Minion's Choice Awards

 

We have the first Minion's Choice Award of Challenge XIII to be awarded today.  At the end of the first month, Curt takes a poll among the Minions for their picks as the best post so far.  

There was an awful lot of really good work and it was hard to pick a single worthy entry from the month.  After much negotiations, blackmailing and assorted dirty tricks the voting results have come in.

First a couple of honourable mentions

Dallas' Massive Reaver Battle Titan

DaveD's Apocalypse Now Themed PBR

And the winner is

DarrellH's wonderful Thematic Byzantines.  Congratulations to our regular Monday poster Darrell who earlier today brought us something from the same era but from both the other end of Europe and the other end of the military hierarchy.  

Curt has authorized me to award Darrell the prize of a subscription to Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine.

KenR : 1/700 WW2 Naval - HMS Javelin (40 points)

Another week, another ship ! Or another week another distraction from the Italian Wars 😆 depending on your point of view. I have a big box full of these ships to build and paint and as I said in my previous posts, I'm having way to much fun with them.

Today's model is the Tamiya 1/700 HMS Jervis kit which I've built and painted up as HMS Javelin. Resplendent in a lovely camo scheme fresh out of my new Malcolm Wright book. The dark blue really gives the ship a different look. I wasn't sure at first but its definitely growing on me.

For Naval Pendants the 6 on the Hull side should be half white, half black in line with the camo pattern but I couldn't get it to look right. Also when this scheme was used a Torpedo bank had been removed and an addition AA gun added. But for me this project is about the joy of modelling and the look of the finished "product".

Points wise I'm sticking with 40, which I think is fair. The ships are pretty big and as I said before these take me a full day to paint and base (not including build and priming) which is usual for 8 28mm figs for me. 

So that's another week gone, I am actually going to start on some Italian Wars this week and I've got some time off so I hope to get some points on the board after a slow start. There is also a Liberty Ship, the Bismarck and some more 10mm on the go, so hopefully a busy week next week.

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer 

Your take on HMS Javelin is wonderful Ken and I really like how you've replicated the camo pattern. I appreciate your decision to not convert the model (nixing the set of tubes and adding an AA mount) to match the pattern.  It's also a good thing that you decided not to model her with her stern blown off in Mountbatten's action in the Channel.   I have the Mal Wright book and it's a wonderful resource for this type of modelling.  Excellent work on the basing too, I can also feel the salt spray coming over the focsle.   

You'd best get started on some Italian Wars stuff soon, but I also hope we'll get to see some of your 1/700 on table in combat.

From RossM: 6mm Greek Artillery (6 pts)

Second entry for this year's challenge and it is both small in scale and points; not that either really matter it's the fun of being that counts. 

The entry consists of two torsion catapults from Baccus Miniatures that evaded glued fingers and general mishaps in the prepping and painting. The catapults are four part kits and needed some help with blu-tack to prop bits up during drying. Still managed to have a bit of slippage on one but it's not the end of the world at 1/300 scale.

For the Challenge Points tally these net a hefty 6 points total which takes my running total to 14 (2.8 % of my challenge total). There are a few things in the pipeline that will improve that over the next few weeks. 

Anyhow, enough rambling and cheers for now!

Those are big machines even in a small scale.  I'd hate to be on the receiving end of what they're chucking about.  Four-part kits at this scale is pure torture so kudos for getting these up and running without damage to your digits.  Nice basing too.

Iain W 28mm Chasseurs a cheval de la Imperial guard 120 ponts

 This unit didn't make it to the big game but I've finished them now, it's a rather understated uniform I think but I do like them, since a double cataract operation in December I'm having to re learn how to paint and can't see close up like I did before, so I think they're alright but I'm not entirely sure! Like virtually all my Imperial guard figures these are metal and therefore second hand, the previous owner had picked them up second hand with their black acrylic paint worn off in various places and with only the eagle bearer apart from the rank and file, I converted/promoted one of those chaps into a command figure, the trumpeter was a Foundry figure ( part of a rather varied eBay French Napoleonic command purchase ) who matches his Perry cousins in size very well ,(one of the sword at the ready chaps took his place guarding the Emperor, the Foundry horse was definitely diminutive compared to the Perry horses) I cut his carbine off and gave him a spare plastic trumpet hand

The flags are by GMB designs and very nice they are too, bases by Warbase. Twelve times ten points for 28mm cavalry should give me 120 welcome points, next up? More guard cavalry I think!

All the best

 Iain 

From what I can see the refurbished eyes are working fine.  There’s always room for Napoleons Guard Chasseurs.  I enjoyed reading how you sourced the figures, all the various riders seem to fit in fine.  Nice basework too.  

