From MartijnN: More Early War French (125 points)

Last week, I painted my first 28mm vehicles for Bolt Action. Today, there are my first 28mm World War II infantry. These are mostly 3D printed figures. First, I have a squad of ten regular infantrymen from BattleCat Miniatures. They are very nice figures, nicely varied and sturdy. They are just a little on the large side, but on the table you can't really notice. Still, if I print more I will likely scale them down to 95%.

BattleCat Regular Infantry

 Next, there is a squad of French Reserve infantry. The French army was among the best and the largest in the world in 1940, but many of the troops were reservists. These figures are 3d prints again, designed by Colonel Muller. These are very compatible with Warlord plastics, and they really are very nice indeed. They are armed with older firearms, and carry what was essentially the 1893 model backpack. Apart from the colour of the uniform, they actually look hardly different from the poilus of the Great War.

Colonel Muller French Reserve Infantry

I like how they even have a bugler!

Finally, there is a 80mm mortar. These are Warlord metals. The figures are okay, but quite less detailed than the 3D printed ones. Still, they look quite good now they are finished I think.

Warlord Metals

I painted all these using contrast paints again, and I was quite surprised by the result. I am  not particularly happy with the helmets, which are a touch too green for my taste, so I will be looking for another colour to use on future miniatures. However, I used Aggraros Dunes for the units and I think that suits them quite well. I might have given them a wash with Military Shade to give them more of a green tint, but I think they will do fine for now. Especially on the 3D prints the effect of the contrast comes out nicely. As a result, these were relatively easy and fast to paint, which is a bonus when you have to get quite some done.

My first game is on the agenda in a couple of weeks' time, and I think I may have enough for a small game already. However, since I still have some cool models lying around I might do a couple more to increase my options.

In all, there are 20 infantrymen and a mortar with three crew. Again no squirrel though, as this is the same army as last week. So that is:

23 x 28mm foot @5 = 115

1 crew served weapon @ 10 = 10

For a total of 125 points. 

 Martijn, you really have taken a shine to your new project! It is progressing in a grand old way with this excellent infantry and mortar support! The 3d print figures do really look good and yes that bugler is an awesome addition.  

Cheers Sander 

From TeemuL: Space Aliens with Supersoakers! (50 points)

This is once again a new project from me. Warhammer 40k Eldar, but these are the Ynnari, followers of Yvraine, emissary of Ynnead. I decided to paint the helmets or headgear red to mark them as one of Ynnari. Original idea was to paint these aspect warriors following the GW schemes, but then I decided that would be boring. It all started with the Pathfinders, who have some skin visible, and I started to think what colour their skin would be... Usually Eldar are like pale humans, but I started thinking greenish. And dropped that idea, because Orks are the greenskins in 40k. But that sparked my imagination and I decided to paint these in wild colours. Of course that meant slower painting, when everything needed to be thought out. Colour green stuck to my head and I decided to keep it as a main colour of the force, it works well with red at least.

Those of any knowledge of Warhammer 40k rules will notice, that there are three different warriors and not enough to create legal units. And here is the next trick, these are not meant for Warhammer 40k, I don't think I will be playing any edition of the game with these. Instead a friend of mine has Xenos Rampant rules and he said that the game can be played with any minis, so these are "planned" for Xenos Rampant.

These are the four Fire Dragons, painted green. Green armour and red helmet screamed for blue weapons, so there I went! I decided to paint all the guns blue and they do like supersoakers to me... There are actually three different sculpts here, hard to believe, but trust me.

Gun holster are dark brown and two spheres on the shoulders were painted Mihtril Silver followed by green wash. There are tons of other details I didnt' want pick up to keep my sanity. I have some Harlequins to paint, so the wildest colour combinations will wait for them.

Dark Reapers next, a bit darker green than Fire Dragons, but with big blue guns. The body armour was painted Mithril Silver and followed by green wash gives a quite nice look, something different and eerie.

And finally some Pathfinders with much more colours than the others. The skin colour was determined by "pick up a paint with strange name for skin" and US Field Drab was chosen... Something you wouldn't except from Eldar, I think. Yellow hair looks nice and red details work together. There are some greens again, to tie all these together, but there are more colours here and instead of 1960s LSD colours they are much more earthlike.

The Eldar are superior but dying race, they could just equip their Pathfinders with devices creating invisibility, but they need to save resources, too. Piece of cloth will be enough to fool those letter races. Cloaks are black with grey and brown highlights, the same colours used in the bases - quite clever. Brown boots and grey gloves complete the earthly look.

So my Warhammer 40k minis of Xenos Rampant lore have their first warriors here, 10 minis to start with. That would be another 50 points to my tally and another squirrel "Warhammer 40k Eldar" Surprisingly no skulls this time, even when they are Ynnead Eldar.

Gee Teemu, what an excellent rendition of these old school Eldar! I love how you have used those vibrant and even more old school paint schemes, magnificent work and many thanks to take us back down memory lane! 

Cheers Sander 

MarkG: Czechoslovak Legion infantry from the Russian Civil War (50 points)

This week I’m presenting another unit from my Russian Civil War project. The Czechoslovak Legion have always been a favourite of mine, and these fellows have been sitting unpainted on the lead mountain for many years. 

I had planned to get these done for a display game the Prague Wargamers put on at Crisis in Antwerp way back in 2018, but there were already too many units painted up for this, so were unneeded. I have a pile of these to paint, so enough for one side in a game (along with some SR Menshevik/Komuch allies in Siberia). 

These again are from that lovely range from Copplestone Castings. I was inspired by pictures of the "Legiovlak" exhibition, that’s been touring the Czech Republic in a reproduction Legion train. 

Thus, they are all in suitably faded/mixed uniforms. Their only distinguishing marks being the lack of shoulder boards, and the red and white ribbon on their hats, and sometimes as a buttonhole ribbon. I plan to expand this force further before the end of the Painting Challenge.

Hoi Mark, another excellent rendition of forces involved in the Russian Civil War. Those photographs of the re-enactors are brilliant reference material and you have used them to the greatest effect! What an awesome project to see developping, 

 Cheers Sander 

From the Saturday Minion: Something for everyone!

 Hoi there,

 

The Saturday crew has done their utmost best to bring you all a brilliantly divers set of entries. 

- Mark forges on with his Russian Civil War project 

- Martijn has more WW2 French troops in store for us.

- Teemu is on a roll with flying carpets, Eldar and Peninsular troops

- JP has a fitting finish for his Ancient Germans.  

- Peter goes large with some archers

So get it while you can people and be inspirated!

 Cheers Sander