From SteveM: 15mm TY Soviets and FoW British (296 points)

 Two eras of tanks today. Enjoy.

Team Yankee Soviets

The Team Yankee Soviets were part of a group of three types of tanks that I got second hand when the challenge started. Two of the tanks types are in this post. I suppose they were someone else's Limbo pile so I won't count it as mine. These had been assembled and primed but some needed minor repair work.  A few of the turret mounted machine guns will remain broken for now and I will leave that to a future mini project.

A future challenge post might contain the third group that are plain T-64. There was one turret that was glued and I am in the process of fixing it.

First up today is a group of cold war era Soviet T-72. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

Soviet T-64BV:

The second group is of cold war era T-64BV. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

subtotal 21 (8 + 12) x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 168 points

Flames of War British

These were next in the queue to paint. They might have been part of a boxed set that contained infantry but if so, they won't be painted any time soon as some other cool projects are in the queue. There is an assortment of Cromwell, Sherman, Stuart, Tank Destroyer, and Churchill flamethrowers.

 

Again painted in "green". There is some ghosting on a few of the decals due to not enough gloss varnish prior to putting them on as there was too much water mixed in.

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

 subtotal: 16 x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 128 points

Challenge Points:

Total = 296 points

 

Sylvain: Your tanks look gorgeous. Even though they are plain green, you were able to pick out the details and make them look that they were on the battlefield a few moments ago. I like how you painted the rubber parts of the tracks on your Sheman Firefly. This kind of attention to details really increases the realism of your paint job. This is your first entry of the Challenge and you did it with a bang, giving us a point bomb! 296 points for you! 

 

From TeemuL: Bagration Germans [History] (158 points)

Instead of the lovely old metal miniatures, today I present rather new plastic miniatures. Here we have a German Panzergrenadier Company HQ and two Panzergrenadier Platoons with Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. Models are from Battlefront Miniatures Hit the Beach box for Flames of War. I painted the Panzer IVs and Tank Hunter teams before the Challenge, but here are the main components. You might also recall my last week's entry of 20mm WW2 Germans in winter uniform, this time this are 15mm WW2 Germans in summer uniform, ready to make a fighting retreat against Soviets during Operation Bagration or die trying. We have a small East Front campaign planned for the first months of this year and now I have the starter force ready. I'm planning to buy some mortars and more vehicles, but at the moment I have painted all my Germans for this project. Of course plans change when contacting reality and after a game or two I might want something else to bolster my forces.

The miniatures are painted following the Splinter Pattern Camouflage instructions provided in the Colours of War book. There are little bit different shades of green and brown, when I tried to find a proper compromise between "reality" and "looking good." Some of them look quite right, there's Reikland Flesh Shade painted over the camo to tie the colours together. The base colour is khaki. Pants and helmets are dark grey with a quick highlight of light grey. I painted the grenades dark yellow, but I guess I should have painted the Panzerschrecks yellow, too, instead of black. I guess I can live with that... And still claim history points for these. :)

The bases are rather simple, painted green and then some green sawdust and couple of tufts. It should look quite ok for summer in Ukraine and be generic enough to be usable on other theathers, too.

In the Library I have completed Sections 1 and 2, but before moving on, I'll get back to Section 1 and claim 20 points for History topic. What's next, we'll see.

I did say something about not posting old metal minis, but I finished the Germans during the week and I had then time to do something else during the weekend... I picked up a nice couple from the primed collection, going with the good old method of elf and dwarf. They were both on 25mm round bases, but then I realized, that the dwarf might actually see some action on the gaming table if he had a square base. The traditional 20mm base was too small (no scale creep here, dwarf if from 1988), so I decided to use the Old World base size of 25mm. Most likely these two won't see any adventures together, though...

The elf looks a bit odd, chain mail, sword, fancy poncho like cloak, and bare legs. It took me a while to find him and actually he is a half-elf fighter mage, which explains his odd equipment. He is Julie Guthrie's Personality 804 by Grenadier. Most of the colours on him are what I had on the palette, which gives him a little fantasy feeling. The red on his cloak is freehand, I wanted something looking magic there. White blue hat completes him.

The dwarf on the other hand is a no nonsense dude, heavy armour, heavy axe and bare head, some pouches to carry dwarf bread and tools to keep his axe sharp. He is completely business oriented and his business is chopping heads, I guess. This lovely character is from 1988, Grenadier A294 Dwarf Companion by Nick Lund, also sold in blister pack 906 Fighter and Companions. He is almost just chainmail and beard, but in true 80s spirit, I gave him a red axe shaft and colourful pouches and blue boots.

The green base is the wrong colour, I used my trusted Coat d'Arms Goblin Green while painting the bases of Germans and I didn't have the exact same colour anymore and was unable to mix the correct tone. So I went with Army Painter Greenskin.

64x 15mm minis (2 pts) = 128 points

History topic = 20 points

2x 28mm minis (5 pts) = 10 points.

Total = 158 points

Sylvain: Awesome work on these Germans, especially the camo pattern on their uniform. The two platoons look ready to assault (or die trying). And I also like your vintage metal figurines. Where do you get those? Is there a vintage miniatures mine in Finland? Keep the pace, the Monday Crew needs all available men to the front!

From ScottR Last Post - Wrap up.

