Even more Soviets

Here are some pictures of my final batch of Secrets of the Third Reich Soviets (for the time being – with Warfare coming up at the weekend there’s every chance I’ll buy some more).

First up is one of the special characters: Sickle. There’s a corresponding “Hammer”, but he’s having some bits and pieces pinned on at the moment.

Sickle

Sickle (2)

Next we have sniper Vasily (the Hare) Zaytsev, pictured here with another Soviet Officer.

Vasily (the Hare) Zaystev

I’ve also finished a handful of other Soviet Officers and Snipers. All in all there’s a total of 8 of them including Vasily.

Soviet Officer

Officer & Vasily

Soviet Officers

Soviet Snipers

That’s another 8 figures, which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1564
Painted: 686
Sold: 18
Net: -860

Girls with Guns

Not all defenders of the Motherland are shambling Zombies. Soviet women bear their share of the burden in Great Patriotic War against the Evil German Undead Warmachine. While most toil in industry, transport, agriculture and other civilian roles, working double shifts to free up enlisted men to fight and increase military production, a sizable number of women take up arms to deal with the hated invaders more directly.

A shining example is Nika the Widowmaker.

Nika the Widowmaker

But not all female defenders of the Motherland are snipers. Women of the Soviet Union can also be found wielding the famous PTRD Anti-tank rifle.

Soviet PTRD (1)

Nika & PTRD Rifle girl

Armed Women of the Soviet Union

That’s another 3 figures, which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1564
Painted: 678
Sold: 18
Net: -868

Comrade, are you ill?

Another painting update. This time it’s 24 Soviet Zombies for Westwind Games: Secrets of the Third Reich.

There’s 4 of the “Bomb” Zombies . . .

Soviet Bomb Zombie

Soviet Bomb Zombie (2)

Soviet Bomb Zombies

Soviet Bomb Zombies - rear view

There are also 20 “Normal” Zombies. I love the model with its arm in a sling. You can almost imagine the medic at the field aid station saying “It’s only a flesh wound, Comrade. Just wear this sling and you’ll be fine”.

Soviet Zombies

More Soviet Zombies (2)

That’s 24 more models towards my pledge.

Which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1564
Painted: 675
Sold: 18
Net: -871

The Army of the Dead

At last some painting progress to report!

First up we have some War of the Rings: Army of the Dead figures. There’s 30 of these bad boys, a mixture of the old metal models and the funky new plastic ones. To my mind there was nothing wrong with the old metal ones, but I’ve got to admit the new plastic ones are even better.

Army of the Dead - including the King

Once again a simple paint job.

Black undercoat.
Shadow Grey drybrushed – heavier at the top than bottom
Codex Grey drybrushed (top 80% of model) – heavier at the top than bottom
Fortress Grey drybrushed (top 60% of model) – heavier at the top than bottom
Skull White drybrushed (top 30% of model) – heavier at the top than bottom
Thraka Green wash

Leave for at least a week, before applying matt varnish, and you’re good to go.

Army of the Dead (2)

Army of the Dead (3)

Army of the Dead (4)

That’s 30 more models towards my pledge.

Which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1564
Painted: 651
Sold: 18
Net: -895

Looks like I’m doomed to fail, but I’m not giving up just yet.

And now for something completely different . . .

Plenty of progress on the painting and Pledge fronts as I’ve finally managed to catch up with most of my varnishing backlog. I’ve finished 30 Army of the Dead for War of the Rings, 24 Soviet Zombies plus another 11 assorted Soviet Models for Secrets of the Third Reich, and another 12 Americans from the Brainwurst! set (also Secrets of the Third Reich). I’ll take photographs of these once they are fully dry.

In the meantime here’s a picture of a KV2 for Flames of War. It’s been painted, weathered and the varnished at least twice. I’ve misplaced the slogan transfers which need to be applied to the turret, so I can’t count it as complete, but here’s a couple of pictures in any case.

KV2

KV2 - another view

Haradrim: Before & After

I finally managed to squeeze in a varnishing session last week, so helping with my Pledge progress we have 84 Haradrim Warriors. They are split 50/50 between Bowmen and Spearmen.

It’s a very nice feeling when you finally finish such a large quantity of figures and you can say you’ve turned these . . .

Unpainted Haradrim (1)

Unpainted Haradrim (2)

. . . into these . . .

Haradrim Bowmen (1)

Haradrim Bowmen (2)

Haradrim Spearmen (1)

Haradrim Spearmen (2)

Haradrim Spearmen - side view

Once again a fairly simple paint job that owes a lot to GW Devlan Mud Wash. I’ve used a very limited palette.