You obviously inhabit a different clime than I if that’s a recent outdoor picture.

KenR : 10mm Malburian Savoy Infantry (40 pts)

Something a bit different for me today. I don't do much smaller scale stuff so you might be a bit surprised to see these. For those who don't know this is my one failed Project, I bought 1,000s of these about 20 years ago and never did anything with them. About a year ago I started tinkering with them and have been using them as a break in between other stuff and its slowly building into a Project.

For me where small scales come into their own is when you have big units so when I started putting these together I played around with the layout and number of figures (with my usual complete disregard for rules) until I came up with this 40 figs on 4, 40 x 30 bases. This is my 9th unit.

This unit are 10mm Pendraken figures and are the first "new figures" I have done for this project, the firing and high porte poses were not available when I bought my original figures, so of course I had to buy some more. I had to look up the scoring for these and they are a point a piece for a total of 40 for the unit. The flags are from Maverick Models who do a great range in all scales for this period (and many others).

I'm using the order of Battle for the Battle of Chiari 1701 as a list for the units I'm building and these represent the Monferrato Battalion from the Army of Savoy Piedmont which at that time was an independent state and an army I've been interested in since an article on them in an early edition of Wargames Illustrated. The detail on the figures is superb and handle close up photos quite well, even if it shows up the bits where I've spread the basing over the figures !

So that's the first post today, you'll see a few more of these during the Challenge as I use them as a palette cleanser in between "proper" units, next up is another boat 🚢 

These Savoyards came out very nicely Ken.  The Pendraken 10mm WSS and NYW ranges are very well done and you've done them justice.  Love the big Yorkshire scale units and basing.  And of course the flags just make the units.

[Darrell H]More Sub Roman, British and Welsh Kingdom's Skirmishers (30 points?)

Between my main project, the Thematic Byzantines and finding myself having to wait for some Gloss varnish to go off (the requisite week before matting down) I managed to sneak in six British and Welsh Kingdom's Skirmishers for my Arthurian project.

Although a unit of slingers I checked in some javelin and bow types in the unit- we are talking Sub Roman era here and I have serious doubts as to the validity of the village hoi polloi being overly very organised in the production of homologous military units. Anyway, it helps break up the homogeneity of the unit which was my primary concern.

A few close ups:

For my next post I will be hoping back to the Thematic Byzantines.

So, 6 28mm miniatures at 5pts each = 30 points

Lovely work on these Welsh skirmishers.  I agree that the mix of weaponry seems right for the era.  Iwas going to ask make on the figures but I see from the label that they’re Gripping Beast.

Some great details on faces, cloaks and plaids and basing is wonderful.  It’s nice to see you invest the time into the riff raffle as well as the elite Byzantine cavalry.

From PaulSS WWII US Infantry - 35pts

Not as much done this week as I spent the weekend visiting family in that there London town, so, just the last few figures left in the Victrix US Infantry set finished off.

This weeks effort was to get a a support platoon with a trio of 60mm mortars added, but I also managed to do 5 more .30cal teams and another infantry team.

This finishes off the last of the Victrix figures, but on Thursday Postie arrived with an order from Pendraken so I can now start on some heavier supports for the battalion.

I really struggled with the close up work this week, so these are the best of a bad lot of photos.

As well as spending some time this week cleaning up some armoured support for the Americans I also go on and prepared all the Victrix German infantry for painting so despite the small tally this week, next week should have quite a bit more added.

35 12mm infantry will add another 35 points to my tally.

Squirrel Duel Tally: 3 (40K Kroot, Gaslands, WW2 US)

I'm really enjoying your work on this project Paul, I can see the appeal with this scale and those Victrix figures look great.  Really nice basing to turn the teams into little vignettes.  Now that you've got the family visit out of the way, we'll look forward to some heavy supports and maybe some German opposition.

From SylvainR: Tray 6 - D.A.K. Half-tracks and Completion of Projects (73 points)

I apologize if this post is a little longer than usual, I just feel like celebrating and I hope you will forgive me for indulging.

 First, let's get this unit of motorcycles out of the way. Above are three patrols of motorcycles for the desert for which I will not claim any points because, if I did create the bases, I did not paint the models. I wanted to show them because the bases are sculpted as "road" instead of "cross country". During last year's challenge, the Italian army was my first attempt at basing miniatures in 6mm and I sculpted all the bases more or less the same. But soon it felt weird to see trucks riding "off road" and from then on I decided to sculpt my bases for wheeled vehicles as "roads". In the pictures with the motorcycles, you should be able to see the road pattern and, when the bases are lined up, it creates a small stretch of road. In the close up, the road seems quite rough for a motorcycle to ride on. It's interesting to see how the fine sand I use for my bases becomes soccer ball size rocks at 6mm scale. Another obvious advantage of the bases, in this case, is that they really help find your tiny puny 1/285 motorcycles on the board when you play.

