From RayR: 1/1200 Ark Royal Advice Yachts [Maritime] (40 points)

 

Last year, the Rejects joined Barry Hilton of the League of Augsburg fame, at the Rapture Show at Chatham Dockyard to refight the Dutch "Attack up the Medway" in 1666, using Barry's very own Mad for War rules, we all bought some ships, which I had been painting up prior to the Challenge. It was pretty apt to see the Maritime bonus round, so I quickly painted up two ships!

Maritime: Something wet and offshore

The ships are from Barry's Ark Royal Miniatures for the Anglo-Dutch Wars and can be found here. on the League of Augsberg website.

The other Rejects, Lee, Rich and Steve have chosen to use a water effect paste as the sea, but me and Postie are going rogue with the old method of polyfilla and paint.

The figures are Advice yachts on the left we have a Dutch ship and on the right their foe, the English.

The Yachts would usually carry messages or perhaps the Admiral of the fleet!

Ark Royal Miniatures are 1/200th scale, so are rather dinky, so I thought I'd have a Warlord paintpot added for scale. as for the points, I used this green wash mixed randomly with a blue was to try and get a decent sea colour, not too blue, not too green but a bit of both.

 Reject Lee Hadley posted up his Blue squadron of English earlier in the Challenge and was awarded 15 points each, although most of his ships were bigger ships??

So its a definite 20 points for the bonus round, but I'll let Teemu decided my fate on the points per ship.

TeemuL: Good looking ships, Ray, and a fine selection for Maritime. And this time you didn't just buy some random minis hoping to use them for the Challenge, but they are actual gaming pieces, too! I'm not expert on naval games, but I like how you have painted these, especially the sails. Looks very real and I thought they are bigger than they apparently are. I scored them as 10 points a piece, less than Lee got, but still quite a lot. You need couple of more stops before going for the final topic, but of course there are quite a lot of bonus points still available.

From DougM - Lightning Elephants- Corsucant (sic) - (76 Points)

Not exactly a points bomb, and I am sure no surprise after my 1/200 Japanese WW2 aircraft...  this very versatile hex mat is no longer Kent, it is in fact, paddy fields on Asian islands. 

So first some Army Lightnings. The hard part was finding ways to make a very dull colour scheme a little bit interesting. 

And the Navy is here... F4F Wildcats. As usual, I didn't make them for a particular squadron, but kept them generic. 

Finally, you know when you think an 'army' is finished, and you spot something? Well, it doesn't come much more 'Imperial' conflict than the Indian Mutiny, and who could resist a splendid (and very well priced) AW Miniatures Elephant drawn limber? I think this will be my Deployment Point for Sharp Practice.

That's my 'Imperial' for Coruscant planet bonus, making a total of:

12 x 10mm 'vehicles' @3 each = 36

1 x 28mm 'vehicle' @20 = 20

Planet Bonus = 20 for a total of 76 points. 

Hopefully more to come this week... 

And Squirrels..  now up to 10 I think.

• 1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 US Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 British Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 German Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 British Aircraft (not quite enough for WW1 German Aircraft (doh!))
• 28mm German Armour
• 28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry
• 28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys
• 28mm Dr Who
• 28mm Austrian Napoleonics

I was curious about the content of this post based on the title.  I was kind of expecting Incendiary Pigs or some other Anti-elephant ploy that used to exist on the WRG army lists.  However I am well satisfied with what you've presented Doug.  Love the aircraft and that Elephant is just the bees' knees.  Really good work on the saddle blanket and mahout. 

DougM: Yellow-Nosed B*st*rds! - Perelandra (60 Points)

The Spitfires need something to keep them amused, so using the finest historical research material, 'Battle of Britain' MGM 1969...  or MCMLXIX or whatever... I present the 'Yellow-Nosed B*st*rds' of the movie. Home 3d printed 1/200 Messerschmitt Me109E (Emil). 

