The Last of Johnny Canuck

This is it; the last of the WW2 Canadian infantry I have to paint. I've finished over 100 in total, plus the Firefly and the Humber. I still have a six pounder AT gun (though the crew is finished), three Shermans, and a Universal Carrier to finish up. When those are complete I’ll get a big pic of the whole bunch of them…. For now, however…

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As with the other Canadians, this is a mix of Artizan Designs, Crusader Miniatures, West Wind Productions, and First Corps.


Here's the lot of them in their storage drawer. I'm six riflemen, a sergeant, and a subaltern shy of two full-strength platoons. There are also supporting elements from the battalions AT, Mortar, and Pioneer Platoons, as well as the Battalion Chaplain, teams from the divisional MG battalion and a number of casualty figures...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’ll be finishing up the Shermans and others right away. Then...? Germans or Russians...? Being so close to finishing these I'm getting excited about running a Normandy/Northwest Europe campaign... Hopefully finishing up some Russians will get me focused on the East Front Campaign again...

More Turks and Canucks

The last of the toy orders arrived Friday. That purchase number over on the left won’t change for the rest of the year – I swear!! Those that arrived included 30 Turkish Riflemen, four officers, and two machinegun teams, five T-34/76, some Soviet mortars and casualties, some German tank crew and casualties, more Battle Honors Japanese (including some mortars), and a few moderns (mostly British)

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These fellows are from Copplestone Castings. They are not the ones that recently arrived. I picked these up earlier in the summer. I now have another four making their way in the painting queue. What on earth am I going to do with all those officers!? Oh, I know! Make more units of Turks!!


Another lot of Canadians. Once again this lot is a mix of Artizan Designs, Crusader Miniatures, West Wind Productions, and, I think, First Corps...? (including an AT gun crew… that doesn’t yet have a gun!!?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

One more lot of Canadians and all the foot are done (for now). Then I just have to finish the three Shermans and a Universal Carrier. After that…? I’ll probably launch into the T-34s and Soviet mortars and casualties as they will actually be useful in the very near future as well as they have upset the “all finished” status of my 28mm WW2 Soviets.

And after that…? Probably like predicting the weather more than a week away… I’d like to think I’m going to get on with some Germans or plough through the last of the British/Canadian Paras and Commandos. But then, knowing myself I’ll probably do something like start painting the Italians or something…

There’s also the dozen of so modern British that are now upsetting the “all finished” status of my 28mm Modern Military types….

An Ottoman Officer and a Chinese Bandit Walk Into a Bar…

The Chinese Bandit puts his revolver on the bar. The Bartender says; “I guess you won’t be needing a drink?” The Ottoman officer says

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These two chaps are both from Copplestone Castings.

I’m not quite sure what came over me. The Chinese bandit has been skulking on the edge of the painting table and in “on deck” boxes for months… but never seemed to insinuate himself into and active painting lot… the Turkish officer…? Picked that pack up earlier this year… Maybe I just got a little excited about the immanent arrival of more Coppelstone Turks (including another pack of officers!?)

I did also get started on the next lot of Canadians. Hopefully get most of those done this evening.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians! (or more Turks…?)

Still More Canadians

Another batch rolling off the painting desk… Would have been done a day earlier but I had to host another board meeting – curse my volunteerism and community mindedness!

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This lot is a mix of Artizan Designs, Bolt Action Miniatures, Crusader Miniatures, and West Wind Productions.

Two more lots to go and I’m done all the Canadian Infantry. Then I’ll have the three Shermans and a Universal Carrier and the Canadians are complete – or as complete as they’re going to be for some time.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Canadians. Not sure what I’ll do after that… Commandos or Paras or back to Germans of one variety or another. Maybe I should finish up some more of the Germans in Greatcoats – since our East Front campaign is rapidly drawing nearer to the first snowfall of 1941 (7 October 1941).

Of course that last order to West Wind Productions before the moratorium should be arriving shortly with five T-34s and some Russian mortars… maybe I’ll be working on that after the Canadians…

Or maybe I’ll get distracted by that first order placed AFTER the moratorium (it was an isolated event and a sweet deal I couldn’t pass up… I wasn’t looking on ebay or anything - a friend contacted me about having a bit of an online “Wargamer’s Garage Sale”… um…. yeah….).

