DavidB Volume(s) of stuff done!

Another Challenge has come to a close. I did not make my point total, but I did succeed in learning new tricks. I try to pick an aspect each season or new hobby tool and add to the knowledge of our hobby.

I really, really dislike painting terrain and vicks. I would much rather paint scores of infantry than one tank or building and I am quite infamous in my group for having tables full of primed and half painted terrain as well as vehicles in which some are still  naked plastic. This season was full on paint as many Vicks as I could and to keep me at it, I watched lots of videos on painting rust and weathering. I am still a noob, but with my weathering efforts it wasn't quite a hard task to paint all the vicks.

A dilapidated tank and a lego marine to start.

Warcry terrain and a band of Corvus Cabal for Adepticon.

A flock of swooping hawks and scouts for 40k( after a summer bath of simple green)

More Carnevale and another War Cry band.

House Steiner hits the table after 30 plus years of neglect 

A whole bunch of rusted trucks and terrain with new scifi minis from blackout.

Some more White Scars for 30 and 40k

another truck scaled up for necromunda with space dwarves

old school termies and house steiner mechs

An entire motor pool now in need of troops not even purchased yet. At this point I blasted through them all and decided good enough until decals and final weathering after two days of painting.

House Kurita got some trucks and are all set to face Steiner in 5150 star Army

A small group for pulp and interwar games

Two lances of mechs for house kurita.

Then I was volun-told to take overtime the last day of the challenge and had to leave the above 90% completed.

I needed these trucks for Adepticon and  my goliath Blue Blood gang

3D prints scaled up for Necromundia and I finished the windows after the challenge.

My goliaths suffer from a lack of long range weapons, so I completed the final details on these after the challenge and just completed the optics and goggles today.

A zone mortalis plate for necromunda 3D printed and needed for a capture the base objective. The logo in the center is the Blue Bloods house goliath symbol

Then some boxfly space shuttles for stargrave made from thingiverse and Mr Graves 

I really like the look of them and they do resemble cyberpunk dump trunks

The green and white colors of Waste Management  is intentional!

Like the truck they needed the glass completed. We were going to do stargrave, but decided to wait for a gaming day after Adepticon. The crews still need lots of work done like maybe another day worth, so I will finish them after Adepticon.

That is everything with all mostly-done at the end now completed. Real life intruded a little much, for me and others this year. It was still a wonderful slog here I even if I did not comment much because of other responsibilities, it was grand seeing all the eye candy and effort from everyone! I am unplugging from the internet and family drama as soon as I head out the door today. My nephews and sisters are assisting with my mother and watching my step father's property now. Splashing paint is completed, brushes are clean and now dice are packed. I will be bopping around Adepticon in hawaiian shirts and veteran hoodies...look for the Iraq-Afghanistan veteran ball cap!

Seems my hair is no longer the dark native tresses of my youth!

From FrederickC - AHPC XIV Rounds Complete

Spring has arrived (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), and with it comes the conclusion of another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Before I list what I painted, I want to thank Curt and his band of minions, especially Sylvain, curator of Monday's Musée des Fossiles. His solicitous emails were very helpful in making sure I kept calm and focused when the deadlines loomed, and I appreciated the comments he left on my submissions.

I would also like to thank all those who left comments on my posts. They were very instrumental in keeping me motivated. I had planned to leave more comments on everyone's posts this year, but a fractured finger made typing extremely difficult, and then my computer packed it in. (I still need to set up a replacement). I ended up using my wife's laptop, but while Google says I am signed in, Blogger says I am not. I feel a bit like Schrödinger's cat. I can type up posts, but I am not allowed to type in comments. Hopefully I will have better success with the new computer once it gets set up.

The main focus for my painting this year was my various Second World War armies ranging from early war Germans, Poles, and French, to North African campaign Italians and Indians. Along the way I also managed to complete 19 library challenges and 2 trips on the cart. Once again the special challenges have motivated me to dust off some projects that have long languished in a storage box in the basement and get them ready for the tabletop or display. In all I managed to paint 1 x 80mm figure, 4 x 54mm figures, 10 x 40mm figures, 270 x 28mm foot figures, 9 x 28mm mounted figures, 40 x 28mm vehicles, 8 x 28mm artillery pieces, and nearly 3 cubes of terrain. to land in 6th place in the standing. 😁

Terrain Projects

Library challenge minis, and Idols of Torment

Early war Germans, Poles,, and French

North African campaign Italians and Indians

A happy painter with his completed projects

Congratulations to all the participants. Whether you met your goals or not, you all put paint to figures, and that's what it is all about. I am looking forward to seeing you again in December for AHPC XV. Until then, take care, get those projects prepped, and get those completed projects battling it out on the tabletop.

