WWII Brits

Once we are done with the Kursk scenarios from the SkirmishCampaigns we wanted to turn our attention to their Normandy ´44 – Monty´s Epsom book. Now I do not have any Brits ready, so I decided to get started on them in due time (I actually hope to have an infantry platoon, plus support and company HQ painted by the end of the month, with the armour next month). And here are the first. These men are meant to represent soldiers from the 1st South Lancashires. The choice for the 3rd (British) Infantry Division was easy. They landed on D-Day and took part in many of the major operations till the end of the war. So one can get a lot of mileage from them and for the other operations I will have to live with the wrong shoulder flashes. The choice for the 1st South Lancs was a bit more obscure, but their Landing Bach (Sword Beach: Queen White / Brèche d´Hermanville) is one of the two Commonwealth beaches that interest me the most to wargame (the other being Gold Beach: Jig). But I will go into more detail on the Lancs when I finish the next batch, have my good camera back and can show you the details of the shoulder flashes. So here are the first minis:

British WWII NCOs
(Left: 2x BAM, Right: WG / BAM)

British WWII NCOs
(Left: 3x VFM, Right: Art)

British WWII Medics
(Left: 2x BAM, Right: WG / BAM)

Now these are all pretty fast paint jobs. Unfortunately I feel that the British WWII uniforms by themselves are quiet boring, so I want to get them done fast. The shoulder flashes are freehand and since those are the things that I feel give them a little colour. So this is where I put some extra effort in.

The stretcher bearer on the last photo is wearing one of those leather vests. Right now all the minis are varnished matt, but I im wondering if I should give the vest a coat of satin gloss varnish to give it more of a leather look. What do you think?

British WWII Snipers
(BAM)

Now these snipers were actually done four or five years ago, when I was painting some Paras. Since they are wearing Denison Smocks, I decided to use them as a testbed for Denisons. If I did not like my first attempts, I would not have been forced to use my first try in the unit as all the good-looking Paras. But alas I liked my first try and painted the Paras the same way.

If you look close enough You can see the right eye of the standing sniper. The mini was a very clever sculpt in that the eye was the only part of his face to show!