From TeemuL: Peninsular British (80 points)

Earlier in the Challenge I painted the last base of my Highlanders and promised more. There was a small problem, I noticed I didn't have any bases for the next units. So I ordered more and received them, thank you Warbases - it was surprisingly easy this time, getting a package from UK to EU. Anyway, there was another issue. I had bought two boxes of Victrix British Peninsular Infantry from a marketplace, but both of them were little used, so not all the minis were there. One box was Center Companis, another Flank Companies. And when I did the calculations, I had exactly 72 soldiers, which means exactly three units of 24. Because I wanted to some unity in units, I had to assemble all the 72 minis to know which kind of poses I actually had and what kinds of hands etc, how many commanders and so on. Quite a task when someone should focus on actually painting minis during the challenge, not assembling a horde of minis.

But in the end it worked out, I had three units to paint, some of them had more commanders or flags than others, but that doesn't worry me too much, the units were not 24 strong in the real life anyway. Here I present the first four bases of the new unit of my retirement project, Napoleonic Peninsular Wars.

These are mostly assembled from Centre Companies box. Luckily those boxes were quite identical, one had curved swords and the other had straight swords being the main difference. Based on the information on the box, I decided to use blue details, which means they can be Foot Guards, 1st Royal Scots, Kings German Legion or 4th Kings Own and possibly several others, too. Since I already painted some Highlanders, let's say these are 1st Royal Scots. After more research I may need to change my mind...

These are a combination of Contrast and traditional paints, clothes and backpacks are mainly Contrast paints, others painted in traditionals with a odd wash here and there. I was looking forward to have white pants, but decided to try light grey in the end, using watered down Basilicanum Grey Contrast paint. I'd say there are ok for a game, but not for a historical diorama. Luckily I'm aiming for the first.

Let's see if I can make some progress in the Heaven this week, but if not, this is still a nice 80 points for, coming from 16 28mm plastic minis.

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Hi Teemu

Wow! That’s a lot of minis to organize and assemble!

As a retirement project I don’t think you can go wrong with Napoleonics … beautiful uniforms, large & small scale battles and once you’ve completed armies in one scale you can replicate in yet another smaller scale (looking at you Mr Snowlord … haha)

Well done Teemu and another 80points to your scoreboard

-Sarah

From Mike W - 28mm High Elves & British Sudan Infantry (130 Points)

So this week has not been as productive as I'd hoped, with real life commitments getting in the way.

However I did finish 2 batches of figures and I have quite few 'in progress' on the workbench - more 28mm Arthurian Cavalry, some ECW types as well as some AWI figures and a bunch of Warlord Epic 15mm Carthaginians...

21 x Highland Miniatures, Aegean (High) Elves

Another view of the unit

And another....

But this week's main event are 21 x 28mm High Elves, which are 3D Prints from Highland Miniatures. They were a joy to paint and as such I have tried to align their colour palette withe the classic Games Worksop figures I completed earlier in this Challenge.

The command team, I love their long flowing hair, caught in the wind.

Group of four elves, in a variety of clothes
but all with the same colours to bond them together in a unit

I was originally going to leave their waist sashes white but these did not scan well, I then tought of doing them in turquoise blue but that would clash with the rest of their outfts so in the end I settled on yellow sashes.

Four more elves, in a variety of positions.
The figures come fully moulded with a set of inter-changeable heads to allow added variety

Another group, bases are 25mm MDF squares

Final two Elves

And a close-up on the standard bearer,
symbol was taken form an online illustration.

The other batch of figures that I completed were 5 x British 'Post Office Riflemen' from the 1885 Sudan Campaign. 

Five Riflemen in Sudan

These 28mm figures are old Wargames Factory guys, they are a bit crude, sculpt wise,  compared to more modern plastics but I fancied doing them due to an obscure family connection to this little known unit. 

Two riflemen in close-up

Two little guys shooting - I'll refrain from saying that
'the postman always shoots twice!'
Oops! I didn't!

Close-up of the final figure - although rough and ready,
by today's standards,  the sculpt does the job

It turns out that my Great Grandfather was a Post Office worker in 1885 and we'd always been told he was a Rifleman. He would have been 19 years old at the time of their second Sudanese campaign in 1885.  However, I have not been able to find any records of his service - so we are now thinking that this was a bit of a rather over-embellished story!