Cheers,

FrederickC

From FrederickC - Elements of the British 8th Army in North Africa (471 points)

The deadline is approaching like an oncoming train, so this last week has been a mad scramble to get my last big project completed before the bell rings. It consists of elements of the British 8th Army in North Africa. Again, I was inspired to delve into that arena by fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscript, DallasE, who had recently painted up some 8th Army and DAK troops. Like my Italians that I painted earlier in this challenge, I wanted to do something a little different, so I went with earlier models of tanks, and infantry units of the 4th Indian Division. The four tanks are by Blitzkrieg Miniatures, while all the rest are from Warlord Games.

I have always been interested in the early years of the North African campaign so I acquired two Vickers Mk VI light tanks, one of which is the B version, mounting .303 and .50 Vickers machine guns, while the other is the C model with co-axial 15 mm (0.59 in) and 7.92 mm (0.312 in) Besa machine guns. Of course, you have to have an Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda. Finally I have a Valentine tank that I got in a trade with DaveV, another member of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. The Matilda and Valentine tanks were resin castings, while the two Vickers light tanks were 3D prints. Both methods have their pros and cons. The details are much crisper on the 3D prints, but a lot of cleanup of supports was needed around the road wheels. Keeping with the early war theme, I painted all of them using the Caunter Camouflage pattern, although that introduced a slight historical anachronism. The Caunter scheme was phased out in October 1941, but the Valentines didn't become operational in North Africa until December of that year. The method and colours used closely followed those outlined in a video by Sonic Sledgehammer.

British armour in the desert

Valentine and Matilda (front)

Valentine and Matilda (back)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (front)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (back)

Next up is the 8th Army Carrier Patrol from Warlord Games, to which I added a third Universal Carrier that I had in one of my storage boxes. The Carrier Patrol box comes with four metal figures wearing shorts to ride in the back, and some heads with helmets without the later war scrim, and two 8th Army infantry sprues to make 12 figures on foot. I decided to assemble them as members of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, and swapped out a few heads for the carrier crew to give them Punjabi turbans. The carriers were painted in the same manner as the tanks, while I used another Sonic Sledgehammer video for the infantry, with a few minor modifications. All the figures were primed with Vallejo Desert Yellow, and I used the Cork Brown option suggested for the skin colour. I also used Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade instead of the special mixture shown in the video.

Carrier patrol of the 4th Bn 16th Punjab Regiment

3 Universal carriers in Caunter scheme camo (back)

3 Univeral carriers in Caunter scheme camo (front)

In a similar fashion to my Italian force, I bought a Warlord Games 8th Army Support Group boxed set consisting a Headquarters, a Vickers medium machine gun team, and a 3" medium mortar team. The Headquarters group has some nice sculpts depicting a senior officer smoking his pipe and having a cuppa, a medic with a stretcher, a company havildar-major (sergeant-major) carrying a Thompson with a drum magazine, and a radioman feeding a monkey some bisquit. 

8th Army Support Group

Next is the mainstay of my infantry, a 36-man platoon of the 2nd (Royal) Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade. It consists of a headquarters with a British officer with Enfield revolver and whistle, a havildar (sergeant) with a Thompson, a Boyes anti-tank rifle team, and a 2" mortar team, and three 10-man sections each with a Thompson-armed naik (corporal), a Bren gun team, and seven sepoys armed with SMLE No. 1 Mk III* rifles. The miniatures are from the Warlords Brtish 8th Army infantry box, to which I added an additional sprue of 6 figures. I have a love-hate relationship with multi-part figures. I like the ability to customize the miniatures, but I find assembly is sometimes frustrating due to the fiddly small parts (not helped by have a finger in a splint), and not all arms fit well on all torsos. I also found that the arm options were a bit lacking, and a few figures were assembled after cutting off whatever the soldier was carrying in that hand to just leave a closed fist. I opted to make rectangular bases out of plastic card for all the prone weapons teams, rather than mount the figures individually. They were painted using the same method as the Punjabis.

Platoon of the 2nd Bn 11th Sikh Regiment

Boyes A/T rifle, officer, havildar, 2" mortar

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

As a final bit, I have a few pieces of terrain that got painted up during periods of contemplation that occurred during the challenge - a set of light smoke/heavy smoke/flame markers, and three scaling ladders made from a plastic piece to which a set of Christmas lights were clipped. It was heavily trimmed to remove all the slots for the lights, primed with dark brown, and then dry brushed with lighter shades of brown. My Uruk-hai with make good used of these when assaulting Helm's Deep.

