From DarrelH: Arthurian Welsh (70 points)

Hi all,

OK, my first choice of posts went belly up last evening when I dropped a couple of bases of 28mm  Thematic Byzantine Kavallaroi an inch or so onto my workbench and pinged out three kontos (Kontoses? Kontos'? Whatever is plural for Kontos!)) ! Not exactly a great start! Dark images of the Great Varnishing Late Roman Disaster from last year started to intrude upon my thoughts but my Arthurian Welsh came to the rescue! I've been asked to take part in the play testing of some new rules which seem to work well for the 11th CE. so going on the assumption that jumping back a few centuries ought to work just as well I have dug out a few armies that surely qualify as being a part of a pile of shame as they were bought in 2007 and have not seen daylight since! "Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

Those Thematic Byzzies will be rescued by this time next week. In the meantime, please let me introduce a less effective troop type than the Thematic Byzantine Kavallaroi, the Welsh Skirmishers for my Arthurian British and Welsh Kingdom's army, erm.... gang..... erm belligerent group of..... meh, whatever.....

So, according to my mid life grey matter that is 14 28mm miniatures at 5 points a model which I believe is the grand total of 70 points(?).

I feel your Kontos pain Darrel - Ouch!  It is great to have you back with us this year and I look forward to seeing those cataphracts next week.  It is never too late for a post from you.

Find work on these belligerent Welshmen - some exceptional shading on those cloaks and a fine moustache collection. 

Iain W 28mm Napoleonic casualty markers 40 points

 For my first post I have managed to finish 16 x 28mm Napoleonic casualty markers, mainly French line, they're all Perry and most of them are the plastic French casualty figure you get in the French heavy cavalry plastic sprue. Then there are three metal figures from the retreat from Moscow donkey cart, I bought donkey cart as dressing for my Russian village, so these chaps were surplus and I figured waste not, want not!

We have six French line infantry figures, three more painted as Italian line infantry ( a little clue as to what else I might be doing later in the Challenge?) Two for my Nassau battalions and one each for the Anhalt and Shwarzbug Sanderhausen, first, second, fifth and sixth confederation of the Rhine regiments that were painted up before Christmas during my ill advised attempt to paint 250 28mm Napoleonic figures in a month for our family Christmas war game we played in Loire  ( first picture), I wasn't too far off although basing is more this years work!

So that's 16 prone 28mm figures, 8 x 5 , 40 points to my total, I'm still working on the mounted element of the Imperial guard, plus Austrians, Italians and of course some dark age figures at some point I hope!

All the best 

Iain 

Bring out your dead (and wounded)!  Great stuff Iain really fine little casualty stand.   I am looking forward to seeing the upright versions of these fine Napoleonic figures - especially the Italians.  You got me head scratching to figure out which campaign Italians, Nassuers and Confederation troops served together - any hints? Spain?  Russia?

Christmas in the Loire and playing with your fine Napoleonic - where do I sign up!

Just a reminded to add tables to your post - I've added a few but you may want to check if I've missed any.

From AdamC Ships Small and Smaller 14 points.

 Some more 1/2400 scale ships from GHQ.

First up some Leone class Italian destroyers (they were first classified as "Scout Cruisers" when built).

They supported Italian Operations against Ethiopia then served in the Mediterranean the class was well armed a mix of 4.7 inch guns, torpedoes AA weapons and depth charges.  Editorial Note:  Wikipedia has them being sunk in Eritrea during WW2 - FYI the Red Sea flotilla gives a nice small campaign option.

The red and white aerial recognition paint at bow and stern are iconic for the Italian Navy... A force that apparently feared their own sides aircraft more than the enemies (they were allied to the Nazis so I can't really blame them) 

Here we have an old American Dreadnaught the USS Wyoming.  

She's a 3D print and fairly basic but looks good enough for the table. She has a formidable main battery of twelve 12" guns in six turrets.

No idea what I am going to use her for but since I was using gray paint anyway it made sense to get her done. She was a training ship in the World War II period with the cool if sarcastic nickname of "The Chesapeake Raider."

Next up I have two Japanese Destroyers. Kagero and Shimakaze

The Kagero class where the 1st class workhorse Destroyers of the Japanese Navy. They had six guns in three turrets as well as 8 torpedoes. 

They also carried anti-submarine weapons... All but one of this class was sunk by the end of the war.

Shimakaze was an specialized destroyer something of an experiment. She was fast and very deadly.

She could fire 15 Long Lance in a single broadside... I certainly wouldn't want to be in a ship down range. She also carried a battery of guns similar to the Kagero. She was intended to be the basis for a new class but war production limitations prevented this. 

Finally two big Allied Battleships a King George V and a South Dakota class.

I've run a number of games involving German raiding of the Murmansk Convoys. It will be nice to have an English BB to run in these games. The King George V were a good Battle ship design though I have never liked the 4-gun turrets and I understand they had some technical issues. 

I attempted a dazzle camouflage that I think works though it could be better. 

The South Dakota Class is a personal favorite of mine probably because the USS Massachusetts was the First Battleship I ever visited. 

This one will probably do double duty as the South Dakota in company with the USS Washington (already in my collection) and as the USS Massachusetts as I have been toying with a naval battle of Casablanca game.

There are 7 ships of 1/2400 scale so would get 14 more points for the pile. I have been battling COVID this past week so hopefully I will have more productivity next Monday. 

Bad luck with getting COVID Adam, hope you're feeling better soon and you that you manage to keep the family healthy.

Great to see these GHQ ships Adam, they've come out nicely.  The barber stripes on the Italians are a bit of a Challenge but yours look great.  You seem to be building all the fleets at once and darned if I can see any rhyme nor reason to the choices that you've made.  Care to enlighten us or is the classic - they're what my FLGS had in stock!

