From PeterA: 'Auxies' for the Irish War of Independence (70 Points)

 Last week I had a serious case of the wargaming butterfly, starting 3 different units and finishing none! This week I have been a bit more disciplined and managed to get one of them finished - a unit for The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC), aka the Auxies. These will join the unit of Black and Tans that I did for the Empire Theme earlier in the challenge. The Auxiliary Division was a paramilitary unit formed to combat the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). Like the Black and Tans, the Auxies were largely formed of ex-British Army soldiers, although in the case of the Auxies they were primarily made up of ex-officers, rather than ex-NCOs. 

In theory part of and subordinate to the RIC, in reality the Auxiliaries operated as an independent force, and were infamous for their aggressive tactics, swift raids, destruction of property and violent reprisals against civilians. They wore the same mixture of British Army khaki and RIC dark green uniforms as the Black and Tans, with the most distinctive feature being the Balmoral hats that they wore.

These figures are mostly from Footsore Miniatures Inter-War Range specifically for the IWI - sadly soon to be discontinued. First up we have a trio of Auxiliary officers - the one with the shotgun is from Footsore, the other two are from Gripping Beast's Woodbine Design Company range of WW1 British. This is a very versatile range as they come with separate heads and GB do a wide range of head variants - in this case I have used the heads wearing Tam O'Shanters (GB don't have a specific Balmoral head variant and these are close enough in appearance).

Next we have an NCO and a Lewis LMG gunner and loader.

Then we have eight men equipped with Lee Enfield rifles.

And finally a group shot of the whole group.

Points-wise that is 14x 28mm figures = 70 points, so I am closing in on halfway to my target for the Challenge.

From Dave. An interesting period I think with various sub divisions with each side . They certainly look the part . 70 pts it is . 

From KillianF - War in the Mountains (53 pts )

 Good day all,

Finally finished a variety of fantasy figures. These Orcs and Dwarfs are Medbury Miniatures(again, STLs 3d printed by myself. I would be remiss not to mention they can be bought in metal from Mr Medbury himself).

 

Firstly, four Orc archers. These guys were painted to be grungy and dirty, with lots of brown and desaturated colour. Indeed, after a zenithal prime of dark grey-grey-tan-white, they got a watered down umber ink wash to shade the entire model. Basecoats were then applied, leaving the brown in the recesses to make them dirty. Quite a few more brown washes followed.

 

The last orc is a banner bearer. The model is essentially a Roman legionary style orc, hence the wolf pelt, single greave and manica on the right arm.

The banner is tomato puree foil, covered with PVA soaked tissue to provide texture and an easily paintable surface. I freehanded another banner, because I like painting evil eyes in bright red on a backdrop of Payne's Grey. I added the traingle border on a whim, which was ultimately a silly idea. Painting that many tiny triangles is a recipe for insanity. However, it's an orc banner so I did not worry myself with making it neat.

Next are five dwarf rangers, also from Medbury. I enjoyed adding colour and texture to their clothing: I wanted them to look fitted out for running around a cold mountain. I really like Medbury Dwarfs, they're very serious, with clear (but not overwhelming) historical influences. I've got another 15 or so rangers, and a lot more heavily armoured dwarfs. I may dip into a few more before the challenge is over.

I've just noticed a few bits of kit I forgot to paint

Points:

5x 28mm Orcs: 25

5x 28mm Dwarfs: 25

Total: 50 points

2 Squirrels (5 total) 

From DaveD . Still the great work continues from you . The camera never lies does it ! Great work on the Tomato Purée foil banner . It’s a perfect media for it So it’s 53 points from me 

From DaveV - 28mm Sedition Wars Space Station Doors - 10 pts.

 

For my first terrain entry for this year's challenge, I offer a set of doors for my ongoing Sedition Wars project. The geomorphic, double-sided board tiles in the game show various types of doors that the players must fight through: standard doors (white), airlock doors (red), and section doors (blue), with varying effects on movement and line of sight. For example, standard doors automatically open when models move adjacent and close automatically when they leave, but airlock doors require the payment of 2 movement points to open or close.

One of the more involved Kickstarter rewards was a plastic terrain set, which included several of each type of door, cast in a hard, somewhat brittle plastic. The terrain set can be found on the secondary market, on sites such as eBay.

I have run Sedition Wars at some conventions, and have one coming up (GAME-ITOBA). It's always a challenge keeping track of open/closed doors, so I decided to paint up some doors. Closed Door = model door on the table; Open Door = remove door model. Easy!

Painting

I selected 7 regular doors, and a couple each of section and airlock doors. The doors are detailed on both sides, with deep cuts, and pronounced lights/switched. The plastic is hard, and the mould lines were very pronounced. After cleanup with a very heavy file (it's almost a foot long with heavy teeth) and some touching up with sanding sticks, I decided the cleanup was "good enough". 

I primed all the doors with Chaos Black and did some zenithal highlights with Corax White on the regular doors. I used and White Scar on the airlock and section doors, focusing the latter two on the doors themselves, as opposed to the frames. The regular doors ended up a kind of light grey, which worked out. I used Army Painter Dragon Red and Ultramarine Blue to differentiate the airlock and section doors.  

