From KenR: 1/700 German Destroyer Z12 - Erich Giese (40 points)

It wouldn't be a Thursday without a 1/700 WW2 ship and this week is no different. Welcome to the final German Destroyer of the Narvik Project.

So thus is Z12 - Erich Giese a Type 1934A Destroyer, completed in March 1939, she had a short career being sunk on the 13th April 1940 at Narvik, but before that had been involved in mine laying actions as well as escorting two German Battlecruisers out to sea. She was also responsible for the torpedoing of HMS Jersey before heading to the Fjords.

Struggling with various mechanical and ammunition issues she survived the first days fighting at Narvik she managed to get into action on the 2nd day at a much reduced speed, Z12 ended up fighting 2 Tribal Class Destroyers and unsurprisingly came of worse and was sunk.

As previously this is a Trumpeter Model and this is the best kit for this ship in this scale. So its another 40 points to add to the total which keeps me on track for 1500 for the Challenge. Next up, ship wise is the British, I have started building HMS Hostile so hopefully you can see that next week. Finally a group shot of the German Destroyers done this challenge.

TeemuL: So you have done now the German ships, but will continue on the British ones. I'm glad several followers are happy to see more of these ships of yours. Myself, it seems like last week when I saw one of these ships, is that so? Yes it is, Thursday traditions are strong and alive! Another 40 points for you!

From MartinC: Bet I get the Maths Wrong again (400 points)

Another week, another shoddy attempt at maths. Retirement has impacted on my brain function, I spent 20 minutes last week trying to work out what day it was.

Another productive week of painting, "finished" the Barbarossa project and painted my Brother in Law's birthday present. Next week I am very busy, long weekend away and 2 days of gaming, so need to get my points in early.

I've been successfully teaching my BIL to play. Saxons vs Picts, using Kings of War in 28mm. He's really enjoying it and getting much better. So I decided to built him an army, Arthurian types. 

Gripping beast plastic Thegns. A box has 44 figures, not quite enough for 3 units, but I had 4 spare figures I could use to complete the forces. He is a massive Barnsley fan so these has rec and white shields

A unit of armoured spearman, these are in Sheffield Wednesday colours, the hated enemy. These can fight for Mordred. 

2nd unit of armoured spearman, back to Barnsley colours to calm him down 

Next up the last of the Barbarossa units. Already planning the upgrades and campaign for Case Blue

PzIII, Pendraken as always

Engineer Company 

Spare Motorcycle Company

Spare mortar and MG company

For the Russians a 76mm AA gun, command base and field gun

Motor rigle company, these may have too many men in each company, 3 bases not for, but better to have too many than not enough, and I can use them as a foot battalion instead 

Spare Russians,  SMG company, mortars and maxims

Scores, note I actually did get the maths wrong but spotted it

44 x 28mm foot 220 pts

5 x 10mm vehicles 30 points

3 x 10mm guns 9pts

124 x 10mm foot 124 pts

Total 383pts (ish)

TeemuL: Two very nice and familiar projects, not a surprise to anyone, I guess? I appreaciate your colour choices on Saxons and Picts and especially the reasoning behind that. It gives a little more personality to the games and persons might get personally involved, too, which is a good thing. Very nice and crisp shields!

Your Barbarossa project finished? I'm sure there is something to add, may be some snow? It must feel good to have a project done and you can focus on games and other projects. Well done. I don't say your maths are wrong, but when I did count all the individuals, I got 385 10mm foot, so five more than you... It might be my eyes or counting a mortar as a soldier or something like that. Anyway the total would be 388 and I'll give you two points for the shields.

From DaveD: Better make that first shot count (42 points)

Another week of working on the Ardennes table - I have it left set up and just keep adding bits..  Time for some US firepower in the form  of 4 Anti tank guns.  Not terribly big ones a mere 57mm. As that measurement might have confused our American cousins there will be some 3 inch ones coming out of the stash in due course.

 

I finally  found a colour for the US winter greatcoat I was happy with at the smaller scale - ironically German Med camo brown with a wash and highlight . 

The usual home made tufts and AK Snow paste for the bases. I need to spend an hour making another big batch of tufts this week too.

Next are a few “objective pieces” the start of a fuel dump , with a stash of oil drums from the stowage stash  - I have more stacks of the traditional Jerry cans on order at the moments . 

