British infantry & making rice paddies

 I finished converting my British/kiwi infantry for the Italian campaign and had lots of figures left over so accidently started, or should I say returned to, another project- 14th Army in Burma. I converted a section of Sikh troops and as with the Italian themed force used a mixture of the 8th Army and Late War British sets from Warlord games so there is a mix of shorts, battledress trousers and jackets as well as short sleeves. They turned out pretty good and I've painted them up in the jungle green uniform of 1943 onwards- no photos as of yet. 

British/Commonwealth infantry for the Italian front

Anyhow, so that got me thinking about suitable terrain and how I need some (probably in time a lot) of rice paddies for games in Burma. So, tonight I have done a few test pieces using MDF, foamcore for the berms as well as polyurathane for the water effect. Once dry I'll add blobs of static grass as the rice growing. 

The three stages of making the basic paddies. Once I'd cut out the MDF with a jigsaw I added foamcore berms and then used permafilla to create the banks. 

Once this was dry I textured with some local beach sand, sealed it with another layer of watered down PVA (a critical step to seal the sand so it doesn't chip or flake off over time) and then spray painted a dark brown followed by a drybrush of a light brown colour. 

Once that had dried it was time to add static grass and finally I poured some polyurathane I had lying around as the water effect.

Once it has completed dried I'll probaby add rows of static grass as clumps of rice. But I'm happy enough with progress so far. 

Craig

Kiwi's/British infantry for Italy

My latest little project... yet another version of British/ NZ Infantry for the Italian campaign. I wanted the infantry to be in trousers and with earlier war equipment than is on the Bolt Action LW British/Canadian infantry sprues so have combined the 8th Army and the LW boxes and mashed them up so that most infantry have trousers and rolled up shirt sleeves but a few have battle dress and a couple more still in shorts.

The two boxes mix together really well and makes for a great, very easy to do, project. 

• 3x Sections: LMG, SMG + 7 rifles
• 1x 9 man Royal engeinner sectrion-= making use of the figre sowth picks ot differntiate them on the table top
• Specialist teams- Light mortar, PIAT, Sniper

Specialist teams

And what aobut the spare infantry in shoerts from the 8th Army box? They are going to be mashed up with the wepaons from both boxed sets so that some are in shorts with battle dress tops, stens etc and will be added to my British Forgotten 14th Army in Burma forces.  

This week's update

A productive week in the wargaming hobby. 

Frist up a Warlord Games/ Italeri Panther A with Zimmerit. Can't remmber when I got it but it's been lying round made up but unpainted for far too long. Was very happy with how it turned out. 

Project #2- new barded wire entanglements for Bolt Action games.  Pretty simple- the key as far as I am concerned- is to use tile spacers from the local DIY store for the supports. 

This morning I painted up another squad of US infantry in Greatcoats- again these are the lovely Artizan Designs range. I can't recommend them enough. They have great details that paints up easily and look great. 

I repainted a couple of buildings to match the new Warlord Games ones I've painted up. 

Finally, last week I build three of the Warord games Ruined farms/hamlets whch I enjoyed painting up. 

Craig