Wednesday, 17 January 2018

From DaveD: 6mm Soviet Helicopters & Hedgerows (25 Points)

Well after being well and truly floored by a bout of the  "Aussies Flu" that is doing the rounds in the UK  (I suspect all Millsy's doing no doubt) - i am back in production.

Myself and fellow challengers JamesM and MartinC are about to make the Cold War go Hot with our first Team Yankee game this weekend. You have seen my armoured forces last year and the infantry so far this year. I stuck in a an order pre Xmas for some Hind gunships from Heroics and Ros(as i could not find the ones that have been maturing in the lead pile )  and they turned up with enough time to spare before the game.  So here they are.

They have had magnets inserted into the main body to attach them to flight stands. I have made two kind of flight stands both individual and multiple.


6 Hinds - ready to make the Tommies pay!








Comrade Docovich - ready to take on the Capitalist wastrels.- and find some Beatles records!


I also completed some additional hedgerow terrain pieces , made from coffee stirrers and clump foliage , all stuck together with my trusty hot glue gun. 


18 feet of hedgerows added

stacked up in 6x6 , it fill about a quarter so 5 points I reckon.

oh and here is a picture of the game!


Smash the capitalists! 





 Artist : Nena

Song - 99 Red Balloons









From Ray

Welcome back to the Challenge Comrade Docovich! Its about time too! This damn Aussie Flu has knocked me for 6 as well. Although it hasn't really affected my limited painting time, unlike you! Usually you'd be top 5 with 500+ points by now. 
So the question on everyone's lips is, "Can he recover his lost Flu time and get a top 5 finish?"
I have faith in you Comrade!

Great idea using 6mm figures for this project, you get a whole lot more for your money, that's if your eye's last out until the Spring! 
I do like the way you've based them up Comrade, love the see through stick thingy's, what are they and where do you get them from?
And thank you for painting up those luvverly hedgerows, they're a bit of a headache to add the points up for!
I've had a chat with the bosses and we've agreed to award your hedgerows 10 points not the 5 you suggested.
I'm also gonna go out on a limb and add an extra 3 points for the basing of the helicopters. They're that cool!
So you've a grand total of 25 points!



From ScottM - German & French ATG's (50 points)

My contribution for this week is a pair of early World War 2 anti-tank guns, one from the French and one from the Germans. First up is the German Pak 36. This set is from Warlord Games.



The second set is the French 25mm from Crusader Miniatures.




On both sets, besides the usual flock, I stuck a few shell casings, from a pack I picked up from Secret Weapon Miniatures. They're too small for anything of larger calibre, but for these little guns, they work great.

So that should be 2 ATG with 6 crew, all 28mm - 50 points

From Ray

Two excellent looking artillery pieces Scott. Warlord and Crusader do make some excellent figures. I especially like the French, its not a country you see much in WWII, (sorry French people, no pun intended!)
Great idea adding the shell casings, they do add to the overall effect of the base. 
Top work! the 2 x ATG's will earn you 50 points!


From JohnM: Never Bite off More than You Can Chew (45 points)

This was supposed to be what one could call a Vanity project! Maybe best to avoid them, methinks.

I believe the first time I saw an Alban Miniatures were the free Sharpe and Harper figures that I received when I purchased Sharp Practice from TFL some years ago. I was immediately attracted to their anatomic proportions, no awful big heads or hands. I put them away and about a year ago I decided to paint them.......they looked pretty cool, let us get some more. But Alban Miniatures went out of business a couple of years ago. I advertised around and found a nice Dutch chap who had some which he was willing to let go. I finally had some British Rifles and some French Légére Voltiguers. There are British lights and French Ligne out there also but not yet been able to lay my hands on these figures.

But why did I want to do this, I have plenty of British and French 28mm skirmish figures for Sharpe Practice 2, but they were of the big headed variety and this is where the Vanity comes in. I wanted a SP2 Alban Miniatures force, and since they are quite different than any other 28 mm figures, I would need at least 2 sides to play a game.

I do not have a large lead pile, so searching around for something next to paint, I decided to have a go at painting some Alban French Voltiguers. They looked well cast, minimal cleanup required so they were primed and I started to have a go. 

Well, I found that for a middle of the road painter like myself they were quite a challenge. I am sure each figure was about 2-3 hours of painting time. There was just much less sculpting detail to work with than I am accustomed. My usual painting time for a Napoleonic 28 mm figures is probably around 45 minutes. I suppose it would be OK but I am just not that pleased with the result.

Well here they are, they do look good at a distance, so I suppose I will soldier on. I need at least 5-6 groups to have a good SP2 game, so a long way to go. By the way if anyone has any Alban Miniatures to sell, please let me know!

