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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

I love a man in a uniform - done!

These WW II Brits for Chain of Command are done, and just in time. I was getting burned out by the sameness of painting up 100 British soldier. Now it's time to move onto something else.

Infantry Section:  An infantry section plus five riflemen. Leftovers and spares perhaps?   
6 pd AT gun crews #1 and #2: They're single mounted to make it easier to remove casualties from the AT gun.

Vickers medium MG team: This was my favorite set from this run of figures.  The Vickers is a WW I throwback.  
While looking for painting inspiration, I learned something interesting about the Vickers.  It was used for indirect fire at ranges of up to 4,500 yards. Such fire could catch the enemy by surprise and restrict movement.  It was used to good effect against trenches, road junctions and dead zones.  The Vickers had a back sight with an extension for this purpose, as seen in the photo below.    
British at Overloon, Netherlands using plunging fire.  
Some of our SAGA players also play Bolt Action so I'm painting up a force to join them. Here's my first drop of Soviets.  With 2 boxes of Warlord Games plastics, I'll be lucky if I have all my fingers left when I'm done.   My hands look like I was in a knife fight that I lost quite badly!  



40 comments:

  1. WOW - and that´s about it. :D Cheers!

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  2. Wonderful brushwork sir, the Brits are quite something.

    What on earth do you do with the knife??? FWIW, any knife fight you like to describe is technically a win or at least a score draw :-)

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    1. Thanks Millsy! Even though I know the rule "don't cut towards yourself," there were so many bits that I broke said rule and cut into my flesh. Repeatedly. Lucky only one cut was bad. ;-)

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  3. Some top-shelf squaddies there, Monty - but please, tell me that's NOT dried blood splashed about in the last photo... Talk about suffering for one's art!
    ; )

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    1. LOL! At least both of my ears are still attached. Must...stay...away...from plastics.

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  4. Great looking "Tommies", Monty. So 100 figures - is this a normal sized force for CoC? I think for Bolt Action I only have about 30 per "army".

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    1. Dean, thanks! No, this is not normal at all. My customer loves have ALL options so this British project well exceeded the 40ish figures you need for CoC.

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  5. Well done Monty! what an impressive force !
    keep calm and carry on with your knife!
    I hope you don't use a Bowie knive or Rambo's survival knife to do it ;)
    I love the Vickers team!

    Warm regards

    Gilles

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    1. Gilles! If I was using a Bowie knife, well, perish the thought. Look ma, no hands!

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  6. Excellent work Monty. From what I was reading the other day, the American equivalent of the Vickers from Colt was even used in Vietnam. I'm not sure when it dropped out of use in the British army.

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    1. Tamsin, thanks! It is an amazing achievement to design something that spans history like the Vickers.

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  7. You did a cracking job with these Monty. And I like the Vickers the best as well.

    As for your title...me too!

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  8. Great work Monty! Having just finished the first batch of some British myself I know what you what you mean. That aside they look just great and I'm sure your Soviets will be a treat as well. I think one or two lost fingers won't hamper you all that much ;-p

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    1. Thanks! In the movie 300, what was it Leonidas said to his officer who lost an eye? The Officer replied "the Gods saw fit to give me a spare." I've got 9 fingers left!

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  9. Great looking Brits, Monty! What on earth are you going to do with 100 of these guys mounted singly? Yikes! I don't want to move a 100 of anything!

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    1. Jonathan, thanks! They'll never see the table altogether at once. Some collectors do love all options. ;-)

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  10. Very nice work! They all have suitably determined expressions on their faces :-)

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    1. Thanks Paul! As a FoW player, I bet you already knew about Vickers and indirect fire!

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  11. Excellent job on these 'men in a uniform' Monty, great looking Tommies, love the MG team...

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    1. Phil, thanks. That is a mean looking bunch!

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  12. Very well done!
    I don't have a crystal ball or anything, but I can see some ww2 Japanese in your future....

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    1. LOL, anything is possible! If you're right, we'll call you Iowa Nostradamus.

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  13. That's a splendid achievement Monty and really well done. Wonderfully characterful sculpts brought to life by your top notch paint job.

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    1. Thanks Michael. These are lovely scupts, so good that they kept my head in the game right up to the finish line!

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  14. Very, very nice work Monty! I wonder if this will be the start of you doing each theatre of the war to include all branches for WWII like you did for SAGA.:-)

    Christopher

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    1. Good one, Christopher! SAGA is merely resting. You can serve only one master and it's still the Dark Ages for me. ;-)

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  15. Some excellently painted figures you've got there Monty, keep up the great work.

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  16. Nice work, those Brits look great. I will be curious to hear about your experiences with Bolt action.

    john

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    1. Thanks John! There are only two of us that I know of playing CoC locally. Because there is an established group for BA, Hugh and I will give it a spin.

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  17. Very nice chaps indeed Monty! Looking forward to your painted Soviets with interest.

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    1. Thanks Jonas! I'm suddenly swamped so the poor Soviets might go on the back burner for a bit.

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  18. Those are nicely done, Monty. I think you'll like playing with them too.

    FMB

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    1. Thanks Marcus! I've been building my 1000 pt Soviet list this week. So many choices!

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  19. One of the best Brits, i ever seen! This remember me, that I have Paras and LRDG miniatures to finish:)

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    1. Thanks much, Michal! Paras will be fun to paint and play.

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