From BillA: Wanna Bet? (25 pts)

 I admit I'm starting to slow down a little in my painting; more due to needing to expand my storage options for painted miniatures than anything else! As such I'm likely nearing the end of my submissions for this year's AHPC, but I'm not counting myself out just yet. I do have a small submission this week. 

A lot of my home gaming involves modern, urban skirmishes; gang fights, escaping from zombies, big alien monsters trashing downtown. I've got a nice collection of buildings going, but I could stand to expand my urban scatter, especially cars and civilians to incorporate into scenarios. As such, I've got one of each today:

We've got "3 Card Monte Guy" and a 1980 Volkswagen Vanagon, both 3D prints. Our hustler is from Miniature Building Authority, and arrived in four pieces - the guy, his arms (gluing on at the sleeves) and the stack of boxes in front of him.

My urban tables tend towards seedy and rundown; inspired by the Rust Belt environs I've spent my entire life in, they're battlefields made of liquor stores, pawn shops, and off-track betting parlors, and as such the sort of place this con man fits right in. The details of the face took a wash and highlight beautifully, and I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the ace of spades on the card he's showing us using a brush instead of a pen. I did use a pen for the lettering on his boxes.

The Vanagon is from Miniature Tanks Company, who offer an incredibly wide variety of vehicles for 20th century conflicts in a number of scales. I included a couple options from them on a wishlist for a hobby Secret Santa I took part in last December, and I'm happy enough with the quality that I'll probably order more sooner or later; they're FDM prints rather than resin, and the print lines are visible, but for my purposes they're just fine and at $3-$6 per car in 28mm, the price is right. 

Looking at photos of various Vanagons for color ideas, I found a burnt orange one with a white roof that I really liked the look of; I added white trim around the windows for a little extra visual interest. Of course, now I'm tempted to get another and add an avocado green version to my collection as well! I've got a sports car and a pair of police Crown Victorias awaiting their turn; we'll see if I get those in before the end of the Challenge. 

One 28mm figure and one 28mm vehicle should net me 25 points.

==============================

Sylvain: Just looking at his face, I wouldn't trust your hustler to bring me a glass of water. Great job on this shady character. And the Vanagon looks both cool and definitely from another decade. It has been an honor to be your minion; "à la prochaine". 

 

From TimP. Single 28mm Figure: Axe Killer (inspired by Dead Man's Shoes) - 5 points

 Just to get on the leaderboard and stay in the game.

Figure from Pandyman Miniatures in the UK for their game Threat Level: Emergency Response - modern Police/EMS game.

From DaveD . Well that you off the mark Tim . He’s enough to cause nightmares by the look of it . A few more pics of your entries in future would nice to show the all round skills! 

From KillianF - Entering the Zone (30 Points)

First post for my first time challenge! I have painted six modern adventurers who are exploring "The Zone", a mysterious area in unspecified Eastern Europe. For some reason these guys jumped up past the  4th C. Goths I originally planned to start with.

 From left to right:

Simeon the Scrounger, Handy Javik, Natalie Halovna, Andrei Peshtov, Vas "the Boy", and Kid Czerno.

These guys and girl are all in a mish-mash of tactical gear and weaponry, which was good fun to paint. Some jazzy camo patterns were suitably dulled down with washes made from acrylic ink and AK fluid matte varnish. The various lenses are not accurate or tactical, but I like the pop of colour and texture they add. They were done with Tamiya clear red and yellow.

These are the start of a small collection of figures for Zona Alfa and similar games. The models are 28mm from Anvil Industry (from a whole variety of packs), 3d printed by myself.

6x28mm infantry: 30 points.

I also believe this qualifies for 1x Squirrel Point.

Probably need to crack on with some Goths now......

___________________________________

First, welcome to the Challenge, Killian! It's always a pleasure to have new people join in on the madness, and for all of us to enjoy looking at new brushwork and toys!

Excellent work on this post-apoc squad. The figures really have that Metro 2033/STALKER vibe going on. I also like the desiccated ash waste groundwork - very on-theme. I haven't checked out Anvil Industry in ages and am bewildered by how much their stocklist has grown - thanks for the tip!

These half-dozen ZONE adventurers will give you 30 points towards your Challenge target. Well done!

From SebastianR: Tanks! (88 points)

Part 2 of my, "look I did actually paint something" posts, a bunch of 6mm vehicles for Team Yankee.

10 Abrams

2 Carnations and a Carnation proxy

2 Shilkas

2 Gophers

2 Spartans for blowpipe teams

6 FV432s for a mech platoon

7 T72's and definitely T72's honest guv

6 T72's in what one blog calls MERDCski camo

8 BMP1s for a mech platoon

 As always flocking will be done once temperatures allow varnishing.

