“The sMG34 Heavy Machine-Guns…”

“…Form a base of fire for the infantry to operate around.”

These three plastic 15mm miniatures are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s Code GE784 sMG34 Machine-gun Platoon blister for “Flames Of War”. The models consist of a choice of two different Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO), a Machine-gunner, Reloader and the “German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun” itself.

Unlike my other “FoW” German soldiers however, the NCO was the only model I initially super-glued onto a wooden strip, as it appeared obvious that both the other two infantrymen would need to be firmly fixed in position upon their actual medium-sized base before I primed them all in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. With hindsight this was a particularly good call, as the tiny weapon was actually rather fiddly to attach to the figures surrounding it, and in the end I actually needed to snip away some of the ammunition feed so as to allow the Reloader to lie upon the ground in a somewhat angular position without his feet jutting off the end – something which would have really annoyed me.

"Battletech" WIPs - This Jenner and Elementals are having their details 'picked out'

All three of the models were then shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were later ‘picked out’ predominantly using “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Gunmetal, Buff, German Camouflage Dark Green, Heavy Brown and a series of “Citadel” Shades. Lastly, I pigmented the sMG34 Machine-Gun using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

With the first of the four sMG34 Machine-gun teams I require for my German Beach Defence Company completed, I have also made some additional progress on the “Battletech” 1:285 scale plastic Jenner by “Catalyst Game Labs” I intend to use as a Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL) class Polish War Walker. Ideally, I’d like to have Poland be able to ‘field’ more than one of the Weird War Two walkers, but until I find a suitable source for single miniatures (or at least one who isn’t charging almost as much as a full 5-figure box for just the one figure) the Mech will simply be joined on the tabletop by some Element battlesuits.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - These Line Infantrymen have been primed and had their trousers base-coated

In addition, I have made a tentative start on the first strip of ten Napoleonic British line infantry I recently pre-ordered from “Warlord Games”. Having previously practiced on several of the Nottingham-based company’s 15mm plastic American Civil War miniatures, I am optimistically hoping to get approximately three hundred of “Noseys' men” finished during the next year, alongside some cavalry and cannon.

For this month though I am simply focusing upon how far I can go if I allocate twenty-four hours of my precious hobby-time to their batch-painting, so I can subsequently calculate just how much of a commitment such a large-scale project will be. Currently, I’ve only spent a mere twenty minutes applying my brush-tip to the Second Regiment of Foot (The Queen’s Royal), but have got them primed and the base layer of their trousers down…