From MartinN - 28mm WWII Pak 36 & BEF Infantry Section with Command (90 Points)

Not really a points bomb the scale of some of you guys are capable of but for me it comes pretty close. This week I was lucky to have had a block of spare time and so I got some figures done.

First is a 28mm PaK 36 for my early WWII Germans.

As most of my stuff lately it's Warlord Games again but I wasn't really happy with these older sculpts. You can clearly see they're from Paul Hicks but sadly they don't come even close to his newer works. Compared to the new plastic 'Blitzkrieg Germans' they're pretty small and the faces are somehow misshapen.

Originally the PaK 36 had a crew of six but for some reason Warlord Games and most other miniatures companies and/ or rules writers seem not to care about such trivia. May have to do some more figures later on...

I was a bit confused about the troop-function colour for German Panzerjäger units so I made some research that might be of interest to some of you. Probably most will already know anyway...

The German Wikipedia (Haven't checked the English Version) lists 'rose' as Waffenfarbe (troop-function colour) for Panzerjäger, just like for tank crews. While looking for pictorial evidence on the web I came across some photos showing clearly white markings as well as rose or green ones. So I had to dig a little deeper. I found out that Panzerjäger units organic to the OOB of an Infanterie Regiment as 14. Kompanie (14th company) wore white like their parent regiment (same is true for organic 'Artillery' being the 13. Kompanie of the Regiment).

Along these lines, Panzerjäger belonging to a Panzer-Grenadier Regiment had the Wiesengrün (grass-green) of the Panzer-Grenadiere as their Waffenfarbe.

Panzerjäger units belonging to the divisional support however used rose as Waffenfarbe accompanied by an embroidered (or metal pin) 'P' for Panzerjäger to distinguish them from tank crews.

I hope this was of some use for at least a few of you.

And here we come to the second part of this weeks submission: a 10 man section of 'British Expeditionary Force' (BEF) infantry and their commanding Lieutenant with two aides. So 13 men in total.

These figures are from Warlord Games again and were a real joy to paint. Painting was speeded up by using the same brown (VMA Medium Brown) I used for the bases as base colour for the figures.

Looking at pictorial evidence suggests I went a tad too light on the uniforms while the webbing turned out too dark

But all in all I'm pretty pleased with the over all appearence.

I decided not to do any unit markings as most sources suggest the British made no use of it till later in the war. I'm not totally sure on the Lieutenants red cap band as it might be a bit too flashy for actual combat duty. But it breaks up the otherwise quite monotone khaki a bit so I decided to go for it.

The heads come separate for these guys but unlike Warlords other 'Separate Heads System' stuff don't feature those strange over exaggerated facial expressions.

For these guys I had to hand paint the Sergeants and Corporals rank insignia as I forgot to place an order in time for these extremely handy decal sheets.

From Curt:

That is a mighty fine 'doorknocker' there Nick! 

I have a soft-spot for the early-war period as the uniforms were typically more 'classic' in their cut and colours and not so dominated by the bewildering assortment of camo that you see in the later period. Also, as weird as it sounds, tanks were often more scary in the early war as they were still largely uncommon and infantry were limited in the anti-tank weapons available to combat them.  Later in the war every tank, no matter how huge, was at risk of being easily knocked out as the quality and effectiveness of anti-tank weapons (and the doctrine to their use) closed the gap on their dominance on the battlefield. But I blather.

These figures are up to your usual brilliant standards Nick. I am constantly impressed by the detail you can pull out of the figures you paint. Your brush control and blending is off the hook. I actually like the lighter BEF uniforms as it makes them 'pop' and I wouldn't sweat the webbing as their are countless opinions on their 'proper' hue and colour.

This entry will see you topple your initial points target of 400 - Congratulations!  Drop me a note to let me know what final points target you'd like to aim for as we near the final half of the Challenge.

Again, great work!

