JohnB: Tuesday Terrors: "sinews of war" the final cut - 3No. - 1/72 Opel Blitzs (45points)

This is my last post concerning the WW2 era forces that populate my Fauxterre fantasy games.

This time straight from the production line are some real world Opel Blitzs by Plastic Soldier Company. A post by another challenger last week, shows the same vehicles after a bit of campaigning.....

I had some fun fitting the windscreens which fouled the really exact fit of the models - something thats impressive until you mess it up with a mod. Anyway its fine in the end. I might even skip some shading although windscreens wipers might be added later.

I did paint the driver and assistant because they are so visible.

This time round I chose anew paint for me vallejo "Olive Brown" I gave it two coats over black undercoat/prime. I used contrast colour browns on the wood truck bodies and over yellow ochre for the canvas hoods. I might need to dry brush the hoods to reduce the shade a bit.

so its 3 vehicles at 15 points each for 20mm (1/72) or 45 points. not sure that different forces (german) vehicles gets me a squirrel?

Another trio of fine looking vehicles John.  Trucks don't last long on table, but they serve a vital role and I love to see them included.  And yes, I've counted opposing sides as two squirrels.  Hope that we see more before the end of days.  

 

PeterD

EdwardG: Sprint finish points bomb (376pts)

Hej hej all,

Thank you all for the kind comments on my previous post. Having been languishing in the doldrums for this Challenge I resolved to at least have a go at attacking my points target in the final week and a bit. 

Thanks to some long work meetings and a kind wife who indulged a few later nights of me painting. I think, if my maths is correct, that I've made it, and a little over. Be that as it may I'm slightly sad I wasn't on this kind of form for more of the challenge! The dent into the 28mm lead/plastic pile is noticeable, but there are still nearly 5x really useful boxes full to go! 😀 

But, enough waffle. I concentrated on first getting my basic English Saga force painted and then branched out to the Scots, via some mercenary troops. I managed the English and a fair number of Scots (32 remaining for the full schilitron!)

First up on the photos is Sir Thomas Grey, English Captain and all around sold soldiery chap (with a nice and simple heraldry, and a flag from Flags of War!). The Grey family had a handy run of about 4 generations of solid soldiers, fighting in all the wars versus Scots and Frenchmen in the period. They eventually made it to the ranks of the Earls under Henry V, with a large number of French estates, but seem to have lost it all in the 1450s and 60s.

Supported by his tried and true men-at-arms, and household knights.

And supporting him are his band of merry Archers. All of whom are wearing an unnatural uniform coat...but give me a chance, I painted them all in about 6hrs! 

His opponent from over the Wall, a place they call Scotland... is a deer stalking highlander with a mixture of close combat clansmen and pike armed yeomen. All energised into a combat frenzy by the sweet melody of the pipes! 

And then supporting whomever has just promised the larger pay packet, a bunch of axe happy Irish mercenaries. They began the challenge being painted yellow, but I lost the will to continue after base coating them. Coming back to them a few months later I went to recover the paint job and "start" with a black undercoat. I liked the under coat much more than the original paint scheme, so they became black coated Irish, rather than the "traditional" mustard yellow that is shown in the pictures of Irish of the period. 

A final addition were finished at lunchtime today. I found these chaps, undercoated from a previous Challenge, in a misc minis box and felt inspired having painted their 28mm Irish cousins. I belive they are Essex minis of a generic axemen/halbardier type. 

All of this effort equals points...at least that's the hope! 

English = 42 x 28mm foot = 42 x 5pts = 210pts

Scottish = 22 x 28mm foot = 22 x 5pts = 110pts

Irish = 8 x 28mm foot = 8 x 5pts = 40pts

15mm axemen = 8 x 15mm foot = 8 x 2pts = 16pts

Total = 376pts

Grand total = 74 + 376 = 450pts!! Phew! 

So long all and thanks for all the fish! Looking forward to seeing you all next year! 

Best, 

Ed 😀

What a paint bomb Edward, loving this.  Lord Grey is wonderful and I live his huge retinue of archers in their red livery.  It may not be strictly historical but it works and gives unit cohesion.  But most of all I love those Scots with their wild Irish merch.  Well done all around.

PeterD 

JOHN B: Tuesday Terrors: Off the production line for the Front - 1/72 PSC Valentine Tank (15points)

This AHPC has been a productive one if a little light on scratch built modelling. However I have made quite a few kits.

This kit is one of many Plastic Soldier Company models I collected as part of my Fauxterre project. Basically its between the wars nearly mechanised where those things I have read about and liked get to the table. So thats interwar biplanes, low gun capability tanks or simply the obscure technology that does not feature as late war - no super tigers or jets or overwhelming air power and industry.

Here is a simple example. Its the valentine which actually served the Allies (British and Russian) yet also used by the Germans. Its funny but the Germans were always short of tech/equipment so alongside all their fancy inventions often built in limited numbers you get the enemy kit recycled.

This is a plain Mk1 Valentine so has a 2 pounder gun which the British soon found to be of little use being not High Explosive capable and yet the Armour Piercing round soon could not penetrate the enemy armour. It is just off the Fauxterre production line and destined for the Rugian/Gombardia wars.

I think it looks quite confident! I have found doing camoflague a bit of a struggle during the challenge so tend to do the vehicles as built with the idea they get the camo added during or after an actual table top encounter. I mean I don't know yet which theatre they will be operating in.......... Points total is 1 x 15 points = 15 points and no squirrels

Nice work on this Valentine John, but you're a month or so late....Your camo less paint scheme works well given that you haven't decided on a theatre.  I've enjoyed your plastic kit vehicles over the challenge.  

