two aesthetic. I must admit though, like all uniformed armies, they did get a little 'samey' towards the end, but I'm happy with the overall look of the miniatures and pleased to have completed something I have wanted to do for a number of years.

Enjoy :)

 The last batch of painting.

 Bazooka Team.

 Four soldiers armed with PIAT's.

The PIAT, (The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank) was a British re-useable man portable anti tank weapon designed and manufactured during World War Two. 

Looking at them I think that if I was to have painted up in silver or gold they would look very Sci-Fi, like something out of a 1950's B-Movie!

 Three Assault Bren Gunners. 

As I mentioned in an earlier update, I think this is a purely Weird War Two weapon. As far as I know the British never made a Assualt Bren Gun, althuogh I understand there were wartime prototypes. I think it is meant to be a form of Assualt Rifle, the British equivalent of the German StG 44.

Four Assault Bren Gunners.

 Converted Heavy Mortar.

I had two 'spare' kneeling soldiers (that is I only used two crew for the heavy weapons teams), and so I added an old Citadel plastic Imperial Guard Mortar to make a heavy mortar.

 Twelve riflemen

 The whole British Force. 

I split the force down into four 10 man squads, each with one Sten gunner, one PIAT, two Assualt Bren gunners, and six riflemen (including an NCO). I also made 'Assualt Squad' of five comprising two 30 Calibre machine gunners, two riflemen, and an NCO.

In addition, there are the various heavy weapon teams, sniper teams, officers/command personal, and of course the Sherman Firefly.

 10 man Squad, split into two 5 man Squads.

I have one with four riflemen and the PIAT, the other with the Assualt Brens, Sten, and a pair of riflemen.

The 30 'Cal' squad. 

At a later date I might add a suitable looking Weird War Two Mech, and maybe another tank, but for the time being I'm keen to move onto other projects. 

On that subject I have been wanting to return to painting more of the Slann army. I have already been tinkering with shield replacments for one of the Jungle Brave regiments. However I have also been painting up some more Pygmies, with a slightly different approach.

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.

Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army.

After painting the Rogue Trader first releases, I have been in a more Sci-Fi mood. So the other week I submitted a small mail order to West Wind Productions for some of their Secrets of the Third Reich Range.
Their website can be found here:
 http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

I have wanted to buy some of these for a while. The premise of the game is that World War Two carried on beyond 1945 due to the development of advanced sciences and the use of Occult forces, and fits into the wider genre of 'Weird War Two' that has been gaining in popularity in the last few years. I could be wrong, but I think that West Wind were one of the first companies to pursue this genre.

A lot of the background is based on much of the well documented history written on what the Third Reich were up to with regards to technology, as well some of the more esoteric ideas surronding their Occult interests. I have'nt the space or time to go into everything, but it is fairly well known that the NAZI's were developing some very hi-tech technology, and that the SS had a interest in Volk-ish based Occultism and a pre-occupation with the Spear of Destiny. The Allies had interests in these areas too.  In the UK there was Frank Whittle's Jet engine, enigma de-coding/computing, and in the area Occult with Churchill working with Mediums and Occultists.

Now I don't (yet) intend playing West Winds' game, but I wanted to collect and paint a semi Sci Fi/post apocalypse force along the lines of World War 2. I was'nt keen on collecting the NAZI's, but was drawn to the British and Commonwealth forces. West Wind also produce USA and Russian forces.

The design approach is to base the miniatures in a World War Two aesthetic, but to add more hi-tech elements. For the British this means the infantry dress in late war uniforms, but also with a degree of body armour. The weapons include an assault weapon version of the Bren Gun, an anti-Mech gun, and a magazine loaded mortar. The British infantry are armed with a carbine version of the Lee Enfield. Like some of the other forces, The British, have access to basic Mech Suits, and Occultists, but I have'nt purchased any of these as I just wanted to have the Infantry, and I was'nt too struck on the design of the Mechs.

Sculpting wise, the miniatures are basically World War Two British/Commonwealth miniatures, but with a form of body armour. They are supplied on 30mm lipped bases.  Also, the miniatures come with seperate heads, which for the Secrets of the Third Reich range are gas mask wearing heads and wearing the Brodie (Trench) Helmet.