I faffed around for a fair while figuring out what colours to use, and the cockpit framing and camouflage is inconsistent as I experimented with what I thought looked best. But here they are, ready to give 603 and 43 Squadrons a hard time. 

Of course, one of the drawbacks the Luftwaffe faced during the Battle was that they had to travel across water (Oceanic) and face the (Temptation) to linger too long in combat, risking running out of fuel on the return leg...  so pretty please a planet bonus.. 

Squirrel Points - these add another 12 x 3 = 36 points to 1/200 Luftwaffe to add to the 7 Heinkels, so enough to bring them up to Squirrel status. A grand total of 9 Squirrel points so far... 

From Dave D 

I Wondered when these might be along - another grand addition

From DougM: Noel's Comment and a Story - Noel's Comet 190 pts

So: many many years, ago, when I was living in Australia, I used to play DBA regularly. There was a local group in Canberra who used to get together to play one day tournaments - always in licensed premises, and part of my fun was to crack the first beer with the first game. I usually found that a winning smile would get me an early brew from the staff while everyone else was making do with takeaway coffee. And the additional challenge was playing the later games after the first few. After all, DBA is just a dice throwing contest isn't it? :)

So one day, there was this other guy there, watched me belly up to the bar, and followed suit. At the time, I was still smoking, so; although he didn't smoke, he and I got chatting out the back in breaks between games, as both of us played fast... Turns out, he had a blog, which I already followed, knew most of the Aussie players I knew, and was great company. Thomo the Lost - Ian Thomson. 

At the time, he was working in South East Asia, and was back in Australia for his mum, but from then on, whenever he visited Oz, he and his partner would come and stay at Chez Doug. The dogs loved him, and in between beer and gaming we had great fun. We would plan new forces, egg on each other to more and better painting efforts, and agree joint projects. 

We also went to the annual Cancon, and played  The one thing we never got to do was some aerial wargaming.. he wanted Khalkin Ghol, I wanted Battle of Britain, so instead we just got more megalomaniac, larger and larger pre-dreadnought fleets, more and more WW2 6mm, till I swear he had an entire Guards Armoured Division at 1:1. but still no aerial wargaming. 

We played off at Cancon, for the National DBA Title, (he kept claiming my Teutonic Knights were illegally based for the terrain, with snow, when I won..) Still no aerial wargaming.

Thomo was my Best Man when I remarried in Scotland in 2012. But no time for aerial wargaming. He kept on visiting until I moved from Australia n 2016.

And in 2021, he died in the Philippines from Covid. So too late for Aerial Wargaming. 

So these are for him. All home 3d Prints.

Fields of Kent look lovely this time of year... 'Wir fahren gegen Engeland'...

You sure we're heading in the right direction?

Uh-oh... Gruss Gott! Spitfires!

City of Edinburgh Squadron - yes, I know they weren't in Kent, but they could have been ...

And as we all know from the movies, Hurricanes take the bombers out, Spitfires go for fighter cover. This is 43 Squadron.

Run away....!!!

This was a disaster..  codes smudged, and in the wrong place!  The later versions were an improvement thankfully.

And the 'might' of the Royal Flying Corps...   F2b, Brisfits, 'Harry Tates', SE5a and Sopwith Camels

SE5a

RE8 or 'Harry Tates'

F2b

Sopwith Camels... no Snoopy I'm afraid.

Late Breaking..   those Spitfires have something to worry about... 

So that's my Noel's Comet, for Thomo. All the WW2 British are entirely hand painted markings, the WW2 Heinkels are balkankreuze decals as are the Yellow S and the recognition panels on White 1. The WW2 stuff is 1/200, and the WW1 stuff is 1/144.

I guess all these count for 3 points, each, but with all the markings, it feels like a lot of effort for 3 points!  *FROM 

7 Heinkels, 12 x Me 109, 10 Spitfires, and 9 Hurricanes = 38 x 3 = 114 points

16 x RFC x 3 = 48 points

Noel's Comet planet bonus = 20

Oh and Squirrel points..  lets see

1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft

1/200 WW2 British Aircraft

1/200 WW2 German Aircraft

1/144 WW1 British Aircraft

not quite enough for WW1 German Aircraft

28mm German Armour

28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry

28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys

28mm Dr Who

28mm Austrian Napoleonics

So 9 Squirrel points only...  :(    but let's see what next week brings...

