Of course I also needed a dismounted version of the carrier platoon. In 'O' Group this is represented as three infantry sections, the same as a normal rifle platoon (but with a firepower bonus in some circumstances) and an attached PIAT section as well as the usual platoon A/T capability.
I wanted to show a clear visual difference between this and the platoons in the rifle companies. I normally avoid using kneeling and prone figures - there just seems to be something odd about having a unit advancing across the table with figures that are lying down. There is no great logic to this since it also means that when the same unit is seeking cover or pinned down, they are all walking upright but it did mean I had a number of such figures spare so I used these plus a pack of kneeling bren gun sections.
The design of the prone figures and choices on the mould split gave them very poorly defined faces and large areas of excess metal. In the case of the 2" mortar armed figures, the face was little more than a flat blob with almost no undercut from the helmet edge and the PIAT operator wasn't much better. I was very reluctant to use these at all and then wondered about trying to do some sort of head swap so they would have some facial features but thought that would be difficult. In the end I decided to try them as they were and suggest facial features just with paint. Whilst not perfect, actually on the bases and from the viewing angles possible in a game - ie. from above - they look acceptable.
Prompted by a conversation with John Boadle, of the Hand Built History blog, about basing for Northern Europe whilst I was admiring the bases on his latest Franco-Prussian War figures, I decided I wanted to have less of the bare ground visible and use a greater variety of tufts. This would also make it easier to place some tufts to make the 'faceless men' less obvious.
Having been unable to find anything suitable in local model shops, I ordered some Gamers Grass tufts online from The Model Workshop. The flower tufts are rather big for 15mm so I cut them down and used them rather sparingly - less is definitely more in this case! I'm not 100% happy with the 'tufts with leaves - the leaves look very big and are only really present on the top of the tufts rather than giving the all-round small bush effect I was hoping for but they do add variety.
I think it criminal that painting this accomplished has gone uncommented! How anyone can squeeze in so many details such as the yellow lining around the Piat round onto a 15mm figure is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteAs for the basing, I do think there's such a thing as overdoing the flocking and have always found it a bit of a struggle striking a balance between the dirt and the greenery.