From AlanD: Romanian Bits and Bobs (65 points)

Giving up any pretence of painting anything else, I've added a couple of unusual vehicles to my Romanians this week. The first is a Renault UE Chenilette from Warlord Games. I was chuffed to discover that Romania bought a number of these from France prior to WWII - they are cool looking vehicles and it was fun painting one.

Also from Warlord is this Polski Fiat Lazik. After the fall of Poland, considerable numbers of Polish troops retreated into Romania with their vehicles, which were promptly used by the Romanian army. Fortunately the Polish crew in the model were wearing greatcoats, but I remodelled them a little to look more Romanian. The BAR carried by one of the men in the back was replaced with a German rifle, and I tried remodelling the helmets a bit, mainly by adding little Romanian crests to the front with greenstuff. They are still unmistakably Polish helmets though, so don't look to closely.

Incidentally, for some trivia, I was reading the memoirs of a Romanian soldier who commented on how much they hated their (originally Dutch) M39 helmets. He recalled trying on a German helmet and appreciating the way that it didn't direct rain straight down the back of his neck. The Romanians also used a large number of French Adrien helmets, and you can see one in the back of the Chenilette.

Dux paints some Romanians? Shocked Pikachu face! Those are fun little vehicles- it is almost a shame you hide them under snow! Your passengers are enjoying the air conditioning, and I won't comment on their headgear. I am looking forward to seeing your whole Romanian force. Your first vehicle is clearly 1.5 vehicles, so have some more points.

Barks

From BenF: Big Cats and Swimming Wagons (80 Points)

With the imminent release of an Operation Market Garden supplement from Toofatlardies, along with an even-more-imminent trip planned to Arnhem, I feel like some Market Garden related gaming is on the horizon. To that end, I've decided to start refreshing my British Paratrooper and German Waffen-SS and Heer forces for Chain of Command. As with all of my Chain of Command forces, I've gone down the 20mm route due to the availability and range of vehicles and the superb sculpting of some figure ranges. I've also been dabbling with some Battlegroup at the local club, and my 20mm forces would work equally well for that. 

Up until now, my WW2 collection has focused on the Normandy campaign, and so rather surprisingly I've avoided collecting some of the most familiar of German tanks, a Tiger. While I had a Panther, it was an older resin sculpt which suffered from 'bendy barrel' syndrome, so I've replaced the whole thing with a more suitable Dragon diecast.

My first part of this entry is a few Waffen-SS crew figures. I think Crew really add something to armoured vehicles, however it does sometimes look a little odd to have crew sitting atop a knocked out or burning tank on the game table, to say nothing of a regular cycle of knocking off and regluing command figures. To that end, I've magnetised the open turrets and figures using some rare earth magnets which I've got left over from a 1/300 aircraft project. I think this is a pretty neat solution, as it allows variety and, in the event that a tank is knocked out in a game, the commander can easily be removed before a burning marker is applied.

These five figures are from Battlefield/Blitz, and are sadly no longer available. As with all of Andy's sculpts, I like that they give the feel of movement and action while maintaining lifelike proportions and easy to paint detail. Happy to hear that Simon's Soldiers has commissioned Andy to sculpt many more figures to be released soon, so I'm hoping to bend Simon's ear into getting a pack of crew figures for my British forces sculpted up.

This lot are painted up as Waffen-SS tank commanders, suitable for Normandy through to the end of the war. While the SS was a reprehensible organisation, I must admit I do like the variety of camouflage patterns you can use when painting them up. 

Next up, it's the big cats. This Tiger I ausf E and Panther ausf A are both from the Dragon range of prepainted WW2 vehicles. While I do try to avoid having a Tiger on the table in platoon level games, the attacks of Kampfgruppe Hummel on Frost's 2nd Parachute Battalion around Arnhem Bridge would make for an interesting game. I made some minor modifications to these which consisted primarily of sitting open the hatches. I then painted both of them, looking for a relatively generic set of schemes so they can be used for Heer or Waffen-SS vehicles.

