From AlexS - Napoleonic Prussian Landwerh Battalion (160 points)

I love to paint quickly. I feel joy from the fact that miniatures appear eyes, and they see the world, and not lay pieces of plastic in the box. But this squad I painted month, and tired of waiting, when I can finish it. And then, finally, I finished it.

  

I wanted to make this battalion was a militia - they must have been in a dirty, shabby shape, tired and hungry, but going into battle against your enemy. 

 

I hope I managed it.

Total: 32 infantry miniatures, 160 points.

Ahh, these look terrific Alex! I'm not a big fan of these particular Warlord sculpts as the hands seem huge to me, but this all seems to disappear when they're painted this well and all ranked up. Speaking of which, I also like how you've varied the ranks to give the unit a more irregular, conscript feel to it.

Well done!

From Chris H - Nearing the end and still no points bomb Russkies and a few little planes and base tutorial

We near the end and I note that some very large numbers are creeping into the challenge as the hoarders wait 'till the death knell to display their ill gotten gains, whoops sorry their magnificently painted miniatures. Again the quality and output is rather brilliant, how you all get the time is beyond me but congratulations none the less.

My entry this time is 17 x 28mm Russians for WWII that are new releases for Eureka Miniatures in Australia. I don't even think they have them online yet. But if you are quick enough I am sure Nic can caste some up for you prior to Salute in the UK. Our North American gamer's will have to order from well, Nic. (please note that I am not promoting the company I just really liked these Russians they are certainly nicer than some of the plastics I have, even though I like them too.)

Commanders

LMG

LMG

Half the squad including a commander and LMG

Stalin's children, the other half of an 11 man squad

I plan on using them as a veteran squad in Chain of Command or Bolt Action, prefer Chain of Command but more likely to see them in a Bolt Action game. I did note after photographing them that I have neglected to do the red star on the field cap, doh.

1/200 Scale Me109s from Scotia in the UK

Same three different angle, these are for Wings of Glory/War and a Battle of Britain game we want to have at the club. Still have to think of a flight unit and put the correct markings up the fuselage but they will look nice on the table.

Finally a couple of bases, I have had the odd comment about the nice bases, I put it down to the tufts rather than any real talent. But here is how it works.

Step 1 Beach sand or river sand from a plant nursery glued to the base with PVA (Elmers?). Let this dry.
Step 2 Brown Ink wash, yep brown ink not paint, the ink seems to flow via capillary action so much better than paint. It is not quite as sticky as paint but then if you had enough PVA glue it should work. let this dry.
Step 3 heavy dry brush with a yellow ochre artist paint (so much cheaper than Vallejo or other model paints). Let this dry.
Step 4 light dry brush with a light beige or cream (Vallejo Dark Sand). Dry again.
Step 5 Tufts and or static grass. Long gone is my Cathode Ray Tube screen so the static grass does not stand up but it still can look nice. Hence the use of tufts.

Oh and you do this with the minis glued on obviously. The image of the unadorned by miniature bases is for you to see the stages.

From left to right Stage 2-5 one final step is to paint the sides/lip however you want, black is my preference.

Points wise, 17 x 5 plus ??????? for the planes, maybe 5 each as well as they are sort of 28mm size?

Thanks for looking. Maybe a neat 100?

Lovely work Chris! Those new Eureka Russians look very nice indeed and you've done great service to them here. I also know many of us will appreciate your basing tutorial. I'm totally behind your use of inks to give both depth and blending to ground elements. Personally, I'm a big fan of acrylic texture gel sprinkled with tallus, but this is largely because I'm lazy. I've not heard of the cathode tube approach to static grass - I'm going to have to try that out. Great stuff.

From JaccoK - 28mm Early War German Vehicle (75 Points)

As promised here is the fourth entry for this year. The are 5 vehicles for the Early War Germans I started this year. They from different manufactures and I'm not sure which one belongs to which manufacturer. The Opel Blitz are metal the other ones resin.

The Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) was originally a Czech tank of pre-World War II. The main advantages of the Panzer 38(t), compared to other tanks of the day, were a very high reliability and sustained mobility. I really love the look of this panzer. Maybe because the design was not German... 

Sd.Kfz.222 light armored car was a modified version of Sd.Kfz.221 designed to carry20mm automatic cannon instead of a machine gun. There were a few in Poland, but more largely represented during the Western campaign and in France. On a good road network they excelled, and were seen many times by Allied soldiers and officers -to their astonishment- well beyond the supposed frontline, creating panic and havoc, thanks to their speed and devastating main gun. 

SdKfz 251/10. This vehicle was a familiar sight, widely associated with the German infantry 

during all of World War Two. No German force can do without.

Opel Blitz – the workhorse of the Wehrmacht. In the period from July 1937 to August 1944 more than 100.000 trucks were build. Blitz is German for "lightning"and was the name given to various German light and middle-weight truck series built by the German Opel automobile manufacturer between 1930 and 1975. The original logo for this truck, two stripes arranged loosely like a lightning symbol in the form of a horizontally stretched letter "Z", still appears in the current Opel logo.

A brilliant set of vehicles Jake! The 222 is my favourite armoured car, but I have to say I love seeing the heavily riveted 38T - you look at it and it plainly says 'I am a Czech workhorse'. I also really appreciate the little background history you provide with these vehicles - very interesting that Open still uses the WWII design elements in their current logo, I did not know that.

From MartinN - Schaeffer's Last Chancers and a lonely Cross of Iron Steiner (35 points)

During the challenge is probably the most inappropriate time to try out new techniques and recipes. Nonetheless I had to give it a go and here's what I came up with:

Schaeffer's last Chancers

So far I was quite happy with my take on caucasian skin tones but figured it to be about time to try some different approaches on painting skin. So what better way to do so than to paint up some Sci-Fi miniatures? After all who knows what different complexions people have in the 41st Millennium?

I only got six of the originally twelve figures done, so the rest might appear in an upcoming challenge. If I should then feel the need for some 40k, that is.
These figures were among my very first figures I bought as a teenager and I have fond memories of the day they were released in Germany. I was saving my pocket money for some months to get my hand on these on the very first day.
This latest paint job is probably the fourth or fifth coating they recieved during the intervening years. Still they're some of my favourite models ever. Would have made for a fitting entry for the 'Nostalgia' round I guess.

Also new for me was blending and OSL. Due to its form Schaeffer's power sword might not have been the best choice to try this but Shiv's power dagger came out better than expected. I'm not totally pleased with the OSL on Schaeffer's plasma pistol too. First the colour doesn't fit with the rest of the miniature and second I should have extended the lightning to shine on his glove too. But for some reason I feared it to look too over the top.

A good friend of mine gave me the 'Cross of Iron' figure which comes with the Ostfront supplement for Bolt Action. As Schaeffer's last Chancers are called 'Steiners Galgenvögel' (Colonel Steiners Rogues) in Germany I thought it only fitting to include him  here.

I tried to paint the metal parts using the so called Non Metalic Metal technique. It's far from perfect perfect but I'm quite chuffed with how it turned out, if I might say so myself. Maybe something I should try more often in the future.

Now I only need a Hauptmann Stransky to accompany him. I'll probably go for the one I already painted as Curtgeld in the 2013 challenge. Man how time flies!

Another grand total of 35 points for this submission I'd say. So that's 535 points in the main challenge and 460 in the side duel with ChrisS. Not nearly enough...

More absolutely amazing brushwork from you today Nick. You've been an industrious boy and it's all to our good as we get to enjoy the fruits of your very talented labour. Not to understate the case but your 'experiments' have been a great success. Schaeffer and his Last Chancers are a real treat and I know DaveB will be over-the-moon on your treatment of 'Shiv'. I really like the subtle source lighting effect on Schaeffer's powersword and Steiner's camo smock is brilliant as well. So much to like here!

