I thought a bit of extra firepower might help my Germans when they go assaulting, so I ve ordered one of Chieftain Model's StuG 111 G's:

(photo courtesy of http://www.chieftainmodels.co.uk/)

The Stug was mass produced, widely used and certainly saw action in N Europe in 44/45 so will be ideal to accompany my platoon as 3 points of Divisional support.

I'll post a review of the model and pics once it's assembeld and painted.

Not perfect but adding a sky somehow adds a little life Click pic to enlarge.

I finished the mortar pit this weekend, and decided rather than a turf roof to try my hand at modelling a Zeltbahn/tarp and painting German Eichenlaubmuster (Spring Oakleaf) Camo. Click Pics to enlarge:

The tarp was made from milliput and placed across the wooden support beams, and I added a few more details in balsa and card before painting. The Eichenlaubmuster is GW Graveyard Earth/Vallejo Flat Earth 50/50 base, with GW Goblin Green spots and GW Catachan Green/Chaos Black 50/50 edges/spots, finished with a 1:5 Brown ink wash. The first time I ve done Eichenlaubmuster, and I am fairly pleased although it did tale a couple of runs at it.

If you want to see the mortar pit in construction, see below.

Before I do start glueing the Church I thought I would make a quick and easy mortar pit/dug out (the thought of making a massive Church roof is too much to contemplate after the last roof). The dug out will sit somwhere in the town protecting the occupying Germans. It's very early stages; simply made from blue foam, some foam card, matchsticks and a bit of milliput for the sandbags. Need to get some more milliput to make the roof for the shelter and a few more bags and then it will be painted and flocked:

I ve left plenty of room behind the pit for landscaping as I want to include a tree or two (I am keen for the Dutch town to have a "country" feel), and it will also allow me to use this pit in more rural games.

Front View

Back View

Top Down

Finally the roof of the 1st Dutch house is finished (about 1500 tiles in total!!!....I hate making roofs) however this does mean I can now throw myself into putting together the Church model:

(A completed but unpainted Dutch house photo will follow tommorow)

I have finally settled on the additional under strength squad as the last part of my German Grenadier Platoon, and have decided that a recon squad on bikes with a MG34 mounted on a sidecar would make a great, highly mobile firebase to get stuck into the Brits. The sidecar I have already and I ve ordered 2 more bikes from Black Tree Designs, making the total of 6 squad members. Will paint up and post in due course.

The German Grenadier Platoon at 16 points now consist of:

Platoon Command with LMG
Grenadier Squad 1
Grenadier Squad 2
Under strength Grenadier Recon Squad on Bikes
1 Mortar Team

and the British Commandos at 16 points:

Section Command with 2 man PIAT team
Commando Sub Section Alpha
Commando Sub Section Bravo
1 Vickers HMG Squad
1 Mortar Team

Like many gamers, on the odd occasion when I have too much on to be able to paint a squad myself, or I simply want an easy route to getting some minis ready to play, I have opted to pay someone else to paint my minis. Perhaps surprisingly the service I use isn't based in the West Country (where I am), in fact they arent even based in England, I use Painted Figs (http://www.paintedfigs.com) a team of painters run by Navin Weeraratne, (gamer and all round decent guy) based in Sri Lanka.

To some it may seem mad to send lead soldiers half way round the world to be painted but I have to say the combination of their service and the cost they can offer makes it more than worthwhile, as you will hopefully see from the short review below.

What I wanted...

Approximately 4 weeks ago I contacted Navin and explained I had 17 Artizan late war Commandos that needed painting, and asked him to quote on painting these along with supplying and painting a further 10 Artizan figures that I asked Navin to buy on my behalf. This was the first time I had asked Navin to buy my figures, but it seemed to made sense as he pays wholesale rates, so even with shipping to him they were about the same cost as me buying them in the UK (although I would have had shipping costs to him on top). I gave Navin a brief outline of the colours scheme and style of painting required and told him not to worry about basing them as I like to do that myself. In total Painted Figs would be removing flash, assembling, and painting 27 figures and 1 Vickers Gun.

