Saturday 27 February 2021

From ScottM: World War 2 Soviets (80 points)

Finished another batch of Soviets. The infantry are 28mm figs from Black Tree Design. Just standard infantry with rifles.


Also got finished this BA-64. This resin fig is from Army Group North Miniatures, who have unfortunately closed their doors. 

Really easy vehicle to paint up. Unfortunately I didn't have any decals that are adequate for Soviet vehicles.

So that should be: 
12 - 28mm foot figs = 60 points
1 - 28mm vehicle = 20 points
Total = 80 points

From ChrisF - Chamber of Darkness entry 25mm ( 25pts)

 This is a 1978 Heritage 1104-E Superhero from the Der Kreigspielers Fantastiques 1100 range.



The full set name is "Flying Gargoyle Chief Abducting Maiden from Superheros Harem", and also contained a gargoyle chief with base, and 2 maidens.


Apparently the Chief was successful as I only have the Superhero from the set. I'm guessing the others are in the possession of a friend from times past. 


This mini was painted back in the 70's ( probably with Humbrols) and was in decent shape, but I think someone needed a Paladin for gaming and had carved cross lines in the shield with an Xacto. I stripped the paint and managed to grind and buff out the lines before painting it. 


I really enjoy the old minis!
On to the Larder!








From DaveV: "They're not suits...They're Droids."

 


In Season 2 of the Disney+ television show, 'The Mandalorian', Dark Troopers were introduced as new villains for the Star Wars galactic heroes to overcome. They kidnapped Baby Yoda (Booo!), and helped defend Moff Gideon's light cruiser. These evil mooks were given a comic book origin; this third generation of trooper were no longer armoured humans, but powerful droids.

I wanted to introduce a few of these impressive troopers to our games of Star Wars Legion, but they are not manufactured by Asmodee or Atomic Mass Games. There is a strong community of sculptors and gamers out there, creating rules and figures for as yet unreleased or non-canon characters.

Accordingly, I picked up a couple of suitable 3D printed figure sets online to use as proxies: a 5-figure strong "Authority Dark Droid Squad" and a set that consisted of a "Rescuing Hero Wizard" with "Sliced Droids". For the latter two, one is crushed as if by a giant invisible hand, and the other is sliced in half from head to crotch, showing off its interior machinery. 

[The header photo above shows the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker figure I painted, fighting off a couple of Dark Troopers, as Mando & Baby Yoda (which I purchased for a fundraiser), and Sabine Wren (also my painting) prepare to deal with another.]

These 7 models are nice renders. I don't have a 3D printer, so I ordered resin prints, which had fairly subtle artifacts of printing (those horizontal lines). They are brittle; a couple arrived broken, but the resin broke clean and were easily repairable with super glue.

Studying stills from the show, they are basically black shiny armour with a few metal bits showing at the elbows and knees, with glowing red eyes and 4  lights on their chests. The armour really reflects lights sources.

After undercoating them with Chaos Black I under painted the guns with Vallejo Grey Black and painted the joints with various grey acrylics. I kept the rest simple. I arbitrarily selected a single light source located to their front and slightly to their left sides. I worked up reflections and catch points using indigo and titanium white oil paints. Other amour highlights were slightly rendered with neutral grey oil. I picked out the eyes and chest lights with GW Evil Sunz Scarlet. The sliced up one was further detailed with various orange and yellow acrylics and oils. Groundwork was Golden Garnet Gel (Fine), painted to match the sandy bases of most of my other SWL models. To finish I dirtied up their legs with Vallejo weathering powder, fixed with Vallejo Pigment Binder. 

  





In the game these models are tough, shoot a strong gun, and are fearless, but they are not strong in close combat. Plus, characters with lightsabers will trash them. There's also online social media groups for unofficial game cards.






These were fun to paint and are a menacing addition to my Star Wars Legion collection. 

Seven 40mm or 1/47 scale  figures (they're actually around 45mm tall) come in at 49 points for the Challenge.

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs French Napoleonic Light Infantry (120 points)

Life has recently got in the way of painting - these chaps have been painted for a week or so but I only just found the time to finish the bases and do a flag.

They will represent the 1st battalion of the 4th Light Infantry regiment for a Quatres Bras/100 Days Project. With 8 light battalions done - I have 2 to go. There are 8 units (4 infantry and 4 cavalry) to finish out of the total of 48  for the French side of the battle. Nearly there! Then all we need is an end to lock down and some willing volunteers to play the game.

Chasseurs

Light infantry had a similar uniform to line - but all blue and a little lighter than line French blue. The Grognards who follow these things don't like the Osprey book for the light infanty as it depicts them in a brighter bright blue than they probably had -  wargamers through the ages have presented them in a more vibrant shade than I went for here.

Voltigeurs

24 x 25mm infantry for 120 points.







from RayR - Haitian Revolution - British 69th Regt of Foot 100pts

 


There were many regular British regiments of infantry sent out to San Domingo (Haiti), during the wars from 1791 to 1804. Most knew they were sailing to their fate, not through battle but from disease. The poor devils I chose to most probably be my one and only regular British infantry regt are the 69th Foot The South Lincolnshire regiment.
Detachments from the regiment served in Europe in the early Revolutionary Wars as Marines on HMS Leviathon at the capture of Touoln in 1793, the attack on Tour de Mortella in 1794 and at the Glorious First of June in 1794. The transferred to HMS Agamemnon and served under Lord Nelon at the Battle of Genoa in 1795 and the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 


The main part of the regiment was sent to the West Indies in 1796 to take part in the Invasion of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Where almost half of them died from yellow fever!

