From StuartL Around And Around We Go - From Noel's Comet to Vogsphere - 122 Points

Hello again,

This is my final post for this week and should see me completing the middle ring of the Challenge XII Quadrant. My last quadrant entry was for LV426, meaning that the next step on my journey is Noel's Comet, and the theme of friendship (and writing a LOT of words).

I didn't know Noel all that well, but I was sad to hear of his passing last year. We crossed brushes a few times in the Squirrel side duel, with me narrowly beating him in the first duel back in 2019, only for him to take the title in the second duel in 2021. He always struck me as a good humoured chap and it's a shame that I'll never have a chance to compete with him again. So, I gave my entry for this step on the challenge a bit of extra thought before I selected a mini. There are two parts to this story, so I beg your patience before we get to the mini itself.

Way back in the time-before-time (circa 1998), a friend of my younger brother was selling off his various GW collections. At the time, I was getting back into the hobby after a short hiatus and wanted to get going quickly. Picking up an already built army seemed the best way of doing so. So, I bought his Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen and played a few games with them at my local GW store. (Middlesbrough, UK, if anyone cares). My brother's friend had already painted them in a rough and ready style, so I never saw a need to paint them myself. Moving on a few years, I emigrated to Japan, leaving my hobby collection behind. Over the years, I had my parents ship more and more of it over to me. By that time, I had bought several other armies and the Lizardmen ended up shoved into a box at the very bottom of the to-do pile. One of my friends in Japan wanted to make the move from 40K to WFB and asked if I had any minis I could part with cheaply, so I sold him the Lizardmen and he happily took them off my hands. Over time, he added some extra models to the army as well. At some point after that, he passed on the minis to someone else, using the money from the sale to but whatever the latest hotness was at the time. Shortly after this, GW decided that the Warhammer Fantasy game wasn't worth supporting and decided to blow up the setting and start a new system. The owner of the lizardmen, another friend of mine as it happened, tried a couple of games of Age of Sigmar and decided that it wasn't for them, selling the Lizardmen to me at the end of 2020 along with a lot of other minis. So, after over two decades, these models had had 5 owners and effectively 1 coat of paint in all that time. Last year I painted up some Skinks from the collection, but it went back to gathering dust for the most part.

The situation worldwide over the past couple of years has been truly dire and it has affected nearly every facet of our lives. Personally, I haven't been too put out by the various stay-at-home instructions as I am quite content to do hobby stuff by myself. One of my close friends however, hasn't been doing so well though. He runs a small teaching business and as you can probably imagine, Corona has been a massive headache to work around. Clients have cancelled classes, teachers have had to be trained to teach online, etc. My friend has always been a bit on the anxious side, and the stress from work, the worry about contracting the virus, the lack of real social activities and all the rest has not been good for him at all. To try to take his mind off things, whenever the case numbers have subsided, I have invited him to my place for some games and a chat. While my friend enjoys games, he has never been one for the complex rules or intricate strategies that I enjoy, he likes something simple where he can push his minis around the table, roll some dice and not have to think too much. In addition, he always liked the rank and file look of the old WFB setting and we got to talking about how GW may be bringing the old game back in some fashion. Neither of us really trust GW to do a good job and make rules that we both enjoy, and that got me thinking. I could probably knock together a set of rules that include the simplicity that my friend likes with the strategic planning that I enjoy. I spent a few weeks over the summer jotting down ideas, and once we had the opportunity I invited him over for a few games of my new system. It's not really my system, it is a rough mash up of Warlord's Hail Caesar, WFB 6th edition, the orders phase from the old Epic game by GW and other bits besides. At the time, I simply used card movement trays to push around some old WFB minis, but both my friend and I had a blast playing. The minis in question? My old Lizardmen. 

So, as a set of models that have been passed from friend to friend for years and with the intention of playing a game to help my friend relax and feel less anxious, I present the first of my newly repainted Lizardmen.

The figure is a metal Saurus warrior from back in the late 90's. I wanted to do something different from the usual greens and blues I see used for Lizardmen, so I asked my friend to look at some pictures of real world lizards on google and pick a colour scheme for me. I wanted to steer clear of the usual metallic colours I use for weaponry and tried to paint the sword as a piece of sharpened jade, giving it a coat of gloss varnish to make it stand out.