Cost of painting; a very reasonable $3.00 per model(or £1.50 ish at todays rates). This was compared the best UK rate I coud find for a similar quantity and quality of $10.00 (£5.50).

How it works....

On acceptance of the quote (which usually arrives in 24 hours)if you are happy to send the total fees upfront (I ve used the service before and I am comfortable with their ability to do a good job) you get a 10% discount, and you simply send the money across by Paypal. I would suggest that you shouldn't worry unduly about sending paypal fees in advance, Navin has always provided me with A1 service and is very trustworthy. He makes a point of checking that the customer is happy with what they have painted and produces numerous work in progress photos on request and will even complete a test piece prior to working on your main force to check you are happy.

Monies all sent, you simply box up your miniatures (if Navin isn't buying them for you), send any reference material by email (or in the box with the minis) and give any specific detail such as colours to be used if you are trying to colour match existing platoon members. Navin's team work well when given plenty of detail and direction, so if you have an Osprey book or pictures they are worth inlcuding. All packaged up, they cost me just £7.50 to ship to Sri Lanka (17 minis, 30 x 2p pieces for bases, and 1 Osprey Book), so shipping cost isn't a big factor.

The painting...

A week later I got an email from Navin to say the minis had arrived safely, and that work would start the following day. 2 days later another email with an attached photo showing 2 of my minis painted so I could check the colous and make sure I was happy before the committed my minis and their time to the job in hand. I think this part of the service is crucial, and works very well. They are happy to discuss paints used and will happily take on board your suggestions (previously they painted some modern British Infantry for me and I suggested the camo might beenfit from more brown, within a few hours I had new photos with repainted samples).

With the Ok from me the rest took about 7 days to complete, at which point Navin sent more photos of the whole squad and asked how I wanted my Vickers team based, giving me a couple of different oprtions as I hadn't specified. Once he knew I was total happy with the work he asked if I would mail the return shipping fee by Paypal (again about £7.50-£8.00). 1 week later, the minis arrived at my door.

What I got...

In terms of how the product arrived I coudln't have been happier. The box was a little tattered (it had been half way round the world) but inside I need not have worried as each miniature was individually wrapped in foam and secured by the way of 2 elastic bands to stop anything moving in transit. On unwrapping, the paint job far exceeded what I had seen in the photos and the colours were excatly as I had specified. All parts had been given a spray of varnish (as requested) and all parts arrived un-bent and in 1 piece. A great job and first class service. All reference material had also been returned and were in good condition (which surprised me I thought I might have lost that Osprey book )

Conclusions...

It might seem dotty to send your minis to Sri Lanka when you could have them painted in the UK, however I have to say the cost (particularly the way the $/£ rate is at the momment) makes this such an attractive idea, and the service is fantastic. The 27 miniatures cost me £55.00 including shipping to and from; to have them painted in the UK would have been £150.00+, which is way outside my price range. However the thing that has really sold me on Painted Figs is their attention to detail and a real desire to give great service which is something we just don't get in the UK too often. The whole process from start to finish took less than 4 weeks (I was being quoted 4-6 weeks by most UK painters) and there is no real risk in sending your metal abroad when the guys at the other end understand service as well as they do, and the result you want as a fellow gamer.

I would fully recommend them, and have already spoken to Navin with a view to sending some more WW2 troops out in the next week or so. Below are just 1 or 2 examples from the platoon that Painted Figs painted for me, click to enlarge:

It's been a busy week with work, so progress on building the Dutch town and painting the German's has been incredibly slow, however I did take 1/2 an hour whilst watching Euro 08 this afternoon to start the roof tiles on house 1.

Roof tiles are the bane of any large model town as there is no quick way of making them look good, so I'm using what is the quickest way I know; 1cm strips of cereal box partially cut to look like tiles and glued on in strips of 5-10 tiles at a time. Ive used this method loads of times before and when painted and weathered they they look really nice. This model will have about 2000 tiles when finished, so it will take me most of this week to get the roof completed....hopefully.

I understand from Navin at Paintedfigs.com that my British Commandos are painted and on their way back to me, so by the end of the week I should be able to post some pics of the minis in all their glory, and a review of how good their servcie is for 28mm's.