From AdamC: More Japanese ships (10 Points)

 

Here we have 5 more Japanese's ships 4 Asashio class Destroyers and the Cruiser Mogami in her late war configuration with a flight deck of all things. 

The Mogami was badly damaged off Midway in 1942 and was rebuilt with a flight deck to carry sea planes to boost the recon assets available to the fleet.

Here you can see a photo of the sea planes , They are a handy assets but you might want your 4 8 inch guns back.  Hybrid Cruiser carriers were an idea that got tossed around a lot in the 1920, very few were made Japan did it here to save time an money rebuilding the aft turrets or so I believe. 

This one was printed for me by accident I wanted some early war versions of these but it could be useful later. 

The Asashio Class were a design of the late 30s Japan's first design of greater than 2000 tons Displacement.  They were fast, 35 knots, with 6 five in guns and a pair of 4 torpedo launchers (with reloads). They were also the First Japanese destroyer equipped with Sonar 

The Asashio were considered a very useful design and became the basis for both the Kagero and Yugumo class which were basically larger versions of the same design. 

We have 5 ships of 1/2400 Scale for another 10 points

 

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Sylvain: Great little squadron! Your Japanese fleet seems to be coming along quite nicely. Génial!

 

From RobertT: 28mm Wars of the Roses 20 figures (104 points)

Perry plastics have a lot to answer for!  I think I had my first bash at making and painting their Wars of the Roses figures when they first came out.  Inspiration and dread combined in equal measure.  I have been gradually reducing my pile of plastic with various degrees of success.  AndrewG's Northampton Project provided the inspiration for another attempt.  I am having a go at painting the livery for the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Oxford.  The attempts are not shown here!  One day I will get to Andrew's level.

In the mean time here are some of their well willers / henchmen.  I live a couple of miles away from the village of Paston in Norfolk and have some individually based figures for the various fights Sir John Paston and his wife got themselves into.  His retinue of 10 figures shown with the yellow / white banner is probably the maximum he could afford.  His livery of Yellow and White is interesting as it breaks the most basic rule of heraldry that there should only be one "metal", gold / yellow or silver / white but not both.

The Duke of Norfolk wanted some of the properties that Sir John had "inherited" from Sir John Falstaff so he sent his knights to get them.  In this case I have chosen Sir Thomas Waldegrave with his red / white livery.  I have tried to give the knights brighter steel armour than the rank and file but I am not sure that my photography will pick this out.

The flags are from Freezywater 25mm scale but perfect for 28mm.

They are based on 3mm MDF from Warbases as I find that easier to pick up with 60mm frontage and 50mm deep.  The basing material is a huge bag of crushed coral I got when I was 16 (over 40 years ago now) to do some Wake Island games with my Airfix Marines vs Japanese.  This coral is stuck down with a mixture of brown paint, matt medium and water.  Matt medium works as well as PVA but doesn't shrink or warp. Then grass is stuck on.

The standard bearers are using pike arms from the Perry mercenary set and I had to trim down the pole.  I have just spotted that the spear point on Sir John Paston's flag is not straight.  I am not going to re-do it though.

I am still working on my photography and there is still too much shadow.  Hopefully next year it will be better. 

The grand idea is to be able to play with Never Mind the Billhooks or something like that.  The number of figures on a base doesn't actually matter in my mind as casualties can be counted next to the unit.

By my reckoning that is 20 blokes at 5 points each = 100 points. 

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Sylvain: You beautifully combine history and painting in your post. Your recipe for making bases will also come handy to many challengers, I'm sure. I'm going to add an extra 4 points for the flags. Génial!

From AdamC: Gunfighter and monster (15 points)

First up I have another Gunfighter form Bloody Scotsman.  He carries a formidable cut down double barreled shot gun.  

His fur covered chaps are very distinctive.  I think this fellow with his fancy gear and casual up right stance as he reloads is more wealthy gentleman hunter rather an a true cowboy. 

Still he's well armed and will be a nice addition for old west or pulp game. 

I Think this big troll is from Blood Scotsman. I am not sure which game he was intended for but he's a handy monster to have with great details on that face. 

