From PeterB - Captain Tycho - Famous Person - 25 points

It's been a hectic week this week and I haven't got a lot of painting done. There are a couple of half finished projects and I did get to spend a day playing Silver Bayonet with my new Spanish models, but I felt I couldn't at least post something this week. Late on Sunday I did finish one model.

My hobby story started with Advanced Heroquest, my first purchase in a wargame store was Necromunda, but these are other stories. The first model I tried to paint was a Blood Angel Space Marine. It came free with a copy of White Dwarf and in the magazine it told you how to paint it. (I bought the magazine for an Advanced Heroquest quest.) I painted that model with some of my dad's gloss humbrols and it was terrible. 

I did however get the bug and once I learnt painting with acrylics instead, my first proper army were the Blood Angels. They always appeared in those early White Dwarf magazines in excellent battle reports that I read over and over. I still remember the best, Captain Tycho, hero of the Blood Angels taking on the Space Orks led by Ghazgul Thraka. 

The Captain model for that report was a Blood Angel Captain model that they gave the name to, later on a new model was released specifically for the character. I did originally have both models of this most famous of old school characters. Unfortunately I moved on and created my own Space Marine Chapter The Gregory's and so decided I didn't need all the character models and sold them on. (Something I regret now)

As you will know from the beginning of the challenge, I have begun a retro second edition project and so felt I needed a Captain to lead my Blood Angels once more. Only one hero would be up to the challenge. One lucky ebay bid and he was back. A quick dip in some biostrip 20 and I have had a second attempt at painting the old bugger. I'm hoping I have improved from the first time.

Points, nice and easy.

1 x 28mm = 5pts

1 x stack visit = 20pts

Total 25 pts. 

Sylvain: I declare that your case for "Famous Person" is convincingly argued. Thank you for sharing chunks of your childhood. It seems that is where our hobby takes its root. I like how tough Captain Tycho looks in front of that roll of paper towels :-). Another great entry for the Monday Crew!

 

From MikeW - 20mm WW2 Infantry, Orcs, Tau and 28mm Wild West. Squirrel, Skulls (217 Points)

 I open this weeks post with a tilt at the Local History Bonus in the Competition Library! I present a group of 16 x 20mm WW2 British Infantry, namely men of the Royal Sussex Regiment who fought in North Africa, Italy and Greece during the later stages of the war. I have spent most of my life living in Sussex, England and thus my claim to this being local history...

16 x 20mm WW2 British Infantry, North Africa / Southern Europe Theater

Close-up of these guys from the left, the bases were painted with Brown PVA gloop and fine sand added before a few strategic tufts.

The figures have been kicking around my loft, garage and workbench for a number for years. Believe they originally came from eBay but I can't actually remember, as such I can't identify the manufacturer either. So I undercoated these guys in white and then blocked in the main colours with a series of khakis (trousers, jackets and shirts), tans (webbing etc), greens (shirts, helmets and boxes) and the like. Guns were painted in with GW 'Leadbelcher' and wood was GW 'Gore Grunter Fur'.

And from the right. The officer on extreme right has a 'Tommy Gun', as do the NCOs. This reflects the close fighting in and around Monte Casino.

I've brought the rear rank forward here to give them a better view. Second left there is a guy carrying an Ammo case, fourth left is a Bren Gunner, carrying his weapon

Flesh was GW 'Darkoath Flesh' then highlighted with Army Painter Flesh colour. I applied a wash of GW 'Agrax Earthshade' to the whole figure and then gave the dried figures a light dry brushing of light Khaki before adding in red shoulder titles and chevrons in red and green respectively.

A view of the rear rank guys from the right

I based the figures to reflect arid conditions you might expect in North Africa, Italy or Greece, in my minds eye, I was focusing on the Monte Casino battle, where the Royal Sussex served, an action that has always caught my imagination. Maybe I'll now look to find some Germans to act as defenders....

And from the left, the figures are mounted on single 20mm MDF bases. Can yo spot the guy with a broken bayonet, darn thing snapped off as I was varnishing the figures!