From BenitoM - The Last Fallschirmjager Supports (60 Points)

Very slow production over the last two weeks, but at least I managed to finish the last support units of my Fallschirmjager unit for Chain of Command.

These comprised a sniper pair...

... an anti-tank team...

... an engineer with a flamethrower...

... and finally this lovely light recoilless gun model L40.

The real model:

I also painted one additional private and this other model in prone position with a pair of binoculars that I plan to use as a forward observer in my games.

Note that I did not make any basing work in the sniper. initially I was looking to to a base with heavy foliage, but then I thought about some of the urban combat games we have played, and decided to leave it bare.

After today's work, I bag a total of 50 additional points.All minis are Warlord except the last two, that belong to an Artizan blister.

Considering that there's only 1 week left and that I can only paint over the weekends, it's clear that I won't reach my target of 500 points. I aim now to reach at least 400 points before the Challenge winds down on Sunday; hopefully Friday and Saturday I'll have some spare time to finish 10 additional minis and credit the final 50 points I need.

Wow Benito, you are hitting these Fallshirmjaegers right out of the park. The camo and blending is just spectacular. I particularly admire that L40 and its crew (whenever I see these things fire I think the term 'recoilless' seems only to apply to the gun itself).

I hope you have the time to submit again before the Challenge closes but if not, it has been a pleasure having you with us Benito.

From TamsinP - 15mm Crusties Armoured Force (60 points)

For the first of my posts this weekend, and my 18th entry in the main part of the Challenge I have some 15mm SciFi figures for you. These are the "Crusties" from GZG and will form the light armoured contingent of my force - I have some heavy armour on order, but it is very unlikely to have arrived before the end of the Challenge. I do have some more Crusties on the painting table - you will be seeing them during the next few days.

Light Walkers

These were fun the build and paint. I've based my colour scheme loosely on that seen in District 9 for the "Prawn" weaponry - white (actually, Sky Grey) a medium grey (Basalt Grey), a dark grey (German Grey) and orange (Orange Red) plus black and Dark Vermillion.

The walker with the orange back will be the commander for this force. Each walker has a different weapons load-out.

I decided for the basing to go for a slightly alien blasted earth look. A base of Saddle Brown was washed black, dry-brushed with a 1:1 mix of Saddle Brown and Light Grey. Some stones were picked out with Green Grey, washed green and then the bases were finished with a patchy wash using a 2:1 mix of red and black. The "earth" was matt varnished, the stones were picked out with gloss varnish.

Armoured Infantry - Rifle Squads

These weren't as fun to paint - lots of fiddly little details to drive me nuts!

Armoured Infantry - Heavy Laser Specialists

Armoured Infantry - Heavy Plasma Specialists

There are four 15mm vehicles and eighteen foot figures here. That should give me 60 points.

These are awesome Tamsin and it's great to see your return to some sci-fi themed figures before the end of the Challenge. I really like your use of the bright orange juxtaposed against the dark grey of the armour - actaually, they look like they could be sponsored by a mobile phone company. 'The Nokian Heavy Infantry' or 'The Samsung Replicant Battalion' :) 

I'm also admiring your groundwork for these figures. It's elegantly minimalist while still looking suitably alien - brilliant and well done!

From GregB - US Mechanized Infantry for Team Yankee (118 points)

US Mechanized infantry in 15mm

Another "Team Yankee" offering in this submission - US mechanized infantry and M113 armoured personnel carriers.

Modern US infantry in 15mm from Peter Pig

It has been nearly two months now since Battlefront "released" their US mechanized infantry figures for their new "Team Yankee" range. Many companies can experience delays in getting their products shipped, but the supply chain Battlefront uses is so glacial that I often snap my crayons, give up waiting, and use an alternate product.  I used Eureka 15mm Soviets in place of the Battlefront motor rifles, and I have opted to use Peter Pig modern US troops instead of waiting any longer for the Battlefront "releases" to reach Canada via whatever snail-driven hot air balloon they use for shipping.

