From PaulSS: Another batch of Prussian reinforcements (89 points)

 

The Prussian Production Line slowed a little this week as we had a cracking game of GDA, starting on  on Friday evening and playing through Saturday:

So, not quite as much painted as earlier weeks but more stuff was done, some of it featured in the game.

Firstly a battalion of Prussian Landwehr.

And another battalion of Prussian Landwehr.

This is the last of the Landwehr figures in the backlog and brings me up to eight battalions of these in the collection now.

I needed a few more brigade commanders for the game, so painted up the last few mounted generals I had and made up the numbers on the bases with a few Reservists that did not fit in the unit structures I had. 

The Baccus cavalry comes in packs of 45 and I make two 18-man units out of a pack, leaving quite a few figures left over.

There were enough Uhlans left over to add another single base to the 1st Uhlans, and enough Landwehr cavalry to add a double base to the Westphalians I featured in my last post.

These extra bases will allow me to field both of these as large units in our GdA games.

There were a lot more cavalry commanders left over, so I made a couple of Brigade command stands, one of Dragoons and one of Uhlans.

The rest of the cavalry figures were mounted individually to represent Aide de Camp that you never seem to have enough of when playing GdA.

Finally I had a few spare reservists, so I made a couple of stands of them guarding piles of cannon balls to use to denote objective markers. Not sure why cannon balls need to be guarded, I don't think they are goings anywhere.....

The backlog in the Prussian Production Line is quite depleted now and I reckon there are likely only one or two mores posts before I switch over to something else.

There are 113 infantry plus 32 cavalry that should add 88.5 points for the week.

TeemuL: I guess the Thursday Team this year has excellent focus on the projects, am I alone? Have you ever heard of squirrels or theme rounds? Jokes aside, excellent quality again and good to see that the painted minis have already been used in battles.

Quite depleted, only one or two more posts on this subject? I'm already getting excited to see something else from you. :)

From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - 25mm French & Allied Officers (30 points)

I've been a very busy boy over the last few weeks, I've done a heck of a lot of painting!

Unfortunately most of it has been on walls and ceilings! Me & Mrs R have decided to move house, so the house is up for sale and I'm going from room to room, tarting it all up, ready for some photos to be taken in a couple of weeks. I've been in the same house now for 35 years, so its about time I get my own wargaming table and a new house of course.....

Its no surprise that my entry this week is yet more figures for my and Lee's joint project, 

"The Retreat from Moscow in 1812"

Both myself and Lee have well over indulged in the number of figures we've bought, these were part of my horde I bought at the Warfare show last year.

They are all from Perry Miniatures Pack FN170 Officers

Rear view

They can and will be used for any unit, as none are in a proper uniform as such and could be pressed into any service. I've gotta admit, these are really beautiful figures and were a pleasure to paint up. Perry's do make some crackin' figures.

As to the points, only 6 figures this week, so 6 x 5pts each is 30pts!

I've been asked several times what's our recipe for the snow. Its really not rocket science, Woodland Scenic Snow, tipped into an old jam jar (Damson Jam, my fav), its not measured out, then tip in some PVA, give it a stir, if its too dry, add more PVA, if to wet, add more snow. I added a little water, not even a spoonful. it just loosens on the pva. I've only made one batch so far, each week when I go back to the jar all it needs is a tiny splash of water and a stir and its back to its spreadable consistency. Surprisingly it doesn't go hard in the jar, unlike on the figure bases, where it ends up rock hard.

TeemuL: Continuing the well trodden path of Thursday Traditions we encounter Ray with Retreat from Moscow. As I have mentioned, your snow bases look great and thanks for the scientific recipe for the snow. I like the colourful and mixed look of these figures, I'm sure they'll give nice variation and realism to the units which are trying to survive the retreat.

Good luck with the house and move - and the future game table.

From MartinC: Guess What (141 points)

You were correct. More 10mm WW2. This time the Russians. I only have 3 more units to paint, after these, plus a few random stragglers to make independent companies.

These 3 units are Russian infantry battalions, and are suitable for the whole war 

3 companies, 2 mortar section, MG section, ATR and HQ

Same but with pink flowers

And again with orange flowers

2 45mm AT guns for units yet to be built

Scores on the doors

129 foot, inc 0.5 pts for the prone guys

2 AT guns with crew = 18pts

Total 147pts

Saw a picture of Cindy Crawford today, roes that count for the last circle, or am I just showing my age

TeemuL: Ken painting ships, Grahame painting Samurai and Martin painting Russians... Groundhog day? Well, we haven't seen Cindy Crawford earlier, so may be this is another Thursday after all. Good looking Russians again. I'll grant you 141 points, I guess CC got you confused while counting the artillery points.

From GrahameH: 15mm Dixon (Two Dragon Miniatures) (360 points)

This week I finished the odds and ends from my Samurai collection. These are figures that were left over from the two armies I have previously painted. Even though these weren't needed, I don't like throwing figures away or left unpainted. However, from these I did manage to make up a Samurai unit, 2 Ashigaru units and a teppo skirmisher unit.  Again each infantry unit below is made up of 16 figures and the cavalry 12 figures. 

