Book Review: Painting Wargame Figures, WWII In The Desert, Andy Singleton.

The way the title of this book is presented - Painting Wargame Figures, WWII In The Desert - is suggestive of a series. But I found no mention of this being the case. So I'm not sure if this is part of a series that will cover more of WWII, or is simply a stand-alone title.

The Desert War in North Africa isn't a part of WWII that I'm attracted to. But nevertheless, when offered the chance to review this, I jumped at it. And within a few paragraphs author Andy Singleton was already addressing issues that I was pleased to see mentioned, as they affect me very heavily, such as motivation when painting large quantities of figures.

In his introduction, and then in Part One: Basics, which comprises chapters called Tools of the Trade and Boot Camp, Singleton tackles getting set up and started, and also makes it clear that he's addressing his book, in the main, to entry-level folk. But of course he hopes us more grizzled types might also benefit.

A spread showing an American figure being painted.

Part Two: Painting Guides comprises six chapters, four on the various national forces (British & Commonwealth, Italian, US and German), one on camouflage (specifically the splinter camo' of the German fallschirmjäger), and one on basing. Each of the four national painting guides is further split into three levels: Conscript, Regular and Elite, which as you'd imagine moves from basic to advanced in aptly named stages.

Even though he's covering a theatre I'm less keen on, it's interesting to see how someone who works as a professional figure painter does things. I already use some of the techniques he uses, from priming figures with car spray paint to blocking in base coats, dry-brushing, washes, and so on. So for me there wasn't really anything significantly new here. 

That said, whilst many of his colour choices - and like the author I use Vallejo acrylics as my mainstay - are similar to or even the same as my own (inasmuch as the they overlap with my preferred European areas of interest in WWII) there were some that were of interest to me, such as the use of Vallejo 803 Brown Rose as a base colour for flesh.

A German figure, over black primer (no!).

The figures Andy paints in the book are all 28mm, with a lone 20mm exception. And in his list of manufacturers at the back of the book he only deals with 28mm, 20mm and 15mm scales. My own WWII forces are almost entirely 1/72, or 20mm, with a small smattering of 1/76. But years ago I had a German army of sorts in 1/300, a scale not mentioned at all in this book. And of course these days there's also 10mm, or larger scales like 40mm and 54mm, etc.

But, as Singleton says, the tools, methods and techniques used here could be applied to most if not all other scales, albeit in potentially differing degrees. A5 in format, approximately 150 pages long, the text is quite large, and the book is, as you'd hope and expect, heavily illustrated, largely with photos illustrating the step by step painting processes, this is a quick and easy read. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours.

There's a definite emphasis on simple practical advice, with a view to getting your miniatures painted and ready for action. That's all to the good. I don't know if somehow I missed it, but I was looking forward to the part where he was going to address motivation: 'I'll come back to talking about batch painting when we come to the 'keeping motivated' part of this book'. As that's a very live issue for me, my 6mm and 10mm Napoleonic armies languishing on the lead pile as they are. However, having made this mention of motivation, I don't recall seeing it addressed at any later point.

A Brit/Commonwealth soldier, showing basing methods.

Most of the figures are primed in white or grey, a method I now use myself. However, he does his German Africa Korps figure (not the later fallschirmjäger) over a black primer base. I used to prime in black at one time. I think it was a Games Workshop thing, or maybe Peter Gilder did it? I believe the idea was that it helped pre-shade, and potentially delineate stuff. But studying Anthony Barton's beautifully sculpted and painted figures cured me of that! A black base dulls the following paint layers, whereas white or pale grey allows the colours to sing more openly/brightly.

I'd like to see similar titles on European theatres of WWII, and it'd be great if they addressed other scales, and perhaps even included the assembly and painting of resin figures. If like me you're building forces around 1/72 and 1/76 model tanks and other vehicles, resin figures from Milicast, Dan Taylor and the many Eastern European brands in these scales are a great improvement on the more 'quaintly old-fashioned' soft plastic 20mm figures that used to be a mainstay in this scale.

As Andy Singleton himself and the book jacket blurb says, there's an emphasis on 'achievable results', which should make this a very useful book for its target audience. For that goal, I'd score this four out of five. But for me, as a fussy and longer of tooth modeller and painter, and what with a few editorial gaffes (the usual spelling/grammar stuff, plus a few places where steps appear to be missing in certain guides), I'm going within three and a half balkenkreuz.