He looks lean but powerful a  survivor not just a heavy hitter, though he is that. 

Its a little unclear to me if the fur is an outfit or is part of his natural hide.  Honestly it could go either way.

He's tall about 65mm even with his crouched stance.  For points I would like to count him as a 54mm figure so this would be one 28mm and one 54mm figure coming to 15 points in total. 

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Sylvain: A nice and colorful offering this week. I don't know where your troll got that bone, but it must have been from a gargantuan creature! Very good production. Génial! 

 

 

From PeterD: Imperial Japanese Navy 1894 (25 points)

Over the years, I have developed a taste for rather obscure naval campaigns.  Challenge veterans might remember my Chilean and Peruvian fleets from the War of the Pacific in 1879, as well as my more recent Spanish American War fleets.  David Manley of Long Face Games has just this week released a campaign book for another bucket list obscure naval war, the Sino Japanese war of 1894-5. I got an advanced copy and provided feedback, so was ahead of the game and had my fleets ordered back in January.  Here's the first set of ships for the campaign, all from the IJN and all 1:2400 scale from Tumbling Dice.  The IJN had no battleships, but had some good modern cruisers supplemented with older ships.

First we have two ships from the Flying Squadron, which was composed of four modern fast cruisers.  Naniwa was built at Elswick in the UK and was one of the earliest protected cruisers.  She as given two 10.2" guns in the hopes of giving her a ship killing role and some secondaries, but was over gunned for her size.   She played key roles in the Battle of the Pungdo and the Yalu River her shooting was very good.  She was also active in the Russo Japanese War by which time she was rearmed with 6" quick firers.  Yoshino was considered one of the best Elswick cruisers, being fast, sea worthy and armed with 6" and 4.7" QF guns.  She was still considered a first rate cruiser in the RJW, but was lost when she was run down in the fog by a larger Japanese cruiser.  She flies the flag of Rear Admiral Kozo.

I would like to confirm that the first two ships are facing and steaming the same direction, to the left.

Next we take a step further into the weeds.  The three Matsushima class cruisers were French designed and took ship killing up a notch.  Each had a single 12.6" gun plus 4.7" QFs, which actually formed her main armament given the slow reload time on the big gun.  On two of the ships the large gun was sensibly in the bow facing forward, but on Matsushima it was in the stern facing aft.  Matsushima was the flagship of Vice Admiral Ito and was the most heavily damaged Japanese ships at the Yalu River.  Chiyoda was built in Scotland, and was originally intended to have the same 12.6" guns.  However, the design was changed and she was given a more sensible armament of 4.7" QF instead.

Finally some supporting ships.  Fuso was an ironclad central battery ship and Hiei an ironclad corvette.  They were reasonably well protected but were slow and armed with older slower firing weapons.  However they served in the main fleet and were heavily engaged at Yalu River.  Katsuragi was a composite (wooden hulled but iron framed) corvette, useful but suitable to be in a major battle.   Saikyo Maru was a passenger ship requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser and carried the flag of Rear Admiral Sukenori at Yalu River.  Akagi was a small gunboat, tasked with guarding Saikyo Maru.

That's 10 hulls in 1:2400 scale, for 20 points.  Next week I should have some opposition, in the form of the Beiyang fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

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Sylvain: Ship design was indeed crazy in those early days of big guns. Your miniatures are superb and I like that you added the Japanese ideograms (called "kanji") to your ship bases. Your ships look clean and convey an aura of 19th century. I will add 5 points for the festival of flags. Génial!

 

 

 

From PeterD: German Asian Squadron 1898 (8 points)

 

SMS Kaiser leads her squadron.

This is a post of make do and mend modelling.  Admiral Von Diedrichs' German squadron based in Tsingtao China (now Qingdao) nearly came to blows with Admiral Dewey's American fleet in Manilla Bay.  It's the lost what if scenario for major European powers intervening in the Spanish American War.  Unfortunately, 1:2400 scale models are not available for Diedrichs' ships.  My Toy Story entry was his flagship SMS Kaiser.  This one will look at his other four ships.  In each case I used Tumbling Dice models for other nations' cruisers. 