And after all that explanation, I am kind of tired, so the rest of my middle ring journey will just be a couple of quick entries below.

Perelandra has a theme of oceanic, so I painted up a mermaid. The figure is from Reaper Bones and is pretty tall as it is mounted upon a large rock. The figure itself is about 40mm not including the scenic base. I chose bright blues and greens for the mermaid and orange and yellow for her clothing, making for a very colourful entry. The scales have been drybrushed with silver to give them a more piscine appearance.

The next stop on the tour is Coruscant, famed for it's Imperial nature. So for this I painted up some old Empire WFB minis. I painted a Mordheim warband a few years ago and simply copied the colour scheme for these guys. As Mordheim is a particularly gritty game, I chose fairly muted colours for the uniforms, with just a splash of bright red for visual appeal.

And finally, we have Vogsphere and it's bureaucracy. I'll admit that this one gave me pause, but I eventually found what I think is a suitable mini. Most people never see the bureaucrats that make the rules, they just have to deal with the paperwork they create. Usually some jobsworth has a list of rules that they make people follow with a perverse sense of power. So, official looking nobody with a long set of pointless instructions? That I can do, thanks to the masses of Reaper Bones minis I still have in my stash.

"All adventurers wishing to hunt down the dragon must wear a high-vis vest and flame retardant safety glasses at all times. No swords, spears or axes are permitted unless the owner has the prerequisite license obtained at least 3 weeks in advance, and no blade may be more than 20cm in length. Armour must conform to ISO-45001 safety standards. Finally, everyone must have their mandatory tetanus shots in case of dragon bites."

And that should finish off the middle ring and this post. 

For my total, that is 1x 40mm mini and 7x 28mm minis for a total of 42 points. In addition I can add 4 challenge quadrant planets for a bonus of 80 points, bringing me up to 122 for the post.

Despite having a few GW minis here, there are no skulls. Weird.

Great story and great work on the old Lizardman Stuart  I like the scale tones that  you've used.  You are certainly rocketing around the rings here, so good on you for that.  I really like the bureaucrat figures with his hat and scroll, but I'm pretty sure that he's reading the instructions for the SPREADSHEET of DOOM.

From Mike W - 20mm WW2 British Armour (90 Points)

The whole unit of six tanks

Here are a group of six late 1944 British Sherman Tanks, from the North European Front, the aim was to represent battle hardened unit that consists of a number of older vehicles that have been through the campaign, plus a couple of newer replacements to help maintain the strength of the unit.

Left and Centre, two older Shermans and right a newer replacement

Centre & Right two newer tanks plus a more veteran one on the left

More close-ups of the tanks

Two veteran tanks centre and right, replacement left

So these tanks are old diecast toy tanks obtained back in the early 2000s for a project to build a British Armoured force that was around in the lead-up to the Rhine crossings. The project never went anywhere because the majority of the club's WW2 gamers were (and still are) fixated on early war Brits / French v Germans OR mid war German invasion of Russia.

Side view of a couple of the tanks

and another two

These models first given a series of modelling 'upgrades' to add stowage, tarpaulins, tracks and chains before they were given a couple of coats of US Olive Drab from Vallejo before mixing same with some white paint to lighten and applying a dry brush over the upper surfaces.

Tracks were painted with Gunmetal, as were machine guns and a light dry brushing of same around edges of the vehicles to represent wear and tear on the paint work.

and last two

Running gear and tracks were then washed in brown and black inks to give appearance of dirt, oil and general grime. Mud was also applied to the tracks and running gear in the form of a dry brush with khaki paint and other browns.

Markings were added using transfers - red boxes with a white 51. To be honest I'm not sure if these would be historically correct!

Example view of the detailing on the tank decks

I have based these models, using my usual techniques, as they have annoying 'runner wheels' underneath then to allow kids to push them on the floor, the bases are primarily to hide these.