From DaveD . Having lost a great friend this year with who i  always ended up planning madness over the many years this hits the spot. So its good to see your tribute . Indeed i recognise the challemge per points efforts on these so I have topped you up 

From DougM - A Badly Judged Operation - LV426 (92 points)

Nothing says badly judged like December 7th 1941...  'Awaken a Sleeping Giant'.

So yet more home printed aircraft, this time for 'Bag the Hun', WW2 from the Too Fat Lardies. The WW1 stuff I printed off in 1/144, but the larger aircraft  WW2... (watch this space!) I went for 1/200.

I also - for some ridiculous reason, thought it would be easy to paint Japanese insignia.. idiot that I am..

And as always it seems, waiting for my naval hex mat to arrive... 

Zeros!  - some sort of colour shift here, they are more Greenish in real life.

Escorting some Aichi Val

And the Kates.. 

Some Nates to keep them company...

Slow Progress...  I was hoping to have more done this week, but real life you know.

Points = 10mm vehicles (I think?) @3 x 24 = 72

Planet bonus = 20

Total 92 points... 

Those tiny planes look great, Doug!

Tamsin

From DaveD - Dornier Do17s 1/200th (16pts)

I have lots of stuff part painted this week , however  its been a hectic week though so it looks like this will be the only finished stuff i can post.

I am running a Wings of Glory Battle of Britain campaign at the moment - we have played out the Battle of France , our next scenario is the attack on the channel convoys. Ares the game manufacture don't currently do a Dornier model  so I have sourced one from Dave at Armaments in Miniature (who covers a lot of the holes in the main game range)  lovely little resin models they are too. The game forum does have a good list of aircraft data and stats so these are now ready for duty next Monday

We will see how they do on Monday, 2 Dorniers, 2 me109 versus 3 Hurricanes  

They have had a hole drilled on the underside to hold a 6mm ball bearing which is used to hold them to the magnetic stand . This also acts nicely as a gimble mount , allowing the plane to placed in the correct attitude! 

I still need to complete the squadron ID numbers , however when i check the decals stash I did not have the correct  sized ones unfortunately  , so they are on order ! 

Anyway at the least the scoreboard has been ticked along a bit ! Millsy will be catching me up no doubt as he' getting through his madcap (but however very cool) heraldic phase!

JamieM - these look absolutely smashing.  I'm not very good at understanding actual camo patterns, but is there a reason why one is sporting the latest fashion of natty yellow accents and the other one is stuck in last seasons accentless paintjob?  Enjoy the game, campaigns are awesome when they keep going.

From DaveD: Blenheims & Swallows Wings of Glory extras (32 Points)

Turns out that this has been aircraft week - maybe I should have joined the squirrel nutkins duel.

I am starting a 1940 Wings of Glory campaign game with one of the guys from the Old Guard group next week. I have most of the WWII aircraft produced for the game, however they don’t make a Blenheim and there is an early scenario in the campaign that calls for 2 Bristol Blenheim bombers - fortunately Zvesda do one in the same 1/200th scale So I have cracked on to complete the two required this week. It is a nice little kit to put together and looks good, - again I will get some propeller spinners sorted once I get all the aircraft completed over this challenge.

right lads there is bridge around here somewhere  that needs bombing 

I also picked up a couple of resin ME262s from Armaments in Miniature in the US to add to the late war collection in an attempt to give my allied bomber fleet some more opposition. The game system doesn't have these released officially but a few guys in the Wings of Glory forum have produced stats and movement cards etc. I have made up some magnetic gimble mounts for attaching these to the flight stands - as it nice see these banking as they turn and swoop like the "Schwalbe" (Swallow) they are named for!

these nasties have 4x  30mm cannon , equal to 4 D chits in the game

These should give my bombers of the Mighty 8th something to think about.

