From SamuliS: Artillery and Star Players (46 points)

Back from a short hiatus in entries! After a fairly quiet start of the year at work it's been quite hectic the last couple of weeks with limited free time available. And that free time was quite often taken by painting up a large batch of Flames of War terrain for our club that I promised to do sometime last summer, but never properly got around to it until now that I was pressured into finishing them for a tournament that is coming up in a few weeks. I had painted some of the grey details before so didn't count for the challenge sadly.

 4 sets of Battlefronts Stalingrad ruins painted up for our gaming club.

The minis I did paint for the challenge are a continuation from the last couple of subjects with yet more Team Yankee West Germans and some Star Players for Bloodbowl. For Bundeswehr we have three MLRS tracked rocket launchers and an M113 observer vehicle. The Observer vehicle was a 3D file that I found on Thingiverse and printed out to give some variety to the army compared to regular M113 that I planned for a reservist formation.

For Bloodbowl we have a couple of Star Players with Akhorne the Squirrel, Helmut Wulf and Karla von Kill making a showing as well as another little lizard to function as a token. I also painted up a ball token to place under the base of the ball carrier. Akhorne and Karla were painted to match my Amazons, but I decided to paint Helmut differently as he will probably be the most common star player  to use in the game so a more traditional chaosy theme suited him well. All minis from Greebo games. I'm especially fond of Akhorne. Lovely sculpt and the foaming mouth really suits the lore of the crazed (possibly Khornate) squirrel causing havoc on the field. A frenzied squirrel with sharpened claws is probably something you would not want to face. In game he is bit of a glass cannon, with nearly everything in the game being able to hit him with three dice, but he does pack bit of a punch when he is the one doing the tackling. And being cheaper than many of the positionals in the game you can get him as an inducement fairly easily. 

 

I'm counting Akhorne and the lizard as 15mm minis so with 4 15mm vehicles, 2 15mm minis and 2 28mm minis this should end up netting me 46 more points.

Nice work! I'm actually quite taken with the colours on your lizard. You do know Blood Bowl is a way to my heart. As are skullz and hazard stripes, both of which I spy. I haven't seen the squirrel in action, but would like to! Your moderns have come out nicely. I like the dusty weathering. I wouldn't have picked that as a 3D print- good job!

Barks

From SamuliS: Panzerhaubitze rolling into Vogsphere (44 points)

Back to a scale that I've probably submitted more minis in than in any other, though this time with a new era for me in the challenge. I've played Flames of War for quite a while now and it's probably been my most played single game for the last 10 years or so. So naturally when Team Yankee originally came out I was intrigued, but sort of figured that while the setting interested me the ground scale maybe looked a bit odd and I was more interested in larger scale battles of battalion sized forces or larger due to that being closer to what I've dealt with as a reservist in the last years. But last autumn a Team Yankee bug really bit our club and with most of my gaming friends picking up armies I succumbed as well. I was on the fence between picking up a French wheeled recon force or starting a West German armored unit, but looking at store availabilities I finally ended up with the Germans. I have most of the base units already done and I'm now starting to round out the different support options to add some variety.

Having lived in Germany and done quite a lot of business with Germans I can vouch for the cliches about their bureaucracy levels being true. I think I'm probably still marked as a resident in Aachen as you had to report moving out at the city hall and they only allowed you to do it a few days before your departure. When I tried to do it about a week in advance the lady complained that I should come back later which I declined to do so I'm pretty sure I'm somehow still marked as living there. Now another area which is well known for bureaucracy is the military and this applies to any sort of company manufacturing military materials. I'd imagine the discussions related to Germans buying American military gear during the Cold War and not too long after the end of WW2 would have been quite a bureaucratic nightmare for the ordinary person so with that slightly long winded explanation I'd think these are a suitable example for my next planet on the Quadrant map with a landing on Vogsphere ;)

 

Three 15mm vehicles and the next landing point come to around 44 points if my count is correct!

That's a cheeky explantion for Vogsphere, but I'll allow it as you're still a resident of Aachen. I really feel these should be off-board, but they look great.

Barks

From GregB: More Cold War Armour (62 points)

More Bundeswehr armour in 15mm to reinforce the NATO lines!