From GillesW - Time for a surprise! (228 Points)

Time for a surprise!!
No! This time it's not my usual Hungarians ;)
This is a little diversion, normally I planned to paint something completely different, but last Wednesday when I searched what I needed, I fell on an old bag containing some Mycenaean packs, they layed there since.... ( I don't remember in fact, perhaps last century;).
So they must get up and take the Field (of Glory)!
The figures are from Essex Miniatures and Chariot Miniatures 15mm ranges based like all my biblical armies.
So here they are:
one commander and 3 units of charioteers in Dendra armour "or how to fight disguised like a tin can?"

and then 3 units of light infantry, Be careful some troops need parental advisory!

6 more units and one more rubbish army will be finished.
Below : how they were last wednesday and my painting desk after I left it this afternoon;)

 What will be the next ???....


From Curt:

Yes Gilles, these are definitely NOT Hungarians. :)

Great work Gilles (I loved the tin can comment)! The Challenge is all about getting old projects off the table (more so if they are from the previous century!).   I really like your arid basework on these fellows (Right now I want a plane ticket to wherever they are). 

Your paint station looks far too orderly and coordinated to be real - it must be one of those ersatz, stand-in, stunt-stations we all keep hearing about...  

From JamesR - Perry Plastic Frenchmen and a Glowing One (104 Points)

Hello,

I finished a total of 21 minis.  The first nineteen are Perry Plastic French Infantry.  I think the purple pom poms on the right might be too dark.

Here they are looking at the woods.

Curt should subtract a point.  One guy is missing a backpack.

Speaking of backpacks, I wish there were a few less backpacks with spare shoes tied on the back.  When the French retreat, my ill-shod Prussian Landwehr run off the table after them. Unless you're playing Regiment of Foote, having your troops run off the table is usually a bad thing.

Because I have hundreds of these French to paint, I am doing them in batches of three or less poses.

Here's a side shot, with the painful eyesore missing backpack.  I have no backpacks to spare; one poor soldier will forever be woefully unprepared to make camp.

To end on a dull note, the last two minis aren't that exciting.  The first is an Old Glory British Rocket crewman.  Years ago, an Old Glory British Rocket pack order came with an extra mini and he was never painted.

The abysmal looking green thing is a mini from the old Doom boardgame.  I wanted him to look like he was one of those radioactive ghouls, called glowing ones, from the Fallout video games.

If you squint or the photo is blurry, he sort of looks glowy.

Till next time, when I hope to have a few Prussians done.  I missed the Victorian challenge, but I have something clever planned for the next one, which I think is supposed to be funny.

Love and Kisses,
Baconfat


From Curt:

It's the kisses which really make all the difference James - though it does make me blush a little.  ;) 

Nice French Nappies! These poilu look suitably miserable and road-weary as they trudge to imperial glory.  So, James, how did you manage to be short a backpack? (As a suggestion you could have him slinging a drum as some drummers often carried them on their backs.)

The radioactive dude is brilliant, literally. (Is that pile of white ash at his feet his clothes?) 

From MarkO - Boom! 28mm Napoleonic Austrian Artillery (420 points)

Another chunk of Austrians done! Two Line Artillery and two Cavalry Artillery batteries. Perry Miniatures once again.

Line Artillery.

Cavalry Artillery, with the strange looking Wurst Cavalry guns. The crew would ride on those large seats as the gun was pulled by its limber...

From Curt:

'Boom' is right! That is probably our largest points bombs this year! Excellent work Mark. My hat's off to you. I typically hate painting artillery what with all their tucked-away corners and fury-inducing spokes.  I really like the ochre yellow you did for the gun carriages - what did you use? 

This submission neatly puts you in amongst the top three in the points standings. Well folks, it looks like we have a new going concern for the podium! Nice one Mark.

From IanW - 28mm Viking Warriors (42 Points)

Finished these in time for last week but failed to get good image. Unfortunately I still can't get any really good ones so impatience see's them presented before I go fr it again.

One point of Saga Vikings in the form of eight warriors. I need to paint up at least two more points worth to catch up with my son, good job I have them primed and ready, all in hand are Blacktree.

All are unarmoured as a nice set of mail was both expensive and not easy to find which I think the warrior level of Saga should struggle to have many dressed as such. That said I will still paint some up in armour in the next lot.

All these have some form of decoration on their tunics but mostly just a basic trim. Shield wise I have gone for a few more decorated shields though some are nice and basic.

