28mm US Airborne from Artizan Designs

 All,

Yes, the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, or something to that effect...  I can't even remember the last time I played a game and posted it; I could look it up to know exactly, but let's just call it a couple years.  In the past couple years I've played a few games by myself, trying out new rules or new setups, but was hasn't happy with them, and I've played a couple games with my boys but didn't take any photos, so I decided not to post anything.

Most of my time has been spent painting and, once again, I've been painting like a madman.  As you can see, once again, I've jumped head first into a new scale...  28mm this time.  It started as a dabble.  I set up a 15mm skirmish game with some WWII US Marines, and I just got to staring at it and thinking "ya know, most folks skirmish in larger scales," and I was looking online and they just looked so cool, and Warlord Games had come out with these plastic 28mm multi-pose troops that looked pretty cool, so I sprung for some 28mm US Marines and Japanese.  As usual with me, once I started I couldn't stop and now I have completed or own and am working on:
-US Marines for Guadalcanal (w/Springfields)
-US Marines for the rest of the war (M-1 Garands and camo helmet covers)
-US Army for ETO
-US Army in the snow
-US 101st Airborne
-US 82nd Airborne
-Japanese Army
-Japanese SNLF
-German Early War Wehrmacht
-German Early War Fallschirmjager
-German Early War SS
-German Wehrmacht in the snow
-German ETO FJ
-German mid/late-war SS
-German Afrika Korps
-German FJ for Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy
-German Hermann Goering Division for Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy
-Brit Army (late war, but with a few 'specials' to make them fit/look BEF as well)
-Brit Airborne
-Brit 8th Army
-Brits for Italy
-Brit Commandos for ETO
-Italians for North Africa
-Soviet Army
-Soviet Army in the snow

Along with a boatload of vehicles and terrain to support all of it.

Then I got into Ultramodern stuff, with some Black Powder Red Earth 28mm figures for good guys (PMCs) and bad guys (ISIS, Russians, Chinese).

Then I got into Vietnam, with US Marines, US Army, MACV/LRRPs types, ARVN, Viet Cong, and NVA.

I'll post all that as I get to it, can't promise when it will be, but most of the stuff listed is actually finished, just need to photograph it.  Which brings me to the point of this post; I wasn't really ready to post and tell the world about my adventure into 28mm stuff, but I figured I owed it to Mr. Nick from North Star Military Figures.  

Nick has been absolutely fantastic!  I'm a bit picky when trying to put forces together; North Star Military Figures (https://www.northstarfigures.com/).  I'm huge into WWII, of course, and his lines of figures from Artizan Designs and Crusader are excellent.  He's got an option for a platoon deal and I've made the most of that (four times now, already looking at another two or three!), and he's been extraordinarily gracious in working with me to get exactly the poses/figures I want and so I figured I owed him to spread the good word, let everyone know how great his products are and how great he's been in helping me out.

So, without further adieu, let me show you the platoon I've completed.

A platoon of troops to represent the 82nd Airborne, all from Nick's Artizan Designs figures.  They're metal, nice and chunky, great sculpting, great detail, great proportions, and great variety of poses.

Let me ask for forgiveness right up front; I'm going to throw pictures of groups of figures in here, but I don't exactly recall which figures came from what packs, so please bear with me.  In any case, this first group is a bunch of leader types.  Let me show you some closeups.

A couple dudes with M-1 Carbines and no helmets, I think from a 'characters' pack.

Please note that all paintjobs are using the new Contrast paints which, in my opinion, make me look like a much better painter then I actually am ;)

The other side.

Next set; I think the two on right are more 'characters' and the one on the left is 'pathfinder.'  Look at those sculpts, nice and hefty, great proportions, very dynamic and evocative.

Reverse.  I'm happy how the decals turned out, though you'll see I only put enlisted rank insignia (chevrons) on the right arms as there simply wasn't room on the left arms with the divisional patches.

Some super cool looking leader-types with Tommy Guns.

And their backsides.

Another character (left), and two that I labeled as officers (you can see the Captain's railroad tracks on th helmet at center and the Lieutenant's bar on the guy at right), I think from the M-1 Carbines pack.

Another look.

A bunch more guys with submachine guns (all M-1 Thompsons except the dude at far top right, which has an M-3 "Grease Gun").

I don't recall the packs on these guys, my apologies.  Guy on left (stocking cap and talking on walkie-talkie) might have been from a gun or mortar crew?  Guy on right might have been from the pathfinders.

Other side.