More US grunts

US Mech Company command stand - blue flowers to denote officer

The Peter Pig troops - actually listed as "US Marines" in their website - are a little more modern than the ones from "Team Yankee", more 1990s-2000s than 1980s.  The body armour is a little different, small differences in the harnesses etc.  The only really noticeable difference is the portable anti-tank weapons.  In "Team Yankee", this is the M-47 Dragon missile launcher, but these figures are carrying the AT-4 rocket launcher.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the AT-4 is a little later than the M-47...but I have no idea what the differences actually are...also, the Peter Pig line does not have a casting carrying an M72 LAW rocket.

AT-4 teams stand in place of the Dragon AT teams

A view of the camo and webbing

Despite the differences, the Peter Pig castings stand in very well. Peter Pig makes, in my opinion, some of the best 15mm castings out there.  The sculpts are excellent, and the casting quality it top of the line.

The blue flowers denote platoon command base

Painting camouflage is the bane of any hobbyist, but the US Camouflage of the 1980s is particularly challenging.  I try to give an impression of the pattern more than copy it faithfully, particularly in a smaller scale. The results are not too bad.

Propaganda photos - US infantry confront Soviet dismounts near a rail line...

AT team has a surprise for that T-72...

To be mechanized, these fellows need a ride.  The M113s from Battlefront were nowhere to be found either, but it finally clicked that I could just order a box of Jordanian M113s from Battlefront's "Fate of A Nation" game and get the same models, so that's what I did.  Four M113s are enough to mount on platoon of troops - enough to at least get a game in.

M113s...ugliest APCs in existence

I think all of us have some models or figures in particular periods or settings that we dislike or dread painting, and for me, one of those is the M113.  I hate the look of this vehicle - it's just a lame box on some treads.  Whatever its merits in real life (and they might be considerable - I don't know personally, I'm a civilian) in the hobby perspective, these things are totally, totally lame.  The BMPs look waaaay cooler. 

Nice models of terrible vehicles

You will notice that none of these M113s have tread covers on...the crappy quality of the plastic struck again, with the tread covers snapping when I tried to clip them off the sprues, so I just avoided them entirely on these models.

Battlefront plastic strikes again...

 ***

And now a short diversion on something I noticed in the "Team Yankee" rule book.  One thing I do appreciate about Battlefront is their painting guides - they have a lot of them in their books, and I find them to be generally helpful.  They often combine art work from Osprey books with Vallejo paint recommendations. I was particularly pleased to see one for the US infantry camouflage in the "Team Yankee" rule book, and once I received the figures from Peter Pig and started painting, I opened up to the guide and noticed something odd...

I thought this was really, really dumb.  Like, really?  I don't know the stats, but I'm confident a large number of the front line troops in the US Army of the 1980s were African American.  So, there was no way to give us a painting guide for that? Just....this was really, really dumb. I could probably say a lot more, but really...I'll just get back to the post.

*** 

So there are a total of 47 infantry and four vehicles, all in 15mm size, in this submission, for a total of 118 points.  Should keep me within a possible striking distance of Byron in the "Modern Mayhem" side duel.

Completed US forces to date for "Team Yankee"

With this I will have concluded my little "modern tear" over the past couple of weeks.  I have enough 15mm stuff on hand now to play a few games and get a sense of the rules.  Even better, if I've done the math right (and that is always a bit of an "if"), this submission will take me past my points goal. WOOHOO! But as the end of this installment of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge comes in sight, I REALLY need to get back to some 30k stuff - I hope I will have more to share before things conclude. 

Brilliant work Greg!

You've obviously been completely stoked to get this project off the ground as both your production and quality is outstanding. Both the infantry and the vehicles are spectacular - I also think your impressionistic approach to modern camo works magnificently and provides many of us with an alternate approach to this daunting task.

I actually had the great pleasure to play a game with these figures the other night with both Greg and Byron and can attest to their beauty on the tabletop. Those Hinds are things of terrible beauty.

Finally, congratulations on hitting your points target Greg! Well done, young man! I suspect that everything from here on in is in pursuit of the duels - keep up the steam!