Iain W 28mm Napoleonic French command 50 points

 Here are two command stands. Murat , Ney and an aide de camp, Murat and Ney are Foundry, not sure of the ADC, similar size, they were part of the mixed command collection I picked up from ebay, Murat was fun, a bit like a fantasy figure to be honest and a nice contrast with Ney who I gave a grey coat to, to make him seem a bit more dour! I've added some plastic under all three of these to help them cope with their 28mm colleagues, I don't think the ADC 's horse is quite right, he's on a light cavalry mount but I figure he'd have to use whatever remount he can at some point? 

The 28mm Perry figures are Marshal Soult and one of Murat's aide de camps converted from one of the spare chasseurs de cheval of the Imperial Guard, he seemed a bit big with Murat and the other ADC seemed a bit small with any of the Perry figures so that's why we have the arrangement we do, Murat's ADC's uniform is nice and bright and interestingly there are other Marshal's ADCs which are similarly coloured.

 

Five 28mm cavalry is fiftey points towards my total, more mounted Napoleonics on the way, I'm still scratch building my renaissance entry, so we can safetly say that won't get done!

In my haste to photograph them I couldn't make it to the shed, so they we're photographed held at eye hight on a board in the kitchen, for the light,apologies for the background!

All the best

Iain

Lovely set of commanders Iain with some heavy hitters from the Grand Armee.  Interesting putting New and Murat on the same base, those personalities must have clashed!  We tend to think of them based on their later more erratic years (in both cases leading to death by firing squad in 1815) but in their prime they were fine commanders.  Soult was a first class commander (and looter).  

Both humans and horses come in various sizes so the mismatches look fine on the finished bases.  I'll forgive your photography issues if you promise more figures next week with proper pictures.

KenR : 1/700 Z25 German Destroyer and Crew (41 pts)

 

Just the one post this week and it's a continuation of my failed Italian Wars Project, and yes you guessed it, its another ship ! But just to spice things up I've added some 1/700 scale crew, about 50 of them, that seemed like a good idea after about 10, the enthusiasm quickly went.

It looks similar to last weeks German Destroyer but this is Z25 a Type 1936 A Class ship and is shown in its late war format, with a turret removed at the rear which has been replaced by additional AA mounts. The model is a 1/700 Trumpeter kit which as I mentioned last week are considerably more detailed than Tamiya Equivalents, this model has 230 parts, not including the crew.

The crew come from a company called Eduard, them come pre coloured and are 2d Photo etch, they need a touch up on the top of the heads and the hands as its impossible to remove them from their sprues without damaging them. I think they really bring the ship to life and give you a real sense of the ship being a real thing rather than just a model.

The colour scheme is a basic one, but as with last weeks ship, I think this really allows the weathering to shine, I've also painted the lifeboats in a Green Ochre colour which is an alternative to the grey on my previous German Ship.

 Points wise its the usual 40 with 0.02 points for each of the 50 crew making a total of 41 points 😄

I have a bit of time of work as the Challenge enters its final month so I hope to reach my 1500 pt target with a bit of graft over the next 3 weeks. On the WW2 Naval Project front, I have Prinz Eugen and Ark Royal Built and ready to paint but I've nearly made a huge mistake on Ark Royal (revealed on Twitter soon) so there is a bit of a delay on that. However I would like to get both of those larger ships done before the Challenge ends. If I had planned this Project I would have built and primed the ships before we started !

I plan to do a live tweet event as I attempt to complete a destroyer from scratch in a day later this week. My subject will be the Canadian Tribal Class Destroyer HMCS Huron in honour of our Host Curt, so if you are on Twitter have a look out for @yarkshiregamer on Tuesday at 9am UK time for the off.

Until next week (or maybe Tuesday !)

Fresh off the win we have Ken with another stunning 1:700 ship.  Excellent weathering and ocean effects and adding crew members is totally bonkers, but looks great.  Looking forward to more ships AND Italian Wars stuff.

From SylvainR: Tray 10 & 11 - French 1939-1940 - Armoured Vehicles (18 points)

 

Last week, I was away with my family for some winter sports (skating, cross country ski) in Waskesiu, Prince Albert National Park. In order to catch up this week, and keep pace with my "one tray a week" resolution, I present to you 2 trays of Blitzkrieg era French armoured vehicles.

