Jasper goes to war!

[haldir]

Tamiya makes a color called "German Grey".  Almost every time I'll looked at a German WW2 model instructions from them, that color is called out quite a bit. It might be the color you need for that helmet.

 

Tamiya German Grey Google examples

 

Lookin good!!

[Jasper_the_2nd]

That looks not too far from the AP Uniform Grey I ended up using as the base for it.  Unfortunately no real sources for Tamiya close by.

It's kind of funny how everyone has slightly difference versions of the major colours.  I figure as long as I stay with the same versions of dunkelgelb and feldgrau, I will be at least be consistent within my own army....

 

Today I tried to get the other 7 up to the same point as the first 3.

A few touchups need to be done, then it should be on to highlights and washes.

Doesn't look like I'll get them finished by the end of the weekend, but they are getting closer.

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

Very cool, I have a platoon of these done already and another platoon to do sometime in the future.  I've built a lot of these box sets now and I've found that for a full 33-man platoon (3 squads 10 each, Lt w/ two attendants) it's two boxes to get full customization and not have to scrabble for bits.  These sprues also do not have enough equipment (gas mask canisters, bread bags, canteens) provided, which I found quite annoying - but if you ever do the early war blitzkrieg german infantry that box actually has a surplus of equipment and the early/late basic equipment is the same.  I'll be going back to add some to my already completed grenadiers now that I've just about finished my early war platoon.  

 

So I see that you're doing the full 10-man squad, but I'm not sure if it's your plan to do the whole platoon that way with 10-man squads.  If it is, and if you have enough bits, I recommend that instead of spreading out the StGs you concentrate them in one squad.  The other 2 squads can be mostly rifles and an MG team (for easy visual ID, I tend to give the NCOs of these squads SMGs but it doesn't matter if you can easily tell who is who - I do this because invited players will use my stuff and it makes life easier for them).  Anyway, this organization would give you two basic squads and an assault squad which I have found an effective combination.  But as they're individually based anyway, so long as somewhere in there you have an NCO + 9 guys with StGs you can vary your squad composition as you like.  You may find spreading them out is more utilitarian depending on how you play, I just wanted to give you a heads-up to consider if you're still building them out.

[buglips*the*goblin]

 

 

Just so you know, these guys with the lumpier looking helmets don't have camo fabric on them, it's loose netting over the basic bare helmet.  It doesn't really make a difference and probably nobody will notice either way, but in case it might matter to you then now you know.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by buglips*the*goblin

[Jasper_the_2nd]

1 hour ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

 

 

Just so you know, these guys with the lumpier looking helmets don't have camo fabric on them, it's loose netting over the basic bare helmet.  It doesn't really make a difference and probably nobody will notice either way, but in case it might matter to you then now you know.  

 

I figured, but rather than use the same couple of heads from each, I'll throw them in too, and just camo them up. The insert with the box looks like it has at least one of them painted up with a smaller more dot like camo on it.  I'm more going for "looks decent" than pure historical accuracy, since that requires more knowledge than I have on the subject.
 

2 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

Very cool, I have a platoon of these done already and another platoon to do sometime in the future.  I've built a lot of these box sets now and I've found that for a full 33-man platoon (3 squads 10 each, Lt w/ two attendants) it's two boxes to get full customization and not have to scrabble for bits.  These sprues also do not have enough equipment (gas mask canisters, bread bags, canteens) provided, which I found quite annoying - but if you ever do the early war blitzkrieg german infantry that box actually has a surplus of equipment and the early/late basic equipment is the same.  I'll be going back to add some to my already completed grenadiers now that I've just about finished my early war platoon.  

 

So I see that you're doing the full 10-man squad, but I'm not sure if it's your plan to do the whole platoon that way with 10-man squads.  If it is, and if you have enough bits, I recommend that instead of spreading out the StGs you concentrate them in one squad.  The other 2 squads can be mostly rifles and an MG team (for easy visual ID, I tend to give the NCOs of these squads SMGs but it doesn't matter if you can easily tell who is who - I do this because invited players will use my stuff and it makes life easier for them).  Anyway, this organization would give you two basic squads and an assault squad which I have found an effective combination.  But as they're individually based anyway, so long as somewhere in there you have an NCO + 9 guys with StGs you can vary your squad composition as you like.  You may find spreading them out is more utilitarian depending on how you play, I just wanted to give you a heads-up to consider if you're still building them out.

