From DaveX: Winter Americans [Under Construction][Limo] (85 points)

For the under construction theme, I have had a group of winter Americans sitting on my desk for so long that were three quarters painted, they had dust and cat hair gathering on them! What a perfect opportunity to get them finished and snag a bonus 20 points. I have a very very very slow grow late war Winter Project for the Ardennes Offensive. I have mostly painted a few squads of Americans and done the odd German unit. My US Forces needed a HQ so I used the awesome Warlord Games sculpts. Their Winter German and Winter US ranges are beautiful. I also had a bailed out tank crew that was in the same state.

Lovely Sculpts by Warlord Games

NCOs, Radio Operator, Medic and an Officer

The bailed out Tank Crew

An Officer, always lost or always pointing

A Sergeant, the greatest rank of all, the backbone of any organisation

A Winter House, not included for points but some eye candy

More eye candy, no points, just some Winter Fallschirmjager I put together. A few conversions here and there.       

As I needed to use Lady Limousine to unlock Under Construction, I painted a Female Sci Fi Pilot by Crooked Dice.  I thought she was most fitting. She has those retro organge vibes.

So that is this weeks entry. 

We have 9 x 28mm Miniatures = 45 Points 

Under Construction Bonus = 20 Points 

Lady Limousine = 20 Points

Grand Total of 85 Handy Points (I think) :D

Huzzah. 

See you next post. I have now unlocked two studios, I need to plan what I will unlock next... hmm.

Dave

From TeemuL: Thank you Dave! Those Winter Americans look great and they nicely fit your frosty terrain. The Sci-Fi pilot looks like she knows her way around the Studios, so you arrive safely to your destination. Please note, that when plotting your route, the Western Studio is in the blue zone in the official version of the map, it was green initially, but changed quite early on.

From SteveM: 15mm ww2 American Armoured Rifle Platoon (winter) (90 Points)

 

This post is for 15mm ww2 American Armoured Rifle Platoon (winter) from Battlefront blister package US743. They are metal figures. Yay!

Includes:

1x Formation Command Thompson SMG Team
1x Unit Leader M1 Garand Rifle Team
5x M1 Garand Rifle Team
5x M1 Bazooka Teams
2x M1919 LMG Teams
1x 60mm Mortar Teams

 

 

Squirrel Point Running Tally: 7

1. 28mm Squirrel Battalion

2. 15mm Jordanian Army Mechanized Company

3. 15mm ww1 German Stoss Platoon

4. 15mm ww2 Soviet Storm Group plus Mortars 

5. 1/144 UAR MiG-17 group

6. 15mm ww2 British in Italy infantry

7. 15mm ww2 American Armoured Rifle Platoon (winter)  <-- New this post

 

Challenge Points:

15mm infantry @ 2 points * 45 qty = 90 points

Total points: 90 points

 

I like the snow basing on this platoon, Steve. I must say that I also prefer metal figures to plastic ones.

Tamsin

From MartinN: 28mm US Winter Infantry (60 Points)

This weeks entry sees something of a premiere on my part. It's the first actual commission I took on, therefore the bases unfortunately had to stay bare for the recipient to match them to his collection. Well, frankly comission probably is a bit of a stretch.
 Actually I asked Pat (of  wargamingwithsilverwhistle.blogspot.de fame) if he'd like to trade some of his awesome terrain for some miniatures, I'd paint for him. He was kind enough to agree so it's been more me commissioning myself. It was an interesting experience to actually paint some more miniatures than the occasional figure for a friend, for someone else. But I definitely wouldn't do this for money.

Figures in question are Warlord Games (oh wonder, I know) new US Army infantry in winter clothing. And sorry to be so rude, but they were frickin' awful. Never since I first dipped my toes into the hobby waters I've seen figures that painted up so terrible. At times I did terrible paint jobs, granted, and there even might have been the one or other figure that wasn't pure joy to paint, but these figures were among the least fun I've ever, ever, ever painted.

Don't want to rant to much about these, but if you like miniatures that actually have folds in their clothing than you should keep your hands off these. Of course I hope that Pat is happy with these, though.

Next is a M3A1 Halftrack from Rubicon. The kit was a straight forward build and painted up nicely. My only gripe with this kit is it seems like the plastic used doesn't react to plastic glue like most other plastics I've encountered. Somehow it doesn't seem to melt properly so the joints remain quite brittle. I've tried two different brands of glue but neither worked. So in the end it's fingers crossed the Halftrack survives the trip to g'old Great Britain intact.

But otherwise it's a very nice kit with quite some potential for conversion I'd say. For a wargames kit it's quite detailed too, without swamping you with myriads of parts to assemble. For the first time I did the weathering and pin wash using exclusively oil paints. It worked a charm and was definitely cheaper and easier than using the various enamel based products out there. Still have to do some experimenting as to what works best, though.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the two crew members, so all you can see of them is their helmeted heads on the above pictures. They were no nice sculpts anyway, so not overly tragic.

I didn't glue the backrests in the rear compartment as the kit comes with the options to be built either as command vehicle with communications equipment or as troop carrier. So I painted both options for Pat to decide what he likes the most. Also the weapons weren't glued on for both ease of transport and flexibility.

So this entry should give me another 57.5 points (37,5 for the Infantry, 15 for the Halftrack and 5 for the seated crew) towards my total. So as an aside this also let me take the lead in Chris' and my side challenge with 369.5 straight points vs. 344 points. As that's a marginal lead at best, I should better stop to blather and get back on the brushes.

Even though these figures were boring to paint, you've done your 'typical' magic on them Nick - they look brilliant. The halftrack is lovely as well and your oil-based weathering worked tremendously well. I think Pat will be absolutely delighted with these miniatures and more than happy with the trade. 

 I'm going to round off the points for this entry to 60 due to the various stowage options and weapons.

I look forward to seeing what terrain Pat does up for you as trade for this nice lot.