Reds: Mechrite Red, Highlighted with Blood Red
Blue: Enchanted Blue / Chaos Black, Highlighted with Enchanted Blue
Purple: Regal Blue / Chaos Black, Highlighted with a 3:1 Warlock Purple / Liche Purple
Gold: Brazen Brass, Highlighted with Shining Gold
Flesh: Dwarf Flesh, Highlighted with Elf Flesh
Cloth: VMC 788 Khaki
Wood: Darf Flesh, Highlighted with Vermin Brown
Metal: Boltgun Metal

All base colours applied over a black undercoat, followed by a very liberal coating of Devlan Mud Wash. Then the highlights applied. Flesh and Gold then given a light wash of 50/50 Water/Peat Brown Ink. Simple.

Which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1564
Painted: 621
Sold: 18
Net: -925

Still no camera, but here’s a Wyvern

Still no camera, but here’s a picture of a Wyvern I completed a few months ago. The Orc rider is currently waiting to be varnished, along with quite a lot of other stuff.

Wyvern

I’d hoped to have a varnishing session last weekend, but for various reasons that didn’t happen. I did make quite a bit of progress with the brush though, and have finished another 35 Secrets of the Third Reich figures. 24 Soviet Zombies, including 4 Bomb Zombies, plus 11 assorted ‘living’ Soviets. I wasn’t quite so impressed with the Soviet Zombies compared to the German ones, but the ‘living’ models were an absolute pleasure to do. Pictures will be forthcoming just as soon as the camera is available – promise.

The lack of a varnishing session has meant my “Pledge” total has continued to progress in the wrong direction. This time the culprit was a large batch of Khador figures for the superb Warmachine game from Privateer Press. My plan is to try out a new (to me at least) method of painting them. More to follow . . .

Bought: 1564
Painted: 537
Sold: 18
Net: -1009

Eastern Front Flames of War

Still no progress on the camera front, so this time I’ll have to settle for a couple of “action” shots of my East Front Germans (MidWar). Apologies for the quality, but they were taken “in game” and the lighting wasn’t the best.

First up we have a PzIVF1 – long barreled

PzIVF1

Next we have the PzIVF2. Very useful for digging out infantry. You can just make out the PzIVF1 in the background.

PzIVF2

I don’t really play Flames of War any more, which is a shame because I did really enjoy the game when I first started playing. The Late War stuff leaves me a little cold though, as it tends to be a little dull to play.

I’ve still quite a bit of unpainted Flames figures, so perhaps I should try and rekindle my interest, although more things to paint is the last thing I need at the moment.

Painting update:

The varnishing backlog continues to build up with 42 Haradrim Bowmen joining the queue. I’m going to try and get them all done at once, hopefully at the weekend.

Once they are all done it will be a huge plus towards my “Pledge” progress – not that I have any realistic expectation of succeeding this year after making more purchases at Derby.

Never one to turn down a bargain I picked up:

24 Wargods of Aegyptus Spartans (I must have enough for the army now)
A Circle Orboros starter box
6 Satyrix Raiders
2 Fell Bats

Which makes my score for the year:

Bought: 1480
Painted: 537
Sold: 18
Net: -925

Next up on the painting table will be my Secrets of the Third Reich Soviets.

Runesmiths

Still no progress on the camera, so once again I’ll have to settle for publishing an old picture rather than taking some new ones of the Haradrim I’m painting now.

Here we have two of my Runesmiths for my Dwarf army. Nothing much to say about them. They’ve had a fairly simple paint job to match the rest of the army.

Runesmiths

I tend to use the one on the left more often than the one on the right as he ranks up far easier, although some opponents have confused him with my BSB. Personally I don’t see it.

Dwarf standards

Some progress on the painting front. Nothing actually finished, but rather a lot of stuff complete except for their final coat of varnish. Including:

Bretonnian Trebuchet & Crew
Dark Elf Manticore & Rider (found him at last)
Orc Wyvern & Rider
12 US Armoured Infantry from the Brainwurst! set
42 Haradrim Infantry

Hopefully I’ll have the camera back soon and can take pictures of them as I finish them.

Some pictures from Colours

Here are a couple of pictures from our Dark Elves vs High Elves refight of Picketts Charge taken at last weekends Colours show. Apologies for the quality, but they were taken using my iphone rather than my camera.

There was quite a lot of interest in the game and you can see some rather more professional pictures of the game in this thread. Warning there’s hundreds of shots from the Colours show here, so the page could take some time to load. Well worth a look though, as Joe Dever has captured the feel of the show perfectly.

The High Elven lines

The Dark Elves assault

The Dark Elf advance is slowed by withering fire

The Dark Elf attack is disrupted

Some Dark Elf success at the Southern end of the line. It was short lived and the High Elven counterattack devastated the Dark Elven elite units.

Some Dark Elf progress