POINTS

21 x 28mm Elves @5 Pts                  105 Points

5 x 28mm British Infantry @ 5 Pts     25 Points

TOTAL                                              130 Points

I always like Wargames Foundry, even though the sculpts may show their age a bit. These are very good too, and I like your paint job. A pity that you couldn't find anything about your ancestor, but perhaps in the future you will be able to confirm his heroic history! Those Highland Miniatures Elves look great also, in their somewhat traditional but rather splendid colour scheme. They are great designs, and the fully painted unit looks marvellous. 130 points it is.

Martijn

From DallasE: Bolt Action AEC Armoured Car (20 points)

Hey gang. Not much for this week but I did start and finish a resin armoured car. This is some super old stock from Warlord Games that I picked up from a local pal. It's an AEC MKIII.

At first I thought I might reasonably be able to paint it up for North Africa, but they really only used the MKI with a Valentine turret, but some reportedly armed with a Crusader turret mount a 6-pounder AT gun. But this MKIII replaced the MKII's 6-pounder with a QF 75mm AT gun. Yikes!

I painted this one as a MKIII fielded by the 1st King's Dragoon Guards in Normandy.  The vehicle was painted Castellan Green, washed Agrax Earthshade, and panel highlighted Castellan again. I freehanded the insignia.

I used some serial number decals I had in the bits box with a freehand "F". The stars on the hull sides are freehand. I stuck on some stowage from ValueGear as well.

I did find one star decal in the box though!

This is a pretty good model, resin body and turret with metal gun barrel and wheels. I don't think you can buy it anymore though! It'll fit into my late-war Brit force pretty well I think.

Points: 20 for a 28mm vehicle.

See you next time with some trucks!
 

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Nice job Dallas - I do love those older resin Warlord models. I've got two of their resin Churchills and they have some very satisfying heft to them! (anyone got a third spare to complete my Troop?) Your hand painted marking really complete the look - nice work!

- Paul

From SteveM: 15mm TY Soviets and FoW British (296 points)

 Two eras of tanks today. Enjoy.

Team Yankee Soviets

The Team Yankee Soviets were part of a group of three types of tanks that I got second hand when the challenge started. Two of the tanks types are in this post. I suppose they were someone else's Limbo pile so I won't count it as mine. These had been assembled and primed but some needed minor repair work.  A few of the turret mounted machine guns will remain broken for now and I will leave that to a future mini project.

A future challenge post might contain the third group that are plain T-64. There was one turret that was glued and I am in the process of fixing it.

First up today is a group of cold war era Soviet T-72. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

Soviet T-64BV:

The second group is of cold war era T-64BV. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

subtotal 21 (8 + 12) x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 168 points

Flames of War British

These were next in the queue to paint. They might have been part of a boxed set that contained infantry but if so, they won't be painted any time soon as some other cool projects are in the queue. There is an assortment of Cromwell, Sherman, Stuart, Tank Destroyer, and Churchill flamethrowers.

 

Again painted in "green". There is some ghosting on a few of the decals due to not enough gloss varnish prior to putting them on as there was too much water mixed in.

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

 subtotal: 16 x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 128 points

Challenge Points:

Total = 296 points

 

Sylvain: Your tanks look gorgeous. Even though they are plain green, you were able to pick out the details and make them look that they were on the battlefield a few moments ago. I like how you painted the rubber parts of the tracks on your Sheman Firefly. This kind of attention to details really increases the realism of your paint job. This is your first entry of the Challenge and you did it with a bang, giving us a point bomb! 296 points for you! 

 

From SylvainR: Tray 03 - 6mm Early British Logistics & Command (44 points)

 

This will be the last tray for the British Expeditionary Force. First, below, is a group of 10 elements of "Logistics". Among the huge amount of 6mm WW2 stuff I got from my friend RobertR, I found these utility vehicles that had no direct role in combat. I decided to create logistics elements with them and I have been drafting some rules on how they could be used in a game other than as objectives. We'll see how it works. I already have similar logistics sets for the early German army as well as for the British army in the desert.

This unit of logistics vehicles is made up of a combination of models from CinC, GHQ and Heroics and Ros. You might have noticed that the bases are less detailed than usual. I will be soon starting to work on late WW2 armies and since I will have a lot of models to re-base I used these logistics elements as a test bed for a simplified process to make the bases. Basically, I need 2 fewer "steps", which, when adding up, will save me some time.

