World War 2 - 15mm Project - Part 1 - British Airborne

Despite my best intentions of finishing off my Epic project which has just the Orks left to do, and getting back to painting 6mm stuff in general, I find myself ankle deep in 15mm WWII mini's!

Having been recently introduced to Bolt Action which for all its faults is still a great game(with the emphasis firmly on game), especially for club nights, I took the plunge and bought myself a small(ish) British Airborne force and late war German force, and having painted these troops in both 20mm and 6mm previously I knew I could get through them fairly quickly.

I ended up with roughly 90 mini's and a few jeeps for the British, bought from three different company's, first up was:

Battlefront

Having never purchased Battlefront stuff before but knowing they are the big boys of 15mm WW2, I thought I couldn't go wrong starting with them, plus they have probably the largest range of stuff available, I was wrong!

I have been very disappointed with the infantry that I have painted up so far, the minis needed quite a bit of tidying up, two fell apart whilst cleaning them! Many had lost so much detail that It was hard to tell what bit of webbing was what for e.g, it seemed to me like the molds that this particular batch were cast from were old/worn, despite this(and that the poses are quite dull) they look Ok now that they're painted. I'll put this down to simple bad luck in receiving an old batch (I didn't buy from BF direct).

 I was also given a few plastic infantry and they are really nicely sculpted/cast and also slightly slimmer/better proportioned. finally I also obtained some plastic German vehicles and must say that for plastic kits(which I'm not a fan of) they were a pleasure to put together. In future I would probably stick to BF's plastic's range rather than their metal stuff.

Next up was:

Forged in Battle

From which I bought British Airborne platoon, and was very pleased! good value for money, nicely sculpted/posed and proportioned minis with little cleaning up required, and though they are slightly slimmer than the BF metal stuff they still work together quite well.

Finally and as I needed just a few specialist types to round out my armies, I went to:

Peter Pig

Primarily as I could buy small packs rather than full platoons which neither of the two aforementioned company's offer.

In hindsight I wish I had gone here first, as in my opinion these are the best of the 3, great value, really nice and varied poses, a wide selection, and most importantly very nicely sculpted and cast(no cleaning required whatsoever). They also fit with both other companies(size-wise) being more in line with FB. In fact they were so good that I ordered more even though I didn't really need them, thus ending up with around 90 minis rather than the 30-40 I had intended.

Onto the minis than,  I have labelled then going from left to right as either, BF(Battlefront), FB(Forged in Battle) or PP(Peter Pig) for those who like to see comparison pictures.

Company Command(PP, BF, BF)

1st Platoon Command(BF, PP, PP)

PIAT Team 1 ( both PP)

F/O (BF)

Medic(FB)

Light Mortar Team (FB)

 

Sniper Team(FB) 

MMG1 (PP)

Med. Mortar Team 1 (all PP)

6 pounder (all PP)

Jeep for towing the gun (PP)

Recon Jeeps(PP)

Some objective "counters" (BF)

1st Platoon,  1st Section, (back row all FB, front row all PP apart from loader - FB)

2nd Section (back row all FB, front row 1st from the left FB, all the rest PP)

 3rd Section, (back row FB, FB PP, front row FB, FB, BF, BF)

Onto the 2nd Platoon, which I based more rurally than the 1st to help differentiate then slightly.

2nd Platoon Command (FB, PP)

PIAT team No.2 (PP)

2nd MMG team (PP)

2nd Medium Mortar team (PP)

2nd Platoon, 1st Section ( all FB apart from the 3 prone men at the front which are PP)

 2nd Section(all FB)

3rd Section(all FB)

and finally a few more objective counters(BF)

Well that's them done, adds up to just over 2000pts for Bolt Action, though I can also use the for Rules of Engagement, which works well with 15mm minis with no adjustments, and Chain of Command, both games are probably better simulations than Bolt Action but time constraints mean Bolt Action is likely to see more table time.

I am now starting on a similar sized force of late war Germans, and the inevitable additional scenery I will require!

To finish, here are a few pictures of the 3 Germans I have had a test run at so far(all from BF)

Prohibition Era - 15mm Project - (IV) - Some Buildings

Still trying to finish off projects here, so this is the temporary conclusion to this project, as I have enough miniatures and vehicles(at least for now) So, onto some scenery, and here are the few buildings I have that sort-of suit the period, most are card stock and un-enterable which I am not happy about nor I am too happy as to how the brownstone paint job turned out, I really expected the card/MDF to soak up some of the colour and lighten the brown out a little, as you can see it didn't, so at some stage I'll have to do something about them.

I will also add at least 6 more enterable multi-storey buildings and I already have my eye on some that I hope will suit. As you can gather I am not too happy with the scenery set up for this project at the moment, but at least I have a few building to have a bit of a shoot out around:

 

6mm Fantasy Project (8) - (More Pocketquest heroes and some Bits n Bobs)

I have been busy of late with my latest sideline project(more on this in a later post), but in between that I have been trying to finish off a few smaller projects, one of which is my 6mm fantasy stuff, so here are my latest batch, just one more group of about 20 minis to do, but I ran out of putty for the bases:

Perfect 6, rats and spiders:

Baccus, Rapier & Baccus, heroes:

Baccus and H&R, heroes:

Baccus and Irregular, heroes:

Perfect 6, troll and orc:

Baccus, goblins:

Baccus, Elf command:

Perfect 6, pigs and farmer:

A few more heroes and villains including my rapier miniatures Medusa and Minotaurs and this project will be complete, well at least until I get hold of some more characterful minis.

Blood Bowl (II) - Orc & Goblin Team

Following on from my last Blood Bowl post,  here is the Orc and Goblin team consisting of both 2nd and 3rd edition minis, which considering it was thrown together from spare minis doesn't look to bad, I did convert the plastic Orcs slightly with the addition of a few spikes and re-positioning some of the arms:

And the now obligatory sideline staff/counters:

and I have painted up one of the new editions Orc's:

And a couple of star players:

I am currently finishing of some 15mm buildings for both my gangster and sci-fi colony games, once they're out of the way I plan on quickly painting up my small Epic Cult of Speed army, as I fancy doing something bright and garish. Then on to my latest unplanned distraction which is 15mm bolt Action in which I plan on painting up both a British and German Para platoon.