From AlanD: Back to the German Revolution (70 points)

Over the past few years, I keep coming back to the German Revolution as a period and gaming project that particularly interests me. In my last submission in AHPC XI, I painted up some revolutionary sailors, and here we are again finishing off a few bits and bobs that I didn't get finished last year.

First up are some more revolutionary sailors, manning a nice model of a MG08. As with all the figures here, I removed their 'puddle' bases so that I could stick them directly onto cobblestone bases, a process that involved a file, knife, harsh language and sometimes blood.

Inspired by watching Babylon Berlin, I've added some Berlin Sicherheitspolizei cops (SiPos) this year. Although they came to be called the 'Green' police, due to the green uniforms they wore, my understanding is that they wore blue during the early post-WWI period, including during the 1919 Spartacist Uprising. I haven't been able to get a clear answer to when their uniforms changed, so if anybody happens to know, I'd appreciate being enlightened! The armed cops here, as well as the sailors, are from the lovely range of figures by Tsuba Miniatures, available here in Australia from Elite Miniatures. Directing the SiPos is the Inspektor, a hard-bitten veteran of the worst the streets of Berlin has to offer. He's a Copplestone figure I had lying around.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the Schupo Sonderwagen, seen lurking in the pics above. What a beast! Built by Daimler, this was one of the main armoured cars used by the Sicherheitspolizei in the early 1920s, although one example survived all the way up to 1945, its wreck featuring in some well-known photographs taken outside the Reichskanzlei after the Battle of Berlin. I do love these inter-war armoured cars.

Points:

7 x figures and one prone - 37.5

1 x crew-served weapon - 10

1 x vehicle - 20

Total - 67.5 points please Barks!

The Inspektor really looks the part, but the Sonderwagen is a little treat. I, too, love these period ACs. I'm going to round you up to 70 points in sympathy with your struggle against puddle bases.

Barks

AlanD - Matrosen, vorwarts! (100 points)

I find myself unexpectedly having to move house in a couple of weeks, so this will probably be my final entry for AHPC XI. Back in AHPC VII in December 2016 I got right into painting some German Revolutionaries for 1918-1920. I've been getting very interested again in the inter-wars period recently, so bought a lovely bunch of revolutionary sailors from Tsuba Miniatures. I love Tsuba's range for the German Revolution, sculpted by Paul Hicks. They are a pleasure to paint, and available in Australia from Elite Miniatures.

These Matrosen (sailors) are from the Volksmarinedivision, the best unit supporting the Revolution in Berlin in 1918-19. I spent an evening trying to figure out what colour to paint the cockades on their caps. You'd expect them to tear off the Imperial cockades, and some photos seem to show plain caps, but they definitely have cockades in others, so what colour were they? Maybe they changed them to red? That's what I went with, but next time I might just cut the cockades off entirely.

Next I have some police from the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) to paint, and I'm likey to paint another awesome 1920s armoured car or two...then there are more Dacians, a bunch of Hellenistic Greeks to support Pompey's men in a Roman civil war, and loads of 6mm Austrians. I won't be running out of projects any time soon.

20 sailors gives me a nice round 100 points to finish on. Thank you minions for all your hard work this year, Curt for making this wonderful festival of paint possible, and to each of you who take part in such a great spirit of shared nerdiness. See you next year, when I aim to crack my 10,000 career points.

From MartinC Some Randoms and a Proof of Concept (95 pts)

 Some i've been clearing some space for the home run. WW1 finished (that's lie), Vietnam finished (also a lie), ACW (spot a trend here).

So these are a few randoms that were cluttering up the desk

3 mid medieval longbow men (Crusader from a lucky bag)

Nice to paint and will add to my Templar collection

One of the 1st films I ever saw on the cinema was "At the Earth's Core" in about 1976. Proper old school romp. These 3 figs from Antediluvian Miniatures and are Peter Cushing, Doug McClure (you will know him from such films as.....) and the pneumatic Caroline Munroe - a go to damsel if the main acting role was being barely dressed (see also The Golden Voyage of Sinbad).

Next up some Chinese civilians, these are great figures from Tsuba miniatures and will be useful from Boxer rebellion to Chinatown gangster games

I particularly like the guy selling pushalong toys

And now to the next part. We all have collection of buildings that occupy more space than our soldiers. They fall into 2 categories. Beautiful and massive set piece buildings, see Miles' Stalingrad posts. THen are are houses, they look nice, provide scenery and obstacles. But we often don't fight in them and they are the backdrop. I have loads of these and they occupy tonnes of space. I need the space back so I had an idea

So I made a standard 2 storey building, think brownstone or Uk terraced house

THis one has a flat roof and pasted on brick with doors and windows made from mdf bases. Instead of glueing it all together the roof is slot in and the walls are joined with gaffer tape. Which means

If you take the roof off it folds flat! I can now fit every basic building I need into a tiny space. I added corner stones to obscure the corners If you want sloping roof then simple add gable ends. Make it posh with cut out windows and doors, a much better paint job and even annexes.

