From PaulSS: [Adventurers’ Landing] Hearts of Oak (70pts)

A couple of years ago I won one of the Challenge spot prizes, a voucher for Barrage Miniatures so put to it and bought myself three of their great boats. 

Last year I entered one of the boats for the "Riedys Reef"   this year, it's another entry for Adventurers’ Landing.

Adventurers’ Landing: A chance to paint a landing on a home or foreign shore to collect some points. Try not to get your feet wet...

The crew are from the Brigade Games and I added the option for Oars & Oar Locks to save me the fuss of building my own.

The dunnage is a separate piece that can be stowed fore or aft and is made from a few spares from the bit's box, there is even a bin from a T-34 in there. I covered it in a piece of napkin soaked in PVA to represent some old sail-cloth.

As it's removeable I also have the option of adding a cannon or mortar to make it into a gun boat as part of some harbour defenses.

Like all the Brigade Games Napoleonics they are full of character and I really enjoyed painting them up. The starboard-aft fellow's bare arms are perfect for a fouled anchor tattoo.

The Lieutenant and Midshipman are also from Brigade Games, I did think about doing "deck" bases for them, but in the end decided on my usual scatter as they are most likely going to be deployed on my standard terrain.

Six 28mm figures plus a boat (vehicle?) and the location bonus will add 70 points to my target.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 26 mounted, 99 foot, 3 guns, 1 boat.

That's a jolly nice boat Paul and the crew look great. I'm pretty sure the ratings won't be too happy about having to clean out all the soil and grass the officers have brought aboard though!

Tamsin

(yes, the "jolly" was deliberate)

Barrage Miniatures Kickstarter

Hi All,

Many of you know Alf and Clara over at Barrage Miniatures. For years, they've been very generous prize supporters of the Painting Challenge, with many of you being able to attest to not only the quality of their products, but also their amazing customer service. 

Alf and Clara recently launched a Kickstarter campaign offering a wide assortment of excellent pre-painted terrain pieces to adorn our gaming tables. If you have a moment, please check out their campaign and consider giving them your support. 

Thanks!

Curt

From PaulSS - A beat-up old lugger beaches on Reidy's Reef (50 Points)

I was lucky enough to win one of the Threshold Prizes last year and Alf at Barrage Miniatures kindly provided a voucher for some of his great stuff.

I dilly-dallied a while and eventually ordered myself a trio of boats including a couple of the 30-Foot Clinker Boats for my collection.

These are superb castings with lots of good detail on the boat, but I wanted to add a bit more, so a mast was created from some dowel, with a sail of PVA coated tissue paper. A bench was added from thin plywood and a few crates from a Great Escape Games 'Fistful of baggage' pack.

Paint job was quite simple, from a dark brown primer a couple of highlights, while a couple of the brass-bound crates were done as oak and the lighter one done as pine. A wool-pack completes the cargo. The sail was done in a dirty white colour.

I kept it as neutral as possible so that the boat would be useful across many gaming periods

Scoring wise, I think that at about 20cm long it should likely count as a 28mm vehicle, so with the bonus for Reidy's Reef should come to a total of 50 points.

***

Great work Paul - the extra bits really take it to another level.  50 points for you sir!

GregB

From Curt: Thornycroft LCA for Douglas' Shallows (50 Points)

For 'Douglas' Shallows' I offer a 1:50 scale Thornycroft landing craft (LCA).

The Thornycroft LCA was designed in 1938 after it became clear to the British that war with German had only been delayed, not forestalled. The Imperial General Staff desired a craft that could carry a platoon of men, have a low profile, be quiet on approach and be able to land their payload in 18 inches of water. After rigorous trials it was determined that the Thornycroft design was the best fit. It was made primarily of mahogany and had two 65hp engines, allowing it to make headway at 6kt fully loaded.

Canadians and the Thorycroft LCA have a tragic association with both being involved in the August 1942 Dieppe raid fiasco. I have a personal connection with the Dieppe operation as two men from my home town were members of the South Saskatchewan Regiment which landed at Green Beach on that day. 

Due to navigational errors, the South Saskatchewans were set down on the wrong side of the River Scie and became bottled up by machine gun and mortar fire at the foot of its only bridge crossing. Their commanding officer, Charles Merritt, led his men across the bridge under heavy fire and then proceeded to knock out several pillbox positions on the other side. Nonetheless, the battalion was forced back to the beach, and with their defensive perimeter closing in, Merritt decided to stay with the rearguard and the wounded. They fought until out of ammunition and then surrendered. Merritt was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions that day.

I was generously given two(!) Thornycrofts by Alf at Barrage Miniatures when we visited Madrid a few years ago. They are very nice resin models, meticulously scaled to 28mm figures (yes, Nick, I believe Alf said it was built to 1/48 to 1/50 scale). ;)

On top of the excellent casting, Alf created an ingenious way to display the boat with its loading ramp up or down by utilising two separate prow inserts. The inserts are very robust and look great.

A fairly quick paintjob, I've done it up in a three tone camo, common to that early period of the war. From what I understand, the boat identifiers for the Dieppe operation were hand-painted in red and so I've tried to copy a similar style here.

I did a bit of archival sleuthing and found a list of all the LCAs that were lost at Dieppe and found a few images to correlate to them. Here is one image of LCA 215, which from the position of the photo places it at Red Beach (you can see one of the abandoned Churchills behind it and the town's seawall further in the distance). 

LCA 215 grounded at Dieppe.

As to points I suggest simply scoring the Thornycoft as a 28mm vehicle. With the 30 points of Douglas's Shallows that should give me 50 points to add to my tally.

-Curt

From DaveD - that a nice piece MrC , the camo gives it a nice bit of something extra - 50 pts it is