Finishing off the 15mm stack of shame.

Well, this is it.  I've finally built/painted the large stack of 15mm crap I had sitting in a box lid, staring at me while I was hobbying.  I'll be taking a break for a bit from 15mm...finally, but happy to finish this batch.  Two Battlefront Panzer III M's.

Replacing some old BA-10's (Zvezda)

So, early in my 15mm adventure, I put together (while swearing incessantly) two BA-10 Soviet armoured cars produced by Zvezda.  Why was I cursing?  They decided to make an armoured car in 26 pieces...for 15mm scale (a little over 1.5" long).  Tiny obnoxious tires, wheels, suspension, headlamp stalks, etc.  A really ridiculously stupid kit.  It was so dumb I believe they simply downscaled a 20mm kit.  This also meant that every piece of it was tiny and risked breaking when you touched them.

They also went together poorly with large seams running down the whole bodies...etc.  Basically a nightmare.  On top of that I was painting fast and furious without having done much 15mm, so my end results were poor.  I tended to avoid using them in games solely because I hated them.

Well, around 3-4 years later that has finally been rectified.  I received two 3D print models from a buddy (along with all the other crap I've painted in the past two days), and painted up some replacements.

Nicer models, nicer paintjobs, and more robust for gaming.

Compared to the older Zvezda kit on the right.

New 3D print vs. older Zvezda build.

The BA-10 collection.

One more of my Soviet bins filled to bursting at this point...

A few 20mm AA guns for the Germans

Just wrapping up some more of the prints I received recently.  Two 20mm FlaK 38's.  One with a Fallschirmjaeger crew, and one with a standard Grenadier crew.

German prime movers...finally.

I've been looking for 3D printed prime movers for my Germans for a couple years at this point.  I finally picked up a few from a buddy, and slapped some paint on them.  I'm not terribly happy with the results, but I can deal since they're just there to drag stuff around.  My German transport collection has been growing steadily.

Some brick walls for 15mm.

I ordered some stone and brick walls from Monday Night Gaming(?) via eBay.  Unfortunately, upon arrival they were exactly what I expected - poorly sculpted and cast components.  The type you'd get for $5 at a convention off a rack.  Very late-90's feeling stuff.

I spent way too much time cutting off flash, excess resin, leveling the bottoms, etc.  However, the end result of at least one set is acceptable for gaming.  Just too much work needed to make them look decent.

 

 

I can see the light at the end of the...(train sounds)

I'm trying desperately to make visible headway against a few box-lids of minis I have just sitting around.

I knocked out a Zvezda Marder III M (fun fact I had actually thrown this out when I hit it with a primer that turned chunky...I then recovered it and stripped it using alcohol).

I also repainted a Zvezda Opel Blitz (not pictured), and used two Zvezda and two Battlefront minis to knock out all three versions of the Sdkfz. 234 armoured car.  I now have no fewer than eight different armoured cars for the Germans to scout around with!

Starting over with the Soviets

When I started doing 15mm a few years ago, I was rushing to get my Soviet stuff on the table.  I hadn't figured out proper colours, and hadn't painted much in the way of 15mm.  While happy with my infantry, etc. I am generally not super happy with my initial vehicles.

Towit...I am now going to start slowly re-doing, replacing my Soviets over time.  I started with stripping down and repainting a couple of my trucks, and painting up some 3D printed lend-lease Jeeps for use with my officers.

A platoon of Panzergrenadiers.

I had a couple sprues of the Battlefront 15mm German Panzergrenadiers.  I painted up a platoon to use with the halftracks I recently painted. Not particularly good sculpts and somewhat boring to paint, but they'll be useful alongside my Fallschirmjaeger.