Next, it's a little Schwimmenwagen, painted up as an SS vehicle. I'm not sure who the make of this one is, but I think it could be a Hasegawa model which came with a 1/72 scale Focke Wulf 190. The driver is from AB.

Finally, it's a brace of Sd.Kfz 251 halftracks, a troop carrying 251/1 variant, and a 251/10 37mm armed vehicle, often used by platoon commanders. Both of these are the excellent offerings from Plastic Soldier Company, with stowage from the same kit, and foliage from Noch.  I've got one more to do, which I think i'll build as a 251/9 75mm armed support vehicle.

Well, that's it for this entry. That makes it 5 20mm vehicles, (60 points) and 5 crew figures (20? points) for a grand total of 70 more towards my goal.
Next up will be some 15mm ancients.

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Great job Ben - always nice to see 20mm, and always nice to see some Big Cats come off the painting table.  Great work all around here, but I'm particularly impressed with the 251s...and even more impressed that you managed to get any of these PSC kits, I've been trying to get some for months... 

For points, the crew figures are halves, but I'm still adding a few bonus points for nice camo patterns and the interiors of the 251s, always a pain in the arse to paint.  Great work. 

Greg B

From PeterA - 15mm WW2 Operation Spring Awakening (184 Points)

No sooner did I get some 20mm WW2 infantry done than I was distracted...again. I blame the new Battlegroup supplement, Spring Awakening, recreating the last hurrah of the Panzer Divisions in Hungary in 1945. I already had many of the models needed for the scenarios and I was able to pick up most of what I still needed in a recent Plastic Soldier Company sale. The only slight drawback was some was already painted but I wasn't happy with the look of them. And it was all in 15mm; still at least it gets me another Squirrel point I think.

First up are the PSC purchases - 3 SU76s and two SU100s, all by Zvezda. Unfortunately the SU76 kit doesn't have any crew figures, so I will have to add them later. These were quick and easy builds and go together pretty well. I had another go with the AK weathering pigments, going for a heavily weathered look - some look better than others!

Next we have some re-painted armour - 3 T34s (PSC), an ISU152 and 2 IS2s (both Zvezda). To be honest, I prefer the way the PSC kits go together; no matter what I tried, the Zvezda stuff ended up with a gap between the lower and upper hull. It's not too noticeable, so I can live with it. Again, heavily weathered, although I varnished them after weathering, and promptly lost the more subtle effects! Still, lesson learned.

Deliberately (honest) crude white air recognition stripe

One of the bonuses of the PSC kit is that you get turrets for both the T34/76 and the T34/85, so a quick turret swap and you have the later version, perfect for Hungary in 1945.

I also finished a platoon of great-coated Russian infantry (Battlefront). These are organised as per the Battlegroup rules - 4x 8-man squads. Given the smaller scale, I used different basing to differentiate between squads - some use GW snow 'flock' and others use the GW textured paint (Valhallan Blizzard I think) - the latter looks much better, so the flock is being retired. I also painted one squad in lighter greatcoats, partly to differentiate them and partly because, well, because erratic Soviet logistics.

I also did an 8-man squad to use as a recce foot patrol and a small platoon HQ element - the flag is artistic licence and a thinly veiled excuse to paint something other than a shade of green or brown!

Finally, I added some German heavy metal in the form of a Tiger II (Zvezda again). I wanted it to look like the crew had hurriedly whitewashed the tank, so first painted a camo scheme and then very lightly over-sprayed it with white primer, so that the camo could just be picked out showing through. A quick wash to add some depth and all that was left was to add lumps of snow (GW textured stuff again). Although I like how this looks on my 20mm stuff, I am not sure it works as well at this smaller scale, so the next Tiger will probably not be winterised.

So 44 infantry and 12 tanks should net me 184 points and 1 Squirrel point. More surprisingly (for me), it brings me to within 100 points of my target! Right, back to 20mm, must focus...SQUIRREL!