A pair of Tommy Gunners.  Love the pose, though the magazine may be just a *tad* short.

Next pose, looks like he just hopped up and is scanning for threats.  Cool pose, but I'll always prefer the netted/scrimmed helmets ;)

Reverse.

Next pose, advancing.

A bunch of riflemen with M-1 Garands, from a number of different packs.

Pretty cool pose at left, not sure my pics do them justice, but it's a dude that's been hit in the head (now bandaged) moving up, with two buddies.

Other side.

Two good looking fellas looking for trouble.

Reverse.

Two dudes taking a knee, one with Mohawk.

Reverse.  Those decals are nice and clear.  I believe they were from Company B (not real happy with the Warlord ones...).

Three more solid poses.

Reverse.

Three more, variation on a theme.

Flip side.

Some headquarters types; a sniper at far left, a medic with casualty, a dude with a carbine carrying a bag (I figure I can use him as a Comms guy or Engineer, as needed by the scenario), and another medic on the move.

Sorry, not a great photo, but the sniper on the left and the comms guy/engineer on the right (I gave him the Tech-5 stripes, super cool!).

Other side.

The two docs and their patient.

Reverse.

A buncha guys with M-1 Carbines.

First set.  I was thinking that all the guys with ropes (you can see on the guy at left, under his arm) were from the pathfinder set, but this makes me think not as I'm pretty sure these guys are from the Carbines pack).

Next set.  Good looking dudes with packs, nets, and bandage pouches on their helmets.

Next set, couple dudes at port arms.

Then some BARs.  All the helmeted guys are from the BAR pack, I think the bareheaded guy is from the pathfinders?

First two automatic riflemen.  Nice and crisp detail.

Other side.

And the other three BAR men.

Reverse.

The bazookas.  I'm missing one of the assistant gunners, he's around here in one of the other photos. 

Reverse.

Two machine gun teams, one moving and one set up for firing.

The moving team has an M-1919A4 Browning.

Reverse.

And the gun team in action, these guys with an M-1919A6 Browning.

Again.  My MG teams are usually going to look kinda dumb because I always base them separately because I like to play skirmish games where 1 man = 1 man, so I don't like to multi-base them as then you have to use a marker when someone gets hit, rather than simply remove the figure.

One more time.

A 60mm mortar team.

Again.

Some gun crew guys (for use with either a 57mm ATG or 75mm pack howitzer).  I think one of these guys is actually the other assistant for the bazookas...

A closeup of one of the pairs.

Reverse.

And the last two guys in my US 82nd Airborne force.

And their backsides.

Well, I hope you like them, I'm certainly super happy with them, and they painted up quick and easy:
-Prime with light gray spray
-Uniform, bandages, and base - Skeleton Horde
-Web gear and packs - Militarum Green
-Pistol holsters, leather chin straps, and wooden furniture on weapons - Gore Grunta Fur
-Boots - Wyldwood
-Netted Helmets - Creed Camo
-Plain Metal Helmets - These are actually not contrast; I painted them with an acrylic OD green
-Scrim and sock hats - I painted an acrylic dark gray on it then used Aggros Dunes
-Faces and hands - Gulliman Flesh
-Metal - Basilicum Gray, though I went over it with an acrylic silver and gave a dark Army Painter wash
-Cannon rounds - These aren't Contrast either; acrylic black then back over it with acrylic gold
-Rope - Aggros Dunes

Regarding basing, I clean my metal models then stick them on Warlord 25mm bases with e6000 glue.  Then I slather on Vallejo basing paste and let it dry before priming the whole thing.  When I'm done painting the dude and everything is dry I grab my static grass, paint on some Skeleton Horde where I want grass to be, drop him in the tub of static grass (base down, finger on top of his helmet to hold him upright), shake him around a bit to get plenty of grass on, then tip him over and flick the bottom of the base to get rid of the excess static grass (back in the tub) and get it to stand up.  Then I spray them all down with Winsor and Newton matt varnish.  No one has ever asked me how I do all that, but I figure maybe someone would be interested and if I can make their life a little easier, then cool.

I will see if I can start photographing and posting the rest of my 28mm forces, but I'm still painting, so bear with me.  Hopefully someday I'll get back into playing with them (I'm dying to, just feel like I want to finish up painting first, but fearful I'll never actually finish up painting)...

In any case, these figures from Nick at North Star are fantastic and I owe him a debt of gratitude for all he did to make sure a picky wargamer got exactly what he wanted.  Thanks again to him.

V/R,
Jack