From MartinN: SnowLord's Peak - Back in Black...

Has it really been five years since I've last worked on this project? Feels like yesterday really. I've never completely forgotten about the project and always intended to get back to it. But frankly I was intimidated by painting camouflage using this technique. I wasn't quite happy with my first take, but never quite could put my finger on the why. But when our beloved Over-Snowlord let me choose one of three tasks in order to claim the price for climbing SnowLord's Peak I decided to finally man up and tackle this particular problem.

Figures by Empress Miniatures

You know, being something of a pedant can become quite a challenge in itself sometimes. Initially I had planned to paint up the remaining minis in my stash for this location. But soon I realised this to be a decidedly over ambitious. I don't know how often I re-painted these two fellows but if I'd hazard a guess they've suffered through at least five different versions of desaturated camouflage.

With the Viet-Minh I painted five years back it was rather straight forward using mainly desaturated brownish tones with some black and just a few greenish spots mixed in. It was only after much brain wracking, swearing and actually considering to give up and admit defeat that finally inspiration struck.

Most uniforms and equipment used by the French in the theatre were some hue of green. So when painting not so much real greyscale but what Curt so aptly called "desaturated" why on earth was I simpleton trying to paint desaturated greenish uniforms using brownish colours?

Once this realization sunk in it was pretty straight forward from then on. For the French it was to be desaturated greenish tones with black and a few brownish spots. At first I thought this might come out to samey in the end but using different greenish greys and light greens to lighten a base of a dark brownish green did work wonders.

So that's it from me for this years challenge. Over the next few days I hope to get a few minutes in to take a few pictures of all I painted over the last few months and finally get Michael Awdry's car for his sadly postponed Schloss Itter game as well as Jamies prize posted.

Points wise this submission should be rather straight forward with two figures plus the location adding a final 40 points to my total bringing me to a whooping 795 points. I'd never have dreamed of reaching such dizzying heights but this challenge was a blast once again and I'm already looking forward to December for the next iteration of this madness.

A huge thank you to all the participants for making the challenge to what it is, to the Minions for their tireless efforts and of course to our beloved SnowLord and his lovely Lady for organizing, or in Sarah's case putting up with, this most enjoyable of hobby events year after year.

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Fabulous work Nick! I remember when you took on this project, thinking, 'I wonder how he's going to get on with the French para's camo?' Well, now we can all see he has surmounted the task and has come through with flying, er, um, desaturated colours!

While your description of the work focuses primarily on the battledress, I have to say I'm always struck by your skill of portraying skintones. The ghostly hues of these two figures is simply amazing - it almost takes your breath away. Well done Nick. When you post this to your personal site I hope you provide a photo of them in daylight so we can see more of the groundwork and details.

As to your treasure. As you are always brushing aside Napoleonics I thought it appropriate that you be given one. Not only from a top-tier painter, but from a good friend as well. So, I present to you Christopher's Davout, The Iron Marshal of France.  :)

Again, wonderful work Nick, and thank you for taking the Snow Lord's Peak challenge. I hope we will get to see your fine brushwork in our next edition.

-Curt

From Curt: Viet Minh Infantry and Palm Trees (75 Points)

I can't believe we're coming near to the close of the Challenge. Where did the three months go? I must say I've really had a great time this season, visiting some of my ongoing projects - adding a unit here, topping off a unit there. It was all a bit mad really.

One project which I'm happy to revisit is my slow foray into 1950s French Indochina. I've been working on this collection since 2013 and, heaven forbid, with this group done, I think I may actually have enough to put on a game. So yes, it may take a while, but the manic squirrel eventually gets the job done.

Here for you today is a Viet Minh assault squad along with some new palm trees for them to advance through as they close in upon their French foes.

