From JP - 1/1200 ACW by Thoroughbred and Langton miniatures (28 points)

Hi folks, as usual I am trying to get something done quickly and ahead of Christmas. The obvious choice is my ever growing ACW collection.

These are rather large vessels, pretty much at the top of the vessel sizes for the ACW.

 USS Dictator was the largest US Ironclad built, late in the war. She's a real bruiser under any gaming rules for this period.

CSS Alabama needs no introduction for connaisseurs of the era - the most reknown of Confederate raiders. CSS Rattlesnake and Colonel Lamb were blockade runners.

Here are the 4 together along with a stern view. As an idea of size, Dictator was more than twice as large as Monitor.

I am claiming 

4 x large 1/1200th vessels    at 5 points each (for lack of a better idea!) = 20 points

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Welcome back to the Challenge, JP!

Great work on these ACW ships. I always thought it was particularly brave to be in any of the wooden riverine craft during this period as the ranges were so close and the guns quite large. Brutal.

1/1200 scale naval has always been a bit of a puzzle for scoring in the Challenge, but we'll go with 5 points for smaller craft and 10 for larger vessels with full masts and rigging. With this in mind, I'll pitch these at 7 points each for a total of 28. Well done, JP!

- Curt

From JP - ACW Naval 1/1200 ships (55 Points)

I'm delighted to be back for my second competition. Thank you Curt for organising this. I am also delighted to learn that Martijn is only 30-45 minutes drive from me here in soggy Belgium! My painting continues to outstrip my actual gaming, though that was not the intent when I set out in the hobby over 50 years ago... on the other hand, I prefer my current paint jobs to what I produced back then...

Apologies for the haste of the entry - the photography is not great. I wanted something in for Christmas and time was running out. 

I call this my Limbo post, if Curt allows it. I have some 120+ ACW naval vessels and some 60 to paint still. Most models occupy a base of 50-75mm in length but the small vessels, which were numerous in the conflict, keep getting pushed to the back of the to do list in favour of the better known beasts. These vessels were often converted tugs or similar with a smoothbore plonked at each end.

And so I present the North Carolina Mosquito fleet of the Confederate States Navy - lovely models producedby Pithead Miniatures. Three of the vessels are 'normal' in size, while eight are on 35mm long bases. Assembly is fiddly at this scale and the bases need work, not to mention the name tags. The main challenge remains, as I posted last year, I think, in bringing them to life with enough detail and weathering to please the eye.

So, there are eleven Pithead 1/600 scale vessels:

3 x normal size      15 points

8 x small size         20 points

Limbo entry           20 points

Sub Total               55 points

Curt - please adjust as you see fit!

A closer up shot.

Thanks for taking a peek and now back to Christmas preparations!

Cheers,

JP

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First welcome back to the Challenge JP!

These are some great looking river craft. I especially like how you've done up the bases and provided the neat labeling - very trim and clean. I can't imagine how terrifying it would have been to be in these relatively light craft and having rifled artillery shooting at me. Yikes! 

55 points for your climb up the points ladder JP. Well done!

- Curt

From KerryT - The cause of much swearing - a maritime entry (40 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

One good thing about the AHPC is that it compels you to complete some long unfinished figures. In my case, the figure in question is a 1/1200 Napoleonic ship from Langton Miniatures

This is a British frigate and probably was one of the oldest unpainted figures in my collection. I moved to NZ in 1999 and brought it with me, probably having bought it in the early 90s. I painted up and rigged about a dozen British and French ships of the line at the time and added a frigate but never put it together. I was daft enough or bold enough, depending on your perspective to get a frigate in full sail

I managed to find an old article in Miniature Wargames issue 80 called "splicing the main brace". This was the original guide for painting and modelling

Just checked, it was published in January 1990

Painting was easy enough but my eyes are not what they were and I don't recall having so much difficulty when completing the original models and this is when the swearing started. There was a lot of it, particularly when the sail came away from the foremast mid way through!

Here it is next to to an older model

My limited suturing skills came in handy here

The round painting base added to the problem as it kept rolling

After at least 4 hours of sweat, tears and toil and some old fashioned Anglo-Saxon phrases, it eventually came together. I confess I nearly gave up after completing the standard rigging (black thread) but persisted in the end and completed the running rigging (light thread)

See the gap between the topgallant and the foremast!

Not sure I'll ever buy more of these after that ordeal!

Thus in summary

Maritime bonus  20 points

1 x 1/1200 ship - no idea points wise but Millsy the riggin took friggin ages!