Canadian Engineers, etc

I’ve divided the remaining Candian infantry into four batches of about ten or so figures. I finished up the first of such batches last night.

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These Engineers are from Bolt Action Miniatures. I’m not entirely sure which of the four engineer types would be appropriate for a battalion’s pioneer platoon, or which would be divisional RCE field squadron elements. The fellow with the bolt cutters would be fine for the pioneer platoon. I have a feeling the minesweeper and chap with the demolition detonator thingie would be fine as well. But how about the Flamethrower? I think it’s the only item in my book on the Canadian Army in Northwest Europe that doesn’t list what type of unit it was issued to. I have a feeling it wasn’t an infantry battalion piece of kit…

Conveniently the unit flash of the Royal Canadian Engineers is also red (like the Regina Rifles – the unit that I’m painting the infantry as), it’s just a slightly different shape. So hapofully no on w will complain too much…


The rest of these are a mix of Bolt Action Miniatures, Artizan Designs, and others.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Something Canadian… Infantry… Shermans… I was briefly tempted to set the Canadians aside and work on Germans – which would be a bit more useful at the moment… but the feeling has passed and I’m pretty much committed to finishing off these Canucks before I move on to the next lot.

Last of the Gebirgsjäger

I finished up the last of the Gebirgsjäger that last night…

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These fellows are from Brigade Games “Ends of the Earth” line.

Here’s the lot of them:


Ready to do battle from the highest peaks to the frozen wasteland of the Antarctic! MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-ha…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Shermans … WW2 Canadian infantry… More Germans… ECW Scotts!? Epic Scale Eldar!? I don’t know…

More Gebirgsjäger

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Painting night with the Tims.

Mr. Miller and I have started having painting nights again. They’re not set to any particular day of the week – just whenever he has a night off that corresponds with a night that I am painting (which is pretty much EVERY night – that I’m not playing a game…). We used to do this regularly but after nearly a years hiatus we are back at it!

Here’s a few more of the Gebirgsjäger that I finished up last night…


These fellows are from Brigade Games “Ends of the Earth” line. Lovely figures. I’ll probably finish off the rest of them in the next couple days…

I’d originally tried to take pictures of these on a plain white background - to make them look like they were on a glacier somewhere - either in the Alps or the Caucasus or the Antarctic... I took pictures indoors and outdoors, but it just didn’t seem to work out. I’m thinking it was too high contrast. The white was just to bright and caused the shutter speed to be higher than was necessary for good colour….? Anyway, I thought I’d include those, too, anyway.


Indoor light white paper background


Outdoor/natural light (on a cloudy day). Set on styrofoam packing material.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

the last of the Gebirgsjäger… Painting the Shermans… WW2 Canadian infanty… More Germans… ECW Scotts!? Epic Scale Eldar!? I don’t know…

Sherman Troop: Part Two

I'm starting to wonder if I’ve bit off more than I can chew trying to paint all three at the same time!? From this point I may very well end up finishing off one at a time (in very rapid succession!). We’ll see. I think I’ll finish off the rest of the Gebirgsjäger first, then jump back into these with both feet!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


All blacked up and ready for painting… and attached to bases. I wonder if I should affix the turrets to a base of their own – just for something to hold onto while painting…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Gebirgsjäger… Painting the Shermans… WW2 Canadian Infantry… ECW Scotts!? Epic Scale Eldar!? I don’t know…

Sherman Troop: Part One

I thought I’d do another step-by-step build of the Sherman troops I have (like I did with the Humber….


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Here’s all the bits ready to go.

The models are from West Wind Productions. I picked them up earlier this summer when they were having a crazy 40% off sale… with the pound in the tank it was the quickest cheapest way to put together a Sherman troop to support the Canadian infantry I’ve been doing in 28mm.


After giving the resin bodies a good scrub it was time to do a bit of cleaning up. Most of them had a bit of goop to clear up at the back end of under hull – an area that will never be seen, but it had to be cleared out as it got in the way of attaching the tracks.

Other than that there were not bubbles or other flaws in the resin body, There was a bit of a seam around the turrets that needed to be carved/filed off… as well as some of the other metal bits.


Assembled.

I was going to do two buttoned up but somehow only did one…

The one in the middle I’ve already started applying the black gesso to the undercarriage – which I will do on all of them before fixing them to their bases.

