G.I.'s, Soviets and Explosions!

I started back into WWII over the past few weeks. Most of what I did was re-basing which, as you all know, is a pain in the arse. But I did it anyway.

I also decided to start painting some of the plastic 1/72 stuff that I've had sitting in their boxes for some time. I decided to try some Zvesda Soviet Infantry and Italeri US Infantry.

The Zvesda Soviets needed to be assembled which wasn't fun. They look nice but they feel flimsy. I'm sure they won't be able to stand very much handling before they start breaking off from their bases. So, I decided to order a bunch of AB Soviets. Very nice. I am lucky that I can order these figures and drive to Eureka an pick them up, so I got my hands on them in pretty short order.

The colour pallet that I did on the plastics looks quite nice but I picked up a new paint for the G.I.s (see below) and this proved a better choice for the Russians too. So the AB got the new colour (German light beige I think). I also did their helmets a different colour - French Tankcrew, from the Valejo authentic colour range. I picked up a whole bunch of this range cheap a while back (.50 cents each!).

The Zvesda figures also have no commanders or heavier weapons.

 Blue base for the Section Leader.

 Red bases for the Platoon Leaders.

The Italeri G.I.'s are really nice figures and they're much stronger than the Zvesda. They are a newer range and look much better than the older plastic sets dating from the 1980's and earlier. The plastic on these is fairly stiff too. So they're pretty strong. I'll be sticking with these as a basis of my US Infantry and I'll supplement them with some AB figures.

But... I'm not happy with my choice of pallet. They just look wrong and it's my fault. The jacket is wrong and so are the pants. I was hoping that the wash (GW Earthshade gloss) would darken them but it didn't - Stupid really. The reason I use the Earthshade gloss is because it doesn't darken the figures very much.

Anyway, I picked up the German beige and this should do the trick. As for their pants, I already have the correct colour but I decided to try something different. And I was wrong about that too but it's not as bad.

I can't change any of that now so these guys will be mixed in to other sections. At least that way I can blame the supply system and say it's just a variation in the uniforms they were issued.

And explosions!

I made some explosions using the wire and clump-vegetation terrain method. I hot-glued some wire onto washers, glued clump-vegetation onto the wires, gave them a heavy spray of black and a light spray of white. They look okay and should represent a decent barrage on the table. I'm going to make a few more and also some burning/smoke plumes for wrecked vehicles.

 With some figures for scale.

So that's some of what I've done during the past week or thereabouts.