I finally got around to painting up some mortar teams for my British Army units for Normandy. These plastic figures are great value as you get 4 complete mortars and a whole bunch of crew, radio operators and officers with binoculars. I think for under $10 a box (i picked mine up from Hannants on line) they will make an excellent mortar battery for your infantry company.
It means that you can vary your set up with each mortar and make each base a little different. The detail is not that great, but, in plastic, and for that price you cant do much better. I think other metal manufacturers will do a sharper job but you will pay lots more. The facial detail is particularly lacking and you end up almost painting features on some of them which isn’t ideal. I based my guys on MDF as usual and mixed up the poses to create four different scenes. Another blogger had given me a good tip for using gauze or crepe bandage as camo netting, so i applied some to the helmets of some of my mortar crew. A few highlights and they look pretty good. Also with my new magnifying glass i was able to paint some maps as the spotter checks his coordinates. I also added some boxes and bits and pieces. Happy the way they came out and i always prefer to have my mortars on the board. I used an officer and a radio man as the forward observer. The only thing i may change is the plastic radio aerial which is way too thick.
Below are some photos of my finished teams. Also i based my Revell Tiger tank and did some more weathering and dirt. He is in there somewhere with his buddy the Zvezda Tiger.
Colonel Mustard 
I like how you’ve managed to get enough variation so that all the teams look good together as well as on their own! I’ve found HaT figures good for filling in some gaps that I’d otherwise have trouble getting figures for and, like you say, they’re good value for money!
Your walls/railings are nice by the way! Might have to have a go at some of them!
John
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Thanks John! Yes since i have discovered AB metal figures i am super critical of anything below par. Although i was meant to be only using plastic i seem to bend the rules a bit. Have you tried CP models 20mm ranges? They look nice. The railings were just cocktail stick jammed into foam board walls. But yes came out OK! Cheers Will
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Hi Will,
I know people who’ve bought AB figures and they’ve always been impressed with them, although I don’t have any! I find I just go with the figures I need to fill the gaps in my armies, plastic or metal or even slightly bigger/smaller. I do have some CP Models late war Finns but haven’t got round to doing them – have always wanted Finns for 1944, so just bought them in case I couldn’t get them in the future (no, never used that excuse before)! They look nice figures! And then Strelets go and bring out late war Finns in plastic, so I’m spoilt for choice!
That’s a nice simple way to make those walls/railings and they look really effective. I need to make a move with French scenery, although I need it for Franco-Prusian War and early/late WW1. I’m maybe thinking 2017 should be more of a scenery year!
Cheers,
John
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