 

I have the box, plus 2 sprues from Band of Brothers, and another 4 sprues coming in the Konflikt '47 starter box.
So I'm starting with the 3 10-man squads, and then will build some extra smg/assault rifle guys, some extra lmg guys (and some loaders), and some panzerfaust guys.  And likely a few pointy had commander types.  I have the German Heer support group with a couple of pointy hat important looking guys already in there....For my NCOs I'm doing them all with the non-pointy hats to make them easy to pick out.  Suppose I should do 1 or 2 with the rifle, just in case I want to play a bare bones unit......

[buglips*the*goblin]

5 minutes ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

I have the German Heer support group with a couple of pointy hat important looking guys already in there

 

Be forewarned that the metal figures in that set are pretty horrid sculpts.  When I did mine I found them so awful I actually felt compelled to write to Ron to thank him for being Reaper's Art Director because he would never approve such awful things.  As a rule, Warlord's metals are not very good.  There's a lot you pretty much have no choice but to get from them, or sometimes it's easier than trying to source stuff from a dozen different manufacturers, but yeah...  ghastly stuff.  

[Jasper_the_2nd]

3 minutes ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

Be forewarned that the metal figures in that set are pretty horrid sculpts.  When I did mine I found them so awful I actually felt compelled to write to Ron to thank him for being Reaper's Art Director because he would never approve such awful things.  As a rule, Warlord's metals are not very good.  There's a lot you pretty much have no choice but to get from them, or sometimes it's easier than trying to source stuff from a dozen different manufacturers, but yeah...  ghastly stuff.  

Thanks for the warning.  I'm mostly getting stuff like that to support the store getting into it as much as anything.  I have 2 full kickstarters of 28mm stls I could be printing instead and a good pile of West Wind stuff somewhere, although most of the would fit more with Konflkt, being panzermechs and the like, although there are some tanks in there too....

 

At least if the officers are really awful, I won't feel so bad when they inevitably get shot.....

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

57 minutes ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

At least if the officers are really awful, I won't feel so bad when they inevitably get shot.....

 

There is also the advantage that you won't feel bad if you just do quick paint jobs because more work won't make any difference.  (I considered this a genuine plus, I've painted a lot of BA figures this past year).  In any case, they'll do their job just fine.  And supporting the store is always worthwhile.  My FLGS, which is essentially right next door to my house, had a lot of Bolt Action but didn't want to bring more in because another store already is and there's just not enough customers to support two stores, so they made an arrangement to not poach on each other.  But it's still lucky for me to have that place for supplies, but in particular for Vallejo and AK paints since all these army mans and tonks need unusual colours I'd rather not mix.

 

Anyway, all your stuff is looking good and I hope you find the game a fun time.  By next Sunday I should be able to test-run my gigantic 4-player 10,000 point game and see if it works and can be finished in less than 24 hours.  If you ever want to talk Bolt Action, hit me up.  I'm always down to chat BA.  

[buglips*the*goblin]

1 hour ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

I figured, but rather than use the same couple of heads from each, I'll throw them in too, and just camo them up. The insert with the box looks like it has at least one of them painted up with a smaller more dot like camo on it.  I'm more going for "looks decent" than pure historical accuracy, since that requires more knowledge than I have on the subject.

 

Oh, I was just letting you know what they were in case it made a difference to you, it doesn't matter to me any.  They're not particularly crisp moldings so I was just identifying bits that might look a bit vague, like when a reaper figure has a... thing... and you can't quite tell if it's supposed to be a potion, pouch, or bag.  