I would have liked to load these up with stowage… but I have a LOT of stuff to paint and not heaps of time, so I just can’t be bothered at this point to mess around with that sort of thing. At some point, when I have less stuff to do and/or a surplus of time to work on such projects and/or a greater desire to individualize models… I can add some then!

These, as with the Sherman Firefly will be part of B Squadron, 1st Canadian Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment). The Hussars were part of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade (Independent), which supported the Third Canadian Infantry Division in Normandy. B Squadron of the Hussars was in direct support of the Regina Rifles on D-Day.

Gebirgsjäger

I painted up a sample of the Gebirgsjäger I picked up lately (just before the moratorium).


The figure is from Brigade Games “Ends of the Earth” line. I have a very important special mission in mind for these chaps… but I won’t mention that here in case any of my players actually read this blog… (MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha….).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Gebirgsjäger… Canadians… Epic Scale Eldar!? I don’t know…

Canadian Sherman Firefly

Here is the first of the Shermans I’ve picked up to support my WW2 Canadians. Started with the big guns - the Sherman Firefly:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The model is from West Wind Productions. It was a lovely little model – easy to assemble with a minimum of gunk and flash to clean up. There wasn’t as much nasty mold release compound on this one either – one wash and all the primer totally stuck to it – no beading areas.

(had to take the pics indoors today... it's been POURING rain the last two days... it's unnatural... it's like I'm in a dream.... a dream where I had way too much free champagne before I fell asleep!?)


I also have to say West Wind has been a treat to deal with. The three Shermans 75mm tanks were shipped with two left-hand tracks. I contacted them and they sent replacements right away – so I ended up with a bunch of extra track which I cut up and stuck a bunch of to the front of this model.

I love that all the West Wind models (at least the ones I’ve picked up so far) come with turret crew!


Whoops! a bit of not-quite-dry glue in this pic...

I feel like I should have loaded it up with tons more stowage and camouflage and stuff… but I was feeling lazy and anxious to get one done to see what it looked like.


The tank markings are that of B Squadron, 1st Canadian Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment). The Hussars were part of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade (Independent), which supported the Third Canadian Infantry Division in Normandy. B Squadron of the Hussars were in direct support of the Regina Rifles on D-Day.

I have three more West Wind Shermans to do now (the 75mm variety), plus two Panzer IV (later war ones with Shurzen), two Panthers and a Tiger. I also have four motorcycle combos from them to assemble and paint up and I did order five (yeah, FIVE!) T-34/76 from them which should be here shortly... (they were ordered during the second sale at the end of August and are back ordered a bit as they needed to get more resin bodies - same thing happened when I ordered the big cats during the first sale and they were delivered in a timely manner... it's not like I have a shortage of other stuff to do!?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Canadian stuff….? Maybe some Germans….?

The Padre

Painted up a Regimental Chaplin for the Regina Rifles I’m working on…

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The figure is from Bolt Action Miniatures.


…and comes complete with silver cross and wooden stakes – in case the going gets WEIRD for the Rifles in their campaign through Northwest Europe…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of the Rifles.

Distractions – Darkest Africa/Gothic Horror

So… these are neither 20th Century armed civilians nor WW2 Canadians. So much for “The Plan”…

I should be back on track shortly. I just can’t decide if I should finish off the Armed Civilians (that I planned to finish off in August) before launching forward on the Canadians (planned for this month).

For anyone wondering why the blog seems to be all about painting these days and where all the game reports have gone… I’ve mostly been playing Savage Worlds (mostly WW2 skirmish actions and some pulpy-Cthulhu type stuff…) and have been posting the game reports over at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are some Eastern European Politzei from West Wind Productions Gothic Horror/Vampire Wars line. The blue ended up a tad lighter that I had originally imagined in my mind’s eye… but… oh well… Not going to repaint them – I mean how often am I going to use them anyway!?


Some more Darkest Africa types. I tried to paint the European officer to look like a German Schutztruppe officer (as I need another one or two…).


I guess I did do something mildly WW2 related… I finished off my Russian anti-tank bomb dog…. I should try that out on Wednesday… just hope it runs towards the right tanks!!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to the 20th Century with some armed civilians and/or Canadians.