Some nice detail such as money pouches but a few f the poses are a bit odd such as the bald guy holding the spear far forward and really looks to be more at home with the levies than the warriors especially as he has already lost his shield.

I went with block colours and then a wash followed with the original colour added as a highlight which worked really well compared with block and wash only.

The one n the left looked an odd pose but on noticing how the arm was held to the body and hand spread out I figured he would look great as wounded. I added a cut to the arm and sme blood lines on the arm and a shield dropped on the floor.

These two have a more elaborate pattern with the one on the right being the leader of the group. Overall I have to say that I really like the Blacktree Vikings and wound them fr the most part an easy paint.

Rather pleased with the freehand on this shield as I actually get what I wanted on to the shield and that does not happen that often. However these won't get into action for a few weeks as my daughter is studying Vikings at the moment so they are off to school for the class to look at and be part of the display they are doing.

So 40 points for the figures that will leave me a few points behind The Tamsin'ion Devil.


From Curt:

Cracking work Ian, especially the two-headed dragon motif on that last shield. Wonderful.

This group will actually allow you to just pip past Tamsin... for the time being. :)

From GregB - 20mm Bundeswehr Panzer Grenadiers (136 points)

1980s West German Panzer Grenadiers from the Bundeswehr; 20mm sculpts from Elhiem and S&S Models

The 20mm insanity continues.  My last entry switched into the "Cold-War-Goes-Hot" setting, and this entry follows along - a platoon of Bundeswehr Panzer Grenadiers.  There are three eight-man sections, a commanding officer, a MILAN guided anti-tank missile team along with a pair of Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicles.

That's my driveway this week - 70km/h wind gusts driving the snow through the streets.  Seriously, winter can go f*ck itself

It is winter in the Canadian Prairies, and though I know I am so fortunate to call Canada home, Winnipeg in January can be a bit of a sh*t bomb as Army Group Winter encloses the city in a vice-like grip. Case in point this week a small snow storm swept through (one that none of the clowns at Enviro-guess Canada managed to warn anyone about, but anyway).  The bright side of this weather is that I can really fire up my internal painting machine, put some hockey games on TV, and get a lot of stuff done - not quite as fast as Tamsin or Millsy, but still a pretty good pace.

NATO's front lines

As with the last submission, the infantry figures are all from Elhiem Figures while the vehicles are from S&S Models.  The painting/modeling experience is consistent with the last entry as well. The Elhiem sculpts have some soft details and a manic resistance to primer, and yet I just love them as their overall appearance is quite pleasing, and their proportions are excellent.  The S&S vehicles are suspiciously undersized and plagued with numerous small casting flaws that significantly lower the overall quality of the model.

Platoon commander on a hex shaped base

I did not have a precise TO&E for a West German Panzer Grenadier platoon, so I suspect the sections are understrength.  Each one has an MG3 gunner and a fellow carrying a modern panzerfaust 44 AT launcher.  The balance are armed with G3 assault rifles.  And obviously with only two Marder IFVs, it will be a little harder for this lot to get around.

The MG3 sure looks a lot like the MG42 from WW2

The Marder is a very cool-looking IFV - the turret sports a 20mm cannon that would provide some scary fire support in a firefight.  I like the sci-fi look of the turret.  Later models of the Marder also included a mount for a MILAN missile launcher as well.  It's too bad the S&S quality is poor, but black paint covers a lot of issues, so that's what I tried to do.  Some decals would be great too, but I couldn't find any 20mm scale modern West German decal sheets, and so I did the crosses free-hand.  The results were poor, but serviceable.

A view of the Marder 1A3s

Much "Cold-War-Goes-Hot" interest here in North America centers (understandably enough) around the US forces and encounters of M1 Abrams tanks and clouds of T-72s and T-80s in the Fulda Gap.  I love tank battles, but am much more interested in gaming the other NATO countries, and the West Germans in particular - I have quite a bit of West German stuff for Modern Spearhead.