If I may pick a couple of slight nits.  Maybe red through your posts as I had to clean up a couple of sentences and hope I got the gist of what intended (although to be fair this may be COVID brain).  Also your ships would look much better if you photographed them on a sea mat instead of your work bench.

Admin Post - Studio Tours

Hi all, a quick request on behalf of the Minion Team for those taking part in the fun and games of the Studio Tour.

There have been a couple of changes since it was originally published (Westerns moved to blue pass zone, Gift Shop added, one or two extra connections between studios).

Please, please, please...

• Download a copy of the studio map above (right click and select "save image as")
• When you are doing a studio location edit the map to show your progress - a number or tick for the studios you've visited would be perfect
• Include the updated progress map in your posts

There is a very good reason for this - without the map in your post, your minion won't know where you have already been!

Thanks, and Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

From PaulSS: Black & White - Sci-fi supplies (35pts)

Mrs Scrivs purchased me from Etsy three pieces of 3D printed Sci-fi terrain that we can use for Star Wars: Legion or Warhammer 40K gaming.

I decided that these could be painted using about every shade of grey I have for my Black and White entry for  AHPC Studios

Each piece represents a pallet of supplies, one drums of fuel, another is ammo boxes and the third draped in a tarpaulin is more discreet.

I think that at about 3" high each is work 5pts with the  location bonus should be 35 points towards my total, but not enough for a squirrel point!

Squirrel Duel Tally: 2 (40K Kroot, Gaslands)

They look great, but not a whole bunch to say about these Paul.  They are greyscale, SciFi and will be useful on table top as objective markers.  Also you can make cool pew pew noises while blowing them up. 

From SylvainR: Tray 4 - D.A.K Weapon company, Pioneer Company, Scouts and a few company AT weapons (117 points)

 

Tray number 4 is an addition to the D.A.K in my ongoing WW2 desert project. I would like to make a few comments before presenting the models. For the battalion weapon company, I chose to code the bases with yellow, while the pioneers (as well as any engineering vehicles) will use orange and any recce units will use purple. If I have to introduce WW2 military organizations to newbies, I hope this kind of color coding will make things easier to understand. I hope it will make gaming faster by facilitating the identification of a certain type of unit, let's say recce, by their color. Anyway, gaming with the minis themselves will be the best test.

Also, while platoons are identified with 1, 2, 3 or more dots, elements "attached" to a company (but not to a specific platoon) are identified with a short line (a long line indicating the company HQ), while independent units, like scouts or forward observers, are identified with a dot on each corner (see examples in the tray, above).

 

 

 First, we have 3x sections of anti-tank rifles and Püppchens for each of the attack companies of the battalion. Usually, one ATR is attached to each platoon, but grouping them on a single base will give me more flexibility to adapt my armies to different rules systems.

 

Here is a close up on the weapons. Since there are few figures on the base, the terrain seems almost empty.

 

Next, we have the battalion's weapon company, as if the Panzer Grenadier companies already did not have enough firepower on their own! There is a MG section, a mortar section and an anti-tank section with a choice of either 3x PaK 38 (50mm) or 3x PaK 40 (75mm).

First, here is the command base with a vehicle I did not paint. I painted only the figures and the base. Note the cute little figurine with a range finder.

I thought it would be interesting to compare three different German MG34 on tripods. From left to right: Heroics & Ros, GHQ (heavy weapon pack), GHQ (MG "clump" for Squad Leader). Some may recall that GHQ produced infantry models to be used with the famous Avalon Hill board game, but I don't know how popular this option has been. The "clump" is a little annoying to paint. Personally, despite the nice details on the second model, I prefer the chunky figures of Heroics & Ros.

 

Here is a group of 6x 81mm mortars.

And a close up on one base.

 

 

 

A section of 3x PaK 38 (50mm) with a close up on one base. The guns are from CinC, and it requires nerves of steel to set these tiny things on their base. The guns and the folding legs were bent and unbent numerous times.

 

A section of 3x PaK 40 (75mm) with a close up on one base. The highlighted model is from CinC, while the two others are from GHQ. The GHQ model were cast with a metal base, which I blended with the mdf base I ordered from Warbase.

 

 

 

Next is the pioneer company. The group photo clearly shows the bi-color pattern I worked on which, I hope, will help distinguish the opposing warring parties on the table. The close up shows, at the front of one base, a model with a metal detector and, at the front of the other base, a figure with a flame thrower.

The last group in made up of 6 scouts or observers, depending on the rules system. Each base has a radio, a junior officer and two other soldiers. The purple coding indicates that the are "recce" and the dots on the corners means that these elements are independent.

For the points:

The vehicles were already painted, so should not be counted.

=>  Company AT weapons (total of 10.5 points)

- 15 figures (7.5 points)

- 3 weapons (3 points)

=> Weapon Company (total of 52 points)

- 64 figures (32 points)

- 20 weapons (20 points)

=> Pioneers Company (total of 42.5 points)

- 85 figures (42.5 points)

=> Scouts (total of 12 points)

- 24 figures (12 points)

Grand total of 117 points.

Thank you for reading!

Bravo mon vieux, ceux-ci sont magnifiques!

Really loving these vignettes you're creating here, especially the tire tracks behind the staff car.  And your comment that the terrain seems empty fits the Western Desert very well. 

 I do not envy you for assembling 6mm gun carriages, my eyes are far too old for that nonsense.  The side by side comparison on figures was useful. The H&R sculpts may be old (I have some from the 80s) but IIRC are far superior to GHQ's infantry (which I have mistaken for walls or anti-tank barriers on occasion).

I concur on the points and will not credit you for the vehicles paint bye your buddy this time.