I will post the hobby progress spreadsheet below, but in a nutshell I repainted 30 Waffen SS figures, 5 Early war German Infantry  and detailed 30 of my '41 German Infantry. I'm pretty happy with that figure since that represents 4 weeks of spare time/decompressing while away for work. Here's a (workbench only quality!-sorry!) pic of some of the finished infantry sitting on my shelf;

 (Ignore the pre-work toy tanks and the Sdkfz 7 in the background, the subject of future work...)

Obviously, by the count above I've done many more than this, Ill do a quick video for the channel showing some close ups of them before putting them on the shelves in the wargames room as reinforcements! Keep an eye on the channel for a closer look, and also check out the latest review of the great Wargames Atlantic BEF Set Rex and I posted up there a couple of days prior to the time of me posting this.

I would like to mention that I didnt start these from scratch. If you check out my workbench update for March you will see the state of these as I received them 2nd-hand, so you will begin to understand the amount of work i put into them...BUT i didnt have to start from scratch. these guys were already painted in waffen SS autumn pattern camo helmet covers etc, so I stuck with that, it was especially useful as I hadn't had any SS in zeltbahn ponchos before, so now that is sorted. I put national eagles on their sleeves and cuff titles except for those without helmet covers etc which i left as generic looking German Infantry that can double up between the SS forces and Heer. I had another discussion with a fantasy player during the week with a completely valid point of view that he didnt like people getting excited by playing Waffen SS, and his values regarding that. I explained to him my point of view I have expressed on our podcast previously which is that to represent historical forces for battles in Normandy and for Market Garden one needs to have such forces. It was good to have a sensible discussion on the topic with someone again and explain the reason why someone would collect such a force - without being unhealthily obsessed by them, and hear their point of view why it puts them off- in this case, encounters with rather over-enthusiastic and passionate SS players. 

 I think a few years ago I started displaying a talent of finding 2nd hand armies at a cheap price that were capable of producing great results if repainted...with maybe a few modelling issues that need sorting out also, but are fixable. Exhibit A is the finished result, but B is the image below of some assembly issues that are the type I normally get in these types of second-hand deals:

​So, a healthy bits box is always good to bring these poses back to realistic ones im happy with....a bit of a shame for the MG number two second from right,  as he would have been a cool pose if the German MGs were fed belts from that side, never mind. 

As you can see , this latest lot of about 50 models are primed rather than painted, so its starting from 'scratch' but again a great deal and the majority of the assembly is very good, only needing mostly minor repairs, mould lines removed and the odd poses as above needing re-modelling. I have added them onto the list below, and as they are sitting on the bench now, may as well crack on with them! 

 2024 HOBBY GOALS

Updated; 2 May 2024

Colour/ Key;

Completed

In progress

EW= Early War

LW= Late War

Historical WW2

German;

EW Krupp Protze- WIP

Sdkfz 234 with variant parts

Marder III- WIP

Sdkfz 251 D x3

Sdkfz 251 C Pioneerwagon WIP

Lorraine Shlepper WIP

UNIC P107 WIP

EW Pak 36- removable crew

EW Leig 38 & winter crew variants – removable crew

EW Opel Blitz 

EW Pz III F

Pz Lehr MMG DONE

Winter dismounted Pz Crew WIP

Sdkfz 232

EW MG34 MMG removable crew DONE

EW infantry x 21 DONE

EW infantry x 11 DONE

EW infantry x 5 DONE

Detail 112 x EW infantry

LW Heer Grenadiers x 70 WIP

LW Heer Grenadiers x 50 WIP

DAK infantry x 50

Pz Lehr infantry x25

Luftwaffe 88 crew x 7

Waffen SS inf x 65

Waffen SS inf x 30 DONE

" " Nebelwerfer – removable crew

"" Pak 40 – removable crew

"" MMG x2

Waffen SS med mortar x 1 WIP

""MMG x 1 WIP

" " Med Mortar – removable crew

Heer pak 40 with summer and winter crews -removable

Heer pak 40 with removable crew WIP

Last levy infantry ( Berlin) x 20

Luftwaffe tropical ground crew x 5 WIP

Mike's Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew ( basing and detailing only) DONE

Stuka x1

Fallshirmjager infantry x 70

''Med Mortar removable crew

" Pz shrek team

" Sniper team

" Flamethrower team

" mule handler and mule x1

Opel blitz fuel bowser truck

Heer weapons teams

British Airborne;

Vehicle crew x 30

Polsten guns x 9

6 pounders and crew x 3

6 pounders limbered x 4

Med mortars x 3

MMG teams x 3

Light Mortars x 3

Piat teams x 2

Tow jeeps x 4

17 Pounders and removable crew x 2

Infantry x 150

British/commonwealth;

Sherman V x3

Sherman VC Firefly x1

Infantry inB/dress x 22

8th Army inf x 4

Bedford QLT truck

8^th Army Lee tank

Cromwell with Burlap camo

Soviet Army;

Infantry x 100

Detail /repaint soviet infantry x 100

Rebase soviet infantry x 150

45 mm AT gun with removable & alternate ( SNI )crews x 2

MMG team

HMG team

Dog mines x 3 teams

M3 White scout car

ATK rifle

Amplumet

FT team

L Mortar team

Peoples militia x 12

Jeepsand crew x2

T34/85

T34/76 (warlord)

T34/76 ( Rubicon)

GAZ AA/AAA trucks x 2

Soviet Naval Infantry;

Bronekator patrol boat

Infantry (Warlord) x 44

Infantry (3D prints) x 30

MMG team

HMG team

45mm AT gun and crew -removable

FT team

Standard bearers x2

ZiS 3 and crew -removable

Heavy Mortar and crew- removable

Light mortar and crew

Pzfaust infantry x3

Medic

Photographer- Yevgeny Khaldei

Naval political officer x 2

SMG squad

Terrain;

2x collapsed parachute canopies

Urban barricades x6

Eastern Front log houses x 2

Eastern front village base

3D printed buildings x7

Additional berlin apartment building floors x2

Stalingrad tank factory & Base

Stalingrad Barmaley fountain x2

Destroyed European buildings (MDF) x2

Dock buildings and scatter-qty

IJA Tank emplacement

Dock crane

Lowest priority "Nice to do" list;

IJA/IJN;

150 Infantry (incl teams)

Repair/paint med tank

Rebase Infantry x 100

IJA LMG relocating

Italian;

6 infantry

Replace heads on 5 Coastal Div infantry

Arditi squad x2

MMG team for coastal div

WW2 Character models;

Mussolini

Otto Skorzeny

Charles Upham

We have ways characters x 2

Berlin soviet flag characters

Vasily Zaitsev

Desmond Doss & casualty

David Stirling

Jock Lewes

BA 'Stalingrad' set soviet sniper team

USMC Cappy the devil dog & Handler

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army;

Huntsmen x 10

Helstorm Rocket battery

Outriders x 5

Head replacement on militiaman

Bear Musician model

So there we have it, some good progress i think! Im happy with it anyway. Keep an eye out for the videos on our valhalla games' Youtube page hope you enjoy seeing them. 

Do you like to shop around for 2nd hand armies? what is it you look for in a good deal? what are your dealbreakers? Let us know! 

Dan