Saturday, October 9, 2010

Victory Force Minis - Waffen SS Squad - WIP

After about three years, I've finally gotten around to painting up a small unit of Victory Force Miniatures Waffen SS. These guys were sitting in a cabinet collecting dust as I had lost interest in the period. However, after a recent Disposable Heroes game, my interest has been rekindled. I'd never painted SS camo before, but with the abundance of tutorials available, it was a just a matter of finding one that worked for me.

Here's the HMG team - the leader and gunner were painted wearing fall oak leaf pattern smocks, and the loader in spring oak leaf pattern (or at least my attempt at them). Only three colors were used for each pattern.
The next figures are in various patterns of camo - the guy with the panzerfaust wears a smock in pea dot pattern; the center guy (who time-traveled to snag an AK-47) has a jacket made from Italian camouflage cloth; and the guy with the MP43 has a fall oak leaf pattern smock and pea dot trousers.
For the oak leaf and pea dot patterns the Flames of War and SGT Perry tutorials were used. Both are very good and quite simple to follow. I managed to pull off the Italian one by looking at pictures of the pattern on the internet - the pattern is pretty bold and simplified.

I now feel pretty comfortable with these patterns; which is good as I ordered several more Victory Force figures (thanks to a 45% sale this weekend due to James Bland's 45th birthday). I ordered some panzerschreck guys - much needed as they have twice the range of panzerfaust (according to Disposable Heroes' rules, that is).

UPDATE: Just need to finish the flocking of the bases.
Check out this late-war MG42 gunner - although a black and white photo, the pea dot pattern can clearly be seen:
Oh, and the VSF airship is slowly coming along. I decided to leave the top deck on as it would save me the trouble of building up the top portion it sits on. The starboard side has some plasticard added - these will be sanded down and Green Stuff added to make it follow the original lines of the ship.

6 comments:

  1. Yep,painting German camouflage is a painters challenge,but if you have the patience it can be fun to do.I've done the oak leaf and pea dot in 15mm,but not yet in 28mm.
    Another fun one is splinter and marsh pattern which is even more difficult and this I have done in both 15mm and 28mm.
    Disposable Hero's is a great set of rules and I'm currently collecting all the Iron Ivan rule sets.
    Nice mini's btw and really love the air ship as I can see where that is going.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  2. gReat job on the camo.... Ak47? I don't think they came out yet at this period, also who's the manufacturer?

    Aaron

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  3. Thanks, Gents.

    Aaron: Good catch - that AK-47 is actually the sculptor's (James Bland of VFM) poke at humor, and a test for fellow gamers to catch it during a game. Regards, Dean

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  4. About the airship, I have one and took the easy way out. I repainted it and drilled a hole in the bottom, Then used a piece of threaded rod to make a base. Yours will look much better than mine.

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  5. The pictures don't do the figures justice! I saw them in-person when I swung by Dean's yesterday.

    Ted

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  6. The AK-ish weapon could be an STG-44? I can't tell from the picture though.

    Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the STG-44:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stg_44

    Nice painting, love the airship as well.

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