First up the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta.  For her I noted that the French cruiser Tage was a similar size and had a similar hull shape, but had different funnel and mast arrangements.  She served in the Mediterranean and was involved in some gunboat diplomacy in Morocco and Greece, before being sent to China late in 1897.

Kaiserin Augusta on the left, Tage on the right.  Not too different, I just had to move the foremast back and spread the funnels apart

Next the sister ships Irene and Prinzess Wilhelm, basically older and smaller versions off Kaiserin Augusta.  They escorted Kaiser Bill II's yacht early in their career, before being sent east to China.  I used French Linois class cruisers to represent these two without modifications.  There are differences between the designs, but I decided they were close enough for Government work.  And finally the gunboat Cormoran.  I used a Spanish Isla de Cuba class cruiser for her, it's a reach but it's what I had on hand and at this scale it'll do. 

Irene on the left, a Linois class on the right.  Close enough for me.

I have received some nice comments on my basing, so I thought I'd share my method.  I put my ships on 30x60mm pdf bases (2mm thick) which I get from Warbases or Sarissa.  

1. After priming, I do the base sea colour first using Paynes' Grey, which is actually a dark blue and has tons of uses.   It's an artist colour, so I don't that you'll find in the model paint ranges.   But then again I wouldn't know as I use artists' acrylics as my regular medium.  I then paint the ship completely before returning to the base.  Normally I'll need to touch up where the hull colour has slopped onto the base.  In this case, I have white hulls and wasn't too sloppy so I'll just use the white in the wave patterns. 
2. For the first layer of wave I mix Payne's grey with a bit of white.  You can look at aerial photographs of ship for ideas, but generally there will be a bow wave, some disturbance along the sides and then a quarter wave angling off of the stern.  There isn't really that much colour difference except at the bow and where the screws are, but it gives the effect.  Basically, I'm using colour to represent surface textures and depths.  I will also add general waves around the ship.
3. I then add some white caps using titanium white where I figure they add something.
4. Once everything dries, I use a coat of acrylic glossy medium.  It's a bit nerve wracking to use this the first time as it goes on milky white, which I think shows in the photo.  But it dries to a clear glossy colour.
5. I find Payne's grey gives a good deep water grey blue, but I'd use a different sea colour depending on conditions.  For my Anglo Dutch Wars ships I use a greenish blue and sculpt waves with modelling gel etc to look like a de Velde painting.  For ACW river actions you'll want muddy brown etc. 

Rambling over, I'll claim the 8 points for the 4 ships.  Together with the Kaiser from the weekend, this brings my European Intervention force over the 13 ships required for another Squirrel point.

Squirrels to date

1. Badass Pulp Heroines
2. Women of the Nordic Resistance
3. US Navy Spanish American War
4. European Intervention Spanish American War

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Sylvain: Another great example of your scholarship and craftsmanship in ships! I hope you will soon set up the sea mat and indulge us Reginans with a turn of the century naval game. Génial!

From BruceR: Vampire Lord to lead and Chaos additions to Warmaster Madness (77 points)

I have continued down my road of Warmaster and 10mm figures.  I have commented previously, I do not have a 3d printer, even though I have been tempted in the past.  I found myself without figures to paint for this project, yet I knew there were a few packs in the post. While waiting I did sit down and put brush to this little Vampire Lord on a Winged Nightmare.

I used a black primer with a dry brush of white before using speed paints to lay down the first coats of color.  I then highlighted with acrylic reds, bone, German grey, and some silver.  I added some pale blue and purple to the Lord for contrast.   I enjoyed how he turned out at this scale.  This is one of my Forest Dragon sculpts.  He is quite large for the 10mm scene so I thought points wise it would be equivalent to a vehicle at 5 points.  Sylvain can adjust if I over shot.  

Some ribs can be seen poking out

View of Skull on back of saddle for skull counting

For this next submission I'll blame GregB as he suggested Mini Rat figures and to find them, I had to go to a UK printer.  Now shipping and tariffs can make this prohibitive, but when I compared the discounts offered by MGSMiniatures Etsy the higher shipping was equal to what I pay for prints from manufacturers in the States.  Production and shipping took no longer than in country purchases.  