Price wise they are'nt too expensive, £1.75 per infantry man, and £6.50 to £8.00 per heavy weapon crew. Normal World War Two miniatures will be cheaper, but I liked the slightly different style from the Weird War Two look. If you are on a budget, then West Wind do sell packs of the seperate heads seperately for all the nations, and so could be used to convert up other normal World War Two ranges. Warlord games do plastic British and other nations, although I have no first hand knowlage of the miniatures themselves.

Most of the casting is good quality, although there were one of two miniatures with a few lumps of heavy flash. In addition the helmets on the seperate heads are'nt always crisp casts all the way around, and have a heavy cast line on the top which requires cleaning. In addtion I found the heads a pain to glue on. The heads need to be clipped from the sprues carefully to not destroy the pug needed to fix to the body, and some of the bodies require a little drilling. However, if you are used to basic modelling, there's nothing to worry about.

All in all, I am very pleased with them. They look great, and are fun and easy to paint. I still have about 50 of them to paint.
Enjoy :)

 A little batch of British Infantry. 

I went for the standard World War Two British paint scheme and decided on 1940's, pre concrete cities, urban style bases, with tiny bricks, barbed wire and mud.

 There are four types of basic infantry with Lee-Enfield carbines. 

He are two of them...

 ...and the second two.

All of the infantry have what at first look a little static poses, but with the posing of the heads, they look a lot more dynamic, advancing, and more battlefield aware.

 Infantryman with an Assault Bren. 

The Assault Bren seems to be a Weird War Two invention, a sort of 'sawn off' Bren Gun.

Vickers Heavy Machine Gun. 

 Side view.

 British Mortar.

This is an unusual looking Mortar and is magazine fed. It does'nt look like the Mortar used by the British forces in World War Two, but does look a little like the Italian Brixia Mortar. 

 Rear view, showing the rear of the infantry body armour.

 I had a 'spare' miniature from the Heavy Vickers Machine gun (yes, I know that in reality they had three crew but after years of 40k I thought two crew were enough. And anyway there's still a war on so manpower must be short!).

So, with the addition of a GW Catachan radio pack and using the radioman head from he command pack, I converted up a comm's trooper.

 Close up of the barbed wire. 

I bought two metres of this wire, snipped it to size, curled it around a paint brush handle, and glued them to the base. Then once dry I painted it brown and light drybrushed silver.

 Bricks!

I bought some really tiny bricks, made from actual brick, from a dolls house supplier from e-bay. £9.99 for 250.

Ok, not a Secret of the Third Reich (well, probably not!), but a bit of fun.

I have several spare Rogue Trader 40k Orks, and have painted up this one in German colours, and based him up the same as the British. I have a vague plan to paint up the spare Orks (and, ahem, the few ones I have bought from e-bay recently) to act as a foe to the British. Also, like the solid bases Gnolls/Goblins, I wanted to paint up a few of these miniatures to on a more releastic paint scheme and on an individual basis. 

Next update will be more of The Secrets of the Third Reich British, including a Warlord Games Sherman Firefly I bought yesterday and glued together this afternoon. 

I will be getting back to painting Goblins in about a month or so. 

The First Rogue Trader Releases: The Complete Set.

Before the release Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader in the latter part of 1987, there was a small release of Sci Fi miniatures, some of which were destined to be a part of the game. One set of these were what is now know as 'The First 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases'. These were a set of 14 miniatures shown below:

Recently I managed to aquire the last two miniatures I needed to complete the set; the Dark Elf Trooper (thank you Steve Casey), and the Imperial Bodyguard.
I had originally bought some of the set in the summer of 1987, just before Rogue Trader was released, I bought the Orc, Goblin, and two of the Human Troopers all in one blisterpack. Over the years I picked up many of the others, most of them being relatively common to find and being present in other ranges. Only the Piscean Warrior and Pirate were not widely released, but I managed to buy both by chance in the late 1990's.

 So as I had finally completed the set I thought I should now paint them as a set. I decided to paint and base each of them in an individual manner to suggest the breath and diversity of the 40k universe and the differing environments. Also, it allowed me to play around with different types of bases and colour schemes without having to paint an entire squad/army.

