3 Aug 2015

Underfire miniatures: 28mm East Germans


Hello guys,

I have finally finished painting a pack of Under Fire Miniatures 28mm East Germans. These are one of the two packs that company does in 28mm, but they have a huge range of 20mm miniatures. They were sculpted by the same guy that sculpts Moderns for Empress, and quality hasn't suffered - they are absolutely fantastic.

Cold war is not something I was planning to dab into (as I opted for moderns instead), alas they were a gift so I was more than happy to paint them.  They will not be put away, however, as they will take the role of the Evergreen army in my moderns that was so far filled by my WWII US Marines conversions.

Being ignorant of Cold War Germans of either description, I had to do some research figuring out the equipment and camouflage. I am not too confident about my paint choices, but I think it should do well enough.

If I am not mistaken, they would fit in the late eighties, should anyone be interested.

 This pack gives you three guys armed with AKs and a guy armed with a RPK for a support. The barrel of the later actually broke in transit, but by simply sanding it a bit and gluing it back, the damange is not noticable at all. Other than that, they pretty much all sport same equipment, with ammo pouches of the RPK guy being a tad larger, which I think was a nice attention to detail.


As I mentioned they were sculpted by the same sculptor that made the US Infantry I am using for Slovenes, but as you can see below the Germans are just a tad bulkier:

Unrelated, below are some notes on the paints used, mainly for myself as a future reference:

I had trouble picking up paints (not to mention painting the pattern). The pattern is horrible, it really is. It is brown stripes on brownish-greenish-greyish-beige background. The pattern gets lost from 5 meters away, so the easiest way would be to just paint the uniforms in one solid colour...but where is the fun in that?

I decided to make the pattern obvious, as these are miniatures after all and for that, I went with lighter brown background, so that brown stripes can be made out.

I painted the uniform this way (because of what I had available):

German Beige Camo base
Green Brown wash, some black wash
Brown stripes

Brown violet for helmet netting and helmet straps.

Helmet  - German grey, highlited with German Grey +  Green Grey to lighten it up

Straps, gas mask bag, bedroll all in Green grey with some black

I finished it all of with a light drybrush of German Beige Camo mixed with some white.


I have to admit I miss the RPG in this pack, but it will be provided in one of the next packs  that are due to be released, so I can always put them in. With my Evergreen army now matching my Slovenes, I am running out of reasons not to play a game soon. I am setting up an idea for a scenario already, but I always find myself missing some more terrain, so hopefully this can be a project for this week - perhaps some waist high banks that could represent various ditches and act like a cover in the large open areas?

As usual, thanks for looking!

Mathyoo

22 comments:

  1. Nice work mate. Good to see you hitting the paint table again :)

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    1. Thanks! But to be fair, it took me two months to complete them, including my vacation :P

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  2. Excellent job, love the camouflage.

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    1. Thanks Michael! I have to say I am quite satisfied with it. The tears are a bit too large for my taste, but it is a compromise between looking good and remaining sane there!

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  3. You actually stole of one my scatter brained ideas. I was thinking of using East Germans for the conscript of my Republic of Pine land setting. Or maybe as border guards for the neighboring country of Redforea.
    Great paint job ether way though.

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    1. It all came down to a coincidence, if I would be picking mine I would rather go with someone G3/FAL armed, just for the rifles. But I really satisfied with those, plus their brown camouflage makes them stand out somewhat.

      Republic of Pine and Redforea? You don't live in a middle of a forest, by a chance, do you? :D

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    2. I actually live in a desert now. :P
      But Redforea is a take on the Red force "Bad guys" Blue force "Good guys" We us in the US mil for training.
      The Republic of Pine land is a fictional country that US special forces train in before they get tabbed.
      But it also happens to be very forested and resembles the state of north Carolina.

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  4. As a fan of ultra-modern/Cold war wargames I think these are really nice.

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  5. Good additions to your forces and also it's good to see you painting again.

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    1. Cheers Joe, incidentally,I haven't painted anything since I finished those...

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  6. Great job Mathyoo! They make great underfunded/ outdated small govt. forces. I bet they could hold off a few zombies too.

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    1. If we are going that way, what makes us stop using them in a scenario/campaign where Weird WW2 breaks out just after Germany is defeated and poor sods have to fight the zombie experiments that nazis left them in the haunted tunnels of their underground bases?

      It sounds like I need some corridors and play a game of Notspacehulk!

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    2. Could be a great cold war gone hot. 1988, Felix Fritag is trying to tunnel under the streets of berlin to escape to the American zone, when he knocks down a wall that is not supposed to be there.
      And boom! Zombie out break!

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    3. http://www.victorian-steel.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=15897222
      Soviets vs Nazi zombies

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  7. I have to agree with Bob. Good to see your blogging mojo and painting mojo have returned.

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  8. Hey do you have copies or a link to the "breaking news rules"? I have the regular version but no the add on's and can not find the website any more

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    1. Sorry, I only have the basic rules and I am making my own as I go. I haven't played in a while, so i don't think I even have my changes written down anywhere.

      I tried finding the site for you and it seems to be offline.

      I am not usually brave enough to change rules just like that but in this case, I am playing alone so I don't overthink the problems where rules are unclear or contradicting - I just play it as I think is fitting.

      Lately, for example, I've been deciding that the "Good guys" will always get a casualty that needs treatment (not dead, or maybe dead on roll of 1 on D6 instead of 1-3), while insurgents will be used less complicatedly, just as "zombies".

      It sounds unfair, but I can only concentrate on one side and story is being told from the Good guys' perspective. Should I need a justification, the Black Hawk Down fits in this description.

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    2. Makes since to me, and since this is the story of your guys. Play it the way you want to. I would like to see more a write up of your mods to the rules though.
      Your random generation rules for the baddies
      And how they react with out being played by another person.

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  9. Very cool! You don't see these troops very often. Well done.

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  10. Superb work mate.

    I showed these to Bill of UFM - he was very impressed.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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