From GregB: Cold War Canadian Infantry - and Bonus Leopard C1 (64 points)

More Cold War Canadian troops in 15mm!

Hello to all of the Thursday viewers of the AHPC! I'm actually on vacation this week, and while the weather in my locale is fortunately stunning, it is a little bit unsettling to not have picked up a paint brush in just about a week...seems wrong.  To help me cope, I managed to finished a few more Cold War 15mm figures last Friday, so I would at least have something to share this week! And so here is an infantry platoon of Cold War-era Canadian troops in 15mm, with a bonus additional Leopard C1 tank.

Platoon command stand - officer pointing, radio operator beside him

Tanks are a tonne of fun, of course - in the case of the Leopard C1, about 40 tonnes or so of fun! But it is the hard-slogging, ground-pounding, digging in-and-assaulting-and-hunkering down infantry that take the ground and hold it at the end of the day.  The Canadian Battlegroups of the 1980s would be counting on their Leopard C1s, but the mechanized infantry were the heart of the effort - troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Vandoos.  So I wanted to add some infantry - plus they paint super-fast so I could finish them before we were out of town...

Here is a bit of a retro item - a .30cal MMG in support of the platoon

The infantry figures are from "Armies Army" (now part of the excellent Plastic Soldier Company).  And they are a treat! Just wonderful castings, made from metal, as all proper wargames figures should be.  They are sporting Canadian infantry weapons from the 1980s cold-war era - FN rifles, Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons, and support from a .30 cal MMG and a 60mm.  The latter two elements are sort of retro-classic weapons, but it seems the Canadian Forces tended to make use of older weapons for quite a while longer than some other NATO armies.

Three sections of infantry - and the 60mm mortar is on the right at the front - poor chap, has to carry it by himself it appears :)

As appropriate for Canadians, the infantry are sporting colder-weather jackets - an excellent touch, in my opinion! I can't say enough good things about these castings.  I purchased an entire companies' worth of the troops, and look forward to painting them all up.  Huge kudos to Keith at Army's Army for making these a reality - for a nerd like me, it is exciting to have the chance to collect these lads and game with them.

View showing some of the webbing - note the Carl Gustav AT weapon on the one base in the foreground

Of course, these chaps will need some M113s to ride around in - those will hopefully appear later in the Challenge.

Another Leopard C1 - this one from the Plastic Soldier Company

The tank model is a 1/100 plastic Leopard C1 from Plastic Soldier Company, with an FN MAG from Peter Pig swapped into the cupola MG.   This gives me 10 Leopard C1s...on my way to having a whole squadron for the gaming table. These fellows have already seen action on the gaming table (with many of the recently-painted tanks suffering the fate of all newly-painted models - it was a rough "win" for the Royal Canadian Dragoons)

More Canucks ready to chip in for NATO

Points-wise this is...well, that's what a minion is for!!! There are 29 different 15mm infantry and one 15mm tank, so that should get me maybe 64 points? Jamie will sort it out...

I'll leave you with a photo from Palm Desert, California, USA - we did a six-mile hike in Joshua Tree National Park yesterday! The landscape was beautiful and surreal...so glad to have a chance to visit...

The Palm Oasis in Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA

Next week will be rough painting-wise (why won't work just pay me to paint figures?) but hopefully will have something new to share next Thursday - even just one figure...Cheers for now!

Not painting for a week and you still have something to show us?  I'll just be over here in the corner with my shame if anyone needs me...!

Cracking submission, I'm also a big fan of infantry and I do like them at 15mm scale as you can really get a feeling of volume without them being too small to see.  I most enjoyed FoW when there were sizeable infantry contingents on the table and these are just the ticket.  Lovely job on the camo, the helmets are especially striking.  I'll take your word for it on the weaponry as without a bolt gun in sight I'll admit to being a bit lost when it comes to small arms!

My semi-magical-semi-mystical Calcutronalator tells me that 64 points is absolutely spot on so I'll put you down for that.

From KenR - 28mm WW1 Highlanders (140 points)

This week we are back to the WW1 Mesopotamia Collection with this collection of 28mm Highlanders, those if you with very good memories will recall I did 9 of these for last years challenge, here is the rest of the Battalion, minus a bloke with a bagpipe who has been held back for the next bonus round.

There are a mix of manufactures here, the bulk from a very small 28mm range from Minifigs, the Lewis Gun Teams and command, including the lovely figure with the stretcher on his shoulder are from the Empress Miniatures Jazz Imperialism range.

The HMG is from Great War Miniatures as neither Empress or Minifigs did them, so that's 3 x 8 Fig companies plus a 3 fig MG with a half crew mounted weapon for a net 28 figures worth or 140 points.

This unit was inspired by the book "With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia" which is available HERE, however you can find it on some of the free book sites due to its age.

It's a really good personal account from the Black Watch battalion that arrived in the area after the initial push and was involved in the attempts to relieve the Siege of Kut. The volume of casualties they take is horrendous, dropping from a full battalion to 200 or so men on a regular basis.

It also contains some great snippets of info, for example the units would march to and from the front line in kilts (as painted) with bagpipe playing, before changing into shorts and shirts in the trenches.

I am away to Italy on a badly timed (for the Challenge) holiday so nothing from me next week, but when I do return it will be back to WW2 Desert vehicles and my first German Armour.

These are absolutely brilliant.  I'm not a historical gamer, but I do find myself fascinated by these little pockets of somewhat unusual battle attire, although I suspect the kilts were probably rather good in this type of theatre!

