Some Pegasus SS & a stalwart sarge

Since my last post I have enjoyed a visit to the Red Rajah's where amongst other things we played a game of Napoleonic skirmish using paper figures from his collection and the Songs of Drums & Shakos rules. It was a near run thing, but in the end my my British line copped it from his French Voltiguers- still at least my riflemen took a couple down and beat a hasty retreat to fight another day.
The Kellys Heroes figures I ordered from Grubby Tanks arrived during the week and look most excellent. Andrew Grubb was most helpful and efficient. I have started getting them ready for painting and in the weeks to come hope to post the finished product on the blog.
As mentioned in my last post I have been working on the Pegasus SS set # 2. I found these figures to be a bit fiddly to glue together and quite challenging to paint. The figures are of a slimmer build than some makes of 1/72 and are highly detailed with most of them having separate spades which must be glued on, in addition to arms and other body parts. They do look nice when finished but have taken me considerably longer to complete when assembly time is taken into account- plus I'm not exactly a speed painter. I have put some shots of what I've done so far below. I have also included an Italeri British sarge which I had on the go at the same time, just for fun.
Thanks for everyone's support and encouragement. I have especially appreciated the inspiration I have had from Ben Fiene's blog  and Dan Dunbar's blog .

The stalwart sarge sends the SS running away 

Running this way...

and running that way!

The sarge and his tommy gun.

Fallschirmjagers Part Two

I have completed some more of my Fallschirmjagers, this time quite a few of them have the Lufftwaffe Blue coats on. I've done a bit of chopping and changing again, taking a FJ head, the one with goggles on his helmet, and sticking it on a Revell German body using pin & glue method. I have also chopped quite a bit off a kneeling bloke with binoculars and stuck him in a shallow foxhole- the foxhole is a metal one out of a Command Decision 15mm FJ bag- he just fits in there.
Work has begun on the Pegasus SS set #2, however I am finding having to glue that soft sort of plastic a bit of a drag. The figures are nicely animated but fiddly- I should have resisted and picked up the Caesar Germans instead. I don't think I can bring myself to do peadot on them all, maybe spring Oak Leaf?
I have further increased my stocks of Vallejo paints with another order to Maelstrom Games, and am trialing the Vallejo Matt Varnish on some figures. I also placed a small order with Grubby Tanks for some splendid looking metal British to supplement my plastics- there's even a stretcher bearer team.

As always your comments & questions are welcome. Oh yeah, and thanks to all who have visited and bumped the blog over the 10,000 mark :) Enjoy.

Italeri Fallschirmjagers plus my first 1/72 peadot camo

I seem to have been distracted by Germans and have been painting up the Italeri Fallschirmjagers as seen on Plastic Soldier Review here. This is not a bad set and seems perfectly suitable for NW Europe in '44, I will probably mix them in with other Germans to form a kampfgruppe. I also recently purchased the Pegasus Waffen SS set 2, as seen here. The SS are a bit smaller than the Italeri, but look a good match for my Revell Germans. The Italeri FJs have some problems with some of their weapons and occassionaly the sculpting isn't as clear as it could be, but there is a reasonable mix of poses and styles of uniform including the Lufftwaffe style shirt & the camo smock, helmets & field caps.
I have included some pictures of my first attempt at peadot camo in 1/72. I have gone for a fairly high contrast in the camo scheme which seems to look ok. The figure I used is from the Revell set with a head swap from the PSC British infantry set, just for fun.
I have some more Germans on the painting table, so stay tune for more Jerries.
The Panther seen in some of the photos is a pre-painted model, probably from Dragon, stuck that in there for interest.
Your comments are welcome.

Revell German, Before...

And After- with PSC Head!

These figures are painted using a pale grey undercoat, Vallejo & Derivan Minis colours for the paintjob, with Vallejo, Citadel & P3 washes, plus on some areas a Derivan Paynes Grey filter/wash. These particular figures have not been varnished yet. They are based on metal washers with sand , pva & static flock. I use about four different earthy tube acrylic clours for the bases.

Third Installment of Plastic Brits...

More British completed, this time a radio team and a sniper, both from PSC are in the mix. Once again you can spot three different manufacturers in the photos- PSC, Italeri & Revell.

I was quite pleased with how the radio team and the sniper turned out. I added cotton thread for the transmitter & receiver cables and fishing line for the aerial on the radio pack. The sniper paintjob is based on reference material in The World War II Tommy by Martin Brayley- this is one of my favourite books.

I'm still not happy with the Matt finish that I've been trying to get- any suggestions for best matt varnish that I could apply with a brush? I have been using a coat of satin followed by a coat of Derivan Matt Varnish.

Enjoy the pictures, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Two Italeri Figs, plus PSC kneeling.

Bloke in front is Revell other two PSC