From MilesR: Winter Themed German Army, My Last Post (243 Points)

 My last submission for this year's challenge is a complete winter themed German army for Bolt Action in 28mm scale.   I really blame Curt for this one and some of his comments about me painting up a force to go with the JagdTiger I submitted earlier - remember Curt I'm very impressionable.

All of the mini's are from Warlord with the figures and guns being metals and the stug one of the co-branded plastic kits from Italerie/Warlord.  The quality of the metal casts was really very good but I can't really recommend the plastic stug.

 First up are 2 infantry squads of 10 men each.  The one in the rear are German Mountain troops and the ones in the front are late war grenadiers.

 Some specialist troops in the form of a flame thrower (left) and a sniper team (right).

The force commander is a stereo-typical German bad guy and there's a panzershreck behind him.

 Some heavy support in the form of a 105MM howitzer, 81mm mortar and a machine gun team.  I really like the two artillery crewman carry a box of ammo - nice sculpting touch.

 I choose to make the stug one of the 105mm howitzer versions.

 Rear shot of the stug.

 Lastly, the group came with an interesting medic model.

 and, finally, a group shot including the JagdTiger that started this whole thing out.  I don't have an opposing allied winter force but I guess that's what's next year's Challenge is for.

A few in-process shots.  I made a large batch of my mud mix for the bases which seems to work really well for basing - maybe even better than on tracks.  This was the armies status as of 6:00am this morning.

I've only done a handful of snow bases so experimented with several different techniques before ending up with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo snow effect and baking soda.  I keeps a nice texture after drying so the snow doesn't look like white water (glossy and flat).

The total points for this force are:

41 infantry figures = 205 pts
2 small guns (mortar/mmg) = 10 pts
1 larger gun (howitzer) = 10 pts
1 Assault gun = 15 pts
1/2 crewman = 2.5 pts
Total = 242.5 pts


My personal spreadsheet tally shows this post should take me over 4,100 points this year and that's all I got in the tank.  This has been my sixth Challenge and it continues to be my favorite hobby activity.  I deeply appreciate that Curt and the entire community do to make this such a fun event and one that I really do organize my hobby planning around.

I very much look forward to participating next year but am thinking of following Tamsin's example in a previous Challenge and may limit myself to just doing the bonus rounds where I can focus less on volume and more on quality.  A lot of the submissions are painted at an overall quality level that far exceeds my current capabilities (ok, most are) and that's something I'd really like to work on.  Maybe there is something to the whole less is more thing.  It vertically will help with storage!

I think I'll spend the rest of the day watching basketball and clearing out my hobby space - it's a little on the messy side.  Messy as in Augean Stables messy.

Anyone want to start some terrain projects?

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Ah Ha! I was waiting for this 'covering barrage'.  I should have known when I mentioned the whole, 'Gee Miles, you should paint some infantry to go with that winter Cat' that something would come about.  Well done Mr. Reidy. 

You never fail to astonish me with what you can acomplish in a few hours. Granted the snow theme helps with it's limited palette, but still it's pretty darn impressive. Great work. I think you may want to check your spreadsheet as this submission gives your 4010 points, not 4100...

Miles, thanks so much for all your help, great humour and good will (and packages of imported coffee!).  You are one of the Challenge's biggest cheerleaders (mental visions abound) and we all love you for it. :) Now, in a few hours we'll be done and you can dazzle us with the final stats roundup. Reserve me a seat in the front row!

Until next year, sir!