Left, Commonwealth painted to Elite level; Italian Bersaglieri at right.

Film Review: They Who Dare, 1954

Warning: spoilers.

Set in 1942, They Who Dare tells the story of a British Commando Raid on Rhodes, the goal of which is to simultaneously attack and destroy two German airfields, thereby lessening the Luftwaffe presence/threat in the North African theatre, as Monty prepares for El Alamein.

Directed by Lewis Milestone [1], and filmed in Cyprus, in bright technicolor, the intense sun and saturated colour give the film a very strong visual look, which I love. Dirk Bogarde plays Lieut. Graham, a plummy British officer leading a tiny group, comprising just ten men: six British soldiers, two Greek officers, and two local Greeks as guides. 

Lt. Graham (Bogarde, right) and his team. Denholm Elliot at left.

A nice contemporary promo card.

After a briefing on the Greek sub that will drop them off, at which blood red wine is spilt over the map - an ill augur, perhaps? - the mission gets off to a shaky start. First they find their eagerly anticipated water source has dried up, and then Patroklis, one of the local guides, jeopardises the mission by visiting his family, which in turn leads to one of the Greek officers with the expedition injuring himself, whilst trying  to stop him.

The first priority becomes getting water, which proves nigh on impossible. Bogarde gets into a funk, and is ready to return to the rendezvous and scrap the whole mission. But Patroklis' sister and two local shepherd boys come to the rescue, with a priest and a donkey loaded with provisions [2]. The mission is back on. The group splits into two teams, and separates, to do the job.

A selection of attractive period posters for the film. [3]

Bogarde - who I often find rather unsympathetic; he frequently plays abrasively self important characters - is, true to form, a bit of a toff cock. His derring-do at the airfield ends up raising the alarm. And then after that they freak out a nun at the church where they're supposed to rendezvous. She ends up ringing the church bells, thereby blowing their cover. However, that's not all that's blown. 

Mission accomplished?

Bogarde's six man team is down three men, and of those left one is the wounded Greek officer, whereas the other team, lead by caricature-sketching Lieut. Stevens, R.N, are all ok. But they all still have to get back to the rendezvous with the sub. This part of the film is every bit as tense and exciting as the mission itself. And mishap piles upon mishap, such that you anticipate all will be killed or captured. Anyway, I'll leave the plot synopsis there, not wanting to give it all away.

Bogarde, irritating but charismatic. Totally believable as an officer class type. [4]

The delightfully named Alec Mango, as Patroklis, visits his relatives.

As much as I dislike a Bogarde's character, he does have onscreen charisma. A young Denholm Elliot also turns in a strong performance. Many of the other characters verge on caricature, from the portly, jovial Pappodopolous (Eric Pohlman [5]), Captain of the sub, to the rank and file Commandos, with their 'salt of the earth' banter. Having said this, all play their parts well, for all that, and they are a likeable bunch.

The Germans are, in fact, mostly Italians, including the planes. The vehicles look like a strange mish mash, but I didn't see anything beyond uniforms and guns that I recognised as definitely German, or even Italian (except the aforementioned planes). But whilst such issues of inauthentic matériel help ruin a film like Battle of the Bulge, they don't do such damage to this film.

A Daimler Scout Car, badly disguised as an Axis AC.

In many ways this is run of the mill stuff, based around British pluck of a David vs. Goliath variety. But something about it - perhaps the realism of a mission dogged by so many unforeseen problems, perhaps in part the actors, or maybe even primarily the visual side? - makes it somewhat more singular. Not an out and out classic, by a long chalk, but a strong film in its own way.

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NOTES:

[1] Milestone is most famous for the 1930 version of All Quiet On The Western Front. He also directed another film I recently watched and reviewed here, A Walk In The Sun.

[2] Let's be clear: the priest is part of the donkeys' load, he's not carrying anything! In fact, why did they bother? They should've left the priest and loaded more provisions in the donkey. I think the useless priest is included to add local Greek Orthodox colour! Speaking of which, the flute-tooting shepherd boys also serve that purpose. At one point a particularly striking looking young shepherd even contrives to save the Commandos from capture via his mellifluous noodling!

[3] I really wanted to find some pictures of the opening and closing scenes on board the sub. But, aside from the bottom left image to which this footnote is appended, I couldn't find anything usable.

[4] Self-assuredly confident they're born to lead, no matter how badly they do the job!

