Up first, a pre-painted 1/35 Can Do German MG team. This brings up my Germans to three MG-42 bases. I'm aiming for four eventually and will probably pick up one more of these sets in the not too distant future.
Two boxes of the much ballyhooed Waterloo 1815 WWI Italians arrived next. First, notice the box art - ordinary helments.
The pictures below could not look more bland (grey figures on a gray-white background - white balance would have been a good thing to use I suppose) but you can at least see the poses. They'll obviously need some cleaning up - almost every helmet has a plume of flash.
Finally, what amounts to my biggest eBay score in awhile - five 1/32 Waffen SS figures (a mix of 3 Britain's, duplicating a set I already have, and two Conte figures).
I usually lose auctions on eBay (foolishly I bid the max I'm willing to pay and I won't increase my bid beyond that) and so I tend to stick to Buy-It-Now offerings, but this time I put in a reasonable bid, and won the whole lot for far less - just $28USD. At less than $6 for a fully painted metal figure, I'm pretty stoked.
I'll also probably never win another auction again.
These join the other five SS figures I already have and will see service against my British paratroopers and my "Big Red One" US infantry in small skirmish games using One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Five Men in Normandy, or Fistful of Lead (which I just picked up in PDF format after reading Reese's recent game report.)
When I'll get any of these on the table is a good question - I'm dying to kick off an OHSW campaign with my TSSD winter Germans and winter Soviets and so that will probably take precedence when the next gaming moment presents itself.
Those Italian troops look nice (after a bit of work with the knife).
ReplyDeleteI still haven't tried FoL though it seems like a nice system - I'll be interested in your thoughts John.
Thanks for the comment Maudlin Jack! I'll share my thoughts once I've gotten them on the table - the play is the thing and all that.
DeleteSome excellent purchases,well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I agonized over each one as I like to maximize the return on my budget!
DeleteThanks for the shout out! Probably too late to mention it, but I use the Core Rules from Fistful of Lead.
ReplyDeleteThose prepainted Can Do figures look very nice. How much do those usually run?
I figured as much and that's what I picked up. Some of the variants intrigue me,but I don't have figures for them.
DeleteThe CanDo MG team is around $10-$11 USD on eBay (although some people list them for much more), which isn't unreasonable for two painted figures (some people want as much as a painted Britain or Conte and I can't fathom that). FYI, they are a soft plastic, almost rubber - this isn't an issue for me, but I imagine it makes a difference if you want to re-paint or customize them..
Those Italians do look good. I just wish that someone made cheap Austrians.
ReplyDeleteMe too! With centennial passed I suspect it won’t be anytime soon though.
DeleteTricky place to trim sprue from! (Asking out of ignorance, would,'t German WWI infantry in coal scuttle helmets serve as Austrians? or perhaps Alpine infantry or at a pinch Afrika Corps in long pants?
ReplyDeletePre assembled MG can't do better than that!
Hi Ross! That's what I'm doing - using the AiP German in stahlhelms for Austrian sturmtruppen / late war regular infantry (the uniforms/kit aren't an exact match but I'm not worried about that - their marketing of the French figures as Italian infantry is a little more bothersome as most of the figures are wearing a style of long coats that I have not seen in any photo from the Italian front). I think Afrika Corps in long pants would work fine, minus some weapon swaps, and indeed I may go down that road eventually. Still, some inexpensive (compared to the 1/35 options in plastic or the 1/32 option in metal from Irregular)purpose made Austrians would be nice!
DeleteI dunno, I realize you're already headed down the 54mm road, but I find head swaps tricky with anything but hard plastic - even metal can be trouble. Wouldn't it be easier just to do this in 25-42mm? It would be a bit pricier but when you factor in project budgeting, one can always cut back somewhere else, I have found. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteWill be looking forward to seeing more!
Anyway, I haven't heard from you regarding the painting challenge, so wanted to see if you could email me some pics and a progress report for my one month in update. Easiest would be the gmail, which is brasidas19004, and / or I can steal pics from your posts if you give me permission.
There is no doubt the smaller scales would be a better choice, particularly if the focus is early war. Indeed I have quite a few boxes of 1/72 plastic for this period.
DeleteHowever, fortunately for me, I'm planning on doing late war and for that, 54mm will work fine, without any conversions required (well, maybe for an Italian MG team, but we'll see, and those would be hard plastic) - between the AiP Germans in stahlhelms and the Waterloo bersaglieri I'm covered.
Alas there isn't anything painting-wise to report yet. With all of my attention devoted to caring for my late cat, painting was an impossibility.
My output will dramatically increase over the next week or so though and I'll send pics along as soon as there's something to show!