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.