From FrederickC: More Polish 10th Motorized Brigade and a Circle of Paradise [The Inconstant] (195 Points)

There is less than a week to go now, so this may be my final submission, or possibly my penultimate, if I put my nose to the grindstone. This week I present some more troops for my 10th Polish Motorized Brigade, also known as 'The Black Brigade'. 

10th Polish Motorized Brigade

 

Ten of the figures are from a box of Warlord Games Polish Infantry Squad in Greatcoats that I bought last July at Historicon. After I got back home I decided I would rather have a fourth squad of Black Brigade motorized troops and did a bit of conversion work, carving away the gas mask bag and replacing it with a German style canister, and swapping out the heads that came with Polish helmets for spare German ones. The M35 helmet doesn't have quite the same profile as the M16 helmet, so I added 'ventilation horns' characteristic of the earlier helmet. 

The remaining 24 figures are 3D prints using an STL from MyMiniFactory of Polish motorcycle troops wearing the black leather coats that gave the formation the nickname of 'The Black Brigade'. I am generally pleased with the look of the prints, but again there are a few niggling errors - the bayonet looks more like a belt knife, being rather small and mounted too high, the profile of the helmet is off at the back, rising much like a Soviet helmet, and two of the figures have 'carrying straps to nowhere', running over the shoulder, but with nothing suspended from them like a haversack or gas mask canister.

All the figures were mounted on 25mm round bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done using Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; greatcoats and trousers - Green Brown; haversacks and equipment straps - Green Grey; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Brown Violet; belts and ammo pouches - Flat Earth; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; leather coats and metal weapons parts - German Grey; jackboots - Black, bayonets - Gungrey. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. 

 

Polish motorized infantry squad (front)

Polish motorized infantry squad (side)

Polish motorized infantry squad (back)

Closeup of conversion work (gas mask canister)

Closeup of conversion work (ventilation horns added to helmet)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (back)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (side)

Since I got the dismounted motorcycle troops printed, I acquired another STL from the same designer for motorcycles with sidecars and the field car similar to what I painted up last year, but I haven't got them printed yet. A project for AHPC XVI?

The last figure for this post is an officer that came from the box of Wargames Atlantic French Infantry that I painted at the beginning of the challenge. Rather than paint him in Horizon Blue, I have done him in colours appropriate for May 1940. I am going to apply him to what will be my only Circle of Paradise of the Divine Comedy - The Inconstant - which is described in the theme guide as 'something which may try its best but often falls a bit short'. The French army in May 1940 had more men than the Germans, and more tanks, with better armour and firepower than most German tanks, yet when push came to shove, it crumbled in the face of 'Blitzkrieg'. The troops at the ground level fought hard, but the leadership at higher command seemed to be lacking. 

French Officer - May 1940 (front)

 

French Officer - May 1940 (back)

The points being claimed are as follows:

35 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 175 points

1 x Circle of Paradise - The Inconstant = 20 points

 Thanks for stopping by. 

Sylvain: Another greatly educational and entertaining post from you, Frederick. Your production for this Challenge was stunning, again, and I am very curious to see the picture of your wrap up, next week. I hope I will be able to see you across the table this year. I plan on going to Brandon in May, and maybe you will be there. It was an honor and a privilege to be your minion this year.

From FrederickC - Opening Salvo (212 points) [Under Construction]

 This may seem more like a collection of random shots rather than a concentrated salvo, but it clears away a number of small projects associated with my various Bolt Action armies, specifically my early war Poles, early war Germans, and late war British.

Last year I started the challenge by painting a squad of the Polish 10th Motorized Brigade. One squad just wasn't enough, so I added a second squad from the Warlord Games Bolt Action range. These were painted using Vallejo acrylics followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Since you can't be a motorized brigade without some motor transport, I have added four Polish Fiat trucks to move them around the battlefield. These are 3D prints done by a friend. One of the truck beds came out a bit warped and my attempts to fix it were unsuccessful. In the end I scratch-built a replacement from thin plastic card. These were also painted with Vallejo acrylics followed by a wash of Vallejo European Dust.

Polish 10th Motorized Brigade squad (Last year's squad taking cover in the background)

 

A column of Polish Fiat trucks

 

 

Since many of the scenarios in the 'Germany Strikes' campaign book involve command tanks, I decided to add a Panzerbefehlswagen I (aka Sd.Kfz. 265). This is a 3 piece resin casting from Warlord Games with metal bits such as the machine gun, hatches, and commander. The pose of the commander had his right arm extended to rest on a turret hatch, but it didn't match up with the location of the hatch on the tank model. I decided to remove the arm and replace it with one holding a pair of binoculars that was left over from a German Blitzkrieg Infantry sprue. The tank was primed black using Vallejo Surface Primer and painted grey using AK Interactive Dunkelgrau. Highlights were dry brushed onto raised surfaces and some AK Splatter Effects Dry Mud applied to the tracks and road wheels. Since the theme of the special challenges this year is a movie studio, I also painted up a Propagandakompanie cameraman, also from Warlord Games. It was painted using Vallejo acrylics followed by various Citadel washes.

