Friday 1 July 2022

Painter's block unblocked.

 


I started these back in  April but have been struggling to focus on getting them completed. Part of the problem, I think, I that I have too many half-completed jobs on the go at one: two batches of British infantry, some half-painted vehicles and some part-assembled carriers. It just makes it too easy to go off and do something else - displacement activity rather than real progress. Eventually though, I did get my act together and finish them.

I've decided the first priority is to get the minimum bases for a full British battalion for 'O' Group. This means three company HQ bases and 9 platoons (so 27 infantry bases) plus a carrier platoon, a FOO (or two), 6 pdrs and AFV support. With this batch, I have the company HQs and just enough infantry bases for the 9 rifle platoons (lets just assume that one of the four rifle companies is left out of battle and accept using PIAT or 2" mortar bases to make up the numbers as well as using my earlier figures based up for 'Overlord') and plenty of support but no carrier platoon. 

This is my first British platoon fully painted to my latest standard. Eventually, I'll have 6 of these plus the carrier platoon. Later I'll add the platoon commanders, PIATS and 2" mortars but, as these aren't needed for 'O' Group, they can be a second priority for now.



I've now got my 3 company command groups. I've decided to have round bases for all my commanders: 30mm dia for platoons, 40mm dia with three figures for company and 60mm for battalion. 


As previously mentioned, my British force is meant to represent 4th King's Shropshire Light Infantry and supports (mainly 3 RTR) from 11th Armoured Division. This choice was partly based on a visit to Shrewsbury castle, when I lived nearby, and the purchase of an account of the battalion's experiences in Normandy written by Ned Thornburn who had commanded D company. His book included a list of all the officers at the start of the Normandy battle so I decided to use that list for my command bases. It seems rude to not have Ned represented on the tabletop so it will be C company that is left out of battle / in reserve for my force.


By the way, apart from the last photo of the name labels, I used in-camera focus stacking for these pictures for the first time. I'm not sure I like the effect - there are some strange artefacts around some figures and it just looks a bit unnatural. Maybe this is just a matter of understanding the mode better and changing some details of the settings but at the moment I'm thinking I will revert to normal single shots next time!







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8 comments:

  1. Chevalier de la Terre1 July 2022 at 22:15

    Very nice painting and basing, great details all-round.

    The photography setting are indeed a bit odd: the bits around the figure are blurred slightly, making the whole lot look like they've been "photo-shopped" onto the background.

    CdlT

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    1. Nathan2 July 2022 at 16:54

      Thanks very much re. the painting and basing. Having admired your work, read your tutorials and shamelessly copied your colour triads, thanks for the help!

      For the photos, I'm sure this was my fault for using the default settings as I have seen some outstanding results from the same kit but in future I think I'll just revert to using a relatively small aperture / long exposure and accepting a bit of blur for the background figures.

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  2. John Boadle6 July 2022 at 20:27

    Good to see those platoons properly numbered within their respective companies! Not everyone gets this.

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    1. Nathan23 August 2022 at 18:45

      Thanks John. To be absolutely honest, I'm not sure I would have got it if I hadn't had the full list of the 4 KSLI command structure from Ned Thornburn's account in front of me. Of course it makes complete sense when you remember that there are various platoons in the HQ company that also need numbers.

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  3. Rob23 August 2022 at 17:48

    These are beautifully painted - better than 20mm WW2 Brits. I'm glad I followed up you comment on my shiny ECWs to see your troops. Off to have a look at your 1/1200 site now.

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    1. Rob23 August 2022 at 17:55

      I can't comment on your other (1/1200) blog as Google insists I sign in (I am signed in) and if I do it just asks me to do so again. It was nice to see some 1/1200 stuff as I did some gaming with them using the Fletcher-Pratt rules and the floor of a local church hall (IIRC ranges were c. 27 feet). I played out the entire Bismarck sortie, even converted an Airfix Suffolk to a Norfolk for it - the results were bizarrely almost identical to historical events other than Vian's night attack which did manage to get a couple of torpedo strikes on the main belt and lost a destroyer doing it. Once again, mine are nowhere near as nicely painted as yours.

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    2. Nathan23 August 2022 at 18:55

      Thanks Rob, that's very kind.

      My first contact with small waterline ships were those same Airfix Hunt the Bismarck models and being given some old Triang models.

      27' ranges - wow! I always think it would be instructive to actually game something out with figure scale and table scale matching but given that a WW2 battalion attack in 15mm would need that church hall floor filled with scenery, I guess it isn't very practical.

      I don't know why but commenting on Blogger sites seems to have become very difficult over the last few months. I use a Mac and do almost all my web browsing, including writing my blogs, from that with no problem. When it comes to actually commenting, even on my own blog - no way, even though it worked fine until a few months ago. I've tried various fixes, none of which are reliable so I've resorted to downloading Chrome and using that to just comment on Blogger.

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    3. Rob23 August 2022 at 19:28

      Maybe I'll give Chrome a go - if it works you'll probably see me commenting on your Shipyard blog.

      Delete

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