A final scale comparison between the toy diecast tanks and the RAM Kangaroo seen in an earlier post

POINTS

6 x 20mm Tanks @ 15 Points ea = 90 Points

These look great Mike, I like the repurposing of the diecast vehicles.  I hope you did push them around the table making appropriate noises before fixing them in place on their bases.  I also like you veteran/fresh meat approach to unit composition.  To my untrained eye the die casts fit in very nicely with the Kangaroo and figures, but I expect the scale zealots to chime in to tell me I'm wrong on that account.

BradS 28mm Vietnam US ACAV [Babylon5 120pts.]

I have been working hard on this set of M113 ACAV Vehicles for my Vietnam project. The CAV played a major role in the Vietnam War. For my 28mm games I needed a platoon of ACAV vehicles. I printed all of these on a resin 3D printer. The STL files are from the Bobmack3d Vietnam Kickstarter. I think they painted up real nice and I am excited to try them on the table top. For this journey I am heading to Babylon 5 as my destination. I feel that the ACAV in Vietnam is deficiently Operatic and fitting for the planet. 

The .50 cal and two M60s add a lot of firepower to the M113.

I started the process of painting these with a lot of airbrush work. Primed, under-shaded, main coat then highlighting were all done with an air brush. I did all the vehicles at once.

I couldn't resist adding a M113 Flame track to the group. It is not officially in a platoon but I am going to use it in a scenario. Should be a load of fun.

This version is the plain no extra stowage version. I added it to have a M113 that was cleaner than the others.

But I really like the ones that are covered all kinds of boxes, c-ration boxes, tarps and ammo cans. Really adds a realistic look to them. They came this way so I didn't have to add anything extra, just print and paint them up

You might notice that this one is a up-armored version. You can tell by the different looking front. The extra armor was under the driver to protect from mines but a new float trim plane was added to compensate for the extra weight. In photos from the Vietnam War you can see this version mixed in with the other M113 ACAV vehicles, even in the same platoon.

Overall it was a lot of work. These took me two weeks to complete. I like how they turned out and will defiantly be painting up other versions like the M106 Mortar Track or the M163 VADS!

As for points:

28mm Vehicles x5 + 1 Planet = 120 points.

I will be continuing on with my Vietnam project so expect more in the future

- Brad

Super work on these grimy warhorses Brad.  The extra work on detailing and clutter storage really pays off.  I also like the variations with the uncluttered vehicle and the flamer 9this seems to be the day fr the Flamers on Tracks Jeopardy round).  I'll ask the dreaded 1/48 or 1/56 question now and then hide in my bunker while the fireworks ensue.

From JamesM: 15mm Flamethrower Half-tracks (65 points)

Hi folks,

Switching back to my planned painting for the challenge, I've completed a platoon of six Sdkfz 251/16D half-tracks with crew. 

These flamethrower vehicles, which formed part of the Panzergrenadier Pionier Kompanie, are from III/26 of 12.SS Panzer Division (the 3rd battalion of the 26. SS Panzergrenadier Regiment). These are for my 15mm Flames of War collection, as opposition for my Canadian, Pole and British forces. 

These models are a mix of Plastic Soldier Company and Battlefront models, with the Plastic Soldier Company upgrade sprue used to provide the Flamethrowers and crew. 

I've added Skytrex and Doms Decal markings. I went with hull numbers 621 to 626 based on what my research found. 

I've added weathering powders, with a liberal application of soot around the gun mounts. 

Crew figures are PSC models, and very soft in detail. However, I did made an effort to mix in some SS Camo trousers and tunics throughout. 

Basing using my standard technique to match in with all my other 15mm vehicles. 

Points for this entry would be six 15mm vehicles (48 points) and twelve 15mm infantry figures (24 points) for a total of 72 points. 

Great looking AFV's James, I really like the attention to details with the upgrades, decals (well beyond my skill set) and basing.  You could have a darn fine BBQ with this lot.  

My only question is the set of 6 of them, would you ever use them all on table at the same time.  I assume this is the number on the Org chart, but by late '44 I would think that org charts were a theoretical concept and that the Germans would throw anything on tracks together based on availability.

From PeteF - A Trip to The Death Star: Printed Sci Fi Monsters for a Friend (70 points)

Going into Challenge XII I wanted to paint the widest variety of minis that I could find - and having become a little jaded with my own projects (there are around fifteen) I offered to paint something for each of my wargaming pals.  ChrisD offered up this splendid group of monsters. 