A point's worth of miscellaneous terrain(?)

The points being claimed are as follows

 

64 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 320 points

 

1 x 28mm artillery @ 10 points each = 10 points

 

7 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 140 points

 

.05 x cubes of terrain @ 20 points = 1 point

 

Thus concludes my third year of participation in the AHPC.. We will see you all at the afterparty.

 

"Chocks away!"

***

 

Congratulations Frederick on another tremendous Painting Challenge. While I may have moved away, I will always consider myself a "Fawcett Avenue Conscript", and as a member of that extended gaming clan I am confident to say I know all of us are glad to see you running up spectacular points totals on some great projects. Need to keep the Conscripts up at the top of the scoring table! These figures you have shared here will all provide fantastic service on the gaming tables in Winnipeg (I mean, after they get their "newly painted figures" game out of the way). They will particularly be welcome in the middle of a prairie winter, which I find is always an even better time to stage some Western Desert WW2 games. 

 

Seeing Caunter camouflage appear is always a treat too, and I think you have achieved some excellent results here. 

 

A fine "points bomb" to conclude your participation in AHPC XIV. Well done!

 

GregB 

From FrederickC - One Last Visit to the Library [Sarah's Library Cart][Travel][Rare & Antique Book] (127 points)

It has been two weeks since my last submission, and there is now only a week to go. Things got rather hectic around here, and painting time has been at a premium. It hasn't helped that my PC decided to pack it in. 😒 I still have a larger project that I hope to finish before the clock runs out, but I thought I would complete the last of my library challenges first.

First up are two female troopers from the Eurasian Solar Union by Ground Zero Games. I picked these up off eBay years ago with plans to add them to the mix of various manufactures that I painted up as my planetary militia. I have done of few of these for a previous challenge, and I used the same colour scheme using Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes. I will use these two to buy a quick round trip to the upper level of the rotunda.

 While on the rotunda's upper level I will complete the 'Travel' challenge with a 54mm figure of a Seven Year's War Prussian Musketeer. This was a gift from a friend back in the 90s who had started casting his own figures and gave me one. It came in five pieces - head, hands holding his musket, remainder of body, sword, and base. After assembly the figure was primed grey using a rattle can, and then painted with Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes.  The travel connection is to a trip I took with my father and two brothers to Potsdam in 2001 as part of what I like to call the "In the Footsteps of the Ancestors" Pilgrimage. My father had been working on a definitive family history since his retirement, and I felt it was important to actually visit some of the places where my forefathers had lived. One of them had been Chaplain-General of the Prussian Army under 'The Soldier King' and 'Frederick the Great'. He was also the Garrison Preacher in Potsdam, and Chaplain to Infantry Regiment von Glasenapp. I painted up the figure as a musketeer of that regiment.

Sanssouci Palace

Frederick the Great's grave marker

Statue of Frederick the Great in Potsdam

 

Back on the ground level again, my final stop is the 'Rare & Antique Books' section. I presented a trio of possible projects to the Snow Lord, and while he thought the first two appealed to him more on a personal level, all were considered appropriate. So what I have is a 40mm flat made of some silver coloured plastic of a German soldier on parade that was part of a group of toy soldiers that my father had as a boy prior to the Second World War. I have vague memories of a group of marching soldiers, a band, and a Panzer I tank. I don't know what became of these figures in the end, but at some point they were no more. All that remained in my possession was one marching soldier that had broken off its base. I drilled holes in the bottoms of the feet, mounted it on a wooden base, and built up the missing parts of his boots with epoxy putty. As with the other figures in this submission, it was painted with Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes.

 

Thus concludes my peregrination through the Challenge Library - nineteen sections and two library carts. Now to see if I can complete my last big project in time.

 "People were stupid, sometimes. They thought the Library was a dangerous place because of all the magical books, which was true enough, but what made it really one of the most dangerous places there could ever be was that simple fact that it was a library."

 - Terry Pratchett, "Guards! Guards!'

 

The points being claimed are as follows

 

2 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 10 points

 

1 x 40mm foot figure @ 7 points each = 7 points

 

1 x 54mm foot figure @ 10 points each = 10 points

 

1 x Library 'Travel' section @ 20 points = 20 points

 

2 x Sarah's Library Cart @ 20 points each = 40 points

 

1 x 'Rare & Antique Books' @ 40 points = 40 points 

Sylvain: Your posts are always very informative to read. Your brush work on these miniatures is "upper class" if I may say so. I'm sure a few strikes with a hammer will convince your computer to behave. Great submission!