That's 44 6mm vehicles for a total of 88pts

That's all from me this year. I'm away for the rest of the challenge time. I wish I'd managed to get more done and stick to my plan, but best laid schemes and all. Hopefully see you all next year where I can be more productive.

***

Sebastian - On behalf of the Benevolent Snow Lord (tm), his Divine Lady (tm) and my gang of scurrilous Minions, thank you for being part of AHPC XV! We all wish we can paint more, and it is that wish that will keep us all going! 

This parting post of mechanized might is lovely - nothing like a bunch of tanks racing around and shooting each other on the gaming table, right? These are very nice, well done. 

88 points for you!

GregB

From MilesR: Post #1 French Foreign Legion in 15mm (84 Points)

 

Its a bit of a slow start for me this challenge and it's one where I'm focused on clearing out stuff from the lead pile (which is rather large).  First up are 42 15mm French Foreign Legion troops fro the 1960's

I actually forgot who the manufacture is - they could be AB or Eureka and I bought them maybe 4-5 years ago.

One of my friends at the wargaming club is doing an "AK-47" Republic project and these lads will see table top service there in his make believe African Nation.

The group has some heavy weapons in the form of a machine Gun, Bazooka and mortar but since these are super simple no points for them.

I used army painter SpeedPaint 2.0 for thses and I'm still trying to figure out if I like it or not.

Anyway, I'm finally on the board with 84 points!

***

SPECIAL EDITION - Hello everyone - Wednesday Minion GregB here with a Thursday appearance! Thursday Minion Teemu has kindly allowed me to drop this in today, as it was intended to be Miles' opening post for his AHPC XV run, but ended up delayed due to a misunderstanding on my part. Thanks Teemu, and apologies to Miles!

Very nice Miles, and I have to admit I experience an extra layer of intrigue around "AK-47 Republic". These are the Peter Pig rules, correct? They seem so...well, kind of mysterious, kind of understated. I think this is a system that divides the table into squares/sections in some way? They seem to have a whole suite of rules for different eras, but I confess they are a mystery to me and have not tried them. 

So with all of that in mind, I will be keen to hear your thoughts on "AK-47 Republic". I'm sure the imaginary regime involved with these French Foreign Legion soldiers will be completely upstanding and face no complications at all...

84 points for you - and apologies for the delay!! Great opener Miles! We'll get you back to standard Wednesday timing next week!

GregB

From Curt: Mar-a-Lago Militia - The Boggs (25 Points)

Hey Y'all,

I return to my ACWII project with these colourful denizens from the dark, dank swamps of south Florida. I give you the Bogg family. 

In my wondrous, fictitious, fantastical and terrifying 'Merica they they are part of the local Mara-a-Lago Militia, fiercely loyal to Father Dagon and 'The King in Orange' (Yellow being so very passe these days). 

The Boggs (distant cousins to their Yankee Innsmouth relations, the Marsh family) are a spiteful, vain, and oily clan. They revel in their own stupidity, are selfish, hate outsiders and rarely listen to reason.

Yes, they very much have 'the Mar-a-Lago look'.

Cyrus

Cletus

Ruffus

Festus

Jo Lean

These figures are Deep One Hybrids, 3d prints from KLT Studio. I had fun working with their flesh tones, giving them a fishy look about them, but in the end they sort of have a Simpson vibe going on, which makes me smile as I can easily envision an episode where he Boggs cause chaos amongst the good folk of Springfield. :)

The Boggs will give me 25 points and one point for the Squirrel Duel ('ACWII Red Forces'). 

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt 

From DaveD - T64’s for 7 Days to the Rhine - 40 pts

I have all manner of stuff on the paint desk part way through , and this is the first unit completed . 5 T64’s for my Group of Soviet Forces to race to the river Rhine. They will be helping crushing capitalist Ian’s BAOR in our upcoming campaign game. I have a few more units to add to my Soviets in due course.

A simple rattle can paint job with oil washes and highlights . The kits are Battlefront for Team Yankee , they are a simple build and went together easily.

Aerials are made from fishing line - always like to add a bit extra detail on 15s 

5 x 15mm Vehicle = 40pts 

Moderns duel - 40 pts 

***

Thanks Dave - these Battlefront models sure look lovely, and as you say, some quick work, especially when one cheats using oils, is sufficient to get an excellent-looking result. "Seven Days To The River Rhine" is indeed a fantastic set of rules (if I inferred correctly from the title of your post that you are planning to use them?). Good luck with your project - all Challenge veterans have come to expect your tremendous progress on these projects, very nice.

Greg 

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 LeeHv: Tiny Tanks' First Steps (8 Points)

So... As usual, I am up against the deadline. Also as usual, that means I have managed to finish the thing!

 

Well... just one small thing at least.

After setting out to finish a whole host of things for my first ever post, life happened. So cutting my loses and making sure I can stay in the challenge I opted to just get one thing done and submitted. So here it is, a little British Scorpion tank for Cold War period gaming.