Cameraman filming a command tank during the invasion of Poland

Panzerbefehlswagen I of the 4th Panzer Division

Cameraman of a German Army propaganda company

Next up is a Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tank of the 79th Armoured Division in Normandy. I got another Corgi diecast Churchill tank from another member of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts that was painted up for Tunisia in Desert Yellow and Olive Green camouflage hoping to use it with my planned 8th Army project, but the yellow on the model didn't look very desert. Last year I had repainted one in the colours of the the 14th Tank Regiment (Calgary Tanks) at Dieppe, but I didn't need anymore Dieppe tanks. I decided to convert it to a Crocodile using a resin conversion kit from Quarter Kit Model Shop in Paris, France. This was basically the armoured trailer that carried the fuel for the flamethrower, and the special nozzle that replaced the hull machine gun.  The resin of the kit was quite brittle, and a few pieces arrived broken despite being shipped in a blister. With the careful application of some super glue followed by a sprinkling of baking soda, everything got repaired and assembled. Both tank and trailer were primed in black and then painted with Vallejo UK Bronze Green. Raised surfaces got dry brushed with a light green, and the lower areas of the tank were given a wash of European Dust.

Side view showing how the trailer was attached to the tank.

View from above showing the special nozzle in place of the hull MG

Next we have a small bit of terrain. Last year I painted a stone bridge as part of my first submission, so it seems appropriate to finish this submission with a broken bridge. The two halves are actually display bases that came with 1/72 Matchbox Sherman Firefly kits when they were released back in 1974. I no longer have the tanks, but I still had the display bases in one of my boxes of terrain building bits. A number of different ideas have been bouncing around in my head over the years, including building the center portion of the span that could be lifted out in a scenario where the bridge gets blown, a partially constructed repair done by engineers, or incorporating the two halves into a more elaborate river crossing with a ruined central support of a two arched bridge. I am not entirely sure what final direction I will take, so I am going to call this 'Under Construction'.

A bridge over troubled waters?

The point being claimed are as follows:

11.5 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 57.5 points

6.5 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 130 points

(I am counting the trailer as half a vehicle)

0.11 terrain cubes @ 20 points each = 2 points

Studio lot 'Under Construction' @ 20 points = 20 points

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Great post and welcome back to the Challenge Frederick.

I have a soft spot for early war WWII (the Big Cats steal all the press) and you can't get much earlier than Poles and Panzer I's! I also really like your propaganda cameraman and the blown bridge. Well done and a great opening entry!

- Curt

PS: I've given you a few extra points for the bridge and the trailer.

From FrederickC: Ruined Hamlet, Stone Bridge, and early WW2 Polish Army (177 points)

This is my first post of my first year of participation in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, so bear with me if I screw a few things up. My submission for the first week of painting consists of a mix of figures, vehicles and terrain, mostly in 28mm scale to be used with Bolt Action. Other than the armoured car, which is from Ace Models, the rest are from Warlord Games.

 

I started painting an early WW2 Polish army two years ago, and wanted to flesh it out with a few more support weapons and vehicles. For this submission I have completed a Polish 10th Motorized Brigade Squad, a Polish Army Medium Mortar Team, a boxed set of Polish Army Marksman, Anti-Tank Rifle, and Light Mortar teams, and a Polish Vickers E 6 ton Tank, all from Warlord Games. All are 28mm or 1/56 scale with the foot figures cast in metal and the Vickers 6-ton cast in resin. The armoured car is actually a 1/48 scale plastic model of a Soviet FAI-M light armoured car by Ace Models, a company out of Kyiv, that I picked up from a local hobby store. I painted it in Polish camouflage to stand in as a proxy for a Samochód pancerny wz. 34 light armoured car.

Polish 10th Motorized Brigade Squad

Polish Army Medium Mortar Team

Polish Army Anti-Tank, Light Mortar, and Marksman Teams

Polish Vickers E 6-ton Tank and FAI-M Armoured Car

The Ruined Hamlet consists of four models of a Ruined Farmhouse in hard plastic from Warlord Games that I bought during a sale of 'four for the price of three'. They can now be purchased individually, or as a 'Ruined Hamlet' box of three. Each set consists of a two story building plus a one story shed. While they are quite generic for 'somewhere in Europe during the last 400 years', they will work best for either WW1 or WW2. Assembly can provide some variation as to how the walls fit together, but I would say that there is definitely a 'preferred way'  that results in a 'best fit'. Once all the buildings and rubble piles were glued together, I mounted them on bases made from some pieces of scrap 3mm Masonite board onto which I had scored lines to look like floor boards. I then glued down some coarse sand around the walls to blend them into the bases. Once everything was painted, I added some flocking along the edges.

European Ruined Hamlet

The Stone Bridge is manufactured by Italeri, but marketed by Warlord Games. It comes as a 6 piece hard plastic boxed set that goes together very smoothly to give you a single arch stone bridge that would work on any battlefield in Europe for the past 500 years.

 

Single Arch Stone Bridge.

 

 The points being claimed are as follows:

19 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 95 points

2 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points = 40 points

453 cubic inches of terrain @ 20 points per 216 cubic inches = 42 points

I was considering claiming for the Caprica (Outer Ring) bonus with the theme of 'Doomed' in mind. Let's face it. The Polish Army in 1939 was definitely doomed, but we will save that for another entry.

 

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First, welcome to the Painting Challenge, Frederick, it's great to have you with us!

It's wonderful to see you adding to your fine WWII Polish collection. I quite like the whacky looks of that armoured car (cool camo!), and give it additional kudos for being in 1/48th scale (I dislike the accepted 'clown-car scale' of 1/56), though I realize this opinion is highly subjective (I await your comments, Nick). :)

Those Renedra plastic building sets are terrific, so versatile, and you've done a great job in their assembly and basing.

All in all, an excellent first volley towards your points target. Good work!

- Curt