All 15mm stuff from Battlefront . 

Points 

4 guns = 16 pts

12 crew - 24 points 

40 in total to keep the scoreboard ticking.

TeemuL: Excellent! I like your commitment to keep the table setup, it will make it easy to take good photos, create small stories behind the units and undoubtly is quite inspiring, too. And thank you for mentioning your self made tufts, that's an art form I should try sometime. I'll give two bonus points for the fuel dumps. And I expect this project to continue and give joy to us in the near future?

From JezT: Silver Bayonet Part 2 - Assorted 28mm (22 points)

Dear All, 

Its a Thursday so must be time for some more snow bases and Silver Bayonet figures? This is my second batch and just four figures for 20 points. Pleased with these as they mean I can now field a squad and hopefully shortly play my first game. All were painted with Games Workshop paints. 

The basing style came about by chance when I was doing Part 1 as I started using some clear bases and initially just placed some snow basing on the metal part of the figure; I liked the way it looked as the terrain sheet will show through the base on the table and I am only planning to use these as individual skirmish figures. 

In more detail - first up we have the squad leader. The leader is Marshall Ney from Giants in Miniature to which I made a few conversions. I beefed up the musket as the original was a bit skimpy, I especially wanted a cartridge box and added this and a backpack. Originally I tried to sculpt a cartridge belt with Milliput, but the result was a bit clunky, so I pragmatically decided to paint it as a blanket role.   

As I am using a French squad option I really wanted to include a Vivandiere. I am not sure of the maker origin of the female figure and don't think it was a Napoleonic figure; I added in the wine bottle as her sustenance for the squad (not sure if that will go very far). 

The next two are North Star figures and painted them to fit in with the French squad. I like the sculpting of both of these and the male figure can take on a variety of squad roles - Junior Officer, Veteran Hunter and so on. 

So four figures and just a simple 20 points for me.

Cheers Jez

TeemuL: You are absolutely right, snow bases, Silver Bayonet and Napoleonics are exactly what the world is expecting from Thursdays and that is exactly what Thursdays are delivering! Nice addition to your squad and good luck with your games. Interesting to hear your story about the discovery of the basing style, sometimes accidents are great innovations. As it seems to be a tradition of today, I'll give you two bonus points for conversion work and telling the story of the bases. :)

From GrahameH: The Last of the 15mm Samurai and Two 15mm Spanish Tercio (358 points)

Just a small posting this week as I bring my Samurai army to completion.

First up two units of Ronin each of 16 figures. These are 15mm from Two Dragon Products (Dixon)

64 pts 

The Baggage and Stuff. 

Three Large Pavise (6pts) , a very large drum (6pts)  and a Samurai getting on his horse (10pts). I have scored each piece of equipment as 2 pts. Hope that is ok. It was just easier. (Total 22pts)

There are four bases of baggage with a total of 30 figures (60pts)

Finally a Camp?

There are 12 figures on this base (24pts). In addition to the usual Dixon ones, I have added some Essex figures as I need a seated general, and as I don't like throwing figures away, I added his Essex body guard (which may be from an earlier period than the rest of the army)

So the Samurai is done (well for the moment - an army is never truly finished I'm told) 

Total 170 pts

Before I started on my next project I thought I'd have a play. I have always wanted to make an 80 years War Spanish Army but never really liked how Tercio were portrayed in the rules I have seen. I did start this army a few years back and some of the figures were shown on this site in previous challenges. However, I noticed that Baroque rules had a whole Tercio on one base, rather than made up of lots of smaller units, so I gave it a go with the remainder if the unpainted Spanish I had. Anyhow, two Spanish Tercios, 15mm Essex figures. Still not sure. 93 figures 186Pts

I have already started the next project so something new in my next post.

Total 356 pts

TeemuL: Good to see one (or two) projects getting finished and a promise of a next one starting. Your two Tercio bases look great, there is something special when there are clearly differently equipped minis on the same base. Quite like a diorama, I'd say. And of course the baggage bases for your Samurai army have similar feeling. I'm sure they make the battlefield look more alive. Two additional points for the camp and overall goodness!