 

1. My submission this week.

In truth, this week's submission brings me very little bang for my buck. Above, these are the models I painted. So let's get the points tally out of the way.

9x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 18 points

The rest of the vehicles were already painted and I simply created bases for them. But I would like to show them to you because I want to say a few words about a friend and a great painter.

 

2. Hommage to AndréD.

I already mentioned in previous posts that I am currently working on a huge collection of 6mm miniatures that was given to me. Since the 80s, my friend RobertR consciously "saved" other players' armies when they were not interested in the genre anymore. Among these players, there was AndréD, who I could only describe as a "genius micropainter". I don't know what techniques he used to paint some of his miniatures, but the result is just mind blowing. In this post, I want to pay hommage to AndréD's outstanding painting skills by showing some of his work.

For reconnaissance, here are 20x Panhard AMD-25 armoured cars, on "road pattern" bases.

Vehicles are numbered "1" to "20" and the turrets can turn.

Before AndréD painted the vehicles seen above, he drilled holes in the hull and turret, glued a plastic rod in the turret, pass it through the hull and then flattened the other end into a nice rounded knob. Thus, on all the models in this post, the turret can turn, except on those I painted. For my models, I just glue the turret.

A company of 10x Char B-1 bis. "bis" means it's the second model of "B-1". "Char" was the word used in French to designate tanks. The word "blindé" (literally meaning "armoured") is also used frequently.

Here is a close up on two of the Char B-1 bis. I am so impressed with the black line separating the two camouflage colors, the dust effect on the lower part of the hull and the paint chipping effect on some parts of the model. I would never dare do paint chipping effect at this scale.

Here is a company of 19x Somua S-35 tanks. 4x of them were painted by me, all the others by AndréD. Before the war, most French tanks were produced in batches in different, small to medium size, factories, and each factory would apply camouflage patterns as they see fit, thus explaining the wide variety of patterns available for French vehicles of the early period of WW2.

The vehicle in the background is my "attempt" at a 3 tone camouflage with black separation lines. For the models in the foreground, AndréD opted for a less common pattern with vertically parallel patches of colors separated by black lines, as seen on a surviving Somua S-35 kept at the Bovington Tank Museum. The roundels are not decals, they are free hand painted. How can they be so round?

Next in line is a company of 15x Hotchkiss H-39, a light tank designed as a successor to the renowned Renault FT-17.

AndréD used a simple but effective two tone camouflage pattern with perfectly measured weathering effect.

A company of 20x Hotchkiss H-35, 5x painted by me. The H-35 and H-39 are almost identical in their design, but the keen eye may notice a few subtle differences in the layout of the rear engine deck.

The H-35 in the background is mine, with a three tone pattern. The 2 vehicles in the foreground are AndréD's and use a two tone pattern. Note how the exact same colors he used on the H-35s and H-39s produce two visually different looks.

In the end, I like how the various camouflage patterns create a unique look for this batch of French vehicles. I will be able to field them on the tabletop battlefield as soon as I am done the German army of the early war.

 

3. Another game of 'O' Group.

Before I sign off, here is picture of a recent WW2 game using the 'O' Group rule system. The scenario pitted the Italians against the Greek forces near the Albanian border during the opening stages of the Invasion of Greece, in October 1940.

The Greeks (Curt and Jeremy), on the left side, were trying to hold their ground in the valley of Kalpiki. The Italians (Peter and Stacy), coming from the right, were able to capture the bridge and control one of the important crossroads..

We had a good game, and the end result was "plausible", although very few troops "died". There was an Italian platoon on the hill, in the open (lower right corner ) that was showered with bullets for many turns but kept on rallying. The rally procedure makes it very hard to kill troops or make them retreat. And we are still spending too much time browsing the rule book. We will see what the next game brings.

Thanks for reading!

Nice work on your own micro tanks here Sylvain but I am amazed by what your friend Andre achieved.  I keep away from 28mm tanks to avoid dealing with rivet details, came patterns and paint chipping effects.  I can't imagine doing it in 6mm.  Your basing is wonderful and does Andre's work justice.