I got such a jolt from painting 15mm Cold War armour - a subject my paint brushes have not touched for close to a year or more - that I just kept right on going through the week!  Once I started to tackle my unpainted collection of Bundeswehr armour in 1/100 scale from Battlefront, I felt more and more that I didn't want to stop until I got through almost all of the lot I had accumulated over the prior 18 months. And so, here is yet more Bundeswehr armour in 15mm.  The models are nearly all from Battlefront, with one exception, which you will see more on below.

As before, these are painted in my best approximation of the West German three-colour camouflage scheme.  Templates were used to apply the paint to these vehicles in depots, and so I tried my best to have the camouflage pattern on each vehicle to be generally similar. Let's take a look at some of the different AFVs in this batch.

Luchs wheeled armoured recon vehicles - 1/100 models from Battlefront

Up first are the Spähpanzer Luchs, 8-wheeled armoured recon vehicles.  As you can imagine, they are engineered for speed, moving rapidly about to track the various movements of their Warsaw Pact opponents.

Certainly looks like a sporty ride...

In the event of a tussle with the enemy they carry a turret-mounted 20mm cannon to help out in lighter encounters, and deal with opposing recon elements they might encounter.  They are lightly armoured, however (as you might expect) and so will not last long against any direct fire from enemy tanks or missiles.

Well-executed mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront

Many rules try to give players reasons to use recon-themed elements like this in their games, and "Team Yankee" is no exception, but I find the games we really like to play are ones where a battle develops, and given that the players have a birds' eye view of the forces on the table, it is very hard to make recon elements as important to wargamers as they are to actual commanders in the real battlefield. In a real conflict, vehicles like the Luchs would be providing essential information to panzer and panzer grenadier commanders.  On a wargame table, you hope they knock out something useful before they are hit by a 125mm tank round fired in anger by Soviet players who were unable to successfully target anything larger on the NATO side...

Despite these issues, I like how cool these models look, and it's fun to try and put together different kinds of forces to give some variety to the gaming scenarios we can put on.

A zug of Leopard 1 tanks - models from Battlefront

Up next we have some West German MBTs – these Leopard 1s.  By the time of the (thankfully) fictional battles envisioned by the game “Team Yankee”, the Leopard 1s had moved out of main frontline service, replaced by the heavier Leopard 2s, and into a heavy-support role for the scouting elements of the panzer and panzer grenadier formations. 

Love the look of these German tanks! The Leopard 1 is another classic Cold War vehicle

The kits from Battlefront are a treat to work with - phew!

The Leopard 1 tanks are fast (you know, for tanks), and with a well-designed 105mm main gun, can certainly dish out severe punishment to Warsaw Pact tanks.  Plus, they just LOOK so cool – the main battle tank answer to a fine-looking German sports car! But their armour cannot be counted on to absorb the 125mm return fire of the Soviet side, so the commanders and crews of these vehicles need to keep moving and be very careful when and how they engage the enemy.

So often NATO players are content to see their small number of scary tanks blast away, but they will need to be a little more clever when using vehicles like the Leopard 1. 

A 15mm Leopard 1 from the Plastic Soldier Company - an excellent kit! Note, however, the crew are still from Battlefront, just to maintain consistency with the other West German vehicles

One of these models – to be used as a command vehicle - is from the new 15mm Leopard 1 box offered by the fine folks at Plastic Soldier Company.  There was a hiccup with the initial release of these models as the first wave of kits did not include a hatch for the driver (oops!) but they sorted all of that out in short order, and I can readily recommend you purchase them if this tank is something that interests you!

The other three are mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront.  I’m pleased to say the quality here was very good!

Also, the Leopard 1 was still used as a frontline main tank by several other NATO allies, including Canada! Something I hope to have more about in later Challenge submissions…

Two more modern-day "big cats" - Leopard 2s on the prowl for Warsaw Pact targets

A commander popped out of the hatch to help make it easier to find the command tank on the table

And finally here are two more of the Leopard 2s…Battlefront sells these in packs of five models, so I thought I would finish these to join the other three I had painted for last week.  As before, these are very, very fine plastic models from Battlefront…my only quibble is the very vulnerable connection for the cupola MG…hopefully they will last for a while…

Ready for gaming action in "Team Yankee"!

So that is another 10 vehicles in 15mm, which should hopefully net me another 60 points toward my goal.  That’s all for now – see you again next week!

Good Lord man, you spent all last week painting the SAME camo on squadrons of vehicles and then decided that the appropriate course of action this week was to do MORE of the same?!?!?  If I weren't also a wargamer and painter myself, I may question your sanity.... but as I am both of those things I instead admire and salute your work sir!