From KenR: 28mm Spanish Italian Wars Cavalry Part 2 (62 points)

Following on from last week's Spanish Gent d'Armes I have another unit of, guess what, Gent d'Armes! Which doubles the amount of heavy Cavalry I have for that army, they won't have long to wait for action as the Italian Wars collection will be out and about at the York Show at the weekend.

I've already ordered another 36 of these figures from TAG, they are 28mm figures from their Spanish Renaissance Range, this unit has a larger number of Sword bearers with a couple of Lances required for the obligatory flags.

They are based on 50 x 60 bases which is my standard for the period, horses painted in oils, figures in acrylics. 10 points a piece for the Cavalry gives me another 62 points when you chuck in the flags.

The joy of painting for me is when the individual units I paint join up in a larger mass and even with just two units I get a sense of how spectacular these boys are going to look on the table when I've done 12 to 16 of them. 

Next week I hope to have some Prussian Landwehr done but don't worry, there should be a ship as well this week!

TeemuL: RayR just had a cavalry unit added to his army, KenR does the same. Both are counting on to get some bonus points for their troubles. Both units look great. Both have a lastname starting with R. Are you guys related? :)

My Thursday crew is making this rather easy to me, no nasty surprises of minis in strange scales, no last minute entries, just pretty models and all the maths done for me. And as said Ken, those two units together look quite spectacular, one unit of six looks a bit thin, but that unit of twelve looks just great. Looking forward for more - and the ships, too.

From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - French Mixed Cavalry unit no1 (92 points)

 

Perry Miniatures make a few packs of French and Allied Cavalry in various winter clothing, both uniform and non-uniform. I have bought these packs, which are still in the lead mountain of shame. So with my brain in overdrive I've searched every company I can think of who sell 25-28mm French Napoleonics Cavalry for figures with either greatcoats and or wet weather gear on.

There are NOT a lot, Front Rank to a few mounted command figures and that's about it really, So what to do????

Then I found these chaps, from Empress Miniatures Gwalior, Afghanistan, Punjaub and Scinde. range. Thinking "I might be able to uses these?", although they did break my heart and my wallet. £28.50 for 6 figures!!!

Originally I was going to use these figures as command models, but not now, although some may find their way into doing so???? Empress do sell more figures like these bad boys, that might have to join the collection at a later date???

As you know the Retreat from Moscow was a little haphazard. I've chosen not to have any formed units as such, I'm going for mixed adhoc units, made up from different regts. These figures can be mixed in with the Perry figures previously mentioned. The French cavalry lost many, many horses on the retreat, I expect most were slaughtered for their meat, or just died from the cold, so a lot of cavalry fought on foot, for this and many other reasons. Making them mixed units makes sense to me?

In the front row we have figures all from Empress representing the 2nd Cuirassiers, 4th Chasseurs and the 11th Hussars. 

The two figures representing the 2nd Cuirassiers were originally going to be the Wuttemburg 1st Chevau Legere, as the helmet kind of match theirs, minus a plume, but after painting them, I found further info saying that the helmet changed to another kind in 1807, oh !!!!!!. So they became the 2nd Cuirassiers instead!

At the back we have figures from 10th Cuirassiers, the 4th Chasseurs and the 30th Dragoons. The two figures on the right are both the bravest of the brave, wearing no winter coats!! and are plastic figures from Victrix, (I think)

The Officer is a figure from Casting Room Miniatures, that I bought for my Haitian Revolution project that didn't get used,. Pack FN530

My favorite figure in the 11th Hussar, front row on the right, wearing a Father Christmas coat, firing his pistol over his shoulder.

Horses arse!

These poor souls all had their heads chopped off and replaced with a more suitable Napoleonic head apart from the commander on the left who's now wearing a nice warm and furry cloak.

As to the points...

9 x Mounted 25mm figures @ 10 pts each, gives me a total of 90, plus anything that Teemu gives me for the conversion work?

TeemuL: And continuing the age old fashion of tightly focused Thursday crew, we have more of the same! :) Excellent entry Ray, great that you have found nice cavalry models to create this informal unit retreating together. In this project, I think there are no button counters, if someone from the Wuttemburg 1st found a nice and warm helmet of 2nd Cuirassiers, then he might have taken it and still be part of the original unit. I wouldn't blame. They look cool, in many ways, and are usable as one unit or as separated to other units. I'll give you two bonus points for your troubles.