Monday 25 February 2019

From Dave X: More bad men in 20mm (16 points)

A bit of a quiet week for me in terms of finishing figures but I am halfway through the next bonus round and painting up next Monday's submission.

This week I bring 4 more bad men from Elhiem Figures in 20mm.

These Taliban are really lovely sculpts.  Now I am not a gun person and according to the Elhiem Website there are 4 LMGs here, 1 x RPD, 2 x RPK and 1 x PKM.  Perhaps one of our American Friends can point out what is what :)

These will net me 16 points in 20mm



My Favourite paint jobs and sculpts so far from my Elhiem Taliban.
 Rather chuffed with the evil look in their eyes.


Lovely stuff, Dave. I hadn't appreciated you've been painting their eyes! A quick 16 points to you.

Barks

From JohnM: Carnevale:The Guild (45 points)

Please bear with me for some more figures from the Carnevale Kickstarter. The figures from the set are almost done but next week, I promise to have something different.

These are The Guild, the citizens of Venice, who are I would suppose the protagonists in the game. Character descriptions and stats can be found here.
Capodecina-A Leader
Fishermen-The Heros
The Gondilier- A Henchmen
Citizens-Henchwomen
Citizens-Henchmen
Pucinella
I will try to get some WWII done for next week with hopefully some terrain.

Well done on your Carnevale progress. This is your most 'conventional' batch yet. I like the purposeful stride of the leader, and the henchwomen are the best-dressed minions we've seen in a long time- I've tagged them for Lady S's review.

Barks

From AlanD: Jugoslavian Partisans (70 points)

My current shiny obsession continues to be WWII Jugoslavian Partisans, so much of this week has been spent converting figures.



Tito's Partisans are very interesting to model, partly because their appearance varied so much. In 1941 the first partisans often wore civilian clothing or ex-Jugoslav Army uniforms, along with whatever they captured from the enemy. After the Italian capitulation in 1943, large quantities of Italian uniforms and equipment fell into partisan hands, and from mid-1944 large quantities of British battledress and equipment was being supplied by the allies. Partisans in Bosnia and Croatia often made use of captured Domobran (Croatian army) uniforms, which were themselves originally old Jugoslav Army uniforms, but increasingly supplied by Germany as the war went on. As the Red Army invaded from the east, Soviet uniforms and equipment were issued to some Partisan brigades. As the war went on, Partisan HQ also attempted to standardise uniform as much as possible, which really meant just trying to introduce uniform cap styles and rank insignia.






By 1945 the Partisans also fielded two tank brigades, the 1st, supplied with M3A3 Stuart tanks and AEC armoured cars by the allies, and the 2nd supplied by the Red Army with T34/85s. They also made use of a wide variety of captured vehicles that originated in France, Italy and Germany.

This week I have painted up a lovely model from Company B of an M3A3 from the 1st Tank Brigade, with converted crew in British battledress from the Warlord games plastic box set.





The infantry this week are from Black Tree Design and Warlord British, German and Russian infantry, chopped about and greenstuffed as appropriate. This little lot should give me 20 points for the tank, 40 for the infantry, and say another 8 for the tank crew?



Lovely stuff, Dux! We're all enjoying this little history lesson- what was your day job again?! I like the crew hanging out of the Stuart, it really helps give a sense of scale. The handpainted markings and floral bases are your signature. I'm glad to award a few bonus points for the conversions and markings.

Barks

From MikeW: 28mm Bretons and 17th Century Spanish 20mm VBCW (181 Points)

I'm trying to concentrate on a couple of projects this week, however, somehow I doubt I'll be able to keep focused! First I have a pile of Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age figures - which I have had kicking around for some time. My aim is to build these as Bretons to fight alongside their Norman allies at the Battle of Hastings.

Plastic frames awaiting assembly
There are six frames of five figures on each and I was able to rummage through my spares box to find enough spare 'Norman heads', heads with helmets and kite shields to make 21 Bretons.

A number of the spare heads were from the Saxon Warrior box, sounds fiddly (and t was) but using a sharp modelling knife  - I cut off any mustaches from the Saxon heads as the Normans at the time were clean shaven...

Battle Fag Transfers
In my mind,the Bretons are the poorer cousins of the Normans, keen to follow Norman fashion but not quite at their level, not  sure about the historical accuracy of this assumption but I will have their men not quite so well equipped and so these generic Dark Age warrior types can make up their back ranks, giving the units a distinctive look and feel.

The figures are based on 2 pence pieces and so once glued on, I undercoated in white before painting the little guys in largely muted colours - although I have done one in red, a couple in maroon and a few in light or dark blue.

I used shield transfers on these figures and then painted over with matte varnish. Figures were based in my normal manner.

First Line of 7 Bretons

Second Line of Bretons

Third Line of Bretons
These photos taken just before i sprayed the figures with matt varnish, to remove the shine


Calculations: 21 x 28mm Foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 105 Points

Next item are 4 x 28mm 17th Century Spanish Musicians from The Morados Viejos, or "Old Purples", this unit originated in 1632 as the Tercio de Sevilla, or Regiment of Seville, and was the oldest "standing" Tercio in service through to the early 1700s.