They look like a wonderfully coherent bunch and the basing sets them off excellently - 140 points to you it is!

From StephenS - Balearic Slingers - 40 points

My first Thursday post and it’s only a small one, but you know, life and all that...

I present two stands of Balearic slingers, based for use in the game Impetus. These eight models are 28 mm metal sculpts from Warlord Games and were very easy to paint up, being mostly cloak or tunic. Though there are only three poses to select from to make the units.

They will see service in my Carthaginian army. I foolishly thought I’d finished the army a while back, but the release of the second edition rules saw several new units added to the army list that now needed to be painted up. Fortunately, nothing was taken away, so there’s a silver lining I guess. For those not familiar with Basic Impetus, lists for the different armies are fixed. Since its’s not a points based system, it’s a matter of painting up the units or fielding an under strength force. So hopefully you will see a few more units hit the blog soon, and my army will be finished, again...

Cheers,

Steve

Welcome the Thursday! These chaps certainly look mighty fine, although what is this “finished” of which you speak? Is it related other incomprehensible words such as  “willpower” and “enough”?

Top notch basing and they certainly look like they’re ready to poke the unwary in the eye!

40 points for these chaps.

Anthony O - Skeleton Regiment - 95 Points

I promised myself I would have at least something each week for submission and so far so good. This week it is a regiment of Skeleton warriors for my Empire of Dust army for Kings of War.

These skeletons are from the Games Workshop Tomb Kings plastic collection and are pretty nice and easy to put together and paint. I have continued with the teal green colour (seriously I don't even now what to call it) to unify the army and create a contrast to the bonewhite of the ahhh bones.

So it is back to back skeletons with more on the horizon with some cavalry and another regiment of warriors hopefully due next week.

All up there is 19 28mm skeletons so I make it 95 points.

And Mr Reliable comes through again!  I'm envious of anyone who actually gets a post in every week as I always tell myself I'll definitely do that..... only to fail by week 2!

The colour mix really works on these (like the chariots) and I do like the streaky effect on the shields as it helps to age them.  Being buried underground for who knows how long plays havoc on leather one would think...

I like the way you've picked out the alternative heads that GW did to "Ancient Egypt" the skellies up and grouped them at the front - very effective and helps take them out of the Old World to the Dusty World instead.

95 points it is!

From NickJ: It's those Acolyte fellows (75 pts)

Once upon about blooming time...

Previously in Journey to the Realm of the Acolytes we met Test Figure

 Then we were introduced to the Fabulous 4

And now... you've skipped ahead haven't you? You're down looking at the pictures to see if I finally pulled the cat out of the bag and finished the squad of 20... no foul as frankly that's what I was about to do! :-)

So now that you're back with the text you'll have seen that this week we get to meet the FULL squad. Yes I've actually gone and done it! Hurrah. With multiple hurrahs thrown in for good measure. And a sigh of relief to be honest.

Here we are then - meet the 15

The skin painting employs the same techniques as all my other models; namely a base colour and two washes. In this case the two washes are different with a Sepia first to give a yellow/brown look and then a Flesh Shade to provide a reddish tan over the top.

 

The weapons use a similar technique based on my tried and tested attempt to keep everything as simple as possible whilst trying to get a good tabletop effect. Basically I didn't fancy keeping the blades metallic since this is a fantasy environment and therefore anything goes!

In this case the weapons have a Pink base paint followed by a purple wash a good solid dry brush with a colour called Tyrant skull and then a nice dollop of purple wash at the end.

Those of an eagle eye persuasion are probably wandering where the heck the banner is. Well there isn't one! Now before I get lynched (:-)) let me state that this squad cannot take a banner! I know right? They don't even have a musician.

Instead of the banner they have this chap carrying a giant scroll of fanciness. All the shapes on the scroll are already molded; the colours are mine. I've tried to make it look like old parchment and hopefully pulled it off!

 Random Dude in CloseUp!

The command section. Champion in the middle, Scroll carrier on the right and Bird handler on the left. Yes. Bird handler. Where do you think the green feathers come from eh?

The bird is a cross between a parrot and a vulture. I have 2 of them on the painting table and they'll be finished before the Challenge ends. One normally sits on this chaps arm but I don't like how that then blocks him from view - so I'm going to mount them on their own bases... which is still in the planning stages... alongside the other 463 projects...

Champion and his Giant Feathers of featheriness.

Scroll Carrier. Acolyte of the Word.

And now the full, full Squad of 20! All in the same place at the same time. I was worried this wasn't going to happen at one point.

Final Random close up!

And so we reach the end of the Tale of the Acolytes. An epilogue featuring the Birds is due soon. Watch the Skies!

15 x 28mm figures should be a nice round 75 points.

And relax...

Outstanding work sir! The full 20 certainly look like they're ready to go knocking on the doors of the folk of the Old World Mortal Realms to ask if they're ready to let Change into their lives!  I do like the aged scroll, I think you've pulled off the aging very nicely.... dare I ask if any tea was involved in the process? ;)

I think you've managed to balance the riot of colour required by Tzeentch with looking somewhat sensible and realistic, I suspect because the gold and normal flesh tones balance out the purple/blue/greens, so hats off to you my good man and 75 points it is!

And I shall look forward to seeing the separately based birds you mention in around 2020 if you're anything like me with your list of "projects to be finished as soon as possible"!