 

PeterD

AdamC: Ancient Egyptian cavalry 100 points

 We have some more Ancient Egyptians armed as more traditional light cavalry. Note they are on bottle caps as my friend will be mounting them to suit his game. 

These came from the same package as the archers interestingly they were unarmed (possibly a sling but I think it was supposed to be the reins)

So I cut the reins and right hand away from the legs they were attached to, pried the arms away, drilled a hole in the hand then add a wire as a spear/javelin. Finally I found some buckler type shields from my bits box.  With that unarmed scouts are now serviceable light cavalry. 

It was a lot of fiddly labor but well worth the effort.  I painted these up for my friend Arofan who does all my 3D printing and I was happy to do it as unofficial 'payback'.  There was a question about what dynasty my friend is doing, he referred to them as Saitic Egyptians (AKA the 26th Dynasty). They Liked to cosplay as Egyptians from the Good old days of the New and Old Kingdoms. 

There are ten 28mm mounted warriors here adding 100 points to my total.  This may be the last big submission of the challenge but I will probably have a couple of small entities (more 1/2400 ships if I can get some Brush time. 

Great unit of light cavalry Adam.  Love the blue details and headgear.  I hope that they serve your friend well.  Peterd

From SteveA: 10mm Black Powder Epic, American Civil War Union Army (142 points)

 This here is my penultimate post for this year's AHPC!  ( I have ~28 pts left to squeeze into the remaining hours of "free fire" submissions to meet my target total)  I have painted here a Large  Regiment comprised  of 7 Stands of Musket Rifle Infantry, and a mounted commander, flagged as "5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment".

This submission combined with my other submission for 10mm minis Black Powder Epic Battles - the American Civil War for this year's challenge, I think furnishes me with a playable force more quickly (at an Army level) than many of my past transitions from "Hey that's cool, I'm buying it!" to " Slay The Grey, I've painted it!"

I think I improved upon my previous effort in terms of less time for same result, using a more effective colour application order and some thought towards what important bits to actually paint vs what nonsense bits to avoid, but I feel I'm likely still puttering about with some less than essential steps than needed at a 10mm scale.  I may be too fixated with doing all painting steps with all my zoom-in eye goggling lenses holding the minis about 4 inches from my nose, and in future will aim to rely more on a look at it at arms length while standing over mini on a table top to determine when good enough to be done.

Overall, I am rather pleased with how this regiment looks as part of the total force I have prepared thus far, and I am looking forwards to painting up the remaining minis for this army that I have awaiting in my pile of back logged minis.

Good luck to everyone bringing in your target points for a landing to close out AHPC XVI!

142 Points

140 pts = 7 stands of 20  Rifle Infantry, 10mm Foot figure  1 pts each 

    2 pts  = 10mm Mounted commander figure

Great unit of Federals Steve, and a stonking big one too.  They look great.  Looking forward to seeing you squeeze out your target.  Peterd

From MartinN: Hairy arsed Barbarians (70 pts.)

For my penultimate post for this year I've got a bunch of hairy arsed Barbarians for you to enjoy. The figures are a mix of Victrix and Footsore Miniatures and were a lot of fun to paint. They're based on my usual 10x5 cm bases for use with Midgard Heroic Battles by James Morris. As I couldn't be arsed to hand paint all the different shield patterns I decided to use LBM (nowadays available through Victrix) decals instead. Backdrop is by Handiwork Games as ever

Points wise we have 14 miniatures for a total of 70 points

Lovely looking barbarians Nick, although I’m a tad disappointed that they are fully clothed given the title of your post.  I envy painters who can achieve those rugby shirt stripes on tunics.  Your transfers work well, and mark these guys as veterans of Roman units.  Love the basing and backdrop.

Peterd

From Mike W - 13 x Skaven Infantry (65 Points)

Well we're now into the Free Fire section of this year's challenge - I can't believe how quickly the time has passed!

In this post I am presenting 13 x Warhammer Fantasy Skaven figures, 10 x Plague Monks and 3 x Clan Rats, I have 10 or so more Plague Monks to complete as well as some other odds and ends but decided to submit these figures as I complete them as I remember being too late on a posting either last year or the year before and missing out on the points! Sorry if this is creating extra work for our beloved minions....

So these guys follow my existing recipe for Skaven, as previous discussed but they are bigger and slightly better attired than their Clan Rat brothers, that said they are still pretty scruffy & dirty!    

Completed group of 13 x Skaven

To maintain the look and feel of the army, they have the same dirty green & rat grime robes, the distinction of being Plague Monks comes in their decoration by bells, religious scripts and rather nasty boils on their bodies....

Another view of the group

...and another!

Amongst the Plague Monks are also to be found a couple of Clan Rats that I missed for the last post and a venerable old Rat from the first edition of GW plastic Fantasy figures!

You can see the boils on the right hand figure,
painted in light flesh with a red ink wash and then highlighted yellow.

More boils on the middle figure here

Hopefully I can get the second batch of these guys completed in the next 3 days - these will have many more bells & whistles on them and hopefully give the whole unit some additional visual umph!

The 2 x Clan Rats leftover from the last submission

'Old Ratty', found in the depths of my spares box!

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POINTS

13 x 28mm Skaven Infantry @ 5 Pts ea.                                                65 Points

What a disgusting bunch of Rat things Mike, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  I love that you included that OS veteran.  Great work and 65 points it is.  Peterd