Légére Voltiguer Skirmishers
Status II Leader, Status III Leader, Musician

From Ray
Beautiful painting John, I certainly wouldn't call you a middle of the road painter, BigLee and Fran yes of course but not you. They are excellent looking sculpts with a lot of animation. I don't recall hearing of Alban minis before, but I'll certainly look out for some for you, you never know your luck? My favorite has got to be the commander raising and waving his hat, what a great sculpt! Shame we may never see anymore of these excellent looking figures?

These 9 x 28mm figures will earn you a very well deserved 45 points!


From Barks: Star Wars heroes (20 points)

You may be relieved to hear this is currently my last planned Star Wars Post this Challenge! I’m finishing with the latest bunch of heroes from Imperial Assault, and I quite like them.

Firstest with the mostest is fan favourite Ahsoka Tano. She first appeared as an annoying young teen and Anakin Skywalker’s protégée in the Clone Wars animated series. She (and the series) later improved and matured, culminating in her breaking with the Jedi path having been accused of a crime she didn’t commit. She returned in the Rebels series as a grown woman, and it is this aspect of her that I have painted. She senses something familiar about Darth Vader...

She was great fun to paint. She’s got an interesting colour palette, and some fine details on her front armour. Her head tails look better than they do in the blown-up images. She carries white lightsabers (in that distinctive but questionable dual backhand grip), which I painted a very pale glowing grey and I think came out OK. I decided not to do any significant OSL, as I struggle with just white and paler surfaces.



I didn’t feel so enthused by the next hero, Jarrod Kelvin. He strikes me as an impractical Wolverine-wannabe.

In contrast, I do like Ko-Tun Feralo. She seems an eminently practical Rebel.


Finally, I love Drokkatta. Consensus is that she’s female, and I’m not going to question a Wookie demolitions expert. With her wacky goggles, grenade launcher and thermal detonators, I can’t wait to get her into battle.

4x 28mm figures

From Ray

I for one am gutted this is possibly your last Star Wars entry into the Challenge. Get that fat wallet out and buy more please!!!
I think your right about the back-handed grip of Ahsoka Tano, looks a little dangerous to me, you don't wanna get that lightsabre too close to your own butt when trying to fight. Jarred Kelvin is a tad brown after the colour explosion on Tano, I have to admit. I wouldn't wanna meet Ko-Tun Feralo in a dark alley either!
But I think everyone's favourite will be Drokkatta the female (?) Wookie! Top brushwork ol' boy!

4 x 28mm figures gives you a total of 20 points!

From PeterD - 28mm SYW French Infantry (40 points)



These figures had all but the bases finished last week, but didn’t quite make it in time.

Challenge veterans may remember that last year I worked on my SYW project for Sharp Practice, mainly focusing on my British/Allied side of the equation.   For this year I am looking at the French opposition.  In addition, I found that I like the lace wars so much that the scale of the project has ramped up from Sharp Practice skirmish gaming to Black Powder/Honours of War.  

In keeping with what worked last year and my ramped up work schedule, my French will be coming out in drips and drabs.  These are the first 8 figures from the Touraine regiment, which like the rest of my battalions will be 24 strong.  The figures are 28mm from Crusader minis.  (FYI they currently have a SYW unit deal going on).

Interestingly these are a good scale fit for Perry figures but smaller than the beefier Crusader El Cid range figures I’d painted years ago.  They come in packs of 8 with 2 figures each of 4 subtle variants, with the emphasis being on the subtle part of the equation.  The end result gives a good representation of a regiment in step but with slight variants on the head and arm position – much less variation than a Perry regiment but not all identical.

I like the backs of these figures - the pack is very elegantly sculpted.

I added gold lace to the cuffs on Jean a la gauche, to represent an NCO. 

I got these as unit deals (16 privates plus 4 command) plus an extra pack of 8 privates to flush out the units.  The command figs are nice but a little staid so I am getting Front Rank extras to add to the variety.  Update:  my Front Rank package was ordered January 8th and delivered to the frozen Canadian prairies today - one week late.  Front Rank put Royal Mail tracking on it and bingo - it positively flew here.

I left flat spaces at the back for unit labels to be added later.

Touraine Regiment dates back to the 1620s and fought in all of Louis XIV’s wars (maybe including service at Laarden), and the wars of Succession (English, Spanish, Polish, Austrian).  It served in Western Germany through the SYW, fighting well in the losing causes at Krefeld and Warburg.





There are differences if you look very carefully at the sculpts- or are there?

So by my math that's 8 foot figures in 28mm @ 5 points a pop = 40 points Mr Minion please.

From Ray

Excellent brushwork Peter. The 7YW has always and will always have a special place in this Minon's heart! It was the first period I ever owned and painted up many many moons ago!! In 15mm of course! So its great to see another learning to love the period. The only problem I found with the French is sameness of all the uniforms gets a tad boring when painting them, but hey-ho, its just gotta be done.
For this wonderful 1/3 of a unit you will indeed earn yourself a very respectable 40 points!