I quite enjoyed the game on Friday night, other than everyone else whinging about not being to find things that I found easily using the Index!  Funny thing for me is that I love WW2 histories written at the battalion or higher levels, but find games at those levels rather dry and flavourless. Plus my eyes are too old for micro armour.

From PaulSS: WWII Germans -- 63pts

 

Victoria and I have been away this week for a break in Cornwall, but, as usual I packed paints and brushes to take with us. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack the daylight lamp, but a swift order to Amazon rectified that issue.

Infantry section

I've not done as much painting as I would have hoped, but did manage to get a few more German infantry, command and support bases done for the ongoing O Group project.

5cm mortar section

Machine-gun team

Infantry team with Panzerschreck

Observer team

Patrol marker

Pendraken do a very nice German sentry post, I'm not sure what usage it will see but I thought I'd paint one up for table dressing.

58 12mm infantry and a 5 point claim for the guard post, soldier and hound combined will add 63 points to my total taking me tantalizing near to my goal!

Squirrel Duel Tally: 4 (40K Kroot, Gaslands, WW2 US, WW2 German)

You are getting some lovely results on these 12mm figures Paul.  I really like the basing, especially was your flocking blends in. nicely with your terrain mat.  I really like that guard post, I am sure that you can find uses for that on table.

My group has experimented with O Group recently, and it looks like it's a no on our side.  Unlike others in O(ur) Group I found the rules easy to read, learn and play, but they felt a bit antiseptic at times.

From EdwardG - A small offering of films from around the studio lot! (215 points)

 Hi all, 

Finally I have managed to get these miniatures photographed and hopefully this post finished in time for a Monday posting!! Several of these minis have been painted for a few weeks now, but the slow moving post production team here has caused delays in the release schedule. Still it is expected from the sales department, that these films might do well as they are coming out in at the end of the February doldrums. 

First stop is at the place beloved of all the 10yr olds still sitting within us...High Adventure!!

High Adventure

These minis are all Copplestone 10mm minis and I'll be honest I bought these on a whim last year when ordering from a local shop. The order was just under the minimum for free postage (or at least that is the tale I told the better half, and my bank manager) and so I just had to add in a one or two small things. Those were a couple of packs of 10mm minis. It is not a scale I play in, or have/had any other minis in. But these sculpts just jumped out and I thought they would likely come in handy for this, or future, challenges :) I am happy to be proven correct! All these minis are painted with a mixture of contrast paints and normal acrylics. 

First up is my attempt at Conan the Barbarian! All ready to fight his endless list of enemies with his trusty sword, shield, and loin cloth. After all no self respecting barbarian wears armour! 

Next up are a pair of fantasy adventurers off to fight Monsters and collect loot. One an axe wielding Barbarian, the other an axe wielding Dwarf. Obviously they have found companionship over their shared love of axes! 

Finally in the world of High Adventure(!!!) we have a futuristic knight, standing on a alien world, who knows only good and how to combat the dark side. He is a converted mini, with his original sword swapped out for a small piece of brass rod. I am a little sad that my attempt at OSL has ended in an unsightly splotchy mess, but from a good gaming distance the mini doesn't look too bad. So I decided to cut my losses and get him based and posted! 

That wraps it up for the Adventure part. Hopefully the viewing audience can get their breath back in the interval. A final shot of all the main characters for this lot:

The next studio along the pathway is Historical Drama. I hope everyone is excited, as this one is drawing on an oldie but a goodie!

Historical Drama

It has been touted to the production company, that the best way to have a safe bet is to go for a re-make of a re-make. Therefore it has been decided that the minis to pull from the lead pile for this stop were to fit Robin Hood!

As everyone will know, Robin Hood is a historically accurate and totally real life character, whose jolly japes against the usurper king of England John, ended in victory and the return of the true king Richard! Hurrah!! The origin of these minis is lost in time, as I have no idea of the manufacturer of either. Both are 28mm heroic scale, so perfect for this piece.  

For the Robin mini, this actually arrived in the box of things from my Grandfather's estate when he passed away a few years ago. It seems that he had played with and collected some toy soldiers a long time ago. I was therefore really happy to be able to put paint on this mini, and it will forever be a nice reminder of a wonderful man, who I never knew I shared a hobby with! 

