From EdwardG: Last sprint and a smattering of production [Overdue and Returns] (357.5pts)

Hej hej all,

Sadly it is finally here, Spring. I cannot believe how quickly this challenge has gone. Its been inspirational to see all of your minis and thank you all so much for the kind comments give posted on my few entries.  I've been rather poor at completing minis this challenge. I've had half painted minis sitting around the painting desk since December, and they're still there! 😀 Partly to blame is my disjointed painting time, but most of it stems from a rather terrible "oooh shiney" infection. 

So without further dithering and fluff, I present my final offering to the great 14th Challenge:

- A Spanish 15mm DBA army

- More 6mm Napoleonics

- A fraction of my Cold War British 6mm target

Starting from the bottom of the list, I present the Cold War 6mm British. I'd had high hopes of getting those project fully completed this year, but not to be. The project started before COVID and in the time to the start of the challenge I'd only managed to get one Regiment of Challenger tanks off the painting table.  The rest of the minis have sat in varying stages of primed and bare metal. Which means that the painted miniatures below don't look at all coherent! Hopefully it's not too obvious, and in the end I blame the British Army Paint procurement process ;)

The Orbat below is one I've been studying and tinkering with for a while. The basis is the British 3rd Armoured Division of the BAOR in 1985. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information on this Division on the Web for this time period. The reason I picked the 3rd Division in 1985 is because it was the only moment when I could find the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (QRIH) and a Guards battalion on the same Orbat in Germany. I've a family connection to the QRIH and the Guards. Both of my grandfathers (sadly both now passed) were officers on each one, respectively. My father's father was commissioned into the 4th Hussars (a pre-amalgamation Regiment of the QRIH) in 1948 and served until he shifted sideways onto the diplomatic scene in the 1960s [https://www.qrhmuseum.com/obituary-col-g-a-g-gilhead] My mother's father was a Guards officer in the Coldstream Guards leaving the battalion a Major to take up life in the city as an insurance underwriter at Lloyd's of London, specialising in aircraft. Famously, in the family,  being the lead for insuring Concord but being unable to take up his complimentary ticket on the inaugural flight because my grandmother didn't trust any infernal flying machine that didn't have a prop propeller! 

Hence the wish to remember them a little with this Orbat. That said their era was the 1950s and 1960s, but the other wargamers here in Hamburg have collections for the 1980s. Hence the shift forward 25yrs. 😀

First up I present the hypothetical Recce Regiment the 9th/12th Lancers. The only Divisional orbat I could find does not give a recce Regiment. But with the rules we play, it's a necessary force to have, hence why I've added them in.  They're equipped with a mixture of Scimitar and Sabre CVR(T)s, with one squadron parading in Striker anti-tank guided weapon vehicles.  

Next to parade is the second heavy tank Regiment of the Division. The 17th/21st Lancers. They're equipped with older Cheiftan tanks. The 1980s was the big tank transition period for the BAOR. From the older Cheiftan to the new Challenger 1. I've equipped the QRIH (painted pre COVID!!) with Challenger, so I decided to give the Lancers the older kit to depict the discrepancies in British Army equipment issuing :) 

And finally for my Cold War British, I present the Coldstream Guards. This version of the Regiment is also slightly hypothetical, as they weren't in the 3rd Division at the time (it was the Iriah Guards) and the battalion didn’t change over to being an Armoured infantry battalion for a few years. But I didn't want to let real history get in the way! 

I'm really happy with my progress, even if there are two more Brigades to complete for the whole Division. A target for next year! As this project was started prior to COVID, I'd like to claim the Overdue Section Bonus :)

Next onto the parade ground I have the 1st Hannoverian Brigade from the 1815 version of the British 3rd Divison. Accompanied by the Brigade commander and the associated skirmisher stands for the rules we use. Again, all made up with the brilliant Baccus miniatures. 

This Brigade was made up of the field battalions of the Hannoverian army. Most of the soldiers were professionals who had been fighting in either one of the armies for a lot of the war. The Hannoverian army was also strengthened, in 1814, by a cadre of officers and NCOs transferred over from the KGL as it returned from the Peninsula.  All in all, this meant that this Brigade was in the thick of the fighting for most of the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, giving a very good account of themselves throughout. 

I had also hoped to get the final KGL Brigade painted in the last week. But they're still sitting in the painting queue, undercoated and ready to go for another week! 

Last, but not least, I present the 15mm DBA army that I've been working through this year. Painting a DBA army has become one of my challenge staples. And I think it'll continue for a long time as there are many more in the purple bible yet unrepresented on my shelves.

This year it was the turn of the Ancient Spanish. An army based on the Spanish who fought against Carthage and Rome from the 250BCs onwards. The hope is that I'll be able to play them in one of our local themed DBA days later in the summer. The figures are all from Forged in Battle, and I have had them in the lead pile for a while now, so I'm happy to have gotten some paint on them eventually 😀

For points of this submission I've calculated the following, please correct me if I have erred! 😀

52 x 6mm Vehicles @ 2pts = 104pts

54 x 6mm foot with the vehicles @ 0.5pts = 27pts

10 x 6mm prone foot with the vehicles @ 0.25pts = 2.5pts

Overdue Section Bonus = 20pts

252 x 6mm Napoleonic foot @ 0.5pts = 126pts

2 x 6mm Napoleonic mounted @ 1pt = 2pts

28 x 15mm Ancient Spanish foot @ 2pts = 56pts

5 x 15mm Ancient Spanish mounted @ 4pts = 20pts

Total = 357.5pts!

I'd like to thank Curt and Sarah for running another sublimely fun Challenge! I cannot wait for winter again and the start of Challenge XV!! Perhaps next year I'll have a painting streak and be able to best my personal goal of achieving a top 10 finish 😀

Also thanks again to all my fellow Challengers. It has been great to tune in and be inspired by your painting and thank you all again for the comments on my entries. It's super motivational to read them all.  

TTFN, and see you for the round ups! 

Ed 😀

Some fine sprinting here I'd say Ed! Nice to see the Cold War vehicles and figures (well done on the camo btw!) contrasted to your very colourful Spanish 15mm. Good to hear that good old DBA is still getting some love also. I am very impressed by your Hanoverian troops though, it is really a great sight to see them all lined up together, and I liked the little background history as well. I think your calculations are spot on, although the spreadsheet says 358. We'll see how it shows up.   Meanwhile, I am sure we all very much appreciated what you produced during the Challenge and are looking forward to meeting again next winter (when I hope you will remember to add your labels too ;-)! 

Martijn