15mm fortifications

First off apologies for the lack of posts, family and work have taken priority as you would expect.
However I recently arranged a game using a Sturmkompanie, all well and good until I realised how much Battle Front and others charge for trench line etc.

Ever the skinflint I decided to make my own and I'm very glad I did I would estimate a rough saving of £140 if not more. Although I did have some of the materials in my bits box.
Once they are finished I will have enough fortifications to field any company I could want including the new Engineer and Perimeter Outpost lists from Devils Charge :D

Firstly the materials I used:
1mm plasticard
1mm foamed pvc
10mm styrofoam
barbed wire
wooden skewers
wooden cocktail sticks
wooden tongue depressor
wooden lolly sticks
pva glue
Vallejo course pumice
GF9 plastic accessory pack

I will upload the basic photos today and hopefully over the next week come back and describe how I went about making each piece. They are pretty straight forward to be honest but I did find some short cuts to help out.
Below we have barbed wire, trenchline 4" section, HMG nest, HMG pillbox, AT pillbox, AT traps (dragons teeth), gun pit. The minefields are in progress and I'm thinking hard about how to give them character.

Quad 2cm finished

Had these done for a while, so thought it was about time I took a couple of pics.
The branches are Lichen dipped in a 50/50 mix of brown paint and acrylic varnish which is left to dry. Then pva painted on where I wanted leaf cover which it is then dipped in to, which happens to be dried herbs.
The snow is a 50/50 mix of GW's and GF9 snow flocks.

Finished Tigers

Finally found some time to finish of the Tigers. The weathering is a combination of pigments, washes and drybrushing. I don't really have a system but some of the pigment was 'knocked back' with isopropanol on a cotton bud.

Germans in the snow

After what seems like an age I finally pulled my finger out and got started on the infantry for my Flames of War Germans. I have 5 platoons to do in total (3 Grenadier and 2 Pioneer) plus associated support ie HMG's, PAK 40's etc.

Big cats and small men part 2

Just a quick update on the vehicles. As mentioned in the previous post I am painting my Axis forces in a winter setting. The vehicles are at a stage when I feel it's worth showing a couple of them, I'm using the hairspray technique for weathering the winter white wash. For those that are unaware of the stages involved I have listed them after the pics.

I use my airbrush to do the painting but I can see no reason why this couldn't be done with a brush, in fact the test piece I did on an old model without my airbrush. As you would expect allow plenty of drying time between each stage.

1: Prime model
2: Base coat, I used Tamiya XF-60 (Dark Yellow)
3: Gloss varnish the entire model
4: Add decals, then varnish them
5: Coat in hairspray (light coating)
6: White coat (Vallejo Ivory)
7: Take a stiff brush (I used an old GW 'drybrush' I had lying around) dip in water and slowly remove the top coat of paint by rubbing gently over the surface.
8: Seal work with another layer of varnish.

The remaining weathering such as painting chipping and mud will be added then a thinned wash of dark brown should tone down the model for the look I'm after. Then I can paint up all the details etc

Big Cats and small men

After a break from painting 15mm soldiers I decided that it was high time I opened the boxs of German forces I had 'on ice'. My original plan was to build a SS Genpanzerte Panzergrenadier force, but of course like most hobbyists of all forms, distraction is our biggest enemy. So now I find myself with 5 Tiger 1E's sat on my desk and various other platoons that I had never really considered

I'm going for a winter theme for these guys, all my Axis forces will be done with the same theme. Apart from a planned 21st Panzer Division in Africa for obvious reasons ;)
I'm thinking about modelling it in late winter as it offers the most in terms of weathering the vehicles and detailing the bases. It is also an opportunity to really get to grips with my airbrush.


Now for some photos, pretty self explanatory really. For those that are curious they are first given a coat of Vallejo Model Air Grey Primer and the Dunkelgelb base is Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow.

The army is from Grey Wolf and is a Schwere Panzerkompanie. For those that are interested here is the 1750pts list I will be using to start with:

CC Tiger

2 Tigers

2 Tigers

Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers (full platoon)

2 Armoured Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm)

Scout (full platoon)

Rocket launchers (6 NW41)


Not a lot of models on the table compared to what I'm used to, my first army is British Paratroopers. Still I'm looking forward to the challenge of fielding them.

First two ranks of Tzeentch warriors finally done