Small Starship Troopers

I've just finished painting up 8 of the Oddzial Osmy 15mm Scifi troopers. These are truly amazing sculpts for such tiny figures. My naff phone pictures really do not do justice to how good these sculpts are for 15mm figures. I've seen 28mm that are not so nicely sculpted.

I picked up a bunch of these ages ago simply because I liked how they looked, I went for a grey green camo combo with one shoulder pad painted blue so I can match figures to squads. So the next section will have a red or green shoulder pad.

No idea what I will use these for but they were simple to paint and a nice little scifi diversion!

I also ventured into painting a different skin tone. Historically I have painted just Caucasian skin tones simply because that was what I had learned to paint and I was a bit scared to paint any other tones as I wasn't sure how to highlight them etc. However I thought I would have a crack at some African skin tones on this little sculpt and was pleasantly surprised to find the tone very easy to paint. So that is something new learnt! 

Radio Ruperts

Just a quick update, I painted up this 20mm Officer and Radio Opp from AB miniatures, as usual lovely crisp casts. Really enjoying painting up the 20mm miniatures lately, the time required to complete is so much less than 28mm and I prefer the way they look on the table. Going to be topping up my lead pile with some more AB figures in the near future. 

Fire Team

Some modest progress on my 20mm British force, more lovely figures from AB of course, rounds my platoon out to 3 8 man sections. I have half a command section on the paint table at the moment waiting the arrival of mortar and other support elements. 

I have also finished putting together an Airfix 1/76 Cromwell its a little small for 20mm but not distressingly so. Its just a simple build and went together quite nicely with no significant gaps or issues with the fitting of parts. I did fill the hull with 1p coins glued together to give it some weight. Hopefully get some paint on this in a few weeks. 

Simple Green

Finished four of these cold war Brits from Elheim Miniatures over the weekend, I simply couldn't be bothered with camouflage so went for the older single colour green uniform that persisted for sometime after the war. As ever nice figures from Elheim, no doubt more will follow at some point.

Currently working on some more AB Figures ww2 Brits and tank support along with endless studying.

A return to familiar ground

Well that took a lot longer than expected. I had intended to paint just four of these figures but I got carried away and ended up painting up 20. As you will have no doubt noticed these are WW2 late war British Infantry from the fantastic AB Miniatures range. The figures are 20mm but are as detailed as some 28mm figures I have painted. Truly lovely figures that make painting them a joy. 

As they are that little bit smaller I found them a lot quicker to paint, and the slightly smaller scale allows for a simpler painting approach. 

I've painted up two squads of 10 each, which was the paper strength in the late period. That said I expect to field these in 8 man sections should I ever get them on a wargames table as my reading leads me to believe that it was more likely that the squads would have been nearer the 8 man strength than the 10 man goal. Either way I prefer 8 man sections for some reason it just feels right. 

The benefit of using 8 man sections being that this lot makes up an under strength platoon rather than just two squads. My intention is to paint up another half squad and a command section in short order to provide a full size platoon. 

I think for anything other than very small skirmish games I will be switching to 20mm going forwards as I am able to achieve far more, to a standard I can accept, than I can in 28mm. That said I expect I will still collect 28mm figures for smaller games. 

20mm Cold War

So another year begins, perhaps I'll manage to get a bit more painting this year, but I suspect not whilst the lead pile will no doubt simply continue expanding with a life of its own, at least thats what I tell the wife. 

That said I did find the time to slap some paint on another 4 of the Elhiem cold war Brits. As ever fantastic sculpts that are frankly better than some 28mm things I've painted over the years. So with the 4 completed previously I have my first section, another 8 on the painting table but my old comrade WW2 seems to be calling again as a stack of 20mm British Late War infantry have appeared as if by magic on the painting table. 

Cold War Brits

I'm in the process of moving house at the moment so not a huge amount is getting done painting and hobby wise. I did however manage to paint up these cold war brits from Elhiem miniatures. There 20mm which was a lot quicker to paint, and a touch cheaper. The sculpts are lovely and I already have another 4 on the table. 

I can see a lot of 20mm in my future, the sheer amount of time I saved by painting these instead of 28mm makes it much more practicable hobbywise as time is tight. 

In other news I sold another part of my soul to Gamesworkshop. I noticed they had re-released the most recent edition of Space Hulk for another limited run (now sold out) and with she who must be obeyed's blessing grabbed myself a copy.

At £75 I would usually say this is typically steep for Gamesworkshop, but as my wife and I play board games and have bought a fair few over the years from other manufacturers for close to this price I'm thinking its not actually that outrageous.

Anyway I just couldn't resist, when this edition was first released there was no way I could afford it but this time round life is a bit rosier and its got a real nostalgic link for me as I played 2nd edition a lot when I was younger.