"French KISS - First arrivals" Topic

Well, I've started my foray into the Normandy campaign using Picoarmour 3mm scale miniatures. Thought you might like to see how it's going.

My first unit is the 11th Armoured Division, the "Black Bulls". I haven't painted any infantry or artillery yet, but here's the 29th Armoured Brigade – 23rd Hussars, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry.

And the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanary – I love Cromwells; if you ask anyone to just draw 'a tank', it will look like a Cromwell!

Some Shermans – the '11M' is just to help me. The '11' shows it's the 11th Armoured Division and the 'M' indicates a medium tank unit, as opposed to the 'R' for the Recon tank units using Cromwells.

And for scale – that's a British penny …

Not the best photo, but this is the Inns of Court regiment, made up mostly of volunteer barristers and lawyers, in their Daimlers (well; one couldn't expect them to drive anything else, could one?!):

Next up will be some infantry and artillery, not to mention a command stand for Major-General George "Pip" Roberts.

Nick

Looks very good ! What rules are you going to use?
John

Awesome, love it! I'm waiting on a North Africa book (should be here tomorrow), then I'm looking at doing KISS Rommel.

V/R,
Jack

super looking!

I like you raised labeling method – subtle, but effective.

Cheers guys,

For labelling I use a 'Dymo' label writer:

The letters are embossed onto plastic strip, so painted and with a wash and dry brushing they stand out just enough to read but no so much as to be too obvious.

I'm still not sure about the bases, to be honest. In this scale I'm wondering if I should paint the base grass colour instead of using static grass. I also need a better shade for the vehicles; they're a bit 'too' green, but these early attempts are all experimentation after all!

I also thought that in this scale there was no need to paint tyres/tracks, etc, but I think the colours need some contrast and lifting up, if that makes sense?

In KISS Rommel the 11th Armoured Division should come to some 13 bases. For the big Caen battles there would be 3-4 divisions a side and these rules actually make that possible.

I have to say that I am enjoying this project and I'm stunned by the level of detail on these tiny minis!

Jack – I'd love to see how you get on with your Western Desert project – are you planning on 6mm or 3mm?

Nick

Try 'dulling' the vehicle colours down with a dark (but not too dark!) wash, maybe paint the bases with occasional clumps of static grass for the hint of bigger foliage?
Just an idea!

Nick,

3mm all the way. I got my book, "Blaze Across the Sands," but it's built for Spearhead, which is 1 stand=1 platoon, so I'm doing some figuring on how to carry out the scenarios.

V/R,
Jack

Dymo labels painted and dry-brushed as unit ID: that's bloody brilliant! Why didn't I think of that!

Do you just rely on the adhesive backing on the label to keep it on the base or do you apply some stronger glue? MY experience with Dymo labels is that since they come in a roll they tend to have a natural arch shape to it, and when the adhesive backing gives out the label tends to pop up from whatever surface it was originally on.

My 2mm stuff is based using woodland scenics flock, not static grass. It still gives some texture but isn't as overpowering as static grass. I don't think plain bases look any good in this scale.

You can tone those vehicles down with a brown wash. I've also found that a (very) light dry brush with pale tan really makes pics armour pop.