The British Are Coming - Army of Freedom Lands!
Evening all! Well, those who've been following will remember my last two updates focussed on some vehicular reinforcements for my Waffen-SS force of Latvians. Well, with that army pretty much finished my next project is the alternate history invasion of Britain!
I'm quite a big fan of alternate history, and one of my favourite films is a little-known 1960s independent film called It Happened Here. It details the physical and mental struggle of ordinary citizens and resistance fighters in a world where the Germans successfully invaded Britain. It was shot entirely with volunteers, took years to make, and there isn't a single frame of stock footage (so yes, those German soldiers really did march across Trafalgar Square!) Check out the teaser:
But anyway; to business. The point is, me and Headologist are going to be doing a mini-skirmish campaign, set in North Wales in 1944. One one side, the anti-partisan mountain Handshar Division of Croatians, and on the other, the Army of Freedom - a mix of elite special forces, leftover troops from after the surrender, partisans, and US specialists sent in by the President to support the resistance movement. The Army of Freedom, as it's known, therefore calls for a mix of different models (read excuse for painting something a bit different ...) Some of the results of my massive spending spree at Warlord is below:
 |
| Hanomag - as well as one Partisan Band, 4 US Airborne figures from the 'Reinforcements' page, and the SAS NW Europe section as well. |
 |
| SAS (sans heads) |
 |
| Partisans |
 |
| US Airborne |
 |
| Undercoated and based |
 |
| The SAS in particular have some lovely sculpts |
Apart from the Hanomag (which I picked up cheap off eBay), these are all going into the Army of Freedom. 8 SAS troopers, including a few Bren guns, 4 US Airborne with a bazooka there too, and 8 Partisans. Should give Jerry something to think about, what!
I've reviewed Warlord stuff before so I won't do it again, but I did notice quite a few bent rifles which took some very careful resetting. I have the feeling that they won't last very long, otherwise the quality's fine. The basing is my own concoction of household filler - check out this post from way-back-when for the how to.
Anyway, that's all the building done, and in record time as well. Before I set off for my week's holiday, I couldn't resist painting the SAS officer up, and I'm pretty pleased with how he's turned out. To paint him, I used:
- Bestial Brown trousers, highlighted Kanrak Stone
- Kanrak stone smock and beret, highlighted Steel Legion Drab
- Dark Angels Green/Catachan Green for the green camo
- Scorched Brown/Bestial Brown for the brown
- Then flesh and rifle painted up with the details
- Wash the whole thing with Army Painter Soft Tone
I'll do a proper step-by-step once I paint a few more. But I'm really looking forward to painting something new, so more updates to follow!
|
| 2Lt Scott, commander of the Caerarfonshire Battalion |
(you missed an "n" in Caernarfonshire... Just sayin'. :) )
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really exciting project! What rules set will you be using?
Cheers Dai - as I was typing I wondered if you'd notice that one. Just checking you're awake ...
DeleteWe're not sure, we have a few rulesets lined up: TW&T, Nuts and RoE. It's been a while since we played WW2 so our first few games we'll be finding our feet a bit I think.
I find myself meandering over to Warlord's site on a regular basis and drooling over the WWII minis. But once again, no purchases as I'd be the only one in my group collecting and willing to play.
DeleteSomething tells me my gaming group is crap. (I jest - for rpg's, they are awesome and best friends to have also. They are just lazy and are unwilling to even try to get into a mini's project.)
That's always a problem but now, with a few completed armies under my belt, I'm starting to get the time to just buy odd models if they look cool and paint them up, which is always fun.
Delete