From MichaelF - 20mm Shermans, trucks, jeeps and an M10 (120 points)

Well, I might be the most boring contender this year as I stick to the olive drab theme and there is no sign the OD miniature pile is reducing. In fact, it grows bigger each week as I discover more and more cool OD stuff available in 20mm.

After I painted the previous three 75mm Shermans this entry includes two 76mm Shermans (PSC) and an M10 (MMS) so I at least have a chance to actually damage the insane German armour I'm facing.

Also two more jeeps (SHQ with AB crew), 2 trucks (SHQ) and a 'Ben Hur' 1 ton trailer.

I thought this entry would provide me the necessary points to make target next month. But I noticed Rob claimed victory in 'The Dutch Contigent' side challenge and raised the bar with 200 points to 700.

Congratulations Rob! I'll eat those Italians next week.
And I'll take the 700...but no more cheating with the bonus rounds guys. I demand painted points, (and tufts:) so no freebies from Curt!

And don't get me wrong here, I love the bonus rounds. Just not for me this year. Too many, too much distraction from my goal to get this army painted. Maybe next year I will do 'Bonus Rounds' only, should be fun..

From MichaelF - 20mm Shermans (36 points)

For my second entry I'm continuing with some more 20mm stuff to reinforce the freshly painted infantry platoon. For the first game in December we cheated and ordered some pre-painted tanks from Grubby but hey, nothing beats playing with your own painted minis so let's see if I can get a decent amount of armour done.

I'm always impressed by what you can do with an airbrush and regularly I'm staring at beautifully models thinking one day I need to give it a try. But I don't even own an airbrush and I lack the skills and time to master it so I ordered some enamel washes and pigments, grabbed a few brushes to see if I could get a decent enough result. I had great fun trying all sorts of different techniques and the next batch with slightly larger barrels is on it's way as well.

Models are from PSC with the tank commander from Sgt Mess I think.

Ouch, just noticed I still need to add the antennas. Well, will do that later, now we have a thursday deadline...

From Curt:

I completely sympathize with your 'airbrush envy' as I've never tried using them and have always envied the look others have achieved with them. Old dogs / new tricks, eh? Nonetheless, you've done a marvelous job on these Shermans, Michael. Masterful brushwork with the smooth blending and shading. I also find the weathering to be nicely restrained yet still effective. Excellent. I have a trio of SPC's later Sherman IIIs to do and now, with these, I have a sobering benchmark to work towards. Thanks for the incentive!

Great work Michael!

From MichaelF - 20mm WWII US Infantry (256 points)

OK, time to join the fun!

As you may have seen in posts from the other Dutch contenders this challenge starts with some 20mm WW2.

I’ve been painting like crazy to get a lot of these finished for our Christmas game and I was delighted that the day before the game I had a basic platoon and some terrain ready for battle. Terrain? still don’t know how it happened but at one point I promised to do some terrain, probably thinking I would do it before the challenge started. Did not happen off course so a lost a lot of points there.

Not sure BTW how RobP managed to get his done in time, but I could swear when I visited him the night before the game the 3 Stugs he just posted and appeared on my right flank the day after where nowhere near finished (in the box even). Anyway, It must be one of our highlights every year. Six guys sweating and staring at deadlines but in the end everyone delivers and a new period or scale is born.

So here we go. Figures by AB with a few from Kelly’s heroes.

It’s not the full platoon, I painted the first squad before the competition started.

Squad 1

Squad 2

I just post squad 3 for completeness, these were painted before the competition so no points

HQ from Kelly's heroes

More HQ

Medic & Flamethrower from Kelly's Heroes

Mortars

Machine Guns

Extra's for CoC games

Observer & Bazooka team, sniper

57mm ATG

You need lots of jeeps

but this is the same one

and a muddy truck (Sgt Mess) to park in one of the farms

And a few scenic shots for those who are bored of the white background

From Curt:
First, welcome aboard Michael! It's great to have the third member of the Dutch team join in the fun. 

Oh wow, these are just great Michael! I always have enjoyed your paint style as it's always so smooth and precise. I also like how weather-worn these GIs look and your basing of them is terrific as well. It's funny though, if I had to choose just one element from this submission I'd have to say I'd go with the muddy civilian truck. You can almost smell the manure and straw in the flatbed - it's wonderfully characterful!

Those scenic shots are pretty choice as well. But then again,  I remember from gaming with you guys last spring that you always put on a very nice table. Bravo and again, it's great to have you with us!