From Paul OG: Africa Korps Recon and Light Panzers (72 points)

Last week Alan unveiled the start of his 8th Army project for Battlegroup Tobruk with some fantastic Crusader II tanks - some of his best work ever in 15mm IMHO (and I've seen most of it at some point). Work travel has stymied my own efforts of late but this week I present the start of my corresponding DAK project.

Appropriately leading this modelling push are the Recon and Light elements of the Army. While my full army is a mix of manufacturers, these are all Battlefront models and I've enjoyed personalising each of them. Unfortunately, I also painted them like I would 28mm vehicles with a silly number of washes and layers. Accordingly, they took way too long to finish but I like the resultant veteran, desert worn look.

Leading this week's submission is a quartet of iconic Sd Kfz 222s, and I have done some alternate turrets for them as well to enable all the force options.

For heavier Recon tasks is this pair of 8 rads:

My Light Panzer element is a reinforced platoon of four Pz IIs and a Pz I (so cute!):

Forgot to do the Platoon Commander figure! One for next week's batch 

And finally, a cracking little PzJg I which adds some modest AT firepower to this screening force. Not a monster killer but it will keep Alan's Daimler Dingos and Universal Carriers pause for thought.

Next submission will see some heavier armour in some Pz III platoons but for now that's twelve 15mm vehicles (and a couple of extra turrets) for 72 points. That takes me almost to my target of 500 points, which I will now stretch to 600 please Mssr Minion and Spreadsheet Swarmi!

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Paul, these are simply wonderful, and a real treat following hard on the tracks of Alan's excellent Crusaders last week.  There's so much to love about the way you've created these formations.  Recon and light tanks are a real favourite of mine on the tabletop, and in old photos, and I can tell the great skill and care you've taken in building and weathering these guys.

The Sd Kfz 222s look absolutely fantastic, right down to the weathered DAK insignia and aerial recognition flags - essential in the desert.  The 8-rads look perfect with their stowage and additional equipment.  And, perhaps pride of place, goes to the PzJg I - clearly not a monstrous tank-killer, but a wonderful characterful addition to any desert force.  Again the weathering and detailing is great, with the insignia being a stand-out.

Really great work on these, Paul.  Top marks scoring 72 well deserved points to add to your growing total.

Tuesday Minion Newsflash!

Dear Challengers

Due to a technical mishap we will be putting our usual postings on a hold to let the Monday crew put up their posts. Yesterday something went wrong and so some posts were not published, these will now take precedence and we do hope you all understand and bear with us.

Cheers and thanks to you all,

Monday and Tuesday Minions

From IainW: More WW2 soviets (160 points)

Here are some more WW2 soviets, just not at the last minute for a change!

First up is a junior officer,cunningly posed in what I assume is his inspiration. 

Followed by a commissar and the first flag for this army, I'll be adding a female commissar with a red flag as a tank rider, reminding me of the 1950s soviet film the commissar which is like a black and white spaghetti western, if you can imagine Clint Eastwood as a female, communist , pregnant commissar, but I digress, next up some infantry 

The first four are warlord games, in the next four the first chap is black tree design and the rest warlord games and the last four are PSC. 

Flamethrower team, warlord games. 

Spotter 

2"mortar team 

Ant tank gun team (PSC bodies and warlord heads )

Black tree design maxim team with PSC maxim 

76.2mm gun /howitzer 

SU76 

T34/85, I was given this tank by Lee a fellow blogger (a figure painting therapy project ) who wouldn't even let me pay postage luckily he's also doing an english civil war project and needed a copy of George Gush WRG rules so I was able to give him my copy as I can't see me playing it again! Unless I've mentioned it , the models are mostly warlord games. Here they are all together .

I think that this adds up to 135 points? There are more reds on the way, I hope to finish up the rest of the soviets in the next couple of weeks and then crack on with some more renaissance figures. 

All the best Iain 

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Fantastic work, Iain - and many apologies for being delayed posting these a day late owing to some work and travel related issues yesterday.  These are a great addition to your burgeoning Soviet army, and both the quantity and quality are showing no signs of abating!  

I love the rugged winter weathering on the vehicles, coupled with the wonderful Soviet standard, and the flecks of freezing Russian snow drifting onto the troops' bases.  Really great work.

I make your points a little higher - with 30 for the tanks (15 points each) and 130 for the infantry and tank crews, this will increase your total by a wonderful, Stalinist 160 points, Comrade!

From: KentG- 60mmGoliath and the 28mm Mexican (16 points)

This figure is my first miniature that I've attempted to paint from the Warzone collection.

It won't be my last as I have every miniature from every faction to do for a friend.

I had to mix two different browns into a bronze to get the correct colour and I'm really

pleased with it. For a historical painter this was way out of my comfort zone

but after 12 hours it was done.

 So this chap is my second of three Mexican's.

So 1 x 60mm figure plus 1 x 28mm figure I think is 16 points I think.

