2 IDF infantry platoons

This week I finally finished my 2nd IDF infantry platoon, for 15mm-scale Crossfire. All the figures are from Peter Pig's AK-47 Range.  These represent a force of the Golani Brigade - the 1st platoon (on the right) is intended to be a mechanised infantry platoon, armed with Galil assault rifles.  I've posted photos of them with their M113 APCs previously.  The 2nd platoon (on the left) are intended as Sayeret Golani (the brigade's elite recon), armed with a mixture of Galils, M16s, & AK-47s.  In the background is an attached squad of combat engineers (centre), 3 sniper teams (left), & a .50cal HMG team, Military Working Dog team, & Forward Observer (right).  Looking forward to getting these on the tabletop battlefield!

Palm grove

This week I put together & painted a palm grove for 15mm-scale 'Lebanon 1982' Crossfire gaming.  Same recipe as the Lebanese woodland in my last post - laser-cut MDF area & disc bases from Fenris Games, textured with sand, painted, & detailed with Gale Force Nine static grass & flock, plus some tiny stones.  These soft plastic trees are less realistic that the deciduous ones in my previous post, but I think they look alright for gaming purposes, & are nice & durable.

These palm trees could also be used with my 'Day of the Rangers' Somalia figures, once I finish rebasing them from Force on Force to Crossfire.

I had some trees left over from making these terrain areas, so I also made a few stand-alone trees.  These won't have any in-game effect, they will just be dotted about to enhance the tabletop battlefield.

Lebanese woodland

This weekend I put together these three sections of woodland for 15mm-scale Crossfire, based on photos of trees in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.  The trees are mounted on various sized laser-cut MDF discs from Fenris Games, so that they can be removed from the base (which denotes the actual extent of the terrain effect - also from Fenris Games) to allow easy fireteam placement.

I've included a stand of IDF infantry in these photos for scale.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out.  The trees are cheap Chinese imports from various manufacturers.  The bases were textured with ready-mix paint-thickener before being coated in sand using PVA.  I added some Gale Force Nine static grass & meadow flock to the bases, along with the classic lichen clumps for scrub. The rocks are just tiny stones that I've painted.  I went a bit far & actually painted some of the large sand grains & shell chips on the bases as 15mm-scale stones... :-s

Mercedes Benz cars

This weekend I painted a couple 15mm-scale retro Mercedes Benz cars for Crossfire.  These will be nice little scenery pieces to add some detail to my Middle East & African tabletops.  The black & maroon cars are 5-piece metal models (car body + wheels), & the wrecked car is a single-piece resin cast (which I painted a while back); all from the excellent Peter Pig.

I'll be buying a couple more of these, & maybe leaving the wheels off one to paint as a rusty/ burnt-out wreck.  The centre of the wheels  left off this wreck could be drilled-out to make a little stack of tyres to enhance a scenery piece.

I've just noticed that I forgot to paint the number plates of these cars. Doh!

Russian village barn

I'd hoped to have more than this to post by today, but I prefer to present finished things.  I have a load of 28mm-scale Russian Civil War stuff in progress, including a platoon of White Guards, & a laser-cut ply village - but all of that is still in progress on my work desk...  So for now, here's the first of the laser-cut buildings: a small barn.  This is made by Sarissa Precision.  Their buildings come in unpainted flat sheets, but the parts are simple to press-out, & they fit together perfectly.  They have removable roofs too.  The assembly instructions are clear & straightforward.  I'll add some fake straw to the floor of this barn once I get some.

Chain of Command markers - Whites

I fancied something simple to paint this weekend, so I made this set of markers for Chain of Command, themed for my RCW 'White' platoon with the Russian national flag.  The six large markers are Patrol markers for use in the pre-battle Patrol Phase, which establishes the position of the smaller Jump Off (deployment) points of the opposing armies.  The markers are laser-cut ply discs from Fenris Games.

I considered making scenic Jump Off points as many gamers do, but they would be time-consuming to produce (when I already have far too many miniatures projects on the go), & I think having the markers as flags will still bring a bit of flavour to the tabletop.  I considered printing flags & cutting them to fit the discs, but reasoned that it would be just as quick to hand-paint them, since the design is so straightforward.

Hospital zombies

This week I painted up some 15mm-scale hospital-themed zombies.  The miniatures are from the Rebel Minis Zombie Pack #4: Hospital.  They are mounted on 1p coins.  The ambulance in the background is a Corgi die-cast toy, & was featured in a previous post about a paramedic & stretcher that I painted.

I like to go for authenticity, so I did a bit of research into appropriate colour schemes, & as my zombie collection is themed for the UK, I painted these six patients in standard NHS smocks, & the medical personnel as a staff nurse (pale blue scrubs) & a pair of doctors in surgical scrubs (turquoise).  I went for a medium-blue wash on the white patient smocks before highlighting the folds, to represent the blue dot or line patterning that tends to feature on these in real life.  I'm quite pleased with how these came out, especially given the tiny size of these figures.  My favourite part of zombie-painting is always the finishing dabs of gloss varnish on that gore!

IDF reinforcements

Here is the first batch of new reinforcements for my 15mm-scale 1980s IDF force - a couple more sniper teams, a Forward Observer (FO), a .50cal HMG team, & a Military Working Dog (MWD) team.  The FO will be handy for allowing the use of off-table artillery/air strikes.  I drilled into the figure's radio pack to insert a tiny section of wire as an aerial, to help him stand-out more on the tabletop.  As this was a success, I'll be doing the same thing to the existing RTOs on my commander bases. As Crossfire rules for MWD teams, I'm considering something like their presence automatically prevents friendly figures being ambushed when they enter a terrain feature containing Hidden enemies.  They could also confer a +1 bonus in assaults.  Not sure about allowing them a chance of detecting minefields/IEDs - MWDs probably aren't so good at this in a full-on combat situation.

All the figures are from Peter Pig's excellent AK-47 Republic range.

Paint it Black

Bit of a shot in the dark here, but just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem with black paint that I am experiencing:

A few years back I finally switched from Citadel Colour paints to Game Colour.  I was very satisfied with the quality, no problems.  But the second pot of GC black that I bought dried with a glossy sheen.  I ensured that I was shaking it up well to mix it, but this issue persisted.  Thinking that I may have got a duff batch, I've bought another pot, but this has the same problem.  I'm considering trying a different brand for my black paint, but just asking here in case anyone has any tips to solve this?  Cheers for any suggestions!