I added some graffiti decals from Warlord Games' 2000 AD line, and several warning signs from Hasslefree miniatures. 

The game's board tiles show a damaged, war-torn space station. Empty cartridge casings, blood smears, and the like are rendered on the tiles. Accordingly, I heavily weathered all the doors with a selection of coloured pigments, powders, pigment fixative, acrylic paint, and panel line detailing liquids. Some final detailing with small lights, rendered with flat white followed by fluorescent acrylics, completed the doors. Testors Dullcote sealed it all in.

Below, standard doors:

After some coaxing, the graffiti decals went down with decal set and solvent solutions. Some of the graffiti decals broke apart; old decals.

Below, "No Firearms Beyond This Point"? "Caution Laser Beam"? By the time the game starts, these warnings are obsolete.

Below, section doors, which divide the board tiles:

Airlock doors, with General Warning (hazardous environment) and Cryogenic Hazard (low temperature zone) signs. 

Below, some of the doors on a Sedition Wars board tile, with some Sedition Wars figures I painted before. 

Scoring:

All 11 of the doors are around 2.5 inches wide, and around 1.75 inches tall. Cleanup was a pain, but the painting itself was not too difficult. Whatever my final post tally, I enjoyed painting these, and they enhance the game.

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 Beautiful work Dave and I am sorry that the challenge doesn't award points for quality, but just for getting things done.  That said, these are lovely, and I like all the extra details and work done to them to give them that gritty look.  They make a great addition to a great game, that I really wish more people would have given a chance.

Overall though, 11 doors are a pretty easy paint task for most people and would likely take about the same time to paint as 2 normal models.  I know you spent way more time than that on them, but I can only award what would be normal.  So I am awarding 10 points as I think an average paint job for them would take in the 3-4 hour range.

-Byron 

 

From AndrewG: Dark Ages Terrain (40 Points)

I realized last week that I didn’t have any arrow storm markers for my medieval and renaissance period games. I generally don’t like seeing a table littered with tokens and markers, so I’m always keen to find ways to minimize the impact of these on the aesthetic if possible. A bit of searching online turned up this idea – quick and easy and does the trick. I finished one as a test piece and will eventually make a bunch more.

Chessex mini dice, greenstuff, arrows from Perry miniatures, and a 28mm flat base

Going into the holidays I picked up some of the new plastic Dark Ages/Medieval scatter terrain kits produced by Victrix and Wargames Atlantic (WGA). These are great kits jammed with useful items and offer great variety for creating some great pieces. This first batch was built on 40x60mmx2mm bases – I had great fun making these and look forward to getting a second batch done before the end of the challenge.

This includes bits from the WGA Fantasy Town Guards set

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Here we have some great terrain pieces that really show why size is not a great way to score terrain.  While each base here is fairly small and all together would not make even one 6" cube in the old scoring system, there is a lot of detail here to deal with!  While you kept the painting fairly simple there is still a ton of little details scattered everywhere and they look lovely.  

If I had to guess, most of the bases probably took at least as long as a single figure to paint.  I see a few that were likely a bit faster as they have a few less things on the base, but to keep it easy and to count the lovely little arrow marker in, I am going to go with 5 points a base and keep it simple, for a total of 40 points.   

-Byron 

From PaulSS: Barons' War foot troops - 100pts

 Another productive week on the Barons' War collection with 20 new foot soldiers painted.

The first trio is a Knight and a pair of Serjeants.

The Knight is an example of using a simple VVV shield decal as part of the basecoat and then adding a couple of highlights at a later stage.

A trio of three more foot Serjeants.

It's a petty good shot of the arrow through the shield, these spare arrows from the Peasants set are really useful for this.

I always seem to be needing more crossbowmen so another seven were added.

There is only one loose quiver per sprue so I did some creative solutions with the "hand on quiver" arms, trimming off the hand and arm and either leaving an empty quiver, or covering with a bedroll.

These two archers will slot into existing units.

The last group is five more spearmen to add to existing units

Twenty more 28mm figures will add another 100pts to my total. 

From DaveD . More study in browns from Paul. Though some extra colour about as well. You are consistently knocking these out and the group shot will be epic . 100 it is .

from Ray R - Russo-Finnish Winter War - 1939-40 Finnish Heavy weapons 50 pts

 

Time to sneak in my second post of the day. More Finns, this time its their Heavy Machine Guns and AT Gun and a Mortar. All figures are once again from Parkfield Miniatures and bases from Warbases. I had a big issue with yellow snow on these, can't work out why though???

I undercoated the mdf bases all over painted them white a few times and varnished them, they still seem to be leeching....groan!

The Lahti-Saloranta M/26 was the standard Finnish light machine gun adopted in the mid-1920s and designed by Aimo Lahti and Arvo Saloranta to provide mobile automatic fire at the squad level. Chambered in 7.62×54mmR and fed from a 20-round detachable box magazine, the air-cooled, gas-operated M/26 weighed about 9 kg and had a relatively high rate of fire of roughly 500–600 rounds per minute.

