Continuing the recent reawakening of my old DAK Army project, I got out my pair of 88’s to give them the final touches that I hadn’t gotten to back in the day. Where the Univeral Carriers from the other day had quite a lot left to do on them, these artillery pieces and their crew were much closer to what I’m happy to call a finally completed state.
This (and some infantry stands that will be shown here soon that were in a similar state of almost-completion) led me to a fundamental question – one that would be silly to a non-wargamer or painter, but one that many of us really will intrinsically understand – how many models do I count these as? I mean, these artilley pieces have six crew plus the actual artillery piece. Do they count as one? Or Seven? The individually-based figures that I’m using for markers count as one each, and they are literally the same figures as these crewmen in some cases. After pondering the question for several days, I came up with an answer that satisfies me.
If a multi-based piece requires very little work to complete, it’s one. If I have to do a substantial amount on it, especially to each of the models, then it’s however many are on the base. I’ll worry about cavalry another once I start painting a bunch of them. /handball problem into the future. So for my “counting” purposes, these two pieces are two completed models.
As far as paint choices go, I found that the crewmen of the 88s in the DAK were drawn from Luftwaffe troops, and so they got the slightly lighter tones of the Luftwaffe uniforms compared to the other elements of my DAK. This also leads to the two stands being much more uniform, as the rest of the DAK infantry have a much more rag-tag appearance that I’ll discuss when I show my completed units later on.
These two stands are not the only part of this unit, as I have a few more pieces to come in the future. A pair of transport vehicles, as well as the artillery pieces’ road wheels as a pair of entirely-decorative bases to go alongside the transports.
I also designed just the slightest bit of interactivity to go between the two stands. One stand having a crewman shouting off to the side, while the other with a crewman aligned to be waving in response. Little touches like that (and the road-wheel thing that I’ll finish at some stage) keep it all interesting to me.
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Nicely done mate, I really dig the little interaction between the bases, and I applaud your plans to add the transport vehicles! I’d agree that this is 2 pieces – I tend to count based things as a single 🙂
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Thanks mate, though I agree that it’s two pieces, it’s very solidly 6 figures plus an arty model. Just counting it as two as it was so close to finished, though.
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Very nice mate and different to what you usually post. 😊
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Thanks mate. I’ve got quite the variety of half-painted models! 😉
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These are great! Did you paint the bases first then glue painted crew on after? Or assemble everything first?
Everyone is glued in place, so they’re two miniatures.
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Thanks! Glued crew down down, then basing material to cover their little base lips, then sand and paint, then the 88 frames glued on top of that, then paint, then final 88 assembly, then more paint.
As for how many they are – Nah, they are two pieces that incorporate 7 distinct miniatures each.
Otherwise any diorama or 28mm crew-served artillery, etc regardless of size or number of models are also “one miniature”. As then is a multibased unit for KoW or anything else simply by virtue of glue.
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Having said all that – these didn’t require much work at all so I’m only going to count them as two. But later on there will be others that will be five at a time. Might be the only way I can keep motivated to finish a 15mm army… 🙄
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These are very nice! I’d spotted early on that you’d varied the crew so that the two bases looked different, but the figure shouting across to his mate is a nice touch indeed. Your definition of the model count seems sound to me!
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Thanks John. I figured that for a mostly-static unit is makes them more fun to do them as mini-dios that have some interaction with one another. 🙂
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They look great- they’ll add a loty of fire support to a German force.
For the record I’d count the men and gun separtately.
Cheers,
Pete.
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My next few FoW models that I get painted will all be individuals for model count purposes, but after that, I’ll be back to doing “proper” stands again. That is, if I can retain interest in the scale beyond the next few models…
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More great Flames of War minis! I love the two guys calling to each other. It really adds some character to the army. I don’t have much passion/interest in WWII but it is awfully tempting seeing these cool minis you’re painting 🙂
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Thanks Kuribo. I find that nice models from almost any genre or period can kinda hook me in visually, though a lot of what you end up actually buying and painting comes down to what people around you are playing, as well. At the time, my group was all getting into FoW and it was actually a pretty fun game as well.
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That is very true! I know many people (probably wisely) will only buy and paint what their friends will play or there are tournaments for. I play mostly solo so I’m drawn towards stuff that can work well in that regard (which is its own narrow focus, I suppose). FoW definitely looks fun and I’d give their Great War game a go if I had someone else to play who was interested. Keep up the painting (and the articles) as it is fun to see what you’re working on!
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Yeah. I actually have at least 3-4 unpainted armies worth of FoW models. (Maybe more, I dunno how large a “typical” army is – especially in 2019) but without any regular opponent(s), there’s little motivation to do more than finish this force. The same goes for all too many of the forces and teams and gangs and whatnot in my collection these days – so I mostly settle for painting and then hammering the painted models into valid armies for their respective games.
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That is an impressive collection! The longer I paint, the more I recognize the need for variety in what I paint so I think bouncing around to whatever is speaking to you at that moment is absolutely the way to go. It keeps content on your website interesting and appealing to a wide number of people because you never know what is in the pipeline next 🙂
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Not so impressive when they’re mostly unassembled sprues in sealed boxes, though! Having a lot of “armies” and games and armies within those games and then nice figures “just to paint” keeps a large variety and does help a lot to keep me interested. I still can’t even bear the thought of painting more Moria Goblins or Gondorians right now, and I did my bulk paints of those a few years ago now, so there’s always a danger of burnout when you go into a faction too hard, or so I’ve found!
So yeah, my stuff here as I paint it is pretty unfocused, but it hopefully keeps it interesting for a variety of people since – as you say – the next thing up could be almost anything.
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Change of pace for you man. Very well done indeed
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Thanks mate. Like so much else, I need to try and get more of it done when I can.
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Ah, the venerable 88. These look fantastic, and the desert painting is so very well done – epic man. As for your question about counting – my rule is simple – can it be killed or would its loss affect the unit in the game. If so, it’s separate. I don’t count tank crewmen in my 15mm tanks, but if I build a say, mortarduck section/crew, with a duck mortar, and three crewducks for Combat Patrol, that’s 4 for me.
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Vehicle crew can be one thing (but what happens when they’re removable or modular?) Here’s the thing with multibased models, though – where is the line? Surely something like this (not mine) isn’t “two models” by anyone’s metric? (simply by having them all glued down to two bases instead of thirty).
…hence why I’m good with using my own definition(s) as needed for my own models, regardless of who disagrees. 😉
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No worries I think we all need our own definitions – what about this: https://markamorin.com/2015/04/26/the-world-of-greyhawk-9-cavemen-cairn-hills-minifigs-circa-1980/
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They might be glued down to only 3 bases, but you’ve painted 18 distinct, individually cast models there! 🙂
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Nice! Love what you’ve done with the crews, they have a great sense of action about them, which you don’t necessarily see too often in big static artillery pieces.
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Well – this is my 2019 1st 6 month total : https://wordpress.com/page/markamorin.com/9638
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