Take Cover!!!

Summer time Tanks

Freshly spruced up, the German armour rolls out.

Other bases benefit too from a little spicing up.

France in June

Here is the Tank as I left it last year. A bit of Spice...
Summer foliage freshly cut to help hide from Allied eyes. After the PVA glue was dry I painted the spice flock a light green and highlighted with white/yellow.

Details

Tamyia 'smoke' was used to make the effect of spilt oil on the Panzer IV.
I found a wealth of modelling ideas in the 'Flames of War' website and painting guide booklet. Even though the game is for 15mm figures, the supporting material and web site is handy for any scale. They are bringing out even more painting/modelling publications all the time. Their latest covers the German Whermacht, really useful stuff as I have always struggled to find detailed tank colour schemes.
I also used the spices to help camouflage the men. "Who threw that?!"

The thing I love about using spices to flock with is all the different twigs and bits in them. What better to give the illusion of foliage than tiny pieces of dried, chopped leaves.
The mortar shell hole I made out of Milliput has turned out nicely and has secured the way for many others of its kind. The hole was made from left over Milliput and covered with grit. After being dry brushed and flocked It will make a good addition the the battlefield and act as a 'hit' marker.
Having already placed twigs on the bases last year I thought I would try out sticking spices to them to act as leaves. As my forces are meant to be fighting in the Summer (Normandy 1944) I thought the leafy branches would be more accurate.
The spices used were Basil and Mint from Tesco. I find that 'mixed herbs' work great for ground cover like bracken.

It's time to spice up your life

As I try to rally myself on to finish my WWII British Platoon, I thought I would get inspired and spice up a few things. I'm talking about adding some spices to my already finished units to add some foliage detail. Mainly the camo on the tanks, which was looking a little bare before.

With the war over both sides settle down to a friendly game of football.
"Where's the ball?"

The boys in action

I couldn't resist the temptation. I can't wait until the Platoon is completed and I take them out in force, my photoshop skills will be tested to their limits.

Fuss 'n' Feathers

I have yet to add the commander and standard bearer to the unit.

I'm glad to see the back of those guys!

The Kings men

I like this Gentleman and his loyal green coated retainer.
Lets make a few Roundheads roll!

God save the King!

A unit of Royalist horse ride forward.

Join the que! Get in line! Wait your turn!

With every copy of Wargames illustrated my eyes grow bigger, there is so much to choose from these days. It is becoming harder to stick to a chosen theme at the moment.
The English Civil war seems to be dragging me away from my poor old Tommys while on the horizon Phalanx's of Macedonian pikes can be seen. What makes it worse is the fact that many companies are slashing their prices daily, this just adds to the temptation. However, I have made my choices and will stand by them......for now.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (Secundus, Feb 1999).

Time for Tiffin

Where's that Tea?!

To add variety, I added some tea mugs to a few backpacks. Also to disguise the amount of duplicate figures, I stuck clumps of grass to some of their helmets.
These are all Crusader Miniatures, which after a lot of looking around, I thought where the best on the market. The chap with the Thompson is from Bolt-action Miniatures.

Brits Abroad!

I thought it was time to post an up date on my good old Tommys. So here they are, tired and weathered but still hanging in there. I have yet to give them some Company support in the way of vickers machine guns and mortars. However, I have included a few extra sub-machine guns in case they need a little extra fire power in a certain scenario or two.
"Anyone fancy a cup of tea?"

Times are a changing

I see this week that Renegade Miniatures have included all their ranges into their crazy regiment deals. 24 figures for £11.95 I can't quite believe it. I hope this is the start of the great price slide within the industry use little folk have been waiting for. I just wish Bicorn would follow suit.

Royalist Horse

A couple of classic civil war troopers join the throng. Although the Regiment of Horse I am painting is classed as Meduim (buff leather armour only), I intend to add a couple of heavy armoured troopers in there to add variety. To keep with my Royalist theme, I have given one of the troopers a blue doublet under his buff leather coat.

These are Dixon figures mounted on Foundry horses.

Royalist Horse

About eleven years ago I bought two Civil war armies from Dixon. The Infantry are pretty bad but I have to say the cavalry figures are really quite good and have amazing detail on their armour.
The Renegade figures may be cheap but none of them have the classic lobster pot helmets of the Civil war, so I thought I'd enlist some of my old forgotten figures back into service. The Dixon horses were replaced with ECW Foundry ones to improve the look of the unit slightly. I am still waiting for my Renegade army to arrive and couldn't wait to get painting and so had to start.

The Sealed Knot (Britain's foremost re-enactment society for ECW) dress there Cavaliers in blue doublets, buff coats and red sashes so who am I to argue with those who live the life 24/7, mine will follow the same rules. I have also found lots of Ref for Royalist cavalry wearing blue sashes as well as red, after a little research I have concluded that these must belong to Prince Rupert's cavalry forces. I would be interested If anyone out there could help with this matter.
Thanks to films and Victorian paintings our views of the two armies can be split into dashing, fuss and feathers Cavaliers and staunch, bible bashing Round heads, in fact the two armies were pretty much the same in all but the sashes they wore around their waist.