 

Now back to business! Tray number 6 is about the armored rides for the D.A.K. Panzergrenadiers, namely the half-tracks. The half-tracks for blue company were already painted by my buddies from Montréal, so I am only showing red and green companies, which I painted.

I decided to add Balken Kreuz decals to each vehicle, as it really improves the cool factor. Each decal is about 1.5 millimeter wide and this is an excellent test to check if 6mm is a scale for you :-).

These tiny decals can easily peel off and be blown away by air movement, so don't forget to use "Decal Fix"!

 Here is the half-track complement for a "historically accurate" D.A.K. Panzergrenadiers company. In O'Group, there is no platoon HQ, so platoons need only 3 half-tracks, not 4. Furthermore, the "historically accurate" Company HQ section had two vehicles, but only one will be needed for O'Group. I decided to build the "historically accurate" battalion in case I decide, down the road, to test another rules system.

 

Here is a close up on models of Sd.Kfz. 251/1, the common armored troop carrier of the German army, armed with an MG34.

Some models have crew inside, but I will not claim points for painting helmets, because that is all I could reach with my brush.

The units above are Sd.Kfz. 251/10, armed with 37mm guns, that were given to platoon leaders. They will not be used in O'Group.

The Sd.Kfz. 251/2, shown above, each carried an 81mm mortar. The 2 models on the left are from GHQ while those on the right are from CinC. The latter are a bit narrower, and have less pronounced details. But all in all, from a distance, there is not much difference.

Here are 75mm infantry guns mounted on half-tracks (Sd.Kfz. 251/9). The forefront left one is an auf. A, B or C model, while the one on the right is an auf. D. As I was cropping this picture, I remembered (with a snappy "Oh s**t!") that there were no auf. D models in North Africa since they were only produced from 1943 onward. Oh well, I will make a discreet model switch when I will be painting my half-track battalion for Europe.

Here is a comparison between three different makers, from left to right: Heroics & Ros, CinC and GHQ. Not much difference if you look at the models at arm's length. But I still prefer GHQ for close ups.

With the half-track battalion now completed, not only do I have 4 trays of new D.A.K. units, but I also finished my D.A.K. project! How so? Well, since most of the models I inherited were already painted, or just needed some touch ups, and since I could not claim points for them anyway, I decided to finish basing the painted models before the challenge.

The units I completed before the challenge are on the left.

Here is a breakdown of the content of the trays, all for the D.A.K.:

1. Prime movers and various transport, like Kubelwagens and Kettenkrads.

2. Support vehicles: PanzerJager 1s, Marder IIs, Lorraines, Dianas, Tiger Is, etc.

3. Recce units: motorcycles, 222s, 223s, 231s

4. Blue company of the half-tracks battalion.

5. Dedicated transport for a full Panzergrenadier Battalion.

6. 2x Tank companies with a mix of PzIIs, PzIIIs, PzIVs.

 

I should not show pictures of models painted before the challenge, but I can't resist teasing you with Rommel, beside his Sd.Kfz 250 "GREIF", escorted by staff on bikes and cars ready to dispatch his orders to front line units.

The completion of the D.A.K. project is my first reason to celebrate. My second one is the completion of a bigger project: "North Africa I", which I started in January last year, with a bunch of Italians. I also spent part of the summer working on the British 8th Army.

 

Here are all the trays I completed for "North Africa I" since last year's challenge. There are 32 trays in the picture, including some filled with fortifications or play aids, but once I consolidate everything, there should be 5 trays for the Italian, 12 for the British and 9 for the German.

This final picture shows the D.A.K. Panzergrenadiers in their "natural tabletop environment", ready to assault the market place before storming the mosque! Now it's about time to play with all these new toys!

As for points, there are 40 vehicles in this submission, but 6 needed only some touch ups, so should not be counted.

34 vehicles => 68 points.

Thanks for reading!

Fantastique mon vieux!  And congratulations on completing this project.  Finishing a project is a milestone few of us ever reach.  What have you got ins store for us next?

Your teeny tiny vehicles look great on their textured road bases.  My mid cannot handle painting 6mm vehicles, let alone fussing over the fact that I've done the wrong Aus model.  I also can't handle decals in 28mm so will gave in wonder at your work in 6mm.  I've added a few points for all time car and detail involved here.  And I can't wait to trashing all this stuff on table.