from BruceR , Chamber of Challenges "The Larder" (30 Pts)

 Back to the Chamber.  I had the food stuffs models from BadSquido Games and thought, why stop there.  Pull out the box of Alternative Armes "Lady Wintermore's Fangs" .  One of the scenarios in the box is the common ball or feast where troops taking respite are set upon by their hosts.  Here are two of the figures from the boxed set (same as the Russian Zombie Militia) from the Golems lair. 

 Lady Lamia Wintermore decides Ensign Jean d'Alrondt has had enough respite.  And decides it is time for her to feast.  Let the games begin.  

Such is how the sencario is to play, soldiers of Ferach must fight their way out of the castle.

The two figures are from the boxed set having been on the shelves for well over a decade.  We'll see if more get painted during the challenge.  

The food platform is from BadSquido Games with a couple of balsa wood legs attached.  The milliput base is impressed with a base texture stamp from Happy Seppuku modelworks. 

So a larder for Ensign Jean d'Alrondt and in return Jean becomes the larder for Lady Wintermore!  Gulp!

 

20 pts for the chamber, 10 points for the two 28mm characters = 30 pts.

On to the Second level.

Cheers, enjoy.

From JamesM: 15mm Polish Cromwell Tanks - 40 points

Hi folks,

In a return to my usual form, I've painted some 15mm models for my Normandy collection. This batch consists of five armoured vehicles and forms the command element of C Squadron, 10 Pulk Strzelcow Konnych (10th Dragoons Regiment), 1st Polish Armoured Division. I'm representing this unit as of it's initial entry into combat in Normandy on 8 August 1944.

The Armoured Recovery Vehicle is a metal and resin Battlefront miniature purchased some time ago, prior to 4th Edition of the game being released. Appropriate unit decals have been applied. This model will likely find some use in our games using some house rules. 

The squadron commanders vehicle (two aerials, open turret hatch currently missing a commander) and the 2IC (no crewman in turret, two aerials) are Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Cromwells, both armed with 75mm guns, as well as coax and hull Besa machine guns. 

These two tanks also have the appropriate unit markings. The Polish Cromwells had the divisional sign (the winged hussar emblem) and the unit Arm of Service marking on the front right, side by side. The front hull also has a white circle, representing an unbrigaded unit and C squadron. These markings are placed unusually compared to British and Canadian formations. 

Lastly, a couple of Cromwell 95mm armed close support tanks. The tank with two aerials is the command vehicle for this detachment. Rear shot showing that the markings are on both the front and back. Gun barrels have been drilled a little, as that is a detail missing from the PSC kits. 

All tanks have have a small, single bit of stowage added to the right rear representing bundled camo netting. Having looked at pictures of vehicles from this unit when they took part in Operation Totalize, they were (handily from my perspective) extremely neat and tidy. I've tried to replicate this, hence the lack of my usual added stowage. 

All five, representing the command element of the squadron - only 12 Cromwells and 3 Stuart VI's to go!:

The models are on 60 x 40mm, 2mm thick mdf bases, which have been magnetized for storage. I'll paint all of the command crew figures for the squadron at once. I may have to use PSC figures for this, due to the depth and size of the hatches on the PSC models. 

Light weathering in the form of dust has been applied (I don't do all that chipping and streaking malarky). 

Points wise, 5 x 15mm vehicles (8 points each) = 40 points

From MikeF - The Armoury - Warhammer 40k Inquisiton Crusader - 25 points

 The next chamber is "the Armoury" which requires I paint something in armour. Even the most casual glance at my blog posts will clearly indicate that the common theme to my painting selections are models in copious amounts of armour. The real difficulty was selecting which armoured model for the chamber. I decided to use the next few chambers to paint a 40K Inquisitor Kill Team. First up is the "tank" of the group, the crusader. He's wearing carapace armour and is armed with a power sword and storm shield. I'm not a big fan of the full body cloak GW insists on draping over these guys, but I guess they're going for the warrior-monk look for these guys. I found the cloak to be a bit of a pain to paint and ended up repainted it a couple of times before just settling on black. The rest of the model painted up quick and I think he'll look great as part of the completed unit.

From PaulSS: 2e Bataillon, 25e Régiment de Ligne (121pts)

Over the past week I've been steadily working on this entry while sliding in the Princess Brenda and La Boulangerie entries to keep my score ticking along.

 I had hoped to enter them into "The Hatchery" but they are a 2nd Battalion of a Regiment so only have a fanion and don't carry an Eagle, so I've picked up something special for that entry.

All but one of the figures are from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Infantry 1812-1815 set which is one of my all time favorites (I've now painted 19 battalions, almost entirely using this set).

The only figure in this unit is the officer who comes from the Victrix Napoleonic French Artillery 1812 to 1815 set, more of which to come in an upcoming post.

The 2nd Battalion of the 25th Line Regiment was a part of Marcognet's 3rd Division of d'Erlon's I Corps and although caught up in the charge of the Union Brigade but were still around later in the battle.

This brings my French infantry forces on this side of the Atlantic up to 8 battalions of foot and should address some of the problems with the forces in my last game that exposed the paucity of the French infantry on hand a the time.

More Napoleonic infantry on deck this week with a Hanoverian Landwehr battalion currently getting some attention.