In addition, as Robin is never alone, I also found a Friar Tuck mini to go along with him. I will admit, this is one of the more martial Friar Tucks I have seen. But I think the character change will suit the cleric fine. 

The final release for the schedule today, is coming from the next stop along the studio lot journey. We are off to the Ancient Orient, with a Chinese epic!

World Cinema

On the Sunday that I am writing this post, I was originally planning to be playing DBA with this army! It is our 6mthly DBA day event here in Hamburg. Sadly, a mixture of an ill wife, and a lingering cold on my side means that this time I am having to sit it out on the sidelines with the half time oranges. 

But, I am able to write this post, so that is a wonderful sliver lining! 

This is an army built from Essex 15mm minis. It is based on the DBA I/42c army list. Which has the wonderful title of "Other Chinese 700BC-480BC". It is an army that is based around the end of the Chou empire and the start of the Warring States period. Sadly, the Essex mini distributer here in EU (at least the one I use) did not have all of the correct minis in stock in December. So these minis are a slight mixture of Chinese periods. Still I hope that this can be forgiven and the button counters out there won't post too many mean comments! 

All of the minis have been painted with a mix of contrast paints and normal acrylics. I find it is the easiest way to get a quick result! 

As Essex minis come in packs of 8, and the numbers needed for a DBA army are reasonably small, I did end up with several minis spare. I therefore have taken the heretical decision to add extra minis to the bases where they fitted. The prime example is my 3Pk elements (supposed to have 3minis on as the name suggests) where I have place 5 minis on each of the four bases!! It means these bases are probably not technically competition legal...but they look a lot cooler and who cares anyway. As long as the opponent can tell which is which I don't for sure!

The army is a fast moving mixture of heavy chariots, dagger-axe wielding hordes, handpicked swordsmen, and then archer levies. I have also painted the camp element, and the camp guards to go with them (again more 'spare' minis!). To top off this Chinese epic, I have the mini that is based to represent my army on the campaign map which is used for the DBA day event! 

That concludes my backlog of releases. Only remaining task is to work out how many points everything has scored!

4 x 10mm foot miniatures = 4pts

High Adventure location bonus = 20pts

2 x 28mm foot miniatures = 10pts

Historical Drama location bonus = 20pts

4 x 15mm vehicles = 32pts

13 x chariot riders (15mm foot) = 26pts

38 x 15mm foot miniatures = 76pts

Terrain points for the tent = 40mm x 40mm x 15mm = 1.57in x 1.57in x 0.59in = 1.45in^3 = 0.0067 cubes = 0.134pts

World Cinema location bonus = 20pts

Total = 208.134pts!!

Which added to the previous entries should put me just over my target, with just under 1month to go!! I hope to be able to get at least one more submission done and in before the end :D 

Also a final thank you for all of the kind and wonderfully supportive comments on the previous posts. Sadly my normal method of keeping up to date on the Challenge (my phone on the underground on the commute to/from work) does not allow me to post comments or replies to comments. I have no idea why, but it doesn't want to allow me to do it. Very annoying as I would like to be able to respond and also add my own comments to the amazing works of art from you wonderful people! I hope you all have a great Monday, and a brilliant rest of the Challenge! 

Cheers!
Ed

A real set of treats here Ed.  First up I absolutely love those 10mm fantasy figures.  I thought they were 28mms but just photographed from too far away.  I am really tempted by the Copplestone 10mm range but must be strong.  Good work on the Robin Hood and Monk too.  I am not getting into a religious discussion with that Friar any time soon.

I know nothing about ancient Chinese Warfare except that I know that the armies look really cool.  Heavy Chariots and heavy chopping weapons- YES!  I am fully on board with mixing figures from different eras, at this scale you'd need a PhD in the appropriate era to know the difference.  I also agree with the denser figure count.  DBA elements may have a nominal 28mm figure count but they look way better with more figures as long as you keep the proportions between Pikes and Psiloi elements.  Really like the dude with bodyguard out front of his tent.

Much as I admire your dedication to precision calculations on terrain volume, I am applying a minion's minimum of 5 points on the tent and then rounding you up to 215 for the parasols etc on the chariots.  Congrats on breaching your Challenge target and looking forward to more.