From SebastianR: Finnaly Finnished? [Historical Drama] (342)

It’s with an overwhelming feeling of relief that I can finally make these posts. I wasn’t exactly dragging my heels, but last week I did do a quick project management of what I was hoping to achieve and realised that there was no way I was going to make it to the director’s chair. I have no idea where the time has gone. That being said I can still probably make it to my somewhat regretfully cocky points goal.

I think the main drag on my initial posting was choosing to front load this project first. I have finally put the finishing touches on the other half of my Flames of War Finns consisting of:

Reinforcements for two already existing infantry platoons

A full strength pioneer platoon, plus an extra panzershrek if I ever run them as regular infantry

A panzerfaust close defence platoon, armed with all sorts of weapons, including chunky bits of wood to force into the tracks of Russian tanks

A four strong machine-gun platoon

Two pk40’s

Four 76mm howitzers

Three 120mm mortars

Three “Sturmi” StuGs painted in Finland’s 3 tone camo.

I decided to use the three tone for normally acquired vehicles – whether that be purchased from the British or Swedes and lend-leased from the Germans – and the whitewash scheme for armour captured from Russia. I’m quite a fan of the scheme, it’s both quite modern and retro. I initially thought I might have overdone the stone grey on these ones but honestly, now that I've had some time to reflect I think they're slightly better than much darker Landsverk Anti II I painted last year.

This was also my third attempt at the very clean Gloss + Pinwash method allegedly employed by Battlefront, this time with actual gloss varnish and an actual pinwash. It didn’t work; looks mostly ok though.

And two spare miniatures who didn’t make it onto bases.

I went through the best part of 2 bottles of Valhalan Blizzard to base these guys; not sure I did as good a job as the first time round but still. It’s also my first time working with Vallejo Wood Grain, and honestly I’m not sure whether I like it, or I think it just looks like unevenly applied paint.

I may repaint these wooden bits eventually if I can’t make up my mind.

I really pressured the lead pile to come up with the constituent miniatures. Battlefront really doesn’t support some of its ranges particularly well and I had to beg suitable-ish panzershrek teams off of friends, and acquire third party winterised panserfausts from Peter Pig. Thus the suspiciously German greatcoated figures you’ll see scattered throughout. Dans le neige, tout les chat sont blanc. There’s a lot of duplicate models as well, 10 of the same guy kneeling working the bolt on his rifle. I didn’t want to purchase any more minis, so I’m literally down to a handful of Lahti anti-tank riflemen and some models that are very obviously servicing artillery pieces.

That’s 121 15mm infantry at 2 each for 242

+ 2 unbased if you’re feeling generous for 4

13 crew served weapons if you include the MGs for 52

3 tanks for 24

And 20 bonus points for a total of 342

Which by my standards is something of a points bomb!

Here’s the entire – and complete for now – Finnish collection

But wait, that’s not all, please see my following posts for the projects that I worked on to unwind from batch painting 123 Finns, plus armour, all at once/while waiting for texture paint to dry.

Fantastic unit, I do love a Finnish army and these are cracking. I won't comment on the number of posts you have today, but hoarding posts is not a good trait

From: SebastianR Captured Armour (44pts) World Cinema

My initial project is taking a while. Like a snake digesting a meal larger than it's head, I fear that it may take a while to be done, perhaps longer than I have in order to meet the deadline.

In order to stake my claim and make said deadline, I present this stopgap, itself made out of stopgaps; three T-34's captured, and pressed into Finnish service.

A friend of mine picked these up at a trade show as T-34's pressed into German service, which I repainted with a mucky, whitewashed, winter scheme. I've decided to follow the Finnish three part camo for armour they acquired through the normal route - from allied, axis or neutral partners, and whitewash over soviet green for captured vehicles. Ironically the technique calls for a green wash over white. I like it, it's simple and effective and makes them look very used.

The figures are a weird bunch; the turrets have been attached in unique ways and one of the hulls is clearly from a different manufacturer. I'd like to think that their previous owner was experimenting with this ersatz unit too.

I've thrown them into the World Cinema category as they do meet the written definition, of being from somewhere I'm not, but I did have a quick look into the Finnish WW2 film industry. The list available on wikipedia seems quite slim; perhaps this is simply one of the many less trafficked areas of wikipedia or perhaps the Finnish film industry hasn't produced quite as much about the Winter and Continuation Wars as one might expect.