A note on the recovery vehicle, below: my wife's grand-father, "Bud", drove a similar recovery vehicle for the Canadian Army during WW2, first in Italy and then in the Netherlands. There is a picture of him with his truck but, unfortunately, the photo is at my wife's uncle's farm and I did not have an opportunity to get a copy before posting this entry.

 

After completing all the other units for the BEF, I created little dioramas for the Battalion HQs.

Here is one HQ for the Cruiser Tanks Regiment and another one for the Infantry Tank Regiment. Despite being named "tank regiments" these British units were about the same size as German tank battalions. On the Cruiser tanks, the blue diamond indicates that these vehicles are part of the regimental HQ.

Below, you can see the HQ for the infantry battalion and a little vignette for Vereker (Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gorth), the overall commander of the BEF. He was given less demanding tasks after Dunkirk. I added a cow crossing the road in front of his car, for fun.

 

On the Vereker diorama, I added a road sign (see below, enlarged) giving directions for both the first battle and the last battle fought by the BEF during that fateful summer of 1940. Note the French spelling for Dunkirk ("Dunkerque").

With the command elements finished, I can now declare that my BEF army is complete. There are 8 trays of units but, when consolidated, should come down to 7 trays.

 I can now mark off another 6mm WW2 project from my to-do list. Yeah!

The next army is "Early German 2/2". It consists of a battalion of Fallschirmjagers (done before the challenge), a battalion of cavalry, a battalion of motorcycles, and various engineer units.

Points claimed:

-  8x 6mm infantry at 1/2 points each = 4 points

- 20x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 40 points (I did not count the trailers)

Total = 44 points

Thanks for reading!

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More brilliant 6mm work Sylvain! Well done for working in such items as logistics and command...not always glamorous for us from the wargaming perspective, but of course in real conflicts absolutely essential. Rules which find ways to take that into account without ruining the game experience (which often happens with, say, recon elements) can be a challenge, but I am confident you will succeed.

I also love the road signs, and it is a reminder...that battle at Arras in early WW2 is another one that I know almost nothing about! I need to read up!

44 points - well done!

GregB
 

From SylvainR: Tray 02 - 6mm Early WW2 British Tanks (74 points)

 

Moving forward with the British Expeditionnary Force, this week I present a tray full of early tanks. First, 7 dreaded Matilda IIs, the "Tiger I" of 1940. The models are from GHQ. The BEF had two camouflage patterns for their tank, and this one is khaki/dark green.

Now, a squadron of 10 Cruiser Mk.I (A-9), easy recognizable with their twin MG turrets at the front of the hull. The blue triangles indicate that these vehicles are part of the 1st squadron of the 3rd regiment. Also note that the road wheels of different sizes are similar to those on the Valentine tank. The camouflage is of the second pattern, mixing khaki and light green. I really like this combination, it has a kind of "vintage" feeling. Models are from GHQ.

The finger helps to estimate the size of the model.

Now, a squadron of Cruiser Mk.II (A-10), sporting the same boxy turrets as the A-9 while the MG turrets were removed. The blue square signals that this is the 2nd Squadron. Models are from GHQ.

Finally, a squadron of Cruiser Mk.III (A-13), with the angled turret and large road wheels familiar to wargamers of early WW2. This time, models are from CinC, which means the guns on these models are tiny and brittle and the hull features less details, which makes the camouflage pattern more apparent. The blue circle means that these tanks are part of the 3rd squadron.

Points claimed:

- 37x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 74 points

Total = 74 points

Thanks for reading!

***

Another fine 6mm treat for us Sylvain! Once more, you have done excellent work on these small tanks. Not only is the painting of the figures excellent, but the quality of the basework does so much to at once set them AND make them "pop" a bit. It is am excellent combination. 

While I love the Matildas in particular, I do find that 95% of the British early-war armour was just...so awful...but hey, that's what they rolled with! And these all look terrific. Also, I agree completely re: the CinC vs. GHQ...quality wise, there is no comparison, but sometimes you need to go with what you can get to...

Inspiring stuff Sylvain, this will help motivate me to turn to small smaller-scale projects of my own!

GregB