The Most Dangerous Man in Europe- Bolt Action

I've been coveting the Stoessi's Heroes figures for a while now.  It's an exceptional range of miniatures based on notable persons from both the Axis and Allied powers during the Second World War.  Recently I made my first order and before even opening it was impressed by the excellent service and rapid delivery of the package.

The three models themselves are wonderful, characterful sculpts demonstrating the artist's deft hand, eye for detail and passion for the subject.  The castings were crisp and technically sound with minimal flash.  I started with the Otto Skorzeny figure and decided to paint him as pictured in the Osprey plate above.  The illustration is based on a photograph of taken in February 1945 at the Schwedt bridgehead.

    

You may notice the figure by the Osprey plate is painted in sand tones.  I hadn't tackled pea pattern camouflage before and faced it with some trepidation.  I knew that the colours would have to be diffused in order to make the various elements muddle together properly so I applied the scheme as glazes and thinned painted over the neutral canvas. An orange brown glaze was painted over the sand coloured base colours.  This was followed up with "peas" of thinned brown rose.  Of all the work I did on the figure these stages were definitely what I was most proud of.  It's a shame because I dropped the ball adding the brown striping over top of my best work!  The chocolate brown I chose as the outline to the black brown markings didn't have sufficient contrast to stand out.  While I will happily use the glaze and peas recipe again I must reconsider where I went wrong.  If I try to reproduce the whole pattern on other figures I will try a flat earth outline around the black brown which should provide enough separation that the two distinct tones will read more clearly. 

 

To finish the model I went to work on the base.  Prior to priming the figure I had used a Greenstuffworld roller to make a cobble pattern on the epoxy groundwork.  I enjoy working with Warlord's shallow lipped 25s.  The "pan" gives you some room to build a little earth up and the lip enframes it all, and it still manages to present a low profile on the table.  The roller impressions look good but I've always felt the joins looked a bit artificial.  Turns out that was on me.  I recently started playing with pigments again.  I'd never been happy with the seemingly random results but tried two techniques that I think worked out all right.  I premixed a dun coloured pigment with alcohol and applied it  to the joins.  The medium seeped the material into the cracks and once it dried looked fairly convincing.  I also drybrushed a brick dust mixture onto the deep red brick and detritus I added to the base.  With very little effort I was impressed by the result.  I had been looking for a basing solution that suggested urban fighting and will probably be adopting this method across the Hohenstaufen project.

In Bolt Action the figure would make an excellent officer to lead Hohenstaufen.  I wouldn't want to use him as Skorzeny himself because it would just seem odd.  K-47 is another matter entirely.  Such a larger than life character begs to be part of a pulp/alt history timeline.  With the Reich still standing in '47 his exploits would be fuel for the propaganda machine.  In dark mirror moment for the Golden Age of Radio I imagine boys dressed in Hitler Youth uniforms crowded around a vintage radio and listening intently to the Sturmmann Skorzeny Adventure Hour.  I could see him as CO of an SS Shocktrooper Division.

After completing Skorzney I still have Walter Koch and Mariya Oktyabrska to paint.  I intend to use the Koch model as an officer should I decide to expand my German forces with Fallschirmjagers.  Depending on our success later this year with a campaign in Western Europe we have been considering Africa or the Med as a theatre and the airborne would be my force of choice.  Oktyabrska is nearer in the painting queue.  I would probably have painted her already but I would hate to add the crew version of her to a tank that is already well on the way to completion.  As soon as I acquire another T-34 it has her name on it.  I shouldn't be looking before I have these new additions completed but I hope to order Simone Segouin and Nancy Wake at some point.  The SOE agent and Resistance fighter in their civilian dress would be a welcome diversion from all of the uniforms I've been painting lately.