Close up of a few of the little guys, daylight here in UK for such photos is terrible at present, we need some sunshine and I need a better camera and photography skills!

The next item is a bit of a filler, a 28mm Wild West figure that I found with the above WW2 infantry. So I painted him up at the same time! I'll pass him and a couple other figures I have to a club colleague - to join his huge Wild West collection.

I believe that this is an old Wargames Foundry figure,
a townsfolk character armed with a pistol 

A fairly straight forward paint job on this guy, white undercoat, black boots, jacket and bowler hat. Brown trousers and flesh & hair as appropriate. I dry brushed the figure with a light khaki to give some highlighting to the brown trousers and black jacket and hat. Then a flesh wash to hands and face to add details.

What can't quite be seen in the pictures is that he is holding a cigar in his left hand

On the Tau front, I have concentrated on a large Tau mech this week, plus a handful of Warriors, a Drone and what I think is a Communications Relay or Defensive Shield Device. Again apologies to my minion but I have classed this as a terrain piece and am just claiming 1 point for it - I'm not sure if there is any other example of this item in previous challenges!

This Tau tech is a big model,
a suitable commander for my growing Tau army.

This Coldstar Battlesuit was sourced from eBay and has
three major weapons systems plus a defensive shield

Another angle on the finished model

Not sure what happened to the colour on this photo!

And a final rear view of the Coldstar Battlesuit

The rest of this week's Tau batch.

On reflection I'm pretty sure the device on the right is a Defensive Force field generator - I am working on a second one for next week. 

The center piece this week is a Commander in a Coldstar Battlesuit, I have assigned this 10 Points but this guys is bigger than the Crisis Suit techs I did the other week at the same points. Again I'll leave this to my minion to adjudicate!

The range of model sizes in my growing Tau army!
From Left: The new Coldstar Battlesuit, next the Crisis Battlesuit,
second right the Stealth Suit and extreme left a regular Tau Warrior (28mm Model).

You will see on the Commander's base there are two terrain items that I painted up , I'm claiming 1 point each for these, hope this is OK.

Two GW alien plant forms,waiting to be
added on to the Commander base !

Now for more Orcs! This week I have completed a regiment of 18 x Orc Archers, including a musician and a standard bearer. I have shared the recipe for these guys in earlier posts in this year's challenge and these are no different.

A completed group of 18 x Arra Boyz!

From a Skulls Duel point of view these have 6 Skulls to add to the ongoing tally!

As usual I have split the batch into smaller 'bite' sizes!

Five more Orcs...

I set batch painting process of most of my models, leaving character or commander figures to be done separately, usually with a little more detail.

A case in point, I spent a little more time on the standard bearer,
with this hand painted Orc Rag....

Other than that these are all pretty standard fare.

Finally a cheeky Late 17th Century dismounted Dragoon. Truth be told  I started painting this guy for my Local History topic, the Royal Sussex being known as the "Old Oranges' due to their facing colours.

Close-up of the Dragoon figure

Trouble was, that I didn't realise that this was a Dragoon figure until I began getting painting process and was preparing to paint his trousers, socks and shoes. Imagine my surprise when I realised he was wearing riding boots! My eyes aren't what they used to be...

In my defence, I wasn't wearing my glasses when I digged out this figure to paint. In the past I have converted spare Dragoon figures into regular infantry men, however, this is not appropriate with half painted figures.... 

Anyway, a white undercoat, base colours applied and use of washes and highlights gave this somewhat pleasing result that will join some other Donnybrook compatible figures!

Next week I'm doing the last of my outstanding Orcs but after that there is only a few more Swamp Goblin Herders and more of their Frogs! Of course there are more Orcs on order from eBay! Also a small batch of Bretonnian Archers and some Lizardmen to come.