 It was well made and accurate, reflecting Finland’s emphasis on quality manufacturing, but its tight tolerances and complex mechanism made it sensitive to dirt, snow, and extreme cold, reducing reliability in harsh field conditions. Soldiers often criticized the small magazine capacity and the weapon’s tendency to jam compared to more rugged designs, leading many units to prefer captured Soviet DP-28 “Emma” machine guns during wartime. Although it served throughout the Winter War and Continuation War and remained Finland’s official light machine gun for years, the M/26 never fully earned the confidence of frontline troops and was gradually supplemented and replaced by more dependable alternatives.

During World War II, the Finnish Army made extensive and increasingly widespread use of captured Soviet 7.62×54mmR DP-28 light machine guns, nicknamed “Emma,” (which is my wife's name hence the gas operated,  and no she won't be reading this!) finding them more dependable in Finland’s severe cold, snow, and muddy conditions than their domestically produced LS-26. The DP-28’s rugged, loose-tolerance, gas-operated design resisted jamming and fouling better than the more finely machined Finnish weapon, making it especially valued by frontline troops. 

Weighing about 9.1 kg unloaded, it fired from a distinctive 47-round top-mounted pan magazine—earning the additional nickname “record player”—at a rate of roughly 550 rounds per minute, providing steady and effective suppressive fire at the squad level. Its use of the same cartridge as Mosin-Nagant rifles and Maxim machine guns greatly simplified logistics and ammunition supply, further increasing its practicality. Captured guns were inspected, refurbished, and stamped with Finnish “SA” (Suomen Armeija) markings before issue. By the end of the Continuation War, more than 15,000 DP-28 and later DPM variants were in Finnish inventory, outnumbering native LS-26s and becoming one of the most common and trusted light machine guns in Finnish service.

The Maxim M/09-21 was the standard heavy machine gun of the Finnish Army between the World Wars and throughout World War II, developed from captured and inherited Russian Maxim M1910 guns that Finland acquired after independence. 

Reworked domestically during the 1920s, the M/09-21 featured improvements such as a redesigned rear sight graduated for Finnish ammunition, a strengthened mount, and compatibility with locally produced 7.62×54mmR cartridges, allowing it to integrate smoothly with the army’s existing logistics. Like other Maxim variants, it was a water-cooled, recoil-operated weapon capable of sustained automatic fire, typically fed by 250-round fabric belts and capable of a rate of fire around 500–600 rounds per minute.

 Though heavy and usually mounted on a wheeled or tripod mount for defensive and support roles, the gun was extremely reliable and well suited to Finland’s harsh winter conditions, where its water jacket could even be filled with snow in emergencies. Rugged, accurate, and capable of prolonged fire, the M/09-21 served as the backbone of Finnish heavy machine gun units and remained in frontline use throughout the Winter War and Continuation War.

The Lahti L-39 was a Finnish anti-tank rifle developed by Aimo Lahti in the late 1930s to provide infantry with a portable weapon capable of defeating light armoured vehicles and fortified positions during the Winter War and Continuation War. Chambered for the powerful 20×138mmB “Long Solothurn” cartridge, the gas-operated, semi-automatic rifle was exceptionally large and heavy—earning the nickname “Norsupyssy” (“elephant gun”)—weighing around 50 kg with its bipod and often requiring a two-man crew to transport and operate. 

Fed from a 10-round detachable box magazine, it delivered strong armour penetration against early-war Soviet tanks, armoured cars, and bunkers, and was also highly effective against machine gun nests and other hard targets due to its high-explosive and armour-piercing ammunition. Although it became less effective as enemy armour improved, the L-39 remained valued for its accuracy, long range, and versatility, and it continued in service throughout the war in both anti-armour and heavy support roles.

During the Winter War, the Finnish Army employed the 50 mm light mortar, most notably the 50 Krh/38, as a compact and highly portable infantry support weapon designed to provide close-range indirect fire to small units. Based on a Finnish design by Tampella, the mortar was lightweight and simple, allowing a single soldier to carry and operate it, which suited Finland’s forested terrain and fast-moving ski troops. It fired small high-explosive and smoke rounds to ranges of roughly 800 meters, enabling squads to engage enemy troops behind cover, suppress machine gun nests, or screen movements with smoke. However, its limited explosive power and relatively short range reduced its effectiveness against entrenched positions, and ammunition capacity was modest. While useful for harassment and close support during the early phases of the war, many Finnish soldiers considered the 50 mm mortar underpowered compared to larger 81 mm mortars, and its role gradually diminished as heavier and more effective systems became available.

So there we have it, I'm a bit confused about the points, there are 5 figures either kneeling or sitting and 9 laying down, so I'd make that worth 47.5 plus all the crew serving weapons, 5 machine guns and a mortar, I think I'll leave these for you Dave?

From DaveD. There is a joke about yellow snow in here , but I won’t make it . 😆. I had it happen on some stuff I did . It was a result of trying to clean my brush I was applying it with being “cleaned” in slightly dirty water ..I’m going to make this 50 . Nice to see more firepower to make the Soviets pay .