GI Joker's Painting Blog- Gen Con Preview

[xGIxJOKERx]

Hey everyone, I'm back home and I can finally start painting my forces. First up are the Germans. I used Bolt Action and Artizan minis for the Volksstrum so I could save all the cool gas mask guys for the Wehrmacht. The German trooper minis have kind of grown on me the more I look at them but I still think I want to stick to the more straight historical models to add some contrast to the more pulp sci-fi look of the Darkson minis. These guys are pretty much done, they just need to be based and maybe some wood grain for the weapons.
Volksstrum:

Detail on collar and shoulder board:

Volksstrum MG team:

Volksstrum leader:

Wehrmacht:

[Darkson]

Welcome back brother. Glad you made it home. The painting is looking good so far. Looking forward to seeing more DD miniatures painted up. What are you planing on doing with the bases.

[xGIxJOKERx]

Up next are all DD miniatures, a Strumaffe, Emaciated troopers, a Mad Dok and Feuersoldat. They should be up tomorrow some time. Following that are my Americans, all of whom are DD aside from two Artizan Pathfinders that I picked up just because I already had two groups of DD Airborne in that detachment and wanted some variety (that and they have mohawks and so fit in well.) The Bases are going to be dirt with patches of static grass and maybe a bit of gravel.

[xGIxJOKERx]

Germans are all done. I still have some more but for this detachment they are all finished.
First, a group shot:

The Mad Doktor (I know that is a conversion that has been done to death but I like it):


The big ape:

Feuersoldaten (I think that is the plural):

Emaciated troopers from several angles:



I put some flecks of brown on their trousers and boots to make it look like they aren't expected to live long so they just wear the same pants they had on when they were changed into Emaciated Troopers, regardless of how dirty they get. I wouldn't want to be the guy that had to change and clean them.
And some shots of the models I posted before, now finished with bases and eyes, among a few other small improvements:




This is going to be one of two demo detachments, the other being an American Airborne force that I will start working on shortly. I picked this composition because it is just about as many models as you will ever reasonably field, and it has nearly as many experimental units as you can have (short of having two Lab Rat heroes or fielding a Experimental Detachment.) This is all as a contrast to the Americans who only have eleven men and are straight historical (albeit a bit pulp with the inclusion of an OSS agent.) I think it will really show off the flexibility of the game in how you want to build your detachment.

[Cilionelle]

They look fantastic! Look forward to seeing more!

[Scorpio]

Love the amount of detail you pack in, well done.

[xGIxJOKERx]

My American Vet detachment is now all done, with the exception of an OSS Agent I am saving for last. Over all, I am not as happy with these guys as I am about the Germans, I just don't think they came out as nice and I had a hell of a time with the eyes and faces (faces generally being my strong point.) I just couldn't seem to get the NCO to not look like a zombie and to get the right side of the mortar man's face not to look all jacked up. The mortar man's issues may have to do with where I place his arm but who knows. Hopefully the OSS Agent will come out better. On a positive note: I think the hearts on the sides of their helmets (for the five-oh-duce) came out nice so hoary for that. One other note, the lamp I used previously started to smoke after the second picture as it is not rated for the 75 watt bulb I was using for light. As such I had to change to a 40 watt so most of the pictures don't look as good as the ones of the Germans. With out further ado, the Airborne:






This BAR man replaces one of the guys with M1's in my infantry detachment that has 2 BAR's:


I picked the Five-Oh-Duce because I figured most people wouldn't want to have little hearts on the side of their guy's helmets and would go for the 506'th and their spades. What can I say, I like to be different.

Something occurred to me: I'm not sure if Volks Group Leaders are Green or Regular. I still don't have my book. I let a friend borrow it before I was deployed, and he moved while I was gone. He should be mailing it to me this week. Can some one help me out with that? If they are regular I will have to paint up another squad of Volksstrum and drop the Group Leader to make the German list legal.