Hi all,

Well, as requested here is a final post with everything taht I did over the painting Comp.

So kicking off on Dec 21 and finishing Mar 21.  Although I was away for the middle for about a month.  So two months worth and happily double my intended 700 points.

It was a good incentive to get some projects finished and some other moving along a bit.

My Celts and Greeks for Hail Caesar.  The Command stands for my Pike and Shot Scots Royalists under the Earl of Montrose, My 15mm Australians for NAM and lastly....  Hmmm no thats it.

Lots of figures for sure.  My thanks to Curt and his awesome support team who made this program run so smoothly and for putting it together of course.  Now to plan out whats for next years.

So here you are in my basement of Doom with my work laid out.

Figures and terrain from Warlord, Colonel Bills, Battlefront, Foundry, Victrix, Perry and Warbases

My heart felt congratulations to all those that submitted work.  It was an absolute pleasure to troll through the weekly submissions to see the great work that was done.  Until next time.  Cheers.  Scott R.

From TomC: Aaaaaand cut!

I would like to (forgive me) set the scene before I go through what I managed to get through during the Challenge: it is late 2022, Liz Truss squats athwart the helm of the United Kingdom, and I have only completed one figure so far in the year.

There she is, 5 points worth of Corporate Security Unit from Corvus Belli's Infinity game. That was it. So, cut forward several months and I am very pleased to have at least managed to best that!

 All in the light-box (if not all quite in focus...), with plenty of firsts for me in there and thankfully just enough to get me over my points target! I was a little short of my stretch goal of reaching the Director's Chair but all in all I'm glad to have managed what I did get done. 

 So thank you, once again, to Curt for engineering the Challenge, Sidney for the wonderful locations, Phil and his phellow Minions for herding us cats, my wife for her patience, and to the many people kind enough to comment on any of my posts, you are all wonderful.

 With the spirit of the Challenge in mind, here is what I have on my list to do next and, now that I have offered that information publicly, I have no choice but to actually get them finished!

I did try (and failed) to get this corn-fed chunk done before the Challenge...
...perhaps before AHPC XIV?

 
As a post-credit treat (?), here is the Maestro with some biped:

She knows not personal boundaries

Until next time!

From LeeHv: More 80s BAOR Tanks (40 Points)

I finally managed to get something else done. I don't think I am going to get anywhere near my target lol.

I am learning a lot still from putting paint on these tanks, especially about how I can make it easier to find some time to do it! I'll take solace from knowing that if I hadn't joined in this challenge, I probably wouldn't have painted any at all. So there is that!

These are all Battlefront miniatures, at 15mm scale.

So I have managed to get the Scorpion unit commander finished.

Also a Chieftain Squadron commander.

As well as a 3 vehicle Chieftain troop.

And here is a gratuitous view of the Chieftains rear. Ooh err! They're so dirty! 

(That will be the Stirland Mud)

So, for scoring, that is:

5x 15mm vehicles = 40 Points.

Only another 452 points to go lol

Friday Minion: Hi LeeHv, long time no see! :-) 

Sorry you haven't had a hugely productive winter, but everything is progress, and these are some top quality armoured support for your 80s cold war gone hot gaming. The camo patter, decals and weathering all come together perfectly. Maybe you have time to squeeze in one of two more..? 

From SimonM: Panzer IVs by "Battlefront Miniatures" + Books Studio Bonus (44 Points)

These three plastic 15mm Panzerkampfwagen IV tanks are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War”. The models consist of three basic armoured vehicles equipped with "Bazooka Skirts", and will form part of a larger Panzer IV Tank Platoon for my German Beach Defence Company.

The medium tanks were assembled and glued straight onto some large bases before being re-primed with a double coat of "Vallejo" German Grey after an unsuccessful attempt to paint them with a camouflage colour scheme. They were then all washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and heavily dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" German Grey. Thinking the miniatures looked a tad bland and uninteresting, I subsequently gave them a lighter dry-brush of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey.

With the basics completed, I decided to 'pick out' a few of the models' details such as spades, stowage, tow-cable and extra pieces of tank-track using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil" or "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. In addition I painted each Panzer IV's machine gun and rear-situated muffler with "Vallejo" Gunmetal and shaded these parts in "Citadel" Nuln Oil and Agrax Eathshade respectively.

I also pigmented the tank's tracks with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and daubed them with "Citadel" Rakarth Flesh so as to help blend the muddy caterpillar treads into my basing palette once 'drowned' in "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Finally, I applied some decals across the Panzer IV's using the guidance given in the excellent hardback book "Colours Of War" by "Battlefront Miniatures".

Having previously used Sarah's Limousine to travel to the Books Studio I thought these historical pieces would be perfect to bag my second Blue Pass by tying in to Cornelius Ryan's non-fictional book "A Bridge Too Far". As I'm sure you're aware this book was later turned into a marvellous Oscar-nominated motion picture by Sir Richard Attenborough.

Three x 15mm scale Vehicle = 24 Points

Books Studio Bonus = 20 Points

Total = 44 Points

_____________________________________________

Excellent work on these workhorse panzers, Simon, and a nice tie-in with 'A Bridge Too Far'. I actually liked the look of your early camo efforts, but I can understand wanting to try something different if you just weren't feeling it. Will you be doing more in this period?  I hope so.

- Curt