From PaulSS: Another draft of Prussians (98 points)

I woke up with the lurgy this weekend so the drive to paint with a cough and runny nose was somewhat curtailed, but the Prussian Production Line rolled on to the end*

The last two battalions of infantry, the first one representing a unit of Grenadiers.

All the figures in the post are from Baccus6mm while the bases are all a custom order from Warbases. I had magnet holes in the bases so that the small figures get no additional lift.

The second unit a battalion of reservists.

 

There were enough Landwehr skirmishers for another four bases, I did a couple of bases in blue coats with light blue facings and a couple in grey coats with red facing.

There were enough six pounders and an howitzer to complete a fifth battery of artillery.

The last few troops are another four artillery limbers.

*This represents the last few Prussians in the backlog, there are a few Landwehr infantry that could be used to add to Brigade command stands but I don't have any commanders to mount with them.

I hope to treat Teemu to a "not a 6mm Napoleonic post" this week, I have made a start but I'll have to see how I feel in the morning.

132 foot, 12 mounted, 12 horses, 4 guns and 4 vehicles will add another 96 points to my running total.

TeemuL: They look great as usual, Paul! I wonder what you have next, now that this project "finished." I hope you can handle the lergy as effortlessly as you have managed to paint this Prussian army. They are small, but they popup nicely and still don't look unreal. Well done! Two points for the flags, whether they are hand painted or not.

Thursday Things of Interest V

Continuation War

Ok, this is too much for one post and I'm not going to split this into several posts, so what follows is a very quick and simplified description of the Continuation War. Winter War ended in March 1940 and Finland was in peace, but the threat of the Soviets didn't disappear and the whole Europe was in war. Soviet Union was part of the Allied, so the list of help was thin. There was practically one option to get support and that was Germany. A lot happened here and there, but in June 1941 Hitler said in his speech, that Finland and Germany will fight together even though there were not formal allies. That was enough for Soviets and they started a war. At the same time Germany started Barbarossa and actions of Finland were part of that.

Finland lost 10% of the area in the Winter War and people were eager to get those back. Cooperation with Germany gave a possibility for that. There was international and internal pressure, that the old border should not be crossed, but Germany was expecting Finland to help capture Leningrad (current St. Petersburg) and forces went far further than the old borders. After the initial assault things started to stall, Finnish army was not that large, but the area was. Trench war period of couple of years started, which ended in a massive Soviet attack in 1944, 9th of June - so right after Normandy. The assault was part of (or practice of) Operation Bagration and Finland was pushed back. One again the losses of Soviets were far higher than Finns, but they had more to begin with.

President of Finland was changed from Risto Ryti to C.G.E. Mannerheim in order to make a peace with Soviets. Ryti had made a personal commitment to Hitler and Germany, that Finland would continue the war in order to get more help, so he couldn't make peace. Finland lost the war again, but the independence was kept. More areas were lost, there were restrictions to army size and so on. One part of the peace treaty was that German army had to fought off and their possessions to be given to the Allied. That led to a short war called Lapland War were Finns fought Germans. More of that next week.

From a gamers point of view, the Finnish wars during WW2 offer a quite short list of "pitched battles", but if one is interested in trench wars or fighting against or for an underdog, then there is plenty to choose from. For more information regarding Continuation War please read wikipedia (or something relevant) or the novel "The Unknown Soldier" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Soldier_(novel) or watch any of the several film adaptations of it. One version of the movies is shown by national TV on every independence day.

Soldiers practicing the river crossing

--- In other news ---

The posts seem to be the same as usual... The weather however, it is late January and it has been raining  here in Southern Finland for two days. Yes. Raining water, not snow or anything snowlike.

From SylvainR: Tray 05 - 6mm Early WW2 German Cavalry (87 points)

 

This week, I offer the rest of the German cavalry battalion for early WW2 that I started last week, namely the 3rd company (green), 4x scout elements (purple), and the Company HQ for the weapon company (yellow). The rest of the weapon company was completed before the Challenge and consists of horse-pulled wagons carrying HMGs and mortars. Since the 3rd company as well as the Company HQs are exactly the same as what I presented last week, I will focus on the scout units. Below, you have a mix of models from GHQ and Heroics & Ros and each group has a pack horse. I know it looks a little odd to have so few miniatures on such wide bases, but I wanted to keep my cavalry elements consistent. Besides, I enjoy doing scenery on large bases.

For the shot of a single unit, below, out of the blue I tried the 2x zoom function of my i-phone's camera and the result was quite good. The image ended up clearer and the details, sharper. I'll keep using the zoom from now on.

Points claimed:

87 mounted figurines at 1 points each = 87 points

Total = 87 points

Thanks for reading!

