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
8th 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