Army in an Afternoon

So like you (I’m sure) I’ve got piles and piles of figures. Which is fine, but it’s the unloved ones, the ones tucked away in bags and boxes not getting any attention which I don’t like. Back when I visited my parents on the Isle of Man I picked up a box of Italeri (former Esci) Fallschirmjager, with maybe a WW2 project in mind? I genuinely can’t remember what I was thinking. Needless to say since then they’ve been de-sprued (to save space) and put in a bag, and then shoved in a drawer.

The other day while feeing overwhelmed with my mini collection and wishing I could still play games with the imagination and enthusiasm of a ten year old I considered a spot of Asquith style comfortable wargaming, but with a sci-fi flavour. Out came the Fallschirmjager once again… but how to comfortably paint the 40 or so I had?

I’m weirdly a big fan of this box, despite the figures being oddly posed, it might just be their chunkier proportions… anyway first I set about making some cuts to the weapons to try and de-WW2 them, rifles were cut short, magazines chopped off etc.

The desiring to use the plastic as my base colour (Featherstone style), I covered the figures in a mixture of Mod Podge, black paint and water. It had a wash-like consistency, so I would shade the details on the figures:

The next step was to pick out the faces, helmets, boots, gloves and weapons:

Here a few are all finished. The bases are sand, locked in with that same Mod Podge, paint and water mix, then with patches of my one step basing mix added. Now I just need to get them into a battle!

Although I already have lots of suitable opponents, of course I bought more miniatures, a box of Strelets WW1 Russians with Gas Masks looked goofy and fun.