World Cinema is, as I understand it, a Hollywood euphemism for films that non-Americans make, but to me it always feels like world cinema means films that eschew the conventions of western film making as a whole. It feels weird to me to put say, the Harry Potter series or Pans Labyrinth in the World Cinema pigeon hole. All this is to say I am curious about the Finns own approach to capturing WW2 on film. Are they loud and nationalistic like many of the old Allies films, particularly the Russian ones? Are they gloomy and introspective like Fury or Dunkirk? If you've got any good recommendations please drop them in the comments.

By my reckoning that should be 44pts. 20 for the challenge and 3x 15mm vehicles.

You may notice some pixilation on the turrets. This is due to the application of the Finnish Hooked Cross, a swastika in Finnish service that predates the rise of the Nazi party and that has nothing to do with the Nazis. Nevertheless, I have no interest in getting into discussion around the politics of displaying swastikas that are not Nazi swastikas. With apologies to our Finnish runners and readers. Thank you for your understanding.

I absolutely love these, great paint job and nice back story. For me world cinema generally has subtitles, so that could include Trainspotting, as American style has pretty mich infected most nations cinema style. Americans do tend to tell exciting stories well. 

Note to all other Sunday slumberers. I fundamentally agree with Seb's position on on showing the Swastika variant. If you have plans to paint figs with Swastikas and want to show them clearly (not blurred out), I also fundamentally agree with your plan to do so. This is a forum for showing your cool figures and not to discuss politics. 

From JonathanO: 28mm Winter War Finnish Platoon (235 points)

Here is my first entry in this winter's challenge.  This is my second year in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and I hope to paint considerably more than I did last time!

My first offering is a Finnish infantry platoon for the WWII Winter War plus a few support options.  These will be for use with the Chain of Command rules by Too Fat Lardies.

The miniatures are from Baker Company.  As mentioned in an earlier Challenge, the figures are of mixed quality.  I do not have the skill or patience to do as well with these as Samuli and MichaelF did.  However, I am pleased to have made a start on my Winter War project.

There are 50 figures in total, 6 of which are lying down. So I think that will give me 235 points and get me on the scoreboard.  It should also give me an initial lead in my Early WWII side duel with my friend Scott.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Jonathan

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Welcome back Jonathan! 

Very nice! A wintery paint bomb to kick off your Challenge for this year. 

I was initially in the Kickstarter for these figures, but pulled out once I saw the prototypes.  That being said, I think you did a great job working around their weaknesses and playing to their strengths.  I also like your groundwork with the fallow grass poking through in some places. Will there be any associated vehicles coming in the coming months? I look forward to seeing this develop.

A very impressive 235 points for your opening volley - well done, Jonathan!

From SamuliS: Early War WWII German Armour (45 points)

Looking at everyone's point targets I figured I'll never have enough time to achieve fame and fortune by winning the challenge so I decided on another route with a quick dash to glory and taking the first place for at least a day! And with December 6th being the Finnish Independence day it's only suitable that I'll try protect the honour of all Finns by leading the challenge for a while :)

So to achieve this I whipped up 6 Flames of War German AFV's with a quick simple paintjob that could be achieved really fast. I got them base-coated in dark grey yesterday and painted the rest this morning by applying a few consecutive drybrush layers, decals, some enamel washes and mud. A nice quick job that in my calculations should put me just in front of Miles and hopefully with a large enough of a point lead to hold the position through the 6th :)

The vehicles themselves are Battlefront Flames of War minis, 2 Sdkfz 231 8-rad reconnaissance vehicles and 4 Panzerjäger I light tank-hunters that both saw service during Operation Barbarossa. These are the first submission of my second larger project for the challenge that is an Early War German Panzerschützen army for Flames of War.

Now with the early morning rush of painting done it's then time to relax for the rest of the day and prepare for watching the parades and independence day reception and gala on the TV.

From Curt:
Great work Samuli and Happy Independence Day! 

I've always loved the design of the 8-rad armoured car - it's so futuristic for something that was designed in the 1930s.  

The vehicles give you a base 36 points and I'm also awarding you 9 points extra for the partial crews. You've pipped Miles to gain the front of the pack and claiming the lead... for now. ;)