I really quite like the set of miniatures. They capture the pre/early Rogue Trader era which I like, and are a diverse collection of individual models whose quality of sculpting and design still, in my opinion, stand up today. It was great fun to paint them up in different paint schemes, and with different bases. I'm also pleased with how they look photographed in different terrian.

Enjoy :)

 The complete set of the First Rogue Trader releases. 

 Telepath.

Personally I think this miniature bears a striking resemblance to the Talsiman Timescape 'Scientist', and also  Lando Calrissian's servants, the Lobots, from 'The Empire Strikes Back'. 

He also does'nt look much like a Telepath, but more of a Techpriest, which is what he was later listed as in the Citadel 'Blue Catalogue', but not before being also listed as a Telepath!

I have painted him in a workman like dull grey coat, and given him a base reminiscent of a metal walkway in a research facility. I painted his eyes silver on a whim to suggest some sort of implant.

 Rear view showing some sort of device, and the implant on the back of his head.

 Ground Combat Trooper.

This model bears more than a passing look of a 'Souther Trooper' from the 2000AD comic strip 'Rogue Trooper'. This is'nt suprising as not only were Games Workshop working on their Rogue Trooper game at the same time, but I am sure many of the GW staff were fans of it. 

So, I have painted the miniature up to look like a 'Souther', even giving him a desolate Nu-Earth looking base. 

Incedently, the shoulder pad had what looked like a '7' on it, but as it was quite lacking in depth, I painted the 'Souther' symbol over it.

He was later released in the RT7 Mercenaries under the name 'Abbadon'.

Rear view.

 The Piscean Warrior.
(also know later as a Saharduin).

This is one on my favourite miniatures, and was only avaliable for a short time in 1987, and so is consequently quite rare now. 

He is basically a humanoid shark with a sub-machine gun and what looks like a powersword. He is wearing some sort of environment suit, probably stopping him from drying out. 

He was never part of the Rogue Trader Bestiary, and no rules were released, but they were sometimes mentioned in backgrounds.

 The right side showing the gun and backpack clearer.

 Space Dwarf. 

A small (even by later Squat standards) Space Dwarf in power armour. 

He reminded me of the some of the Sci Fi book covers from the 1960's/70's and so I painted him up in a slightly retro looking colour, and strange alien world base.

The Space Dwarf found his way into two further ranges. First he ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range as 'Irn-Bonce The Squat'. He later ended up in the main Squat range as 'Grenade Launcher'.

Rear view, showing the backpack.

 Imperial Garrison Trooper.

A human member of the Imperial Army armed with what appears to be a Las-gun. I have painted him up a as a standard looking Army Trooper, looking slightly like a World War 2 American GI. I have him a red colour combat helmet to give a more sci fi touch. 

This miniature too ended up as part of the RT7 Mercenaries range, named 'Kyla Condotti'.

 Rear view showing the powerpack for the las-gun.

Space Goblin.

This lovely little critter has a shotgun and hunting knife, and is wearing a Stahlhelm. 

He is listed as a Space Goblin, as being released before Rogue Trader, he would'nt have been listed as a  Gretchin. He ended up in the Gretchin range later on, and spawned an alternative sculpt in that range too. 

Given his Stahlhelm I thought he would look good painted in Wehrmacht colours.

I painted the base to look like a ruined World War 2 townscape, using some tiny little bricks from e-bay and giving the brown base a drybrush of 'Light Brick' coloured paint.

 Rear view with a power pack.

 Imperial Light Trooper.

This miniature is a conversion of the Imperial Garrison Trooper, and basically the same miniature but with a gas mask sculpted on. 

I have painted him up in snow camo as I thought he was slightly 'Star Wars' looking, and I wanted to try out using snow basing. 

Again he ended up in the RT7 Mercinaires range, named 'No-Face Fargo'. 

 Side view.

 Imperial Bodyguard.

He is an Adeptus Custodes, but rather than paint him in the contemporary colours of gold armour, I opted for a more Rogue Trader era approach. In the Rogue Trader Rulebook, on page 172, there is a great piece of artwork entitled 'The Emperor's Palace'. In it are Adeptus Custodes in dark green metallic armour and red plumes. In addition there is another piece of artwork on page 135 show the Adeptus Custodes from the front with almost Harlequin like trousers. So I based the paint scheme on these two pieces of artwork.