***

Another week of 6mm goodness Sylvain. The cavalry are tremendous, and once more you have shared a great talent not only for painting, but for beautiful basing which does so much to help smaller-scale figures "pop". Excellent work, and that will be another 87 fine points for you!

GregB

 

 

From BruceR - Twenty Six 28mm AWI Grenadiers (130 points)

For my Wednesday submission this week, I continue to flit from project to project.  A group I game with on the eastern part of the state in Fargo will run a Concord refight in April.  When word went out I was set, as I have a fairly large continental force for skirmish level games such as "Muskets and Tomahawks", which is the rule set chosen.  I've only played this set of rules once, and the 1st edition.  My crown forces are Hessians, except for some light bobs.  

Enter the bane of many lead gatherers, Ebay.  While wandering through the shopping halls of Evilbay, I found these Front Rank crown troops and for a very reasonable price.  I enjoy these figures and getting them from across the pond is a bit cost prohibitive.  I bit and the post delivered shortly thereafter.  A large portion of my current force is Front Rank so they fit right in.  

Only a couple of poses, with a commander, a trooper taking a hit, a trooper with a head bandage, and a drummer add a little mix to the unit.

I approached these a little different.  Normally I'll black undercoat.  I looked around and I had some airbrush basecoat in a terracotta color.  Why not, as red and white are tough colors to cover over black.  Break out the airbrush as living in the North there is no spraying outside.  Base coated and then hit them with a zenithal coat of white hitting the upper areas of the miniatures.  Airbrush work done.

I tackle troops in a eight packs, this is my comfort zone for getting blocks of painting done in a sitting.  For the red and black I used Army Painter Speed paints.  The remainder are a mix of Vallejo and Army Painter acrylics.  

Once blocked in I used a mix of a wash created by Sonicsledghammer from YouTube.  This is a little lighter than the Army Painter dark tone.  I highlighted white areas, face, and did a light dry brush on the fur hats.  Next paint and dry brush the base grit.  Glue, static grass, and tufts.  Done.  

I went for painting the unit as the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers as they seemed to fight in most battles during the war.  My blue for the cuffs, etc is slightly lighter, but dark blue would simply look black on the game table so I tend to lighten up the colors for the 3' rule.  

I didn't paint the two flag carriers as I don't yet have flags and the skirmish style games of Sharp Practice and Muskets and Tomahawks do not usually have flags in units.  I'll likely get them done later as the rule of cool will require it.  

23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers Grenadiers:

Points:

26 28mm @ 5     =     130 pts

Thanks for looking.

Bruce

***

"I continue to flit from project to project"

Let me assure you Bruce, you have come to the right place! These grenadiers look wonderful. Is there a finer sight than grenadiers going to battle wearing some manner of insane headgear and glorious uniforms? My favourite grenadiers are the classic Austrian ones from the Napoleonic era, but any chap marching out in a bearskin shako is surely as fine a miniature soldier as one can hope for on our tabletop battlefields.

130 points well-earned.

GregB

From SylvainR: 28mm More Giants for D&D (45 points)

 

Another band of giants. I painted them as a "band" (or a "horde"), with similar color patterns and bases. All these miniatures are from Reaper, are made of vinyl and were part of the miniatures exchange with JeremyM. Again, all these models are looking downward (probably at some helpless party of heroes), which is fine on the table, but it looks odd when taking pictures, as you can see in the photo above. Below is a size comparison between one of the giants and the fat cleric.

First, we have a giant with a bone sword. Because his weapon was really crooked when I put him together, I had to give him the heat gun treatment. Despite being very careful, I melted some of the "teeth" on the lower part of his sword.  With a huge fur cloak covering his shoulders, the back of this giant does not have much details to offer.

The next giant is equipped with a "konda" sword as tall as two normal humans. Note the treasure chest attached to his bum.

I wanted each giant to wield a different kind of sword. So I watched this video on Youtube and gave a try at what I wanted to be a sword crackling with magic. In the end, I find that the weapon looks more like a scifi "power sword". However, I like how the runes are highlighted by the energy within the sword.

Finally, giant number 4 was given a heat sword and I used the techniques described in the video mentioned above. I used multiple layers of diluted orange and red on a blade painted yellow, then used a sponge with black paint to simulate the cooler parts of the blade.

Points claimed:

4 x 54mm foot figurines at 10 points each = 40 points

Total = 40 points

Thanks for reading!

***

Another fantastic fantasy foray for you Sylvain! The sword effects are all impressive, and I hope you are pleased with the results. No doubt the adventuring party will marvel at how cool the swords are shortly before these giants but the blades to work...

The "heat" effect is probably my favorite, but the crackling one looks awesome too. I can see why you might be thinking "sci-fi" on that - my brain has similar wiring - but absent the usual sci-fi prompts (like some manner of power pack near the blade or on the hilt etc) I think this is firmly a fantasy outcome, particular the in the context of his fellow band/horde members.