Why the 69th you ask? No not for THAT reason, because they had green facings and I like green!


The figures are from Trent Miniatures Irish Uprising collection. Bought from Arcane Miniatures.
The figures are actually Irish Militia Pack IR98/04


I'm waiting for a flag to arrive from Flags of War, but for the moment I have printed off a flag on my printer, which isn't very good! The new flag will appear soon......I hope?

There are 20 figures @ 5 points each in the unit making that a total of 100 points! 

From Gary Amos: AB Bavarians (16x4pts = 64 pts)

 

Got fed up of painting bicornes (back on them now though), so I've skipped a project and done the light cavalry contingent for my upcoming Bavarians. The usual 18mm AB Napoleonics - nothing fancy and there are no blue diamonds in the sadle cloth borders! They'd been prepped and haunting the painting table for about a year.

The first unit is the 2nd Chevauleger Regiment 'Taxis', which had a chequered career, being a heavy dragoon regiment between 1790 and 1806, then being split and absorbed into the Nurnberg Cavalry Regiment and the Prussian Hussaren Battalion 'Von Bila'. In 1811, however, they reformed as thte 'Taxis' light cavalry regiment.

 




The second unit is the 6th Chevauleger Regiment 'Bubenhofen' and had a more settled record, simply being renumbered in 1811 from 4th to 6th.

 



If you recall, the purpose of my Bavarian contingent is to replace the Hessians in Massena's corps for the 1809 campaign to save me having to paint lots of lace and is another example of letting a bright idea run away with itself. These two regiments never actually  fought in the same brigade and were chosen more or less at random, although Bubenhofen is a hell of a name! The brigade as originally planned has become De Roy's division of 1809, plus cavalry (c1811/12!) and three batteries of artillery. Things to be aware of: don't read too much, if you don't like painting green then avoid light cavalry regiments called 'chasseurs', 'chevauleger', 'dragoons' etc. (and the Russian army in general) and don't talk to Dal Gavan cos he leads you astray.

From BruceR Pulp figures British Army Tropical Rifles 28mm 25 pts


Warmer weather and life slowing down the painting mill.
The local group (8-9 players) gets together once or twice a year for what we call GarageCon!! (pandemic permitting)
In a locals garage so naturally the winter weather has to subside.   So pushed to June due to all considerations. The plan is two days of 41 Bolt Action all in the East.  One day Eastern Front and one day Far Eastern Front.  
So along with my sailors I went digging and found a few more bags of Pulp Figures that I will draft into my Pacific British Empire Force.  

As usual these figures were great to paint as sized to my liking. The packs are titled Rugged Adventures and I agree.  I love the size and character of the figures.
These boys are obviously at the end of the supply chain or just choose to continue to wear their Wolseley Helmets instead of the Empires pie plate.
I have a few more bags of a mix of figures so I'll keep painting up for the spring and during the challenge. 





So here they are ready to attempt to confront the IJA horde.  Equipment be damned we shall rely on the standard plucky courage of his majesty's finest.

Stay safe and paint on.
5 28mm 25 pts  

 

From Martijn N: The Hatchery (26 points)

 

All my Challenge painting plans, as Moltke already famously predicted, have not survived contact with the enemy. However, having somehow succeeded in reaching my (admittedly modest) target I feel free to do more or less as I feel. And although it is very unlikely that I will get to the lowest level in time I must admit that the journey inspired my to paint things I had not even considered before. So far my first Challenge is thus a very fun experience!

For the Hatchery the protocol specifies “anything hatching - ideally, out of an egg.” So here is the very first female (of sorts, then) figure I have ever painted:

 







This figure is from the The Scourge of Valtan Forest Kickstarter and is described as a Female Half-Snake Fighter. I printed her at 80% on my resin printer but she is still the size of a 28mm figure, standing 40mm tall on her tail. She was painted using Contrast paints, but I used the corresponding washes (i.e., Dragonshade for the tail) and some drybrushing. Not sure the washes were an improvement in all cases (Leviadon Blue for instance is a very nice dark blue straight from the pot), but there you go.

As a half-snake I’m pretty sure she was hatched from an egg, perhaps from these:

 

This is my first FDM print. Not entirely happy with how it turned out, and the print lines are very visible, but I still have got a lot to learn about the right settings en post-print processing procedure. Since I had it lying around and it fits the theme I decided to paint it up anyway. Consider it a piece of alien terrain and the print lines become a feature, no? It’s on a 60mm round base and about one inch tall.



I’ll ask for a single point for the terrain piece, 5 points for the figure and 20 for the Hatchery for a total of 26 points. To the Armoury!

From JamieM: Space Bridge crew and cowgirl (30 points)

This might be a familiar position to my fellow challengers, but I find myself in the slightly frantic stage of the challenge where I have about 20 projects on the go at the same time. It seems that starting new projects is easier and more appealing than actually finishing anything...... so I decided to post what I have managed to finish.

First up a five person spaceship bridge crew from crooked dice.

Inspiration for colours is from a number of sci-fi shows.


The chap with the green hair might just have it as that’s considered fashionable in the future, or it could be yet another low budget way of showing he’s an alien.

Next up is a single cowgirl who I found based and undercoated and thus “challenge ready”.

Simple colour scheme and she’ll fit in nicely with the other Wild West figures I’ve had for years.

Nice and simple for scoring, 6 x 28mm figures for 30 points which nudges me past my challenge total.