MILAN team lurking

A potent anti-tank system; the MILAN crew set from Elhiem is excellent

In the 80's the West Germans would have been at the very forefront of any resistance to a Warsaw Pact attack. While NATO would have tried to trade space for time in the face of the large Warsaw Pact shock armies driving across the North German plains and through the Fulda Gap, I expect these fellows would have resisted ferociously, motivated as only those who fight with their own homes and families at their backs can be.  I see that as a richer context for scenarios, particularly Chain of Command skirmish encounters.

Assortment of helmets - some plain, some with scrim

For example, perhaps they are disobeying orders a little bit, holding out longer than directed outside a small village to allow more time for evacuation behind them - they will have already lost one or two of their IFVs, and the strength of their sections is diminished, but as long as they have the MILAN launcher and missiles to use, they will dig deep to slow the advancing Red Army.  Should make a fitting opponent for the Motor Rifles I completed in my last entry.

The free-hand crosses turned out poorly - I wish I could find some 20mm decals

This entry includes 28 infantry figures (20mm size) and two vehicles (allegedly 1/72 scale) - in all I think that works out to 136 points.  I still have a fair chunk of 20mm stuff to paint, but I am feeling a bit of an urge to switch over to sci-fi - we'll see what comes next!


From Curt:

Brilliant work as usual Greg. You are really rocking the 20mm stuff - awesome to see. I look forward to getting these guys on the table for a knockabout.

From ClintB - Zulus! Thousands of them.... well, okay, 84 (84 Points)

If you are ever going to start a Zulu army there are a few things you should know;

• You need LOTS of Zulus.
• So Many Zulus that you will quickly get bored painting them.
• When you think you have painted enough you really haven't. Not by a long way. You may have done 1/10 of what you need.
• As well as lots of Zulu's you need lots of brown paint.
• You need lots of patience
• But you really do need LOTS of Zulus, thousands of them in fact.
• Don't let anyone tell you differently . You need LOTS.

Here are my first 84 figures all painted and based and ready to lots of nasty things to the Colonial British!  They are all 10mm in size from "Newline Design" AND "Pendraken Miniature" I have used both companies as you just crave variety after the first 50 or so! ( I have a few hundred yet to do... gulp!!).

I have kept it fairly simple 3 figures to a base and 6 figures on double bases. This should represent a single unit with 28 bases in all. Looking at it I KNOW I NEED more. Lots more They all have the white and brown shields of the Undi corps led by prince Dabulamanzi kaMande and were the reserve Zulu force for the battle of Isandlwana and the troops that took part at Rorkes Drift.

The colouring of shields were used as both tribal identification and also rank. So I hope I have that right and by checking the above chart I suspect I have. Little details can make a lot of difference for those eager to check.

I really have had very little joy in painting these knowing I have several hundred still to go. Not that they were bad figures to paint just the knowing there were more and yet more to do. But every journey starts with a single step.

Still 84 is not too bad a start. All Painted and based and keen to get on the table-top.

From AaronH - 28mm Celt Light Cavalry (60 Points)

This next entry is, surprisingly, more Celts.  These are six 28mm Celt light cavalry from Wargames Factory.  There are twelve cav in the box so I made six mediums and these lads lights with javelins.

Six riders with javelins.

The models were not much fun to paint, but are probably actually good practice.  The detail was so soft on a couple of them that I ended up painting on the hair and face like it was a blank canvas.

Same pallet, different day.

I painted two of the horses a different color at the urging of several commenters.  I used to have a link to a fantastic horse color chart that laid out all of the various colour combinations.  It is now, sadly, defunct so I started to google horses and got distracted looking at 15mm tanks and ended up just doing whatever I wanted.

Big men on little horses.

I'm not sure how well these guys will stand up to Numidians but we'll find out someday.

Not so bad en masse and charging.

I probably would not have been as unhappy with these horses if I didn't have a splendid example of what a horse should look like sitting next to them on the work bench.

Good and not so good.

They sort of reminded me of the scene in Shrek 2 when Donkey drinks the potion and becomes a stallion Baby!

Ignore the WIP-iness of the horse on the left.

I don't normally show WIP shots but in this case it's a teaching moment.  Sculptors, the horse on the left looks equine.  The one on the right looks cartoon-ine.  I'm not saying I won't ever buy more Wargames Factory Celt cav, but they will have to be the back half of better sculpted units.