POINTS

16 x 20mm WW2 Infantry @ 4 Points ea                   76 Points 64 points

1 x Local History Bonus                                               20 Points

1 x 28mm Wild West Figure                                          5 Points

1 x 28mm Late 17th Century English Dragoon           5 Points

1 x Tau Tech Coldstar Comander @ 10 Points           10 Points

4 x Tau Warriors @ 5 Points ea                                    20 Points          

3 x Tau Terrain Pieces @ 1point                                      3 Points

18 x Orc Archers @ 5 Points ea                                    90 Points

TOTAL                                                                         217 points

+6 Skulls

+1 Squirrel (20mm WW2 British)

 

Sylvain: Very impressive submission this week, equally in terms of quantity, quality and "squirrelness". You WW2 soldiers really look disgruntled, ready to fight another day, and the bases give all the hints we need to figure out where they might be fighting. Your Taus, which you have been showing us in the last few weeks, this time  bring in the big units. Very well done. And your orcs are the classic fantasy units that everyone need in their army. A good week for you and the Monday Crew!

P.S. I made a small correction to your points tally. My calculator tells me that 16 x 4 = 64. 

 

From Lorenzo: Reach for the Sky CamoMint style - no guns just cameras (35pts)

This next offering is well off my beaten track and comfort zone - except that was not always the case.

I am offering it as a DIY kit bashing entry in the library. (20 points please)

As a kid I made kits and these were I think aircraft before I discovered tanks and AFV's I think I must have made a spitfire but only remember a Mosquito, a Blenheim Bomber and some biplanes! Once I discovered wargames it was all tank kits and the rest is history as they say. However last year a new Osprey publication caught my eye. All about Photo Reconnaissance in World War 2.

So eventually I got the book for Christmas as a gift, then there was AHPCXIV plus a trip to a Doncaster Toy Fair repleat with aircraft kits. The next minute I had bought my first aircraft kit in decades. I could be making spitfires for the next ten years easy - just off this one book. It is a seriously interesting story. As I bought two kits (in case I fouled up the first one) I am quite tempted to try the Soviet version or US version which was preferred over their own Mustangs! Where to start - at the beginning of course - so no flashy blue or pink for me (notoriety is that PR flew special pink versions for dawn or dusk tactical missions but no one it seems can quite agree on the shade of pink). I gave up when I stumbled across an online site explaining that many colour war images were actually laboratory created in the 1940's then subsequently rediscovered years later but without clear provenance they were not originals. The moral of this story is to stick with pre 1900 wars except you then get all the artists interpretations - basically you cannot win so paint what you like!). Instead I opted for a 1939 experimental Mk1 in - wait for it - CamoMint.

My small bit of online research confirmed that aircraft like ships and even tanks are a "technical" nightmare. Add to that the absolute perfection of images aircraft kit modellers post online, then I simply offer a suitably rustic view on what would become a very important part of military information collection.

Transfers were from a very fast Hannants delivery after another supplier failed to deliver for me.

In the book the early paint scheme shows no white on the fuselage roundels. I tested my painting skills on a spare transfer and decided to leave it white - my explanation is the painter was following the roundel painting standard! Apparently there were zillions of painting standards even before the war got properly going. Anyway thats my get out.

The green I opted for was a washed out vallejo AIR 71.009 green over a Miniature Paints Matt White used as a primer undercoat main colour. None of the other whites I had held on the plastic too my liking. MP Paints are sold by Coritani so good on them as I only had a few of their paints. They came to my rescue. I then overpainted the lot in VJ MC152 silver grey very well watered down. I kept thinking of those painters at some french airfield in 1940 with german armour blithely racing past ("nope - slap on another coat of camo mint white wash Aircraft Man Jones......") A rare photo of the experimental flight in operation on the ground in Nancy, France 1939 is included in the book.

Finally the completed model - ok I may well varnish it all matt and have a go at the white on the fuselage roundel. Out of interest I do not use airbrushes at all in my hobby, owned one years ago but decided I prefer the brush. So what you see is all slapped on with an equivalent standard royal airforce 6 inch brush. Except in one of the photos it shows a paint job being done with a real life paint sprayer - hey ho.

