Thursday, 27 February 2025

From DaveD: It’s still snowing, but the Veldt is filling up (161 points)

I am still cracking on with various items for both the Ardennes and now for the Zulu war (oh and some Naps)

First up are the rest of the infantry to finish my Volksgrenadier company. When I looked at the organisation I found I had missed a stand from each of the two previous platoons having done 5 rather 6, so I had to do 8 this time to make things up . I also added the company HQ and the 2IC 



The shell holes are also new additions this week - picked up from the bits box at Pendraken 
35 figures in these 


 

So here is the full company and the Pz Grenadiers .
I can now add some more support items , HMG’s and Mortars and of course some 88’s and ATG’s .

 

Next up are more vehicles for the US forces 

It’s the US army - you need jeeps 

One if my favourite vehicles the M8 Greyhound armoured car.(or3)

My other favourite US Vehicle 2 x M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer- don’t call it tank , cause it isn’t !


Got to sneak in an M16 AAA halftrack - 4 x 50cals ouch.



Oops - is that Skorzemy’s Kommandos pointing them in the wrong direction?

 

I have a decent amount of US vehicles completed now . Well it is now covering nearly 8 feet (or 2.4 metres ) as a column 馃槅馃槅



Is that Henry Fonda in that Piper Cub ? No they seemed to film “The Battle of Bulge” in Spain in summer, no snow involved  …

So for the Ardennes I now need more German vehicles  and guns , and more US infantry . All of which are in the stash which is good .

And now to the Southern Hemisphere. Last week I had most of the lads done for the first regiment. I was able to get things prepped up ready for starting on the next 4 after my holiday , so I took the opportunity to add the extra 35 figures (only needed 28 but a few more to fill the bases was the aesthetic choice)  in 3 bases to finish it off



And here is the full iButho  the uMbonamvi the Seers of Evil.

The frontage as deployed here is 360mm - 16 inches , so it’s taking up a decent bit of space


Thus unit represents about 10% of the initial Zulu army - so only another 13 various sized iButho (regiments)  to go - time to crack on .

 


The next lot 420 Zulus ready to meet the brushes 


Scores :-

35 x 15mm inf = 70 pts 
7 x 15mm vehicles = 56 pts 
35 x 10mm inf - 35 pts  (and 35 to colonial duel) 

TeemuL: It still snows and the minis are still small, all is well! Looking forward to see the 420 Zulus next week...

Your column looks impressive, almost like 1:1 ratio of real columns and well enough for your winter table. And your Zulus look good, too, they need a bit different table to game with - a lot of empty space I guess, because the army will need a lot of room to deploy.

From MattW: 危蟿蟻伪蟿畏纬蠈蟼, 螒蠂伪蠆魏蠈蟼 慰蟺位委蟿畏蟼, 蠄喂位慰委 (122 points)

Stratig贸s, Achaean hoplites and skirmishers 

More additions to the Greeks last week, my first command base, skirmishes and Achaean hoplites. Again miniatures from Immortal Miniatures now sold by Warlord Games. 




Hoplites 


Psiloi





Hoplites


24 x 28mm miniatures @ 5 points = 120
Total 120
Cheers
Matt 

TeemuL: I do hope the title doesn't contain any curse words or other inappropiate content. :) Well, of course it doesn't, we are all well mannered AHPC participants and I'm glad the rest of the entry is easily readable for me. And the photos are easily watched, very nice photos of very nice minis on a very nice scenery! I'll throw couple of bonus points for the excellent base work and athmosphere of the photos - I need to paint my hoplites at some point, too!

From KenR: 1/700 HMS Punjabi (Ship of the week) (40 points)


Well this Challenge has turned into a ship fest against all my planning but with work commitments getting through a ship a week is a challenge in itself at the moment. It's definitely helping me progress the ship part of the Narvik Project.

This week I present HMS Punjabi, the final one of 4 Tribal Class Destroyers for the project and this one is a 1/700 scale Trumpeter kit, just like last week's entry. I've opted for a dark grey lower hull with light grey upper on this one and it does make quite a nice contrast.

The ship spent its career in home waters and on the Northern Convoy routes, she was involved in the 2nd Battle of Narvik where she was badly damaged, losing all power for over an hour. She was lost escorting Convoy PQ15 in May 1942, the deck watch believed they had see a mine and ordered a 15 degree turn to avoid it, unfortunately it was foggy and without knowing the ship turned in front of the British Battleship KGV. The larger ship sliced Punjabi in two however the impact and explosions of depth charges on the Destroyer caused serious damage to the KGV.

So that's another 40 points to the total, I'm a country mile of my target but at least I'm getting a bit done each week. With this ship complete, I have 5 more Destroyers and Warspite to do. With 3 weeks to go, I'll need more than a ship a week and the Warspite is a huge job on its own. Never mind a half done unit of Prussian Landwher !

Anyway, I'm going to aim for two ships next week, until then here are the 4 Tribals for the project.

TeemuL: Let's start with a safe and familiar first entry of the day, 1/700 ship. Thank you Ken, I know there are lots of followers on this project. And two ships a week next? I just hope that those people who are waiting for the Prussian Landwehr and other 28mm models are not neglected too much.

It is interesting to see, that even when those four ships are more or less similar, your skightly different colour choices make them all individuals, but they still look like a group and they all look very real. Splendid job!

Thursday

Yeah, quite an simple header this week. My vacation was good, but on Monday morning I got a flu and have been more or less ill since then. So no history lessons, I just don't have energy for that. There were some questions about snowshoes last week, so here are couple of photos.


Here's my son and his snowshoes. The trail we walked was well trodden and the snow shoes were not necessary for most of the time, but it makes it easier to climb up and down (there are some spikes at the bottom).

And these are mine. Pay attention to the camouflage pattern, something wargamers surely want to add to their models. ;) As you can see, modern snowshoes doesn't look like tennis rackets and are quite easy and comfortable to use. It is good to have ski sticks, too, gives you balance and helps if the snow is very deep and you fall.


Of course, if there is snow and it is dry enough (meaning it is cold enough), then two pairs of woollen socks are all you need. They are an excellent insulation, the coldness stays away and warmth stays inside, so the snow doesn't melt.

--- In other news ---

Here in southern Finland we don't have any snow anymore and temperature is couple of degrees above zero. The Thursday crew has quite a lot of posts, as usual.