These figures are from Empress Games and are sculpted by the talented (and bewilderingly prolific) Paul Hicks. I had the pleasure of painting most of this unit while visiting with Greg in Winnipeg last month. Being pretty much an all khaki force, it allowed me to think-less and drink-more while working on them - a great, if often unsung feature of this period. :)

This squad was originally composed of 10 castings, but I felt these boys really needed a banner bearer to properly send them off. I have this pathological need to have flags in as many units as possible, especially for any modern force that had the stones to carry a flag into pitched combat. I find the whole notion of banner bearers (eagle guards, draco carriers, etc.)  all very nutty, utterly vainglorious and absurdly romantic. Anyway, I didn't have a suitable figure in my unpainted pile, so I used a model which was originally posed to throw a grenade. So a few minutes under the saw and pin vise and presto-flago: a suicidally keen banner bearer! I liberally brushed the flag with watered-down PVA and then shaped it so that it's rolled around the flagstaff. This way he looks like he's slowly unfurling his banner which he has had cased while moving through the jungle.

I freely admit that the basework may be a little over the top, but having seen pictures and film footage of the verdant undergrowth in Southeast Asia I figured I could indulge a bit with these guys. I like that when they're all bunched up they convey advancing through a rainforest.  

Finally, speaking of terrain, here are a few more palm trees to add to my burgeoning rainforest. These were made with a clustered wire armature, wrapped with glue-soaked medical gauze and then artificial fern leaves were hot-glued on the upper wires. 

As to points? We have eleven 28mm infantry and a grove of palms which are approximately the equivalent of a single 6x6 cube. With mitts and socks off to count fingers and toes, my math puts that at 75 points.

A big thank you to Robert and the Friday Follies for letting me join in today. Have a great weekend everyone!

Curt

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We interrupt your usual Friday Follies to bring you a special guest entry.

Fresh from the brushes of the Snowlord himself comes a sojourn into the elephant grass of French Indochina. Though the palm trees will work almost anywhere, though.

75 points of splendiferousness and another Squirrel point for the Snowlord!

From Curt: Viet Minh Reinforcements, French Indochina 1954 (55 Points)

First, Happy New Year everyone!!

I thought I'd put Sid through his paces today by sending him a final post before he turned in for the evening.

Here is another small addition to my French Indochina collection, eleven Viet Minh infantrymen dressed and equipped as they would have been during the titanic battles along 'The Street without Joy' in 1953, and Dien Bien Phu the following year.

A popular western misconception is that the Viet Minh were poorly armed, while in fact they were often better equipped than their French adversaries, being well supplied by both Communist China and the USSR.

These soldiers were the precursors of the Viet Cong and NVA, and so were armed with many WWII era weapons. The Mosin Nagant rifle, the DP light machine gun and the PPSh/PPS series submachine guns would've been very common fixtures within the Viet Minh ranks. The assault units would have had a very high proportion of automatic weapons, reflecting their aggressive close combat doctrine.  

The heavy machine gun on the low-slung wheeled carriage is a Soviet DSHK-38. The assistant/loader is providing supporting fire with a captured French MAT49 SMG and the flank guard has a Chinese made PPS.

I really liked this model as it brings a little sobering reality to our wee tabletop battlefields.

Finally, a shot of them with the rest of their platoon (really, a thinly veiled excuse to get the banner, with its bit of vibrant colour amongst the earth tones, in there somewhere).

Thanks for dropping in!

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Happy New Year, Curt!!

Wow, these are terrific and so well worth the wait this evening.  What a terrific addition to your force.  There is so much to love about these troops, and the general "feel" of the Viet Minh figures in your submission.  They've got a really attractive combination of being tooled up to the eyeballs, while retaining a very different feel, theme and fighting style to Soviet WW2 forces, or even Japanese troops in Burma.  I love the Viet Minh officer and bugler, and the Soviet DSHK-38 with the automatic weapon armed crew member - those guys are guaranteed to make a mess of any of the Legion Etranger New Year's celebrations.