These vehicles are ace with your signature detailed bases to boot.  Seeing the Leopards 1 & 2 together is great as you can really see how much more advanced and with a flatter profile the 2 is.  The 1 looks almost WW2 in comparison......

Totally with you on the recce too, wargames really can't get over the importance of this stuff and does often end up just as lightly armed vehicles that brew up super quickly.

Cracking painting all round and I'm awarding an extra 2 points to represent the 2 weeks you've spent squinting at 15mm vehicles to get the camo the same on them ;)

From GregB: Cold War Bundeswehr Armour in 15mm

Bundeswehr vehicles in 15mm from Battlefront, ready for "Team Yankee"

It's time switch painting gears! After several submissions focused on my Franco-Prussian War project, the animal spirits which drive my brushwork were keen for something different, a familiar subject which I had not touched for some time.  I dug into my pile of shame (the large amount of figures and models which are assembled and primed but have not seen a paint brush for a year, or more!) and came across these vehicles.  I love tanks, and I love gaming the "Cold-War-Gone-Hot", and so here is an assortment of West German armour for the Bundeswehr in 15mm! The models are all 1/100 scale kits from Battlefront.

We play quite a bit of Battlefront's "Team Yankee" in our gaming group.  The rules certainly have  warts, and playing this particular period in 15mm has issues, but man, is it FUN! I am always foisting tank battles on to my friends from different periods and in different scales (Curt can attest to this) and "Cold-War-Gone-Hot" are some of my absolute favourite, favourite themes for games. "Team Yankee" delivers, with burning equipment all over the table by the end of the second turn.  Thank goodness these encounters are fictional!

I have large collection of Soviet models in this period and scale, and a much, much smaller NATO collection.  I wanted to do up NATO forces, but as my great friend Dallas here in Winnipeg had rapidly painted up a nice force of West German armour not long after the models arrived in 2016, and you don't actually need many NATO tanks for a large game. I settled for painting up the infantry only - these were finished in late 2016, just prior to the start of AHPC VII.  I thought I would paint the armour to accompany them during the last edition of the Challenge, but instead focused on other interests (mostly 30k) as I didn't really "need" the models in the group for "Team Yankee". My only nod to the Cold War in the last Challenge amounted to a single IFV painted in a theme round.

A further delay was a block in my mind that I would use an airbrush to paint these. Byron had helped me use an airbrush to prime them, and I told myself these would be the vehicles where I would finally overcome my airbrush issues and use it to paint them...but I still haven't cracked open my new airbrush.  I will someday but...that's another topic.  The point for this post is that these models have been sitting for over a year! Shame! Time to get them painted...and here you are:

Marder infantry carriers - three vehicles per panzer grenadier platoon

Leaving aside my airbrush issues, I stuck to my plain old paintbrush-brushes to apply my best approximation of the three-colour scheme used by the West Geman forces, and dove into painting up some tanks, my first ones in over a year! I dislike modern camouflage - the worst part is that use of templates would mean it should look broadly similar pattern-wise on each vehicle...tricky to do while painting freehand, but in the end, it turned out OK.

Very nice plastic kits from Battlefront - I hate plastic, and STILL like these very much!

This angle shows a bit more of the access for the grenadiers - ramp on the back and hatches on the top

Up first are the Marder infantry fighting vehicles, the troop carriers for my panzer grenadiers. Sleek and sci-fi-looking, the Marders are great (where the M113 is soooooo lame), and the plastic kits from Battlefront are a real treat - this from someone who absolutely despises plastic kits! That 20mm turret is super-menacing...there are enough Marders here to mount two platoons, plus a separate one for the company commander - so the core of my Bundeswehr panzer grenadier company is ready to roll.

The captain's ride...I left the flaps/bazooka skirts off this one to help make ID on the table easier - also popped a commander out of the hatch, something I like to do to help command vehicles stand out

Up next are Jaguar AT missile carriers.  The Jaguar is the final evolution of the tank-destroyer (don't those silhouettes look a little familiar to us WW2 gamers?) but the mechanics of the gun are all gone, replaced some more amour and the techo-arcana of a 1980s guided anti-tank missile system.  These vehicles provide a relatively armoured and stable, mobile platform for specialized AT purposes in support the panzer grenadiers.

Armoured missiles carriers for the Bundeswehr - Jaguars

Firing spooky missiles in a somewhat-safer armoured environment...you can see some of the gaps on the models caused by crummy quality control from Battlefront...

