10mm World War II - introduction

If you follow me on Twitter (@alex_and__a) you may have seen over the last month my painting of some 10mm Bolt Action forces.  I haven't shared them here yet as I'm awaiting some basing materials - but I really enjoyed the process of painting them; far more than many things I've painted recently, so I decided to expand further into this hobby area!

Whilst I'm still not a rivet counter, it has been fun researching a bit about a range of forces - I'm not aiming for absolute accuracy or to recreate specific engagements from history.  For me, this overarching project, and the smaller sub-projects, are about having lots of interesting, fun and varied forces to maximise different painting and gaming experiences.

So far everything has been sourced from Pendraken's excellent WWII range - I'm not ruling out other sources, but so far Pendraken has had what I've needed and they are great value!

Far East - 1000pts British and Japanese 
This was the project that started it all off - it was a small project to show respect in some small way for those who fought in the Far East that are often overlooked compared to other theatres.  I'm just waiting on some trees and foliage to come then I'll crack on with the basing and some specific terrain features for this sub-project.

Black's Division goes Nazi Hunting - 550pts Partisans and Germans
I've mentioned my intention to do a small project covering Black's Division - a partisan force headed up by a Romani hero, Josef Serinek.  I've used the general Partisan list to plot a 'what if' force (eg. what if Josef and his partisans got a bit more equipment to go hunt down some Nazis), and I have got miniatures from both the WWII and Spanish Civil War ranges to suit a ragtag look.  The Germans will hopefully get butchered every single time (I've headed up their list 'target practice') - but I have given them a SdKfz 222, presumably as a show of force to terrorise the locals and provide Black's Division with a trophy target!

Operation Compass - 1000pts British and Italian
I decided I wanted to include a project including an Italian force - and thought it would be interesting to head to the Western Desert and have a couple of Operation Compass themed forces.  To increase variety across all the projects I elected to make these two lists as Armoured Brigades so they each feature five tanks and an armoured car (I do like armoured cars so plenty of these sub-projects include them!) alongside some supporting infantry in transports.

Eastern Front - 1000pts Romanian and Soviet
I wanted something from the Eastern Front (yes, I know Black''s Division would be Eastern Front, but something a bit more 'properly' military).  The Soviets were an obvious choice, but to go a little different I checked out the range of various Axis powers that were involved and saw that Pendraken had a varied range - that made up my mind; Romanians!  This is another 'what if' force in that I've included a Panther for the Romanians - but it was as much to include an SU-85 for the Soviets to allow for an armoured clash as the Russians go tank hunting!

Continuation War - 800pts Finnish and Soviet

When I found out that the Finns called the StuG 'Sturmi' I knew I wanted to have a small project as an excuse to have one!  Of course they had to be against their bitter enemy in the Soviets - this project will be a good excuse to have snowy bases!

Blitzkrieg - 900pts French and Germans
To represent Western Europe I opted for the French - putting this project into the early war provides a different German experience too.  I definitely wanted a Char 2C - there's something really cool about that titanic tank! 

These sub-projects are all in varied states - and I'm not ruling out others if the inspiration strikes!  Oh, and as for the sometimes odd point values - that's because for some I made a list of what I thought would be cool for that sub-project and it came out at that weird number for one of the sides, so I made the opposing list to match!