So AHPC14 has dragged me further off the beaten track so much so that next week will be a no show - sorry folks. Points tally - i am not sure 15 pts for an aircraft? 20 pts for DIY kitbash

20mm vehicle = 15 points

History = 20 points

 Total = 35 points

Sylvain: I really like the research you did on this model. It makes you look at the model in a different way. I also which I could have access to all the vendors in Doncaster Toy Fair... Great job on that Spitfire, it looks clean and ready for action. Another great posting from the Monday Crew!

P.S. I added you labels.

 

From TeemuL: Bagration Germans [History] (158 points)

Instead of the lovely old metal miniatures, today I present rather new plastic miniatures. Here we have a German Panzergrenadier Company HQ and two Panzergrenadier Platoons with Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. Models are from Battlefront Miniatures Hit the Beach box for Flames of War. I painted the Panzer IVs and Tank Hunter teams before the Challenge, but here are the main components. You might also recall my last week's entry of 20mm WW2 Germans in winter uniform, this time this are 15mm WW2 Germans in summer uniform, ready to make a fighting retreat against Soviets during Operation Bagration or die trying. We have a small East Front campaign planned for the first months of this year and now I have the starter force ready. I'm planning to buy some mortars and more vehicles, but at the moment I have painted all my Germans for this project. Of course plans change when contacting reality and after a game or two I might want something else to bolster my forces.

The miniatures are painted following the Splinter Pattern Camouflage instructions provided in the Colours of War book. There are little bit different shades of green and brown, when I tried to find a proper compromise between "reality" and "looking good." Some of them look quite right, there's Reikland Flesh Shade painted over the camo to tie the colours together. The base colour is khaki. Pants and helmets are dark grey with a quick highlight of light grey. I painted the grenades dark yellow, but I guess I should have painted the Panzerschrecks yellow, too, instead of black. I guess I can live with that... And still claim history points for these. :)

The bases are rather simple, painted green and then some green sawdust and couple of tufts. It should look quite ok for summer in Ukraine and be generic enough to be usable on other theathers, too.

In the Library I have completed Sections 1 and 2, but before moving on, I'll get back to Section 1 and claim 20 points for History topic. What's next, we'll see.

I did say something about not posting old metal minis, but I finished the Germans during the week and I had then time to do something else during the weekend... I picked up a nice couple from the primed collection, going with the good old method of elf and dwarf. They were both on 25mm round bases, but then I realized, that the dwarf might actually see some action on the gaming table if he had a square base. The traditional 20mm base was too small (no scale creep here, dwarf if from 1988), so I decided to use the Old World base size of 25mm. Most likely these two won't see any adventures together, though...

The elf looks a bit odd, chain mail, sword, fancy poncho like cloak, and bare legs. It took me a while to find him and actually he is a half-elf fighter mage, which explains his odd equipment. He is Julie Guthrie's Personality 804 by Grenadier. Most of the colours on him are what I had on the palette, which gives him a little fantasy feeling. The red on his cloak is freehand, I wanted something looking magic there. White blue hat completes him.

The dwarf on the other hand is a no nonsense dude, heavy armour, heavy axe and bare head, some pouches to carry dwarf bread and tools to keep his axe sharp. He is completely business oriented and his business is chopping heads, I guess. This lovely character is from 1988, Grenadier A294 Dwarf Companion by Nick Lund, also sold in blister pack 906 Fighter and Companions. He is almost just chainmail and beard, but in true 80s spirit, I gave him a red axe shaft and colourful pouches and blue boots.

The green base is the wrong colour, I used my trusted Coat d'Arms Goblin Green while painting the bases of Germans and I didn't have the exact same colour anymore and was unable to mix the correct tone. So I went with Army Painter Greenskin.

64x 15mm minis (2 pts) = 128 points

History topic = 20 points

2x 28mm minis (5 pts) = 10 points.

Total = 158 points

Sylvain: Awesome work on these Germans, especially the camo pattern on their uniform. The two platoons look ready to assault (or die trying). And I also like your vintage metal figurines. Where do you get those? Is there a vintage miniatures mine in Finland? Keep the pace, the Monday Crew needs all available men to the front!