From ByronM - Last Post - Canadian WW1 and USA/Soviet Modern 6mm (51 points)

Well this will be my last post for this year's challenge as my wife and I leave in the morning for a week away relaxing and doing nothing.  This post is very rushed as I had to finish the figures and get some hurried pictures together, all while supposedly packing and getting ready to leave in the morning.  Shhhh.... :-)

The figures turned out pretty well, but the picture didn't and I don't have time to redo them, so I apologize for that.  Since I am short on time, you also will not be subjected to one of my long "how I painted them posts", so that is probably a win for you all by now.

Anyway, I had fun this year, met my goals, and learned some new things painting wise so it was all good.  I hope everyone else had fun and thanks again to Curt for running this circus!

6x 28mm inf = 30 points
8x 6mm vehicles = 16 points

total: 46 points

Thanks again Curt!


Tamsin: beautiful work Byron and you deserve a break - we won't tell the missus that you were painting when you were meant to be packing! For a consideration of course... ;)

I'm going to count the MG as a foot figure, so that gives you an extra 5 points, giving you 51 for this submission. Even though you haven't provided a painting guide this time!

Enjoy your holiday!


By the way folks, this leaves us exactly 20 points shy of achieving our overall target of 75,950 points and I know that there are a lot more points in the posts waiting in the queue so I think it's fair to say that we've cracked it! Now, let the points bombs drop, sandbags away, tanks roll and let's see just how far we can penetrate behind enemy lines...

ByronM - French WW1 rifle sections (95 points)

As part of my initial entry to Curt's painting challenge two years ago, I started a project focusing on the Great War and Canada's involvement in it.  Having completed a good number of both Canadian and German troops I thought I should expand just a bit to cover some of the other allies that would have been involved near the Canadians.  The first and most obvious choice would be British, but since the Canadians were part of the British contingent and in the same basic uniforms I decided to go with the French for something a bit different.

The Canadians fought near the French on several occasions starting right from their first battles at the 2nd Battle of Ypres. This makes it easy for me to justify adding in small units of French to many of the games that I run.

The figures here are Renegade figures and therefore a bit chunky compared to other manufactures out there, but are none the less very good figures, it is just hard to mix them with others as they look huge next to everything else.  There are 2 rifle sections each made up of 8 men and a leader as well as a big man to lead them all.  This adds up to a total of 19 figures.

I was not sure on exact colour schemes so I referred to Mr. Roundwood's excellent guide here: The Verdun Project: Painting Late War French Infantry – Part 2. Knowing the colours to use made things very simple and I airbrushed the figured with the base coat for the blue coats and then highlighted them with airbrush as well. From that point I went in and painted everything else following the colour guide. 

When it came to basing, I wanted to use something that would both match my German and Canadian basing, yet be distinctive to the French so that you can tell at a glance that they are a different force.  All of my WW1 figures are done with a dark brown earth base, the Germans then have bits of metal and wood added to show they are in trenches or prepared positions and the Canadians have grass and flowers showing that they are marching up from the rear lines across undamaged land. I decided to base the French with yellow and brown grasses and flowers to represent the dead nature of everything the gas touched after the first attacks.  Hopefully it works as distinctive enough.

The last touch was creating some cards to use this force in my Through the Mud and the Blood games.  Sticking with the same theme of my other cards I looked up some French WW1 posters online and used them as backgrounds.

 

Aaah the delights of "horizon bleu" - what a fine rendition you have done - to my eye it is always more blue than grey - I really like what you have done with these. Great that you picked up on Sidneys experience with it to - more power to the blog-o-sphere. I do think the French add that nice bit of colour to Mud and Blood - so good choice I say. You can almost smell the garlic looking a them. The contaminated grasses I think really work , its a good way of bringing everything together. Really good idea on the cards too.

From ByronM - Back to the Great War and My Painting Desk (95 Points)

Wow, it has been a while since my last post, other than the fortnight challenge pieces.  Sorry for the lack of output during the Challenge, work has been extremely busy and stressful, and its been hard to get motivated for more than the challenge pieces (which I have been having a lot of fun with).

Anyway, last year I started working on some Great War 28mm figures for both Canadian and German forces.  I finally got back on track and got 2 more rifle sections completed for the 10th Battalion force that I am working on.  Just 1 more section to go on them, hopefully to be done before the end of this Challenge.

Here they are, 2 sections each of 8 riflemen and a Big Man.  Also included is another command figure that I found sitting around for my 16th battalion, you can see him in the background with his glengarry hat.  The colours and uniforms are the same so I included him in this batch of painting, making a total of 19 models. 

Most of the figures are either Great War or Musketeer/Footsore, both of which are excellent quality, and almost exact matches for scale.

I haven't had time to create cards (or even research names for the officers) just yet, but will sometime soon so that they can be used in the Through the Mud and the Blood game.  These 19 figures should give me 95 points, and bring me a little closer to my goal, which I have been slacking on.

Also, since everyone has been showing off their painting areas, and asking others about them, I figured I would include mine here.

To try and keep everything organized, I initially made shelves for my paints, however over time I collected too many and they were 2-3 layers deep and I could never find anything.  So when I got the laser cutter last year, I decided to make some paint organizers that fit into the shelves and allowed me to see the paints and grab them easily.  Some are different sizes, as I was playing with the design a bit, but I just kept the test cuts anyway as I like the little space at the end of each row for other shaped bottles.

Also on the table is a pair of miniature stands I did up, to mount figures to instead of holding them by the base while painting them.  For years I have used dowel, but just rested them on the table, and a few times have had them fall over and chip figures.  Problem solved.

I also have a pair of oak drawer units that my dad made for me. They hold all my tools, decals, flocking, magnets, and more.  I even have two more tucked away in my miniature closet to keep other bits and pieces in that are not used that often.  They help keep everything organized and appeases my OCD.  He has even made a few for friends in the past.

And for Curt, who likes seeing whats coming up... This was taken while my Satan figure was in progress, as well as these Canadians.  However, if you look on the painting rack, there are a bunch of 28mm French Napoleonic figures in progress (although they haven't progressed much further).

Anyway, hope you all like the figures, and my painting space.


From Curt:

Wonderful stuff Byron! Those Great War Canadians look absolutely brilliant. Such clean lines and great shading - your typically excellent brushwork. I really look forward to seeing these fellows on the tabletop when I come out to visit next. 

Your painting desk is a thing of wonder as well. I have the same lights (Costco rocks) and can attest to their brilliance (literally). I also like your various organizational drawers and dowel holders. And I may have to get you to make me some of those paint dropper slot thingys - they're the absolute dog's dangles.