Bolt Action US airborne for Sicily and Normandy (old miniatures)

 Hi guys,

I am still in WW2 mood,  painting some scenery for Sicily 1943 and a platoon of tropical Fallschirmjager for the same theatre. But in the meantime, I took from the box some old painted Bolt Action miniatures like this US Airborne force from Bolt Action, mostly bought back in the day when the game saw the light.

This weekend I took some pictures of my small US force so far. 

It comprises a platoon of US Airborne, a Sherman tank and a 76mm gun.  The first two units are Warlord's and the latter is Artizan.

I recently bought 2 more Shermans and another Airborne platoon, also support weapons like mortar and Bazookas, in order to have the army more playable.

These were painted a looooong time ago, maybe almost a decade or so, but never photographed.

The infantry is not painted up to my today's standard of painting, these were painted using Quickshade splash on technique and then slightly highlighted, but anyway, I will paint another batch at some point, and expand the army.

The army was thought for Normandy, but I will use it for Sicily, although the tank has the wrong painting scheme and is not the exact version of Sherman... but , you know, it's a game :D

Bolt Action Normandy '44: Panzer Hotchkiss H39

 Hi guys,

I am back again, after several weeks of painting holydays, in August I did not paint any 28mm soldier, but I built some model kits, a 1/35 German Midget submarine, 1/700 destroyer Z-25, and finally a 28mm tank, a resin one, by Rubicon Models,  "Panzer" Hotchkiss H39,  a French light tank in captured in laaarge numbers by the Germans in 1940 and then put into service.

As I already have a "completed" German army in Normandy 1944, I like adding new toys for them, and I fell in love with an illustration of an Osprey Campaign book, dealing with the battles around Cherbourg, where a column of Beutepanzers or captured tanks, advanced with some infantry:

In Normandy there were several Panzer brigades armed with obsolete French tanks, which gave initial support to the infantry divisions in the firsts hours and days of the invasion, so I NEEDED at least one of these beauties in my army !

I painted a similar tank (well, a tank hunter) 7.5 cmm Pak 40 auf Geschutzwagen 39 (f) a couple of years ago, you can see it here:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/search/label/Normandy.

Well now lets talk about the model, It comes in resin, super high quality resin, indeed, the best tank model in resin I have ever seen, so highly recommended. The detail is crisp, clean and very accurate in my humble opinion, so I could´nt be happier with my purchase.

The painting was made by primming the model in dark grey with Ammo Mig spray can, and then airbrushed with paints of the same brand; dark yellow modullation paints, and camouflage colours in green and brown.

Then I applied gloss varnish with the airbrush, and applied the decals, just Balkenkreuzes in turret and rear of the tank,  another coat of varnish in order to protect the decals... and then the funny part, the weathering!

-tan filter

-oil dots fading 

-pin washes

-chipped paint in two tones

-streaking grime with enamels

-dust and dirt with enamels

-dust and mud with pigments

-oxide and smoke with pigments

-matt varnish

-grease and oil in enamels (as they are glossy, I applied after the matt varnish, because I wanted them to stand out)

-Graphite to the tracks.

I have not done the base yet, but I will probably do one to match the rest of the army, I hope you like it!

Bolt Action Normandy! German support and Marder

Hi again guys,

Yesterday, I finished painting a 7.5 cmm Pak 40 auf Geschutzwagen 39 (f)... but we will call him Marder from now on haha,  Marder with Pak 40 on an old French tank chasis, the little Hotchkiss H39.  The model itself is Madbob models, a brand who produces uncommon vehicles, like this conversion or Hungarian tanks.  The quality is average, it came only in 2 parts; the gun and the whole chasis with tracks, so i very simplistic design in my opinion, you can choose If you want to use the 105 mm gun or the 75mm. I chose the latter.

I just added a plastic MG 34 and camo net as a "conversion"  The model was painted with AMMO MIG acrilic paints. It is the first time I use them and I am happy with their performance. I have been using Tamiya paints for years... but now I will combine both ranges. I was painted with airbrush, trying to modulate to lights, masking the different camouflages with "Panzer Putty", then I airbrushed satin varnish, put the decals, more varnish and the funny part: Weathering! 

filters, oil fading, pin washes, streaking grime, chipping, dust washes, pigments... you now.

I painted as a tank destroyer of the 21 Panzerdivision in Normandy in June 1944.

and this is the result:

Apart from this little "tank" for Bolt Action I want to show you some support units I painted for my German army in 28mm a few months ago:

MG42 team, 81mm mortar and Pak 40 with crew.

the mortar is from Crusader miniatures ( I believe they are dressed for early war, but I don´t care). MG42 and Pak 42 are from Warlord Games, I really like the sculpts, although the Pak 40 barrel is way to big for my taste... It seems more 88mm than 75mm.

MG 42 team:

Mortar 81mm

Finally, Pak 40 and crew