The Odds and Ends

The Samurai Unit (32pts)

One of the two Ashigaru units (64pts)

Ashigaru Skirmishers (10pts)

The Sohei (Warrior Monks) 

This unit consists of a general, one cavalry unit, six infantry units and two skirmisher units.

The General (8pts)

The cavalry unit (40pts)

Two of the six infantry units (one of which only has 15 figures rather than the usual 16) (190pts)

One of the two skirmishers units, each of four figures (16pts)

Total for this entry = 360pts

Only the baggage to do to complete the Samurai.

TeemuL: I guess next week is 15mm Samurai baggage, then? You have a great focus for this project and it is now almost done. I'm not sure if I have said this before, but I like how you manage to make the bright colours pop on this scale. Not that many dots this time. :)

From PeteB: Dulcop - Napoleonic French Infantry - 54 mm (20 Points)

I'm a collector of old plastic figures and I was happy I could find this two figures from the Italian brand Dulcop between some other figures I bought on the second hand market. They were partly painted but as you can guess not as I wanted. So I cleaned them and gave them a good brushwork. I hope you like them.

Odd pose, not?

How they looked before cleaning and painting again.

Thanks for watching!

PS: the green base is because of nostalgic reasons. A lot of these old figures had a green base and best example is the brand Britains. That is why I paint the bases of my 54 mm figures in this color.

Points: 2 x 54 mm foot figure = 20 Points

TeemuL: Excellent work, Pete! I have never painted 54mm minis, but it seems that it is possible to give them a very lifelike appearance, even when they are rather old. The poses might be a bit interesting, but they clearly have lots of details to pick up. The shadows on the light grey pants is especially great.

From KenR: 1/700 Z13 German Destroyer (40 points)

 

No surprises with entry no 1 this week as another German Destroyer rolls off the Production line, this is the 4th of the Challenge and also the 9th of 10 German ships for Narvik.

This ship represents Z13 Erich Koellner a Type 1934A Destroyer. She had a very short career, after two mine laying sorties she was involved in the Battle of Narvik, She was hit by HMS Warspite whose 15" shells failed to detonate but even so they caused tremendous damage and the ship was scuttled.

As everyone loved a coloured turret I've done some yellow topped turrets on this ship, as seen during German Operations during the war, it will certainly make the ship more visible on the table.

Points wise it's 40, the ship is a 1/700 kit by Trumpeter Models, next up is the final German Destroyer. Below is a team photo of those done so far, this Challenge 

TeemuL: Is there another way to start a Thursday morning than one 1/700 German Destroyer? Excellent work again Ken. Those yellow turrets are not that striking in the photos, but I'm glad if they work on the table. Another 40 points for you!

Thursday Things of Interest goes Forth

Last week I told how Finland got the independence, today we focus on the first war Finland encountered. World War 2 started in September and 30th November 1939 Soviet Union attacked Finland without declaring war and after faking the so called "shots of Mainila", which gave them an excuse for war. As you might remember, Finland was quite divided before, during and after the independence, which reflected to foreign relationships. Germany had trained lots of Finnish soldiers during WW1 and there was sympathy there, but Soviet Union was a close friend to others. Soviets were expecting an easy victory, but the coldest winter of 20th century, Soviet arrogance and Finnish tactics and spirits gave a hard response.

Winter War lasted for 105 days, "105 days of glory" as it is often called. Finland lost the war, but kept the independence. 10% of the area was lost and roughly 26 000 lives were lost in addition of resources. The Soviets had poor motivation, lack of proper equipment even for a normal winter and in general they were poorly led. Soviets lost 126 000 lives, lots more than Finns. They had about three times more soldiers than Finland, thousands of tanks and planes were Finland had 32 and 114.

Motti tactics was one of the key, where both ends of the attacking column were destroyed and the rest were trapped between them and surrounded by meter or two of snow. Thousands of soldiers were trapped by a much smaller force of Finns who constantly harassed the trapped soldiers and kept moving (with skis) giving the impression of a much larger force. Molotov's cocktail was another important factor, named after the the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, who claimed Soviets were not bombing Finnish cities, just dropping food supplies. In response the Finns gave Molotov's cockatails to the tanks.

Finland lost the war and it was a tragic war, but Finland kept the independence, when Soviets were forced to admit the harsh conditions of the winter and they needed to focus their war efforts to other parts of Europe. Finland and Soviets made peace, but it didn't last long. Next week we take a look at the Continuation War.

Here's the official lyric video of a Swedish band Sabaton, which specializes in "war music", here's their take on Winter War. If you are interested in Finnish production, you should consider the movie "Talvisota" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098437/.

--- In other news ---

We have about a dozen of posts for today, there's couple of centimeters of snow here in Finland the temperature is roughly +2 degrees Celcius, so it is rather wet...