Xmas activities: gifts for the offspring

Although not many posts this fall, painting has continued unabated. Most my pre-Xmas months the last few years have been taken up with putting together hobby Xmas gifts for the family. And this year has been no exception. For Captain Dan in the wilds of New Brunswick, I decided to add some non-military pieces to his burgeoning AWI collection. Since he uses exclusively Perry Miniatures for his collection, I decided to order up some civilians and carts to populate the plantation house I whipped up for him a couple of years ago.

Large farm cart from Perry Miniatures. 

I decided to use only the single horse rather than the two supplied to reduce the footprint and avoid and base warpage. The bases of all are unfinished for Captain Dan to match to his collection.

Small farm cart from Perry Miniatures. 

I decided to spruce up the colours and used GW green contrast paint on the wood.

And some rural denizens for the plantation house.

For offspring #1, I chose to put together the start of a Romanian WWII force. While at Fall In! in Pennsylvania earlier this fall, we had picked up a squad pack of Romanians from Great Escape Games. Unfortunately, once home and on my desk, I realized quickly that I couldn't bring myself to paint the figures. First of all, the sculpts were not to my taste at all, somewhat stubby and lacking in character. That could have been overlooked if the casting quality had not been quite horrendous. I struggled through cleaning four or five figures before chucking the lot in a box in disgust. This is the 21st century, yes? Given the casting quality with other manufacturers in the industry, excessive flash and highly-prominent mold lines are ...frankly... unacceptable. Anyway, over to the interwebs and I ordered up some of the beautiful Empress Miniatures Romanians. They arrived forthwith and I was quite pleased. Beautiful sculpts, minimal mold lines, and no flash at all.

One section of Romanian infantry (late war organization mirroring the German model). Also included are an Sd222 armoured car and StugIII in Romanians colours. These were donated to the cause by Vidal, fully assembled and primed, both from (I believe) Warlord Games. Decals are from Company B. I particularly like the blue fenders on the StugIII, as discovered in numerous references.