These models show that Battlefront still has many production weaknesses - these were mixed metal and resin, and the fit was very, very poor - some pretty big seams in spots, but hopefully paint and distance obscure them.  You will also see I used the wrong front plate (there was a slight variant between Jaguar 1 or 2) - this is thanks to an error in the instructions Battlefront includes with the kits - that's on me, though, they are always f***ing that stuff up, I should have double-checked online before I got out the glue...oh well.

Essential protection for any West German forces...the iconic Gepard flakpanzer

Continuing along there are two Gepard flakpanzers.  These are iconic Cold War weapon platforms, and in "Team Yankee" they play a key role in keeping the deadly Soviet helicopters and aircraft away from the panzer grenadiers. Check out the firing sequence in this video...yikes!  I would think of somewhere else to fly too...

Big seam on the track with this model, but overall the quality on these was much better than the Jaguars

These are mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront, but fortunately the quality was much higher than on the Jaguars.  The only tricky part was getting the gun barrels to attach in a straight way so they align with the base of the cannons, which are cast in resin on the turret - I didn't totally manage it, but didn't totally screw it up either...this is a standard I pretty much consistently strive for when it comes to model assembly :)

Keep watching the skies!

And of course, as a wargamer, I am always wanting to use these against ground targets.  Not many motor rifle companies will stand a chance against these guns...

And last, but not least, a platoon of deadly Leopard 2 tanks.  The penultimate main battle tank design, the Leopard 2 is an incredible machine, an ideal combination of every aspect of the modern battle tank.  Great mobility, armour and incredible firepower, these things can rip out the guts of a Soviet armoured manoeuvre in just one volley!  They will be the mobile, hard-hitting fist of the panzer grenadier company.

A zug of deadly Leopard 2 panzers....

These tanks are also plastic models from Battlefront, and while the quality is excellent, the MG mount on the cupola is hilariously weak and they will break off before long.  As a nod to this, you get two MGs on the sprue, but still...wish Battlefront had through that through a little more...

Once more a commander in the cupola is used to mark out the platoon command tank on the table

Very nice kits, although the MGs on the cupolas are a bit stupidly fiddly...

Love the deadly silhouette of this vehicle...

All that firepower!! As I said, thank goodness this conflict is just fictional...

And I can't resist some propaganda photos! Here are the vehicles together with the infantry painted in 2016.

The full panzer grenadier company, ready for action!

Now that they have  ride to take to battle, they really are "panzer" grenadiers

Infantry AA missile teams go along with the Gepards

That's 14 vehicles in 15mm, so should add another 84 points to my tally.  Let's see how long this little Cold-War-Tank-Painting jag will last...

Now these chaps will show those pesky Prussians who's boss and may turn the tide of the war against the enemies muskets! They'll definitely be the..... wait....... what?  Ahem.  I see.  Almost slipped that past me.....

These are absolutely lovely with your usual attention to detail and crisp style.  I didn't know the modern thing (yes, the 80's still counts as "modern" - at least it does to me!) was to paint the camo on each vehicle in EXACTLY the same pattern.  When I read that I spent a far bit of time staring at how you'd managed to get exactly the same frickin' pattern on each vehicle - I was entranced!  That must have driven you absolutely potty doing that.... my usual approach to camo is just blobbing it on and hoping for the best.  What a delightful array of different vehicles providing all sorts of battlefield roles - The Leopards are soooo dangerous looking too, and I thought the Panther had a menacing silhouette...

Anyway, for doing such excellent (bonkers) work on the camo, I'm wielding the power vested in me by the internet to round your points up to 90 for such dedication - NATO salutes you!

From FranL - 15mm Modern Bundeswehr Panzergrenaiders with TPz Fuchs Zug...(75 Points)

...from Flytap Factory.

Modern German Panzergrenaiders with the TPz Fuchs, 4 squads of 6 panzergrenaiders to make up a Zug (platoon)

TPz (Transportpanzer) Fuchs (Fox) and one of the larger APC's out there at 7.33m in length.

24 figures plus the 4 vehicles with some nice little stowage additions.

Nice work Fran! I've always liked the look of these wheeled LAVs. The camo is great and your addition of the aerials and stowage finish them off quite nicely (with a few extra points added for that). Well done! 

And Happy Saint Patrick's Day, you grand Irish lump!