Chicago Skirmish Wargames

I got the block painting finished on my British. Before they go off to the dip I thought I'd show them pre-transformation and make a few comments about the figures themselves.

What you see here is the 20 plastic British Infantry from the British Konflikt '47 boxed set. These are the same figures that are sold in a box of 25 as the "WW2 British Infantry Plastic Boxed Set". There are also 10 figures from the "BEF Infantry Section" box. This was a rather happy accident whereby I had ordered the 25 plastic figure box mentioned above and the BEF Box came instead. After failing for a couple weeks to locate a replacement, they said "We can't help you, please keep the figures for your troubles". And I did.

All the figures have had their separate heads replaced, mostly with the British Gas Mask Heads from West Wind games. They scale nicely and are a comparative bargain at 20 heads for around 7 or 8 bucks. As mentioned in my previous post they are based on Champ Industries plastic bases with spots of concrete patch added on for texture. Gluing the plastic figures (with MEK-based solvent glue) in was a breeze but the metal figs with the cast-on bases were a bit of a pain. Still it was rather short work to cut the metal base down to the size of the foot, cut a foot sized hole in the polystyrene bases and super glue the figure in. They've proved quite well bonded for now, certainly sturdier than just cutting away and gluing the metal figures foot flat on the plastic base.

These are the officers/NCO's. The two on the flanks are plastic and have Kolony Militia Command heads from Pig Iron Productions. The one in the middle is a BEF metal. The fellow tipping his hat with his pistol is who I use as my commander.

The kit comes with the short-ranged PIAT, but K'47 offers British players the option of a Bazooka which hits as hard but has double the range. Josh donated an extra from his plastic US Marines and I found that I had another in a pack of Reaper weapons. A worthwhile upgrade I think!

Here you can see a couple of comparisons between the metal (Left) and plastic (Right) figures. The metals are clearly bulkier and not just because of the added gear they are carrying. They might also be just a smidge (maybe 1mm or less) taller.

.However they still blend pretty well. I think this is helped by them all having the same kind of heads.

Here's a figure I'm particularly proud of, my forward observer. This is a figure that grants a one-time barrage during the game and one is free in each British force. I added an antenna and a special head with scope. The head is an HMG gunner head from the 90's Warzone Imperial plastic figures.

Here are a couple of metal figs. The ammunition carrier on the left is my favorite in the force so far. I like how he's just getting on with it. The Bren gun carrier on the right is a nice enough figure but I don't know if I'll use him much. A quirk in the rules means that it's far more cost effective (and somehow more flavorful?) to choose the army special rule that grants an extra shot for every 3 riflemen. Then you can take extra rifleman rather than paying the higher cost to add LMG gunners who turn one of your rifleman into a non-shooting ammunition carrier.

Here's a nice running figure from the metal BEF set. More evidence -as though we needed any- that metal packs tend to have more interesting poses than even those allowed by plastic multi-part sets.

And here's the rest of the PBI. Continuing my use of the paint pens, all the silver on these models was done with a paint pen. It went on a bit sloppy in places but I painted the gloves and wood stocks on the rifles second so it covered most of my mistakes. As noted in a previous post I'm painting them as all wearing gloves and having their heads completely covered with their gas mask equipment. Not necessarily practical from a historical standpoint but it makes them look more menacing and speeds up the painting process since I don't have to paint any exposed flesh!

I'd like to make one last point about the rather good distribution of poses in the plastic kit. Both the US Marine and Russian sets that Tim and Josh purchased have  2 in 5 figures either kneeling or prone. This results in a force that -while varied in position- doesn't feel as active to me. The standard British Infantry Sprue -like the US Army sprue- has only one kneeling figure per 5 men There are not any notably dramatic poses in the British Infantry plastics but it's a solid set.

Now, it's off to dipping these guys and then finishing up the vehicles. I've actually enjoyed the painting of these figures to the point that I'm not at all dreading painting up another 20 or so, which will be as a Sikh platoon using the Ramshackle Games Turbaned heads with Gas Masks.

-Karl Paulsen