[5] Pohlman's submarine Capt, whilst a caricature, is endearing. I knew I recognised him. But I couldn't place him. Turns out he's 'The Fat Man' in The Return of the Pink Panther!

Film Review: Battle of Neretva, 1969

It's great that nowadays we can now get hold of films from Eastern Europe and what was once 'behind the iron curtain' pretty easily. I recently enjoyed the five film Russian epic, Liberation, and I also have the legendary Come & See in my pending pile.

Battle of Neretva is a multinational effort, released in 1969, about Yugoslav partisans under Tito, and follows the fate of these Communist guerrillas as they fight the Germans and their various allies, who include Italians and Chetniks.

There's a great scene near the beginning of the film showing numerous italian troop types disembarking from a train.

In some ways this film suffers from propagandistic oversimplification, markedly more so than the Soviet Liberation series. And yet it also shows both sides, sometimes even with a degree of equanimity. It certainly doesn't baulk at depicting the horrors of war, and inhumane acts are committed by both sides.

Orson Welles as the Chetnik Senator.

And in showing the Chetniks - lead by Orson Welles! - it reflects the ethnic and political divisions within a country that was made up of many nationalities, and was being fought over by even more nationalities, some indigenous, some not. The Chetnik army is mainly tribal cavalry, which is interesting to see.

Despite the poor transfer quality (from video!) [1], some pretty wooden acting, a soundtrack that - despite the film thankfully being subtitled [2] - has the feel of being dubbed, being rather long (and feeling it), and not being particularly smoothly constructed, in narrative terms, Battle of Neretva still has much to recommend it.

Yul Brynner, as engineer Ivan Vlado, and Lozje Rozman (also an Ivan!) [3].

For starters there are a number of decent actors, some familiar to us (from the world famous Orson Welles and Yul Brinner, to what might be called the WWII famous, such as Curd Jurgens and Hardy Kruger), some not. Then there's the epic scale of it. And finally there's the story it tells, of a very multinational conflict in a theatre of war generally ignored in the Western movie tradition.

It's out of this latter aspect that the best aspects of the film derive: some of the mountainous landscapes, with patches of forest and ancient towns and villages, are really amazing, and much of the fighting occurs in daunting terrain, or appalling weather. There's lots of snow and mud!

Milena Dravic, as partisan comrade Nada.

The real McCoy... scary!

Women are active participants, which is interesting, as is the theme of the partisans looking after their wounded, including the 'typhus people'. Typhus sufferers are portrayed almost as one imagines medieval plague sufferers were viewed, as 'holy madmen', particularly in the character of Bosko. Aspects of the folkloric parts of the indigenous cultures - folksongs, costumes and dances - are also included, which is also interesting. 

The uniforms and equipment are as diverse as the mixed ethnicities. Some will be annoyed by the use of Russian (and even American!) tanks as German - there a few tanks disguised (fairly poorly) as Tiger I's. But on the other hand, in terms of small-arms and artillery, it's quite impressive. The frequent use of Axis MG34/42 type guns in a mobile hand-held Rambo-like manner is quite something!

A German Sherman!

A German T-34!

Not sure if the car is genuine Axis/German materiél. But at least they tried to disguise some of the T-34s as Tiger Is. 'Tis only a pity they didn't do more in that line.

The combat scenes are spectacular. No expense was flared, and large amounts of Russian armour and other vehicles were used. Many of the battles are odd in one way or another, for example with individuals duelling over long distances. But they are, for the most part, large in scale, pretty (sometimes very) exciting, and generally quite impressive, if not always entirely credible. There are also several non-combat set-pieces that are pretty stunning.

So, all things considered, a very mixed bag. Hopefully one day we'll see a better version, in terms of image and soundtrack quality. But it's an interesting film about an interesting and less well-known (to us) part of WWII. 

Definitely worth checking out.

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NOTES:

[1] When the DVD arrived I initially thought it might be a pirated copy, as the images of the stars - even those used in the cover montage image, but especially those that comprise the trio of 'portraits' atop the cover - looked grainy, as if they'd been photocopied! 

[2] As with most Eastern Bloc/Eastern European subtitled films I've seen thus far, the subtitles aren't brilliantly done. They are, however, at least a lot crisper (and thus easier to read) than the film image itself!

[3] Slovenian actor Lojze appears on the right of the three cover portraits; under his picture German actor Hardy Krüger's name is given!