[cybogoblin]

Those are some seriously sweet Yanks, GI Joker!

[muddypaw]

Nice bunch! I envy you having a force from both sides painted up!

As to the Volkssturm Group Leader, they are Regular, not Green I am afraid

[xGIxJOKERx]

Thanks for all the kind words. Looks like I will be painting three more Germans so keep an eye out for them in the near future. I finished the OSS Agent today. He took just under an hour and a half to finish, base included, and I think he came out pretty good. With him done, my American vets are complete.



I painted him so that the only thing that was issued to him from the Army are his trousers. He is an eccentric millionaire so every thing else is top of the line adventure/ hunting/ safari gear that he bought himself. Also, his pistols are chrome as apposed to the muted gunmetal of the rest of the troops.
Edit:
On second thought, I think I will just drop the Volks squad to upgrade one of the Green selections to Regular so I can take the Volks group leader. I don't want that much infantry running around with only one guy with command.

[Darkson]

The man of Bronze only had the best gear. like em a lot.

[xGIxJOKERx]

Here is some WIP stuff. I've been working on the Precision Model Designs ruined European village kit. For some reason, when I primed it it came out all gooey and did not dry even after several days. The primer was at the end of the can and I actually ran out of primer short of one building. I primed the last one with a new can and it came out fine. Oddly, the tree bases (also from Precision) that I primed at the same time as the first group of buildings with the same can of primer had no issues. I'm not sure what the deal was but I had to wipe all the sludge off and re-prime them. We will see how they came out tomorrow morning. For now I have some shots of the trees, the one building that I was able to paint as well as my next Americans to be painted.


The brave men and women of the 1st Pewter Bn. defend the lone ruined building left on the sports page planes.


My One Man Army:

I used Sgt Graves as a base and added an MG from a Tamiya set. Unfortunately, it was a m1917 so had a big water-cooled cowling around the barrel. I added the barrel from an extra Robot Trooper Thompson and between that and the butt-stock left over it makes a pretty close representation of a m1919A6 which were used by the Airborne.

[xGIxJOKERx]

My game board is all done (mostly.) It is 4 2'x2' plywood squares with dirt and static grass glued on top. The Buildings came out pretty nice but they still have a bit of a tacky feel to them so I don't think they will ever dry completely.







I still have a few odds and ends to add. I bought a Tamiya set of barricades for the sand bags to use for the special order but they also had those metal tank traps so I am putting them together now. I also have a village well on order (one didn't come with the village set for some reason) and some more stone walls from Precision as well as a hay cart that is going to go with a dead horse or something.

[xGIxJOKERx]

Here are some more Americans I finished. I particularly like how the GI bazooka and the Mechanic came out. The Buffalo and robots may be a bit plain but they are pretty historically accurate as to the paint scheme of flat OD green (as much so as Tesla devices can be, at any rate.) I wish I was better at painting glass but oh well, it gets the job done.


more GI's:








I used FOW water-slides for the robots and Buffalo and they came out really nice, the scale is spot-on for them. I also used Micro-Sol and Micro-Set to apply them and it came out pretty good. A dull coat is required after wards, however, as the Micro-Sol makes them really shiny.
I propose a new system for rating mini paint jobs. They will be graded as being 0-1 muddypaw's. The two best of the lot, in my opinion are about a 0.6 muddypaw, while her Brits would be a 1. It is possible to get more than a 1, but it is very rare. A 0.3 is dead average table top quality, minimum 3 colors. What do you think?

[Scorpio]

I propose a new system for rating mini paint jobs. They will be graded as being 0-1 muddypaw's. The two best of the lot, in my opinion are about a 0.6 muddypaw, while her Brits would be a 1. It is possible to get more than a 1, but it is very rare. A 0.3 is dead average table top quality, minimum 3 colors. What do you think?

Uh, I'm not big into ratings, but why not 1 through 10, as opposed to decimals?