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Nice entry and one step closer to that target (and nicely in under the wire for entry today). It seems a lot of people are doing Russians of one kind or another and these are very nice. Obviously - me being a tread-head 'n all - I love the tanks and I like the whitewashing you have applied to the Tiger II. If you'll excuse the pun... very cool! 

Lee

From PaulO'G: DAK Specialist Vehicles (124 points)

Scraping in my second weekly - a grab bag of DAK specialist and support vehicles I have enjoyed researching and collecting.  I am building options for force lists and these help me both in the early years in the desert as well as and expanding into Tunisia and the Operation Torch era.

SdKfz 265 Panzerbefehlswagen - modified from a Pz I Ausf A, this was a Command Tank variant with dedicated radio transmission equipment and operator.  Here it is accompanied by a SdKfz 250 Halftrack, for use as the Luftwaffe Air Liaison Officer to control Air support (this has a tabletop control function in Battlegroup rules)

SdKfz 254 - Produced as an artillery tractor by the Austrian Army between the Wars and prior to Anschluss, it has a  unique and adjustable system of tracks and wheels. The Wehrmacht used it as a Forward Observer vehicle. Its such a cool and distinctive vehicle that I had to have one. This Battlefront model has the options to model with the wheels either engaged or retracted (I have done the latter for resilience)

SdKfz 250/10 - A classic 250 Halftrack, fitted with a 37mm AT gun and frequently utilised as the Recon Platoon Commander's vehicle. In the 41-42 period in the Desert, the 37mm gun is very useful against an array of light armour and Armoured Cars.

Schwimmwagens - who doesn't love the mighty Schwimmwagen? My dream car is not a Ferrari, Porsche or Audi, its a Schwimmwagen! No, the irony of fielding amphibious vehicles in the Sahara Desert is not lost on me.  I promise that if there is an oasis on the table, they will always try to schwimm across it, regardless of the tactical value of such a move. Unless I'm playing Dux of course.

Lorraine Schleppers - converted from captured French Lorraine 37L tanks, this motorised 150mm Artillery gun platform provided highly mobile fire support in the desert in support of the fluid nature of combat in North Afrika.

Marder III (SdKfz 139) - Classic early-mid war German Tank Destroyer made by fusing a Pz39t body and mounting one of the many captured Russian 76mm AT guns.  It is accompanied here by a captured British Truck to act as its ammo hauler across the desert.

StuG III Ausf D - Who doesn't love a StuG? I needed one, though only a very small number served in Afrika, the rest being sunk in their transports en route. Due it their later arrival in theatre, I have presented it as newer and less weatherbeaten #stuglife

SdKfz 11 - Medium halftrack prime mover which saw widespread use throughout the war with over 9000 produced and its chassis was used as the basis for the SdKfz 251 Halftrack. I will be using these to move towed guns which are on the painting desk

Models are predominantly a mix of Battlefront and Forged in Battle, the British Truck is a metal model by Peter Pig and the Marder and SdKfz 250s are by PSC.  In aggregation, this is 13 x 15mm vehicles and 10 crew figures.

Its also my first submission to the alternative What A Tanker challenge
15mm Tanks are real AFVs too - don't be scalist! Don't assume my scale! #notatanker

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Paul, what a wonderful retrospective of German Afrika Korps vehicles. The painting is your usual excellent work - crisp yet weatherbeaten, totally believable. I also really enjoyed reading the little snippets of technical/background information you provided (i.e. I had no idea the Germans deployed the Schwimmwagens in North Africa, or that the hybrid SdKfz 254 was originally an Austrian design - very cool).

124 points for your efforts - Well done, Paul!

From AlanD: 15mm German Recce Units (90 points)

Well, the less said about this last year, the better.

But behold! At last I have submitted something for Challenge 8!

These are just a few little 15mm German recce units for Battlegroup Barbarossa, inspired particularly by a campaign I have going with Paul OG. All the kits are from Plastic Soldier Company, and I must say I love the versatility of their boxes of German medium trucks and Sdkfz 250 half tracks.

