Konflikt 47: A Different Take On The Axis

This post contains spoilers for Wolfenstein The New Colossus.

While this by no means is the start of a new project; It is in part the introduction to a collection and painting idea I have and will be pursuing in the future. I have been positively enamoured with the new edition of Konflikt 47; The lore, the art and the miniatures all speak to me on that incredibly pulpy Wolfenstein-esque way. Now I have the obvious way to move forward with painting and collecting miniatures by extending my Italian collection into the year 1947. Sadly on the release they scrapped Italy as its own faction and even split the allied portion of the units between the US and the Brits. I did find a solution, but that is a story for another day. Today's post is about what I will be doing with the Axis models. I cannot deny they are amazing looking, but I really do not want to do more Nazis. The solution to this is simple and only partially inspired by Wolfenstein The New Colossus and how in it [SPOILERS!!!!] Blazkowicz is given the body of a lab grown Nazi super soldier to continue the fight against the regime. This was obviously not an idea unique to that game, but a proud tradition of resistance movements across history. Using the weapons of the enemy against them is poetic and iconic. From that my idea was born; I want to portray a resistance cell that has robbed multiple pieces of equipment and is using them against the axis. This would allow me to play using Axis models and rules, with modifications and Proxys here and there. The first attempt can be seen in this article on Tabletop Battles, I wanted to portray a suit of Stahlrüstung that was heavily battered and fixed by means less sophisticated. The suit has bits missing, a banged up camo job and is notably missing the big machine gun instead featuring a small SMG. I have yet to finish that miniature, but I think it is definitely one way I can go. Another presented itself when I received the two new Event exclusive miniatures for K47; The Stahltruppler had a lovely pose that I could modify as a standard bearer to serve as an officer in my force. This suit of armour would not be banged up though. Instead I was imagining the cell raiding a factory or transport and scavenging factory new suits of Stahlrüstungen.

Being new the suit would not be painted yet and so I wanted to give the armour a look of fresh steel plating. I admit metallics are one of my less developed skills and so I practiced a speckled look on this miniature. I cannot say I am 100% satisfied with the result, but it is definitely going in the right direction. As you can see I decided to use the masked head from the Firefly which was the other event exclusive. The thinking here is in keeping with historical precedent, that this is an allied paratrooper who joined up with the cell to guide their efforts and offer advice. I might actually try and flesh out some more concrete lore on this, but for now I can say this with certainty: The resistance cell is originally a Czech group near the German border and as such also feature a contingent of German resistance fighters which is how they managed to get these suits.

With some more colour that is not metal I think he is coming along nicely. I am uncertain yet how I want to style the Cell's iconography, but I imagine they would paint it on the chest plate to ensure these guys are identifiable in combat. That said I do think it would be fun to try and do another suit of armour that was stolen from an active unit and looks just believable enough for the cell to infiltrate the enemy perimeter without being immediately found out. I would imagine it would have a lot more scratches and dings and maybe a not so obvious bullet hole where they shot the previous inhabitant. In any case I will upload photos when I finish this officer and maybe add some more fleshed out lore. I do like that this is not going to be some major project, but an outlet for me to flex my creative muscles whenever I find a model that speaks to me. Truthfully that is how I see a lot of my painting endeavours. Thank you for reading and let me know what you think of this idea and what unique Weird War ideas you have maybe?

Quick look at the new Konflikt 47 Ursus Infantry

 

Credit: Warlord Games

I already showed off the new Automated Infantry which unexpectedly turned up at my doorstep; Well not a week later and I got another mysterious package sent by Warlord Games, inside of which was a horde of wild Ursus infantry! Truth be told I did not expect to be getting my hands on either of these kits and now that I have, I will try to make the best of it. Unlike using the Automated infantry as Italian proxies I have little interest in the Soviet Bloc faction for Konflikt 47. Instead I will turn these big burly bears(Happy Pride btw!) into something else for my own nefarious purposes.

I received a sprue each of both the claw and hammer variants, giving me six bears in total. Luckily the package also included the 40mm bases needed for them, though as you will see later, that was cutting it quite close. At first glance it is interesting to see this kit, since I believe it is my second Warlord Games plastic kit that is essentially monopose (the first are the two event miniatures for Konflikt). That being said the first issue I ran into was the lack of instructions; Now I am sure the proper box will come with one and this is just influencer problems, but sadly the usual solution of following the numbers in ascending order did not work either. And given how these have to be assembled in a specific manner, you need to do a bit of puzzling to find out. In the end I just took a hard look at the sprue and parsed which bits were what.

For my purposes I just need one of these guys assembled, so here is one of the Ursus with claws ready to be painted. My first impressions of these are that they are beautifully sculpted and feel a lot more well scaled than the previous ones(although those certainly looked more bear and these seem more human). However, these have some unseemly gaps, especially around the torso and while I did use sprue goo to fill in most of the gaps, it is still noticeable. Also as you can see this guy is barely fitting on the base thanks to his wide stance; I am sure the other guys will not have as much of an issue since their poses are more closed, but still I wanted to point it out. Now this here is not really a proper review or anything, just a quick update and first look at one of the two kits. 

But what do I have planned for this kit if not a Konflikt Ursus? Well, you will just have to wait and find out... Or you can just go to my Discord Server and find out right now, hah!