The figures are from Phoenix Miniatures, previously available from North Star but sadly these seem to have disappeared from sight about 18 months ago. I have a regiment of the 'Old Purples' already painted-up, I thought I'd add a small vignette of some musicians playing to add colour to the table top, not that colour was in short supply for Spanish armies of the period - each Tercio being uniformed in separate distinctive colours!

Spanish Musicians from the 'Old Purples' Tercio

So in the group is a drummer, 2 fifers and a piper - yes the Bagpipes were a reasonably common musical installment of the period and not limited to the Scottish Highlands!

Figures were undercoated in white and painted in my normal way, then based on an 80 x 40mm base. Job Done!

Calculations: 4 x 28mm Foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 20 Points


Raw plastic figures
Next item are a group of WW1 British Infantry, heavy Weapons Squad, painted up for my VBCW project. Alsofound were a group of  4mounted figures, believe these were with the Artillery set and these are going to be pressed into service as VNCW Cavalrymen.
Again they represent the Liverpool Workers Council and again they are from a plastic HaT set.

Liverpool Workers Council Heavy Weapons Team
There is a two man mortar team, a two man HMG team, a prone two mane Lewis Gun team and an officer, all painted in same manner as I did the Field Gun in a previous post.

BTW, I found another Field Gun team, which I will tackle in a future week...

Mounted Figures

Calculations: 5 x 20mm Foot figures @ 4 Points ea = 20 Points
                        2 x 20mm Prone Figures @ 2 Points ea =  4 Points
                        4 x 20mm Mounted Figures @ 8 Points ea = 32 Points
                        Total 56 Points
Next Batch of 17th Century Figures,
incl Spanish 
Musicians

Final item I have started is another 28 man 17th century Saxon Infantry Unit, this time it will be representing Röbel's Regiment, and is basically a repeat of the previous regiment I painted up but this time with Green facings to the coat.

I mention it here to 'force' myself to do the painting! Even if it's in between other items I may decide to paint up, who knows if I'll get them finished this week!


Calculations: 21 x 28mm Foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 105 Points
                          4 x 28mm Foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 20 Points
                          5 x 20mm Foot figures @ 4 Points ea = 20 Points
                          4 x 20mm Mounted Figures @ 8 Points ea = 32 Points
                          2 x 20mm Prone Figures @ 2 Points ea =  4 Points
                          TOTAL = 105 + 20 +20 +32 +4 = 181 Points

Whoof! Thank you for supplying the calculations for this week's typically varied entry! I, too, have a bunch of Dark Age plastics waiting for some painting love. I don't know if I'd have the patience to carve off their moustaches though... I like your Spanish musicians inflicting the pipes on the foe! The basing really sets off the VBCW figures. A great entry all round!

Barks

Monday's Children roll the dice

Hello all, happy Monday! Mike's got a big variety entry with bagpipes in Spain, Dux will educate you on Jugoslavia, John's staying on course in the Venetian canals, and Dave challenges you to ID some MGs!

I made a dice tray using a 23x23cm Ribba frame from IKEA, with some green felt behind it. It took me seconds, and it looks very sophisticated in the Barks Bunker. My dice are now guaranteed to roll better!
That's one Standard Terrain Cube, and with the not-actually-terrain penalty and being unpainted, I ask Curt to add 0 points to my total, thanks.

Barks

Duels Update with 4 weeks to go

Less than 4 weeks to go, and some serious numbers are being reported at the usual place here

I haven't received updates from everyone though, so check your scores and shoot me an update as required.

Next tally up will be with 2 weeks to run, to inform the gallop to the end post!

The 'Water Feature' Theme Results are In!


Hi All!


The votes are in for our 'Water Feature' bonus round! We were dunked in the deep end with all manner of islands, sprites and elementals. Thanks to all the participants for their wonderful entries.


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First up, for our Honorary Mentions, we have:

Sander's 'All Aboard!'



MilesR's 'The Spawning Pool'




MartinN's 'Over the Channel and far, far away...'



Great work you three!
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In Third position, for 25 bonus points, we have:

Tamsin's wonderfully cheeky 'Lady Sarah'






In Second place for 50 bonus points:

Byron's creepy calamari 'The Gutter Friar'





And, in First Place, for 75 bonus points and a gift certificate from Mr. Lee's Miniatures, we have Stefan's wonderfully menacing 'Type VIIc U-Boat'





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Congratulations and a big THANK YOU to all our participants for making this Bonus Round a success! Bravo folks!

If you're interested in seeing the voting results, they can be found here.

Now, let's get our submissions done for our last theme round, 'Fellowship'. All entires are due by midnight Saturday - I will have the gallery up on Sunday. Chop! Chop!

Cheers!



Curt