Points-wise, there are 4 vehicles, 3 guns and 27 infantry. The halftracks also have a driver each, but I didn't count them as you can hardly see them. I think these get me on the board with 90 points?

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Congratulations, Alan, and welcome to the Challenge, Sir!!  You're most welcome, particularly with an impressive haul like this to kick-start your points.  I can't think of a better balanced German reconnaissance force to take the field against the Soviet behemoth - a really handy collection of punching power and mobility.

The Plastic Soldier Company kits are fantastic value, and (as you say) are amazingly versatile and convertible.  You've more than done them justice, Alan!!

Again, hearty congratulations on getting off the mark, and garnering a very impressive 90 points for your Challenge.

From MartinN: 15mm Battlegroup American Airborne (213 Points)

Finally the kitchen is completed (well, almost... you know how this works) and I'm back on the brushes. So this week sees me submitting a few American Airborne in winter clothing for use with the Battlegroup set of WW2 rules. I'm planing on using them for the Battle of the Bulge and maybe Hürtgen Forest using the lists from Operation Overlord. Iron Fist are to release a dedicated book (softcover) for Battle of the Bulge sometime soonish but as of now the lists will be taken from Overlord anyway.

The miniatures and tanks are all from Battlefront Miniatures. While some of them are nice or OK sculpts, only suffering from bad casting, others are absolutely awful. The six Sherman M4A4's are from the original 'Open Fire' starter set and some of the worst plastic tanks I had the displeasure to deal with to date. To make them look a little less like ugly toys I added some stowage from Battlefront. The platoon leaders got reinforced armour in form of sandbags to the sides. Unfortunately I didn't have any US markings in 15mm at home so only the mandatory stars (taken from 28mm decal sheets) were added.

First Platoon

Second Platoon

They were painted using the US Armor Camouflage set from Ammo of MIG Jimenez. As I quite liked how they came out I decided to not whitewash them but in hindsight I should have done that little extra step. Originally the tracks were intended to look muddy but as so often with pigments the results were quite different from what I had intended. For some reason the pigments dried out whiteish and I had to go over them with several layers of brown wash. Thus ruining the wet/ muddy look completely.

The crew for the .50 cal AA HMG were probably the worst miniatures ever. Despite having a set of three and taking only the best figures, they were just rubbish. Almost no detail, lots of flash and badly cast. Especially for the price BF are asking for their offerings, it feels like robbery to get such bad castings.

Sniper

60mm light mortar

.30 cal medium machine gun

Bazooka

Overall I really enjoyed painting in a smaller scale than usual and am quite happy with how these came out. I still have to adapt my painting to 15mm but as I'm slowly running out of storage space, and really like how fast one can build a sizable force, I'll probably switch the most part of my painting to this scale.

BAR

Together with miniatures I painted earlier that gives me a well sized starting force of three not fully equipped platoons for Battlegroup. I still have/ want to bolster it out with some more stuff like trucks, halftracks, jeeps and scout vehicles. First though, I'll probably start on the Germans in order to get in a game some time soon.

Airborne Squad

So let me see. 83 foot of which 13 are prone/ sitting, six crew served weapons (one .50 cal HMG, a 60mm light mortar, three .30 cals and a Bazooka) and six tanks. If my math is correct this should give me 213 points. With a total of 233 points so far that's enough to overtake ChristopherS (144 points) in our little side duel... for the moment at least. I'm sure he's right now winging his brushes in order to take the lead again.

Acknowledging some of the bad models, you've still managed to produce absolutely stunning work here Nick. To be honest, when I first looked at the photos, I thought these were 28mm!!

I'm always struck by your skills with the brush Nick and you don't disappoint here. Your weathering on the Shermans is excellent and I like your take on the snow bases. Wonderful stuff.

As a suggestion, you should really try 20mm if you want a happy medium between storage and detail. You get all the benefits from 1/72 scale plastic kits PLUS you can access the lovely AB range, which I think you'd perform magic with. Again, just a thought. :)

This entry will allow you to hop-scotch over Christopher, but as you say, I'm sure he has something in the works to return the favour! :)