All,
Trying to keep a good thing going, so another week, another post, again showing off more of my headlong dive into 28mm, and again focusing on the stuff I got from Nick Eyre at North Star. I already had British infantry for Northwest Europe and 8th Army-types for North Africa, but I wanted some guys with a specific look for British infantry in Italy (or at least my impression of them). To elaborate, I didn't want dudes in normal battledress and I didn't want dudes in the desert shorts, I wanted sleeves rolled up and pants unbloused. I saw some figures of interest on the Artizan Designs so I reached out to Nick and he did me a great favor putting together a platoon deal with exactly the figures I was looking for. The pics below represent the fruit of those labors ;)
The whole mess. Enough guys for a full rifle platoon plus maybe another section, and an MG and mortar team, all ready to go whooping Nazi butt up the boot of Italy. I'm sure my paintjobs are not historically accurate, but they're painted exactly the way I wanted them to look in my mind's eye. What I'm shooting for is a group of guys that have been in the fight for years, against the Italians in the Western Desert in 1940, then the Germans, all the way into ejecting the Axis from the continent in Tunisia, then on to Sicily, and now Italy proper. Once again I used Contrast paints, so the uniforms are a mix of Aggros Dunes over light gray, Aggros Dunes over dark gray, and Skeleton Horde, to give me a nice (at least, I think so) mix of veteran uniforms.
The first batch of six riflemen, firing from the off-hand position with bayonets attached. I show the group so you can see the mix of helmet, shirt, and trouser colors.
A close up of two of the lads.
And their backsides. As always, great poses, proportions (I like'em chunky!), gear, and weapons. These guys show exactly what I was talking about with unbloused trousers (no gaiters) and rolled sleeves.
The next batch of riflemen, at the ready/low port carry.
Another closeup. These guys appear to be wearing some sort of pullover (no buttons down the front).
Reverse.
Third group of riflemen, rifle crossbody, moving up.
Closeup. These bayonets are not for the weak, they can do just as much damage as the real thing! You'll be bleeding out before you manage to snap off one of these bad boys.
I love the gear, the packs and bivvy sacks, canteens, some guys have entrenching tools.
Last group of riflemen, moving up with rifle in hand.
Close up. That's the face of a grunt, punting a hump in his back...
Reverse.
A couple Bren assistants (far left) and a group of riflemen from the SAS/Commandos range, which I intend on using as very salty/seasoned low-ranking riflemen (Lance Corporals?).
A closeup of the two Bren A-gunners.
Closeup of two of the commando-types. These guys are great sculpts, loads of character.
Reverse.
Look at that mug! And look at that damned static grass I got stuck on his forehead and rifle, that I just now noticed as I'm posting the photos...
The other two commando-types.
Reverse.
The platoon's leadership.
Starting with the Leftenant and his Platoon Sergeant (both are mustachioed, but the Sergeant's is better, of course). The Lootenat is sporting a revolver (presumably a Webley), but it looks pretty damn big, like Dirty Harry's hand cannon!
Reverse.
A closer look at the two men who hold the lives of so many in the palms of their hands.
I love how the Looey has his service weapon dummy-corded to him (don't misunderstand, I actually mean that, not making fun of him, we always had a lanyard on our pistols, and when we were deployed to areas with dense foliage we'd have everything dummy-corded to us. It wasn't uncommon to come out of bustin' brush with both canteens, your compass, hell, everything, dragging behind you on their 550 cord, cammies soaking wet and torn to shreds...
A couple Corporals/Section Leaders. Same pose, but left-hand is from the Commando pack and right is from the 8th Army pack, so beret vs helmet. Wasn't completely sure what to do about berets in 'regular' line infantry units; pics I found showed them to be that olive drab color, so that's what I went with.
Reverse.
Closeup, with that very non-regulation facial hair! ;)
Two more Corporals. The guy at left is from the Commando pack, while the guy at right is actually the team leader for the Vickers MG team.
Reverse.
Not only does he have a great mustache and square jaw, he's also got an M-1928 Thompson SMG with a drum (hopefully you can make that out)!
The platoon's heavy weapons: 3 x Brens, a PIAT, and a 2" mortar.
Two Brens from the 8th Army pack.
Reverse.
And a third from the Commando pack.
Reverse.
The PIAT gunner and 2" mortarman are from the Royal Marines pack; so they've got gaiters on and long sleeve shirts not rolled up, but I painted them up like the rest of my guys to help them fit in.
Reverse. The poor guy's having to hump the gun and the rounds by himself!
The 2" mortarman, on the move.
A handsome gent. Hopefully you can see the slight greenish tinge on the pouches and webbing, which I did to try and make it stand out from the uniforms.
Reverse. He's got one of them new-fangled Sten guns!
Two other Royal Marine-types; one is a Comms guy with radio, the other is an officer hoping an NCO will come over to help him make sense of his map...
Reverse. Those Royal Marines sure love their ropes.
Dammit, Corporal, you tell me where I'm at, right now!
Close up of the radio man, you can see he's got his ears on.
The Vickers machine gun team (minus the team leader, which I showed above). Yeah, I'm goofy, I put the guys on separate bases because I like to play skirmish games and remove casualties, but leave the gun on a big base so they can all kinda still fit together.
Another look.
Again.
One more.
And one more, without the A-gunner.
The 3" mortar tea.
Again.
Well, I hope you liked them. I am dying to start up a platoon for Platoon Forward, but as Joe pointed out, I really need to be playing with my boys before they're grown and out of the house... Anyway, I continue to paint like a madman, but I'm happy I took enough time away to photo these and post them, and I'll do my best to keep it going.
V/R,
Jack
Very nice Jack, I like the range if colours. It was very common to mix BD and desert kit in Italy. Pullovers were usually a light khaki colour but often knitted and sent from home as well. The issue side cap was replaced later in the war with the General Service Cap, which was essentially a 'beret' made out of BD material, so dark khaki is the right colour for these,outside of units issued proper berets (Commandos, Paras etc).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments, and thanks for the info as well, Martin. You’re always a wealth of information and I appreciate you sharing, and I’m super happy I didn’t bung it up! ;)
DeleteV/R,
Jack
Good stuff as always Jack. Like you, I am also looking forward to you playing a game :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks buddy, and yes, I’m working up to it.
DeleteV/R,
Jack