Thursday 14 January 2016

From JohnSh - The Slowpainter gets some runs on the board (60 points)

Well, I knew that this was going to be a Challenge with a capital C from day 1 and I am so glad that I have finally managed to finish a few figures. There is a reason that my blog is called A Slowpainter's Progress.

My eyes have thrown a bit of an extra challenge in this month with my increasing long sightedness combining with hayfever season making it a bit of a struggle to focus.
I have invested in one of those drop down lens visor thingies and painting has become an option again.


I recently swore a vow to never paint anything smaller than a 28mm figure again.
So here are my 20mm AB US WWII miniatures. Yep, I'm a wargamer, I can't pass up a well sculpted miniature. I already have a US army in 28mm for Bolt Action or Chain of Command but a friend let me know that he was also playing in 20mm, and since I have all those tank kits I have bought over the years, well, here we go.


It is my intention to build this force a squad at a time (what fun I've had making lists and bagging squads together!) along with a support weapon or weapons team at the same time. This breaks the painting task into bite sized chunks so I don't get overwhelmed and grind to a halt. I have used primarily AB Miniatures with the odd other brand mixed in for variety.


This first squad is a US Armoured Infantry Rifle Squad supported by a 60mm Mortar team. As these are primarily for Chain of Command, the Mortar team has a crew of five. I wanted to be able to remove casualties from the team so I have sculpted the team base with only one figure attached to it, the others all retain individual basing but with depressions left in the basing for them to fit into.


So that's a total of 13 x 20mm figures which is 52 points as an icebreaker. I think I might paint some 28s now...
Welcome to the scoreboard John! I must say you've made a grand entrance with some very convincing Yanks. I especially like the basing on the mortar team and the way you can remove casualties. I've never considered doing casualty removal that way, preferring to leave individuals on separate bases but it's not nearly so realistic looking. 
You missed the fact the mortar is a crew served weapon so your opening salvo is actually 60 points. Well done and keep them coming! Cheers, Millsy.



44 comments:

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    1. Thanks Adam, I'm very happy how they turned out.

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  2. Nice work John! :)

    We each go at our own pace :)

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    1. Thanks Tamsin. Sometimes I think my pace is backwards!

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  3. Nice work John. Slow but steady I'd say. I really like the basing on the weapon team. Cheers Peter

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    1. Thanks Peter. I actually surprised myself with that, it came out better than I thought it would.

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  4. cracking opening salvo and I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't keep gaming resolutions!

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  5. Good for you. We all need many different scales to make us happy. When I saw these I was thinking they were 28mms. As for speed I am with Wyatt Earp "Fast is fine, Accuracy is final!"

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    1. Thanks Clint! I am quite chuffed that you thought they were 28mm. I like the Earp quote!

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  6. I share your pain re the eyes... It's not good, so never the less a great job

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    1. Thanks Dave. If only I could control a 5 foot long paintbrush I would have no problem!

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  7. They are great looking figures, welcome on board

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  8. Great work John - welcome aboard. And the AB miniatures are indeed impossible to resist...

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    1. Thanks Greg. I love AB, and Nic from Eureka is a great mate so I have bought many more than I will ever need!

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  9. The Mtr team steel the show for me. Very nice castings and so well painted, good start for you

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian, I am rather pleased with the final result on them. Although next time I will use greenstuff on the base rather than the stinky filler I had on hand.

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  10. Great work John: lovely detail and colour tones. Good to see you on the board.

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    1. Thanks Dux. I did doubt that I'd get there for a while.

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  11. Welcome to the Challenge John! Yes, AB stuff can highhandedly make people switch to the 20mm scale - its just that darn good. I like the mortar team and your nifty sabot basing (though I wonder if it will be too fiddly during gameplay and storage - time will tell). Wonderful work John and I look forward to seeing the results of your return to 28s!

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    1. Thanks Curt. I am considering drilling out the mortar team figures and bases and adding tiny magnets to help keep them in place. Storage is not an issue, I have a games room full of glass cabinets.

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    2. My apologies. I re-read my comment and though 'Wow, how OCD are you?" That being said, I think your magnet idea would certainly do the trick.

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    3. No need for apologies, similar thoughts had crossed my mind.

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  12. Lots of eye candy here, and in a smaller scale than i could manage! Well done!

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    1. Thanks Evan. Thought they were a smaller scale than I could manage for a while there!

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  14. They look lovely John, a great first entry!

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    1. Thanks Steve. I blame you and Dux for getting me in to this mess you know! :)

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  15. Great looking G.I.'s, it's funny how we say we're going to only paint x and end up painting y and z as well.

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    1. Yep, it's the inner squirrel in all of us "ooh, look at all those shiny things"

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  16. Very fine work! I really like that base work for the motars, really fine way for dealing with casualties! ;)

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    1. Thanks David, I'm very happy with the way they turned out.

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  17. Great stuff John - always nice to get off the mark too.

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