 

1 hour ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

I have the box, plus 2 sprues from Band of Brothers

 

As soon as I saw that Sdkfz 251/10 I was gonna ask if you got the BoB Starter (I did as well) but forgot to mention it, lol.  Your halftrack is already top sealed, but I chopped down one of the passengers from the sprue to about his belt area to fit him in and give it a driver.  Being able to see into the compartment with nobody there bugged me.  I'm pretty sure the US M3 halftrack kit comes with a driver, and I know the Warlord resin/metal WC 52 jeep does, so I'm not sure why the Sdkfz 251 didn't get one.  Anyway, probably it won't bug you as much as it did me, but if it does and you can still get in there then it's a workable solution.  

[Jasper_the_2nd]

3 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

Anyway, all your stuff is looking good and I hope you find the game a fun time.  By next Sunday I should be able to test-run my gigantic 4-player 10,000 point game and see if it works and can be finished in less than 24 hours.  If you ever want to talk Bolt Action, hit me up.  I'm always down to chat BA.  

 

10,000 points.........sweeeeeet!

 

2 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

Oh, I was just letting you know what they were in case it made a difference to you, it doesn't matter to me any.  They're not particularly crisp moldings so I was just identifying bits that might look a bit vague, like when a reaper figure has a... thing... and you can't quite tell if it's supposed to be a potion, pouch, or bag.  

 

 

As soon as I saw that Sdkfz 251/10 I was gonna ask if you got the BoB Starter (I did as well) but forgot to mention it, lol.  Your halftrack is already top sealed, but I chopped down one of the passengers from the sprue to about his belt area to fit him in and give it a driver.  Being able to see into the compartment with nobody there bugged me.  I'm pretty sure the US M3 halftrack kit comes with a driver, and I know the Warlord resin/metal WC 52 jeep does, so I'm not sure why the Sdkfz 251 didn't get one.  Anyway, probably it won't bug you as much as it did me, but if it does and you can still get in there then it's a workable solution.  

I appreciate the info. I knew they were different, but wasn't sure exactly how.

 

The top hull is just sitting on mine waiting for me to prime it.  Adding one of those guys as a driver.....where'd I put that sprue......

 

[Jasper_the_2nd]

Did a bit more assembly on the 2nd and 3rd units.

I expect I'm spending excessive time making sure all the NCOs and lmg and smg guys are all different across the units, with different poses and/or arm/body combinations. But it's fun.  Just really slow.......

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

Seems about normal to me, assembly takes me a bazillion years.  

[buglips*the*goblin]

These are the two chaps who sacrificed their legs to fit into the driver compartments of my Sdkfz 251s, just so you can see what it might look like before deciding if it's worth the bother to do it.  

 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by buglips*the*goblin

[Jasper_the_2nd]

17 minutes ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

These are the two chaps who sacrificed their legs to fit into the driver compartments of my Sdkfz 251s, just so you can see what it might look like before deciding if it's worth the bother to do it.  

 

 

That looks great!  Thanks, will definitely be going for that.

 

[Jasper_the_2nd]

Took my Germans to the flgs tonight as I knew there were going to be 3 of us there for Legion, so I brought in my play mat and terrain but let the other guys play, while I worked on getting my Germans assembled.

Made pretty good process:

 

Got rifles and heads on 10 guys, giving me 2 full squads ready to go (they all need their "kit" attached on the backs, but they could play as is).

As well, I stuck and officer on a base, and put together a trooper with a smg/assault rifle to go with him.

And then I started on some troops with Panzerfaust. (You can have up to 4 panzerfaust in a squad.  They suggest you put a fig with one in your unit for each one.  Since they are one shot weapons, once you fire one off, replace the mini with a same equipped model with no panzerfaust. I'll likely do a few more.  I have 8 extra guys on the right there to sort out.  Beside panzerfaust I want an NCO or two with rifles, so I can field a bare bones unit or two.   At least one more lmg and loader, and a couple more smg/assault rifle guys.  I do have another 24 grenadiers (so 4 more sprues) coming with the Konflikt '47 starter, so I can add another full 2 squads with a few extra guys there too.
And, as long as I can get these 11 incomplete guys assembled (and all the kit attached) before the new stuff comes in, I can build a couple of tanks!  (as per my own self imposed rule that infantry has to get assembled first...to keep me from just building tanks and never get my infantry done.......).