From TomM: From London to Shangai (58 pts)

Well, a bit of a mixed lot for this weeks entry, as I did some work on a project I had put aside for this challenge... as well as one that probably will be in boxes stored until challenge 9 should I manage to seduce me a spot then.

So let's travel the world!

The first batch of the entry are more 10mm ECW from the Lancer Miniatures range, this time in the form of a complete infantry regiment.  Mixed pike & shotte, the regiment is supported by a demi-culverin for some extra deterrent towards any opposing forces.



I really like Kieran`s sculpts, and think this was one of those "gems" sometimes hidden on Kickstarter.  With more and more big companies using Kickstarter as their pre-order platform, there are those small operation on it as well which at times churn out lovely figures for a good price, or even some oddities that you just want to have.



The pikes themselves are metal rods, and I can say first hand they hurt like hell when you accidentally put your hand on them...


The second part of my entry is this 28mm Chariot from the Shang-Zhao range of Curteys Miniatures (seems like the first time one gets posted, I just had to add the tag X-D ), now under 1st Corps banner.  I think I bought this almost 12 years ago or so, and I don`t actually know why anymore, probably some fantasy project or such.


But as we get older, our interests start shifting, and I bit the bullet that I will be building a Shang dynasty force for Mortem et Gloriam (well, if their Chinese army lists re-appear on the site, then I know what to order because while they are in the index, the actual lists aren't in the pdf's) and try and introduce those rules over at my club.



I really like the facial expression on the charioteer to be honest, he has that whole "umpf, you posh dandy" look next to the noble...


So points-wise, if I counted correctly, this should mean for this week:

31 infantry models in 10mm (12 pike, 16 shot, 3 crew) @ 1 point each
1 crew handled cannon in 10mm @ 2 points
1 vehicle in scale 28mm @ 15 points
& 2 28mm crew @10 points

This should further add a nice 58 points towards my challenge goal... and keep me on schedule.

Thanks for watching!

From Ray

Another great entry Tom. Its great to see some historical figures from you. I do like the 10mm ECW figures, they look excellent and the pikes do look very sharp, I'm sure I can see blood on the top of a few???
I've never bought any Curteys Minis before, they too look really nice figures, shame it took 12 years to get the chariot painted though. Every gamer has a few of those older hidden gems locked away in a box somewhere!!
I've changed your version of points, you forgot to add the 2 crew on the chariot, so your total is 58!!

From LeeH : Zulu Nokenke Regiments... and Friends (140 Points)

Another Zulu regiment is completed, and this time its the Nokenke Regiment. This regiment fought on the right horn at Isandlwana and after working its way around the British camp eventually joined up with the iGobamakhosi Regiment, sealing the fate of the invaders. The Nokenke  also fought at Khambula later in the year.

Nokenke Regiment

2000 warriors with an average age of about 30

A rear view showing the simple base labels I have used

Close up showing the shields

I have also turned out some command stands and some Zulu riflemen units. These are small units with very limited firepower and accuracy...but they can still be a nuisance and a poorly aimed bullet can kill just as easily as an aimed one if it hits a target.

Zulu Command stands

Close up of the Commanders

Riflemen hiding in the rocks

These are 'skirmish' sized units

I've been a very busy boy this week with the Nokenke regiment consisting 192 figures, there are 32 Command figures and 48 riflemen making a total of 272 figures for a respectable 136 Points. I'm racing towards my target and this should take me well past my half way mark, significantly ahead of schedule. I have one more Zulu regiment to paint and them I'll get started on the British.

A weeks progress...Can't believe I got all this done!

As a final 'treat' here's a picture of my Zulu Impi thus far.

A Zulu Impi ready for battle!

One final push and then I'll move on to something else....for the time being.

From Ray

Bloody hell Lee, they look seriously impressive, at least 1 Reject has got his finger out this year!!
I can't believe your output so far this year, are you and the Mrs talking? Has she forgotten who you are yet? Are you gonna pay for not sitting watching Eastenders hand in hand?
Or is it a very expensive holiday this year?

Joking aside jolly well done ol'chap!

And I concur with your points tally 136 points for 272 6mm figures. Infact I'm feeling generous I'll add an extra 4 points pushing you up to 140!


Its Wednesday once again!!!!


Good morning Challengers!!!
Its Wednesday time once again.
Still feeling pretty crap to be honest, but a lot better than last week
that's for sure.
I even managed to get some painting in last night and I might even post another 
entry myself! Shock Horror!!
So far there's 8 Wednesday entries that I shall endevour to post throughout the day.
Here we go!