I think I've invented a thing.

Scores

16 x 28mm figs = 85

2 x hand carts = 5pts (not hard to do)

1 pop up building = 1/4 cube when erected = 5pts.

Right off to make a better house

From MartinC Chambers of Challenge Lobster Girl and Sidekick (30pts)

 Time for a return to the Chambers and a teleport post from the Adventures Landing and ACW Marines to the Armoury.

I'm afraid that Lobster Girl isn't a superhero and her sidekick isn't a sidekick

These 2 Chinese girls are from Tsuba Miniatures

I don't expect the girl with the basket of lobsters would really have abasket of cooked lobsters but blue grey ones wouldn't have stood out.

10 points for the figs and 20 for the teleport - 30pts. 

From AlanD: German Revolution, 1918 (225 points)

To the barricades!
 

For my first submission this year, here are a bunch of Spartacist revolutionaries from Berlin in 1918-1919. The figures are all from Tsuba Miniatures, available through Empress Miniatures, and are sculpted by Paul Hicks. I would probably write more about them, but I am currently sitting just out of the rain outside my brother's house so I can connect to his email, as my internet at home has completely died, just in time for the Challenge.

43 figures and a heavy MG by my calculations should net me 225 points. Rote Fahne voran!

______________________________

I must say I'm a bit envious of this post as I have a load of German Revolution figures awaiting paint and Alan had handily beat me to the punch - and in what a terrific way. Absolutely fabulous work Alan.  These figures just shout character. I love the flagstone bases with the political posters and the card buildings really set the scene. Will there be Friekorps to face them and perhaps an armoured car or two clearing the streets? I very much look forward to seeing this project develop (once you get your internet connection sorted out).

If you want further inspiration please check out Jonathan Rabb's 'Rosa: A Novel'. It's a detective novel set during the 1918 revolution. It centers around the death of Rosa Luxemburg and a series of related murders. Very good read.

 

225 Points for your first assault on the roster. Great work.

From MartinC - The Good, The Bad and The Weird (200 Points)

Bit of a quieter week this week, been playing Lion Rampant which is fantastic and probably the successor to Warhammer.
A much more eclectic selection this week. First up is a unit a Carthaginian light infantry with simple hand painted shields. The figs are Wargames Factory plastics and I'm not a fan. he musician is a spare from the Romans and is Crusader - much better figures

Next up is the HMG for my Tsuba German Sailors, another lovely sculpt.

Next are some British Sailors to fight the Zulus. 10 should be enough I think to deal with those Zulu hordes. These are lovely Copplestone Castings.

The Sennet hats are supposed to be much more yellow but they looked very camp - like an outing of Japanese Schoolgirls.

Finally the eponymous selection. The Good, The Bad and The Weird is a mental Korean action movie set in 1940's Manchuria. I strongly recommend it.

The figures are from Tsuba and a joy

Overall that is 36 figures (21 with hand painted shields) and a manned gun. I leave this to you tender mercy Dave.

Oh I've also painted my very cool Curtgeld but more of that later.

Martin continues to knock em out.. with another fine mixed entry . Particularly taken with the HMG - a serious bit of kit. And the sailors in Stennet hats - might just have to blag a few of those myself. I will round this on eup to 200 for the sheilds -

From MartinC - German Sailors (45 points)

"Won't somebody stop that man!"  - not content with parking his Impi on MichaelA's lawn , and raising the undead , Martin crashes through his first 1000pts on day 17!

 So now that I have got the painting mania out of my system, for the moment, I'm back to painting at my usual rate.
These are German Red Sailors from Tsuba Miniatures and comprise a command squad and an assualt squad, I have another HMG to complete.

The sculpts are by Paul Hicks and and utterly brilliant and I hope that I have done them justice. I do have a problem with the way he does eyes but it's a minor gripe. 

They will form part of my German intervention force for my VBCW collection.

Oh i really like the crouching figures here Martin - can just see them sneaking up on some little village green in merry old England.  You so need to up your target!

A New Challenge Sponsor! 'Tsuba Miniatures'

Greetings All!

I have great news! We have a new Challenge sponsor!! Markus Heurung, proprietor of 'Tsuba Miniatures' has kindly offered to provide a gift voucher good for a selection of figures from his wonderful range of Russo-Japanese War and German Revolution models. 

Thank you very much Markus for your generous support of the Challenge!