Painting SS-Scout Tank-hunter platoon Schwimmwagen GE819 Part 3 (Flames of War FOW 15mm)

I've looked at painting the Schwimmwagen vehicles up in the last two posts. Had a couple of really useful tips via the Flames of War forum (painting the wheel hubs yellow and toning down the metallic tools by mixing a silver colour with dark grey), and I need to see if I can use them, either now as a post pain fix, or in the future.

What I've put in the pictures here is the basing of the men.

 My biggest struggle in coming to Flames of War is arranging men on bases. Well maybe that and those moments where two fiddly parts on a vehicle wont superglue together, but my fingers will (thank goodness for green stuff!)

I've found members of the Flames of War forum incredibly useful in pointing me in the right direction. With small platoons it is relatively simple. You can find the item in the shop and see how the guys at Battlefront display the men. You can also see squad pictures in the game books and diagrams that give you the right understanding of the number of men a squad has in it, and whether those men are on one base, or like my SS infantry are across two bases (one with four men on it and one with five).

 Some kebab skewers make good tree stumps, plus kitty litter for boulders and spare bits from a German stowage blister. Green stuff also means you can make extra barrels, packs and storage crates. I've also done a lot of customisation work on my Nebelwerfer infantry to make them into what I see as SS units instead of Heer.

 Anyway, off topic. In these pictures I've based my men on a generic polyfilla. I found the cheaper ones better because they are more coarse and give a rougher finish.

I have to admit to making a mistake with the basing of these. For all my SS infantry I score the bases with a craft knife in a diamond pattern. I attached the men, then very carefully with cut down coffee stirrers (your friend) applied the filler. This time I got carried away with more detailed bases and adding the detritus of war, and forgot that putting the men on was a problem.

I had an idea to fix it, but didn't use it. I thought you could use a toothpick and dig out the base disc, so the men would go into a hole in the filler. I think it's simpler to do it right the first time! Each man had a little superglue and greenstuff to hold them down in the end.

Despite the mistake I reckon the end product with the men is good enough. I added more filler and textured it. Then when it dried I painted up the bases with eight layers of acrylic. I'll do an article on that, and why I like it, at some point.

In this final picture you'll see I haven't flocked. I'm in two minds over that and may still flock small areas on the squads. If you're wondering what the two larger round bases are at the top, I had a go at objective markers, with lots of tank treads in them. They are both meant to represent a rough store area where Germans may have dumped items. I love the fact we can use our imagination for the battlefields. The barrels of my Nebelwerfers are sneaking in the bottom of the picture, but that's for another time too!