So, bulking up my Dogs of War force are Beorg Bearstruck  and the Bearmen of  Urslo.   Once again amazed at the detail on these printed miniatures.

Here are the WHFB details of this unit from the DOW book if interested and I used as reference.

I went to work with my tried and true method of black primed and blotch painting.  This is done inside out from skin to final details.

1st Warrior Flesh.  2nd Chain mail.  3rd Fur Brown. 4th Flat Earth. 5th Orange Brown. 6th Dark Sand. 7th Dark Vermilion. 8th Legendary Red. 9th Gold. Paints are Army Painter, Vallejo, P3.

The paw on the shield is embossed so I found not too bad to paint, just a steady hand needed.  I did highlight the red paw and plume.

Some grey needed to set out the werebear leader

Close up shows the skin blotch painting leaving
 the black to define features. 
Also, the tiny skull on the warrior's helmet on the left end.
Counted 21 of the little buggers. 

These will give me two units of medium infantry in my DOW force for Adepticon.  

I'm off to sunny California for 10 days so when you read this I should be in warmer weather.  Having said this, we experienced global warming these past few days in the North with temps in the 50's F in February.  Unusual.  

Loki enjoyed the weather for our walk.  Some runner passed me in shorts and T-shirt.  Crazy.

A couple of action shots of my crew's game this past Sunday, with my forces of DOW and Empire vs Vampire Counts and Greenskins.  Always nice to get the figures out.

On to the points.

One of the strips lost a man in the "chaos" so 71 10mm @1                 71 pts

Lord @ 5 6                                                                                                    5 pts

Total                                                                                                         76 77 pts

22 skulls (21 on the marauder helmets and one on the Lord saddle)

More in a couple of weeks.  Be safe and sane.

Bruce

 

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Sylvain: I said this before, but it still amazes me how your 10mm figurines are so detailed that they look like 28mm models. I agree with your calculation except that a 10mm vehicle is worth 6 points, not 5. So a total of 77 points for you. Génial!

 

From BillA: 20th Century African Militia and Mercenaries (65 points)

 This is a project I kind of stumbled into accidentally. A couple years back, I started painting and wargaming the 1980s GI Joe comic book and animated series in 28mm, and decided to add some local insurgent types - the idea being the terrorist organization Cobra funds and arms localized groups in Central America, the Middle East, etc. in addition to their own, more sci-fi oriented, operations. One of my favorite stories from the GI Joe Special Missions comic (which tended towards more realistic stories), appearing in issue#10, involved the Joes escorting the prince of Kalingaland, an equatorial African nation, home to assume rulership despite Soviet-backed efforts to install a Communist puppet government. I decided I wanted to include Kalingaland in my games, and that meant Cobra-backed rebels, leading me to pick up a couple packs of 20th century African militia from The Assault Group.

And then I got a few more. And then I bought a copy of "Wars of Insurgency," my friend Mike's rules for wargaming the various bush wars and small conflicts around the world from 1945-2000. And then I bought a few more African militia to round out a complete force for "Wars of Insurgency." I have no idea if I'm ever going to play Wars of Insurgency. I have more African rebel militia than I'll probably ever field in a GI Joe game, which I usually play solo. Anyways, here are the last of them, painted up.

There's a lot going on here, so let's break that up.

I did one pack each of Militia with Handguns and with SMGs:

These two packs were combined, with a guy holding a RPG, to form a single militia unit for Wars of Insurgency:

I also painted a pack of "Wild Geese" style mercenaries with AK-47s; these are intended as bodyguards for the force's commander, who has previously been painted.

These figures complete this force, and I have a partially painted UN Peacekeepers force to oppose them; whether I'll complete the second half of the Peacekeepers before the end of the Challenge or not remains to be seen.

That's another 13 figures for 65 points, and another Squirrel point, bringing me up to 4 (Modern Horror, Maya, Dinosaurs, and 20th Century Africa.

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Sylvain: You bring to the Challenge a type of skirmish figures that I've never played with and never seen at conventions. Your brushwork brings out the ruggedness of the militiamen. I will watch closely what you will bring next week! Génial!