I shall award a bonus of five points for messing around with sword-painting-tutorial stuff - great work on your part to give them a go! 

GregB

From JamieM - Limbo Ogryn and More Boats (96 points)

It’s been a while since my last post and, perhaps fittingly, it’s the limbo entry on the circles from hell that delayed me. I have a lot of half finished projects (I feel I might be amongst like minded people with that here) so I decided to only do the odd figures that were either left on my painting desk because “I’m sure I’ll pop enough paint on them to finish them in between other projects” ( spoiler: I didn’t do this) or the projects that were within reaching distance of my painting desk, so any slightly larger projects that had been moved to shelves to await their turn (for months….. possibly even a year).

So, firstly, here is a larger project, Ogryn for my Horus heresy militia army

As some may know (especially after the knowledgeable and well informed posts from GregB and Curt on the subject) the Horus heresy occurred in the 31st millennium when fully half of the space marines rebelled against the emperor and threw their lot in with the chaos gods instead (who tricked them into thinking life would be better under them). This resulted in a cataclysmic interstellar war and sowed the seeds for the dystopian 41st millennium that warhammer 40K is set in.

Most of the books and other literature concentrates on the space marines fighting each other (because space marines are rad as hell, obvs) but amongst the huge empire that The Emperor's minions had carved out, there were many, many more “normal” folk, who were forced to throw their lot in with either The Emperor or Horus, often with little information as to what each really stood for. Games Workshop are renowned for getting customers to spend a lot of money on specific infantry, vehicles, etc for each setting, which is fine as a business plan and all that, but does veer away a little from the origins of Gee Dubs when scratch building and converting was the cool thing (roll on deodorant hover tank anyone?). These days, every army entry has to have a specific kit you can buy for it or they remove the entry from games until they’ve made a kit for it.

Now, it seems to me that as the Horus heresy/30k range isn’t one of their most popular ranges, the designers seems to get a little more leeway and so they produced the Militia army list to represent the many and varied standing armies and militias present on any given world. At the start of the army list there is a little bit of blurb telling you that there are no kits specifically for any of the entries and you are encouraged to use the other kits they make and kit so to build your army!

Now, I’ve always been a massive kitbasher and this was music to my ears! Even better, as a child who grew up with the first edition of war hammer 40K (aka "Rogue Trader") I’ve always had a massive soft spot for the Ogryns, who are the sci fi equivalent of the ogre. Large of body and small of thinking (“Blessed is the mind too small for doubt”) ogryn have always been taken advantage of by the imperial forces to get them to do what they say the emperor commands (“a small mind is easily filled with faith”). The militia force allows you to field big units of ogryn as your basic troops! And I could kitbash away to make them happen!

So here they are. They languished in limbo as our club played 30k for about a year and then moved onto other games and that coincided with me getting partway through them. The options for a militia force are many and varied, but I chose to have my ogryn toting shields (some official, some converted from half of a dozer blade meant for the front of fighting vehicles) and chain axes. In order to get enough chain axes, I converted them from Ork choppas and spare chain swords. I’m really pleased with the result and have 12 more to do to give me my two big units of ten. I still don’t think ogryn will stand up to the best that space marines have to offer, but they are ogryns and that’s plenty good enough for me.

Next are three more boats painted up as ghosts for Mantic’s Armada game (and warmaster naval too). Nice and simple and give me more options when added to the ones painted earlier in the challenge.

And from the other side…..

In summary then:

8 x 40mm figures = 56

Limbo bonus = 20

Three boats (worth 10, 5, 5 I think?) = 20

96 total points.

***

"I have a lot of half finished projects"

While I loathe the tiresome babble of progressivism, let me assure you: this is a SAFE SPACE for you! I am confident many/most Challengers will relate to the approach and sentiment which left your Ogryn unit to wait - and wait, and wait some more - before finally getting under the brush. And they look tremendous, and as you say, part of what makes 30k so fun is the lingering residual hobby spirit of GW's elder age where participants were encouraged to experiment and come up with their own kits. While Horus Heresy fans like myself are certainly excited to see the huge volume of kits now being released in plastic, 30k still retains things like the Militias which allow for creative folk like you to have some fun. The dozer blades...that is perfect as a shield for them! Can totally see a Commissar pointing at some in a yard and saying to the Ogryn "hey, just use these" and their perfectly small, loyal minds obeying immediately...

And also some naval stuff. Sigh. Whatever. At least they are spooky-looking ghost ships. 

96 points for you Jaimie! May the Hobby Gods infuse you with sufficient will to finish another project from the half-started pile...I mean...nothing new or cool being released? Right? Right?

Greg B