With Gajo getting out of the painted figure business, I have been busy emptying out my bank account to get everything I want, before they are no longer available. The next desire was to have a reinforced company of late war Fallschirmjager for use in the Mediterranean theater.
Gajo had two different version. One was the older metal and the other the newer plastic. I preferred the scheme on the plastic figures, as I think they are more accurate. So, I calculated what I wanted and ordered the batch. As luck would have it, this line was a bit thin and they could not cover everything. As such, I needed to make some adjustments and figure out some work arounds. With that done, I worked with them and adjusted to get what I needed.
Once I got everything, I went through and started to organize my forces. They ran out of HMGs, so I got extra LMGs and opted to mount them as MMGs (three guys per base). It’s the same gun, but a different mount. So my guys are using them as mobile MMG infantry!
I totally miscalculated the number of infantry models. I was shooting for four full sized units that I could field as infantry or engineers. Well, let’s just say I ordered a few extra… I was able to actually do three full sized units and full understrength units! I could have just done five full strength, but that is so close to two companies, so I just went for the six. It matches the HMG counts, so it works better anyway. It does mean that I am short on Panzershrecks and company command, so I will need a supplemental order for those. I also had two units of light mortars, so that worked out too.
I guess I could get more troopers to fill out the three platoons, but I think I have more than enough. I still need to work on my heavy weapons. I have the crew from Gajo, but need to go into my collection for the actual weapons!
A number of the weapons and boxes had some solid silver paint jobs, so I needed to fix those with some tan and a brown wash and tan highlight. I also decided to change most of the uncovered helmets to tan paint, instead of Luftwaffe blue.
I glued them all to tan sprayed bases and opted to try a new Muddy Paw mix of eight parts tan and one part sand ballast (this is darker and less coarse than my MAW stuff). It set well on the FOW bases and fell off the bevel, so not challenges. After it dried, I added a bush tuft and some Scenic Express turn to give a Mediterranean look.
- Manteuffel