Hoi Kent, wow even when you are not doing bucket loads of figures your contributions are very good! These two are amazingly well painted and very characterful.  I can imagine you feeling out of your debt with the Warzone figure but you have managed perfectly your friend is very lucky to have you paint those figures. I will add the points tonight. Cheers Sander

From: Jez Todd - Biblical Hittite - Part Two (110 Points)

Dear All

Part Two of the Warlord Games figures Basic Impetus army project and really pleased I managed to keep momentum and finish these off.

Firstly is the key unit in the Hittite army - the heavy chariots, I naturally selected the option to go for the 3 man heavy chariot as these seemed to be key for the Battle of Kadesh 1275BC, the signature battle of the period against the New Kingdom Egyptians.

There are two of these heavy chariots, with a close up shot.

I had quite a bit of "faff" getting the crew into the chariot, especially as decided to use some of the command foot figures. I ended up having to completely file the figure base down and then the standard bearer foot broke off and needed repair ......

Now pleased I went for the reins and just did this with a piece of thread. 

Next up are the two units of Hittite light foot, but here went for the long spear option. From basic reading this again seemed to be a signature feature of the Hittites. I did not especially like the standard Hittite foot figure option so went for one of the basic bronze age armies but then had to convert the shields to give the Hittite  "figure of eight" look. 

Finally a shot of the total army in the box - 10 units all together including the allies from last week. Looking forward to trying this out. 

All together that should be 10 foot plus two 3 man chariots (three figures plus two horse) - 50 points plus 50 points.

Cheers Jez 

Hoi there Jezz, what a great addition to your Ancient Hittite force! I love those cow hide shields, you've done them up beautifully! It is always extremely nice to finish a force for the table and I can imagine it is also true for this specially goodlooking one. I really am looking forward to your next project! Tonight the 110 points will be added to your total.

From NoelW : Covenanters (200 points)

I've been working on several projects this week, largely continuations of work already posted. But I've not managed to finish most of them. In fact my submission this week is not quite finished, either. You'll notice two spaces in the sabot bases - these are for the ensigns, whose standards are yet to be done, so they'll have to wait till next week.

Luckily, though, I've managed to complete 40 Scots for the ECW project. They'll sit on one wing of Parliament's army at Marston Moor. This'll take me above 2000 points, which amazes me, seeing as I thought I might have problems reaching the original target of 500 points. 

The difficult part of these troops is the plaids. Fortunately, there was no systematisation of tartan in the C17th, so you can make up your own plaids, but they still have to look credible. Then there's the additional problem of trying to paint convincing straight lines over curved and folded surfaces. I think that about 50% of those I attempted look reasonable and the other half rather less so. But, as always, in the heat of battle, such sins can be forgiven. Or at least ignored.

The figures are all Perry minis. I may mix some Warlord in, though I'm not that keen on the Warlord bonnets, which look a bit shapeless to me. But shapeless is presumably a likely shape for hats on a battlefield, so perhaps they'll look okay when mixed in. 

That's 40 28mm figures, so 200 points.

Hoi there Noel, you have finished a very nice looking unit indeed! Those Covenanters really are splendid even in their grey suits. The plaids are very good and I like the way you've put them on the bases, this makes them look great put together.

Gosh, past the 2000 points mark! How do you guys do it? Well on to the next 2000!

 

GOOOOOOOD MORNING TUESDAY PEOPLE!

Hoi there!

We're back and with new vigour. The Tuesday guys are gearing up and it promises to be a day full of wondrous and diverse posts for you to admire.

- Noel is back with some lovely ECW figures.
- Jezz finishes his Hittite force
- Kent goes into the Mexican Warzone
- Eric is back with us today with some true Eye candy
- Brett will be going strong and dazzling us as well later on today
- As is Martin who has some goodies lined up for us to goggle at!

More will surely follow so watch this space.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say hello from three of the "Dutch"challengers to you all, because last Sunday saw the 2018 edition of the Dutch Poldercon. The picture shows (from left to right), Guy B. JasperO and yours truly at the convention and we thought it would be nice to say hi to you all from the Netherlands!

Cheers Sander

Happy Monday, Challengers!! It's Valentine's Week!!

Good Monday morning, Challengers! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and you're all ready for another rollercoaster week in Challenge VIII! This week, by my calendar, is week 8 in the Challenge, and things are hotting up despite (for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers) the cold, freezing temperatures.

It's also.....VALENTINE'S WEEK....

... which is, of course, a time for romance, red coloured, heart-shaped balloons and love-themed chocolates all over the world.  Without getting all slushy on 'ya, Challengers (for us Brush Pilots are notoriously level-headed folk), I'll be particularly looking out for any romantically themed entries during this week.

Some love-besotted romantic medieval knights, perhaps...?

Some sonnet-composing Primarchs and Terminators, maybe....?

Some romantically-entwined Napoleonic hussars, no doubt....?

Who knows what this wonderful week will bring..... except that we have another stunning selection of great Monday Challengers' entries here on the blog today.  So sit back, open that box of Valentine chocolates a few days early, and feast your senses on this wonderful selection of painting prowess.