Wonderful painting and basing on all of these guys, Curt - with your trademark muted palette and ferocious jungle growth simply oozing off the bases.  They really are a great addition to the forces you're collecting.  And a thoroughly well-deserved 55 points, Sir!

From MartinN - More 28mm Greyscale Viet Minh (31 points)

I'm still recovering from a nasty flu which knocked me out for over a week. While being quite pleased with my progress over the Challenge so far I find it always rather hard to get the juices flowing again once I hit the proverbial wall.

By now I'm feeling pretty comfortable with greyscale so I painted up the last of my Viet Minh to get back on track again.

As Curt already has pointed out my interpretation of greyscale probably has more of a heavily desaturated look than true black/ white approach. But as I'm still looking for a way to make the opposing forces look slightly different to each other I might still try a 'proper' greyscale on the French paratroopers.

By now most of you will probably be aware of me being a big fan of Mr. Hicks' work. The only thing I'm almost always struggling with is the faces. He has a certain way in how he sculpts faces which makes his work instantly recognizable but that doesn't really fit my painting style. I still get the faces done up to a standard I'm happy with but it's almost always a chore.

As I already said at the top these six guys are the last of my Viet Minh force so far. Unfortunately Redstar Miniatures don't supply the Viet Minh with separate heads whereas the French come with an abundance of different head options. So as long as they don't add more poses to this range I'll probably have to make head swaps if I want to expand the force.

So all in all todays submission should give me another 30 points. In combination with my 'Hot' themed entry this should see me exceed my 750 points target.


From Curt:

I'm just loving this project Nick. Greyscale is one thing but I have to say that I still prefer your desaturated approach to these figures - I think they  look terrific (especially with the corresponding groundwork - brilliant).  

In regards to the absence of head options with the Viet Minh I have to agree with you, I wish they had the extra sprues that the French figures have. Nonetheless, from what I understand from chatting with the RedStar fellows is that they have big plans for this range, so we should be seeing dedicated sapper teams, anti-aircraft crews, gunners, etc. This is pretty exciting stuff for those of us who are into this period. Now it's just a matter of getting enough of Paul Hicks' time to get the work done!

I'm giving you an extra point for the mortar as I very well know how much of a swine it is to put together with the crewman also holding it.

Great job Nick!

From MartinN - 28mm First Indochina Viet Minh in Greyscale (67 Points)

For this weeks submission I left the homey shores of my favourite period and went to explore the perilious lands of South East Asia.As some of you might know I'm doing the First Indochina War lately. And as if that's not enough of a challenge all this is done in greyscale.

Redstar Miniatures offer a very nice range of figures sculpted by the very talented and ubiquitous Paul Hicks (Somehow it seems to me as if there's almost no range out there he hasn't already sculpted at least a few figures for).
If you only have the slightest interest in this period you really should give this range a try. I certainly can't recommend these figures enough.

Those of you knowing my earlier greyscale figures will know I'm always trying to add a focal point by using red for some part of the figure. But for a whole force I considered it to be too much. So I painted a red flag with yellow star for my Viet Minh. For the flag shaft I tried to make it look like bamboo.

Another nice touch about the Redstar figures is the weapon teams coming in both moving and firing poses. The firing version of this mortar team is still to be done though.

For the metallic parts of the rifles I tried to produce something akin to Non Metallic Metal but I'm not totally convinced yet by my first attempts.

I'll happily let our grand judge calculate the points as he might want to add some additional points for the flag *hint* or subtract some for the guy carrying the wounded. But all in all there are 13 figures in this submission including the wounded.


From Curt:

Stunning work Nick! I love your approach to the greyscale in this project. In fact, from these images, they look to be more an impression of de-saturated colour rather than straight greyscale. It really does give a fabulous effect, especially when you punch it with the contrast of the vibrant red banner (well done on that BTW). 

Again, beautiful stuff Nick. Now, this makes me want to do another installment for my greyscale Great War collection...