So altogether 4 x 1/200th aircraft - points? Over to the best minion ever!

This weeks completions as we approach a third of the way through the challenge takes me to a third of my target total as well, so on track nicely.  I have used up almost all my fully prepped stuff now so I have a day of sorting out the next projects tomorrow i think.

___________________________________

Wow, you've done absolutely gorgeous work on these aircraft, Dave. The camo and aerial markings on all of them looks so crisp and clean. Also, this is a genre where (listen here Peter) proper decals are a virtual necessity - they just finish off the models so beautifully.

They look terrific all arrayed on your 10,000 foot mat with the light cloud beyond - you can almost hear both the roar and drone of their engines and the staccato of their guns. (I picked up one of those aerial mats a few months ago and am very much looking forward to trying it out with Blood Red Skies sometime soon.)

As to points I'm going to place these as the equivalent of a 15mm vehicle (due to having to portray the underside). So 32 for the four of them. Lovely work Mr.D!

Curt

MONDAY - A Zulu Painters work is never done! (Clint B) FOR MONDAYS MINION ( 223 10mm figures)

Well I have had to show these today as I have simply run out of room on my painting table! Yeah I know that sounds like a boast. I was going to show the whole horde in one Paint Bomb, but I just ran out of space (and enthusiasm). The Enthusiasm is returning again though

Just for the record I have about 200 more still to paint! So you will be seeing these again! Well different ones, but the same sculpts and again painted by me. Before anyone gets carried away the unit on the left has been on the AHPC before and is just to show the HORDE as it is today. I do of course refer you to Here and Here which only show the Guys on the FAR left. (Brown and white shields).

The White shields will be unmarried and un-blooded and there are Currently 66 of those.  I need ! more base of 6 to complete the unit!

The Married (White headdress) with Black and white shields Number 72. And Are a complete unit! (Yippee!)

This unit  (black shield) is currently 3 figures (a single base) short. And weighs in at 63 Figures. (a few bases only have 5 figures on them when they should have 6, but sometimes You fail to notice the 3 lighter bases in figure counts). But I have run out of figure in headdress for now so this unit may have to wait until the next show I can get to!

The last unit (for today) are rifle armed skirmishers. A total of 22 figures with 2 figures to a base for 1 base short of finishing! I am sure I have at least 1 more rifle armed Zulu so they will get finished soon.

 A few gratuitous shots at the end, which do little to show how they are painted or the detail involved. Trust me on 10mm Zulus there is only so much Detail to paint. A lot of it is either skin or white feathers and Bases. Needless to say for now I am sick of painting Zulus so I will have a small break and paint larger scales for a while.

So the running total is (feel free to count them in the pictures). 223 Zulus painted since the start of the challenge.

The miniatures are mostly Newline Design and a sprinkling of Pendraken Miniatures. Both makes are 10mm tall (1/200th scale). I find the Pendraken to be better (and more expensive) and with a winder range of poses. If I was doing this project again I would stick to Pendraken.

• Black shield and Headdress= 63
• Solid Brown shields with rifles = 22
• Black and White shields and Headdress =72
• White shields Unmarried/un-blooded = 66

For a total of 223 Zulus painted and based and ready for war. (Gaming). If my Minion wants to check my Maths (that would be advised)make it either more or less that is OK with me I am just glad to be half way there for a planned game. Like I SAID DO NOT count the guys with white and Brown shields they are seen 2 years ago in the challenge! They are only shown because I know at least 1 Blogger who like to see the horde as complete as it is at any one moment in time! I will be starting the next part of the horde in a day or two!

So as I look at this I am now OVER half way (for now) So just because I can. The final Battle from the Film. Still a great film and thank goodness Hollywood have not tried to re make it!

MilesR: 223 Zulus!!!! That's more than they had in the film as extras.  Lets see 223 10mm infantry figures will net you a tidy 223 points (at one point per figure)