Twenty four 28mm figures and a standard will add 121 points to my ongoing total and I think put me quite near the half-way mark for my total.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 14 mounted, 31 foot

Old School Talisman Warrior - DaveV

I saw Gin's post about the Talisman Monk on the 20th Century Tabletop Miniatures FB page, so I decided to finish Citadel's Talisman Warrior as my next entry for the Challenge. 

I painted several of the figures Citadel made for the Talisman board game, back in the late 1980's. Over the years I collected about 50(!) more in bare metal; they were all based on the card art, and replaced card stock standup pieces.  

Part of the challenge was trying to somewhat match my painting style of 30+ years ago. For example, nowadays I airbrush zenithal highlights over black airbrushed primer. 

Following my old techniques, with a rounded steel sculpting tool I burnished the Warrior's helmet, shoulder guards, thigh pieces, and the metal of his weapons. The face was undercoated in brown, and I brushed on black primer everywhere else, and then worked up some grey and white for highlights before painting the figure in acrylics. I used a tiny amount of oils for some details and blending, and some Abteilung Smoke oil to shadow the burnished metal parts.

The Warrior is a colourful addition to my existing Talisman models; I should really paint more of them.

These characterful figures are also useful for solo dungeon crawls like Steve Jackson Games' re-issued The Fantasy Trip, another relic from the 1980's that has been reborn in these pandemic times. 

Only 5 points, but the Warrior is a welcome addition to my own dungeon adventurers. 

From MilesR: 15mm Soviet Infantry Company and Artillery Support - September, 1942 (210 Points)

It's high time I resumed work on my Stalingrad project, so decided to paint up some 15mm Soviets as I will need a lot for the planned convention games and campaign at the club.   The minis are are from Plastic Soldier Company and, to be honest, they are so-so but you can't beat the price.  I picked up a "battalion box" which comes with over 300 figures, 12 guns and a bunch of mortars and such for under $75.00 bucks.

First up is a soviet rifle company which has 3 platoons of 4 squads each.  The platoon in the center is armed with submachine guns.  They're currently arrayed in the January 9th square - right next to Pavlov's House!

Supporting them are 4, 45mm AT guns and 4, 76mm Howitzers.  The box also has 4 76mm AT guns which I'll paint up but can't use for the game as I can not find any reference of there use during the pivotal fighting in late September for control of Central Stalingrad - which is the aspect of the battle I will be depicting.

All of the terrain you can see in the pictures was completed before the Challenge and represents 40% of the total table.  There will be a lot of future terrain related submissions as the rest of the battlefield begins to take shape.  The majority of the buildings will be scratch built.

Points wise, this entry consists of 89 15mm infantry figures and 8 guns, which should net out to 210 points (89*2) + (8*4).  

Tony from the club has graciously offered to help me paint Germans and his painting skills far exceed mine.  I've started the CAD work on some new buildings so hopefully those will get done for my next submission.

From Chris K: Making a Start on the Recce Vehicles (100 pts)

 Hello All, 

For my first foray into this noble challenge, I've mostly chosen to burn through my collection of 1/56 WW2 vehicles...and in order to give myself a relatively gentle start, I've gone for some of my late-war Brits' recce assets. 

In this first tranche, please find below the following (in order): 

• Daimler Armoured Car (Inns of Court),
• Humber Armoured Car Mk IV (Inns of Court - I may in future attempt the 'sawn-off' version!),
• Humber Scout Car (from 3RTR), and
• two Recce Jeeps from my Airborne forces. These were easier to paint, but the annoying para smocks more than made up for that!

Pics - 

Daimler AC:

Humber AC:

Humber Scout:

Para Recce Jeeps: 

The jeeps are from Rubicon Models; the others are from Warlord Games...and at twenty points apiece, I'm claiming this lot for as my opening century for the Wargames Soldiers and Strategy Magazine team. Now all I have to do is beat my colleagues...

Chris

(AKA Admiral Drax)

From MattK: Aliens and a Christmas Gift (90 pts)

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the late start this year but the Holidays were surprisingly busy this year. I started seeing someone before the pandemic started and who wouldve guessed that having a significant other would make the holidays worth celebrating. Forgoing my usual tradition of Christmas Day and New Years day marathon Painting has put me a touch behind but I certainly think it was worth it. Apologies in advance for this batch of photos, I've been staying at my girlfriends during the break and didnt bring my photo booth.

First up I have two "Ornaments"painted for my Girlfriend for Christmas. This was a file I found on Thingiverse and printed and screwed an eye hook into.

They were painted to look like the two family dogs, Sammi and Koda and went over well enough that they went right up on the tree.

These were the last two figures I painted in 2020. Kicking off this year, today I decided to get started on my Aliens Collection with the new Gale Force Nine Board Game. I painted all 16 aliens in the base game. Super simple paint jobs but I'm super happy with them. I have the marines and both expansions to work through still, as well as the Prodos games game and some extra odds and ends. One of my big plans this year is a Bug Hunt game for whenever conventions return. 

The pugs are a bit bigger than a standard 28 but the paint jobs were simple so to keep everything easy lets call it 18 x 28mm figures for this submission, for a total of 90 points. I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I plan on adding to my Necromunda collection and fleshing out some terrain for some games I have planned.