I learnt a lot from doing this actually. The biggest thing is that yes... masking out parts of the vehicle with Blue-Tack and then spraying is a great way to get camo patterns. Sadly, I need to remove the Blue-Tack and THEN put the wash on, as otherwise it will dry with little raised outlines where the masking was. You can see that just above the headlights. Sadly I have already got to the post wash stage on most of the miniatures I'm working on.

But no worries, this is still more than good enough for the table. I even bothered to use the decals! That is something else I learnt, that I really need to be more patient with them, and that tiny yellow ones are a complete waste of time!

I also used Citadel's Stirland Mud for the first time, and it looks ace! I especially like the splatter over the flag at the front left mud guard.

So, there is one more of these which is at the same stage but I need to paint the commander sticking out of the turret. And there are 17 more vehicles, tanks and helicopters which are close to this. So I am expecting to get a lot more submitted soon.

Here are some other shots.

Scoring: 1x 15mm Vehicle = 8 Points

Minion Phil: Welcome to the Challenge Lee! I'm glad you stuck it out to get this vehicle in before The Culling. 

Really fine work on this scorpion AFV with its subtle camo pattern and just the right amount of weathering. Cold war gaming seems to be back in vogue, I can't imagine why. 

I look forward to seeing the rest of the company.

From ScottR - 15mm Battlefront Australian Force for NAM (338 points)

 Hi all,

Well after a week away for a break with the wife I returned Sat and got stuck into my NAM.  My friend Dennis is working on his NVA and I am sure you will see some of his work posted here soon.  So I decided to drag out my Australians and get them done.  Now I had the opportunity to clean these up in the week leading up to the kickoff so i was ready to go.

Anyway On my saturday i broke out the airbrush and did a couple of layers of a green basecoat with a top down highlight.  This was followed by wash using the Army painter Strong Tone.  This was followed with a drybrush using Russian uniform with a tiny bit of Deck tan to lighten.

Once the drybrush was done I could start work on teh details.  This included boots, webbing, weapons, radios, binos etc.

Once all the additions were complete i did a base flesh using the rose flesh from Vallejo, this was then finished with a wash using Citadels Guilliman Flesh contrast.

The figures were painted on Sunday with a few small details finished off on Monday.  This gave me the chance to break out the artillery bases and get them built, undercoated and up to the same level as the infantry.

That left Today, Tuesday to get the basing sorted and done.  I started off with AKs Muddy ground.  This was done in the morning and then placed out in front of the gas fireplace to speed up the drying process.  I like the colour, its a nice dark brown with a slight red tinge.  Perfect for a jungle floor!  This was then drybrushed with cavalry brown.  This then left me to work out what sort of ground cover to put down.  While in teh UK i managed to pick up this shredded bark like material and so i figured it would be perfect for the task.

Perfect start.  Now to find some suitable brush that would be very jungle -ish.  Again, going back into my stash of terrain items picked up in the UK, i found some really nice bushes and long grasses.

Ok, I was really happy with the result.  I kept the bushes down to a minimum as in the a thick jungle cover there is very little undergrowth and I ddnt want to smother the miniatures.  Hard to find suitable vegetation for 15mm scale.

So i am pretty happy with the end result.  The next step will be to do the vehicles.  I have 12 Centurions, 8 M113 APcs, 4 M113 FSV (Fire Support Vehicles), 1 UH1H Medivac helo and I was lucky enough to find a 1/144 scale Kiowa observation Helo for the artillery.

I also picked up a 1/144 scale Caribou aircraft used by the RAAF to move supplies and troops.  I have the right decals for it as well and I will hopefully be able to get it done as well.  I aim to do a combat field airstrip terrain piece for it.  Anyway. thats a little down the road.  Vehicles first.  i still ahve to build 4 M113s!

So here they are complete and laid on the table.

Point calculation for Analogue painting

 

25 bases x 4 figures = 100 figures @ 2 points = 200 points

11 bases x 3 figures = 33 figures @ 2 points = 66 points

4 bases  x 4 figures = 16 figures @ 2 points = 32 points

4 10 bases x 1 gun = 4 guns @ 8 4 points = 32 40 points

Total points 320 338.  I couldnt work out what the guns were so i just gave them the vehicle 8 points since the bases were resin terrain pieces as well. :)  

 

Wow, that is a wonderful looking points bomb to start your army off with. The basing materials you have used add a lot to the figures and really evoke the kind of dense, wild terrain the war was fought in. Your preview of the armoured component for your force has me eager to see it completed.

In 15mm, guns are worth 4 points each, but it looks like you have 6 mortar teams in the platoon as well, and I believe that they count as guns too, so while you are scoring less per weapon, your score is a bit higher than you initially thought. 

On a stricter note, please don't forget to add your handle to the labels, it makes things easier when people visit the AHPC blog.