A Questionable Design?

Is the dragon's head devouring the dog or is the dog running through the head? CRIPR gone wild.

Several challenges ago I speculated about the future of 3D printing - and it's come a long way in the last few years. We're seeing a lot more of it in the Challenge and I'm running into more and more 3D printed models and even whole armies on the table. Chris 3D printed all of these - so if he doesn't like the colours it will be easier to print a new one than go to the Simple Green.

About those colours - unbound by Ospreys I wanted to go bright and wild -  I'm assuming they'll be well camouflaged on their home planets, although the magenta frog might be giving off more of a warning (WARNING: Don't Leave Colour Choices to Pete!).

To get to the Death Star and deliver these creatures of questionable design I need to use the Star Yacht - so here is Brunhilda #1 - a Viking shieldmaiden for SAGA. She's a resin miniature from V&V and was gifted to me several years ago by Old Bob. She has some as yet unpainted friends which may be needed to fuel future yacht excursions.

6 x 28mm miniature = 30 points

Yacht Trip and Death Star 2 x 20 = 40 points

Squirrel: +1 (total 5)

Skulz: +0 (total 1)

Well Pete, it looks like you've been drinking LeeH's "tastes like red" coffee, or perhaps some herbal concoctions.  Very technicolour results on the fauna on display here.  I am assuming that you are a known quantity to your friend and therefore the friend has an idea of what they're getting!  I really like them, the frog and purple worm are wonderful. 

I really like your sheildmaiden too, great work on the shelld.

  

From FrederickC: Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group and T34/76 (80 points)

 

Having completed all my PSC Soviet troops in Summer uniform, it was time to move to those dressed for colder weather in front of the gates to Moscow. I didn't get a huge number of miniatures completed this week as I have been experimenting with different materials to get a 'Winter look' to not only the bases, but the tank as well.

First up is a boxed set of Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group sold by Warlord Games. It consists of a Soviet HQ of two officers, a radioman, and a medic tending a wounded soldier, a Soviet Maxim MMG team, and a Soviet 82mm medium mortar team, all dressed for the cold in a variety of greatcoats, fur hats, felt  winter boots, etc. Each of these groups can be purchased separately, but you save $5 by getting the 'package deal'.

All of the minis were painted using Vallejo acrylics followed by the application of the Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. This is pretty much what I have done up to this point with the Summer Soviets. I used AK Diorama products 'Snow' and 'Snow Sprinkles' on the bases to give them that frosty look.

 

Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group

 

Soviet HQ (Winter)

Soviet Maxim MMG and 82mm Medium Mortar teams (Winter)

The second item is a 1/48 scale Tamiya T34/76 in Winter camouflage. The kit was very easy to assemble, even though a lot of the track comes as individual links. The chassis is made of metal, so it actually has some weight to it. 

Once assembled, the tank was primed dark brown, and then painted olive green using Tamiya acrylic paint. Since I already have four T34/76s in various shades of green, I wanted to put this one in Winter colours to go along with my Winter Soviet infantry. I first applied AK Chipping Medium to all the areas that I thought would get a lot of wear and allowed it to dry thoroughly. I then applied a heavily diluted coat of white acrylic paint to give it the appearance of whitewash that was starting to wear off. Once that was completely dry, I used water and a brush to remove the chipping medium to reveal the olive paint underneath. Finally I applied AK Interactive Splattereffects 'Wet Mud' to the tracks and underside to make it look like it had been driven during the Rasputitsa. I may decide to add more 'Wet Mud' to the road wheels, but I am calling it done for now.

 

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

1 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 20 points

1 x 28mm crew served weapon @ 10 points = 10 points

10 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 50 points

(I am counting the two prone figures as one)

This is my first foray into Winter figures, and I am happy with the results. Now that I have the method worked out, I will be ramping up production to meet the quotas of Stalin's latest five-year plan.

Great work on these very chilly looking Soviets.  I really like the snow camo on the T34.  I confess that my squirrel brain has too many "next projects" spiraling inside to ever consider redoing the same army in a different season (or different scale like some do), but more power to you!