From Millsy: I laughed immediately I saw the title of this post Kerry following our chat earlier in the week. As I said at the time I outsourced all my rigging work and I think you can appreciate why! Frustrations aside you've done a lovely job on every aspect of the model and the effort invested in the rigging certainly paid off in the overall result. Given the rigging let's score this as a 28mm vehicle at 20 points, bringing the total for the sub to 40 points. Nice work mate and I hope the PTSD isn't too bad!

From LeeH: English 17th Century Warships (Library: Maritime) (80+20 bonus Points)

Sea spray and salt air mix with the smell of black powder as these 17th-century warships try to chase down their enemies in the Anglo-Dutch War. These 1/1200th scale models are by Ark Royal Miniatures and are based for use with the Mad for War rules, written by Barry Hilton (of League of Augsburg  fame)

My group, Posties Rejects had the great honour of refighting the Dutch Raid on Chatham using these rules, inside the target of the attack, Chatham Dockyard. We had two days of intense fighting as we recreated the battle and at the end, we all had such a good time we bought copies of the rulebook and a load of ships. I’ve already completed three of the ships from my British Squadron, these four are the remainder.

When we started these models we all agreed not to bother with the rigging…and then one person relented and now we all have to follow! I’ve used plastic bristles from a scrubbing brush for the main lines which were fixed with a mixture of superglue and intense, creative swearing!

So how to score these? Well, I should start by saying that only half of these count towards the Painting Challenge. The four smaller ships in the back row were painted a few months ago but hadn't been based or rigged because I wanted to do those stages on all the ships at the same time. So while I have done all the basing and rigging on all eight vessels, only the front four were painted during the Challenge and count towards my target. So what points for the four that do count? One of the advantages of the challenge blog covering so many years' worth of entries is that there is nearly always a precedent from a previous entry. There aren’t many 1/1200th scale ship entries to choose from, but Curt has awarded 15 points per ship before, so I’ll put that down and leave the final decision to the umpire. Plus I'll sneakily claim the Maritime bonus from the Challenge Library which should bring my total for this entry up to 80 points. 

4x1/1200 Scale Warships = 60 Points + Maritime Bonus 20 Points = 80 Points total

Lovely work here LeeH on these boats. Not just for the painting, but at the scale, and the rigging/basing aspects for it as well. Always amazing to see this, and I think the points are very well justified for it all. 

I added an extra 20 points, 5 pts per half finished boat, for getting the rigging/basing done on them alongside all of these. 

Only real comment to add is more for the posts.. if you can add your Library progress photo alongside the post that will help to see how far you have come and which sections you have finished so far in the challenge. Another accomplishment within the challenge itself. 

Great job, and 100 pts for you Jez

Kyle

From JonathanO: Viking longships - Adventurer's Landing (24 points)

 I found two more 1/1200 ships from Navwar to use for this location.

There is only a slight breeze as these two ships glide gently ashore with their sails still up.  Who knows what adventures await the Viking warriors as they land?  Have the local inhabitants fled to safety, or do they have a surprise waiting for the travellers?

The base is 80mm x 60mm. 

For points I think 2 each plus the 20 location bonus = 24 points.

From BenF: Bagging the Hun 1/300 Aircraft and 1/1200 Ships (108 Points)

Well, it's been an eventful few weeks for me, with a trip to the Snowy Mountains taking up a decent chunk of my painting time before heading back to work this Monday just gone. The trip was great, getting to spend some time with friends and climbing to the top of the tallest mountain in Australia felt like an achievement, even if it's no monster by international standards. While the 14km round trip was rather challenging, the fact that it is largely paved should tell you that i'm no Sir Edmund Hilary! :)

As far as painting goes, i've managed to get a bit completed, though i've not managed a blog update until now. As Bag the Hun 2 is continuing to go great guns at the club, this submission is firmly centred on this project.

First off, the first of my Fleet Air Arm aircraft. I've always found the FAA fascinating. Besides the carriers, the fact that they had to struggle with aircraft and equipment which was not up to the standards of that used by the RAF, let alone the Luftwaffe. While i've got Sea Gladiators, Sea Hurricanes, Martlets, Skuas, Albacores and even a Roc in the painting queue, i've started off my FAA force with a flight of Fairey Fulmars. The Fulmar was designed to fit in with the RNs view that carrier based aircraft must have a pilot and telegraphist/air gunner. While hardly as sleek as the Spitfire, I do like the no-nonsense lines of the Fulmars. These are marked up for the 806th Naval Air Squadron, based on the HMS Illustrious during it's time in the Med protecting the Malta Convoys during 1941. The models are Heroics and Ros, declas are from Dom's Decals. This lot has already served in a game, tangling with a dozen Savoia SM.79 bombers over the Med, so I've included a photo I took from the game of Sub/Lt. H. 'Slippers' Duncan bagging an 'Eyetie'.

