Painting War - WW2 German edition

Unfortunately I discovered the book after I had already started painting my Bolt Action Germans, but hey-ho! Now, this book is a little hard to track down now, it seems it was pretty quickly snapped up when it was published and now I have it I am not surprised whatsoever. It's pretty awesome!

I had to send away to a Spanish retailer to get my hands on a copy (thank you Google Translate) and it took so long to arrive that I actually finished my first squad of Germans by the time it flopped onto my hallway carpet. But it didn't take more than a quick flick through it's pages to realize that this was a very valuable reference that will help me improve my model soldier painting...

The bulk of the tutorials in this book - and I'd say it was a book rather than a mere magazine - are intended for 28mm figures of the Bolt Action format (though there is a tutorial especially for 15mm, 20mm fans like myself will have to cherry pick techniques that apply to their scale). As the title suggests it is specifically aimed at WW2 German forces - Heer (Army), Luftwaffe paratroopers, Africa Corps and - always controversially (IMHO) - the various SS Divisions. But fear not, I will not go off on any sort of rant about the latter (and why on earth you would want to play this formation).

The quality of the tutorials and accompanying artwork is superb (as are the example figures which are included in the work-throughs). The level of instruction is meticulous and painstaking, which is excellent for a noob like myself. In fact it has already answered several questions about how this or that effect - which I have seen in pictures online - was achieved.

Aside from painting guides there is a lot of other information that is very useful, like the guide to insignia and ranks in the various German formations...

There are over 70 pages of full colour illustrations covering the paint schemes of over 30 different painted miniatures. Very usefully the author includes Vallejo colour swatches to accompany the various illustrations so you know exactly what colour he used to paint a uniform or piece of equipment.

I was very impressed with this publication and glad I tracked it down and forked out the money for it. Although it seems - on the surface - to be pretty specific, being about WW2 Germans, in fact a lot of the techniques are applicable for many of the armies during WW2 period and certainly very useful for my current projects for Bolt Action.

I bought my copy from Breakingwar.com and cost me €20 plus shipping. It is the first edition in a series and so I am not sure how many more are available so I strongly recommend you snap up a copy if you can, you won't regret it.

A curio from history - BA Beutepanzer

I was sent a very interesting photo from 'Pierzisme' - who follows my model-making exploits on Flickr - of a BA-10 and a BA-20 armoured car which was taken sometime during World War 2. While there is plenty of photographic material of these Soviet armoured cars what makes this such and interesting snap is that - like my BA project - it shows captured examples of these vehicles.

Coincidently and most curiously, while this photo shows the very same combination of ex-Soviet armoured cars as I am currently modelling, unlike my Finnish examples these captured machines are being put to use by the Germans!

Many thanks to Pierzisme from passing on this picture.