 Rear view. 

I based him on marble flagstone looking tiles, made from plasticard.

 Imperial Psycher.

The above name was the orginal spelling, later changed to Psyker. This miniature later found his way into the RT601 Adventurers ranges as 'Astropath Yerl'. This makes sense as he looks more like an Astropath. 

Incedently, he can also be found in the same artwork on page 135 as the Adeptus Custodes. 

I painted him up in the green robes of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, as outlined in the Rogue Trader Rulebook (page 141).

Rear view.

I thought I would paint the sash red as it complements the green. I painted the staff black to suggest a Force Rod.

 Pirate. 

This minitaure is a conversion from a Citadel C01 Fighters series miniature named Cedric. He has had his sword replaced with a gun, which is used in the Judge Dredd ranges.

Although he looks a little like Ned Kelly with the helmet, he also looked more 1960/70's campy type of Sci-fi. So I painted him up in a silver suit and with a gold gun. 

In line with this I based him up in a typical Star Trek: Orginal Series looking base.

 Rear view. 

 Dark Elf Space Trooper.

This is the miniature which eldued for a long time, and I was'nt disappointed.

Long before the Dark Eldar this miniature was produced. His mesh/chainmail like armour is similar to the later Eldar miniatures, as are the helm and armour plates. However he or she (it's not easy to be sure, looking at the chest plates it might be female) has a slightly different, more slender feel to it. 

I painted the miniature purple and gold as I always envisioned it in my minds eye these colours, I wanted to have a non releastic colour scheme, and one not close to the Eldar.

 Right view showing more of the armour, and the strange gun. It looks like a form of flamer.

 Rear view, showing the large backpack/energy pack.

 Imperial Heavy Trooper.

This human is, as his name suggests, wearing some heavy chest and shoulder armour, as well as elbow, knee, foot armour, a heavy helmet, and gauntlets. 

In addition he is armed with an Auto-gun.

He too ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range, as 'Fast-Star John', before finally ending up in the Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard range.

Rear view showing his backpack, pistol, and other equipment. 

I painted him up in temperate woodland colours, and did the base to match.

 Space Orc with Blaster.

First thing to notice is he is an Orc, not Ork. Orc with a 'k' did'nt appear until Rogue Trader was released. Some people don't like the spelling, but I think is fun and gave the Ork's a differnet and more Sci fi feel. 

He is armed with a Blaster, another name given to Bolt guns as well as maybe borrowed from Star Wars.

I painted him up as more of a pirate and scavanger type, with oddments of clothes and armour, and based him as though he is scavenging in a junkyard or onboard a deralict space hulk. 

This miniature ended up being very widely released in the more general Rogue Trader Space Ork range, and was also the basis for a couple of variant sculpts in Space Ork releases in 1988/9.

 Rear view showing the armour and the raggedy clothes. 

The rusty rubbish on the base is made from old bits of chopped up plastic sprue, a few cut out plasti card tiles, a bit of lead sprue, and a cut up lollipop stick!

 Imperial Heavy Infantry.

This Infantryman is a variant sculpt on the Imperial Heavy Trooper. He is the same miniature except that the head and helmet are different, and he has a different backpack (see below). 

He is painted up from a piece of artwork on page 188 of the Roge Trader Rulebook. He represents 'Amry- Trooper of Gian's Legion'. I did vary the paint scheme a little, painting the kneepads and boot armour blue instead of black, to be in keeping with the rest of the armour. 

I gave him an urban ruined base to lighten up the look of the model from the blue and black, and also because I had'nt done an urban base for this range of miniatures.

Like many others, he also ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range, as 'Space-Doubt Sam'. He also made it to the Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard range.

Rear view, showing the different backpack.
The backpack is the same as the sculpted on backpack on the C100 Space Marines range from 1986. 

This weeks update has been delayed by work, and as next week is Bank Holiday I am sure next weeks update may be as well. I am not sure what I will be painting this week. I have taken a short break on the 'Goblin Wars' to paint the above miniatures, and am currently sorting out some 'Secrets of the Third Riech British from West Wind, which I purchased recently. So I have a mind to paint a few of those before returning to the Goblins. :)