Continuing with the naval theme, here are some 1/1200 and 1/1250 scale ships to be defended or attacked in BTH2 games, depending on the scenario. I've based these using artists impasto gel, and find that the scale works perfectly for BTH2. This was my first attempt with Naval figures, and i'm pretty happy with the way they've turned out. The scale difference looks 'right' with fighters and bombers swirling in the air above the ships. Below is a Type IXC U-Boat, the U-805 and a Räumboote, or R-Boat minesweeping motor launch, the R-401. Both are Neptun from eBay which i've repainted.

Below is the HMS Hotspur, an H-Class destroyer. This is a decent size, coming in at just under 10cm. The Hotspur is another Neptun repaint. I've got a couple of Bogue class escort carriers and an HMS Illustrious on the way from eBayland. The Escorts are around 14cm, and the Lusty is over 20, i'm looking forward to painting them up.

Next, a pair of Merchantment. I wanted to keep these relatively generic so that I can use them for Allied or Axis convoys. These are Len Deighton sculpts from eBay which I've repainted. I do plan on getting some larger merchantmen as targets for FW200 Condors and Sunderlands over the North Atlantic and North Sea.

Next up, we're back over dry land with an Avro Anson. The Anson was used as for reconnaissance, light bombing, and as a utility aircraft. This one is marked up from No.326 Squadron in 1940. This model is H&R also. Decals are from Dom's.

Next, we have two schwarms of Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4s. I had two of these painted up previously, and together with these lots that is a complete staffel. They're marked up from Jagdgeschwader 2 'Richtofen', and one of the aircraft is painted up as that of Luftwaffe experten (or top ace) Helmut Wick. The engine cowling has a small blue triangle with an approximation of the yellow sword and 'Horrido' written on the original. The mottled sides of Wick's aircraft was also noteably darker than other aircraft of JG2, so I've tried to give this effect. These aircraft are all from Scotia, declas from Doms.

Next, some British Anti Air bases in the form of two 3.7" AA Guns and a command base with an Austin Tilly and a Bedford MWC tanker. While these will work for BTH2, they can also serve with my Blitzkrieg Commander forces. All equipment is from H&R, decals are i-96 and Dom's.

Finally, here's a picture of me at the top of Mt. Kosciusko, I'm on the left wearing the blue shirt.

Next up, i'm working on some more aircraft, Blenheims, Fairey Battles and Heinkel He-111s along with some FAA odds and sods.

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What a brilliant post, Ben! 

It strikes particularly close to home as Sarah and I holidayed in Malta this autumn. We both had a great time taking in the newly renovated National War Museum at St. Elmo which had an entire wing dedicated to the WWII siege of the island. It was amazing and I heartily recommend it to anyone who loves a good museum.

Anyway, back to your fabulous entry. Your Fulmars, Messerschmitts and Anson are terrific. I especially like the work you spent on the canopies and the decals as they really finish the models off nicely. The 1:1200 ships are real lumps of goodness as well (love the basing). I've not seen a U-Boat in this scale before and it really is impressive. I agree with you on the great use of scale distortion, in having 1:300 scale aircraft over 1:1200 ships - the forced perspective is a brilliant touch.

Finally, that's a great picture of you and your friends atop Mt. Kosciusko - it looks to have been a fine day out.

I'm counting the 1:1200 ships with their nautical basework as 28mm vehicles so this will plunk you in at 108 points. Well done Ben!

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Steve B: Blood Bowl, Dystopian Wars (121 points)

So I managed to finish off the last of my skaven blood bowl team, inc a rat ogre, extra thrower, 2 special chars, and one with long legs.

I had a hard time deciding what to do next. I've had a Covenant of Antarctica fleet for Dystopian wars for a few years now , but hadn't finalized a color scheme.
The Covenant specializes in energy weapons, so I thought to do a weapons glow. with the airbrush this is suprisingly easy to do. They won't be award winners , but I am happy with the result.

Being off the beginning of the week , I managed to crank out most of the fleet. These are mostly done with airbrush, with very little brush work.

Included are a dreadnaught, assault carrier, 2 battleships, battle cruiser, 6 cruisers, and 6 frigates.

I included a skaven blood bowl member for scale, as I'm not sure how to sore these. ( but that's what the judges are for,...lol)

Cracking work Steve! You've done a great job with the airbrush on those ships. I'm going to score the ogre as a 40mm figure so that gives you 27 points for the Blood Bowl selection. 

Having looked back through previous Dystopian Wars entries to get an idea of how to score them, I'm going to award 94 points for that fleet which brings you up to 121 points for this submission.

Tamsin